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I think G_ZHANG already gave above quite complete and comprehensive reasons for the pros.
You right NextLevel, situation for pros is much different than amateurs but what is common here is for sure the lack of accessibility.
If I study Timo's game and try to imitate him I can go to the store and buy the same equipment he has (well there might be some discussion, but more or less it is true).
If I want to imitate ML, what I'm left with are rubbers that are "sort of" like his. This is just irritating.
Even more so for pros I guess, let's say very serious pros who practice to actually beat ML ... how could they do it with rubbers that are inherently not as good as ML's (Berndtjgmann and Carl ... I know I know ... it's just a thinking shortcut ; )
I'll say it one more time the, Formula 1 like situation in table tennis is irritating. Makes me think i should switch to squash or tennis ... which is of course just never going to happen ... but I tried squash on a side ... cool sport ; )
Accessibility is not the biggest reason, what the Chinese do is not magic. But if you believe it is, that is okay. It's not the kind of thing you get convinced of by just talking about it, there are many good tacky rubbers to play with if you really want to play with them and boosting rubbers is done by a known process. Its the legality of it that some question but that is partly about the competition amongst players and manufacturers at the highest level and we should not confuse the amateur levels with it. Timo's claim is more about openness and the letter of the ITTF law.
If I didn't have arthritis I could easily play tacky rubber.
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