The 2019 Badminton World Championships will start in Basel on August 19. Since 
011 Wang Yihan won the World Championships in the national badminton women's singles event, it has failed to stand on the highest podium for 5 consecutive years. Although the National Badminton Championships are full, judging from their performance in the previous weeks, He Bingjiao, Han Yue and Cai Yanyan are basically "minesweepers". Only Chen Yufei has the hope of competing for the championship. However, the process is not easy. Today we will use "hexagon" to analyze the comprehensive strength of Chen Yufei and other favorites to win the championship.
The hexagon is composed of the three main factors of technology, mentality, and physical fitness, plus the three auxiliary factors of experience, strategy, and speed. Each factor is scored out of 5, with 4 being excellent and 3 being average. The overall competitiveness of the player can be seen through the hexagon score.
Among them, technology : the player's overall technical sophistication; mentality : the player's psychological quality shown in the game; physical fitness : the player's continuous combat ability; experience : how many games the player has participated in, and the length of his career ; strategy : the player's advanced playing style, commonly used tactics, etc.; speed : the player's ability to accelerate, change speed, and reaction ability on the field.
Let’s look at Chen Yufei first. Chen Yufei has certain advantages in terms of technology, mentality and physical fitness, which are also the three main abilities necessary for first-class players. She also relied on her stable performance to achieve good results in the first half of 2019. In the Sudirman Cup final, the match against Akane Yamaguchi also showed the dual advantages of physical fitness + mentality. However, Chen Yufei's advantages in these three aspects are not obvious. She can only be said to be excellent, and there is still a lot of room for improvement. For example, the psychological fluctuations after losing the ball continuously will soon affect the quality of the ball.
Chen Yufei's obvious shortcomings are her strategic execution on the field and her ability to change speed. In the recent semi-finals of the Indonesia Open, Chen Yufei was beaten 16-3 by Xindu when he was in the lead. The difference in strength between the two was not big. The biggest reason for such a rapid loss of points was tactical errors. There was no Suppress the opponent and be held by the nose. After discovering this, Chen Yufei did not adjust in time and did not have the hard-core ability to change speeds. This was also fully exposed in the Japan Open semi-final match against Akane Yamaguchi. Therefore, Chen Yufei still needs to work hard on these two aspects to increase the ability to change speed, improve the advancedness of play and tactical execution.
What is better in terms of strategy and variable speed is the former world number one Dai Ziying . In fact, Tai Tzu Ying's more important advantages are in terms of technique and mentality. Her technique is impeccable, and when she feels good, she can really maximize the badminton line; her mentality is also very stable, and she is not impatient in winning or losing; In terms of offense, he has a strong ability to change speed and is not weak in physical fitness. This is also the reason why she has been ranked number one in the women's singles world for a long time.
However, just because her mentality is too peaceful, Tai Tzu Ying's pursuit of "fame and fortune" seems to have been affected. She has not been crowned a world champion so far, and she is often upset in competitions. In addition, Tai Ziying's physical condition has also declined slightly, and she has been troubled by injuries from time to time. She is also under great pressure in front of menopausal players. In the latest women's singles draw, Dai Ziying and Chen Yufei are in the bottom half, so if Chen Yufei wants to win the championship, she has to pass Dai Ziying.
Japan's top sister Akane Yamaguchi, who has been in excellent form in recent weeks, has once again reached the world's number one position and is also the top seed in this world championship. Akane Yamaguchi, known as the "little steel gun on the field", ranks first in women's singles in terms of physical fitness, and her back-to-back championships in Indonesia and Japan are the best proof. In addition, Akane Yamaguchi is also relatively good in terms of technology and mentality, which greatly increases her competitiveness. And she was able to win the Super Series championship at the age of 16 (2013) and has a lot of experience in the competition.
Akane Yamaguchi's weakness is also a strategic issue. Small players are always constrained by their opponents in their playing style on the court. Akane Yamaguchi cannot get rid of this, but her ability to change speed and adjust on the spot is very strong, even if she follows Depending on the opponent's tactical rhythm, she will adapt and counterattack within a certain period of time, which makes her stand among the strongest in women's singles.
Okuhara Nozomi , who is also a small player, is in poor condition this season, mainly due to a sharp decline in physical fitness. After several injuries, the small motor in the past has lost its former glory, and its acceleration ability on the field has also dropped sharply. In the Japan Open final, Okuhara was completely unable to stop Akane Yamaguchi's attack; in the Australian Open and Indonesian Open, Okuhara was beaten 21-3 and 21-7 by Chen Yufei and Xindu respectively. It can be seen that in The speed on the field has been significantly reduced.
However, Okuhara still has certain advantages in technology, mentality and strategic execution. This is also an overwhelming advantage for ordinary players. Therefore, Okuhara is still a first-class player. If she has sufficient physical fitness, He's not completely at a disadvantage against the others.
Speaking of physical fitness issues, the "genius girl" Intanon also has this disadvantage, and physical fitness has become Intanon's biggest shortcoming, giving her not many advantages in the increasingly competitive women's singles event. Intanon is excellent in both technical and mental aspects, and is on par with Tai Tzu Ying. In terms of offensive ability and strategic execution, Intanon is not inferior to others, but physical fitness is the only pain point.
In the recent Thailand Open, Intanon lost to Chen Yufei in the final. In addition to not grasping the key points, lack of physical fitness was also an important factor. Although Chen Yufei has played more games than Intanon since the Indonesian tournament, she won 2 games in the first 4 rounds of the Thailand tournament and recovered her physical fitness; however, Intanon failed in 2 of the first 4 rounds. He played 3 full games, and fought hard for 80 minutes with his teammates in the semifinals, which required a lot of physical energy, so his offensive power and movement speed were reduced in the finals.
Players with insufficient physical fitness have two obvious characteristics: ① There is a high probability that they will lose in the third game against opponents of the same level; ② If they win after playing 3 games in the previous round, they will have a high probability of losing 0-2 in the next round. Unfortunately, Intanon occupied both of these two areas, which fully exposed his physical shortcomings and allowed him to be dunked by his opponents in the game.
The physical problem is not an isolated case. Indian sister Xindu also has this shortcoming. In terms of the athletes' own conditions, shorter athletes move faster and can support longer matches with the same physical fitness; while taller athletes move slower and consume more physical energy. Xindu's height of 178cm is a full 23cm taller than Akane Yamaguchi. Both her turning movements and movement speed are much slower, and it is easier to exhaust her physical energy.
However, Xindu has certain advantages in technology, experience and strategic execution, which gives her a certain degree of competitiveness. In the 2019 season, Xindu's mentality declined seriously, so his results were not ideal, but he still should not be underestimated. If she can preserve her physical fitness and then relax her mentality, her threat is not weak; and Xindu defeated Nozomi Okuhara and Chen Yufei in the Indonesian competition not long ago, so she has a certain advantage in mentality. When she meets Chen Yufei again, she may Will play better.
Through the above hexagonal analysis, you can see that Chen Yufei is not the most outstanding in all aspects, and the weaknesses of are also relatively obvious. Dai Ziying and Akane Yamaguchi, the two world No. 1s, are the most powerful to win the championship. Player . However, what is worth looking forward to is that Chen Yufei is the youngest among these people and is in a period of rapid rise, while Tai Tzu Ying, Intanon, Nozomi Okuhara and Xindu have all reached their peak or are on the decline. Therefore, Chen Yufei has the strongest impact and the greatest potential. Even though Chen Yufei may not have made it to the end in this World Championships, she will definitely become the most promising player to win the championship in the 2020 Olympics!
