Actually the match between GVS/LKW and Kido/Alvent was extremely lousy and painful to watch. Both sides did not show much motivation to win, INA pair basically just threw the second and third game with mistakes and lousy play. GVS/LKW also made full of ridiculous errors and because the INA pair are content to let them attack in the second and third game which was why they managed to pull off this win. I hope GVS/LKW can put up a better display to upstage KKK/TBH
not only XD lah... we have got so many good XD pairs. including the young ones. Jordan should play in MD too. There are so many good playmakers in Pelatnas. Meanwhile, Jordan is a great smasher. so, he will be good for MD team too
Good results from Ina wd pairs lately Vita/Lala are most improved pair last couple months But I want Pia/Rizky to win 2mrw I expect Alam and Praveen/Vita to grab titles as well
Gu Juan is a very tenacious player. Despite a lack of titles, I feel that she has performed well over the years. Hope she can beat Sindhu tomorrow.
The finals will be mostly between Indonesia and Malaysia with each country contesting in three categories. They are each assured of a title with the same-country players squaring off between themselves in the MD and WD matches; the Malaysians in the MD and the Indonesians in the WD. PV Sindhu of India and Gu Juan of Singapore will vie for their first-ever WS title of a GPG tournament and the match should be a cracker. Goh Soon Huat in reaching the MS final has to be the toast of Malaysia where the senior players, Liew Daren and Chong Wei Feng failed badly. Hopefully, GSH can go on to win his first-ever GPG title. KKK/TBH almost fluffed again in their match against MZAL/MFMT and they won the rubber only because they knew the latter’s game plan well as MZAL/MFMT were in the BAM setup previously and they used to spar together. CPS/GLY failed again and TAQ/LPJ were the surprised Malaysian pair to reach the XD final and this must be very frustrating to GLY who had to shoulder most of the work load in hers and CPL’s match against PJ/VM.
Omg, goh soon huat in a gpg finals! This reminded me of liew daren in ss final last year. Seriously this must be the biggest day in his life! Anyway, anyone know if he has been in the final of any other tournament?
The last time Alamsyah Yunus played Goh Soon Huat was exactly one month ago, at the Aussie Open. Alam won that one, and the h2h between these two players is now 2-0 in favour of the INA player. Perhaps GSH has learnt a few things he can do to turn the tables on Alam... Sindhu and Gu Juan have met twice before; honours shared, but Sindhu's star has been on the ascendant recently whereas GJ has seen a drop in fortunes. Perhaps another reversal now? The MD is KKK/TBH's to lose. Will they manage to do just that, or will they give the home crowd something to talk about over tea and pastries later? One thing is sure: even they don't know the answer to that! Vita Marissa has to play two matches on finals day. Will she go all out in the opening WD fixture where her team still is the underdog to Pia/Rizki? Or will she play a percentage game? I think WD will go by seeding, and XD will provide a fitting finale to the tournament.
Haha can't blame you for the name confusion! But her name is Yao Lei and not the veteran Yao Jie from NED. Unfortunately, apart from her WD title with Shinta Mulia Sari at the Singapore Open 2010, she has no other outstanding victory thereafter. Ironically Yao's longtime partner Sari is now hooked up with her WJC (?) WD title partner Fu Mingtian. This new pairing managed to clear two hurdles but lost finally to MAS Goh/Lim (3) in straight games during the QF at this tournament. Still this is early days yet for our new pairings and hopefully time will help them gel better to become eventual title holders. In general our gals seem to be more hardworking and show better results than our guys.
Alamsyah is an extremely mobile player - much like LCW. Playing alone without coaching support sometimes does wonders for certain mentally adept players. Could have won it in two if he were just to temper a bit of excitement - but hey, that's how he motivates himself ....... For the all INA WD - I would say the younger girls were more impressive although credit to the Malaysian 2nd pair that they really kept it close - Goh Liu Ying just missing her touch at the net at a few critical moments. Still, I love to, ahem, witness Rizky Amelia in full flow ..... all power and grace. Vita got going too late in last night's match, again credit to the Singaporeans for almost snatching it as both SIN girls are very good at the net and very much faster than the INA pair. Definitely good move for Singapore to pair Yao Lei with Vanessa Neo. But they just can't sustain the same intensity in the 3rd. Despite the win, Vita looked like she was almost going to collapse in that match. INA will start as favourites in the XD. Their power would be too much even for the defence of the young Malaysian pair (which I see is better than even GLY/CPS combo). For the past two days, the younger Malaysian XD pair depended too much on their defence to turn the game around. Need to play smarter and Lai Pei Jing needs to have clinical touch to kill at the net - and not just block and more blocks even when given a point blank killing chance. They have not yet mastered the technique to set up killing shots for a lefthand/righthand combination.
