Totally made up for last year. Very happy for him.
I think Nagasaki should be a heavy candidate for LA 2028. Even though her persist through the match, her forehand to backhand transition isn't quick enough and her forehand still needs more work
This will be a confidence booster for her for sure. The level of competition for 3 spots is so intense though with Hayata, Hirano, Miwa, and Kihara ahead of her. I give her a lot of credit for turning a relative weakness, serve return, into a strength with her BH flick. Needs to improve anticipation and reaction speed, but it's getting better. She's always had high serve quality but could use more variation. Just a great tournament for her not losing a single game before the finals. And now she has a title to her name. The day belongs to Miyu Nagasaki!
Doubles especially mixed doubles have more uncertainties. Even sys/wcq is not a sure win against many pairs.
There’re some reasons that most countries don’t pick olympics players based on the results from one tournament. Hayata and Miwa are the strongest candidates atm.
To add insult to injury, Hayata came up short 3 times in the final of selection trials for WTTC 2018, 2019 and 2020. It's worth noting that Kato also won the selection trial for WTTC 2017, where Kato finished 2nd after Morizono Mizaki in Grp and Hayata finished 1st in Grp but lost to Kato 1-4 in QF.
The one thing I found interesting was that the last two points that Nagasaki won with backhand, she went flat rather than spin and the change in timing and the magnitude of the moment made Hayata miss the ball. It was nice to see Miyu play with the kind of variation that she usually doesn't use with her athletic style.
Miyu and Hina are both lefties and pretty similar in their styles and athleticism although Hina tends to go back a bit more often IMO.
