Yu Ziyang
Yu Ziyang won the tournament but made a very bad image of himself in my mind. He has no sportsmanship. He almost shouted at the face of Tang Peng in semi-final and didn't give Jun's point to him in the final match which was very obvious. Just hate this guy.
So far there has been a lot of criticism of Yu Ziyang. It seems to centre on two things, first of all he is shouting too loudly in his matches against Tang Peng and Mizutani. Second he is a bad sportsman against Mizutani.
I would like to give me opinion on these two matters (since opinion is all one can give in this situation). I am a national level chess player representing Australia and also working with the top juniors of Australia in this field.
1. Shouting loudly after each point is in fact a good thing, Yu Ziyang has little experience and he is only like 16. He feels vulnerable and in fact his shouts are clearly to boost his own confidence, they are not intentionally arrogant. It's to show psychologically that he is not afraid of his opponent. As a coach I would like encourage this (obviously not by shouting in chess games, but by having a confident demeanour when playing chess i.e. your opponent looks at you and you can look at him directly back). These psychological things are quite important for a youngster as he isn't yet sure of his own powers, yet it's clear Yu Ziyang is already super strong (won Japan Open and made it to Korea Open semi final to go down 4-2 to Xu Xin is no mean achievement!). I honestly don't see whats the problem with saying "chu li" or something like this after a point ends, in my view this is a lot better than the grunting that goes on during tennis rallies. Some people do it more than others, and there is a tendency for the young to shout, they lack experience but have the spirit and they are showing it.
2. I think the second point is a fair criticism of Yu Ziyang, from his body language I believe he realised as well the ball was clearly off the table. Yet at the end of the day he wasn't at fault for the empire saying it was in. That was clearly the empire's mistake. It's true that model sportsman behaviour would be to give the point to Mizutani yet he didn't actually argue that the ball was in, that was purely the empire's decision.
It is super difficult to a 16 year old to overcome both the physical and psychological barriers to performing so well in 2 consecutive Tours, I take my hat off to Yu Ziyang for his achievement. I do hope he gains more humility and sportsmanship like Boll or Ma Long, yet I think to give the impression that he didn't deserve his achievements is wildly exaggerated, Mizutani self destructed in that game, something he is at fault of himself. In the 6th and final game Yu Ziyang also made up a significant deficit to win, good on him!
Just noting in difference, Yu Ziyang has magnificent footwork and forehand and inside the table FH flips were well done in general. He is quite different to Fan Zhendong in my opinion. Perhaps his short game and serve/receive needs work, overall I think a world class player (someone in the top 50 in the world already!).
I know others will disagree but this is my opinion Yu, hope he is able to match the achievements of FZD.
