Build your perfect WTT player

[olive-nguyen]

On the contrary, I think ML's forehand is underrated. With a useful but unimpressive backhand, he has to have a great forehand to achieve the goat status. His forehand is not the most powerful (maybe not even in the top 5) but with top notch consistency, timing, pace and change, trajectory, placement, counter-loop/drive, and more importantly, the extremely high usage.
ML battled many years against two of his teammates with monster backhand in ZJK and FZD, he has significantly better H2H advantage against both them. The key part for his winning? Using his forehand against their backhand. How many times we saw ML would pivot from backhand to forehand in a backhand to backhand exchange and winning the point? It's still true in most cases nowadays that a good forehand still can power through or outlast a great backhand in a rally.

i think not just the high forehand dominance, but more on game intelligence. His footwork is also quite a joy to watch, though not really recognised for footwork.
His timing of the shots are also very accurate.

it its the combination of those that makes him the GOAT.

 

[NextLevel]

First round exits don't mean what they used to with the way WTT does the draws now. It is not uncommon to draw a good player in the first round, he drew WCQ first at the recent Chongqing event.

Saying his forehand power doesn't convert into results is pretty wild though....

A player who has beaten Hugo, both Lebruns, Lin Yun Ju, Harimoto, Liang Jingkun and a few others I probably will forget doesn't convert into results....

 

[olive-nguyen]

You would never put Wang Hao or Felix Lebrun or Dang Qiu or Wong Chun Ting, who all have great backhands? Xu Xin is relatively bad IMHO, there are many good RPB backhands out there.

Again, I’ll add those with fantastic backhand drives for penhold

Kim Taek Soo
Yoo Nah Kyu

 

[ThePongCommenter]

A player who has beaten Hugo, both Lebruns, Lin Yun Ju, Harimoto, Liang Jingkun and a few others I probably will forget doesn't convert into results....

Harimoto 2x, including one of the most dominating displays of forehand overpowering I can remember lol

 

[olive-nguyen]

Harimoto 2x, including one of the most dominating displays of forehand overpowering I can remember lol

Well he is pretty quick on hitting off the bounce but I really can imagine myself being able to focus and properly play to my full abilities with the “chole!!!” Same thing with Dima’s “ooo-WAhh”. How quickly he had risen the charts.

however I think that the 2 lins have much potential along with the French brothers.

P/S; I wonder of Harimoto and Dima does vocal warm ups for matches, as a former vocalist for my CCA, those sounds much put a bit of strain on the throat.

 

[PenHoldSandro]

You would never put Wang Hao or Felix Lebrun or Dang Qiu or Wong Chun Ting, who all have great backhands? Xu Xin is relatively bad IMHO, there are many good RPB backhands out there.

Yes I know that they have great backhands, but for me, their backhands just aren't as good. I think that there are better backhands than Wang Hao, Felix, Dang Qiu, and Wong Chun.

I am not against your opinion at all!

 

[olive-nguyen]

Yes I know that they have great backhands, but for me, their backhands just aren't as good. I think that there are better backhands than Wang Hao, Felix, Dang Qiu, and Wong Chun.

I am not against your opinion at all!

Not too sure about better backhand for rpb than wang hao. His backhand rivals and can even surpass some of the shakehand players of his time. And it's not easy to hit the backhand to the extreme left at the angles he created being a right hander. Even with forehand it must be such a skill.

 

[NextLevel]

Not too sure about better backhand for rpb than wang hao. His backhand rivals and can even surpass some of the shakehand players of his time. And it's not easy to hit the backhand to the extreme left at the angles he created being a right hander. Even with forehand it must be such a skill.

Not some. other than maybe Zhang Jike who studied him for an extended period, pretty much all. I would go so far as to argue that Wang Hao was the first CNT player with a truly great backhand and his world championship in 2009 was the true beginning of two winged play and dominating the backhand diagonal becoming the dominant way top players played.

 

[PenHoldSandro]

Not some. other than maybe Zhang Jike who studied him for an extended period, pretty much all. I would go so far as to argue that Wang Hao was the first CNT player with a truly great backhand and his world championship in 2009 was the true beginning of two winged play and dominating the backhand diagonal becoming the dominant way top players played.

Oh wow... looks like I was wrong! Maybe Penhold RPB isn't as bad as I thought... but even then SH in the more recent era (the best of the best bh) is the best!

Thx for the wonderful insight bro!

 

[olive-nguyen]

Oh wow... looks like I was wrong! Maybe Penhold RPB isn't as bad as I thought... but even then SH in the more recent era (the best of the best bh) is the best!

Thx for the wonderful insight bro!

I actually wonder if penhold with rpb like felix can actually be a direct competitor of shakehand. The backhand mechanics of rpb having more wrist could mean more whip effect and possibly better flicks compared to shakehand? The more flexible wrist of penhold playstyle would then result in better flicks and serves. In addition it's widely known due to the mechanics of pehold the forehand would be better than that of shakehand.

The question is: would modern penhold rival or even surpass the current trend of shakehand?

 

[PenHoldSandro]

I actually wonder if penhold with rpb like felix can actually be a direct competitor of shakehand. The backhand mechanics of rpb having more wrist could mean more whip effect and possibly better flicks compared to shakehand? The more flexible wrist of penhold playstyle would then result in better flicks and serves. In addition it's widely known due to the mechanics of pehold the forehand would be better than that of shakehand.

I actually read a study, and it ended with Penhold BH being worse than SH...

The question is: would modern penhold rival or even surpass the current trend of shakehand?

For me, yesn't. the thing with ph is that there is 2 types that are very effective, matching sh. but one of them? no, not beating sh.

 

[olive-nguyen]

I actually read a study, and it ended with Penhold BH being worse than SH...

For me, yesn't. the thing with ph is that there is 2 types that are very effective, matching sh. but one of them? no, not beating sh.

But did it say which kind of penhold BH?

Plus with tpb it's better at blcoking-the more the merrier I guess?

Plus penhold naturally doesn't have an elbow crossover point, a weakness of shakehand.

 

[PenHoldSandro]

But did it say which kind of penhold BH?

Rpb.

Plus with tpb it's better at blcoking-the more the merrier I guess?

Yep, that's why I said yesn't in the post above. TPB is better at blocking.

Plus penhold naturally doesn't have an elbow crossover point, a weakness of shakehand.

More recently, this ability faded as people uses RPB more, and this mostly only works with TPB. Yes, even with RPB the crossover point is smaller, but there is one now because of the 2nd side.

 

[olive-nguyen]

Rpb.

Yep, that's why I said yesn't in the post above. TPB is better at blocking.

More recently, this ability faded as people uses RPB more, and this mostly only works with TPB. Yes, even with RPB the crossover point is smaller, but there is one now because of the 2nd side.

Use a combination of both according to situation

 

[olive-nguyen]

Use a combination of both according to situation

That's why i try to build tpb well, and get the form for shoto.

 

[Angerer]

A player who has beaten Hugo, both Lebruns, Lin Yun Ju, Harimoto, Liang Jingkun and a few others I probably will forget doesn't convert into results....

Aruna sometimes wins against opponents from top20, but such wins are rare--it's still almost always losses.
With all the respect to Aruna, but his ranking is heavily inflated by being one of two Africa's top players (like you can't take seriously WTT ranking of Australian players, for example). He will keep getting seeded without having to qualify, but his 1st round exits have become common in the recent years.
In BundesLiga, Aruna lost the majority of matches except the opponents from the bottom of Spielerrangliste.

 

[olive-nguyen]

I will add the video for Mr Chole! below:

 

[NetProphet]

I will add the video for Mr Chole! below:

Isn't that already at top of page 4?

 

[olive-nguyen]

Isn't that already at top of page 4?

oops didn’t see that.

i guess bump.

 

[NextLevel]

Aruna sometimes wins against opponents from top20, but such wins are rare--it's still almost always losses.
With all the respect to Aruna, but his ranking is heavily inflated by being one of two Africa's top players (like you can't take seriously WTT ranking of Australian players, for example). He will keep getting seeded without having to qualify, but his 1st round exits have become common in the recent years.
In BundesLiga, Aruna lost the majority of matches except the opponents from the bottom of Spielerrangliste.

Who doesn't have first round exits at the Champion's level other than the top Chinese? I believe there was a time when Bernie Szocs was losing first round every time at either Champions or Smash, I believe Champions. Would you say her rating was inflated?

In Bundesliga, Aruna went through two periods, when he initially got there and performed reasonably, and later when he didn't like being there. Bundesliga is a tough league, some players with good records there haven't done much on tour and vice versa.

Of course his ranking is inflated by continental points as are many players, but you will still struggle to find a player below his ranking with the quality of wins he has. I gave you the list, try to find it in players ranked below him.