Of course she is; she was runner-up in the All Japan Championships. The order is based on the results of this particular tournament, and does not necessarily reflect ability.
I know; the event is always closed off. The only livestream that I am aware of is a subscription-based channel called J-Sports. Today, livestream will start with the following tie-ups from the men's tournament: Tonami <S Block winner> vs Unisys <J Block runner-up> NTT-East <J Block winner> vs Hitachi Engineering <S Block runner-up> As far as the men's tie-up is concerned, Hitachi may well trouble NTT-East in the MD matches. S/J League matches consist of two Doubles and one Singles match, therefore, Momota cannot win the tie-up alone. Later matches involve the women's Top 4, i.e., Unisys <J Block winner) vs American Vape <S Block runner-up>, and Saishunkan <S Block winner> vs Hokuto Bank <J Block runner-up>. As regards the women, American Vape has really upped their team performance. Last year, the team was in danger of being relegated to S/J League II, but this year, they have made it as far as the Top 4, thereby ousting Yonex! Some tactical moves were involved here, including splitting Fukushima and Hirota up, and pairing them with other players. It will be interesting to see today's 'order of play'.
You are absolutely right. She was deployed when FukuHiro were participating in the World Tour Finals, and went on to win her match.
Here are the results of S/J League matches, within each of the two blocks. First, the men's tournament:
The Top 4 semi-finals are currently in progress. NTT-East has already booked its place in the Finals by beating Hitachi Engineering 2-0. (At the Top 4 level, the tie-up is decided by the best of three matches.) The more interesting tie-up is between Tonami and Unisys. Tonami MD Kamura still appears to be injured, and there are some irregular pair-ups. At the moment, the score is: MD1 Tonami (Tsuneyama/Kubota) 0 - 2 Unisys (Endo/Inoue) MS Tonami (Nishimoto) 1 - 1 (Watanabe Koki) ... currently in progress. If Nishimoto takes the match, then... MD2 Tonami (Sonoda/Hoki) vs Unisys (Kaneko/Watanabe Yuta)
The S/J League 2019 season finished with the finals of Top 4 Tournament today, and the corporate team order was decided as follows: A. Men's League 1. Tonami (Champions) 2. NTT-East (Runners-up) 3. Nihon Unisys 4. Hitachi Engineering 5. Mitsubishi Motors 6. Tokai Kogyo 7. JTEKT 8. Kanazawa Gakuin Club 9. Tohoku Marks 10. JR Hokkaido The one-and-a-half hour marathon match between Momota (NTT-East) and Nishimoto (Tonami) today was stressful viewing. Momota, as usual, won by sheer power of will, but he was exhausted and looked in visible pain. Just after the match his legs cramped, and he remained huddled on the floor in the NTT bench area for some time, before returning to cheer on the final MD. He now has one week's rest before the national training camp commences on December 29. B. Women's League 1. Nihon Unisys (Champions) 2. Saishunkan (Runners-up) 3. Hokuto Bank 4. American Vape Gifu 5. Yonex 6. ACT SAIKYO 7. San-in Godo Bank 8. NTT-East 9. 77 Bank 10. Hiroshima Gas While there was no mobility in the men's top four, the result being exactly the same as last year, in the women's league, Nihon Unisys and Saishunkan swapped places, and American Vape Gifu managed to oust Yonex from a top four place. 10th-ranked JR Hokkaido and Hiroshima Gas will automatically be relegated to S/J League II. C. Retirements In the award ceremony held immediately after the Top 4 Tournament, the following retirements, effective from March 31, 2020, were announced: 1. Men's Teams Oshima Kazuaki (Hitachi Engineering); Maruo Ryotaro (Hitachi Engineering); Nishizawa Jun (JTEKT); Wada Shu (JTEKT); Watanabe Kazuma (JR Hokkaido) 2. Women's Teams Kurihara Ayane (Nihon Unisys); Yamaguchi Soyoka (American Vape); Yamamoto Saya (American Vape); Hashimoto Yui (NTT-East); Mitani Minatsu (NTT-East); Aratama Misato (NTT-East); Watanabe Akane (NTT-East); Kawashima Rira (NTT-East); Fukuman Naoko (San-in Godo Bank); Kido Yoshimi (77 Bank); Hirai Aki (Hiroshima Gas); Kameda Kaede (Hiroshima Gas) NTT-East is losing half of its entire women's team! Three new players are going to be employed from April, but it looks like a total re-construction job.
No, there is no women's team. Ohori and Nidaira are affiliated to Tonami, but the number of women stops at two.
I don't know about Nidaira's motives, but Ohori escaped to Tonami with her father as soon as the illegal casino scandal surfaced.
I wonder whether the fact that her partner Ozaki has been selected as a National B Team XD player has anything to do with this...?
One man's loss is another man's gain. Nishimoto must be counting his blessings. As Tsuneyama finds himself pitted against Momota in the very early rounds of both the Malaysia and Indonesia Masters, this could well be Nishimoto's chance to close the gap between himself and his rival in the race to Tokyo. Momota's place has already become a mathematical certainty; who is going to take the coveted second spot?
