WTT Star Contender Doha 2025 - 6-11 Jan 2025

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I am not sure if I have ever seen Kanak this angry


And Kanak seems to mostly block on his backhand side (I could be wrong as well because these pro players can do a lot, only by using their wrists) which If I recall correctly, wasn't like this before. Youshimura's serve did cause a lot of problems, as expected, but to me, it seems that Kanak's backhand was very passive.
 
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I am not sure if I have ever seen Kanak this angry


And Kanak seems to mostly block on his backhand side (I could be wrong as well because these pro players can do a lot, only by using their wrists) which If I recall correctly, wasn't like this before. Youshimura's serve did cause a lot of problems, as expected, but to me, it seems that Kanak's backhand was very passive.
Kanak has a really short backhand countertopspin, the ball is more loaded than it appears to be.

edit: There was probably also from very subtle ball hiding from Yoshimura but that is another story...
 
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Szocs post-match: I’m very happy to beat a top Chinese player today…..🤣
At least she did get silver at the U19 world champs.
Kanak has a really short backhand countertopspin, the ball is more loaded than it appears to be.

edit: There was probably also from very subtle ball hiding from Yoshimura but that is another story...
well, Yoshimura’s serves were always like that, even in 2016(?) I believe when he was playing Xu Xin. This time though, it seemed quite clear looking at it from the slow mo replays, tho, that’s not Jha’s viewpoint. Also, both are right handed, so it’s hard to blame the serves this time
 
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At least she did get silver at the U19 world champs.

well, Yoshimura’s serves were always like that, even in 2016(?) I believe when he was playing Xu Xin. This time though, it seemed quite clear looking at it from the slow mo replays, tho, that’s not Jha’s viewpoint. Also, both are right handed, so it’s hard to blame the serves this time
It's quite clear to me that the serve always goes behind his head, whether it is always visible I leave for you to determine. Kanak doesn't habitually push long, so you have to infer from that that there was something subtly difficult going on.
 
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WTT Star Contender Doha 2025 WS R32
WTT125-1-6To11WSEN2250110N.jpg
 
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Miwa looked bad (poor anticipation and reaction) in her doubles with Kihara vs Odo/Yokoi so I wasn't totally surprised with her loss to Paranang.

SXY gets her revenge. SXY 3-0 Hirano. I had high hopes for Hirano, but got to hand it to the young CNT members, KM and SXY.

Good win for Nagasaki over Yangzi Liu who is a very crafty player that gives everyone trouble.

Yet another very good win for Yeh Yi-Tian of Taiwan 3-1 over Joo Cheonhui. Taiwan has found their successor to the still formidable CIC.
Taiwan has a bunch of teenagers lined up, that have beaten some of the senior players the past few months.
so very promising indeed
they just lack international experience and wins on the highest level
Kao is one of the examples, and with 1 win, it becomes many wins and growth in world ranking.

One of Taiwan's on going challenge for the next gen is to finish high enough in the domestic ranking system, for them to have more WTT game time.

Yeh is still lowly rated, and we might not see too much game time in the senior space for her this year...which is a shame, but domestic performance to give you ranks, that links to rights to priorities WTT is a democratic system.

PS, Yeh finish 1st round in the national trials, in November, so she has rights to join Star Contender Doha and Contender Oman as the national ranking tournament is in Dec was after the entry deadline for Doha and Oman, so she was on the front of the queue in the rights to play.

In Decembers ranking tournament, Yeh finished 14 out of 15 spots, and based on NER for 6, she has a long queue in front of her based on the rights to play internationals. This means, for Yeh to play, she needs up to 8 of the higher ranked players in front of her, to opt out of playing, for her to have the rights to play....

Lucky to see if she can have 3 or 4 feeders left in the year.
and I do hope to see more of her, including the 6 other teenagers in the Taiwan top 15 (youngest still 15 years old) in the senior circuit. Very promising future.
 
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What’s the ratio of H3 vs Butterfly/ESN users between these up and coming Taiwanese youngsters? Just on the forehand or both sides
Girls is very little H3, they mostly using Butterfly both sides
boys, quite a high ratio using H3 on FH and Butterfly on backhand
 
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Is it higher than Butterfly or ESN forehand for boys? Or butterfly still dominates?
no one really uses ESN in the highest level in Taiwan.
one or two level lowers, you would find them (due to affordable price) but mostly for women's. You seldom see ESN for FH in mens

other than Kao that supposedly recently changed away from Butterfly, if you were to pay me to name a top player that uses ESN, I might struggle to name one.


Joola has a player sponsored, but he isn't in the top 10 this year. Stiga's sponsored is no longer playing, Tibhar's one has left Tibhar
 
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You're telling me the overrated but JNT/KNT slayer WCT is into the QF? From a sleepless hump day to a sleepless weekend for jackwong23...
 

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Great tournament for Maria Xiao. I hoped she might sneak past Kihara into the quarters. No luck there, but still R16 at a SC is great result for Maria.
 

Brs

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Ooh, HZJ v Miyu in 20 minutes - what a great match! Been watching T league of Miyu v Idesawa, maybe she is prepped for many weird LP balls.
 
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