China Open 2019

NoFootwork · Jun 2, 2019

zeio said:
Ya, go bang your head in the link below. Anyone who hasn't lived through the era when World Championships meant something won't be able to tell.

https://bbs.hupu.com/27681912.html#171342

As for ML's historical status, it's a shame.
In a time when the WTTC doesn't exist anymore, he lacks the platform on which to shine.
Not to mention his current opponents, 40-year-old Boll, 15-year-old Harimoto...
Not even a stepping stone to ascendancy could be found.
Another minus for ML.
He's a next-in-line successor, waiting for the senior WH, and even the barged-in ZJK
to both recede, and only then, by his seniority, did he become the World No 1.

Sure, if that's what makes some people happy. The fact remains that no male player, not a single one, has accomplished what Ma Long has since the start of the sponge era. In the 80's thru mid-90's Chinese TT was relatively weak. I had a conversation with Jorg Rosskopf and he mentioned back then he and the other European players looked forward to playing against the Chinese (he called it hunting.)

Being injured and not being able to play most of 2018, then coming back to win Qatar, runner up in Asia Cup (I believe it was a strategic loss to FZD as to not show all his cards in anticipation of a WTTC matchup), win WTTC, win China Open is simply not done. Some people think its routine. How well did ZJK recover from his injury to dominate again?

JesperStef · Jun 2, 2019

Results from Day 6 (Sun 02 June 2019)

Men's Singles

Semi-finals:

[11] Ma Long 4:1 Tomokazu Harimoto [4] (14:16, 16:14, 11:7, 11:8, 11:7)
[3] Lin Gaoyuan 4:2 Xu Xin [2] (11:9, 6:11, 5:11, 11:6, 11:8, 11:6)

Final:

[11] Ma Long 4:0 Lin Gaoyuan [3] (12:10, 11:6, 11:5, 11:4)

Women's Singles

Semi-finals:

[4] Wang Manyu 4:1 Mima Ito [7] (12:10, 12:10, 5:11, 11:7, 11:6)
[3] Chen Meng 4:1 Zhu Yuling [2] (18:16, 5:11, 11:8, 11:6, 11:9)

Final:

[3] Chen Meng 4:1 Wang Manyu [4] (11:3, 8:11, 11:9, 11:9, 11:7)

Source: https://www.ittf.com/tournament/5003/2019/2019-ittf-world-tour-china-open/

NoFootwork · Jun 2, 2019

zeio said:
ML still has trouble judging the length of Harimoto's FH push.

ML misses so many killers and counter rallies.

ML also had a lot of trouble judging TH's serve depth. He also seems to pop up his FH push against Harimoto a lot more than any other player.

NoFootwork · Jun 2, 2019

Atas Newton said:
right, and conversely the BH parallel is the weapon of choice for Fan Zhendong and previously Zhang Jike against Ma Long. I think there's something meta going on between them when it comes to BH to BH rallies, something about establishing the alpha dominance within CNT

I agree with this. With ML having a much weaker BH earlier in his career, I also think he wants to prove his BH now is equal to or better than any other CNT (or foreign) player and wants to stay in BH to BH rallies to prove the point. At some point, ML will satisfy himself in that regard and will start switching to parallel, etc. which will cause another nightmare for his opponents to contend with.

rainneverever · Jun 2, 2019

Quoting from a post written by nobody in a Chinese forum to back up your judgement...Zero, u can do a better job!

drunix80 · Jun 2, 2019

NoFootwork said:
No, it not TH can get better until the Tokyo Olympics, its TH WILL get better by the time the Tokyo Olympics come along. The question will be how well he will be able to withstand the pressure playing in Tokyo with all these expectations on him.

ML is simply amazing, no words to describe what he can do on the court. The risk of injury between now and Toyko is still there. And going for double grand slam will have enormous pressure on him as well.

Frankly, the pressure on ML will be far less than TH. ML plays with less nerves now than ever before. Partly because he has nothing remaining to prove. He is playing to quench the thirst for his love of TT now. His hunger for winning remains very high. In such circumstances only injury can stop ML.

zeio · Jun 2, 2019

Good enough as a counterargument for a nobody fan____. I have better things to knock myself out.

drunix80 · Jun 2, 2019

Overall in the match between TH and ML, it was little alarming to see TH not winning many of the BH to BH rallies.

NextLevel · Jun 2, 2019

For me, it is fairly obvious that the players of today are not WH or ZJK quality for age or technical reasons. It is also fairly obvious to me that ML is a GOAT. Can we move on and stop giving silly arguments for what we already believe because we aren't mature enough to handle disagreement?

NextLevel · Jun 2, 2019

drunix80 said:
Overall in the match between TH and ML, it was little alarming to see TH not winning many of the BH to BH rallies.

People continue to misunderstand HT, it is not about the BH rallies but about the speed of his game.

rainneverever · Jun 2, 2019

Deng Yaping had good comments on HT's game today.

RidTheKid · Jun 2, 2019

Care to share?

rainneverever said:
Deng Yaping had good comments on HT's game today.

thom · Jun 2, 2019

NoFootwork said:
No, it not TH can get better until the Tokyo Olympics, its TH WILL get better by the time the Tokyo Olympics come along. The question will be how well he will be able to withstand the pressure playing in Tokyo with all these expectations on him.

ML is simply amazing, no words to describe what he can do on the court. The risk of injury between now and Toyko is still there. And going for double grand slam will have enormous pressure on him as well.

barring injuries - it could happen to anyone - who do you think is more equipped to peak and be better at Tokyo? As for pressure, that comes with experience under it and how they have fared so far. HT has a chance (as a few others) as he is volatile but you have to assess their chances under normal circumstances.

bricephan · Jun 2, 2019

zeio said:
As for ML's historical status, it's a shame.
In a time when the WTTC doesn't exist anymore, he lacks the platform on which to shine.
Not to mention his current opponents, 40-year-old Boll, 15-year-old Harimoto...
Not even a stepping stone to ascendancy could be found.
Another minus for ML.
He's a next-in-line successor, waiting for the senior WH, and even the barged-in ZJK
to both recede, and only then, by his seniority, did he become the World No 1.

True loser’s statement

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

NoFootwork · Jun 2, 2019

thom said:
barring injuries - it could happen to anyone - who do you think is more equipped to peak and be better at Tokyo? As for pressure, that comes with experience under it and how they have fared so far. HT has a chance (as a few others) as he is volatile but you have to assess their chances under normal circumstances.

My top 3 choices to win Olympics Men's singles gold at Tokyo 2020 are ML, FZD, TH in that order.

Based on current form, ML has to be the favorite to win Tokyo Olympics. But there isn't as much difference between the very top players as it seems. Despite the 4-1 score between ML and FZD, it was a very close match with ML winning the last 2 games at deuce. Today's match between TH and ML was also 4-1. If TH wins the first 2 games, the match results could have been very different. The best of the best somehow find a way to pull out a win more often than not.

TH will have huge home crowd advantage at Tokyo 2020 but with that comes tremendous pressure. If he thinks of himself as a clear underdog and plays as if he has nothing to lose, TH has a very good chance of capturing gold. Regardless, he will have 2 or 3 more shots at Olympics gold after 2020. Its not do or die for him. On the other hand, its ML's only shot to get a double slam.

Funny things happen in sports, especially when trying to win big events. Look at what happened at the 2019 WTTC - unexpected losses by TH, XX, FZD, Pitchford, and Boll (withdrawal).

Xylit · Jun 2, 2019

NoFootwork said:
But there isn't as much difference between the very top players as it seems.

I would not say that about Ma Long. He definitely stands out of the top players' list. As for the rest of CNT and a very few non-CNT players I'd agree with you. They are very close together.

In the end Ma Long has won the China Open with a set record of 20-3 (against Japan's and China's top players). Does not sound close to me at all.

yoass · Jun 2, 2019

A year is a long time. I’d be hesitant to predict what’ll happen over 12 months, and certainly not base my arguments in the form of the moment of today.

The Dragon first and foremost needs to remain clear of injury. Not impossible, but certainly not a given.

Zaid323918 · Jun 2, 2019

RidTheKid said:
ML has used H3 on bh since 2015 at least.

I was talking about FZD

aerial · Jun 3, 2019

zeio said:
I don't know. All-China finals are so boring. Is there any demand?

China v China matches are exciting, depending on who plays.

I would enjoy any of the following matchups:
Ma Long v Zhang Jike
Ma Long v Fan Zhendong
Wang Liqin v Chen Qi
Wang Hao v Ma Lin

Matchups that are too one sided might be a bit boring

will_999 · Jun 3, 2019

ML seemed to be very nervous during the HT game. Each point of that match was intense. Very different set of nerves while playing CNT players. Younger players other than FZD and Xuxin appear to be very intimidated by brother Long..

China Open 2019

Member

Active Member

Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Member

Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Member

Member

Similar threads