ITTF Korean Open 2019

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Despite the same straight game defeat, Ito put up a better fight here than in Hong Kong Open. She kept trying to come up with a solution on-the-fly, but dropping the 1st 2 games having the lead hurt a lot.
 
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I agree him being slightly injured, but if you watch his matches the last month he makes a lot of uncharacteristic misses, pure unforced errors, like the smashing against K2 yesterday, fh loop kill shots missing by a foot etc. He even had a service error yesterday. I can't remember seeing one before from him. A lot of little things here and there, and he LOOKS tired (swollen eyes). Uncalibrated.

IMO, ML is playing around 70-80% of his level. He knows that quite well.He still has some injury issues and main reason for him to play these tour events is to maintain a high enough ranking till Tokyo 2020. It is not that he has lost a step or two due to age but rather conserving it for bigger battles in the future.

It is also true that table played a role in this event. I had been to the venue and this table looked like a shiny piece of marble from the stands.
 
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It would only be an advantage if ML couldn't follow the speed of the game but that is not correct. I don't see the table as issue in ML losing to XX this time. XX was simply better in every aspect.

I get that different tables and conduction may affect pay, but why would a "faster" table favor Xu Xin or anyone else over Ma Long? What is the tactical advantage?
 
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As long as she become world champion in the future, does not matter how fast or slow she matured. I am rooting for her and hoping she would make it.

It took her forever to mature (she is already 25 unfortunately for her) vs the DN-LXX-LSW generation so she will only have 4 years if any. I suspect WMY and SYS will be the next champs and skip a generation.
 
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As long as she become world champion in the future, does not matter how fast or slow she matured. I am rooting for her and hoping she would make it.

I like Chen Meng a lot. I think she has missed her chance, if you read between the lines. I thought that about LSW too though.
 
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CM has it worse than LSW. LSW had 4 World Cup titles to her name before the WTTC.

CM has absolutely nothing beyond Open titles. No kidding. She has a big collection of silver medals, WTTC 2019, ATTC 2015/2017, Asian Games 2018, Asian Cup 2018/2019. Just needs a World Cup runner-up and an Olympic silver to complete the "Silver Slam".
 
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CM has it worse than LSW. LSW had 4 World Cup titles to her name before the WTTC.

CM has absolutely nothing beyond Open titles. No kidding. She has a big collection of silver medals, WTTC 2019, ATTC 2015/2017, Asian Games 2018, Asian Cup 2018/2019. Just needs a World Cup and runner-up and an Olympic silver to complete the "Silver Slam".

People used to call Li Xiaoxia "bridesmaid" as well.

I am not so focused on what she has done till date, I am more concerned about how much longer she can hold off Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha.
 
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LXX had the World Cup in 2008 and Asian Games in 2010. She reached the WTTC final first in 2007 and actually led 3-1 against Guo Yue.

Zhang Yining was suppressed by Wang Nan for a long period of time from the late 90s to the mid 2000s, often losing in the final. She stepped up in Athens when WN got ousted by Li Jiawei. She lost to Guo Yue in 2007 because she was forced to adapt the "male style" but she went back to her old style after that and never looked back.

CM can't even compare.
 
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People used to call Li Xiaoxia "bridesmaid" as well.

I am not so focused on what she has done till date, I am more concerned about how much longer she can hold off Wang Manyu and Sun Yingsha.

Wow, I didn't know she was once called the "bridesmaid". Would be interested to learn more about that. Googling "Li Xiaoxia" and "bridesmaid" got me reports about her actual wedding ;)

Anyways, CM (power + spin) can prolly fend off WMY (power + spin) for a while. She's doubly motivated by the Asian Games' loss to suppress the latter as much as possible. As for SYS, who is a combination of power, spin AND speed, maybe not that much longer – 50/50 chance I reckon.
 
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It took her forever to mature (she is already 25 unfortunately for her) vs the DN-LXX-LSW generation so she will only have 4 years if any. I suspect WMY and SYS will be the next champs and skip a generation.

:eek: perimenopause derision may be considered pre senior abuse :p
but you have a point there, this may be her only/last Olympic chance.
 
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Definitely the crowd helped a lot JYS to make this great performance. He played a really great match.

Its a tough defeat for FZD. I can't help feeling that his mental strength has been affected by his recent defeats to his young teammates and a few ones against foreign players. People said he would be the next great champion after Ma Long, but the truth is he hasn't one a big title yet, and he did worse at WTTC this year than in 2017. A year or so ago, it was impossible for a JYS to beat FZD.

FZD might not even be in Tokyo 2020
That is what I said.. FZD will never be that good.. he will maybe shine bright but short..
And he already is fading away..
Now I doubt he will even pass round 2 in Australia, lol..
 
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As for the final, the main thing I saw - was the Xu Xin backhand.
Its no more that weak and I saw many rallies where Ma Long attacked hard into Xu Xin´s backhand and Xu Xin just counterlooped back. That caused Ma Long many problems, because there was not the usual hole - and he couldnt use the tactics to topspin into the backhand and then send him to the forehand. Now when he did that Xu played backhand actively, he had more time to run over to the forehand and then pushed Ma Long into the backhand play where Ma Long was unable to play active, only blocked and many times missed..
I always said - when Xu Xin works on his backhand, he will be very tough to beat.. and he did..
 
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:eek: perimenopause derision may be considered pre senior abuse :p
but you have a point there, this may be her only/last Olympic chance.

You are right. I hope CM gets the ticket to represent China in the olympic singles competition. IMO she has the most powerful shots. It would be a high risk to prefer Ding Ning ( in the singles olympic but team olympic is ok). Although she is a grand slam champion, he performance decreased a lot (Next year she will be 30 - old for the CNT). As we saw in Busan, Ding Ning is too weak her strokes are predictable and she only can rely on blocking and she is not able anymore to reach wide angle balls. The fact that she switched to a ZLC carbon blade (her previous blade was Ebenholz NCT 7-ply wood) i think she hopes to compensate her weak topspin but it proved this was not the case. And I sam sure that Chen Meng will improve her mental strength until Tokyo. This is her last chance for CM.

Hopefully LGL will make a good decision according to olympic entries in the singles.
 
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You are right. I hope CM gets the ticket to represent China in the olympic singles competition. IMO she has the most powerful shots. It would be a high risk to prefer Ding Ning ( in the singles olympic but team olympic is ok). Although she is a grand slam champion, he performance decreased a lot (Next year she will be 30 - old for the CNT). As we saw in Busan, Ding Ning is too weak her strokes are predictable and she only can rely on blocking and she is not able anymore to reach wide angle balls. The fact that she switched to a ZLC carbon blade (her previous blade was Ebenholz NCT 7-ply wood) i think she hopes to compensate her weak topspin but it proved this was not the case. And I sam sure that Chen Meng will improve her mental strength until Tokyo. This is her last chance for CM.

Hopefully LGL will make a good decision according to olympic entries in the singles.
Nah, LGL that man is traditional and stubborn as hell- WTTC winners will only play in singles and he'll favour past Olympians over someone who's never been there, Someone that was saying when ZJK was in that rut around 2015-16 that if ZJK wants he'll play in Tokyo, Even now in interviews he'll still say he's urging Jike not to retire to help them in the Olympics. Honestly I sort of want CNT to be punished if Ding plays singles, She looks slow, lacks power, looks increasingly tired after the 4th set if the match exceeds it, Doesn't even have to be Japan, just someone to knock her out in the Singles, maybe it'll finally bring a rethink into the so called reform of the team that doesn't include reform in decision making. Chen Meng really disappointed too, You entered the final.. You had one job.. I really thought She was gonna win it, but Shiwen was more motivated, played more tactically, and the whole Chinese fans were behind LSW, I never heard anyone cheer for CM throughout the final, It shocked me!, I was like at least one or two people will cheer, No one!, Would have been a sweet victory if CM won that match but alas now she's fighting for 3rd spot, She may win all the opens but she knows it.. Deep down.. And we know it too that she won't play singles
 
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Nah, LGL that man is traditional and stubborn as hell- WTTC winners will only play in singles and he'll favour past Olympians over someone who's never been there, Someone that was saying when ZJK was in that rut around 2015-16 that if ZJK wants he'll play in Tokyo, Even now in interviews he'll still say he's urging Jike not to retire to help them in the Olympics. Honestly I sort of want CNT to be punished if Ding plays singles, She looks slow, lacks power, looks increasingly tired after the 4th set if the match exceeds it, Doesn't even have to be Japan, just someone to knock her out in the Singles, maybe it'll finally bring a rethink into the so called reform of the team that doesn't include reform in decision making. Chen Meng really disappointed too, You entered the final.. You had one job.. I really thought She was gonna win it, but Shiwen was more motivated, played more tactically, and the whole Chinese fans were behind LSW, I never heard anyone cheer for CM throughout the final, It shocked me!, I was like at least one or two people will cheer, No one!, Would have been a sweet victory if CM won that match but alas now she's fighting for 3rd spot, She may win all the opens but she knows it.. Deep down.. And we know it too that she won't play singles

This makes sense. It is really pity that as you said LGL will prefer the current olympic champion. For me it is a waste of talent. I mean sure she is very strong but not now and not in the future. Li Xiaoxia also mentioned that she could not perform well due to her age. I do not think that Ding Ning has a second olympic title on the plan but this is the policy of the CTTA.


Similar occasion was in Rio. Liu Shiwen would have owned DN in Rio but NO CTTA said that they need Li Xiaoxia. And I think this affected Liu Shiwens motivation. She almost gave up. And I am afraid that this can be the same case according to CM and consequently she would exit the CNT neither with world champion title nor with an olympic title in her hands.
 
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This makes sense. It is really pity that as you said LGL will prefer the current olympic champion. For me it is a waste of talent. I mean sure she is very strong but not now and not in the future. Li Xiaoxia also mentioned that she could not perform well due to her age. I do not think that Ding Ning has a second olympic title on the plan but this is the policy of the CTTA.


Similar occasion was in Rio. Liu Shiwen would have owned DN in Rio but NO CTTA said that they need Li Xiaoxia. And I think this affected Liu Shiwens motivation. She almost gave up. And I am afraid that this can be the same case according to CM and consequently she would exit the CNT neither with world champion title nor with an olympic title in her hands.
Or she'll reach 29 and the whole country will start supporting her like Liu Shiwen to win a WTTC, In the best interest of the team, Ding and Liu should retire after Tokyo, CM and ZYL would be 30 and 29 respectively by Paris 24 ( just as Ding and Liu would be 30 years and 29 years old respectively in Tokyo next year) and that's if WMY and SYS or probably WYD who's 22 now don't win the WTTC in 2021 and 2023. By 2028 , If it's WMY and SYS leading the team they'll both be 29 and 28 respectively: Do you see this trend of all of them being in their late 20's before probably getting a chance to play singles, No one is certain that age wouldn't affect CM, ZYL, WMY and SYS when that time comes, So this situation with Ding may occur over and over again in different generations, This is why it's very important for the young ones to do their best to beat their seniors in the WTTC, to get the chance like Jike did in 2012, if not they'll all probably have to play in the Olympics when they've passed their prime, And with Japan being pumped with young blood, It's not too forward if one says the Olympics will be really exciting to watch, And really exciting for the next 3-4 Olympics or so.
The men's team problems even run deeper
 
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