Nice to see Fujii and Kakiiwa make it through the qualification in their last tournament. They've now beaten Yamaguchi and partner (great draw ) to set up what might be their final match against Takamatsu:
Today's matches are over, with not too many surprises. In the MS category, all National Team A players advanced to R2, although Tsuneyama was stretched to three games, and Nishimoto struggled in G2 (22-20), with both of these matches being played against university students. As far as National Team B is concerned, Naraoka Kodai was knocked out of the tournament rather convincingly by Naito Koji (Hitachi). By contrast, Naraoka's high school rival, Midorikawa Hiroki, not only advanced to R2 in the MS category, but also in mixed doubles. With respect to MS, this is probably as far as Midorikawa can go; his R2 opponent is Momota. Tomorrow's MS line-up is: Momota Kento v Midorikawa Hiroki Koga Minoru v Onodera Yusuke Takeshita Riichi v Watanabe Koki Tanaka Yushi v Tsuneyama Kanta Sakai Kazumasa v Kozai Kazuki Naito Koji v Ueda Takuma Igarashi Yu v Shimono Hashiru Obayashi Takuma v Nishimoto Kenta
I wonder why Takahashi looks so emotional . These two pairs seem to practise with each other a few times before as shown on Fuji's instagram.
Day 3 of the All Japan Championships is in full swing, and here's an update on how R2 is progressing. There are still a few matches left, but let me post this now. MS: Momota (NTT-East) 2-0 Midorikawa (Saitama Sakae HS) Onodera (Unisys) 2-0 M. Koga (Waseda) *Onodera will play against Momota tomorrow. Upset: K. Watanabe (Unisys) 2-1 Takeshita (Tonami). Last year's champion is OUT!! Shimono (Tonami) 2-1 Igarashi (Unisys) Nishimoto (Tonami) 2-0 Obayashi (Waseda U) WS: Okuhara (Unisys) 2-0 Mizui (Futaba Future HS) Ohori (Tonami) 2-0 Nakanishi (Unisys) Yamaguchi (Saishunkan) 2-0 A. Takahashi (Yonex) Mitani (NTT-East) 2-0 Saito (ACT SAIKYO) Kawakami (Hokuto Bank) Walkover Sagawa (Sakushin Gakuin HS) MD: Upset: Hashimoto/Saeki (Fukui Amateur Sports Association) 2-0 Kaneko/Kubota (Tonami) <21-17, 29-27> Upset: Tsukamoto/Takano (Hitachi) 2-0 Inoue/Kaneko (Unisys) <21-19, 25-23> Sonoda/Kamura (Tonami) 2-0 Makino (JR Hokkaido)/Oshima (Hitachi) Koga/Saito (NTT-East) 2-0 Gondo/Shimono (Tonami) WD: Fukushima/Hirota (Gifu Tricky Panders) 2-0 Saito/Yoshida (Saitama Sakae HS) Shida/Matsuyama (Saishunkan) 2-0 Araki/Imai (Gifu Tricky Panders) Takahashi/Matsutomo (Unisys) 2-0 Fujii/Kakiiwa (Saishunkan) Fukuman/Yonao (Yonex) 2-1 Higashino/Nakanishi (Unisys) Yonemoto/Tanaka (Hokuto Bank) 2-0 Hoshi/Iwanaga (Unisys) Sakuramoto/Takahata (Yonex) 2-0 Mohri/Noda (Ryukoku U) XD: Watanabe/Higashino (Unisys) 2-0 Inoue/Iwanaga (Unisys) Hoki (Tonami)/Nagahara (Hokuto Bank) 2-0 Midorikawa/Saito (Saitama Sakae HS) Nishikawa/Ozaki (NTT-East) 2-0 Takashina (Tricky Panders)/Eto (Gifu Tricky Panders) Kobayashi (Tonami)/Shida (Saishunkan) 2-1 Takano (Hitachi)/Kashihara (ACT SAIKYO) Gondo (Tonami)/Kurihara (Unisys) 2-0 S. Nidaira/Uesugi (Meiji U) Mitsuhashi (Nihon University)/Shinoya (Unisys) 2-0 Fujino (NTT-East)/Fukuman (Yonex)
Woah, Inoue/Kaneko lost. This doesn't look good for them. I wonder how PJB will react on this. They will be the top committed players next year.
Why is Momota playing this Local Village Exhibition Tournament again? Is his place in National Team in danger if local villager Ovamaru Bhieukwa defeats him tomorrow?
Who the hell is that local villager? I search google about that local villager and no result is shown.
Nah, I doubt it. But, believe it or not, winning this local village exhibition will mean much, much more to him than participating in that Guangzhou event.
One other major upset today: Urushizaki Mako (San-in Godo Bank) beat Sato Sayaka (Yonex) by 2-1. I think that Sato will have lost her place on National Team A. Tomorrow's line-up (November 30) is as follows: MS: Watanabe (Unisys) v Tsuneyama (Tonami) Momota (NTT-East) v Y. Onodera (Unisys) Sakai (Unisys) v Ueda (Unisys) Shimono (Tonami) v Nishimoto (Tonami) WS: S. Takahashi (Unisys) v Ohori (Tonami) ..... Hmmm, this match is important! Yamaguchi (Saishunkan) v Kawakami (Hokuto Bank)... Kawakami will need to win to retain any chance of staying on Team A. Mine (Saishunkan) v Okuhara (Unisys) Urushizaki (San-in Godo Bank) v Mitani (NTT-East) MD: Koga/Saito (NTT-East) v Hoki/Kobayashi (Tonami) Okamura (Unisys)/M. Onodera (Waseda) v Tsukamoto/Takano (Hitachi) Sonoda/Kamura (Tonami) v Hashimoto/Saeki (Fukui Amateur Sports Association) Endo/Watanabe (Unisys) v Takeuchi/Matsui (Hitachi) WD: Shida/Matsuyama (Saishunkan) v Fukushima/Hirota (Gifu Tricky Panders) Nagahara/Matsumoto (Hokuto Bank) v Fukuman/Yonao (Yonex) Takahashi/Matsutomo (Unisys) v Kurihara/Shinoya (Unisys) Sakuramoto/Takahata (Yonex) v Yonemoto/Tanaka (Hokuto Bank) XD: Watanabe/Higashino (Unisys) v Nishikawa/Ozaki (NTT-East) Kaneko/Nakanishi (Unisys) v Kobayashi (Tonami)/Shida (Saishunkan) Gondo (Tonami)/Kurihara (Unisys) v Urai (Marusugi)/Miyaura (Yonex) Mitsuhashi (Nihon University)/Shinoya (Unisys) v Hoki (Tonami)/Nagahara (Hokuto Bank)
I imagine Takahashi is probably safe, no matter the result. The fight for the fourth spot, however; my oh my. That's basically a race between three wounded turtles. All three of them had horrendous years (I didn't realize how bad Sato's was until I looked it up). Currently, I'd say it's Ohori > Kawakami = Sato, based on tournament results and age/potential. What about Minatsu Mitani, though? If Ohori loses out to Takahashi, MM could be the dark horse and make the A Team. She's certainly favourite to make the semi final and while her year wasn't good either, she at least won two tournaments.
Yes, Mitani isn't too far behind the A pack. That aside, she won the Ranking Circuit this year, which is an added bonus. Ayumi Mine, too, has won a couple of international tournaments, and she tends to get the better of Mitani, but she will be facing Okuhara tomorrow. If age is taken into consideration, I think that it is going to be Yamaguchi, Okuhara, Takahashi, and Ohori .... But if Mitani actually manages to win the tournament, ...??
Ahh, even forgot about MM's ranking circuit victory. How is it with the boys? You certainly got more insight there than I do. Takeshita is already a goner (from tournament and A Team, I suppose), how about Sakai? His situation is basically the same as Sato's - horror year, on the older side. At least he's still in the tournament. Do you think he can retain his spot? 'Cause he's certainly not winning the tournament. I saw one twitter feed about Koki Watanabe doing well, maybe he'll get in by PJB executive order.
As far as the men's singles is concerned, there really is a lack of talent. Igarashi was seriously aiming to regain his spot on the A team, but he may well have blown his chances by losing in R2 to some-one with a world ranking of 121.... Having said that, Igarashi has won two lower-end international tournaments, and reached the SF in three more. If anyone gets promoted via executive order, it will be him. Naraoka seems far from ready to move up. He couldn't even get past R1. And, Takeshita will be dropped. To his credit, he won the Ranking Circuit, but no-one would seriously consider him to be A Team material. That leaves us with Momota, Nishimoto, Tsuneyama, and either Sakai or Igarashi. Sakai has been plagued by injury this year; but if he beats Ueda tomorrow, he may still be in with a chance. Watanabe Koki will probably find a place in Team B. The latter, incidentally, was placed 3rd in the All Japan Members and 5th in the Ranking Circuit. Somehow, I think that there is going to be more competition for the B team, than for the A team.
I know it's four years down the road, but Tokyo has been selected as the site for the 2022 World Championships! NBA Executive Board Member Zeniya Kinji has been working quite hard for this, and I am sure he will be happy.
