you know, any sport is just a statistical science. A "BIG" win is really just winning 51% of points. If your opponent is making 1% more mistakes than usual, that is the margin that gives you a win vs a loss.
why doesn't Harimoto make WCQ make errors every time?
For certain people who are confidently incorrect all you can do is crack jokes. We are talking about the evaluation of a pro from someone who not long ago posted a terribly incorrect self-evaluation of his own USATT 1800 (at most) gameplay and doesn't correctly grasp the level differences between a 2000 and a 2400 player.
Gross oversimplification and completely ignoring cause and effect, but that's fine...
He was doing better with the Zyre 03 angle... he is just being plain silly now.
Have you ever checked Fan Zhendong's win rate vs Ma Long when making that statement? Would you consider all the wins from FZD to be bad days from Ma Long?
So in summary from TB:
I make sure to go before a match starts and ask my opponent to wait when we get called.
yes! Why is that so surprising?
no. That's not what I said. It depends on how they played. What was the winner % vs unforced error %?
You understand table tennis so well that you rated your forehand as an 8/10 and thought that 2000 USATT players beating 2400 USATT players is not an uncommon occurrence.
He returned serve much better, defusing WCQ's third ball domination and getting into rallies. I think that was the biggest difference, but there were many others that came from Harimoto having one of his best days (he also played a great match against Kanak) and WCQ perhaps being overconfident and then getting nervous after blowing the first game. WCQ missed a lot of shots he normally makes (and made against Truls), but Harimoto deserves some of the credit for great placement (often Harimoto's backhand straight up the line to WCQ's backhand corner or his elbow) and spin variation including slaps and dead ball loops.
Okay, you watched a very different match from me - you act like unforced errors are some magical thing and not a result of misreading the opponent or being under pressure to play outside your comfort zone. Many of the games were really close and illustrate that both players were playing at a very high level. In any case, we will have to wait until they do this again. But no doubt in my head that part of what happened was Harimoto putting WCQ under pressure with balls that usually don't come back and largely better serve choices and return choices.
Unforced errors are usually for amateurs with poor fundamentals, not for professionals. You can talk to a USATT 1500 player about unforced errors, but for a world No 1? Haha
Yes, obviously they make "unforced errors", and it is often subjective, but it is really self-serving to pretend that all the unforced errors came out of nowhere and that when Wang play Truls or Togami, all the unforced errors magically vanished because Wang was on form but when he played Harrimoto, someone he had previously destroyed 4-0, all the close games are just signs that Wang was not on form and it has absolutely nothing to do with Harimoto's high level.
