News
Match Reports
23th September, 2017
The semi finals of the main draw took place on Autumnal Equinox Day, the national holiday in Japan. Much more Japanese and many foreign residents in Japan with different nationalities gathered and enjoyed the super plays of the top ranked shuttlers in the gymnasium.
Lee Chong Wei, the defending and 6 times Men' Singles champion of this tournament defeated Shi Yuqi, #4 BWF ranked, and will play against Viktor Axelsen, the Men's Singles World Champion this year, for the championship title tomorrow. The Women's Singles World Champion. Nozomi Okuhara regretfully walked over due to her knee condition, therefore, Spanish Carolina Marin, the gold medalist of Rio Olympic and 2014/2015 world champion proceeded to the finals to compete against He Bingjiao, the defending champion.
One of the semi finals of Women' Doubles, performed by 2 Japanese duos, Takahashi & Matsutomo and Fukusima & Hirota was the most attractive for fans, because many spectators wondered if the senior Olympic Gold Medalist was able to keep the top position among Japanese female pairs, or the young Silver duo of the World Championship this year would take over it. After the exciting 2 games match, Taka-Matsu showed their passion and proved the strongest combination to defeat the younger. They will be challenged by the new pair of Kim Ha Na, the well experienced Korean, and young He Yong Kong who came up from the qualified round. (s)
Please refer the match reports below for the details.
The players advanced to the championship match tomorrow are follows:
(MS)
Victor Axelsen (DEN)
Lee Chong Wei (MAL)
(WS)
He Bingjiao (CHN)
Carolina Marine(SPN)
(MD)
Takuto Inoue & Yuki Kaneko (JPN)
Marcus Fernaldi Gideon & Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA)
(WD)
Misaki Matsutomo & Ayaka Takahashi (JPN)
Kim Ha Na & Hee Yong Kong (KOR)
(XD)
Wang Yilyu & Huang Dongping (CHN)
Takuro Hoki & Sayaka Hirota (JPN)
MS-29
Viktor Axelsen (DEN) 2 (21-16, 21-16) 0 Son Wan Ho (KOR)
This was the match between the BWF ranking No.1 and 2, and past head to head is Son's 5-4 against Axelsen.
Match proceeded in accordance with such fact.
Both players showed very high leveled rally as;
Axelsen placed shuttle to 4 corners of the Son's court with high clear, drop and cut shots, and precise net shots, and made hard deciding shots against Son's return shots, from time to time, which Son returned to the critical area of Axelsen's court. Son played in same way and Axelsen reacted in same way.
In the 1st game, Axelsen led to 6-3, then Son recovered to his 10-6. Axelsen got 7 and 3 consecutive points to close the game 21-16.
The 2nd game proceeded closely, but Axelsen kept leading after his 8-7, and closed the match 21-16. Son, very persistently and patiently, kept returning Axelsen's severe & steep smashes and acute angled cut shots using his superior high stature. However to the end of the match, Axelsen's shots became overcame the Son's receiving ability.
Victor Axelsen, the Men's Singles World Champion this year, will play against Lee Chong Wei who aims his 7th victory in this Daihatsu Yonex Japan Open Tournament.
MS-30
Lee Chong Wei (MAS) 2 (21-19, 21-8) 0 Shi Yuqi (CHN)
The same match between Lee Chong Wei and Shi Yuqi (CHN) as the finals of All England Championship this year replayed in Tokyo as the semi finals.
Lee, 34 years old, the legendary shuttler, beat again Shi, 21 years old Chinese, without any difficulty by 2-0 games.
In the first game both players started with much concentration and aggressively offended each other, but Lee made some unforced errors and Shi could earn consecutive 6 points to lead by 11-4 at the interval.
After then Lee speeded up and stroked beautiful reverse cuts and straight smashes from both end. However, Shi also showed his swift footwork to return from the difficult zones to the opponent. Shi once led by 17-12 before the situation changed suddenly. Lee tried to stroke the more various shots including high jumping smashes, steep cross cuts from the rear, cross nets and spins in the front court. Time to time he also made his characteristic magician like receives. Lee soon caught up by 18-18 and reversed to 19-18. In the next rally, the unforced smash error to the net was too expensive for young Chinese and the game was finished by 21-18 in favor of Lee.
The following game became almost one-sided, because Shi was not able to response the variety of the strokes given by Lee. After the match Shi confessed that in the second game he lost his confidence about his own play. Lee accumulated the points easily by 7-1 and 11-3 at the interval. The spectators enjoyed the techniques of Lee Chong Wei through the game before it finished by 21-8 in 39 minutes match.
Lee mentioned at the interview that the condition was better than yesterday, and that the younger Chinese was more aggressive as he expected. However, Lee was happy to react to win the match today, and also added he hoped to continue as a player in coming years. (s)
MD-29
Takuto Inoue & Yuki Kaneko (JPN) 2(12-21, 21-18, 21-19)1 Vradimir Ivanov & Ivan Sozonov (RUS)
Russian pair advanced to today's game beating BWF No. 4 ranked Kamura/Sonoda of Japan.
So it is very good chance for No. 17 ranked Inoue/Kaneko to show their presence beating this No. 13 ranked Russian pair.
The dream came true for Japanese pair by their changing strategy in the 2nd game onward.They won the very close and tight match.
1st game was won by Russian pair rather easily at 21-12 with 6 consecutive points from 15-12.
2nd game started in Japan pace, and they led to 18-10 for their easy getting back the game. However Russia played very hard from this point and got 7 consecutive points with their steep smashes and strong drive shots. At Japan's 19-18, Russia's hard drive shot could not go over the net resulting to Japan's game point. Japan made steady rally and closed the game 21-18.
Final game started like 2nd game with Japan leading to 8-2, however Japan made several easy unforced errors and Russia caught up to 8-8. The game proceeded in seesaw game till Russia's 17-16. After that Japan played very positively at the fore court area and stopped opponents' attacking shots. Japan sent the shuttle to opponents' open court to get their match point. Then Japan's smash did not go over the net twice and Russia got 2 points. At this critical point, Japan made a very hard return against Russia's smash and counter-smashed the Russia's comparatively week return to finish the match.
Japanese pair quoted; we intended to play patiently returning Russia's strong smashes and drive shots near to net area carefully not to give the chance for Russia to hit strong smashes or drive shots and for us on the contrary to play at fore court area and to keep attacking , which seemed to work successfully.
Russian pair quoted; there were good chances for us to win both 2nd and 3rd game, but Japan's defense were superior to our offence. Also we made too many errors today, and should review re-construct our play after returning to Russia. So far, we are very sorry for our defeat.
MD-30
Marcus Fernaldi Gideon & Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA) 2(21-14, 21-15)0 Mathias Boe & Carsten Mogensen (DEN)
This match worth seeing between Indonesian and Danish pairs is a same card as they played at the finals in the VICTOR Korean Open last week. Spectators in Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium are so excited about which pair advances to the finals tomorrow.
From the very beginning of the 1st game, both pairs seemed to play aggressively, showing the speedy rallies with low and sharp drive shots. Kevin seemed to move faster than usual and started shouting when putting his power into the smashes at the back of the court. Not to be dominated by Indonesia pair, Danish players, Mathias and Carsten, also tried to keep their pace going well with continuous smashes from the higher point, taking advantage in their height. However, as the game goes on to the end of the 1st game, Kevin was more aggressively attacking as moving around by jumping, before closing this game by 21-15.
In the first part of the 2nd game, Mathias Boe speeded up his footwork to get points by pushing the shuttles near the net. Though both pairs have great attacks and even patient defence, Marcus and Kevin patiently returned the smashes from Danish pair and kept relatively longer rallies to consume the opponents' stamina. Moreover, Kevin showed his very tricky shots, taking an advantage of his great reflexes. After the interval 11-9 led by Indonesian, Danish pair made unforced errors of defence in a row, and Indonesian put on a final spurt to finish the match.
Marcus and Kevin commented at the mixed zone "We could show our great performance today. Though we lost against this Danish pair last week in Korea, today we tried to have a confidence and a strong heart to win. About tomorrow's opponent, the Japanese pair, we try not to be careless and have not so much confidence."
WD-29
Misaki Matsutomo & Takahashi Ayaka(JPN) 2 (21-11,21-15) 0 Yuki Fukushima & Sayaka Hirota(JPN)
This was a revenge match of Matsutomo/Takahashi against the compatriot who they lost twice lately.
Today, Matsutomo/Takahashi seemed to be so concentrated all through the game.
In the first game, Matsutomo/Takahashi was so calm and especially Matsutomo, who tends to make errors when she is in bad condition, made almost no errors even in the high-speed exchange of the powerful strokes. Fukushima/Hirota seemed to be overwhelmed by the Matsutomo/Takahashi's speed and the game was closed at 21-11 to Matsutomo/Takahashi.
Fukushima/Hirota, who rallied back from the bad situation and won WR.4 Korean pair yesterday, and Hirota also played mixed doubles and proceeded to final in this morning. In spite of the hard games, Fukushima/Hirota showed their amazing physical strength in the second game. As the game started, they accelerated their speed and moved to forward aggressively. This contributed them to lead the game until Matsuomo/Takahashi caught up with them at 8-8. However today's Matsutomo/Takahashi's performance was superb. Matsutomo amazingly cut shuttles at the frontcourt and Takahashi covered almost all court. Also their low attacking receive never let Fukushima/Hirota earn more than two points. Matsutomo/Takahashi overcame Fukushima/Hirota in straight games.
In the press interview after the match, Matsutomo and Takahashi said ' We are glad to be able to advance to the finals for two consecutive years in our home country. Today, we feel that we could play much better than the previous matches. Even in the defense, we could aggressively move forward and that was so successful not to let opponents earn consecutive points. We played with Japanese pairs in quarter finals and semi-finals and it must have been difficult for Japanese fans to cheer us. Tomorrow we will fight against Korean pair. Kim Ha Na has been a leading player since we started to play and we are looking forward to playing with the pair.'
WD-30
Kim Ha Na & Kong Hee Yong (KOR)2 (21-19,21-11 ) 0 Naoko Fukuaman & Kurumi Yonao(JPN)
Korean pair Kim/Kong , having advanced to the semifinal from the qualifying round, also won a complete victory over WR.10, Fukuman/Yonao pair. Spectators came to know that Kim/Kong pair is really a dark horse of this championship.
Throughout this tournament, we could see the drastic improvement of the Kong's technique to cut the low drives and net shots in the forecourt. At the time of the qualifying round, they mostly played in the style that Kong smashed from the back-court and Kim played in the forecourt, which took advantage of the Kim's technique of mixed doubles, and Kong's strong strokes from the back-court. However as they proceeded to the upper round, they have developed their combination that both players can make powerful offense from every part of the court.
In the first game, Fukuman/Yonao tried to push the opponent's service to the half court or made net shots in order to lead Kim/Kong to lift their receive. However their receives were mostly cut at the front court giving them consecutive 3 or 5 point from 3-1 to 3-4 or from 6-5 to 6-10. This was successful to force.
Fukuman/Yonao to hit shuttles high to the backcourt which made it easy for Kim/Kong to play in fore-back attacking style. Although Fukuman/Yonao patiently came from behind and erned 19 points, Kim/Kong closed the game at 21-19.
The second game was thoroughly to Kim/Kong. Fukuman/Yonao could nothing but defense, and even when they hit fierce smashes, Kim/Kong returned kill shots. Kim/Kong defeated Fukuman/Yonao in straight games.
XD-29
Wang Yilyu & Huang Dongping (CHN) 2(21-14, 21-19)0 Paraveen Jordan & Debby Susanto (INA)
Last week both pairs played at the finals of the VICTOR Korean Open, and Indonesian pair, Paraveen and Debby, got the title by winning in the straight game. This time, which pair will get a chance to play at the center court tomorrow?
These two pairs waged a speedy battle by hitting low aggressive drive shots as seeing men's doubles and very steep and powerful smashes from both men's players. In addition, Huang moved so fast from rear to front of the court to push the shuttle near the net. At the score 14-8 led by Chinese pair, the longest rally in this game excited the spectators so much, with rapidly-changing the turns of offense and defence between two pairs. Keeping continuous attacks to Debby, Chinese pair took the 1st game by 21-14.
Till the interval in the 2nd game 11-8 led by China, Wang used variety attacks, quick drop shots and full-power smashes, and Huang earned points by hitting easy returns from the opponents. After the interval, Paraveen seemed to regain his strength, more steep and decisive smashes to get some points, and tied the score 13-13. However, Chinese pair precisely controlled the shots to the corners of the opponents' court. In the end, Chinese pair closed this game by 21-19 and stepped forward to the finals tomorrow.
Wang and Huang commented at the mixed zone "We lost against today's opponent last week in Korea, so we changed the strategy to win today, by attacking female more. We are happy about today's winning and discuss strategies for tomorrow's match tonight.
XD-30
Takuro Hoki & Sayaka Hirota (JPN) 2(14-21, 21-15, 21-19)1 Pranaav Jerry Chopra & Reddy N. Sikki (IND)
As one pair of the most striking figure, Hoki and Hirota from Japan are challenging to the semi-finals against Pranaav and Reddy from India, who played the quite tough match yesterday against Korean pair, Seung Jae Seo and Kim Ha Na.
In the atmosphere with so much cheer and support from spectators in the arena, Hoki and Hirota showed their offensive play, continuous jumping smashes by Hoki and well-controlled net shots by Hirota which stopped the opponents' moving. After the interval 11-9 led by Indian pair, Prannav gradually speeded up his footwork and displayed more critical smashes to both sides of the opponents' court. Due to some simple mistakes by Japanese pair in the end of the 1st game, Indian pair took this game in a calm manner by 21-14.
Unlike the 1st game, Japanese pair could play well in the 2nd game by leading the score all the time, 11-7 at the interval. Japanese pair seemed to focus more on receiving every shot in a certain way. This strategy made Indian pair move side to side and consumed their stamina a lot. In the end of the 2nd game, Hoki displayed fast and low drive shots to the crossing angle and Japanese pair took back this game by 21-15.
The final game was more exciting than previous two games as the points were frequently scrambled by each pair. Rallies had been longer and longer as the game got close to the end. Due to some service faults by Indian in this match, Japanese pair kept their own pace even when Indian began to catch the momentum. This fierce fight was closed by Japanese pair, who did not stop concentration till the end.
Hoki commented at the mixed zone "We played the 1st game in the very aggressive way without lobbing shots, but this did not work well. Then, we focused on returning shots accurately and it could lead to our better attacks even in the final game. I have not played at the finals in any tournaments of the BWF Super Series,, so it hasn't sunk in yet."
