World Table Tennis Championships 2017

Baal said:

Asfor ZJK, the guy has earned whatever breaks he is given. But the guy who beat him is good.

Click to expand...

The guy who beat him won the bronze medal. You can't do much worse than that. And ZJK actually played him the best other than FZD. He made Samsonov look like a beginner, and Wong Chun Ting look like he needed to learn how to play forehands again.

Lee Sang Su deserves more respect than being called the guy .

I understand your predicament NL .

For Koki Niwa , I think he sometimes become too passive too soon. I somehow feel that he loses confidence on his stock game too soon and starts trying out variations and depending on them solely ... some of the forehand to backhand exchanges he had with FZD was awesome and he should really be thinking in terms of close to the table rally rather than third ball all the time , point is if Harimoto can generate power at his age , so can Niwa ... and he has been actually looking more solid off late ...

NextLevel said:

I am having the same problem on a lower level. You have to find ways of containing the more powerful and faster players, Ma Long just has the control and enough power to do it. I am realizing that I have to resort to more spin variation and tricks like Ma Lin and Ma Long, otherwise, you will just be picking up the ball instead of playing it.

You can imagine how Koki Niwa feels, it takes him 4 games to control FZD, then FZD has time to figure out what is going on and adapt. With Ma Long, FZD has no coach, so Ma Long can get away with it a little longer and has the power to play it a little better when it fails.

Click to expand...

This is table tennis at its best. I was cheering for FZD and hope history is created. He could have won ... sad ... But well, ML won by skills and of course LUCK as well for such close match!

ttmonster said:

I understand your predicament NL .

For Koki Niwa , I think he sometimes become too passive too soon. I somehow feel that he loses confidence on his stock game too soon and starts trying out variations and depending on them solely ... some of the forehand to backhand exchanges he had with FZD was awesome and he should really be thinking in terms of close to the table rally rather than third ball all the time , point is if Harimoto can generate power at his age , so can Niwa ... and he has been actually looking more solid off late ...

Click to expand...

His stock game is serve, receive and third ball, the problem is that he is not going to beat FZD at any of those things and he is not going to win the power battle either, FZD's power is highly rated, but his consistency is very underrated - he is probably the most consistent player with best touch on offensive shots in the game right now, which is what makes his misses in the last game amazing. I don't think you know fully well what it feels like to be completely outclassed by someone like that to the point you wonder WTF you are playing. I didn't post my matches from my last tournament but I played some matches where I felt like an idiot and wondered why I was still playing where kids had now gained 200 pts since I last played them 2 years ago and were using me for target practice. The power and spin is so much that you are too slow, your blocks are not good enough, your spins get countered back in your face, your pushes go into the net or fly off the table because you are trying to be too tight etc. That is how Niwa feels.

But Niwa is trying his best, he isn't giving up - the fact that he wins the 4th game shows you that he is always fighting, the problem is that it takes him that long to disrupt the opponent (FZD), only for the opponent to adapt to his tempo and then all the opponent's advantages come back again. Harimoto was complaining about Xu Xin's spin, he still hasn't played Fan yet, then he will know what spin and power are really like. I take you back again to ZJK playing FZD, you could see that once ZJK won one game, he knew he had done enough. Just the look on ZJK's face when blocking FZD's loops said it all, he didn't have to tell me that he knew he had no chance. The way that Koki beats XX shows you that Koki is not just complaining about the spin or the power, it is the overall consistency even the rallying.

That is what makes Ma Long and FZD so amazing, those guys just don't seem to miss. They have magnets on their rackets. I don't know if you saw JApanese TV strength charts, they only gave two players perfect scores, no need for me to mention who they are. They docked XX a point for speed and ZJK a point for power.

samsara said:

Btw, I just read visitor's comment at some janus770 youtube page that ITTF changed the ball into plastic and enlarged the ball size to make the Chinese players more beatable in future competitions, just another tweak like in the past to increase the sport competitiveness between the players from the ROW vs China.

What is your take, dude?

Click to expand...

It was done mostly for money if you search enough in every TTforums the corruption goes deeper and deeper TT is first of all a big business, the stopping of chinese domination is not gonna fall with such simple tweaks

Should not it be the other way round ?

I agree with what you are saying NL , but I felt that having the touch that Koki Niwa has sometimes he underestimates or gives up too soon when a rally starts ... and I was trying to give the example of the forehand to backhand rally he had with FZD that he won with speed ...

Between Harimoto and Xu Xin , I felt that harimoto had a genuine chance , purely because even today Xu xin falls back from the table more than other CNT players , even though the loops look very attractive , in the plastic ball generation you will always be at an disadvantage because you cannot create power unless you take the ball on the rise .... I felt Harimoto was not able to adapt to the change in tactics after he won one game. Xu xin also adapted to his game and started changing the game up and his high risk shots started going to the net which resulted in a little bit negative body language and subsequent submission from Harimoto ..

NextLevel said:

They docked XX a point for speed and ZJK a point for power.

Click to expand...

Congrats to the Captain Ma Long for winning another World Champ

It was really a fantastic final!!!
And I feel really sorry for FZD... ToT

NextLevel said:

Lee Sang Su deserves more respect than being called the guy .

Click to expand...

Seconded. I sat there, next to that court when Lee Sangsu took out ZJK, and having witnessed that I don't think the remarks made here and there about ZJK failing, underperforming severely, do justice to Lee Samsungs game. Very sharp, very high quality shots and tactics. Lee Samsung won by the merits of his strength. That game definitely put him squarely on my radar; the Samsonov wipeout win deepened my respect — I may be the only one thinking so, but in that game Samsonov displayed amazing skills and smarts, yet Lee Samsung adapted so swiftly and authoritatively that Samsonov just ran out of options.

World class. To me, it looked like he choked against FZD somewhat; room for growth, still.

What really is strange to me is how chinese can be so happy after they lose to their teammates ....

ttmonster said:

Should not it be the other way round ?

I agree with what you are saying NL , but I felt that having the touch that Koki Niwa has sometimes he underestimates or gives up too soon when a rally starts ... and I was trying to give the example of the forehand to backhand rally he had with FZD that he won with speed ...

Between Harimoto and Xu Xin , I felt that harimoto had a genuine chance , purely because even today Xu xin falls back from the table more than other CNT players , even though the loops look very attractive , in the plastic ball generation you will always be at an disadvantage because you cannot create power unless you take the ball on the rise .... I felt Harimoto was not able to adapt to the change in tactics after he won one game. Xu xin also adapted to his game and started changing the game up and his high risk shots started going to the net which resulted in a little bit negative body language and subsequent submission from Harimoto ..

Click to expand...

No, it can't be unless Niwa does something to change his body, Niwa lacks the power to out rally most players at this level. When he played in France, I heard a rumor (not sure if it was TTFrenzy or from another source) that many players said the same thing, if they get to the rally, Niwa and them play level. In the beginning, they may lose a few, but over time, they know that the rally is 50-50 or their advantage. But Niwa dominates them in serve and receive. Someone like FZD just multiplies this 100 times to a point where it becomes frustrating. Even the rally you said he played, you don't know that sometimes, a guy knows when he is lucky more than you do. Sometimes, people in my club will tell me great shot, and I will tell them I got lucky and they will say yeah right, but me I know that was not my usual shot. Niwa will know he can play one point like that, but he can't win 10 like that. If he could maybe win 4 out of 6, he will feel competitive, but he has to win his 6 or 7 out of 10 on serve and receive to feel normal because that is his game.

Harimoto will beat XX in time, but right now, that level of spin is above his paygrade. Will be interesting to see if Harimoto goes to SuperLeague.

Ma Long practiced with Xu Xin before the semifinal and Ma Long practiced with Fan Zhendong before the final. What a team.

Gotta love it

rainneverever said:

Ma Long practiced with Xu Xin before the semifinal and Ma Long practiced with Fan Zhendong before the final. What a team.

Click to expand...

I find this amazing. Okay I have no doubt about the team spirit in CNT, but couldn't they ask LGY and XX to warm up with them lol? Amazing lol.

rainneverever said:

Ma Long practiced with Xu Xin before the semifinal and Ma Long practiced with Fan Zhendong before the final. What a team.

Click to expand...

It shows how they care about each other , i guess china's winning is enough for cnt maybe . Also they have nothing to hide from each other . It happened in rio final too . Zjk and ml did the same thing and made liu guoliang surprise

when i saw ma long "choooing" very loud and make straight eye contact to fan zhendong at 11-10 (7th set) i knew that ma long will take the title !

perniciousnc said:

I find this amazing. Okay I have no doubt about the team spirit in CNT, but couldn't they ask LGY and XX to warm up with them lol? Amazing lol.

Click to expand...

Its pretty common and natural, it was the same 10 15 years ago in all the old rivalries

Makelele said:

In my opinion, Lee style matches very well FZD strenghts. Nice game for the spectacle but my guess is 4-0 for FZD.

Click to expand...

Not able again to find a gif of myself whistling...hahahah.

Now back to humble mode. I wouldn't have won my guess in Ma Long-FZD match. I thought that ML was going to outclass FZD, I would have put money on a 4-1 score....

What a 7th.game! Congratulations to all TTD members who could be there and feel the adrenaline.

Baal said:

Ma Long had to learn how to not choke. He learned really well! He is amazing.

Click to expand...

The more I think of it, the more I think this is why he thanked Zhang Jike. It would be interesting to hear what they say to each other behind closed doors. But I look at how Jike handles adversity and compare it to Ma Long and you can see that more recently, when Ma Long loses or faces adversity in a match, he and Jike have sounded more and more alike.