Low Tier Singles Round 1 Block A - Kikumaru vs Shishido

[Kaoz]

Singles - Low Tier
Round 1 Block A​

Name	Kikumaru Eiji
Grade	Middle School 3rd Year
Birthday	November 28th
Height	171 cm
Weight	52 kg
Handedness	Right
Playstyle	Serve and Volley

VERSUS​

Name	Shishido Ryou
Grade	Middle School 3rd Year
Birthday	September 29th
Height	172 cm
Weight	60 kg
Handedness	Right
Playstyle	Counter Puncher

Serve order: Kikumaru -> Shishido


This round ends on Thursday, August 8th, at 8 PM GMT.

Have fun discussing.

 

[Hardy]

Back in the prefecturals (the last official match Shishido played in singles) he got destroyed by Pref! Tachibana (who got destroyed by Pref! Kirihara) since then, he has improved his speed and sight. He has his rising shot (that seems like an actually good move, it won 2 straight points against the Golden Pair in the Nationals), and a great speed and stamina (he's a huge retriever).

Kikumaru, on the other hand, greatly improved his stamina and speed (he can play his "1 man doubles" for... an entire set? that's a lot), he even got smarter (enough to change his playstyle depending on his rival) and can almost perfectly emulate Oishi's Moon Volley. He obviously also has his acrobatic play (he doesn't really depend on it anymore though).

Overall, Kikumaru is faster, more versatile, and has some great techs. If it's a quick match, he stomps Shishido. Otw, I'd say it's prolly 6-3. In any case, Eiji wins.

 

[-Ken-]

I'll say Kikumaru. But it's hard to say. I think his one man double formation can deals with his match just fine, though.

 

[Kaoz]

I think it's worth noting that Kikumaru only started using the one man doubles at 4-4 and also lost two games while using it. Furthermore I was under the impression that it drained his stamina faster (which would be understandable).

At the same time I'd think that while Kikumaru improved his baseline game, he would still be at a disadvantage against Shishido just by virtue of playstyle, and the Rising Counter's rapid returns might make it difficult for him to advance to the net when he isn't using one man doubles. If Shishido manages to control the game that way and keep the majority of rallies at the baseline, things should be looking better for him.

I would also like to point out that Shishido managed to return a synched finishing shot (I think this is a better finisher than anything Kikumaru has on his own, at least timing wise), which means his Dash shouldn't be neglected.

 

[Hardy]

So, you're saying that Shishido has the upper hand and that he's a better singles player than Kai (that would mean, that he's also better than Hirakoba too)?

I'm too lazy to search for feats and think about what would happen in the match right now... maybe later.

 

[Kaoz]

If he can stop Kikumaru from advancing to the net (or put him at a disadvantage while he does so) regularly, then yes, that's what I'm saying. Also, Shishido would probably wreck Hirakoba in singles, since with the Rising Counter, any irregular bounce that Habu has is completely irrelevant. Kai I don't know about, but I think he'd be able to deal with Viking Horn better than Kikumaru did. While it's true that Kikumaru is faster when we're talking about switching between one side and the other, I think from a standing position, Shishido is the faster one.

 

[-Ken-]

I feels like court is the most unbiased way to determine strength, and so I'll continue to use it here. Kikumaru is on court 7. But he doesn't have a match against court 6. Ootori, on the other hand, was defeated by court 6 member "by a narrow margin." That puts Ootori at around 6-7 court too. Shishido to me is stronger Ootori in rallying, and lost due to serve, due to their tiebreaker match. Anyhow, looking at just that, Kikumaru and Shishido would appear to be of similar level.

Kikumaru is NOT 1st stringer material, so we can cut that out. This is shown by Niou Illusion of Kikumaru. Another point that support Kikumaru is that Niou/Oishi seemed to have play 2nd court and won, though. This put them above Doubles 1 pair in court 3 who does have syncho. Because of that potential, I vote for Kikumaru.

 

[Kaoz]

Niou/Oishi seemed to have play 2nd court and won, though.

Anything to support this claim?

 

[-Ken-]

Anything to support this claim?

Other than the quote that the loser stomp 2nd court so hard that they go home crying, none. Unless you are suggesting that there are other pair that could have done so. Like Richard/Kadowaki pair? There have to be some pair that play them. And from what we know, the win is a stomp.

 

[Kaoz]

I already claimed that the pairs were Inui/Yanagi and Niou/Momoshiro due to them being in the focus here.

 

[-Ken-]

I already claimed that the pairs were Inui/Yanagi and Niou/Momoshiro due to them being in the focus here.

That page alone doesn't show much more than my assumption. My assumption comes from their pairing that challenge first stringer.

 

[Kaoz]

It's not much more, but it's something as opposed to your nothing. Them playing against the 1st stringers means nothing since there were two other pairs that did, and then there's also Inui/Yanagi to consider.

That said, it's largely irrelevant to the matter at hand since we're discussing singles and not doubles. Oishi/Kikumaru were ranked above Fuji/Kawamura in doubles as well, but neither of them is stronger than Fuji in singles.

 

[-Ken-]

It's not much more, but it's something as opposed to your nothing. Them playing against the 1st stringers means nothing since there were two other pairs that did, and then there's also Inui/Yanagi to consider.

It's not nothing if it's in story. Looking at that, it is very possible that Kawamura/Kabaji and Oishi/Niou can be doubles pair against 2nd court. But like you say, it doesn't matter much.

I changed my mind and vote for Shishido. Reason being that Shishido got black jersey training, which is more effective than U-17 training from what we've seen. And Kikumaru is last confirmation is on 7th court, which is close to Ootori who won in close match with pre-training Shishido.

 

[Hardy]

Shishido would probably wreck Hirakoba in singles, since with the Rising Counter, any irregular bounce that Habu has is completely irrelevant. Kai I don't know about, but I think he'd be able to deal with Viking Horn better than Kikumaru did. While it's true that Kikumaru is faster when we're talking about switching between one side and the other, I think from a standing position, Shishido is the faster one.

As if Habu didn't curve in the air at all. Shishido would have to guess perfectly where the ball will bounce to do a decent rising.

No matter how fast Shishido's dash is, I'm pretty sure that being in "2 places" at the same time is better against any shot (let alone VH). Shishido could only force Kikumaru to stay behind only when he's serving, and I'm not even sure if he would be able to acomplish that.

Maybe I'm being biased, but I really don't think that a player with dash + rising shot could beat Kikumaru.

I changed my mind and vote for Shishido. Reason being that Shishido got black jersey training, which is more effective than U-17 training from what we've seen. And Kikumaru is last confirmation is on 7th court, which is close to Ootori who won in close match with pre-training Shishido.

Following that logic, Kadowaki would destroy Chotarou, (I'm namig him because I don't really know who the hell is in each court, there's surely someone better in 7th court, I don't really care anyway) right? That doesn't sound really well.

 

[Kaoz]

As if Habu didn't curve in the air at all.

It doesn't. The Giant Habu curves in the air as well, but the normal one doesn't.

 

[Hardy]

Hoho, that's news.

K, Airgrimes showed some time ago that Hirakoba is prolly hitting Giant Habus without any problem right now (based on the reaction people had when they saw Kite doing it).

 

[LetalHawk]

It's not nothing if it's in story. Looking at that, it is very possible that Kawamura/Kabaji and Oishi/Niou can be doubles pair against 2nd court. But like you say, it doesn't matter much.

I changed my mind and vote for Shishido. Reason being that Shishido got black jersey training, which is more effective than U-17 training from what we've seen. And Kikumaru is last confirmation is on 7th court, which is close to Ootori who won in close match with pre-training Shishido.

Lol this argument about Shishido is completely baseless. So your logic says Ibu, Sakata or Kadowaki for example are better than Ootori, Fuji...? That's pretty ridiculous isn't it?

Just because Shishido went to Mountain training doesn't mean he suddenly becomes better than most of the players who did U-17 training.

 

[Kaoz]

K, Airgrimes showed some time ago that Hirakoba is prolly hitting Giant Habus without any problem right now (based on the reaction people had when they saw Kite doing it).

There was no reaction besides Tanishi saying that Kite taught them Big Bang, Habu and Viking Horn respectively, I don't think there is any implication in there that Hirakoba can use Giant Habus as he pleases now.

We're still talking about Shishido vs Kikumaru though, so you might want to focus on the claims I made regarding that match.

 

[LetalHawk]

Kaoz, do you think Shishido will be able to drain Kikumaru's stamina with rising shot? (forcing him to run a lot, and Kikumari's stamina even if it improved isn't that great).

 

[Hardy]

There was no reaction besides Tanishi saying that Kite taught them Big Bang, Habu and Viking Horn respectively, I don't think there is any implication in there that Hirakoba can use Giant Habus as he pleases now.

We're still talking about Shishido vs Kikumaru though, so you might want to focus on the claims I made regarding that match.

Nah, I believe that someone from Rikkai (they didn't see Rokkaku / Higa nor Seigaku / Higa) yelled "THAT'S HIRAKOBA'S TECHNIQUE" when Kite did the Giant Habu.

There's not much to say about the claims, really. I still believe that Kai >> Shishido, and that Kikumaru would manage to get to the net without many troubles. If he does, Shishido has nothing to do ( http://i23.mangareader.net/prince-of-tennis/290/prince-of-tennis-646897.jpg ). Kikumaru's stamina is better than Shishido's by far too ( http://i22.mangareader.net/prince-of-tennis/291/prince-of-tennis-646921.jpg ), and by this point of the manga (... I mean, right now) he's surely used to spam his sealed step, so I believe that he'll manage to play his one man doubles long enough to be way over Shishido.