WTT CHAMPIONS MONTPELLIER

[backspacer]

maybe the chinese made somebody an offer they could not refuse and bought the copyrights quickly

I bought them back:

WTT heard us and uploaded the full matches, they cut out the timeouts though I believe. The livestream archive still isn't showing up.

 

[FIXPOINT]

WTT Champions Montpellier 2024 MS

Japanese Version​

 

[Brs]

I did not realize until reading the WTT PR that Odo is "the first non-China player to lift a Women’s Singles trophy at WTT Champions level."

I wonder what kind of odds the bookmakers would have given a year ago on her accomplishing that?

 

[OvrChkn]

Yes, way longer than she expected. She thought it would only take her 2 or 3 weeks to recover but it's been more than 2 months now.

Ah, that's a complete bummer

 

[JackJohnson]

Anyone know why Wang Hao wasn’t coaching the men’s team for this tournament.

 

[backspacer]

Anyone know why Wang Hao wasn’t coaching the men’s team for this tournament.

He got sick of his players losing so he is preparing to come back from retirement.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

We all live in interesting TT time in that, WTT High Level event does not seems like Chinese Internal Games ( e.g. Chinese Super League ) anymore. Variety is the spice of life.

 

[NextLevel]

Odo now has a bit of a conundrum. She has back to back to back tournaments. She just finished Montpellier going the full distance. She is signed up for Contender Muscat (starts tomorrow, but Main Draw starts on Wednesday). Then immediately afterwards, she will be playing Champions Frankfurt. Does she strategically lose in the 1st round of Muscat to save herself for Champion Frankfurt? Hard to peak for 3 tournaments in a row with no breaks in between.

With their level, they don't need to peak to win those events. And training in TT is reduced in times of tournaments. Whether they play or not they will be fine. It is having to play peak events every time that causes issues.

 

[kindof99]

True, Hina dominates in the H2H. World ranking wise, Miwa will close the gap considerably after this tournament but with Hina not playing it's a foregone conclusion that Miwa's ranking will surpass Hina's. But beating WYD and more importantly SYS to lead Team Japan to victory at the Asian Champs was historic (50 years since that has happened). WTT Champions Montpellier is just icing on the cake. Although we don't know what the selection system will be for this cycle, I suspect there will be a more international focus. I'm just hoping for Hina to heal completely however long that takes. Whether it's Miwa 1 Hina 2 or Hina 1 Miwa 2, it doesn't really matter to me. And with Odo coming on strong as a potential 3rd player or at a minimum pushing others to up their game, Team Japan is growing stronger and stronger. Exciting times ahead.

From the way that Odo played, she might be No 1 or No 2 in a couple of years. Hayata will be 28 at the next Olympics, too much uncertainty for her. ODO is still on the rise.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

With their level, they don't need to peak to win those events. And training in TT is reduced in times of tournaments. Whether they play or not they will be fine. It is having to play peak events every time that causes issues.

Hmmm.. I don't know about that. Odo now has a target on her back and the CNT brought 8 women in the Main draw to Contender Muscat including QTY, Shi Xunyao, Chen Yi, KM among others. It's not a foregone conclusion that she would win. And the cost of going deep could be degraded performance at WTT Champions Frankfurt the following week.

It's ultimately a positive situation for her to be able to take Hayata's place at the 2 Champions events, but going back to back to back is no joke.

 

[SFF_lib]

We

Miwa surpassing Hina had to happen sooner or later. I must admit to being pleasantly surprised how much sooner it has happened. It's so gratifying to see the growth of players like Miwa and Satsuki. I know Miwa is the overwhelming favorite to win, but I do hope Satsuki gets a game or two (or an epic 7 game down to the wire match would be nice!).

We all love Miwa. CNT will study her really hard. I hope Miwa will evolve fast to stay on top

 

[vvk1]

This has aged well. Incidentally, another proof that Emratthich only regurgitates various nonsense from other sources.

 

[rpb23]

The CNT is probably in red alert mode. If I'm them, I will make sure of 3 things:

+ Beg FZD & Ma Long to not retire: FZD will probably still play due to sponsorships, but if CNT could extend ML just for 1-2 more years for the next gen (LSD, XP) to really mature, that'd be really good. ML still has that tactical game and overall aura that's unmatched. If either ML or FZD play, we wouldn't be seeing the strings of upsets lately.

+ Retire LJK & LGY (mens), WYD & CXT (womens) to make way for more Chinese youths: this is self-explanatory. Japan, France youths are way surpassing Chinese youths at this point in both men and women.

+ Train and take it slow with LSD / WCQ: both are young with great techniques BUT lack important tournament fighting experience and have some glaring holes in their games (WCQ forehand defense and LSD over-dependence game on the mid-distance game, it doesn't work well against consistent players). But honestly, WCQ mental game might not ever be fixed (look at LGY). I believe LSD can dominate in 2-3 years though.
They can be China's hope in 2-3 years at least, but definitely not now. At least 1-2 more WTTC. That's why Ma Long and FZD is desperately needed. I think FZD will definitely stay - but there are rumors of CNT making him unhappy so they have to take care of his needs until then.

All three suggestions are very good. One more thing I'll add is coaching staff selection. CNT tends to over use these former great players as coaches believing a good player must be a good coach which often is not true. As matter of fact, some of the great Chinese coaches were just average players before becoming coaches. Maybe it's one of the Chinese things that rewards someone official position for his/her great achievement as a player or good buddy relationships with the boss.

As for LSD, he has very good close table attacking skills but often chooses conservative approach preferring his opponents to take the offense initiative and be very content to defend and counter. As a young player, he gives up close table position too easily and often run into trouble against fast and consistent players. A good coach certainly can help him address the issue.

 

[backspacer]

I didn't watch the semi-finals, but were there zero service calls in both the semi-finals and finals? I can't remember any in the latter.

 

[zeio]

+ Train and take it slow with LSD / WCQ: both are young with great techniques BUT lack important tournament fighting experience and have some glaring holes in their games (WCQ forehand defense and LSD over-dependence game on the mid-distance game, it doesn't work well against consistent players). But honestly, WCQ mental game might not ever be fixed (look at LGY). I believe LSD can dominate in 2-3 years though.
They can be China's hope in 2-3 years at least, but definitely not now. At least 1-2 more WTTC. That's why Ma Long and FZD is desperately needed. I think FZD will definitely stay - but there are rumors of CNT making him unhappy so they have to take care of his needs until then.

Except that WCQ is not young. He will be 30 when LA 2028 comes. So far he has an Asian Games title only. Tieba/Douban users have been making fun of that fact for a while. XX is the first-ever and so far the only lefty CNT player to have won a major title, World Cup 2013, when YA failed to advance as the group winner (0-4 XX in QF). That doesn't bode well for WCQ.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/everything-about-wcq.33067/post-446075

Ahem...
LGY 1995-2/3/19
LJK 1996-1/10/20
FZD 1997/1/22
WCQ 2000-2/5/11

王楚钦的真实年龄到底是00年的还是98年的？ (Is WCQ's real age 00 or 98?)
https://www.zhihu.com/question/368366464

 

[Persistence TT]

Exhaustion did play a factor considering he played the past 4 tournaments in row making it to the final with little to no time to rest. But home crowd advatange is a big reason why felix won today

play a factor yes, deciding no. lets not forget that the lebrun brothers have also played tons of matches recently. so the playing field in terms of form was equal, felix just had a psychological advantage

 

[PoppaChubby]

It's not ARIS crowd yet, nor Belgrade, but it was a nice euroleague basketball crowd still, for sure it's been a little too much for young shy chinese players. Poor Lin Shidong, you haven't walk a single step in the arena that a hostile crowd is already booing at ya

 

[Lkhfly]

Watchu mean by making him unhappy?

There are fan theories of a internal rift in the CNT between FZD vs some influential figures (maybe even WCQ ?). Some examples are:
+ FZD has no sparring partner in Singapore Smash, fan went to training session and saw he had to ask Timo to play. Sparring partner scheduled was Liu Dingshuo (yes, same guy that caught laughing on camera when FZD down 10-1 to Harimoto in Paris 2024)
+ LSD and WCQ leak chat after LSD beat him in Singapore Smash 2024 - LSD message saying "without you I could still beat him", with kiss emojis (this emoji later memed a lot by fans)
+ FZD language and expression in interviews have more subtle meaning referring to how he has to "fight alone", "rely on his own strength" the last 2 years, and how when asked about the future he says "not necessarily table tennis, could be other great things".

This is mostly fan theories on Chinese social media discussed on Vietnamese sites/forums, so not sure how true it is. But FZD latest CCTV interview when he says the future doesn't have to be table tennis sounds pretty scary honestly.

 

[lodro]

But FZD latest CCTV interview when he says the future doesn't have to be table tennis sounds pretty scary honestly.

Nothing scary about it at all,He will be much happier once he can leave behind the total dog eats dog- scene of professional Chinese table tennis.

 

[zeio]

Nothing scary about it at all,He will be much happier once he can leave behind the total dog eats dog- scene of professional Chinese table tennis.

Ishikawa: Are you sure it's not the same for Japanese table tennis?
JJH: And Korean table tennis?

These players that are associated with different sponsored "teams" hardly train together, unless they are close friends. It's not much different for HKG (better in recent years after Li Ching took the helm) and TPE.