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Well, I said he was the clear favorite and that the only reason why one could give Pitchford a chance was past head to head. The thing is that everyone is looking for a story or a reason for a match to be exciting. But Harimoto was the clear favorite. People just look at things other than the...

Seriously. Dima is a Tier 1 opponent of China and has beaten LGY before. China Open is one of the biggest tour events for many reasons. Not once but twice, LGY came back from huge deficits and in total saved 9 match points. And it supposedly doesn't count? I think I need to remember that...

Huh???

Hirano is looking much more like 2017 Hirano. Hope the trend continues because she needs it.

She's already achieved pretty much all Fukuhara ever achieved, let's not go there. She doesn't need to change the way he plays, she just needs to win - she is not going to win playing like Ishikawa, the Chinese are too conisistent for that.

Looking at the draw, has there been a tighter draw at an ITTF tournament in the plastic ball era? Even the past-prime players are legends. And even the player no one likes is tricky and he is playing Fan Zhendong so it makes no difference. Great event!

No, Harimoto won the grand finals on December last year which took his world ranking to 4th. This is easily over half a year since his losses to Pitchford. If we look at who Harimoto has lost to this year, other than An depending on how you view him, nothing to be ashamed of. And in the Last...

Ah your coach once beat Eugene Wang in US Open. I think he lost to Ueda in the semis or the final. Very wristy style that I loved taking the ball very early.

He looks like a duck out there.

Well as Thom said, we will wait and see. I think that BH to BH exchanges may doom Harimoto, he isn't more powerful than Pitchford and Pitchford redirects really well. But Harimoto is getting older and 6 months in the life of a 16 year old is a lot and it has been over a year since those matches.

By every measure except prior head to head. Calderano, Liang Jingkun and Lin Gaoyuan all know what it is like to have beaten Harimoto. Harimoto by any measure is a legit top 10 player. Pitchford by any measure other than a subjective eye test which I can grant some plausibility is not...

Hahaha. HT is the favorite is not an opposition response?

This misses my point completely while making it - my point is that if you want to compare apples to apples, use the same material to chop on both sides. Saying one stroke is more natural without adjusting for all the variables is mostly a version of supporting the conclusion you already had in...

Definitely possible, has happened before, but HT is still the favorite to me.

3 lefty-lefty matchups (TB-JM, J-JG, XX-EL) and one lefty-righty (MY-LGY) matchup in one set of matches.

The forehand chop actually gets more racket head speed than the backchop. There is little point in comparing a chop performed consistently with inverted rubber with a chop performed with long pips.

Dima and Walther in game 7 after Dima had 4 match points - wow...

I do. Pistej is great but what has he really won? JWJ is a CNT tier 2 threat and Korean #1/2. It is not an impossible result and Pistej is in great form as his victory over Fang Bo shows, but this is an upset.

The new ratings system repeatedly creates such "upsets".

We have a new Mr Game 7. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, congrats!