Chinese Badminton

Wang Zhiyi vs Tan Ning here http://www.zhuafan.live/1551887 - works better on firefox in full screen (to avoid annoying popups) or download and install the zhuafan app for Android phone

 

My goodness, Tan Ning playing like MS, so aggressive, attacking at every opportunity or half chance, seemingly no patience to rally but still able to go on the offensive relentlessly and defend stubbornly by getting a lot back. Her fast pace all-out game is also forcing Wang Zhiyi, who tends to rally and bide her time to attack, play more proactively and seize the initiative more or risk being being reduced to passivity, as a result we have a thriller of a match with all guns firing on both sides.

Watch out, He Bingjiao and Chen Yufei, these two young, junior aspirants of yours are snapping hard at your heels. Seriously, Tan Ning should just focus on WS and stop doing double duty in WD as well as that would only stretch her a bit too thin, in which case I daresay she will make her mark on the world's stage in the not too distant future (haha, getting ahead of myself). Right now, as shown in the first half of G3, she appears to be slowing down and unforced errors are creeping in, probably due to fatigue which I'd put it down to her lack of experience as she has been too eager to attack from the get-go and thus not pacing herself well when the match turns out to be a hard-fought three-setter. In this regard, Wang Zhiyi is the more experienced of the two and smarter too, I feel, as she seems to adapt to her opponent's style better as the match progresses.

Anyway, annoyingly, the last half of the decider wasn't broadcast as it suddenly switches to screening another men's single's match, but WZY was leading by two points then; have to check the score later for the final outcome.

 

In case you're unaware, Tan Ning is still only 18 years old, born 03/04/2003 as indicated on BWF website https://bwfbadminton.com/player/59880/tan-ning

Incidentally, in the semifinals of the Women's Team event, Tan Ning playing for Fujian beat another talented junior, Zhou Meng of Hunan, in two straight sets, 21-15 and 21-18, and contributed to Fujian's 3-0 win for a place in the final to face off Hubei who overcame Zhejiang 3-1 in the other semifinal.

But I also found out Tan Ning actually lost 0-2 (21-18, 21-15) to Cai Yanyan in the Grp A round robin stage.

Apparently, the 3rd/4th playoff in the Men's and Women's team event was contested this morning 24th April local time, GMT+8, whilst the Team Final is now ongoing.
https://sports.sina.com.cn/others/badmin/2021-04-24/doc-ikmxzfmk8674723.shtml

 

Yes, this match by Shi Yuqi vs Huang Yuxiang is more like it as he showed glimpses of his former pre-injury self. On hindsight, I thought SYQ in his eagerness to stay well in the running for the Race to Tokyo Standings unwisely resumed competition too soon barely three months after undergoing an operation for his knee injury, in my opinion a misguided move that actually worsened his condition and led to complications until now.

No doubt, the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics from last year to this year bought him precious time but till today he's clearly yet to be at his best. I guess we'll have to watch how he fares in the following two tournaments, namely the IND Open and the SIN Open, before we can realistically weigh his chances at the upcoming Olympics.

 

Huang Yuxiang is a rather tricky opponent , quite unpredictable, on his good days he can upset almost any fancied players - remember, he once shocked Momota. So, whether Chen Long or any aspiring contestants in his path had better be on their toes.

 

Thank you so much for posting the videos, @gelopisan. So, it turns out Wang Zhiyi won the encounter with Tan Ning, taking the decider 21-16 in an outstanding, full-on fighting matchup. That cross-court backhand corner return from below the waist by WZY to TN's front-court was brilliant, catching TN off-guard.

TN was too eager to attack, even going for winners when she was slightly off-position or off-balance instead of going for safer shots to regain her footing first. On the whole, even though it wasn't an error-prone match for either side, TN made one mistake too many than WZY who is the more steady and accurate of the two players.

Still, I find myself actually a little bit more impressed by TN's attacking prowess than WZY's all-round game, which is commendable too, but if and when TN learns to be more patient and raises her defensive ability as well while cutting down further on her unforced errors, which isn't really high in the first place, I daresay she is a raw talent with huge potential to scale the heights of world badminton within three to five years' time.

By the way, WZY scored an emphatic victory over Gao Fangjie in the group stage, winning 21-10, 21-11. So far,tte single loss she suffered was a narrow three-setter match, 21-19 in the decider, to He Bingjiao; it could've gone either way. In the singles event next, WZY is drawn in the upper half with Chen Yufei whom she's slated to meet in the semifinals whilst He Bingjiao is in the lower half. Though I don't see TN's name in the main draw, I'd expect her to play the qualifiers, not sure which half of the draw she's in.

 

Strangely, the China National Games don't practice having seeded players in the main singles draw, that's why the top two CHN MS, namely, Chen Long and Shi Yuqi, ended up being drawn in the top half where they are slated to meet in the semifinal assuming they progress that far.

For the just-concluded Team Finals, Zhejiang beat Fujian 3-1 for the Men's Team crown and Hubei bested Fujian 3-0 for the Women's Team title.

But what surprises me was 1) Chen Long of Fujian was rested in the team final as well as in the semifinal, and 2) for the team 3rd/4th playoff, Shi Yuqi was fielded as MS2 for Zhejiang against Hunan's Zhou Zeqi whom he beat comprehensively in two straight sets, 21-10, 21-7. And who played MS1 for Zhejiang? The lesser known Li Xiang who beat the better known Hunan's Liu Liang. Strategic considerations, I supposed.

For the Women's Team 3rd/4th playoff, Zhejiang overcame Hunan 3-0. This time round, Zhejiang's Chen Yufei did duty after being rested in the semifinal and duly defeated Hunan's Luo Yiting by the identical score of 21-14 in two sets. I supposed, in the absence of an official ranking list for the players, the coaches have a free hand to configure the lineup according to their strategic thinking.

I take it that BWF world rankings don't apply or are technically problematic to implement once all the national players returned to represent their respective place of origin where, often, there are also several inactive and even coming-out-of-retirement players participating, not to mention players from HKSAR and MacauSAR. That's just my opinion.

 

That's strange. According to this report https://sports.sina.com.cn/others/badmin/2021-04-27/doc-ikmxzfmk9260951.shtml:-

"男单资格赛共三轮，谌龙、石宇奇等直接进入决赛圈，而包括赵俊鹏、周泽奇、翁泓阳、任朋嶓等在内的选手参赛."
After three rounds of men's single qualification stage, Chen Long, Shi Yuqi advanced directly into the final rounds (main draw), including Zhao Junpeng, Zhou Zeqi, Weng Hongyang, Ren Pengbo and other players (translated).

Don't tell me Chen Long and the HK and Macau SAR players decided to skip the final rounds of the main tournament in September of the China National Games. For Chen Long's case, it may be that he's been chosen to skip and rest so that he is fresh for the Sudirman Cup also held in September; besides, he, now age 32, has already competed in several editions of the CNG previously, unlike the much younger 25-year-old Shi Yuqi who sort of can't afford to do so, not senior enough, therefore, not entitled to do so. Just my guess.

Also not forgetting Lu Guangzu, age 24, who is in the main draw of the CNG, so he's in the same situation as SYQ, which makes me think that he and SYQ as MS3 and MS2 respectively in the national team would be fielded in rotation during the Sudirman Cup, leaving Chen Long as MS1 to do duty most of the time. Again, that's just my thought.

As for the HKSAR and MacauSAR players (their absence or last-minute withdrawals), it's possible they might have chosen to give more priority to the Sudirman Cup than the CNG so as not to stretch themselves too thin.