Ma Lin lost last 64! (Harmony China Open 2011)

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The Chinese can be beat say's Alexey Liventsov!

If you wondered where the reigning Olympic champion Ma Lin was in the just gone (Harmony) China Open 2011. Well in-fact he was playing and the number 2 seed lost in the last 64 round. What an upset but what a huge win for Alexey Liventsox. Watch the match below!

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Photo by: Agencies


First half of the match


Last Set


Does this change the dynamics of table tennis!? Can the Chinese be beat, is the gap closing or are we still that far beyond the Chinese playing ability in table tennis?
 
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I definitely think that this deserve a thread by itself. Ma Lin was a little out of sort, but all credit to Alexey. Didn't he play well? Ma Lin just couldn't read his BH..too many variations.

As your question buddy, I don't think so. Every dog has it's day. Alexey played well enough to win, but he couldn't sustain that form. That differentiates the champions with the also ran. The rest of the world still yet to catch up. Just when we think they're within a grasp, they took 3 steps forward. Look at Ma Long..if he is car, every one else is driving with standard 6 gear, but his has 10 gears. When finally the rest of the world managed to produce a 10 speed car, the chinese will have 12. We can close the gap..but that's about it.
 

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I definitely think that this deserve a thread by itself. Ma Lin was a little out of sort, but all credit to Alexey. Didn't he play well? Ma Lin just couldn't read his BH..too many variations.

As your question buddy, I don't think so. Every dog has it's day. Alexey played well enough to win, but he couldn't sustain that form. That differentiates the champions with the also ran. The rest of the world still yet to catch up. Just when we think they're within a grasp, they took 3 steps forward. Look at Ma Long..if he is car, every one else is driving with standard 6 gear, but his has 10 gears. When finally the rest of the world managed to produce a 10 speed car, the chinese will have 12. We can close the gap..but that's about it.

Very True Azlan, I think your totally right, every time they have been beat, a Chinese player doesn't make this mistake for a very long time. I wish Boll had played this tournament, it may have been interesting.
 
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I was really gutted when I heard that Timo won't be playing. Currently, he is the only player outside China that can stand toe to toe with the chinese. On a good day, I definitely think that he is as good as the chinese..and if he is chinese, Liu Guoliang will have his name 1st on the list of his players.
 

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Long time no post but I am back xDD

All in all azlan said everything to this ....
Matches like this are rare and no one will overcome the chinese domination
but now Alexey has a story for his kids! :D

Welcome Back Tim, you have been missed! How have you been?

Haha yes so true, but it just shows 'anythings possible'
 
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It wasn't the only upset in the China Open. What about the matches of Yan An. But I read that Ma Lin was still injured, I couldn't see it in the match though. Obiously Liventsov is very talented because he beat the Korean player in the next round. So with a bit of luck this will be a name to remember that might do good things against the Chinese players.
 
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His service reading is just too good for Ma to open a 3rd ball. That cripples Ma's main power of the game.
I think Ma is still a little injured and exhausted from the super league but great play from Liventsov, definitely awesome.

@WiWa
talking about talent, hmm I think he is more in his top form rather than talented (relative). He have been around 100+ WR for years which indicates his maximum potential, but by defeating Ma Lin I think he will break it hehe.
He is 29 y.o btw I hope he could improve much more from his recent motivation defeating Ma. He still got more or less 6 years to work out to the max in TT :D
 
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I didn't see play Ma Lin so bad.... His footwork was like he wake up 5 minutes before match...
 
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It wasn't the only upset in the China Open. What about the matches of Yan An. But I read that Ma Lin was still injured, I couldn't see it in the match though. Obiously Liventsov is very talented because he beat the Korean player in the next round. So with a bit of luck this will be a name to remember that might do good things against the Chinese players.


I never suprise if Yan An beat any of current Team A Chinese. Because he has been able to beat them in the CTTSL. It just that he has less appearance in the international stage due to there are too many good players in chinese team.

But Alexy should still able to get higher rank in 2-3 years span. Liu GuoLiang (or some one) has been said that western players reach their peak much later than the Chinese player. However, the Chinese player has shorter athlete life span too
 
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@Yosua ur right there, but when low ranked players beat high ranked, I always say talent haha, maybe not correct =p.

@dic that is true but in any case Yan An beating one of them is like an extra while for the top-20 players beating Yan An is sort of a must. Even though he is awesome indeed. He has the level but not the experience, and the level of the top-20 Chinese players is not worse then Yan An.
 
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Well I just risked it and watched that match in full length.. Surprised, Ma Lin didnt delay that game so much as he is used to..

:)

But.. the key, why Alexey won is:
1. Great reading of Ma Lin´s serve..
Everytime Ma Lin served, he was imediately under attack! He didnt know what will happen, where the ball will end, nothing..
And just like another players from the top, they are used to some balls after their serve, they know what to expect, so this stopped Ma Lin´s huge 3rd ball attacks..
2. Alexey´s great tactics! You saw how he played? Bang forehand, bang backhand! He switched sides so often and so random.. Ma Lin couldnt get into a rythm..
Also Alexey used Ma Lin´s trademark against him! How many times Ma Lin stepped back to play forehand on the backhand side and how many times the ball went to his forehand? Just Alex made it brilliant! His tactics was too good! Ma Lin was outclassed!

Last 8 points were quite interesting, when Alex realised that he is 10:2 up against no. 2 seed of the tournament in the deciding game.. He got a little nervous and if Ma Lin wouldnt put that ball into the net, maybe he would actually win..

Anyways it was a great match and I hope many players will watch this and learn from this how to beat Ma Lin..
 
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Michal: Please check some another match with Ma Lin and you will see what I know. Biggest problem was Ma Lin's footwork. Normally if he stepped to backhand and someone try to attack to forehand its not problem for him. Because he is like flash. But in this match his footwork was horrible. And then of course he did so many easy errors because he was not where he want to be. Maybe he was at party night before match? :) If you check his last match from Chinese superleague then you will see his normal footwork (flash :D )....
 
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This game really swung back and forth. The games that Ma Lin did win, he usually won easily.

As some people already said before, Alexey's backhand really made the difference. His ability to flip the ball with his backhand out wide to Ma Lin's forehand really kept Ma Lin guessing. Usually a penholder is able to control the situations when a player can do that well enough that he can guess when he can step around to his forehand when he can't, and in this game, Ma Lin really wasn't able to do that, and it totally messed up his game. He was pinned to his backhand in several points where normally he would have just moved to his left to his a forehand shot, because he was afraid Alexey would flip it to his forehand.

I think Ma Lin was also not accustomed to the power of Alexey's loops, because he ended up missing a lot of them, in long loop battles that he normally would win against most players.

Clearly the win wasn't a complete fluke for Alexey, because he went on to beat a solid up and coming korean player in the next round.
 
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Well I just risked it and watched that match in full length.. Surprised, Ma Lin didnt delay that game so much as he is used to..

:)

But.. the key, why Alexey won is:
1. Great reading of Ma Lin´s serve..
Everytime Ma Lin served, he was imediately under attack! He didnt know what will happen, where the ball will end, nothing..
And just like another players from the top, they are used to some balls after their serve, they know what to expect, so this stopped Ma Lin´s huge 3rd ball attacks..
2. Alexey´s great tactics! You saw how he played? Bang forehand, bang backhand! He switched sides so often and so random.. Ma Lin couldnt get into a rythm..
Also Alexey used Ma Lin´s trademark against him! How many times Ma Lin stepped back to play forehand on the backhand side and how many times the ball went to his forehand? Just Alex made it brilliant! His tactics was too good! Ma Lin was outclassed!

Last 8 points were quite interesting, when Alex realised that he is 10:2 up against no. 2 seed of the tournament in the deciding game.. He got a little nervous and if Ma Lin wouldnt put that ball into the net, maybe he would actually win..

Anyways it was a great match and I hope many players will watch this and learn from this how to beat Ma Lin..

First off I don't necessarily disagree with your points. They are somewhat valid and had to be a factor for the match, but let's all be honest here. Ma Lin was way too overconfident and then psyched himself out the last game. A lot of people believe that he was trying to save some of his energy for the future CHN vs CHN matches, and I'd have to agree he was hence the 2-0 lead Alexey had in the 3rd game.

As for the rhythm comment I'd disagree with that. I've been a long believer that European strokes and Chinese strokes are incredibly different. Europeans prefer power and accuracy while China has always striven for a way to get power, accuracy and spin. It's obvious today that China is clear on that road to out matching any technique out there for this trinity of the sport. My belief is that seeing as Ma Lin is a huge Spin player Alexey's shots were rather dead or had varied to little spin. I think Ma had a hard time compensating for the lack of spin on the FH rather than the rhythm of the game.

The main thing to Alexey's credit was his choice to send his BH shots to Ma's exposed FH side. Ma again such a spin player couldn't produce any power on those shots that he made contact with the ball.

Lastly this is not the "way" to beat Ma Lin. The tactics, techniques, and mindset of Alexey were all at a lower class than Ma typically shows. If it were a Final Alexey would never have stood a chance. This is also not the way to beat the Chinese. Their advantage in the sport is developing and resourcing the science of the sport. Better techniques, training methods, and facilities will always produce better athletes.

Schlager is doing well in this field to help bring up the deficit in Europe, but he is still years behind the Chinese.

The only way anyone will top the Chinese is to grow the sport. Widely a hobby that virtually everyone from every country has seen or played people still don't understand the sport. It's why we fail to televise it properly because people are bored when they watch it. None of the angles show how much spin is on the ball nor how far and fast the athletes are actually moving.

If as you guys have said above you would like to know how to beat the Chinese try spreading the word creating more clubs, getting the schools to teach the sport properly and create growth. That is the only way scientists and funding can be provided to create the facilities necessary to train and hopefully beat the Chinese.

Wow this was a novel which I apologize for, but hopefully it gets the point across.
 
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Also here is the Full/Short Form of the match -maybe everybody knows this video!

 
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