Yeah, but that implies that Hugo didn’t hit hard enough at their last encounter at China Smash. Zhang Jike didn’t just hit hard, he also played with tons more spin and his backhand flick was the best in the world at the time.
Harimoto never hit hard enough when he was a kid. He won with his...
Kuai Man probably because she participates in both doubles but I’m completely dumbfounded how Xue Fei who doesn’t have any international achievements made the selection instead of Xiang Peng.
Yeah, they used different balls there but it’s not black and white. LSD lost to Hugo mainly because he couldn’t keep the ball short and got destroyed when pushing long/ half-long (there were other weaknesses exploited too).
Ma Long’s short game is one of the best if not the best in the world and...
Obviously. An out of shape Ma Long wouldn’t have beaten Hugo yesterday but I never stated anything like that. The Ma Long we saw at China Smash would’ve beaten Hugo imo.
Have you seen last year how he came back against Lin Gaoyuan at the same event? Ma Long would’ve found a solution. Lin Shidong literally played right into Hugo’s hand starting from the second game. I’m not saying he would’ve 100% won but I’d have rather bet on him even seeing Hugo’s performance...
Well, well, well, how the turntables…
Only solution is to bring back the heavy hitters like Ma Long and Fan Zhendong to secure the titles while training the youngsters (LSD, Xiang Peng, Huang Youzheng) even harder!
Had he played like this during the Olympics last year he’d have easily beaten Möregårdh and would’ve even had a realistic chance to win the Olympics games