Swedish Open 2017

Thought it is another FZD walk through but not today. Glad to see XX back on his feet after that 0:4 humiliation one week earlier. Interesting to see them both switch to DHS and ditch their long term Stiga after the dismiss of LGL. Hope it means a new era for him with the help of Wang Hao and his blade . Congrat to the new champ.

Results from Day 7 (Sun 19 November 2017):

Finals:

Men's Singles


[1] Fan Zhendong 1:4 Xu Xin [2] (11:6, 7:11, 9:11, 6:11, 2:11)


Women's Singles

[1] Ding Ning 3:4 Chen Xingtong [Q] (9:11, 13:15, 12:10, 6:11, 11:6, 11:6, 9:11)


Men's Doubles

[3] Ho Kwan Kit/Wong Chun Ting 1:3 Fan Zhendong/Xu Xin [2] (11:6, 5:11, 6:11, 8:11)


Women's Doubles

[3] Chen Meng/Zhu Yuling 1:3 Hina Hayata/Mima Ito [2] (8:11, 11:1, 9:11, 9:11)

Is it a XX revival or FZD's dip in form?? FZD has dominated XX in the past year so this loss is little surprising. Either way XX played well and navigated via tough draw including Tomo

Congrats XX!

After so many loses against FZD in the past 1-2 years, he did not disappoint this time.
I was finally right in predicting who will win in the poll.

drunix80 said:

Is it a XX revival or FZD's dip in form?? FZD has dominated XX in the past year so this loss is little surprising. Either way XX played well and navigated via tough draw including Tomo

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Looking back at FZD's recent results , it seems fan zhendong's form is not ideal . But again we cant close our eyes on XX's effort vs him

There is some new ball or what? Everyone is complaining about some new ball, but it is still the same 40+ plastic ball isn't it?

Not really. There seems to be at least two generations of plastic balls as DHS (provider of official balls) moves from their (awful) "poly" balls to ABS technology (slightly different material which was previously used by Nittaku for their Premium 40+ balls - surely DHS uses slightly different process because Nittaku are going their own way with patented outcomes of their R&D). The question is how big is the difference, from when the teams started training with it, if there are even more "bumps" in DHS process and quality assurance since they introduced this new D40+ (some shops also market it as "DHS cell-free Dual") balls in Q1/Q2 2017...

Michal Dao said:

There is some new ball or what? Everyone is complaining about some new ball, but it is still the same 40+ plastic ball isn't it?

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NextLevel said:

https://d3mjm6zw6cr45s.cloudfront.net/2017/11/Matches-Day-3-Main-Draw-3.pdf

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Sorry for the delay
Fantastic. Thanks NL
[Emoji106]

Ma Short uploaded a few matches with the great angle from the tourney

For those of you who are skeptical about change that the new ABS balls bring, this may be interesting to you. Dima's responses in a German forum.
PS: Can anyone translate to English? Google translation works but a precise translation will be appreciated.

Dima also mentioned he chose different blade for different balls.

The last part get me interested really ...
The pro are changing the blade every 3 month ...because of the water based glue is affecting the speed of the blade and blade becomes slower ..... hmmmmmmmmmm interesting... bad sealed blades ?

Maybe they don't seal at all because sealing affects the feeling for the ball?

1. The balls have caused a lot of frustration and injuries since their introduction. Every kind of plastic ball (doesn't matter which), will have considerably less spin. Earlier, hardly anyone could return my Backhand serves short or control my topspins if I put 100% of my power into them. Nowadays you need to work a lot more for your points and cleverness and explosive speed is rewarded much more than power.


The biggest problem is, we have to use a good chunk of our time just to get used to the particular ball that we have to play way with instead of improving our games. Every single ball is different.


2. I try to play with less power and more speed. It's still a long journey as I really enjoy playing with power.


3. Well noticed (replying to comment that noted that: Dima's forehand movement has become shorter and that he takes the ball earlier. Xu Xin and Dima's movements were much longer than LGY and Niwa's. However, nowadays the timing of [Dima's] forehand is no longer as different compared to that of the backhand).


Currently working on playing with more speed and less power. My footwork for the receive has become better and as a result, I am able to maintain my balance for the following balls and take the ball earlier.

4: I am playing with carbon blades for the past 15 years. I vary between harder carbon blades such as the True Carbon and softer carbon blades like the Ovtcharov original.


It makes a big difference if the carbon ply is closer or further from the top ply.


Because the balls are so differnt, I choose the blade as per the ball. Hard ball: soft blade and vice-versa


5. Q: Are you the only player to switch blades according to the ball. Is that not a disadvantage?


A: Haha, if it were a disadvantage, I would not be doing it.


I observed that all of the Chinese players were also playing with new blades during the German Open.


Because of the water-based glue, very few professionals use the same blade for more than 3 months as the water seeps into the blade and slows it down.

Thx for the translation!

Dima Ovtcharov is posting to the forum himself? That's very cool.

bobpuls said:

The last part get me interested really ...
The pro are changing the blade every 3 month ...because of the water based glue is affecting the speed of the blade and blade becomes slower ..... hmmmmmmmmmm interesting... bad sealed blades ?

Click to expand...

These guys glue very frequently and boost as well. If you do so, then change your blade too.

bobpuls said:

The last part get me interested really ...
The pro are changing the blade every 3 month ...because of the water based glue is affecting the speed of the blade and blade becomes slower ..... hmmmmmmmmmm interesting... bad sealed blades ?

Click to expand...

The clever ones have a quantity of their blades in heavy weight range on hand and ROTATE them into practice/match play as they take off the rubbers after a certain time and dry out and recondition the blade. That allows one to keep these blades and not ruin them too early.