Good move by the tournament organisers to keep three courts for tomorrow. They always only had two courts for quarter finals day and the play would drag on until very late until midnight. Two courts for morning session starting at 1100 and three for the evening session
lky is the quickest men's singles player by far. his foot work and foot speed is effortless. however, he hasn't shown he has a special weapon he can go to when he needs to score a point or take over a game at the world class level. no overwhelming power, no exceptional shot making, net play, deception or defense. there's nothing a top 20 ranked player needs to fear from him.
Interesting that you write this. In HK, when there are selection processes at the junior level (13 yo and under), the coaches observe for those special qualities that you mention. Speed and agility on court is a big plus as is strength. It is said skills can be developed a bit later. I agree it’s an imperfect process, especially for the late developers. Having a special weapon that wins points is a huge advantage.
Has livestream ended? I don’t see Gillian at her seat but there’s still another match to go. Lei LX versus JC
In Malaysian Open, one ticket is valid for the whole day, right? In HK, it’s always been separate admission tickets for morning, afternoon, evening sessions. I was surprised BWF did not show the last two matches. They were certainly had the TV crew working. The mixed doubles match of Chen/Toh versus Feng/Huang was really good.
Thoughts about the younger Chinese XD pair Jiang/Wei vs Feng/Huang? The younger pair reached 11 in G1 first. Edit: They won G1. Jiang's smashes are super fast and steep. I hope this pair will go on to rival Zheng/Huang (or even take over if they retire). Edit #2: It was a straight sets victory. These two are having a great 2024. I have high hopes for them moving forward.
LLX keeps lifting to VA who then delivers the power smash …. what else should he do? VA seems to have no weaknesses
Too easy for Viktor Axelsen so far. I don't even know how Lei Lan Xi beat Jonathan Christie yesterday. Also, I am kind of surprised Viktor Axelsen is in the finals at the Hong Kong Open. This is a tournament which he has participated in many times, but never made the finals before. I get the feeling he didn't really focus on winning it before, but I guess he wants to win it now and add it to his trophy collection while he is still the best player in the world (kind of like LD really wanting to win the Malaysia Open before he retired).
Well, another trophy for Viktor. Now onto the China Open in Shanghai, where the competition is tougher.
Viktor is too dominant in the finals. In the coming year, it's going to be a fight between some top players for title runnerup. Because it looks like Title is reserved for Viktor for the entire year
