WTTC Finals 2023, 5/20-28

What an incredible match.  Hayata poured her heart and soul into that match, and I'm just so happy she can reap the rewards.

She beat Chinese players. I'm too lazy to look up the details right now but Liu Shiwen was certainly one of them.

She played amazing and ever since I was hoping for a day like this.

There were many good performances ever since. I especially remember matches against Chen Meng, and like others I've been very frustrated whenever she didn't even have the opportunity to shine, when it was all to clear others (Ishikawa cough cough) couldn't and unlike Hayata stood no realistic chance against CNT. It's so great to see it finally coming together with this kind of win and a world championship semi-final!

Now, I'm sure Sun Yingsha is by far the toughest opponent right now, and I'm pretty sure she will win the tournament, so one of the others as an opponent instead would have been preferable.

Mental strenght no. He was up 9 7 in 6 game and many times he stomped the floor when missing shots.

It happened when he was defeated by dijas

Missed 2 serve returns in a row.

And Hayata breaking into the chinese party makes it more special.

Waldner was so dominant he won 2 Olympics in a row and 3 Worlds in a row, oops.

The top guys today are faster, stronger and more skillful. They'll be just as competitive in that era too.

Wang Yidi acknowledges Hayata's performance, says that she herself performed to her own level but made a few too many mistakes and wasn't able to control her emotions as well.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Zu411W75Q/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click

Wang Yidi says she thoroughly analysed all of Hirano's patterns after her previous loss. Mentions how Hirano missing her saved net clip at 9-5 was a turning point of the match.

Chen Meng shows that she's the leader of the Wang/Chen pair. She's the one who told Wang to hold on while they were trailing in the last set vs Ito/Hayata while Wang was already feeling a little tight at that point. Chen was too focused to even notice that they had only beaten their opponents by two points in each game.

Kihara speaking chinese! Still seems to struggle with finding the words but still very impressive for someone who learned the language on her own. Says that she's very happy to have taken 2 games off her Idol Chen Meng.

Reporter tells Chen Meng that she's Kihara's Idol. Response: I already knew that LOL. Acknowledges Kihara's improvement from the last time they met and praised her backhand.

I thought Chen Xingtong would be more excited considering that this was a breakthrough tournament for her but I guess when you're in team China nothing matters except gold.

(couldn't find any interviews from WMY about her losses, perhaps she rejected interviews?)

Han Ying poised and gracious as always. Says she's happy not to have made any mistakes in her loss against SYS this time around. In fact she says that she performed better than the previous time where she lost the last three games too easily. Also mentions that she's not carrying any injuries at the moment and that she loves the opportunity to train with team China and witness the most advanced techniques.

Harimoto felt that he had the advantage in backhand-to-backhand rallies and says that not defending against LJK is basically impossible. Says that he's satisfied with his performance but still makes mistakes that CNT does not make. Adds that his performance with Hayata in XD was normal but that SYS/WCQ were just on another level, but they have no choice but to just continue challenging them the next time around. This interview happened before the epic Hayata X WYD battle, so he still looks a little dejected, says that winning the championship is really hard for Hayata but hopes that she can clinch this opportunity to win a medal at least (which she did)!

Performance grading:

1. Hayata (obviously)

2. Kihara (took two games off Chen Meng and medalled in WD)

3. Hirano (played well but didn't convert any of her chances)

4. Ito/Nagasaki (for Ito it's a bit of a return to form but she ended on a poor note by playing absolute rubbish against Chen Meng. Nagasaki did what she could in singles and was 1/2 of the bronze medal winning doubles pair so almost tempted to place her slightly above Ito)

She can beat some of these guys in the top 32, even the cream of the top guys have to play her very seriously. Same goes for Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, Hina Hayata , Wang Yidi, Chen Xingtong, Mima Ito.

Sarting from 0-0 in each game, I doubt she could beat a lot of top 32 players IMO.