Amazing 92 shot Table Tennis Rally!

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This could without doubt be one of the greatest rallies in table tennis! 92 shots took place in this one rally between Par Gerell and Adrien Mattenet at the Czech Open this week!

You have to watch the rally below to see for yourself how ridiculous this point really is! What makes this point even more extraordinary is the score of the match. Both players were tied at 3 sets each and 10-10! I cannot recall many rallies in table tennis between two attackers producing a rally as long as this!

Enjoy! Amazing point between Par Gerell and Adrien Mattenet:


Be sure to check out the best points of 2015 submitted in the TTD topic here.
 
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Great touch by Mattenet, especially on balls he had to reach a long way to get. I can't help thinking, though, that some of the other fishing-masters of the last couple of decades -- Maze, Mitzutani and Persson come to mind -- would have been able to take a couple of those smashes down the middle and hit a much more aggressive topspin shot. There were two places where it seemed to me that Mattenet could have taken the initiative to get back in control of the point with very powerful forehands, since he was in perfect position to do it if he had wanted to. Instead he hit a soft mid-height lob, very safe, but not solving the problem he was in with respect to how the point was progressing. IF he had any attention of counterattacking, he had those two opportunities (maybe more) and he passed them up. I think he was just hoping Gerell would miss, and the odds of somebody at Gerell's level missing high balls like that is pretty low. Maybe because the score was 10-all Mattenet was trying to play safe and was hoping Gerell would get increasingly nervous. I have seen some comments from other people that Mattenet has been playing less aggressively now than a year or two ago. Anybody else notice this?
 
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BTW, was that a chop-smash by Gerell to finish the point?
Yeah, I think so. It looked like heavy backspin with side to me.


At 10-10 in the decider when you're running out of energy, you need to play smarter. I think we saw that from both players, both recognising that they no longer had the energy/precision/sharpness left to win the point by themselves through riskier shots. Instead they played a somewhat safer percentage game based on limiting the opponents options and hoping for a mistake, I think. That is, until Gerell pulled out that chop-smash which isn't really a safe-ish option.

In any case, I was really impressed by the subtle variations in spin and placement by Gerell - every shot was different to the previous one - and Mattenet's placement was sublime in the way he actively limited Gerell's options. It made for a fascinating cat and mouse game and a great point to watch :)
 

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I really like this point, I have had quite a lot of negative comments via the Facebook page that this rally was easy, or 'nothing special'. However I think it's insane! The match was extremely intense in the 7th set and to have a rally like that in deuce in the 7th set is amazing and what a great way to get the crowd going! I think this will be a very viral table tennis point as the next few days go by.
 
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Needed a chop smash to win it as he didn't seem to have the power to play through Matternet. Maybe he was too tired or is this a product of the new ball.

It made me for great viewing but there were other opportunities when Matternet's return was slightly shorter & he could have played the chop smash or a drop shot.
 
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What i find amazing is that the ball didn't break. The balls we play with here in sweden doesn't hold up to powerful smashes, wouldn't that have been a terrible end to a long rally, a let.
 
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I really like this point, I have had quite a lot of negative comments via the Facebook page that this rally was easy, or 'nothing special'. However I think it's insane! The match was extremely intense in the 7th set and to have a rally like that in deuce in the 7th set is amazing and what a great way to get the crowd going! I think this will be a very viral table tennis point as the next few days go by.

Oh, yeah, it was nothing special! I mean, it was only deuce in the deciding game and it was only 92 shots in the rally. That is nothing. All those balls were easy!

Yeah, right. Anyone who doesn't see that this is pretty special, well, I am not quite sure of what they are watching or expecting.

A function of the plastic ball: yep. It is much harder to put the ball past a good lobber with the plastic ball. You can see that as soon as they made the switch to the plastic ball, Jun Mizutani who had dropped as low as WR#11 went right up to #5. The only people who can beat him consistently now are the top Chinese guys because he seems to be able to get everything back on all the other players when he lobs.


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What i find amazing is that the ball didn't break. The balls we play with here in sweden doesn't hold up to powerful smashes, wouldn't that have been a terrible end to a long rally, a let.

Yes that would have been such a sad ending. I thought about it when I saw the ball for the first time.
 
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+1 Dan. Great point. A lot of tactics and finesse from both players...especially at 10-10 in the 7th. Fantastic PR for table tennis....
 
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I really like this point, I have had quite a lot of negative comments via the Facebook page that this rally was easy, or 'nothing special'. However I think it's insane! The match was extremely intense in the 7th set and to have a rally like that in deuce in the 7th set is amazing and what a great way to get the crowd going! I think this will be a very viral table tennis point as the next few days go by.

That's crazy, I'd love to see any of them replicate it in the same situation. Par Gerell's arm must have been falling off by the end, he never let up on the force he was applying to the ball, never surrendered for a dropshot.

I'm surprised Mattenet continued to lob though, I mean at 10-10 in the 7th you have to be thinking Gerell is going to make every effort not to miss here as the point is just far too important. After a while, if I was in Mattenet's shoes I would be thinking I have to make a solid counter here and try and take control of the rally back. I thought from the start that Gerell would 100% win the point if Mattenet continued to lob.

What a point though!
 
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I mostly agree with Matt and posted the same thing earlier about wondering why Mattenet kept fishing when maybe a few time he could have gotten out of that jam with something more aggressive.. One place is about 53 seconds into the video. Even more so, given how good Mattenet's backhand is, at exactly 1:00 into the video. But then I watched closer again most of the times it seemed like he might have been able to unleash something stronger he had let the ball get a little too low and didn't maybe have the energy to move closer in time to do it so played safe. Probably under the circumstances the right choice. I am amazed Gerell had any blood left flowing to his brain halfway through that point and for Mattenet to maintain his balance throughout that time was really hard.
 
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