Hong Kong Open 2023

Congratulations to the winners. Indonesia win it big this time with 2 titles. This is only a S500 event which is much smaller than the previous China Open S1000. Also many top 10 players did not participate because they are preparing for the coming Asian Games.

Summary below.

xd. China pair won it by beating the local Hong Kong pair. The Hong Kong pair beat the red hot french pair who were in the finals last week in China. They were the only unknown faces.

wd. Malaysia Pearly and Thinaah did well to upset the Thai pair to enter final. Unfortunately the blew up their chances of winning the final where they won g1 easily and almost won g2. Indonesia Apriani and Siti did well with their experience and firepower to claw back and win the match. 

ws. Tunjung did well to dispose Marin. Ratchanok gave a wo to GJW. Goh Jin Wei did well to beat the Chinese player. Yamaguchi stopped Tunjung this time and GJW lost to Zhang Yi Man in the semis. This final was won by Yamaguchi again. I wonder if Yama can catch up with the red hot ASY in the Olympics. She will need to double her effort.

md. Again, the top seed Alfian lost to Tpe pair in the 2nd round. Kim and Anders did well to enter final. Seems to be in good form. They also beat Ahsan and Setiawan in semis. Leo and Daniel did well to beat the Tpe pair in semis. In the final, the Danish pair continued with their great form to win it. More fire power.

ms. Jojo did well to beat local boy LCY in 2 games. He also beat Ng TY from Malaysia in 3 games. Ironic that Jojo have problem playing Viktor and LZJ and not the rest. Nishimoto did well to beat Ginting in 2 games. Ginting is still struggling from his mom passing recently. Jojo did well to beat Nishimoto in the final. 3 hard fought games. In the earlier rounds. Lee Chia Hao from Tpe did well to upset Viktor and also LZJ but lost to Jojo. Out of steam.

It seems that the Victor flooring mat is a little slippery. There is already a history. Complaints coming from Viktor himself and BWZ from USA. See picture below. The victor shuttles seems faster than the Yonex ones as well. You notice most players prefer to smash with fast shuttles. Victor will have to fix this.

Share it and see you in Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou.

China Open 2023

Congratulations to the winners of this S1000 series. Especially to Seo and Chae and also ASY. They repeated the win and is now considered a legend in their category. Not easy to maintain the form. The final is a little anti climax because it is lop sided and kind of expected. The prize money is the biggest so far. See the image below. Vitid was a no show in this tournament. The dynamics could have changed. All top 15 ranking in ms got a chance to win any tournament. Luck of the draw can be a factor.

Summaries

xd. Zheng and Huang were the top seed but they lost to the World Champion Korean pair in semis.

Tan and Lai from Malaysia did very well to beat the top Thai pair in Qtr final but lost narrowly to the Koreans. 21 19 in the 1st set.

Toh and Chen from Malaysia also did well to enter semis buy lost to the surprising pair from France. Literally out of nowhere to enter final and lost to the Koreans WC. This Korean xd pair can be considered legends.

wd. wr no 1 Chen and Jia did well again to maintain their status as the best wd player.

ws. Tty did well to beat Marin in Qtr final 21 19 3rd game. Funny that she doesn't believe in Video analytics. No wonder she did not win the big events like wc and og. She lost to the solid An Se Young in semis.

Yamaguchi did well to beat the home girl CYF but she was not match for the eventual winner ASY. Looks like ASY is a very strong favourite to win the Olympic Gold. In terms of fitness and stability, no one can match her at the moment.

md. Again, Alfian and Ardianto is the victim of the danish MD pair in the 1st round this time. They have been struggling about 3 tournaments back. However, the danish pair lost to Hoki and Kobayashi in the qtr final. Lee and Wang the OG champ lost narrowly to the WC pair.  It was a very exciting encounter. Any pair could have won it. Deuce.

Liang and Wang did well to beat the Japanese top pair in a close rubber game in semis.

Aaron and Soh did well to beat compatriot Teo and Ong in the qtr final. They also did well to beat the WC Kang and Seo. I guess the prize money is good enough even if they don't win any tournament.

In the final, it was a white wash by the chinese md.

ms.  Loh Kean Yew did well to get his revenge on Popov and Antonsen this time but lost to Viktor in the qtr finals. In game 2 lky got the chance to make a comeback at 17 17 but gave it away by making some silly mistakes. Out of gas perhaps after the 1st tough narrow set. Antonsen earlier had a tough match vs Sen from India.

NTY from Malaysia did well to beat Pranoy, but eventually lost to Shesar from Indonesia. This kid can't last after having a tough match. Jojo did well to beat Shesar but he was no match for Viktor in Semis.

SYQ did well to beat Gemke and Naraoka in a thrilling 3 setter in the Qtr final. 22 20. Lu GZ did well to beat the tired SYQ in semis and also LSF in the earlier round. Earlier LZJ had a tough one vs Naraoka. If he won game 1, he could have won the match. He punctured on the 3rd game.

In the final, it was Viktor's day. A walk in the park. Enjoy the images below and share my link. Thanks for coming.