Which team do you think will win the China Super League?

  • Shandong (Ma Long's team)

    Votes: 32 31.4%
  • Bayi (Fan Zhendong's team)

    Votes: 51 50.0%
  • Anhui Longkun (Zhou Qihao's team)

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Shanghai (Xu Xin's team)

    Votes: 12 11.8%
  • Sichuan (Zhu Linfeng's team)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Bazhou (Liang Jingkun's team)

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Tianjin (Ma Te's team)

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Jiangsu (Zheng Peifeng's team)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Shenzhen (Cui Qinglei's team)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Luneng (Fang Bo's team)

    Votes: 4 3.9%

  • Total voters
    102
says TTD Team vs Pongfinity drops tomorrow!
says TTD Team vs Pongfinity drops tomorrow!
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Photos from the final between Bayi and Bazhou

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guys why do you even assume that the two toned ball makes a difference on serve reading OR not? isnt it better to have some statements from players instead making assumptions?

So you think the players are the only ones who have brains? Did you watch the matches? Jingkun was basically killing Ma Long's serve in the last 2 games.

 
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Definitely it was the pressure. Last month he has beaten FZD.

Yeah, but that does not mean, that he will always beat him, FZD is normally the better player ;)
I think in the history of this both playing against each other FZD won more games against him, also in other situations in which the presure was less.
 
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So you think the players are the only ones who have brains? Did you watch the matches? Jingkun was basically killing Ma Long's serve in the last 2 games.


Ididnt
say that, but we cant be 100 % sure can we . The players are the ones that experience the whole situation first hand . And yes you were right LJK was killing ML serve but is the two toned ball really the reason for that? From the highlights (which i know you know its not the whole picture of a match) it seems like you had pinpoint accuracy with your assumption but I would prefer to see the whole match and check different mistakes/tactics/strategy with this ball if there are any.

Anyway what "bothers" me is that, if your assumption is 100 % correct, I would love to see much more games in the CTTSL of the two toned ball and see overall reactions/performance from the players . 2 games just arent enough to make safe conclusions about the future of the game.

I believe that the serve is still a pain in the game, especially since 90% of the players are serving illegal or hide their serves, so if the two toned ball erases that im totally down with it
 
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Yeah, but that does not mean, that he will always beat him, FZD is normally the better player ;)
I think in the history of this both playing against each other FZD won more games against him, also in other situations in which the presure was less.
That is true, but my point was that LJK made big progress this year. Normally Ma Long is also better then him, but nonetheless he beat him. He has great wrist and plays very close to the table, when they are playing rallies he usualy looses them.
 
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I wouldn't blame the two-color ball. Ma Long risked that LJK will flick his serves. Most of the times LJK didn't attacked the serves coming short to his FH. That's another question if this ball helps reading the spin or not. When DHS announced two-colored ball, I painted one to red/white (with marker) just to try it. I can say, that if someone spinned the ball, I couldn't see anything, white and red totally mingled. The only thing what was easier is distinguishing no-spin balls from spinny ones.
 
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I wouldn't blame the two-color ball. Ma Long risked that LJK will flick his serves. Most of the times LJK didn't attacked the serves coming short to his FH. That's another question if this ball helps reading the spin or not. When DHS announced two-colored ball, I painted one to red/white (with marker) just to try it. I can say, that if someone spinned the ball, I couldn't see anything, white and red totally mingled. The only thing what was easier is distinguishing no-spin balls from spinny ones.

What is Ma Longs favorite serve against banana flickers when in trouble?
 
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What is Ma Longs favorite serve against banana flickers when in trouble?

When ML is in trouble, he begins to use his high toss serve and when this also fails, BH serve. I don't know what is his serve against banana flickers, but LJK easily attacked his high toss serves. ML should realize this and avoid the BH. He didn't do that and lost. When he served short to the FH, LJK flicked this only a few times and ML was able to deal with these. It's totally ML's fault. (And LJK's great performance)
 
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When ML is in trouble, he begins to use his high toss serve and when this also fails, BH serve. I don't know what is his serve against banana flickers, but LJK easily attacked his high toss serves. ML should realize this and avoid the BH. He didn't do that and lost. When he served short to the FH, LJK flicked this only a few times and ML was able to deal with these. It's totally ML's fault. (And LJK's great performance)

High toss backspin no spin. Do you think that is a problem with these balls?
 
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When ML is in trouble, he begins to use his high toss serve and when this also fails, BH serve. I don't know what is his serve against banana flickers, but LJK easily attacked his high toss serves. ML should realize this and avoid the BH. He didn't do that and lost. When he served short to the FH, LJK flicked this only a few times and ML was able to deal with these. It's totally ML's fault. (And LJK's great performance)

usually he uses high toss to add more underspin and no spin variations to keep the flicker guessing, then it evolves to a short short exchange where the flicker again has the advantage IF his push is effective and after short push from ma long then again banana flick. (this scenario has been played countless times against FZD and ZJK). Its not exactly ML to blame but when the opponent knows you so well and is a good flicker there isnt much ma long can do

mA LONG is a variation player, flickers like LJK ZJK FZD dont let him play his game and instead they attack first

1. they stop ma long from using his jedi mind tricks on serve receive

2. initiate a BH rally where they are better if they find the chance

3. they are better than him close to the table

Another thing I noticed and is also mentioned by the CNT coaches is that rally players like ZJK and FZD LJK are playing much better against players they are familiar with because they excel at the rally but in order to get to the rally they have to pass through serve receive and opening shots first (short long pushes/ flicks, 1st topspin). This is one of the reasons why ML destroyed everyone in the past and also has such a good pro tour record with 4-0 victories against unfamiliar opponents but ZJK and XX for example struggled more.

He always carries a well thought plan/strategy before the match, but if it does not work out like matches against wang hao koki niwa (kishikawa in asian champs 2009 won agains ma long 3-0!) then he got frustrated . Eventually he countered this and got better in crucial matches

Also what do you mean ML should avoid BH flick from LJK, there is not much he could do, he cant serve heavy underspin all the time because he will be predictable. ML for his own bad luck is not an excellent BH flicker (so that he can also earn points from receive, equal to the ones he loses from his own serve) so after a certain point when opponents adapt to your variation serves then they use your own weapon against you.
 
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In that match ML played below his average and LJK improved a lot this year. This is the main reason for the outcome. But the bad serve choice worsen ML's chances. If you look at the FZD vs LJK match at the finals, you can see that most of FZD's serves went to the FH side. This prevented FZD from the extreme BH flicks. The 'normal' BH flicks what lead to BH-BH exchanges favored FZD or at least created equal chances.

Next Level: I think LJK would kill these serves anyway (which were mostly sidespin serves, or not too spinny serves), but the new ball maybe can help lower level players identify no-spin serves.
 
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In that match ML played below his averageand LJK improved a lot this year. This is the main reason for the outcome. But the bad serve choice worsen ML's chances. If you look at the FZD vs LJK match at the finals, you can see that most of FZD's serves went to the FH side. This prevented FZD from the extreme BH flicks. The 'normal' BH flicks what lead to BH-BH exchanges favored FZD or at least created equal chances.

Next Level: I think LJK would kill these serves anyway (which were mostly sidespin serves, or not too spinny serves), but the new ball maybe can help lower level players identify no-spin serves.

he played below his average because LJK did not allow him to play at all. Even in his top form, with such a performace by LJK ML would still lose.


in this match LJK played great in somepoints but made tons of unforced errors even when he had the initiative adding the fact that the two toned ball made some difference it makes sense that ML got destroyed like that in the last two sets in the semifinal

In the match above LJK still flipped/killed many of ML serves but with lower success ratio, so its probably the ball that made a difference but also in the first match LJK was too impatient with his strokes .

to be accurate the combination of both LJK better performance boosted by the fact that he could see the exact spin on the ball. In the first match above the score is 3-0 for ma long so I found it hard to believe that only the two toned ball made all the difference. LJK simply did not allow ML to play his game in the semifinal. He was superior in serve receive and in the 3rd ball, ma long does not play TT by himself :)

You can understand better whan im saying if you compare the 2nd set where ML destroys LJK and in the next and last two sets, LJK flip kills almost everything. ma long was just using his normal game plan, he has specific variations and in the end LJK adapted better than him in the game
 
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he played below his average because LJK did not allow him to play at all. Even in his top form, with such a performace by LJK ML would still lose.


in this match LJK played great in somepoints but made tons of unforced errors even when he had the initiative adding the fact that the two toned ball made some difference it makes sense that ML got destroyed like that in the last two sets in the semifinal

In the match above LJK still flipped/killed many of ML serves but with lower success ratio, so its probably the ball that made a difference but also in the first match LJK was too impatient with his strokes .

to be accurate the combination of both LJK better performance boosted by the fact that he could see the exact spin on the ball. In the first match above the score is 3-0 for ma long so I found it hard to believe that only the two toned ball made all the difference. LJK simply did not allow ML to play his game in the semifinal. He was superior in serve receive and in the 3rd ball, ma long does not play TT by himself :)

You can understand better whan im saying if you compare the 2nd set where ML destroys LJK and in the next and last two sets, LJK flip kills almost everything. ma long was just using his normal game plan, he has specific variations and in the end LJK adapted better than him in the game

I agree that LJK adapted better. ML didn't adapted, used the same services, played passively. However I still don't think that the new ball made the difference. I made a black-white one, will try tomorrow after training. And the second set is an interesting thing what you can see quite often. there is 2-4 close game but a 11-1/2/3 also. Probably mental weakness.
 
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I could hit just a few with the two colored ball. As I remembered: you can see the difference between spinny and dead balls and even slightly spinned ones, but when it's getting spin...you can't see better the direction of the spin. At least I couldn't feel real difference compared to a simply white ball. I will try it more and play some matches at the weekend.
 
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