Men's World Cup 2017

drunix80 said:

After watching Dima's recent matches in T2 APAC and ECL, I would give an outside chance for Dima to lift the trophy, provided he does not choke mentally.

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drunix80 said:

My wild prediction - All german final. Dima lifts the cup. Beginning of the end of chinese domination.

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My prediction comes true. Dima lifts the cup. This would give him confidence to lift bigger titles in the future. Go Dima . Haters gonna hate but he has 5 titles this year.

oh no, i voted for Timo Boll !!! it was so close

NextLevel said:

I feel a bit depressed that Dima is going to win this without beating a Chinese player. But I guess you don't make your draw.

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No chance of him ever winning this - he has Timo to thank for his first big title.

Results from Day 3 (Sun 22 October):

Semi-finals:

Ma Long (#1) 3:4 Timo Boll (#3) (11:6, 11:9, 9:11, 11:9, 7:11, 5:11, 10:12)
Simon Gauzy (#7) 3:4 Dimitrij Ovtcharov (#2) (11:6, 2:11, 8:11, 12:10, 11:7, 4:11, 8:11)


3rd place match:

Ma Long (#1) 4:2 Simon Gauzy (#7) (11:5, 11:13, 6:11, 11:5, 11:7, 11:9)


Final:

Timo Boll (#3) 2:4 Dimitrij Ovtcharov (#2) (12:10, 8:11, 7:11, 11:9, 7:11, 2:11)


Final standings:
1) Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER)
2) Timo Boll (GER)
3) Ma Long (CHN)
4) Simon Gauzy (FRA)


Photo courtesy of: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ittfworld/

jedimasterplk said:

No chance of him ever winning this - he has Timo to thank for his first big title.

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Biggest thanks should go to LGY rather than Timo.

rainneverever said:

ML wore waist protector in both matches today. Waist injury may explain his poor FH in this tournament.
According to this article, he did not get systematic training after China National Games due to injuries . And he will go to Munich in November to treat the wrist injury for 4 weeks (surgery will be considered according to Beijing Evening News).
http://sports.qq.com/a/20171022/024842.htm

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I'm not 100% buying this - he could easily have given up the spot and let Fan Zhendong play.

NextLevel said:

I'm not 100% buying this - he could easily have given up the spot and let Fan Zhendong play.

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Agreed that he could withdraw beforehand but the news said the decision of his attendance was made to promote table tennis sport. Not sure what it really meant and who pushed the decision, ML himself, CNT or ITTF.
Li-Ning staff Qi Shengnan said ML got another injection on wrist before World Cup. And he will go to Germany for treatment soon and will not play any more international tournaments this year (not sure about CTTSL and info will be released next week).

Yup, ML looked ill. Hopefully it's nothing serious.

drunix80 said:

Anybody noticed Ma Long 's puffed eyes during this tournament . Is there a problem with his health ??

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Very enjoyable games from Timo Boll, he's been playing great(er and greater) the whole year really. Still got to catch up on the final and losers' final, although I can't help being a bit disappointed that Ovtcharov won...

ps. Always so much spin in Timo's game! he's the one player for whom I feel, when I watch him, that the ball is clearly doing stuff that doesn't happen in normal people's table tennis ;p Getting more and more obvious to me lately. Of course his technique is very impressive and quite unique, but I still have to go ahead and poke fun at that moment during the WTTC 2017 (partly because of his comment about 80% of players boosting): youtu.be/raFxP6mURGk?t=14m14s No way this would happen to me!

lol, all of these posts sound like me after a loss at the club!

"Uhh yeah, shoulder was bugging me today... threw out my hip doing yardwork last week... water was too cold when I washed my hands... -- And the ITTF banned my favorite rubber cleaner!"

Chinese media already bitching about post-LGL era ( use google translate ) :

https://sports.sina.cn/others/pingp...pv9342169.d.html?vt=4&cid=69557&node_id=69579

My thoughts about this world Cup...
The tournament was great. Some amazing matches and results.
Timo Boll.. of course, Great!
I don't like Dima(I really don't) but I feel a little sorry for him in a way.. You know - he trains as hell and still is no good compared to the Chinese(this is my point of view, if you don't agree - that's ok ). And even after winning this World Cup he'll still be in the shadow of Timo. Cause, let's be realistic - Timo did most of the work (and Gauzy beating Mizutani).
But this World Cup had some insane matches with some very wild shots and very interesting rallies.
And the loss of Ma Long.. I like him very much, but it was a great thing for the sport that both of the chinese players lost to a non-chinese player and we had an eoropean final. This could give some hope to the young non-chinese players that are still in the shadow of Timo, Samsonov, Mizutani and may be somehow afraid of the chinese dominance. I think

NextLevel said:

I feel a bit depressed that Dima is going to win this without beating a Chinese player. But I guess you don't make your draw.

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yeap timo did all the hard work and basically gave the prize to his mate (he seemed a bit tired and with bad body language after 2-2) , props to dima for admitting it after the final

LordPippington said:

lol, all of these posts sound like me after a loss at the club!

"Uhh yeah, shoulder was bugging me today... threw out my hip doing yardwork last week... water was too cold when I washed my hands... -- And the ITTF banned my favorite rubber cleaner!"

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hahahahaha I knew this day will come, ma long is still not like ZJK in crucial situations...kinda gives hardcore ML fans a taste of their own medicine when they said ZJK fans are full of excuses when ZJK lost

Its like saying dima didnt deserve to win because timo was tired and dima had a "lucky" draw . It is what it is end of story, competition is not 100 % fair for everyone and at the same time.

Before the match Timo said that he felt ML was not 100% ready so he had a chance.

Dima is the best..

Timo deserved this

Wow what a tournament! A lot of 7 game matches and Timo who showed to be in an awesome shape at his age! Still biting nails after the crucial matches.

First off: congratulations to Dima and Timo.

Second: I do think this is good for the sport of table tennis as a whole.

Third: I think this shows how the moves the Chinese government made—in regards to the organization of the CNT coaching—have been helpful to the sport as a whole even if, this result was inadvertent.

By making decisions that truly hurt the CNT, the Chinese government may have helped make table tennis a little more interesting to fans from all over the world.

I feel for the players of the CNT though. It seems to me, without the amazing coaching they had while Liu Gouliang was the head coach, the overall play of the top players seems to be suffering. Perhaps it is a short term thing and the CNT will right itself. But it is hard to say.

FZD did not seem up to his usual standard in the finals of the Asian Cup where he lost to LGY either.

We can look at these things and think FZD had a bad day and ML and Lin Gaoyuan had bad days against Timo as well.

This may be true. History will tell the full tale in the coming years.

But I remember when Mike Tyson was convinced he was so good he did not need a good coaching staff and trainer and fired Kevin Rooney, only to watch his boxing skills rapidly slip and his corner of yes men unable to coach him out of tight battles. Against Buster Douglass they were so unprepared for Tyson’s opponent to put up a real fight that they did not have the standard tools (Enswell) for keeping the swelling of his eyes down.

It seems to me the Chinese government may have underestimated the importance of the coaching staff in the shifts they made in the recent past.

I feel for the CNT players but hope this is good for the sport in the long run for China to have to rebuild a little and for the rest of the world to see that China is not simply invincible.

And I do think that if Tyson had kept his original corner, he could have gone down as the greatest heavyweight of all times. But his decisions about coaching and his overconfidence about his skills without realizing how important his coaching and training had been caused his downfall.

Let’s hope the example of the CNT coaching staff that was dismissed ultimately helps the whole table tennis world improve their level.


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