Czech Open 2018

Sali · Aug 25, 2018

NextLevel said:
These things can be fixed with a culture of enforcement but it seems that people are somewhat satisfied with the ugly grey area we currently have. In any case, it is worth pointing out the impact on the match quality every once in s while especially when one player is serving with visible contact and the other is not.

I think pointing out wrong serves by sterger is very good for the sport. As long as players will point out what is wrong to the judges it can change a lot. I remember I think 2 years ago at Polish open when steger was playing freitas he was arguing that freitas serves wrong and the umpire started noticing it - finally steger won the match.

BTW: last point freitas vs habesohn - amazing

vik · Aug 25, 2018

Who is pitchford couch? Woman?

Konrad Bak · Aug 25, 2018

Yup she is very positive coach

Richie · Aug 25, 2018

She seems to be a good mental coach.. but she doesn't seem to give any actual practical advice, I'd prefer to hear, or would like to hear that too that if I were Liam.

zeio · Aug 25, 2018

Is she the woman Pitchford mentioned?

NextLevel · Aug 25, 2018

zeio said:
Is she the woman Pitchford mentioned?

Yes, she is the sports/movement psychologist.

Brs · Aug 25, 2018

NextLevel said:
Yes, she is the sports/movement psychologist.

Whatever she is, it seems to be working. Or else Pitchford is just having a great year from luck or good karma, but whatever he has been doing, he should stick with it.

Brs · Aug 25, 2018

NextLevel said:
Yes, she is the sports/movement psychologist.

NextLevel said:
Blatantly illegal and repeatedly so. I didn't focus on Wen Jia but I could see how Ito wins so many points on serve and attack or just outright serve.

Isn't hiding serves the standard in international play now? Who has legal punch serves?

Ito also wins a lot of points on her high-toss backspin serve which does appear legal to me.

As far as her meltdown, she is always capable of winning or losing 6 or 8 points in a row. Inherent in the SP and also her forehand style I guess. She goes for a lot of hard flat shots that have little safety but are also nearly unreturnable. A little bit different and fun to watch, imo.

NextLevel · Aug 25, 2018

Brs said:
Isn't hiding serves the standard in international play now? Who has legal punch serves?

The guys from the UK would tell you Pitchford. Though I found it interesting that the punch serve disappeared vs ZPF.

zeio · Aug 25, 2018

Choke Open 2018...

Tiago Nunes · Aug 25, 2018

Amazing win from Marcos. 4-3 vs Harimoto!!

talbon · Aug 25, 2018

laistrogian said:
Just watched the samsonov vs harimoto and it struck me how we're not going to see the table tennis I grew up watching anymore.

It's not about putting a lot of spin on a ball anymore compared to smacking back the ball as soon as possible

Not sure I agree. You have players like Boll and Freitas in or around the top 15 still.

Even these Harimoto vs Samsonov encounters, for me, highlight how much control and tactics can mitigate a fast off-the-bounce playstyle. That's with Samsonov being so slow and poor at covering his middle at times (given his standard of play).

If only he could move his ass a bit more and go all out (and cho back at Harimoto)... Sometimes it feels like he is on the verge of utterly crushing Harimoto... moving much faster and more smoothly, finding angles and controlling from his ground line. Then play resumes and he is back to 40+ Vladi

Sigh, he even had the crowd quite clearly on his side at this open...

talbon · Aug 25, 2018

Besides, after watching many Harimoto matchups, it seems that beyond (and perhaps more than) his fast-paced playstyle, a real strength of Harimoto is his serve and 3rd ball. It's surprising just how many easy 3rd ball kills HT gets. I wouldn't be surprised if a player who can deny him those would get to see a different face of Harimoto.

His pendulum serve looks the same as every other Joe's pendulum serve, but it must be deceptive because EVERYONE tries to touch it short to his FH and EVERYONE pops it high. On top of that, Harimoto has an amazing FH flip. I can't think of a better FH flip as his, off the top of my head. It stands out like Eloi's would. (It is actually a mystery to me as to why players still go for the short FH return against him)

His 3rd ball against returns to his long BH (push or flick) is also really good. For a while his short BH was weaker, but nowadays his 3rd ball banana flick is rather good. (Freitas did give him some trouble with a short reverse pendulum to his BH though.) Nobody really ever goes for long or half long pushes to his FH. In general people still play to his BH a lot despite knowing how strong it is.

Takkyu_wa_inochi · Aug 26, 2018

She is Liam Pitchford ‘s girlfriend

Loopadoop · Aug 26, 2018

Takkyu_wa_inochi said:
She is Liam Pitchford ‘s girlfriend

Who ?

JesperStef · Aug 26, 2018

Results from Day 5 (Sat 25 August 2018)

Men's Singles

Quarter-finals:

Liam Pitchford 4:1 Dimitrij Ovtcharov [1] (13:11, 10:12, 11:4, 11:7, 11:6)
Zheng Peifeng 4:2 Bastian Steger [13] (11:9, 11:5, 9:11, 7:11, 11:5, 11:4)

[4] Marcos Freitas 4:1 Daniel Habesohn (11:6, 9:11, 11:6, 11:6, 11:3)
[2] Tomokazu Harimoto 4:2 Patrick Franziska [9] (2:11, 11:4, 7:11, 11:9, 11:9, 11:8)

Semi-finals:

Zheng Peifeng 4:1 Liam Pitchford (11:8, 11:7, 11:13, 11:5, 11:9)
[4] Marcos Freitas 4:3 Tomokazu Harimoto [2] (11:5, 1:11, 11:8, 9:11, 11:8, 5:11, 11:6)

Women's Singles

Quarter-finals:

[1] Kasumi Ishikawa 4:2 Adriana Diaz (12:14, 11:5, 11:7, 11:6, 9:11, 11:5)
[7] Saki Shibata 4:3 Miu Hirano [3] (11:9, 12:10, 12:10, 7:11, 8:11, 4:11, 11:7)

Wu Yang 4:1 Sabine Winter (11:3, 11:5, 11:2, 11:13, 11:9)
Wen Jia 4:3 Mima Ito [2] (4:11, 11:7, 10:12, 11:5, 7:11, 13:11, 11:7)

Semi-finals:

[1] Kasumi Ishikawa 4:1 Saki Shibata [7] (11:7, 12:10, 11:6, 11:13, 11:6)
Wen Jia 4:1 Wu Yang (8:11, 11:4, 11:6, w.o. due to injury)

Atas Newton · Aug 26, 2018

Wen Jia losing 2 games to a foreigner! And now the third. Not just any foreigner - someone as weak as Ishikawa.
Just retire Wen Jia.

Sali · Aug 26, 2018

One chinese down one to go

lugi2000 · Aug 26, 2018

Come on Freitas. NOt seen Freitas in a final forr long time

NextLevel · Aug 26, 2018

Sali said:
One chinese down one to go

zeio must be in shock. Kasumi actually beat someone who beat Mima Ito - kishikawa syndrome in overdrive!

Czech Open 2018

Who do you think will win the Czech Open?

Dimitrij Ovtcharov

Tomokazu Harimoto

Koki Niwa

Marcos Freitas

Jonathan Groth

Mattias Falck

Ruwen Filus

Kristian Karlsson

Vladimir Samsonov

Other (Post Below)

Well-Known Member

Member

This user has been banned.

Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads