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.