2024 WTT Contender Zagreb, Croatia June 3-9

[FIXPOINT]

 

[FIXPOINT]

 

[igorponger]

Just inferior, preliminary events far below to the Olympic's. Some warm-up exercises to keep one's asses flexible. Little things amuse little minds.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Both Hirano and Kihara through to the SF. Can we get an all Japan WS SF? We shall see.

 

[Janard]

Hirano vs Szocs seems like a game of who has the worse receives?

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Heartbreaker for Sora losing 12-10 in the 5th. He's due for one. Always a next tournament.

 

[NextLevel]

Japanese women crush the opposition in the absence of China. Like the ITTF tour days...

Poor Sora... better luck next time.

Hari-boy... showing his style has its benefits... he controlled Noshad better than the players who need table distance.

 

[FIXPOINT]

 

[driversbeat]

Zagreb contender semifinals are what Zennihon 2024 could have been...

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

The Japanese women pull off the all Japan WS SF. Kihara single handedly took down S. Korea. Miwa and Miu take down Europe. And Hayata takes Taiwan.

 

[FIXPOINT]

 

[NextLevel]

France is pretty much announcing that it is a serious contender for the Olympics teams silver and bronze medals (depending on the draw of course) with Felix in singles and Lebrun/Gauzy in singles/doubles, even a more serious announcement than their men's teams silver medal in Busan given the relevance of doubles to the Olympics - this doubles team has shown now it is capable of beating pretty much any doubles team except maybe China, putting more pressure and risk on their opponents.

 

[jfolsen]

This is my obligatory "There is no one in the stands at this WTT event." This one looks worse than average. Admittedly the angle isn't great, but I only see two pair of feet in the six rows of stands that are very close to the court.

 

[zeio]

JTTA & KTTA: Welcome to WTT CT Zagreb 2024 Japan/Korea 2024, FFTT.
Ito: World No. 1!

 

[Peter93]

Incredible save by harimoto off the edge ball

 

[Robin0910]

Incredible save by harimoto off the edge ball

That wasn’t and edge, it was just top spin

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Tomo had a few moments, but Hina saved them to take the XD title over Lim/Shin.

 

[zeio]

Kihara is such a role-model sempai to Harimoto. Compare that to Ito.

 

[zeio]

How many SF and F rounds has AJH "collected" since last year?

MS SF
A. Lebrun 3-2 AJH (9, -10, 4, -7, 6)
MS QF
AJH 3-2 JWJ (9, 11, -13, -8, 8)

JWJ: Saudi Smash 2024 SF > WTTC 2019 SF
AJH: 4-3 JWJ at WTTC 2019 QF

 

[zeio]

WS SF
Hayata 3-2 Hirano (-6, 5, -7, 4, 11)
Hirano's handling of serve to her short FH has really improved a lot and become her strength. In terms of short FH receive, Kihara is the other core JNT player that excels at it.
Hirano's spin reading ability has always been her trait (even better than Ito who has the help of pips) and it shows here (once again after WTT CT Zagreb 2023). If only Hayata is half as good...
Hayata served more long in response to untangle the snare but to no avail.
Handcuffed in the short game, Hayata turned to serving almost exclusively long to Hirano's FH and BH to force the point into rallies right away.

G5 50, 53 TO for Hayata, 54, 64, 65, 75, 77, 97, 99, 109, 1010, 1110, 1111, 1311

Judging from Hirano's silence throughout the match, in stark contrast to Hayata, her initial objective was to test out the tactics in this match.

平野打得好有針對性，球商高下立見，早田都重係靠蠻力，噉好難贏孫。