Who do you think will win the Europe Top 16?

  • Dimitrij Ovtcharov

    Votes: 11 21.2%
  • Timo Boll

    Votes: 26 50.0%
  • Simon Gauzy

    Votes: 2 3.8%
  • Vladimir Samsonov

    Votes: 1 1.9%
  • Marcos Freitas

    Votes: 2 3.8%
  • Ruwen Filus

    Votes: 1 1.9%
  • Kristian Karlsson

    Votes: 2 3.8%
  • Alexander Shibaev

    Votes: 4 7.7%
  • Bastian Steger

    Votes: 1 1.9%
  • Other (Post Below)

    Votes: 2 3.8%

  • Total voters
    52

Brs

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Brs

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They may have been unforced but listening to Timo's racket when he played Vladi and Dima, the silence was deafening and I think the spin was on another level.
I watched with the sound off but thought the same thing. Career Samsonov must have played Boll how many times, 100+? And he is a great blocker. But on some of his block attempts vs Boll's fh he underestimated the spin by so much. It almost looked like the ball was flying straight up off his bat. Definitely some extra spin coming from timo. Maybe he got the first sheets of t05 c or n or whatever.
 
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Recent form of FZD has not been great by his own standards if you follow super league. And his defeats in CSL were mostly against left handers ( Boll plays better than all these lefties btw ). Also pls dont go by world cup final against Dima. If you review that match again, you will definitely find that 4-0 score was misleading. On the other side did you see Boll's footwork, backhand, serves and spin on the strokes?? I think he is actually playing better than his prime.
yes I follow CSL, but in my opinion FZD form is nothing worse then usual. Some players in CSL just know how to play FZD but they will never be great in internation stage. If you watch FZD footwork, technique i power it is just great. Of course his mental and strategy could be better but still he is very hard to beat. His form is very stable now and I really do not think boll can beat him. Of course boll changed his style a lot, he is playing close to the table and right after bounce but ovtcharov showed in few occassions how easy can he make boll run corners.
Anyway in my opinion even if the final and semifinal were nice to watch, the standard of play was far away from top 10. But that is just my opinion, we have to wait for another international tournament to check it out.
 
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I watched with the sound off but thought the same thing. Career Samsonov must have played Boll how many times, 100+? And he is a great blocker. But on some of his block attempts vs Boll's fh he underestimated the spin by so much. It almost looked like the ball was flying straight up off his bat. Definitely some extra spin coming from timo. Maybe he got the first sheets of t05 c or n or whatever.


Can someone get a close up of Timo's bat from the event?
 
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Dan just played with him for the TB ALC Review and he said his paddle had regular Tenergy 05 ... I am not sure its the rubber , he always had a lot of spin ... he is focussing on precision and strategy and he keeps getting better and better the more he plays .. I don't think he has played longer than this particular stretch in a while and not gotten injured ... fingers crossed ....
I thought that Timo tried a lot more old school spinny topspins, which also got me guessing if he uses the new tenergy rubbers. In previous events when he tried that he would just get a smash back as there wasn't enough spin in it.
 
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... I am not sure its the rubber , he always had a lot of spin...
I remember about ten years ago the guy from Tischtennis-Helden has asked the followers of his YouTube channel which word comes to their minds first when speaking of Timo.
And the word which got selected most was the word...[drumroll]...rotation...[badum psss]
[Emoji2]
 
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ha ha ... yes ... his weapon of choice is spin ... and its a lot of spin ! ... when Samsonov has trouble blocking it , you know its something ! .... you hardly ever see that with Vladi ..
I remember about ten years ago the guy from Tischtennis-Helden has asked the followers of his YouTube channel which word comes to their minds first when speaking of Timo.
And the word which got selected most was the word...[drumroll]...rotation...[badum psss]
[Emoji2]
 
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