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Australian Open 2017
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All japanese players get massacred. All had a chance to win, but failed. Mattaku!
Things became really interesting in this tournament.
Things became really interesting in this tournament.
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Like I said, Mizutani is a chump. He really should do better. The way he faded in the last game vs Cho said a lot.
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Drinkhall lost badly to Samsonov in T2. Just about every T2 result has been reversed here. This will be interesting.
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"Is Mizutani finished?" thread incoming in 3,2,1...
Vladi making it look effortless at the mo.
Vladi making it look effortless at the mo.
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At least, he will play a versatile opponent with a coach in the final. Drinkhall's one-dimensional power approach was a bit too predictable and while his placement got better later in the match, he never got the real variation.
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I think it is, actually, but I kinda know what you mean. I would say it is not powerful enough against someone who enjoys using your power against you. He needed much wider angles and better placement into the elbow.
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Oh god, is Samsonov going to win yet another Pro Tour against low-level competition?
Pardon the saltiness - it's just that the massive dropoff in Samsonov's game over the last couple years has rendered it unwatchable to me (though understandable for a guy who's over 40!) and I just enjoy watching more when I see guys at their peak winning these things rather than guys 15 years past their very best days.
Pardon the saltiness - it's just that the massive dropoff in Samsonov's game over the last couple years has rendered it unwatchable to me (though understandable for a guy who's over 40!) and I just enjoy watching more when I see guys at their peak winning these things rather than guys 15 years past their very best days.
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What is interesting to me about this statement is that in August 2016 Samsonov went to the semifinals of the Olympic Singles Comp. That is not even a year ago. If his falloff has been for the past several years, how, exactly, did that happen?
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Hi Carl - I understand the skepticism. Samsonov has indeed had some good results in the last couple years (though overall still a dropoff, as evidenced by many more surprising losses than before, some of them blowouts). I guess my perception of players' form is a more holistic assessment based on close watching of players for many years, rather than a commentary on results per se. Basically, I don't think there is a one-to-one correspondence between playing form and results - that is to say that improvements in playing form do not always correspond to better tournament results, and dropoffs in form do not always correspond to worse tournament results (though we would expect that those relationships are present when looking at the data as an aggregate). I notice many times in sports that a player seems to be much improved from one year to the next, only to go out earlier in the tournament to an especially inspired opponent. Conversely, especially with top players, they can sometimes go deep or even win tournaments despite not being in their best form. Sometimes a player will repeatedly fail to win a tournament at their peak and eventually break through when they are past their best form. It happens because of the infinitely variable nature of the competition one faces, the way the draw breaks, the twists and turns within each match, whether close games go one's way, etc.
So, returning to our specific case, I want to make it clear that I think Samsonov's longevity and achievements at his age are remarkable, and I also recognize that his very tactical game mitigates the impact of aging-related physical deterioration compared to, for instance, someone who tried to play like Fan Zhendong at age 41. But what my eyes tell me, based on close watching for several years, is that he's had a pretty sharp dropoff in form for about a year and a half - though definitely more noticeable in results after the Olympics . Looking specifically at my notes from the Olympics, I was impressed with his performance against Ovtcharov, but not against Zhang Jike. One of my notes from the latter match reads "S. cannot make a block in first three games". Another reads "First post-match reaction - shockingly low level of play from both players". At the same time, I remember many people being very impressed that Samsonov made the OG semis (a sentiment I shared) and even being impressed with his level of play in that semifinal (which I obviously didn't share). So it's clear that there's a big element of subjectivity in these assessments, and maybe different people are using different standards for comparison.
So I guess that's why I see the Olympics result as neither providing evidence or against my impression of Samsonov's form over the last couple years. (These sorts of discussions come up in other sports too - "how could Player X be in decline if he/she just won BIG TITLE" - even if the player in question is a decade past his/her prime...) I could also mention that the Olympics player field is weaker than many other tournaments, and that Samsonov's semifinal result translates to a total of three match wins, only one of which was surprising (Ovtcharov). Finally, looking at Samsonov's ratings-history graph (an imperfect tool but one which I think does capture general trends), we see that despite the fluctuations there is a clear downwards trend of late: http://www.ratingscentral.com/HistoryGraph.php?PlayerID=5304
Sorry for the wall of text - I felt like I needed to justify what I said so that it doesn't seem like I'm talking out of my ass. The short version: "Is Samsonov a great player, with impressive longevity and amazing achievements at age 40/41? Yes! But is Samsonov of 2016/2017 playing as well as ever? Nah"
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