I'm sorry, but I have no idea. I did search, but nothing came up. If it is an injury, then I don't think his place on Team A is going to be in jeopardy, though. Allowances will be made..., as they were for Okuhara a couple of years ago.
The top B Team MD pair, Koga/Saito, convincingly beat Inoue/Kaneko; ... I would hazard a guess that the latter have lost their position on the A Team.
Even simply looking at the score-board must be nerve-wracking; at the moment both pairs are fighting point for point. Edit: Oooops..., Sakuramoto/Takahata have suddenly surged ahead.
For those interested in photographs/match digests of the All Japan Championships, please check out the SMASH and NET.TV twitter page at https://twitter.com/san_inform. The digest of Momota's QF match against Koga Minoru is highly recommended.
Shame if Sakuramoto/Takahata lose this (esp if it leads to an A Team exclusion). It's not a fault of theirs whatsoever to peak last 2018 and be shut out of the A Team because it was "full".
Why is that? At least they had their chance to play bigger tournaments. They did f... all there, to be honest. Not a single impressive result and lots of first round exits. 1000 All England - first round Indonesia - first round China - first round 750 Malaysia - first round Japan - first round China - first round Denmark - second round French - first round That is a solitary win in the 8 biggest tournaments. They shouldn't be anywhere near the A team anymore.
What a marathon! And a truly well-deserved chance for ShidaMatsu to make it onto Team A. I will be heading out to Tokyo early tomorrow morning. I will, no doubt, be treated to a Former Saishunkan v Saishunkan affair.
No. But as Yonemoto/Tanaka have been side-lined, possibly permanently, there is a good chance that ShidaMatsu will take up the vacant spot. Their performance at the Gwangju Masters will be taken into account.
The top four Japan WS through to semifinal, Nozomi Okuhara, Sayaka Takahashi, Aya Ohori and most likely Akane Yamaguchi - expected to overcome Asuka Takahashi today.
I agree, ... but Takahashi Asuka is a promising player. Unfortunately, as she has played four more matches than Yamaguchi, stamina is a concern.
Simply allowing them to participate without the proper training doesn't help them. It even stunts them imo. They're not used to winning anymore and it's a shame because they were on a roll. Meanwhile the vacancy they left in lower tier tournaments gave Shida/Matsuyama less competition (and they didn't even win as much). Anyway, whatever.
Sonoda/Kamura haven't played yet, ... but they are a shoo-in. Endo/Watanabe are already through to the SF, where they will face Okamura/Onodera, .... which isn't a particularly daunting prospect.
Ahhh, what a shame. Physically, it must have been tough for an 18-year old. He did well to take it to three games, though. Sob, sob... This means that I will be watching an all-Tonami SF tomorrow. Here's hoping that Tsuneyama takes it, otherwise it will be a consecutive Momota v Nishimoto final.