Who do you think will win the Australian Open 2017?

  • Dimitrij Ovtcharov

    Votes: 2 4.7%
  • Xu Xin

    Votes: 22 51.2%
  • Lee Sangsu

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Koki Niwa

    Votes: 1 2.3%
  • Tomokazu Harimoto

    Votes: 9 20.9%
  • Hugo Calderano

    Votes: 4 9.3%
  • Simon Gauzy

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Jun Mizutani

    Votes: 3 7.0%
  • Kenta Matsudaira

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (Post Below)

    Votes: 1 2.3%

  • Total voters
    43
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anyone know the yinhe blade Liu Dingshuo is using?

View attachment 17004

Today's China super league....
View attachment 15333View attachment 15334View attachment 15335

It's probably Yinhe T1S
View attachment 15336

It's said that Ma Long used Liu Dingshuo's bat today. And would probably just for one night.
for test purposes? or his own blade didn't pass the test?
The reason is not cleared.
This is Liu Dingshuo ↓
View attachment 15337

Anyway, he used some new blade, and beat the opponent 3:0.

View attachment 15343

View attachment 15347

It seems to be V-14 PRO custom with T-5s handle.


This is the thread:
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...Oops-Ma-Long-is-using-Yinhe-today#post_219812
 
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So much assumption that XX style is outdated due to the new ball huh?

I was impressed with XX. I initially thought that the new trend of at the table, compact strokes will end XX's style because he uses far too much energy on footwork and strokes. The thing is, when XX gets his full swing in, it's a monster shot. Harimoto couldn't deal with the over the table rips and the insane side spin on XX's shots. XX earned his attacks then finished them confidently. Very fun to watch.
 
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Sorry late to the party on this one but after seeing almost all of Xu Xin's matches at the Austrian Open, did he seem like he simply said

"to be damed with RPB (although he had some nice shots here & there), I'm going to step around and hit my FH anyways and I'll live or die with daring someone to put it wide to my FH."

That seemed like some good ole, young man's single wing dominate with this massive FH play if I've ever seen it.

Probably most evident of this of all is Harimoto's FH attack which is seemingly always cross-court. Xu Xin stepped around those anyways and just banked on that his FH was better. And it usually is.
 
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I've said it numerous times before and I'll say it again... two things in particular held XX back - his over reliance on both weaker equipment and a strong forehand.
His new equipment has allowed him to reintroduce spin, speed and consistency into his game. And, with a more reliable and powerful backhand has has closed the gaps in his game to a great extent.
I can honestly say that while i was blown away watching him play, I'm really not that surprised.
 
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Sorry late to the party on this one but after seeing almost all of Xu Xin's matches at the Austrian Open, did he seem like he simply said

"to be damed with RPB (although he had some nice shots here & there), I'm going to step around and hit my FH anyways and I'll live or die with daring someone to put it wide to my FH."

That seemed like some good ole, young man's single wing dominate with this massive FH play if I've ever seen it.

Probably most evident of this of all is Harimoto's FH attack which is seemingly always cross-court. Xu Xin stepped around those anyways and just banked on that his FH was better. And it usually is.

Liu Guoliang said whenever he wanted to encourage Xu Xin during a game, he would say "Your forehand is the best in the world. If you don't believe that, then you might as well go home now."
 
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I've said it numerous times before and I'll say it again... two things in particular held XX back - his over reliance on both weaker equipment and a strong forehand.
His new equipment has allowed him to reintroduce spin, speed and consistency into his game. And, with a more reliable and powerful backhand has has closed the gaps in his game to a great extent.
I can honestly say that while i was blown away watching him play, I'm really not that surprised.
The two things that held XX back were missing, ML and FZD.
 
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The finals - Australian observations

Well it was a funny old evening at the table tennis. Some observations to make, some questions to ask, and possibly even an apology to offer.

First of all the crowd: well they were out in force. I have a sneaking suspicion that the bulk of Geelong's Chinese population had voted the Arena as the place to be. Way more than 147, so much so that I lost count. Best guesstimate in the order of 1,000 - 1,200. Chinese flags outnumbered Australian ones 50:1 (and most of the Aussie ones were being waved by Chinese hands). The place was so crowded the dog had left in disgust.

What was the crowd eating, given there wasn't a Four'N Twenty within cooee of the joint? Turns out potato "gems" are the go. Why is this at all noteworthy? It explains why I missed important points of play, while numbers of people surged backwards and forwards ferrying containers of the aforesaid comestibles. Mind you, they were nowhere near as annoying as the clown with the TV camera who insisted on visiting every few minutes to shove his gear in the face of the spectators. What is it with the modern human being that we're so in love with ourselves we're prepared to put up with missing the match just so we can see our faces up on the big screen? Are we terrified we don't exist unless a camera is there to record us?

Four matches; four entirely different expressions of table tennis; four wildly different responses from the crowd. Fascinating. Women's doubles final: Japan versus Japan. Attackers versus choppers. Ho hum. Apparently the crowd wasn't there to see skill. What was potentially the most interesting clash of styles didn't cut the mustard. I was fascinated by the sheer technical artistry of Hashimoto and Sato, the delicacy of a backhand chop against Hayata and Ito's firepower. Of course the latter duo won quite comfortably, but the applause they received was polite at best.

Enter the men's doubles. Korea against Japan, and the crowd was interested from the off. No Chinese, so why the sudden attention? Ah! Someone wants to see the Japanese lose! With the crowd behind them - what kind of weird, home town advantage is this? - Lee and Jeoung stormed home. And what did the crowd like best? Guys hitting the ball really, really hard. I have to say, Lee Sangsu's backhand is awesome, a word I use sparingly and with deep appreciation. He hits it with such a low arc and ferocious power. Yes, he loses a few points to the net, but he also won numerous rallies, sometimes from ridiculous defensive positions.

If the first match was insipid, and the second eight notches higher on the excitement scale, then Liu Shiwen against Ding Ning was off the chart. It was as if this was the match the crowd had come to see. And they weren't disappointed in the slightest. It took DN a while to gather herself, but when she did it was a thing of beauty. Some of the exchanges were dizzying executions of the highest standard of table tennis I have ever seen. On the small screen they're wonderful, but in the flesh they're gobsmacking. That hackneyed phrase "the crowd erupted" actually has meaning for me now.

Too often in the opening games DN was caught out of position, cramped or stretched or simply misreading LSW's shots. But in games three, four and five, the former world champ revealed her true glory. I was ecstatic; here was the player I had come to see doing her stuff. Sadly she couldn't hold it together. There was one moment in game six where she was sent sprawling by a masterfully executed LSW cross court backhand and I held my breath. DN climbed to her feet, face set but there was the tiniest suggestion of a limp, the dodgy left leg. She made zero fuss, but the match swung away and she went down in seven. The crowd were ecstatic.

The last match of the competition was a repeat of China vs China but the fizz was gone from the auditorium. Pourquoi? What mysterious element was missing from the Xu Xin - Liu Dingshuo contest? On occasion they hit the ball as hard as Lee Sangsu; on occasion they went at each other as ferociously Ding and Liu. But the crowd had lost interest. Yes, they cheered mightily some of the big looping rallies, and they would have been very happy to have seen more, but they liked the earlier frenetic exchanges even more.

Over on ooakforum there's been a bit of a moan from the usual suspects about off-the-bounce counter-hitting but I have to tell you the crowd loved it. The only flicker of interest in the first match of the night was when Mima Ito absolutely crushed a loop or chop with an early down the line winner. The crowd likes it hard and fast. So what was the big difference between the women's final and the men's? Who knows? But I'd like to hazard a guess. I don't think the crowd was particularly table tennis literate. Happy to be there and happy to wave flags and cheer, but hardly tt freaks like we are. I suspect they were just knowledgeable enough to recognise the biggest names of recent years, and DN and LSW fit the bill. I also suspect that XX was known but LDS was not, a blank, a nobody. The crowd was there to see favourites and the women's final had them and the men's didn't.

An apology: to the young guys who were on the train and also sat just in front of me and who talked non-stop for hours on end. I may have said, "Don't you ever shut up?" I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say it out loud.
 
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You come across a bit grumpy in that post mate, maybe you should've gone to the footy haha?
Grumpy? Moi? Never! (Well, okay, just a little bit.)

In all seriousness, I did have a bit of a mixed evening. I was as crook as Rookwood but still dragged myself onto an aeroplane and then a train to get to Geelong. Feeling lower than a snake's belly, I didn't appreciate having my concentration broken by people less interested in the matches than in getting the nose bag on or poking a camera in someone's face. I mean I didn't care when it was happening elsewhere but when it was directly between me and Ding Ning's reverse tomahawk, I wasn't impressed. Of course I was stuck in the cheap seats, whereas others had an uninterrupted view of proceedings. So, cranky... at times.

On the other hand, the play really was quite fabulous. When XX and LDS engaged the heavy artillery, it was spectacular. When DN and LSW really went at one another's throats, it was breathtaking. Plus there were a number of things on display that just aren't captured on video. I was struck by the huge difference in sound between a finely sliced chop - an almost imperceptible hiss of rubber past ball - and the booming crack of an off-the-bounce counterhit. XX's sidespin loops sounded different from LDS's counterloops. I just hadn't realised just how stark the contrast could be.

Equally, I was mesmerised by the amount of spin these guys generate with their serves. Yes, we've all seen demos from various luminaries, but I was sitting nicely in line behind the lefties serving position (5 lefties out of 12 participants) and the bend they were getting with pendulum serves was frightening. Sure, their opponents treated it as if it was just another day at the office, but I know for sure and certain I wouldn't have got a single one of them back. The other revelation for me was the wild variations DN is able to get with her reverse tomahawk. When she first unpacked it, LSW struggled to read the degree of side/top/back that was coming at her. Plus, DN seemed to be able to put it anywhere on her opponent's half - short or long, forehand or backhand. Truly a thing of beauty.

So, a night for being grumpy or a night for being elated? Both, obviously, but on balance I had a great time. I've dragged myself home and am off to the doctor's tomorrow, but thinking about Sunday still makes me smile.
 
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The finals - Australian observations

Well it was a funny old evening at the table tennis. Some observations to make, some questions to ask, and possibly even an apology to offer[...]

Well bircham ... the utmost pleasure, one must experience, while reading your posts from the AO, you must accept that from now on we'll consider you as our primary correspondent! : )
 
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