Sabine Winter switches to antispin

[NextLevel]

Dementia again? Like before, please come up with a better argument.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...sh-sweden-august-14-24-2025.35820/post-537182

You have diarrhea of the fingers, stop posting irrelevant stuff just to sound intelligent please. The question is simple: what does Sabine have to prove that her current ranking and finals appearance didn't prove that the title would have proved? Everything you are pointing to are things clearly beyond her control, just to avoid answering that she has proven enough, the rest is up to how well she holds up in 3 years time.

For Franziska, I told you then that what probably cost him was his failure to beat Kao at a time when Germany needed him to do it - Sabine's problem is not that, and in Euros, she was trusted with the #1 player position. You seem to be omitting all this.

 

[Catenaccio]

Your comment at the time is understandable. In fact, I didn't think she'd make it to top 20 when she made the switch to anti. But I'm happy to be pleasantly surprised.

Would it be fair to say she far exceeded your expectations?

Don't ask a barber if you need a haircut. Don't ask someone who calls himself god to admit that he was wrong.

 

[Catenaccio]

Sabine has basically jumped 10 spots to around 16.
so happy for her

Congrats to Sabine Winter 🔥

 

[the-don]

"I take the doctor's medicine then I give out the doctor's medicine......only took me 12 years to realize!!!!"
- Sabine Winter.

 

[zeio]

i'm actually trying to be serious. Im saying basically there aren't 20 Chinese in the top20 slots. there are many Japanese, and then there is one Korean, one Brazilian, one Romanian, and one Puerto-Rican. I'm pretty sure if you look back into time there were like 4-5 slots as well at least for non-chinese-non-Japanese... so no she can't compete for N10 or even N16 is difficult but there is room for her to sneak into top 20. and with the points she just got, she's probably there for a whole year...

Ball feeder doesn't understand what he doesn't understand.

I wrote about how the CNT would keep about the same number of players in the top 10/20/100 after the new WR system in 2018. It still holds today. See below.

I also pointed out early on in this thread that Winter's WR depended on when she would meet JNT players, who were the most spread out in that range. She got good draws far away from them at EUR GS (got her to WR26, was stuck around WR40 for 3 months as she kept running into JNT players) and CS Montpellier (got her to WR16 from WR26) and those 2 (350 pts and 700 pts) happen to be her biggest points (65% of total points) as of now.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/korea-open-2018.18127/post-238160

Women's
Dec, 2017 7/10, 9/20, 25/100
Jan, 2018 4/10, 5/20, 9/100
July, 2018 5/10, 7/20, 13/100

Dec 24, 2024 5/10 (CM in 4th), 6/20, 18/100
Dec 31, 2024 4/10 (CM removed), 5/20, 17/100
Jan 7, 2025 4/10, 5/20, 17/100
Jul 1, 2025 5/10, 8/20, 18/100
Nov 4, 2025 6/10, 7/20, 16/100

 

[NextLevel]

Hashimoto gets good draws away from her teammates: ah, awesome, she is playing great.
Winter gets good draws away from Hashimoto and her teammates: well, she is getting good draws away from Japanese players.

Bernie beats Chen Xingtong: Bernie is such a warrior and knows how to get into CNT heads.
Sabine beats Chen Xingtong: Chen was injured, Sabine would not have had a chance.

Sabine loses to Wang deuce in the 5th: Sabine snuck up on and surprised Wang.
Sabine loses to Wang deuce in the 7th: Wang figured her out in game 7, it has nothing to do with how well Sabine is playing.

Doo Hoi Kem beats Samara 3-0: Doo Hoi Kem is playing well, but she didn't really expect to play this well, her focus is on XD.
Doo Hoi Kem goes up 3-0 on Sabine: Doo Hoi Ken is showing how weak Sabine's game is and how fragile her dependence on Anti is.
Sabine Winter comes back and wins 4-3 vs Doo Hoi Kem: Doo Hoi Kem is not in form, she did not expect to play this well so...

Sabine beats Shin Yubin 4-1: Complete silence from the experts.

Anyone see a trend here?

 

[driversbeat]

"I take the doctor's medicine then I give out the doctor's medicine......only took me 12 years to realize!!!!"
- Sabine Winter.

I wonder how Amelie feels watching Sabine succeed with a style that literally got her kicked out of the German team. Granted they play completely differently and Amelie's style lost effectiveness over time, but still makes you wonder.

 

[the-don]

I wonder how Amelie feels watching Sabine succeed with a style that literally got her kicked out of the German team. Granted they play completely differently and Amelie's style lost effectiveness over time, but still makes you wonder.

is it the same style?
winter uses the anti very little and is eager to start throwing fh bombs.
amelie solja's game is like 80% bh pushes and a couple of fh kills with sp.

I think sabine's inspirations are more recent players like luka mladenovic and manika batra.
maybe even carlos muhlbach who also plays in germany (2nd bundesliga).
here's an entertaining and recent match of muhlbach against tokic who will always be remembered for dropping his shorts against ma long 😂

 

[driversbeat]

is it the same style?
winter uses the anti very little and is eager to start throwing fh bombs.
amelie solja's game is like 80% bh pushes and a couple of fh kills with sp.

I think sabine's inspirations are more recent players like luka mladenovic and manika batra.
maybe even carlos muhlbach who also plays in germany (2nd bundesliga).
here's an entertaining and recent match of muhlbach against tokic who will always be remembered for dropping his shorts against ma long 😂

It's not, but iirc the coach at the time dismissed Amelie for her material instead of trying to develop her style. No way she can play like Winter but a decent Fukuhara like forehand would have been possible at least. Instead she was forced to move to Austria just to continue playing. Winter is literally revolutionising the game by showing us a completely new way to play with Anti.

 

[Tembel]

The one thing(except for ofc her amazing forehand) that separates Sabine from others who plays similarly to her with LP is her unpredictability. She has a really good normal backside backhand as well and doesn't hesitate to twiddle and punish weak returns to her backhand that are aimed at her anti. So she has two possible ways to punish weak returns to her backhand, either pivot FH or twiddle. No-spin/low-spin returns towards LP or Anti is a quite regular tactic for trying to setup a slow low-spin return from the LP/Anti that you can then try to kill.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

You’re missing her UFO shot where she manages to use the backside rubber without twiddling from her backhand side. I saw her make loops from far the table but also winners smashes . Nobody else can make this shot

 

[Tembel]

You’re missing her UFO shot where she manages to use the backside rubber without twiddling from her backhand side. I saw her make loops from far the table but also winners smashes . Nobody else can make this shot

That is true I forgot about the UFO. However I think she did more twiddling than UFO in Montpellier, or maybe I missed some Epic shots .

 

[igorponger]

Sabine Winter, the gal without one arm.
Speaking in open words, the choice of an Antispin rubber is much like a voluntary amputation of your hand. The bright side of this "inhuman surgery," is very obvious even if it looks a gross cruelty at first glance.
After having lost attacking potency on her backhand side, Sabine developed her forehand to a huge strenght, her forehand topspins did now got much more forceful than ever before.

This all strongly reminds me a Russian handicapped weight-lifter without one arm, -- despite the body deficiency he was able to work wonders by using the other limb.

Yes, having antispin rubber in your stock will eventually make you a great champion, even though over sacrifying a body limb 🤣

No pain, no gain, indeed..

 

[the-don]

It's not, but iirc the coach at the time dismissed Amelie for her material instead of trying to develop her style. No way she can play like Winter but a decent Fukuhara like forehand would have been possible at least. Instead she was forced to move to Austria just to continue playing. Winter is literally revolutionising the game by showing us a completely new way to play with Anti.

I don't believe it was the anti style.
I believe the issue was that overall amelie's performance was not good enough to be in the german national team.
She had strong competition back then like Sabine Winter, Petrissa Solja who at some point climbed to ittf ranking #13 and others.

 

[the-don]

The one thing(except for ofc her amazing forehand) that separates Sabine from others who plays similarly to her with LP is her unpredictability. She has a really good normal backside backhand as well and doesn't hesitate to twiddle and punish weak returns to her backhand that are aimed at her anti. So she has two possible ways to punish weak returns to her backhand, either pivot FH or twiddle. No-spin/low-spin returns towards LP or Anti is a quite regular tactic for trying to setup a slow low-spin return from the LP/Anti that you can then try to kill.

For me what separates her is she is actually an athletic person who can make a strong pivot from her bh and if they block parallel she can actually reach that parallel block and punish with another succesive fh loop.

the typical female table tennis player doesn't have much power and mainly relies on her backhand (shin yubin, bernadette szocs, manika batra, adriana diaz, bruna takahashi, etc.).

but it's not so difficult to counter winter's style.
just look at wang yidi.
what did she do?
when sabine puts the anti instead of pushing and letting sabine pivot what she does is when sabine puts the anti wang yidi pivots herself and makes a strong forehand.
that simple change nullifies winter's strategy.
the thing is to do that you have to move your legs, which most female tt players seem reluctant to do.

 

[Metaxa]

"I take the doctor's medicine then I give out the doctor's medicine......only took me 12 years to realize!!!!"
- Sabine Winter.

Sabine should not have lost here. Had she played more tactically, for one example by not playing her forehand serve from the backhand but from the middle of the table or even from her forehand corner with an outward spin, she would have had opportunities. But she can only learn from such matches, or at least she should.

 

[zeio]

Here is Shan Xiaona's live stream from 2025/8/13 where she shared her thoughts on XTWC 2025 and Winter.

https://weibo.com/5229334406/PFG0AuHUI
精神病院派来的猴子
08月13日 23:49 来自 微博视频号
单晓娜:我觉得混团应该是训练小的吧，我觉得我们奥运会下个周期肯定会，也给考虑培养一下新人吧，毕竟我都打了三届奥运会了。我也觉得温特这么打下去很有机会，她其实出成绩很早，然后每届奥运会都在努力，运气也差点，奥运会也没参加过，当了一次四号P卡，但也得看大家对她适应之后，毕竟奥运会还有两三年呢。温特原来反手比较弱改了防弧没想到排名上升的特别快。所以我就说温特太励志了，她就太爱乒乓球了，骨子里面，其实她也三十多了吧，这个年纪去改打法，打球的体系都改变了。尼娜要去北京大满贯，她现在在恢复训练了。所以我们德国队跟亚洲队比不算强，但我们人真的挺多的。 L精神病院派来的猴子的微博视频
(Shan Xiaona: I think the XT[WC] should be used to train younger players. I think we'll definitely consider nurturing some new talent in the next Olympic cycle, since I've already played in three Olympics. I also think Winter has a good chance if she continues playing like this. She actually achieved results very early, and she's worked hard in every Olympics. She's also had some bad luck, and hasn't participated in the Olympics before, only being the fourth reserve player once. But it still depends on how after everyone has adapted to her, since there are still two or three years until the Olympics. Winter's backhand was originally relatively weak, but she changed to anti, and unexpectedly, her ranking rose very quickly. So I say Winter is so inspiring; she loves table tennis so much, it's ingrained in her bones. Actually, she's over thirty, and at this age, changing her playing style and system is a huge step. Nina is going to the Beijing Smash, and she's currently resuming training. So, our German team isn't strong compared to Asian teams, but we have a lot of players.)

 

[NextLevel]

Here is Shan Xiaona's live stream from 2025/8/13 where she shared her thoughts on XTWC 2025 and Winter.

https://weibo.com/5229334406/PFG0AuHUI
精神病院派来的猴子
08月13日 23:49 来自 微博视频号
单晓娜:我觉得混团应该是训练小的吧，我觉得我们奥运会下个周期肯定会，也给考虑培养一下新人吧，毕竟我都打了三届奥运会了。我也觉得温特这么打下去很有机会，她其实出成绩很早，然后每届奥运会都在努力，运气也差点，奥运会也没参加过，当了一次四号P卡，但也得看大家对她适应之后，毕竟奥运会还有两三年呢。温特原来反手比较弱改了防弧没想到排名上升的特别快。所以我就说温特太励志了，她就太爱乒乓球了，骨子里面，其实她也三十多了吧，这个年纪去改打法，打球的体系都改变了。尼娜要去北京大满贯，她现在在恢复训练了。所以我们德国队跟亚洲队比不算强，但我们人真的挺多的。 L精神病院派来的猴子的微博视频
(Shan Xiaona: I think the XT[WC] should be used to train younger players. I think we'll definitely consider nurturing some new talent in the next Olympic cycle, since I've already played in three Olympics. I also think Winter has a good chance if she continues playing like this. She actually achieved results very early, and she's worked hard in every Olympics. She's also had some bad luck, and hasn't participated in the Olympics before, only being the fourth reserve player once. But it still depends on how after everyone has adapted to her, since there are still two or three years until the Olympics. Winter's backhand was originally relatively weak, but she changed to anti, and unexpectedly, her ranking rose very quickly. So I say Winter is so inspiring; she loves table tennis so much, it's ingrained in her bones. Actually, she's over thirty, and at this age, changing her playing style and system is a huge step. Nina is going to the Beijing Smash, and she's currently resuming training. So, our German team isn't strong compared to Asian teams, but we have a lot of players.)

Xioana Shan: She has a good chance if she continues playing like this, but it still depends on her results in 3 years.
Zeio: She didn't win the Champions so the DTTB bigshots will continue to ignore her.

 

[dewnyc]

Congrats to Sabine Winter 🔥

View attachment 38845

She's now the top non-Asian player in the world

 

[zeio]

Xioana Shan: She has a good chance if she continues playing like this, but it still depends on her results in 3 years.
Zeio: She didn't win the Champions so the DTTB bigshots will continue to ignore her.

Dementia yet again.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...sh-sweden-august-14-24-2025.35820/post-537175