Haha just went and watched G3 of that match.....and it's almost unbelievable what big c*nts those 2 are Well, I guess it really puts some pressure on you when you know you won't win any tournament where other nations are present....or maybe he has issues because he's 3 feet tall and still can't jump, who knows. I probably wouldn't have waited for the handshake as patiently as their opponents did, so hats off to them for being as graceful as they were. Good effort at the end, almost made that comeback happen...next time target the chubby dwarf even more, he's clearly the weaker of the two. All of a sudden 2011/12 BoMo seem like the pinnacle of sportsmanship. Pretty thrilling game if you can ignore the behaviour inbetween rallies.
Saina is definitely back to her best form (She looks like she is playing her best ever). I think she has established herself as India's best player for now (She is national champ), and may have even greater things coming in her future. I had Sindhu as favourite for All England next year, but Saina is likely to do it
Really have a different opinion here. Head to head has almost no relation to overall strength if youre not talking about two people dominating the scene and always meeting in finals....its how you do against all the others and thats where Sindhu is way, way better than Saina right now, and has been for the entirety of 2017...Saina couldnt get past Quarters in any SS event, I wouldnt hold my breath on her winning one. Another aspect to consider is that same-nation matches play very different because players (usually) dont get coaching and also usually know each other very well from training. With Saina being the more experienced of the two, it makes sense that this scenario favors her and is even enough to offset the massive difference in form between these two. Props to her for winning though, that doesnt just happen randomly...still, dont really see her doing much against the more mobile, fluent players like TTY or RI or any of the Japanese for that matter.
Third game of MD was quite irritating to watch. After 14 all or something, every point was highlighted by argument, delaying tactics, complaining to the umpire, bad sportsmanship, distracting the player before receiving the service. One player was handed yellow card and umpire almost reached for second card before the player was back on the court. Took a sting out of a good match. Cant expect this from a pair who has been representing India for last few years now. Hope the younger players dont imitate them. Glad for Saina's win. She badly needed this. Maybe this win will make some changes in her movie script too! Good recognition to Prannoy too. As usual, Ashwini and Sikky will be least praised, in spite of the excess efforts they took.
Although I doubt that. But that's for sure, that when SN really want it and its really important to her she can get all her determination n strength channelized. Like the match recently against CM or the one against SJH in WC. But I doubt she can do that for 3-4 matches in a row, that's why I will be extremely pleasantly surprised if she pulls of a tourney. Her physical conditions against more "physical" players like NO or TTY will be well exploited. You could see her almost incapable to reach for the shuttle whenever placed to the Back court with slightest deception by PVS. I just hope her experience, shot making, mental toughness and strategical superiority is enough to keep her teaching the youngsters lessons of their life. I wanna see her set benchmarks for the upcoming generation of a successful career which is an eminent evidence of "longevity" in badminton.
I loved the way Akarshi Kashyap gave her a fight. Akarshi must be 16. She should be a formidable player when she is 20.
TBH she was extremely good even 2 years ago, and it's sad to see there's only little improvement in her game, I mean she's good technically n tactically but two years is a long time for a professional athelete aspirant to work on physical conditions, alas hasn't improved significantly. Idk if she's still giving equal importance to academics too, but irrespective of that, it's shocking she hasn't joined any of the big 2 academies yet. Purva, Malavika, Asmita have all caught up, I just wonder how much she couldve already accomplished if she was in, say, Gopichand's. Anyways better late than never, hope she shift permanently like SN did, start full time training and replicate the achievements of her illustrious seniors
Saina Nehwal was surprised with her performance and is happy with the way she moved. Saina-Sindhu rivalry is very healthy and brings the best out of them. Both players held nothing back and went hard at each other with an intense desire to win. I am certain we will see Saina come up with better performances on the circuit. Another 6 months with Gopichand-Mulyo Handoyo training will set up an interesting 2018. Link: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...nth-for-maiden-crown/articleshow/61570558.cms Excerpt: Sizzling Saina surprises Sindhu The packed stadium with around ten thousand spectators at the Divisional Sports Complex witnessed some spectacular badminton from the country's premier shuttlers which kept them on the edge of their seats till the last point of the week-long tournament. The dream summit clash between Saina and Sindhu lived up to expectations with both the players slugging it out for each point resulting in long and pulsating rallies. Saina, seeded second, proved a point or two to her detractors by upsetting top seed Sindhu 21-17, 27-25 in 54 minutes to clinch her third title. The 27-year-old thus maintained her perfect record in the Nationals with three titles in as many appearances. Incidentally, she marked her comeback to the Nationals after a gap of almost ten years with the crown. As a teenager, she had triumphed at Goa in 2008 where she had defended the title she had won for the first time at Patna in 2007. Saina was fully fired up while taking on Sindhu as she made swift movements to jump to a comfortable lead in the first game. Besides excellent court coverage, the world No. 11 executed several bodyline smashes which Sindhu found too hot to handle. Sindhu reduced the deficit in the end but could not stop Saina pocketing the first game at 21-17. Stunned by the reversal, Sindhu bounced back gallantly in the second game. Although the scores were almost equal at the start, Sindhu surged ahead by four points and looked set to restore the parity. However, Saina was in no mood to let it go. She fought back like a true fighter and saved a game point to stop Sindhu. Sindhu too was equally determined to take the match into the decider. After six deuces, Saina finally managed to convert her sixth match point. At 26-25, both the players were engaged in another long rally, keeping the entire crowd breathless. After around twenty strokes, Sindhu failed to return one of Saina's sharp half-shashes and hit the shuttle in the net as Saina punched the air in jubilation. Saina thanked her support staff and coach Pullela Gopichandf or the turnaround in her fortunes. "I am surprised with the way I played today. I moved well and picked Sindhu's difficult shots. It was a great match and I am glad that I could finish it off in two games. I would like to thank all the support staff and Gopi Sir for working hard on me in the last couple of months," an elated Saina told TOI after the final.
U-19 Champions Rutuparna Panda/Mithula UK are india's most impressive junior WD pair. Panda is from Orissa which has no proper badminton academy and Mithula is from the Prakash Padukone Academy. Both players have now joined the Gopichand Academy. Mithula was regarded as India's best junior doubles player before she joined the Gopichand Academy. The race is open for India's 2nd WD pair at the senior level and this pair is one of the contenders. Link: https://thefield.scroll.in/856977/t...now-indias-most-promising-womens-doubles-pair Teamed up by chance, Rutuparna and Mithula are now India’s most promising women’s doubles pair In the last edition of the senior national badminton championship in Patna, 18-year-old Rutuparna Panda teamed up with her 12-year-old sister Swetaparna in the women’s doubles category, for lack of better options. The girls from Cuttack in Orissa had qualified for the Nationals in February by winning the state championship and lost in the third round against another junior pair of Mithula UK and Ashwini Bhat. Nine months later, the elder sibling reached the women’s doubles semi-final of the same tournament in Nagpur after pairing with one half of the combination that beat them in Patna. Rutuparna cannot stop gushing about the change in fortunes in the last seven months. “Coaches in the Gopichand Academy saw me play at the Nationals in Patna and asked me to come to Hyderabad for a one month camp. I wasn’t sure about going since I had never stayed away from my parents and family for that long. But I thought I will try for a month. The coaches made me really comfortable and here I am,” said Panda. Panda had been playing on the junior and senior circuit for a few years. She was one of the many talented shuttlers around who were playing both singles and doubles but nobody took much notice. Former doubles international and now Indian team coach Arun Vishnu was the one to spot Panda playing in Patna and convinced chief national coach Pullela Gopichand to call her in for a trial of sorts. “She was playing women’s doubles with her younger sister in Patna,” said Arun. “Rutuparna was making her sister stand in the front court while she played from the back. But her strokes and movement impressed us and so we called her to the camp. I had seen her before as well and liked her game. But this time around she was so impressive that we thought it was time to give her a chance.” Big move to Hyderabad Till she came to Hyderabad, Panda had not known what a formal coaching system feels like. The siblings got interested in the sport after watching their father Ramchandra, who has a spare parts shop, participate in a few open court tournaments in their home town and started learning the game from him. “We don’t have any coaching centre in Cuttack,” Panda said. “There is a NIS (National Institute of Sports) coach in Bhubaneshwar but it was too far for us so our father only became our coach.” After coming to Hyderabad, the training methods were a huge step up for Panda but Arun insists that the drive of the girl was amazing, as she was willing to push herself without any prodding and soon gave up singles to concentrate on just doubles training. Meanwhile, Mithula shifted to the Gopichand Academy from Bangalore’s Prakash Padukone Academy just a month later after her earlier partner decided to concentrate on singles, and the coaching staff decided to pair her up with Panda. Mithula, by then, was the country’s best junior doubles player and had won every junior tournament in the country with Bhat. So was it difficult for both to adjust? “Not at all,” said Mithula, who had decided to make a career in doubles soon after reaching three finals in the 2015 Jaipur Junior Nationals. “It was very clear that when the coaches suggested that I play with her they knew about her qualities. We just had to build our communication and work hard.” The level of improvement in their communication can be understood from the fact that Mithula ends up answering questions of Panda’s background. While Mithula is calm and calculated with her expressions on and off the court, Panda is bubbly and that helps them tackle pressure situations on the court. “It’s (Panda’s energy) to do a lot with she being new to the circuit. She is eager to learn, do everything the coaches want to do and that is why she is also progressing well,” explained Trupti Murgunde, who was the coach of the team for the Asian U-19 championship where Panda made her international debut. While the first selection was probably based on 17-year-old Mithula’s reputation as they had played just one national ranking together, they made it to the World U-19 team on merit by winning the three ranking tournaments they featured in. Experience matters In the semi-finals in Nagpur on Tuesday, the pair struggled to close out big points as they went down 18-21 21-12 21-16 against Prajakta Sawant and Sanyogita Ghorpade. They began well by winning the first game but needed time to adjust to rather difficult court conditions in the second game. The third game was all about nerves and the experienced Sawant made them pay for their mistakes. “We will learn a lot from this match. We lacked the experience to come up with right strategy in the third game and that cost us the match,” said Mithula. The semi-final result notwithstanding, the pair has shown that their coaches were right in teaming a rookie with an already established player. The coaches are now hoping that they can build on this foundation to earn success on the international stage.
Srikanth Kidambi pulls out of China Open SSP and decides to take a break and rest. He will play the Hong Kong SS.
It was written as minor leg injury. Good decision taken by him. Sent from my SM-G600FY using Tapatalk
Yes. We also saw that when Mathias Boe was missing a partner (after Mogensens accident). Fu Hai Feng and Cai Yun were split up, the players were available and they wanted to play together for a couple of tournaments, to stay sharp and learn from each other. China blocked it. Cheers, FB
