Lu Guangzu has not performed up to expectations so far her ein the Thomas Cup as well as last week's Sudirman Cup. So it's not the least bit surprising for me that he was replaced by Li Shifeng in today's QF tie with THA. The same goes to Wang Zhiyi who was replaced by Han Yue in yesterday's QF Uber Cup tie with Chinese Taipei. As HY didn't have to play against TPE as WS3 since CHN routed TPE 3-0, she is once again fielded for tomorrow's semifinals tie against THA and slated to face Busanan Ongbamrungphan should it boil down to that. Best of luck, Team CHN !
While watching the replay of the match again, I was reminded of something strange happening to LSF in the latter half of G2 where he misjudged the backline four times, just watching the shuttle fell from KV's clears/lifts well within the backlines, including once near the back sideline. Oh, there was also a line call challenge which the umpire denied him for being a little too late that looked out but was called in. It's equivalent to gifting 5 points away while in the lead when under no pressure. To make matters worse, around 17-all, he made three simple errors to allow KV to force the decider, a lapse of concentration, perhaps. That makes 8 unforced errors that could've been costly as it gave the opponent a lifeline. I hoped he drew the right lesson from the experience, that is to always stay totally focused and keep piling on the pressure until the very end.
Hopefully, that win after 5 losses to KV is a break-through win for him. As for WZY, I think she is playing with a knee injury. That should explain her laboured movement around the court.
Oh, there's talk of Wang Zhiyi's knee injury? If true, when did it happen as she played three matches altogether? I'm sure the Chinese coaches wouldn't risk fielding her in that physical condition. Anyway, after watching how well An Seyoung has ben performing so far, both in the Uber Cup - she just demolished Akane Y a few minutes ago- and the previous week's Sudirman Cup, I take my hat off to her, a star-in-the-making.
Glad to see, both He Jiting and Zhou Haodong , their partnership, is getting a big boost in confidence these two weeks in the Sudirman and Thomas Cups, some mixed results but more surprises than disappointments. The kind of valuable experience they gained as a pair playing under tremendous pressure and delivering when it counted most will certainly stand them in good stead going forward. Heartening.
Congratulations to Team China for silver medal in this edition of Thomas Cup. Their performance exceeds my expectations. Hope this will be a valuable experience for them. Here’s my thought on some players: HJT/ZHD have potential, but still lack effective front-court play. I wonder whether the coaches will stick with this pair or not. I still want to give them more time as IMO, it looks like HJT can develop front-court aspect and becomes an all-rounded player. ZHD often makes some easy mistakes, but he can improve. HJT also doesn’t seem to be that harsh on ZHD, compared to when he’s with Tan Qiang. Never seen LSF play before, I’m hugely impressed with him. His style reminds me of Chen Long, with more attacking play. Also pretty strong mentality, taking one set from an in-form Christie. Can’t wait to see him improve and ascends to the top. And, well, I wish SYQ wouldn’t do what he did yesterday. No worse way to end his journey than this fiasco. Hope he’ll take all the time he need to rest and cure from whatever reasons behind this. Let’s see how they will perform in the upcoming Denmark Open. I wonder if SYQ will attend the tour or not tho.
Edit: In hindsight, An Seyoung demolishing Akane turned out to be an unjustified claim as she didn't beat the genuine , original version but the pirated imitation copy of Akane , as the latter went on the following day to best Chen Yufei in the Uber Cup final.
I have never watched Li Shifeng play. I was quite surprised by the quality of his play. He is a very fast player with good all-around game and with improvements on his physical aspect his game should bring his play to a higher level. At this moment I hope he could improve the speed of his play at the back court.
I think CBA should find new women talents. There was a 13 year old player who was in the news sometime ago. She was quite tall. Anyone heard anymore about her? Han Yue is a disappointment and should be replaced. I am looking forward to see how Weng Hong Yang performs in this tournament. He is quite a good player but has not performed consistently. Hope he surprises us like LSF did.
Among the current chineese women singles players, cai yaiyan has the best(powerfull) smash. But her defence and overral game is not good.
More or less agree with you, Cai Yanyan has a cracker of a smash but overall her game is lacking in consistency, error-prone.
CYF needs more deception and power, HBJ needs more control and patience. A combination of the two in a new player would be great. Learn from LSF .He has a great style. I am now a fan of his. Thought he was a litle predictable but he has been well coached.
Wang Zhiyi gave a good account of herself in the match with THA Phittaporn Chaiwan, beating her 21-17 and 21-6 in R2 of the DEN Open'21. A pity she has to face He Binjiao in the QFs tomorrow. Didn't get to watch the HBJ vs Sayaka Takahashi match but going by the identical score of 21-14 straight, it looks convincing as it's the second time in less than a week HBJ put ST in her place, the previous encounter being the Uber Cup title clash also in two straight sets.
I think you should launch a line of gold medals, that goes something like this. 'JustinLiu's gold medal for HBJ motivation' 'JustinLiu's gold medal for SYQ gamesmanship' 'JustinLiu's gold medal for WJY consistency' If nothing else works this should. If you end up making a lot of money, feel free to share some. Is it Liu btw? I am guessing it must be one of [Liu, Li, Lin].
Are the Korean coaches that were attached to the China badminton team still there? I can’t recall seeing them nor Li Mao recently.
When Li Mao returned to coaching for CBA, he made it clear he will not appear on courtside, at most sit in the stands watching and taking notes of the matches he's interested in. As for the hired KOR coach(es), if I'm not wrong, I thought I saw him on courtside at the Sudirman Cup and the Thomas Cup for the men's doubles matches during the intervals. Perhaps you couldn't recognise him as he was wearing a face mask and China T-shirt. By the way, the women's doubles and mixed doubles matches are being coached on courtside by the Chinese coaches.
The men’s doubles coach doesn’t look like Kang at all - and the mandarin the coach speaks is very fluent. I checked the semifinal of the China vs Japan match in Thomas Cup.
