Yeah. In fact he told in an interview that he participated just to see where he stands now against CTC. It seems he is working now atleast
That is actually very good way of thinking, takes off a lot of pressure. Actually this is the right way of thinking atm
But to be fair to Marin, in the end when she was leading 20-12 and had 8 match points, she handed the shuttle to Zhang very politely.
SEMIFINAL (10.00am) => https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/...15A629-1E6E-4CF5-BB3B-8BA4A14B0C87&d=20201017 An engaging MS quarterfinal match saw Chou TC is pushed to dig deep before securing last four berth. It's former world number one Srikanth who displayed a glimpse of his 2017 version, if only the Indian could minimize his elemenatry mistakes and speed up the tempo maybe the outcome would be different. Second seed Taiwanese bounced back after he failed to convert game point in opening game, the steady and consistent Chou was more aggressive in next two games against the doubted Indian who's trying to regain his confidence back. Another highlight yesterday witnessed emotional moment when 32 years old Jan O Jorgensen completed last international match, outclassed by Denmark current leading man Anders Antonsen. Today's much anticipated MS encounter will confront Antonsen and Chou, rematch of 2020 All England semifinal, this could be a nail-biting duel. On top-half draw, one step closer for Kenta Nishimoto to step up into final stage if he could pass local hopeful Rasmus Gemke, this tie perhaps offering an overview of Thomas Cup scenario if JPN meets DEN. Carolina Marin struggles to overcome Zhang Beiwen who delivering hard times for the Spaniard. Zhang neutralizes almost all Marin attacking shots and often setting entrapment at front area that troubling Marin most. But the Olympic Champion is back to business in third game when Zhang looks fatigue and starting to produce a string of uncharacteristic errors. The world number six is overwhelming favourite to conquer Yvonne Li in semis. Meanwhile Nozomi Okuhara finds tough rival to tackle, Michelle Li, both players vanquished quarterfinal opponent without significant problem. Giant-killers Eipe/Kjaer continue gallant run to score big breakthrough in their young career, WR #125 will take on heavyweight opponents Ellis/Langridge to keep their perfect dream alive. In women's doubles, out of prediction that Japan prominent duo Fukushima/Hirota had serious difficulty to overcome English combination Birch/Smith in three games while their teammates Matsumoto/Nagahara subdue Fruergaard/Thygesen and facing more challenging task next, European best pair Stoeva sisters. Two ENG frontrunners in mixed doubles move forward and fulfill their seeding position, Ellis/Smith is slightly favoured to beat German counterparts Lamsfuss/Herttrich. LIVE TV COVERAGE
Nishimoto stoped at semi-final. He lost already but his game is improved. Still happy with his performance.
I dont think so. Nowhere near that genius, in my opinion. I know you are a fan of Kenta. Because of this post of you, I watched his match today. He was slow and his strategies were completely wrong.
Well, Nishimoto is not the number 1 in the world now, but I think his performance in this tournament was so well. About the strategies, you keep your thought, I have mine.
He played against opponents far below his level until today. He played very well against three players outside the top 37 including a diminished (leg cramps against Lakshya Sen) and out of shape HKV. I watched all his matches and he sure looked fast and very good against those 3 opponents but against a faster paced Gemke, Nishmoto simply didn't meet the expectations placed upon him and was always too late and too slow to take the upper side of the game. He also lost the battle at the net. Being the only MS representative for Japan, it was his time to shine. He failed to do so. I'm sure he doesn't consider his performances on this tournament to be good. I personally would have like to see more of him. Too bad. Gemke played well too and had the home advantage. Let's wait the next performances of KN to judge if he progressed or not.
I'll add he had a good draw. He should have at least go to the finals if he wanted to make a statement. May be he didn't want to push himself too much but I doubt that. Didn't he leave Tonami partly because he wanted to compete with Tsunemaya, whom is in Tonami too, for an Olympic ticket?
I think that Olympic ticket is a reason, but not the main reason. Nishimoto said that he wasn't happy when practicing in Tonami although he thought that its Tonami Club infrastructure was the as good as National Training Centre (Ajinomoto Centre in Tokyo). He thought that group training is not suitable with him. He wants to practice his weak more than daily group lessons. About the draw, Gemke also got a easy draw, and what do people think if Gemke will win this tournament ? I mean that, if Antonsen or Chou Tien Chen lost to Gemke, people will think that "just a bad day".
The thing is it's been many tournaments pre-covid we say KN is having a bad day. I think we all had high expectations towards him coming this tournament. If Gemke wins tomorrow, well I'll be impressed. I'll also think he improved more than KN. If he loses tomorrow, I'll think today's loss for KN is even worst. Sorry to say it again but no matter what, more was expected from KN during this tournament. Unless he is injured or something happened to him, that... we don't know and it's possible. That's why we need to wait for his next performances.
^-^ You know what, sometimes I'm so angry with his performance on court and I used to say that I will not support him if he keep playing like that (3,4 tournaments with very very bad performance). His best performance was in Hong Kong Open 2018, then it dropped down. His game after Hong Kong Open 2018 was "jump jump jump - smash smash smash" and most of his attack will come into the net. Park Joo Bong used to say that Nishimoto didn't have the skill to kill the shuttle. But now, I see he managed to skill the shuttle by some way. It's his improvement. Not "stuck" anymore, just unlucky.
