Give credit where its due. This doubles pair from Indonesia, teenagers, performed incredibly well. Siti Fadia Silva Rhamadanti and Ribka Sugiarto play a sort of doubles with such speed that the 2nd and 5th WD seeds just tumbled away. Its doubles with youthful arrogance and its nice to see. Something refreshing. Best of luck to them and I hope they will feature in the top tier tournaments soon. Congratulations.
WJC semifinals China v Japan. What a surprise. I stopped watching as the 3rd set of the MS approached the end and I felt Japan would win . Although I knew that the China MD would probably get a point, I thought Tan Ning and Li Yi Jing were newbies in doubles and would break down. They did China proud to win in the 3rd set 25-23. But its a tough call against Indonesia. Regarding Liu Liang's style of play; seems to me he is in the midst of a change brought on by the coaches. So he is slower as he learns how to execute his shots. Its what Huang Yuxiang went through. Bai Yupeng is a good example of the style they want the juniors to have. BY has it but talent is required to execute the right shots. It needs good footwork, stamina,great anticipation, good defence, mental strength and finesse. Look at KM ,CL and SYQ. Its like playing against a wall. The coaches are looking at the long term. I support that. Whats the use of winning the championships when they do so badly at the senior level. China won so many in previous years but where are the champions now ? So its a good occasion to practice the style in real time. So I don't expect the individual tournament to augur well for the China next week. Lets hope the matches are televised and we can watch their style of play.
Interesting that Tan Ning who played WD in all the team games is only playing in the WS in the individual event. Very brave of the coaches. A sudden inspiration or discovery before the start of the team events, that she had a talent for doubles but the entries had closed by then.
Congratulations Sun Feixiang beating Soong Joo Ven in two games. Turning around their previous encounter in 2 games as well. That was the Vietnam open in 2013. His game is quite sound and he has a very strong smash. One worrying aspect is he makes silly mistakes when sitters are presented to him. He will meet Tanongsak tomorrow. Best of luck.
Experimenting didn't go well for china in finals. China have two established women doubles pairs but coaches selected a singles player instead for them. Experimenting in womens doubles cost them in this year asian junior mixed team championship also.
Yes I agree. Tan Ning I suppose, was there for her power smash. Instead what we ssw was powder stuff caused by bad timing and rushed shots. They havent got used to doubles play. The performance of the singles players were bad. It supports my view that the coaches need an injection of new or foreign blood.
Congratulations Ou Xuan Yi and Zhang Nan for winning the MD at the Yuzu Masters. They were outplayed in the first set but recovered in the second and won the 3rd set tiebreak. H2H they are now 2 up. They played very well against a fast and speedy Japanese pair. I thought after the first set they would lose very easily, but they kept their cool to recover and win.
Congratulations to Sun Feixiang. Slowly but surely he has positioned himself as the spearhead for the newer Chinese MS generation. I think he should be able to enter the qualifying rounds of the majors now, along with the other stagnating Chinese players like Zhou Zeqi, Zhao Junpeng, Lu Guangzu and Huang Yuxiang, The younger MS generation has made their mark in the last year. This is the 4th Chinese youngster to have won a BWF 100 tournament in the last 11 months - Liu Haichao (Scottish), Weng Hongyang (Lingshui) and Li Shifeng (Canada). Lei Lanxi also won the Belarus open (not BWF100 though) and Bai Yupeng had a few notable QF appearances. Ren Pengbo, being the oldest at 22, despite winning the university games, had a disappointing year. Next year we should see Li Yunze graduating from the ranks and maybe Gao Zhengze will be given more opportunities. Liu Liang may still be required to play junior badminton until 2021, hence not ready to participate in the adult circuit. And I don’t think Lin Guiou is likely to make a comeback now. Overall, I’d say the CBA has done well in allowing the youngsters to play in so many tournaments this year. Long may this trend continue.
Onwards to Dutch open. The field is not that strong. Good chance to win another BWF100 event. The Verma brothers are probably the biggest threat. Ren Pengbo, Li Shifeng, Lei Lanxi and Weng Hongyang are participating here
Regarding the ongoing WJC, the juniors are not having a good time. I won’t be surprised if they finish empty handed this year. Zhou Meng (WS) is in shocking form. Di Zijian / Wang Chan (MD) is probably only second favorites now behind the Indonesian pair, whom they have lost to in their last two encounters. Liu Liang is still young and I do not think he’s ready to win this year. In fact he has a tricky first round encounter with the Japanese who beat him in the team event. Indonesia will likely win WD and MXD too. Very impressed with their team this year.
Encouraging for a 19-year-old in the first year of her professional career, Wang Zhiyi actually captured her fifth title today at the INA Masters - 4 this year of which one is at S300 level (US Open), one at S100, and three at Int'l Challenge level all in 2019 and 1 last year (2018) also at Int'l Challenge level, with two other runners-up (one S100 in 2019 and one Int'l CH in 2018). Well, 2019 is not over yet. Let's see how many more titles she can garner going forward. I also hope to see her world ranking rise high enough to be eligible to play the top tier tournaments soon as there are only a couple of S100/300 events left this year. Wang Zhiyi's results so far (excluding junior tournaments), source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Zhiyi: Year Tournament Level Opponent Score Result 2019 Indonesia Masters Super 100 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 20–22, 21–15, 21–13 Winner 2019 U.S. Open Super 300 Kim Ga-eun 21–18, 21–19 Winner 2019 Canada Open Super 100 An Se-young 15–21, 20–22 Runner-up BWF International Challenge/Series Year Tournament Opponent Score Result 2019 Belarus International Zhang Yiman 18–21, 21–9, 21–8 Winner 2019 Austrian Open Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 21–18, 21–10 Winner 2018 Malaysia International Lee Ying Ying 21–10, 22–24, 21–14 Winner 2017 China International Cai Yanyan 9–11, 13–10, 11–9, 7–11 Runner-up
Looks like Ji Shuting is really injured at the INA Masters, not sure how serious, as she withdrew from next week's Dutch Open.
WJC individual Tournament. This is the first time watching Dong Tian Yao since the AJC . He is tall. He won against the 9th seed Georgi Karpov. He was a bit shaky in the first set and lost, but luckily he scrapped through on the second set, having led by a good margin. The 3rd set was easier as GK was tiring. The match lasted 103 mins. He will be 16 years old on the 21st of this month ! He must be the youngest player in the tournament. For his age he is playing a mature game. His next opponent is Shotaro Inamitsu. A good prospect for the future.
If any one is interested you may watch Dong Tian Yao play against one of Europe's better youth players using the link given below .Match is in court 7. Dong is 16 and is a tall player, taller than his Russian opponent . So far it is the most exciting match, by youth standard, in the morning session of the on going WJC.
Just watched Ren Chengming in his match. I have seen him play previously and I felt he has improved a lot. Maybe its the easy opposition, but if this is really his footwork and stroke play I am an admirer. He reminds me of Sonny Dwi Kuncoro. Has elegant shots and a bit of deception. Has he been trained by them? Both DTY and RCM are tall and have great potential. Together with Liu Liang they will form a strong backup for the future. DTY and RCM should play in the minor tournaments to gain experience, both in Europe and SEA. All 4 junior MS are into the next round. Best of luck.
Just seen Ren Cheng Meng play Byung Jae Kim. He is very good for his age. BJK is aged 15yrs and 6 mths! RCM has an elegant style and lovely touches. I am pinning my hopes on him for the future of Chinese badminton. He is quite talented. Also watched Dong Tian Yaos game against Inamitsu Shotaro . He didn't play well in the second set and lost his footwork and timing. Lost a little bit of confidence too. I prefer RCM's game to DTY. But we shall see as the tournament progresses.RCM is up against Brian Yang a v good Canadian, ranked 2. It would be a very difficult win for him. But lets hope so.
Ren PB and Liu HC couldn't clear first hurdle in Almere, lost to Indian qualifier Bharadwaj and French promising star Arnaud Merkle (who beat K. Vitidsarn in 2018 Buenos Aires YOG) respectively.
Yes I clearly overestimated their potential and underestimated the field. I don’t think Ren PB will survive the MS cull next year.
Talking about Lin GP, he participated domestic university competition in July, representing China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), played men's doubles with Ren Pengbo.
I agree with you that both RP and LHC are not performing. There should be an assessment of the juniors performance and steps taken to move them up or down based on their performances.
