I don't think so. Momota's favorite rally is baiting opponent to play close to his forehand side line to the base line and opponents normally make mistakes. LZJ has figured out how to counter that, either by smashing down the line or cross court smashes which leave Momota flat-footed. So, no I don't see the future that way. LZJ has great stamina, physicality, agility and skills can only improve with time. A better version of LCW is already here and he is only 23!
MS: Viktor Axelsen WS: Chen Yufei/Tai Tzu-ying MD: Moh Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan WD: Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan, they seem in a good form XD: Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong
A Soldier has fallen. The Unstoppable rise of China. Endo/Watanabe will be replaced by Li/Liu. A new Li Yongbo is born. The clean sweep will be repeated. No one can stop it.
LZJ is a one trick pony that will be forgotten in a few years. He won nothing except weak AE that was missing two of the top national teams. He might not even beat old Chen Long today.
LZJ has a lot of potential and he is still young. But I wouldn't say he is LCW yet. I think "prime" LCW would have put up a better fight in the 3rd set today against Chen Long, on the biggest stage for badminton.
I think is his inexperience and he didn't pace himself. He got impatient and thinking he could finish the match after the dominating first. He basically defeated himself by making way too many mistakes. If you see the first game for example the first 6 or 7 points were all either outright winners by LZJ or his own mistakes.
I can say emphatically that you are 100% wrong on your assessment of LZJ. His inexperience shows in this biggest stage, he will learn and be back stronger and contend for in the next olympics!
like LCW, he competed in Athens Olympic, end up lost in early rounds, and then in Beijing Olympic LCW managed fought all the way to final round and get silver medal. If LCW can do it, i guarantee LZJ also can…
If you recall, LCW lost to CL in straight set in last Olympics, if LZJ had won the closed second game yesterday, we would have called it a brilliantly crafted match. So the margin between great and a miss is really small. And you would not have seen at any time LCW could have put CL under that much doubt and stress. With that I see him already better than LCW even thought he did not get a medal here.
Chen Long in 2016 was a total beast not at all comparable to a 2021 Chen Long. So it's not really possible to compare. This version of LZJ isn't even in the same class as 2016 Chen Long.
I can't believe seeing Momota lost in All England makes someone this hateful against LZJ. Pretty big words seeing Momota is also seen as one trick pony (slow game). Oh well.
How much sour grape can you buy with one Kroner? But then again who is hiding behind that Eastern European facade?
The evidence suggests that's the case. LZJ won one big tournament that was missing top players from China and Indonesia. What does he have except big smash? He's not elite at anything else. Then he loses to an older, past his prime Chen Long, but one guy says he's still better than LCW because he took a set off Chen Long. What a fine logic.
Alright everyone, now that the results are in let's take a look back and see how we did: Obviously many of us were expecting team Japan to win at least one event, but without actual fans in the arena I think their home court advantage was largely nullified and in some cases may have even been a burden - all the pressure of high expectations without the support and energy of the home crowd behind them must have been exhausting. Sill, I think it will be hard for fans of their squad to not feel a bit discouraged with the results. Overall, the singles events went mostly as expected. Some of us were surprised at MOMOTA’s early exit, while others had already anticipated that his return to top form wouldn’t be so sudden. CORDON’s spirited performance was an exciting and very pleasant surprise, but in the end, everyone that took the podium on both the men’s and women’s side was an already proven top tier competitor. Doubles on the other hand, had a lot more surprises in store, and basically sent all our predictions to the rubbish bin: For the mixed event, even here in China, WANG/HUANG weren’t given much of a chance. In most prior tournaments, including the pre-Olympic warm-ups, ZHENG/HUANG seemed to consistently be the better pair. They'll definitely be disappointed to miss out on gold. On the men’s side, LEE/WANG were able to prove that their success during the lockdown tournaments was no fluke. WANG in particular, at least to me, has been such an endearing personality that I can’t help but feel happy for them. Finally for the women, I honestly feel a little guilty that so many of us, including myself, seem to have overlooked POLII/RAHAYU. Perhaps not being able to participate in the All England pushed them out of our collective memory, but they’ve been a top pair for so long I feel that their win shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was. Anyway, congratulations to @rhoder and myself for at least getting 2/5, and also to @Scrubs1 , @Mate , @Mark A , and @felipe for getting 1/5. Everyone else, thanks for sharing your picks, better luck next time, and see you all in 2024! Au revoir! (Also, quote of the thread definitely goes to @extremenanopowe )