This year's All England Open "zero" gold ended, which undoubtedly alerted the Chinese team that won the Soviet Cup in 2019. The Tokyo Olympics was originally full of hope to win the 5 gold medals, but how many can it be implemented now? I believe this is also the biggest concern of fans right now.
If we look at the latest world rankings and performance, the belongings of gold medals for men's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles, I believe everyone must have a heart for them. Only the women's singles situation is complicated. At least athletes from six countries and regions including China, Spain, Thailand, Japan, India, and Taipei, China have the ability to win the women's singles gold medal. The representative figures of these countries and regions have all appeared on the All England Championship , without dark horses or upsets. The results of the competition truly reflect their strength. If the Olympics are not upsets, this is roughly the same.
But then again, the Olympics are indeed extraordinary, and the probability of an upset has always been relatively high. Back then, the famous Korean mixed doubles group Kim Dong-wen/Luo Jingmin played invincible in the year before the Olympics and ranked first in the world, but he did not even enter the semi-finals in the Sydney Olympics. In this episode of appreciation, we will analyze the gold medal situation of the women's singles in the Olympics through this year's All England Championship, and also appreciate the wonderful skills of today's top women's singles.
The strongest women's singles today are not Dai Ziying, Ma Lin and Chen Yufei,
From the author's point of view, the "competitive level" is divided into two parts: competitive strength + ability to perform. From the perspective of competitive strength, Tai Tzu-ying from Taipei, China and Ma Lin from Spain are definitely two people at the top of the tower, equal to each other and no one else can reach the left and right. It is precisely because of the appearance of these two people that the traditional "lifeless" playing style of women's singles is subverted. They are the pioneers of the masculine women's singles style and the forefront of leading the trend of women's singles style. However, neither of them is perfect. They have one common weakness, that is, their performance fluctuates greatly on the spot. It is precisely because of this weakness that their competitive level has been reduced.
In the past year, the progress of Chinese women's singles Chen Yufei is obvious to all. Her competitive level has now risen to the first camp, and is basically on the same level as Dai Tsaiying and Ma Lin. Chen Yufei's competitive strength is still lacking, and it should be said that she is not as good as Dai Ziying and Ma Lin, but Chen Yufei's advantages are that she is fighting resistant and stable, and she can fully utilize her abilities on the spot. Chen Yufei basically belongs to the traditional type of pull-up and assault attack style, with balanced offense and defense abilities, can defend against strong and attack against weak, and has a relatively flexible playing style, so she is not inferior to Dai and Ma in terms of game performance.
Therefore, the author believes that the Tokyo Olympic women's singles gold medal, these three are the strongest competitors. Below, let’s enjoy their wonderful performance in the All England Championship.
Dai Tsingying and Ma Lin’s bottom-line control ability has reached the extreme
In the appreciation column in the previous few issues, the author emphasized that "bottom-line control ability" is the threshold for the high level of women’s singles. In other words: as long as you are a high-level female singles player, you have strong bottom-line control ability, and Tai Tzu-ying and Ma Lin's abilities in this area have reached the extreme.
As shown in Figure 1, Dai Tsai-ying passively pulled the straight high ball on the bottom line forehand. The ball was pulled to the opponent's back serve line, and the quality of the ball was basically 80 points. In such a position, the opponent can attack and pull, and Ma Lin is a strong attacking style, so Dai Tsing predicts that Ma Lin can kill the ball, so he quickly moved to the left when preparing to defend, preparing to take Ma Lin's forehand to kill the diagonal. In singles matches, it is very dangerous to move ahead without the opponent hitting the ball, and Dai Ziying's choice is nothing more than a gamble. However, this time, Ma Lin did not choose to kill the ball, but instead used a flat high ball to attack. As shown in the picture, the threat of a flat high ball is very great. Judging from the picture, Dai Ziying's waist seems to be about to be broken.
For such a difficult ball, most people cannot withstand it. Even if they can be hit, the quality of the ball will be greatly reduced. Only by comparing it can you know the level. Dai Ziying's strength was fully revealed at this time. Under such a difficult situation, she actually pulled the ball back to the opponent's back serve line, and the quality of the shot reached 80 points. At this time, Ma Lin was a little hesitant in the offense and still adopted a conservative strategy to play another draw.This time the ball was shot, the arc was slightly flattered. Dai Ziying grabbed the fighter plane, jumped sideways, and quickly blocked the straight line with forehand, which not only resolved his own passivity, but also caused Ma Lin to be extremely passive. At this time, Ma Lin's super abilities were also visible. Under such difficult circumstances, she could still hook the diagonal, and the quality was very high, and she still grabbed the net desperately after the hook. Then, Dai Ziying put the on the backhand and on the Internet. The quality was not very good. She was caught by Ma Lin who rushed to the front of the Internet. She saved the ball with her backhand and neatly scored directly.
Figure 1 Dai Ziying's bottom line counter-control ability and Ma Lin's passive struggle ability are both top-notch
Dai Ziying and Ma Lin's bottom line strong control ability, the core part is reflected in their strong backhand counter-shooting high ball ability. As shown in Figure 2, Ma Lin hit the high ball with her backhand at the bottom line. Please note that she was hitting back at the diagonal high-altitude ball , which is not only difficult but also of good quality. Dai Tsingying predicted that Ma Lin would transition to the front of the net, so she stood relatively high, but she didn't expect that Ma Lin would hit such a high-quality high-end ball, so she immediately fell into a passive position and could not attack hard and could only press it softly. At this time, Ma Lin had returned to the center position and saw that the incoming ball was just in his hand. He took the forehand to hook the diagonal corner. Dai Ziying was not in a hurry to make up for it, and Ma Lin scored directly. This score seems to be done by Ma Lin's forehand hook, but in fact she created conditions for scoring through her excellent backhand high-ball skills.
Figure 2 Ma Lin uses a backhand high ball to control the opponent's bottom line and scores before connecting to the Internet
Then look at Dai Ziying's backhand ability, and he is also familiar with driving easily. Figure 3 shows the match between Tsai Ying and Chen Yufei. Chen Yufei hung a straight line with forehand at the bottom line, causing Dai Ziying to be extremely passive in front of the net. Under such a difficult situation, Dai Ziying still has the ability to make a backhand change in the diagonal. Dai Ziying's ability obviously exceeded Chen Yufei's expectations. Figure 3 clearly shows that Chen Yufei originally judged that his opponent was putting the net. When he saw that his opponent was hooking the diagonal, he immediately changed his running route and ran straight to the backhand net. After all, Dai Ziying is a low-handed person, so Chen Yufei still grabbed the initiative point after changing the line, so she quickly pushed the diagonal with her backhand, resulting in Dai Ziying's passiveness in the backhand area of the bottom line. Afterwards, Dai Tsaiying did not use overhead hitting techniques to force the counterattack, but turned around very calmly and hit the high-altitude ball in the middle with her backhand, and also easily sent the ball back to Chen Yufei's backcourt. The quality was very good, and Chen Yufei could only fight back to the transitional high ball, and the situation entered a stalemate.
Figure 3 Dai Ziying's passive struggle and backhand counterattack high ball ability is super
Compared with that, Chen Yufei's backhand counterattack high ball ability is relatively weak. As shown in Figure 4, Chen Yufei hooked her hand at the diagonal point in front of the net. This ball was a bit beyond Dai Ziying's expectations. She went online after hesitation, which was obviously passive. However, in such a passive state, Tsai Ying could still change, and she used forehand to hook the diagonal. Chen Yufei took the initiative in front of the network, and saw this, he jumped quickly to the front of the network and pushed the bottom line. Seeing that the ball had passed, Dai Tsai quickly retreated, quickly turned around and pulled the ball with forehand, hitting Chen Yufei's backhand area. This high ball is relatively barely good and the quality is not high, but Chen Yufei judged that the opponent might transition to the front of the net, so the position was too high, resulting in her passiveness in the backhand bottom line area. At this time, Chen Yufei's weakness was fully exposed. She used her backhand to pull the ball high, which was obviously not in place. Dai Ziying decisively raised the ball and killed the diagonal on his head. Chen Yufei lost points if he couldn't save the ball.
Figure 4-Chen Yufei's bottom line backhand strike back high ball ability is relatively weak
to be continued
this article is excerpted from "Badminton" April 2020 issue
