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Another point regarding Bobrow. I like his YT channel but saying this as a huge Timo fan myself, I feel he hypes Timo up too much. During the warmup Qiu vs Bobrow, he kept talking about what Timo told him, his various achievements etc. etc. and nothing about Dang Qiu. Even during the match...

Prior to 2012, I would argue that it was much more difficult to gain a medal at the Olympics than it is now. For example, Jorgen Persson lost against Liu Guoliang in the Bronze Medal match in 2000 and against Wang Liqin in 2008. A certain Waldner who had already defeated Boll and Ma Lin had to...

I don't care. It's not sportsmanlike to hide your serves in the finals of the Olympics.

His backhand was on fire in the European Championships. Oddly, Ovtcharov didn't seem near his best in that tournament and is on fire now.

I completely agree. You need a very different skillset now. Case in point, the Chinese National Championships in 2019 was won by a 39 year old chopper named Hou Yingchao. Younger players are not training against different materials and different styles nearly as much as they used to. The ball...

Exactly. I don't remember any Waldner fans insisting he's better. Ma long was probably the GOAT after the 2019 WTTC and today he sealed the deal. ​​​​​​I say this even though Waldner is my favourite Player and the second GOAT IMHO. ​​​​​

You lose the lefty-righty combination if you play Ding Ning and Xu Xu Xin. I mean, they are a strong double. They made the finals quite easily but as the favourites, definitely felt the pressure. What I find interesting is the small margins that decide a game may be given too much importance...

I don't think the Time Out call was that bad. Zhang Jike took timeout in the first set in 2012. However.....Did I miss something or when did it become common to celebrate nets and edges?

What happened with Paul Drinkhall? I've seen comments here and there but apparently he won unfairly?

True but it was much more difficult to have a good backhand with the celluloid ball and even more difficult with the 38mm ball. Almost no one was playing counter topspin from the backhand side with the older ball. Nowadays, even the weaker players in the Top 100 are able to do this.

Timo Boll has several interesting interviews on his channel, but for the first time, he did a Q and A in English. Check it out. In some points, he goes into more detail than I was expecting

Kind of unrelated but this reminds me of a Waldner anecdote, in which he stated that Liu Guoliang's serves in the 2000 Olympics were so spinny that he hurt his back trying to return them. That's such a different receive game than what is possible today with the 40+ ball (flicking everything).

Let's go back to 40- . 38mm might be too big of a change.

It's underwhelming but it makes sense. If you aren't very well balanced, the collective minds of the top 100 players and their coaches will sniff out your weaknesses pretty quickly and you'll only end up with one major tournament victory at best. The Chinese are amazing at studying their...

Waldner found a way to beat every generation of Chinese players he faced and I highly recommend watching the Bragden documentary to see how the Swedes had to innovate to beat the Chinese at the WTTTC. Waldner constantly adapted his technique and he stood in the Olympic Finals 13 years after he...

I think all top 10 players have a certain "X-Factor" but they also really nail the fundamentals. For some greats, such as the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, their speciality is precisely having little to no weaknesses and being extremely strong with the textbook stuff. Even Ma Long only started...

It looks like a pendulum serve. He is bending down far more than your average player and accelerating with his entire body. It also seems that the ball is hidden for a certain amount of time behind his head.

Timo Boll streamed recently with the trainer Helmut Hampl that sculpted him into the player he became. 1. Trainer opportunities: His parents were very supportive and at one point the entire club moved to his village "Gönnern" so that Timo could train more often as a young player 2. Focus on...

Didn't Thomas Weikert say in a podcast with Dan that in 2020, ITTF will secure the rights?

A very interesting piece of information from Larry Hodge's book on tactics comes to mind. Waldner was apparently China's kryptonite when it came to studying an opponent for an important match. Larry had spoken to a few Chinese coaches who said that it was impossible to prepare for Waldner...