DX - Day 5 : Unbeatable WATANABE and HIGASHINO, unstoppable CHRISTIANSEN and BOJE
WATANABE and HIGASHINO, on their road to another title ?
It was the last week rematch. Japanese and Thai faced each other 6 days ago for the Denamrk Open title. And it was Yuto WATANABE and Arisa HIGASHINO (world no 5, Japan) who offered themselves the crown. In 3 confrontations, the Japanese always won (3/0). It looks like the way Dechapol PUAVARANUKROH and Sapsiree TAERATTANACHAI (N.4, Thailand) play suits perfectly the Olympics Bronze medalists. It was once again the case on TV Court today. Despite a good start from the number 1 seed, HIGASHINO took the control of the net, giving her partner possibilities to attack : 11/9 for them at the interval. The Thai team tried to attack but the Denmark Open winners defended so well, the world number 3 were facing a wall. Thus, the first set was won by WATANABE and HIGASHINO 21/18. Next set was extremely tight, can witness the 5 ties : 16/16 17/17 18/18 19/19 and 20/20. The seeded number 1 had a set opportunity at 20/19 however the Japanese were solid and stroke 3 times in a row to reach another final after the one last week. After the match, Yuto WATANABE agreed to the fact that they succeeded in blocking their opponents attacks : “Being on the defense was something we really kept in mind. If we were able to score points thanks to this, that is a good thing”. About their opponents of the day : “They are a very good pair to play because it never goes high or low, they are very constant. It is very interesting to face them, it is always close.”. Concerning their great season (18 wins out of 19 matches) : “It was a good year for us, there were few matches. This is a good thing we were able to win but we think that there are better players than us”.
CHRISTIANSEN and BOJE : the “underdogs” who will play the final
The Japanese will face the only Europeans qualified for the final : Mathias CHRISTIANSEN and Alexandra BOJE (world no 16, Denmark). After they beat the number 2 seed Praveen JORDAN and Melati Daeva OKTAVIANTI in the quarterfinals, TANG Chun Man and TSE Ying Suet (world no 11, Hong Kong) appeared as the favorites of this second semifinal. The Hongkongers took a good start and were leading 4/2. They could count on the great serve returns of TANG Chun Man. Indeed, he scored 4 points thanks to this skill before the interval. But it was not the players from Hong-Kong who were leading at the interval. In fact, it look like the Danes smartly analyzed their opponent. They preferred to play reversed slices and drop shots instead of smashing, and it work : 11/8. They kept the world number 11 under pressure and won the opening game 21/11. The strength of the Hongkongers is definitely their ability to put speed into the rallies. That is what they did at the beginning of the second set, leading 11/8 at the interlude. But BOJE and CHISTIANSEN seemed to have endless resources this year. The equalized at 14/14. Letting the Hongkongers score only one point after that and qualify for new final in France after the one in Orleans a few months earlier.
The Danes were over the moon after the qualification : “It sounds crazy ! This is our first final at this level. It’s been some years since I (Mathias) was in the final. I am very glad we did it together. We are going to be happy for the rest of the day then we will need to focus on the final. We are going to play the best pair at the moment”. About the tactics to beat TSE and TANG they confirmed : “They have a good defense originally so instead of hitting hard we tried to put some slices and drops, maybe clears to shake their defense. I think that worked”. No doubts they will analyze as well the weaknesses in WATANABE and HIGASHINO pair. But will it work on court ? The answer will be given tomorrow.