ITTF WTTC Finals Doha 2025, 5/17-25

[zeio]

First left handed world champion in such a long time. Who knows what would’ve happened had Fan Zhendong and Ma Long played this year. This is similar to the world championships Houston but I don’t want to discredit WCQ regardless. congrats to him, dominating performance.

First lefty World Champion (specifically referring to WTTC) for China.

For reference, XX is the first lefty World Cup holder for China (also considered World Champion in China).

 

[banbekas]

This one win matters a lot for WCQ. It was a dominant win to boot. It will boost his moral and confidence and I'm afraid he's gonna undefeated in the 2028 cycle.

 

[rpb23]

I had the same question in my mind actually. He seemed to be doing really well in the chinese trials in 2017 and looked rather promising

Well, Hugo was not on the yesterday's form. Wang is crazy good, but the most important thing is that Hugo could not play a near perfect short game when he played against LJK, which is of course the result of being lack of energy. To play good in small details, it requires you to have all the focus, which needs you to be in a 100% stamina state. That's why no one can play two life time matchs in just 2 days. If Hugo meet Wang first then things will be very different.

It's hard to repeat yesterday's form for Hugo if your opponent is WCQ, not only that, a peak, unplayable WCQ. WCQ is at least a grade higher than LJK.

 

[Zezima]

Hugo 4-2 WCQ or 4-1 for WCQ

yep it happened :/

 

[Walalang]

I just compared the final of the wttc 2023 and final now. The cheers and screams were so less and more quiet than now. Is that how many fans that WCQ have built in the last 2 years?

 

[rpb23]

First lefty World Champion (specifically referring to WTTC) for China.

For reference, XX is the first lefty World Cup holder for China (also considered World Champion in China).

Good observation, although world champion carries much heavier weight that world cup.

 

[banbekas]

He's retired due to injury (foot?). Showed some promise in 2017 but then 2018...

He seemed to be on his way to leave his mark in WTT. He kinda reminded me of ZJK.

 

[zeio]

Well, Hugo was not on the yesterday's form. Wang is crazy good, but the most important thing is that Hugo could not play a near perfect short game like when he played against LJK, which is of course the result of being lack of energy. To play good in small details, it requires you to have all the focus, which needs you to be in a 100% stamina state. That's why no one can play two life time matchs in just 2 days. If Hugo meet Wang first then things will be very different.

Calderano was forced to reveal that push near the end of G1 against LJK and that helped take down the first 2 games. LJK almost recovered from that. And 24 hours later? WCQ came prepared and the moment it failed to surprise him Calderano's fate was sealed.

Hirano actually did it at ATTC 2017, breaking through 3 top CNT players in 2 days, DN and ZYL the previous day, then CM the day after, winning 9 out of 11 games (9 in a row).

 

[zeio]

Good observation, although world champion carries much heavier weight that world cup.

Calderano: Do you have a World Cup gold to say that?

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I just compared the final of the wttc 2023 and final now. The cheers and screams were so less and more quiet than now. Is that how many fans that WCQ have built in the last 2 years?

its fans that is willing to travel that counts.
the fans now have a mission of going on tour to "support" their players and do "their" bit to let their player win.
it started with a few, and now it just gets more and more.

many players have many fans, but the hardcore ones is what we are seeing or hearing.

decade ago, it was CNT fans
now it is specific player fans

 

[zeio]

He seemed to be on his way to leave his mark in WTT. He kinda reminded me of ZJK.

Yes, along with ZQH, both of them give off the vibe of ZJK.

 

[Dr Evil]

Hugo needed that first game. 10-7 to 10-12, almost impossible to stop WCQ after that.

 

[rpb23]

Well, mind seems win again against heart. WCQ is clearly in peak form and simply unplayable, unfortunately for Hugo regardless his form. A peak WCQ beats everybody, Chinese or non-Chinese, period!

The fact in two games Hugo could only score 5 total combined points shows the match is one sided and Hugo's beast mode was simply disabled by WCQ's brilliant first five shots dominance.

In the first game, WCQ showed great calm and resilience for the big moment. Winning that game had settled the tone for the whole match.

With all the attributes WCQ has demonstrated, I'm pretty sure he will be the next grand-slam champion for China.

For the rest of the world, the good news is for the first time, they are getting the closest to Chinese for the last 20+ years. The bad news, the gap is still there and still needs great efforts to overcome.

 

[blahness]

Although it was shitty angle, colour and lighting, i did watch the final. WCQ played way too fast, Hugo's footwork was just not keeping up (probably due to fatigue). WCQ also looked more fresh and hungry while Hugo looked like he was physically out of it.

WCQ's strategy of playing everything very early, especially on the opening loops were quite damaging to Hugo's timing. Usually opening loops are taken late which allows Hugo a lot of time to set up his deadly counterloops. If it is taken early then there is no time to setup the counterloop kill and it almost forces a more passive counter which goes into the speedy topspin rally mode which is heavily advantageous for WCQ as a modern speedy player.

Unfortunately Hugo didn't get enough advantage in the short game to get his loopkills off underspin.

 

[Robin0910]

Well, Hugo was not on the yesterday's form. Wang is crazy good, but the most important thing is that Hugo could not play a near perfect short game like when he played against LJK, which is of course the result of being lack of energy. To play good in small details, it requires you to have all the focus, which needs you to be in a 100% stamina state. That's why no one can play two life time matchs in just 2 days. If Hugo meet Wang first then things will be very different.

It wasn’t Hugo’s fault as others stated too. Wang Chuqin’s serves are trickier and he received Hugo’s serves a lot better than LJK. Simply Hugo’s game worked better against Liang Jingkun‘s game and Wang Chuqin also had extra time to prepare after yesterday’s match

 

[backspacer]

I thought I saw Liu Dingshuo as practice partner in some recent practice video, but his last WTT event was the Contender Taiyuan last year.

 

[longle]

where is that Coach with Hugo in the World cup ? Monteiro I remember

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I thought I saw Liu Dingshuo as practice partner in some recent practice video, but his last WTT event was the Contender Taiyuan last year.

LDS has retired from the national team

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Your 2025 World Table Tennis Championships Champions

 

[Shine]

Calderano was forced to reveal that push near the end of G1 against LJK and that helped take down the first 2 games. LJK almost recovered from that. And 24 hours later? WCQ came prepared and the moment it failed to surprise him Calderano's fate was sealed.

Hirano actually did it at ATTC 2017, breaking through 3 top CNT players in 2 days, DN and ZYL the previous day, then CM the day after, winning 9 out of 11 games (9 in a row).

Good looking out. He tried those sudden long pushes to the forehand that WCQ brought back with spinny venom, lost about 3-4 crucial points that could have brought him back into the match. Plus, the fact that WCQ excelled in the short game. I think one of the highlights of WCQ in this match was investing more spin in his opening attack and only going all-out flat drives when he's dominating the table and attacking the angles with his forehand.