In light of their first HSBC World Tour win today, a little thread is in order. After the departure of Fukuman/Yonao a little over a year ago and that of Fukushima/Hirota this April, 21-year-old Shida and 20-year-old Matsuyama are now the #1 pair at https://www.saishunkan-badminton.jp/ , Akane Yamaguchi's club. With good results in domestic competition (among others, winners of the All Member's tournament last year, a feat repeated again last month), they managed to play themselves into the National B Team at the end of 2017 and got continuous action in international tournaments in 2018. The results in these tournaments were rather outstanding: a second round exit at the Japan Open against experienced Tang Yinhua/ Yu Xiaohan was their "worst" result, apart from that they managed a semi final or better in all their tournaments: semi final at the German Open, semi final in Canada, as well as finals at the Singapore Open, the Akita Masters, the Vietnam Open and the Indonesia Masters, followed by the victory in Taipei. As a result, they will enter the top 20 in the world come next week. An interesting prospect for the future, even though their progress might be hampered by the intense competition in their discipline within the Japanese national team.
I've been watching this young pair, and seems like a good future is ahead of them. It's so good to see so many up and coming young Japanese women's doubles players including Mayu Matsumoto/Nagahara & Sakuramoto/Takahata. Being in the hands of Park JB, I can see them being the next top Japanese pairs after Tokyo 2020. PS. Not to mention they gaining many fans atm being up there in the looks category
Despite their loss against the Danes at the Dutch Open, they are now ranked 15. Next up for them is Macau Open, with what looks like a really decent draw. Yay!
Cannot wait to see these young pairs got a chance to play in higher tier competition with their senior compatriots.
Japan has so many strong pairs, even the younger like WakaMayu or SakuTaka are doing so good in international tournaments so i personally think that the chance for ChihaNami to compete in high tier is so small, but good luck to them
I meant "these young pairs" of course including SakuTaka, they won 7 titles this year so far! What's an achievement!
Any fans of both cuties Shida and Fukushima? If so, you'll like this video of both of them paired up to win the Vietnam International Challenge WD in 2016... Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
They got a reasonable draw at Singapore Open. If they could beat TakaMatsu in QF, they should reach Final.
I hope they could get into the A Team for next year, so that they could gain more experience in a more „difficult“ tournament. For now, go reach the QF and defeat Nagahara/Matsumoto
There's actually a tiny chance to win the title by beating all 4 top pairs. Imagine that for a second.
I mean, its almost always entertaining every time they play. So, might as well give the audience „the“ new WD style of play on the spotlight.
After the quarter finals at the All Japan, another win over Sakutaka - this time in straight games at a 2-1 S/J League victory of Saishunkan over Yonex. This is the All Japan game:
They reminds me somehow the Korean style for WD, full on attack with a very fast paced play. If they could quickly get used to some basic mixed doubles setups (slower but sharp shuttle placement and net dominance) they will make great rivals for Yuki & Sayaka. Shida reminds me Yuki Fukushima in the sense that both have a very distinct technique when it comes to defense. In term of footwork sometimes I am a bit worried because some of her moves at the back court looks like she could get injury by attacking out of position. Tactically that tend to leave their side open for counter-attacks when they under-estimate the effects of fatigue generated in the late game.. As you can see Misaki contained the 2 speedsters with a brilliant display of experience.
Think their playstyle is the best to deal with the Korean WD/Chen Jia combo. The defensive Japanese WD playstyle of the current top 3 can’t cut it against formidable opponents. Hope JPN develops this pair further, even if not for this Olympics
While there was a bit of hope that this might become a reality after they've won two tournaments in Bali, displays like today (and many, many others) show that they really are not "ones to watch". Pathetic to the max against an unranked Korean pair they have beaten comfortably before, boat loads of unforced errors, Shida being more occupied with gesturing between rallies than actual playing, still weak af serves....the list goes on. With the tour retuning back to normal in terms of post-Covid competition (hello China), I really don't see them as anything more than a pair lounging about on the fringes of the top ten. Shida simply impresses more on social media than she does on court.
