The Return of the King: Chen Long wins French Open
Yesterday, on the 27th of October, Chen Long, won the final of French Open 2018 and proved that he is the one, who would compete for the highest goals in the future, including for the Gold medals in Tokyo 2020.
It was 2 straight games against young star, Shi Y Q, who was in the final of World Championship and won All England tournament. The day before, Chen Long defeated the new champion of the world, Kento Momota in the semifinal match.
After the Olympic Games, many of his fans expected that he would dominate the world’s badminton for the next 4 years. But, in 2017 and 2018 years, Chen’s game was far from perfect. It was clear that Chen Long could not find his game. The quality of his play and a bit relaxed behavior on the court clearly shown that Chen Long has probably lost the motivation.
It seemed that Chen Long needed to get a challenge. He had to find the motivation to step onto the court and to fight till the last second of the match and to prove his critics that he was the best.
It seems that he has finally found such motivation… Kento Momota, who has returned into the highest league as a tsunami and defeated all top players including Chen Long, has become such a motivator.
Chen Long, knowing that Kento Momota had a tough calendar and just a week ago played in the thrilling final of the Dutch Open, has decided to keep a shuttlecock in the game as long as possible. If you watch the first game of the semi-final, you will find that there were more than 15 points with 30+ shots made. Surely, Chen Long tried to play on the possible tiredness of Kento but in any case, he had to be really accurate in such play. And he succeeded, his play was very close to that Chen Long’s played in 2016.
There are few more big tournaments in 2018 ahead. So, we will have a chance to check if Chen Long has really got back into the game.
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Author: Max Sydorenko, This Is Badminton Blog
