Fan Zhendong has reached a new level!

Dan

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Dan

says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
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I just re watched last nights final between Ma Long and Fan Zhendong. Fan Zhendong did not give Ma Long a chance in that game! It looks like Fan Zhendong's return of serve on his backhand has got even more deadlier! For example look at the backhand flick from 5.32.


Ma Long of course recently won the Rio Olympics putting him top of the world. Fan Zhendong did not play the Olympic Games and will 99.9% play in Tokyo 2020.

Has the beast been unleashed?
 
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FZD might have reached a new personal level but not a "new" level in the Chinese National Team. We all know that he is an extremely good player and might be very successful in the nearer future but I don't see him ahead of Ma Long yet. I am sure there will be more finals between these two players and Ma Long will be able to beat FZD here and there.

FZD was full of energy in this match and eager to take this title while Ma Long looked a bit unconcerned after he lost the first very close sets.
 
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It is a matter of time before FZD sorts out how to handle ML. At some point I believe FZD will dominate ML. But I don't think we've got there yet.

However, he did seem to have figured out tactics that contained ML's FH. And that is a good start in that direction.


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Lan

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Why couldn't Zhang Jike play against ML like this in Rio?
 
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Why couldn't Zhang Jike play against ML like this in Rio?

Perhaps more important, why couldn't the #2 player in the world play in the Olympics and do this to Ma Long. Now that would have been epic.

But, we can't change the past and since it didn't happen there is no reason to think it would have if things were different. Because they are not.


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Yes, after watching the Asia vs Europe competitions I noticed this, he murdered everyone there, his game is tighter, faster and deadlier, many people think he is not there yet, and many people come up with excuses as of why Ma Long lost, "he was tired because of the Olympics" they say, give me a break, Ma Long reached the finals, stop coming with excuses as why Ma Long lost and give credit when credit is due.
FZD's long Table Tennis reign is about to start, we are looking at a good 10 years long reign ala Waldner here.
 
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While I agree that the clock definitely ticks in FZD's favour, don't forget that he popped up on the scene out of nowhere at the age of what, 15 or 16? What if - and we actually have no idea about this - the next prodigy teenager is about to have his debut on an international level, and he might just shorten Fan's "decade of reign" to a mere couple years?

China keeps on developing these insanely dedicated, hardworking and of course talented players on a scale that europe can just dream of. I doubt that FZD has reached his peak yet, in fact I think he is far away from it. But let's be real, in order to take over Ma Long, Zhang Jike and Xu Xin, he doesn't have to improve, it's literally a matter of time and will come naturally.

By the way, quick plug here: If you're interested in why China has so many dominating players, I suggest Ben Larcombe's Podcast with Dan:
 

Lan

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For sure you can''t change the past. I'm just trying to figure out what Fan Zhendong did in this game in terms of tactics, that Zhang Jike could've done and was fully capable of. Or does Zhang Jike simply has inferiority complex against ML.
 
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For sure you can''t change the past. I'm just trying to figure out what Fan Zhendong did in this game in terms of tactics, that Zhang Jike could've done and was fully capable of. Or does Zhang Jike simply has inferiority complex against ML.

ZJK was injured. He re-injured his back in the Samaonov semifinal. He couldn't really move. He took a shot at the first game.

But watch the point at 12-11 in the first game. ZJK has game point. He is serving. He uses the reverse pendulum that ML has so much trouble with. ML pops the ball up to ZJK's BH. ZJK moves in to flip kill: AND HE CAN'T bend forward to get position for the shot. He misses. He flat out WHIFFS on a shot be makes 99.99% of the time. He misses because of his back. And for the rest of the match he doesn't seem to be able to move to the ball. At a certain point it looks like he gives up because he can't move.

Watch that first game and that particular point. And you will be able to tell what happened.

You can't use tactics on ML if you can't move. And give FZD his due. He beat ML with his own tactics. And ZJK has never used someone else's tactics. He plays ZJK TT.


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And as young as Harimoto is, probably his development would peak higher if he wasn't playing as many ITTF events at this age but was, instead, working on developing his game.

Of course it is hard to say. But it is worth developing the technique to a mature level.

There are a few times where there were young Japanese prodigies who looked like they could rise to the top of the charts and challenge the CNT players and then they got stuck at a certain level.

Usually the CNT players seem to come, almost out of nowhere and really mature and develop into complete players.

The two players I can think of from CNT who got brought up pretty young were Ma Long and Fan Zhendong.

They were pretty complete when they were brought up. But it still could be argued that Ma Long could have used a year or two more grooming and then he may have ended up not having the "confidence" issues that people were harping on till recently.


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ZJK was injured. He re-injured his back in the Samaonov semifinal. He couldn't really move. He took a shot at the first game.

But watch the point at 12-11 in the first game. ZJK has game point. He is serving. He uses the reverse pendulum that ML has so much trouble with. ML pops the ball up to ZJK's BH. ZJK moves in to flip kill: AND HE CAN'T bend forward to get position for the shot. He misses. He flat out WHIFFS on a shot be makes 99.99% of the time. He misses because of his back. And for the rest of the match he doesn't seem to be able to move to the ball. At a certain point it looks like he gives up because he can't move.

Watch that first game and that particular point. And you will be able to tell what happened.

You can't use tactics on ML if you can't move. And give FZD his due. He beat ML with his own tactics. And ZJK has never used someone else's tactics. He plays ZJK TT.


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What match is that ZJ vs ML you're referencing? The olympics?
 
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What match is that ZJ vs ML you're referencing? The olympics?

Yes, in Rio, ZJK is up 12-11 in the first game as misses a BH flip. When you see the angle from the front, it just looks like he whiffs. When you see it from the back, it looks to my eyes like his back seizes up and doesn't let him bend forward. In my work, I work with a lot of people where I see their back start bothering them before they even fully realize it.

The banana, ZJK rounds forward with his spine to get a lot of his power. In the middle of trying to do that, he stops and the muscles in his back tighten in a way they shouldn't for that shot.

After that he never moved well again in that match.


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My observations of the final:
-FZD has improved his FH return off the serve
-He has more patience
-deployed the banana flick intelligently
-targeted ML's BH
-varied the pace on his BH well & showed more flexibilty with FH
-still needs work mentally, as indicated by time out when closing out the third and that he had large leads in most sets but only won by a few points in the end
 
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