Ma long not in Olympics Singles?

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And again, the people who suffer most from this are the fans and the sport. Because a SPORT that does not send its #1 ranked player to the Olympic Singles Event (a sport where the #1 player in the world is not qualified to play in the Olympic Singles Event) is not a sport that is presented to the public intelligently. The ITTF is the problem here. This is the kind of thing that cements the fact that Table Tennis is a marginal sport that will not get a great deal of Media Coverage. Stupid things like many of the rule changes, or the idea that they are going to change to a ball that is, once again, bigger, slower, and gets less spin, is an example of the same kind of bungling that the ITTF is famous for.

I agree with u, but the quote would get kinda big if I quoted the whole post :p I want to say some things about this though because I think the ITTF is (often) blamed for things they can't do much about. I'm not saying the ITTF are doing a great job, but I want to take away some possible prejudices that are incorrect in my opinion.

To start with the ball change: we all know this is a result of the celluloid production decline/ban. It is good that the ITTF gives manufacturers a couple of years the time to start working on a new ball, before they actually start using it. The glue ban was a result of the Olympic Committee threatening to ban table tennis from the Olympics. Since our sport is not big, the ITTF can't really stand up against the Olympic Committee. They wouldn't care if the Olympics had rowing instead of table tennis.

The same thing holds for the player restriction. Although I agree with all of you that this might be a stupid rule, it is not the ITTF's own idea. The Olympic Committee doesn't want a sport on the Olympics that is dominated by 1 country like China dominates table tennis. I believe I heard or read that this was also a reason why the Committee was considering dropping table tennis out of the Olympics. The idea of the Olympics is of course harmonization between countries playing sports together, and what they want to see is a race between athletes from all over the world until one stands out and takes the victory. China taking 8/12 medals (the 4 others were silver and bronze in the women's and men's team event, since China only has one team in both) isn't really a good example of that. In a desperate try to get at least one non-Chinese player on the singles podium in London, this was the ITTF's only possibility.

What makes more sense is the criticism on the qualification criteria. Assigning spots 1 year before the tournament is a little ridiculous. However, the WTTC was the last big individual event where every player in the world could participate. It might be better to change the system of the World Cup and postpone the assignment of Olympic spots to after that event is held, or maybe include the results of the Pro Tour Grand Finals, since this is a tournament that takes into account the results over a long period of time. Still it makes sense to say that the Olympics should be played by the best players of the 4 years preceding the event. And Wang Hao has been the best player of the world in 2009-2010, then should Ma Long go instead of him because of being the best for half a year in 2011 till now? That would be weird as well..

So I do agree that it is sad that these things are happening, but I don't think you can blame the ITTF for it. Their decisions are justified I think.
 
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All this love for Ma Long and disregard for how good ZJK and Wang Hao are is such a blinkered view. Ma Long has yet to win a World Championship or World Cup singles whereas both Wang Hao and ZJK have done both. In fact Wang Hao had to beat Ma Long at the last World Championships to set up the final with ZJK.

I don't think many people will argue against ZJK's inclusion because he has played relatively well over the last year, often being seen as the only person who can challenge Ma Long. However, he has some obvious weaknesses. His performances can sometimes be questionable even when he wins he seems to make hard work of it particularly against other top 10 players.

Wang Hao's form seemed to be missing since last year's World Championship but if you watch his play he seemed to be holding back. He wasn't moving as well and trying things which he normally wouldn't. However, when he wasn't only playing for himself he upped his game significantly like at Dortmund where he dropped only a few games and he destroyed a player he traditionally has had trouble against, Ryu Seung Min. Also in the Pro Tour Grand Finals when he was playing against Ma Long, he won two sets when his level suddenly reappeared but then he returned to form and eventually lost. What I'm saying in regards to Wang Hao is that he is a wise, experienced player and he has probably worked out that after the World Championships he would be playing in the Olympics so he just spent the last year re-moulding his game in preparation and he doesn't need to show it to the world until he's ready and he needs to. As we near the Olympics, notice his form beginning to return and he will hit his peak in London 2012.

A final word on Ma Long, I think that Ma Long's reputation has been overinflated by that incredible unbeaten run but it shouldn't be forgotten that only 5 or 6 players can actually challenge him but of those players only 2 or 3 have been in the right framework during that run. Wang Hao as I explained was biding his time, Timo was constantly pulling out of Pro Tours either through injury or working on his own game in Europe, Ma Lin was on a downward slide towards retirement, Xu Xin was still young and inexperienced (much like Ma Long before but is playing himself into maturity), Joo Se Hyuk had a few bright lights but in general he struggles against the Chinese players because of the amount of shot power they possess and finally ZJK who as I said has mental issues in his game that needs ironing out.

All in all, I'm not saying I'm unbiased (because I' not) but take a step back and look at the candidates more clearly. Ma Long is not as good as you might think. Just circumstances over the last year alongside the right motivation (fighting to go to the Olympics) has made him play and seem better.

Yeah I am going to have to agree with the sentiment of most of the people who replied to your comment. Yes Ma Long hasn't won a world championship, but that in of itself doesn't say all that much to me, especially in regards to his comparison with ZJK. Table tennis has a lot to do with matchups and styles of play. Ma Long's style has been improving but for the past two world championships his style wasn't a good match up against Wang Hao. His short game isn't as good as ZJK, so he doesn't get the first attack as often against Wang Hao as ZJK does. Ma Long is great at counter looping but even he has problems if the first initial attack of his opponent is of super high quality, which Wang Hao's attacks are. Even despite that, Wang Hao still has to play his best to have a chance against Ma Long. Then you look at ZJK, he has an absolutely horrible record against Ma Long. If the seeding had been different, and Wang Hao had first had to face ZJK and if he lost, and Ma Long got to face ZJK in the final, chances would have been that Ma Long would be a world champion. So your suggestion that ZJK deserves to be the one playing singles, based off the fact that he is world champion really doesn't do it for me.

And frankly, for the past year or so, Ma Long has been unstoppable. And I say this even despite his recent lose to Koki Niwa. For the past year, he has been basically untouchable, winning several tournaments with hardly losing a set. ZJK is the only one who has greater than a 30 percent chance of beating him. Thats a level of domination we haven't seen in a long time. And that is the type of consideration that a country really should look at in considering who represents them at the Olympics. You could lose all the time to your fellow Chinese players, but as long as you have the best win rate against non-Chinese players, you should be the one that gets to go. Therefore, Ma Long's potential weakness against Wang Hao, as shown in the last two WTTCs shouldn't be a factor. I feel that ZJK throughout his career has shown a much greater susceptibility towards losing to non-Chinese players than Ma Long or Wang Hao. When you compare his results against players that have played against both him and Ma Long in the past year or so, even in the matches that he wins, he does so with far less authority and domination than Ma Long, and in high stress situations, or when his game isn't at its peak, that can lead to a much greater chance of a loss than Ma Long. ZJK in general has shown a much greater weakness to those who tend to have a strong backhand relative to their forehand, which a lot of non Chinese players exhibit.

Given this fact, I place Wang Hao at number 1 in terms of who should represent China, and then Ma Long two. Wang Hao despite his not top form, still hasn't really lost to a non-Chinese in a long time. Yes he lost to Ovchtarov, in their teams match, but he showed that in a serious match of best of 7, he was still way better. He dominated Ovchtarov in their match that was only a couple of weeks later. I can't even remember when the last time Wang Hao lost to a non Chinese other than that game.
 
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Great post Wiwa. I agree with all you have said.

By the way, as far as the glue ban, I am okay with the banning of hazardous materials. But I think it is strange that safe chemicals that expand the sponge and enhance the performance of the rubbers and do not present a health issue are also banned.*

As far as the ball is concerned, I don't know about the validity of the celluloid ban. I was under the impression they resolved that issue and celluloid can be produced safely. *But in any case, why make the ball larger even if it is a marginal amount and why not research until they can find a material that will spin and bounce closer to a celluloid ball.*

It is sad though that the issues about the players even have to come up. From a real standpoint, agreeing with what you said about Wang Hao, it is also a shame that legends like Ma Lin and Wang Liqin cannot get a chance at solidifying their place in history with one more shot at gold. I don't think either would win. But it is not their play in the tournament that will determine that.
 
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A couple of things. First, I think the way the ITTF has organized the process for qualifying for the Olympics is really lame. I am not a Ma Long fan. This would go for any player and any country. A country that is loaded with talent but cannot send the player who has been ranked #1 in the world since October 2011 because he was coming off an injury in 2011 and therefore was not ranked high enough over a year before the Olympics (May 2011 Ma Long's ranking was 5th in the world and that was not high enough for him to qualify for the singles event), just says to me that ITTF has made rules that make no sense and are not good for the sport. If the current #1 ranking player in the world was blocked out of playing in the World Cup in the fall because of his ranking in May 2011, and is now also being blocked from playing in the singles event in the Olympics because of that same ranking from the same month of last year (May 2011), I personally think there is a problem.

Since August 2011, has Ma Long played better than Zhang Jike? YES.

Since August 2011, has Ma Long played better than Wang Hao? YES, YES, YES.

Do I care if he plays in the Olympics? Not really. But the idea that the guy who has been close to unbeatable for the last 8 months and has been ranked at #1 for the last 6 months, did not qualify because of his ranking (#5 in the World in May 2011) was not high enough a year ago and 14 months before the Olympic games begin, I have to say, if anything is stupid, THIS IS STUPID. And the people who will suffer is ALL OF US: EVERYONE.

THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR THE SPORT THAT THE CURRENT BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD CANNOT PLAY IN THE OLYMPIC SINGLES EVENT.

Should Wang Hao play in the singles event? YES.

Should Zhang Jike play in the singles event? YES.

Should Ma Long play in the singles event? YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES.

Should Wang Hao and Zhang Jike get the shot before Ma Long? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I personally thinK that everyone in the top 20 should automatically qualify no matter what country they are from. I think that, perhaps they should restrict the number of players that could play in a team event from one country. But, I don't think that the ITTF should block players from playing in the singles event based on such foolish criteria.

If the criteria was world ranking as of April 2012 instead of May 2011, then Ma Long would unquestionably qualify first.

ALSO, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO SAID THAT MA LONG HAS BEEN PLAYING SO WELL BECAUSE HE WANTED TO QUALIFY FOR THE OLYMPIC SINGLES: IF THESE ARE THE RULES, HE HAS KNOWN SINCE MAY 2011 THAT HE CANNOT QUALIFY TO PLAY IN THE OLYMPICS SINGLES EVENT SINCE LAST MAY. SO HIS RUN THAT PUT HIM IN THE # 1 SLOT, CAME WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT HE COULD NOT DO ANYTHING TO CHANGE THE FACT THAT THERE WAS NO POSSIBLE WAY FOR HIM TO WIN AN OLYMPIC GOLD IN SINGLES THIS TIME AROUND AND WOULD HAVE TO, AS OF MAY 2011, WAIT FOR OVER 5 YEARS FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY FOR THAT TITLE.

He did not win the World Championships because he was not in form yet. He still was not in form in the summer of 2011 during the Chinese Super League. He only hit his form in August of 2011. That still had to do with an injury he sustained in 2010 that kept him out of action for close to 9 months (6 months, then he played a few tournaments, then another 3 months).

In the end, I hope that someone new and interesting wins the Olympic Gold. I might think that the finals will be Zhang Jike vs Wang Hao and that Zhang Jike will win again, just like in the World Cup and World Championships. But I will root for anyone NEW to win.

I also think it is a shame that a rising start like Koki Niwa will not get a chance to test his metal in the Olympic Singles event. I see many names in the top 20 who will not be able to play, and the world will be the worse for the fact that they did not qualify to play for reasons that do not have to do with SPORT OR SPORTSMANSHIP, but instead have to do with POLITICS.

And again, the people who suffer most from this are the fans and the sport. Because a SPORT that does not send its #1 ranked player to the Olympic Singles Event (a sport where the #1 player in the world is not qualified to play in the Olympic Singles Event) is not a sport that is presented to the public intelligently. The ITTF is the problem here. This is the kind of thing that cements the fact that Table Tennis is a marginal sport that will not get a great deal of Media Coverage. Stupid things like many of the rule changes, or the idea that they are going to change to a ball that is, once again, bigger, slower, and gets less spin, is an example of the same kind of bungling that the ITTF is famous for.

With these new rules that the ITTF has instituted, the Asian games and the World Championships, singles event, without question, have a higher level of play, then will be present in the Table Tennis Singles Event at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Sorry, but this, to me is sad indeed.

Well Said Carl......... Have to Appreciate the way you presented your thoughts intelligently.. U really impressed me a lot.. And I think many others if they read it Sincerely.. And M a HARDCORE FAN of MA LONG :D..

And you are very correct that this is very bad example of True Sportsman Spirit that The World no 1 (My Dear) CAnnot play in Olympic Singles... :(

If he cant win the title then I dont want Wang or ZJK to win (Sorry for being Biased) , Timo or Korea's Ryu Seung Min Should Win it.

And Being a Ma Long fan , obviously , am Feeling very bad and sad for him :'(
 
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Have to completely agree that the qualifying process is absolute dross but one small point to be picked up. Ma Long may not be able to play himself into the singles event but he definitely still needed to play himself into the teams and that is still quite a high honour which I'm sure was no small motivation. I'm not saying that is the only motivation either because missing out is also a big motivator but both these motivators would be absent to ZJK and WH.
 
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Have to completely agree that the qualifying process is absolute dross but one small point to be picked up. Ma Long may not be able to play himself into the singles event but he definitely still needed to play himself into the teams and that is still quite a high honour which I'm sure was no small motivation. I'm not saying that is the only motivation either because missing out is also a big motivator but both these motivators would be absent to ZJK and WH.

Long Live the King.....!!!!

China is Going to win the TableTennis Title once again and I m sure Ma Long will perform extremely well :)
 
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Yeah I am going to have to agree with the sentiment of most of the people who replied to your comment. Yes Ma Long hasn't won a world championship, but that in of itself doesn't say all that much to me, especially in regards to his comparison with ZJK. Table tennis has a lot to do with matchups and styles of play. Ma Long's style has been improving but for the past two world championships his style wasn't a good match up against Wang Hao. His short game isn't as good as ZJK, so he doesn't get the first attack as often against Wang Hao as ZJK does. Ma Long is great at counter looping but even he has problems if the first initial attack of his opponent is of super high quality, which Wang Hao's attacks are. Even despite that, Wang Hao still has to play his best to have a chance against Ma Long. Then you look at ZJK, he has an absolutely horrible record against Ma Long. If the seeding had been different, and Wang Hao had first had to face ZJK and if he lost, and Ma Long got to face ZJK in the final, chances would have been that Ma Long would be a world champion. So your suggestion that ZJK deserves to be the one playing singles, based off the fact that he is world champion really doesn't do it for me.

And frankly, for the past year or so, Ma Long has been unstoppable. And I say this even despite his recent lose to Koki Niwa. For the past year, he has been basically untouchable, winning several tournaments with hardly losing a set. ZJK is the only one who has greater than a 30 percent chance of beating him. Thats a level of domination we haven't seen in a long time. And that is the type of consideration that a country really should look at in considering who represents them at the Olympics. You could lose all the time to your fellow Chinese players, but as long as you have the best win rate against non-Chinese players, you should be the one that gets to go. Therefore, Ma Long's potential weakness against Wang Hao, as shown in the last two WTTCs shouldn't be a factor. I feel that ZJK throughout his career has shown a much greater susceptibility towards losing to non-Chinese players than Ma Long or Wang Hao. When you compare his results against players that have played against both him and Ma Long in the past year or so, even in the matches that he wins, he does so with far less authority and domination than Ma Long, and in high stress situations, or when his game isn't at its peak, that can lead to a much greater chance of a loss than Ma Long. ZJK in general has shown a much greater weakness to those who tend to have a strong backhand relative to their forehand, which a lot of non Chinese players exhibit.

Given this fact, I place Wang Hao at number 1 in terms of who should represent China, and then Ma Long two. Wang Hao despite his not top form, still hasn't really lost to a non-Chinese in a long time. Yes he lost to Ovchtarov, in their teams match, but he showed that in a serious match of best of 7, he was still way better. He dominated Ovchtarov in their match that was only a couple of weeks later. I can't even remember when the last time Wang Hao lost to a non Chinese other than that game.

It´s hard to compare them on their performance against foreigners, since they barely lose. It is true that Zhang drops more sets, but I can´t recall a close match against a foreigner that he didn't win. He struggles, but he always ends up winning. When he is being tested he starts to play twice as strong, whereas Ma Long usually has one performance level throughout the match. Like against Koki, he wasn't able to step up his game when Koki was playing so well. I agree that Wang Hao is sort of underrated in this discussion. But in the end any 2 players from Wang Hao/Xu Xin/Ma Long/Zhang Jike shouldn't drop a match in the singles. The best choice will also depend on the players they are gonna face in the later stages of the tournament, which is very hard to predict right now.

@Carl
If that is true about celluloid it is weird indeed, but I can't think of an incentive to change the ball when celluloid will remain available. I still don't really know what the new ball will be like and if the ball that is tested by Henzell for example will be the final product. Maybe the postponing of the introduction is a sign that they want to develop the ball further before releasing it officially. And Ma Lin already has the gold ;) But you are absolutely right about that, it is just that if they would be able to play and China would dominate, we might lose the Olympic table tennis tournament. So a tournament with a player restriction is better than no Olympic table tennis at all I guess :p
 
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@Carl...But you are absolutely right about that, it is just that if they would be able to play and China would dominate, we might lose the Olympic table tennis tournament. So a tournament with a player restriction is better than no Olympic table tennis at all I guess :p

Yeah, I know, I agree with you. That is why I was saying it is sad.

The saddest thing about it, say Ma Lin did get to play and had a great run and wins. Nobody has won 2 Olympic Golds in Singles before. It would put him where he belongs with the greats who have won more than one World Championship. Say Wang Liqin was able to play and had a great run and won. 3 World Championships and a Gold Medal in the Olympics would also be something nobody else has done. Neither of these guys, day to day, can keep up with the young guns. But they would both be capable of amping their game up a notch and winning one last big tournament. I don't think either scenario would happen if they were able to go. But they will never even get a shot at that kind of glory that would put them in a category that nobody else has ever achieved.

Ryu Seung Min will have a chance at that. He has one Olympic Gold and he can try to up his game for the tournament. And it would be totally amazing if he could somehow win against all odds. But he is even less likely to be able to do it than Ma Lin and Wang Liqin.

So I understand that it is better to make it so they do not drop Table Tennis from the Olympics altogether. But it is sad that the legends won't get a chance at cementing immortality, no matter how unlikely those scenarios are of coming to be. I remember a tennis tournament where Jimmy Connors was in his last year. He had announced that he was going to retire. It was his last US Open. He had not been playing well for several years. And he had this amazing run that got him to either the finals or the semi-finals of the tournament. And even though he did not win, he was the big story of the tournament because of how he upped his game and almost got the last title.

No such story will be possible for two guys who, with one more title might be in the conversation for best ever, but are not really without that last title.

Thats all. I agree with you that it is a sacrifice that table tennis may have needed to make to keep its Olympic status. But it is sad.
 
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Sad indeed. It gets even more sad, because I believe Korea's representatives are Oh Sang Eun and Joo Se Hyuk. There will be no player in London who has won the Olympic Singles before. No room for old heroes to stand up I guess. But I'm sure we will get to see spectacular table tennis :)
 
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Sad indeed. It gets even more sad, because I believe Korea's representatives are Oh Sang Eun and Joo Se Hyuk. There will be no player in London who has won the Olympic Singles before. No room for old heroes to stand up I guess. But I'm sure we will get to see spectacular table tennis :)

Oh yeah, Ryu qualified for team only. Darn.

Yeah, the tournament will be fun no matter what. But I don't think it can be put in the same tournament classification as the World Championships any more.
 
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Hey guys, finally registered so I could reply to this thread...

Check this out: EDIT apparently I can't post links until I have 5 posts. I wanted to link an article on tabletennista(dot)com entitled "No pressure for Ma Long & Guo Yue" from which I took the ML quote below.

Ma Long: "Although I already knew that I won't be able to play in the Singles, I still have the honor to play for the Team. I just hope I would be able to fight a good battle then give glory to China in the Olympcis (sic)."
Initial qualifications for Olympics are based on the world ranking immediately after WTTC 2011, which meant that the first two spots for China went to WH and ZJK. Based on what I've read, LGL cannot sub Ma Long for either of those two in the singles without removing WH or ZJK from the tournament completely. So based on that, as well as Ma Long's quote, I think the chances of ML playing singles are very small.

It's pretty ridiculous that the path is clear for ZJK to win the "Grand Slam" over the 2011-2012 seasons when Ma Long has absolutely dominated him over that same period and has undeniably been the dominant World #1 as well. Unfortunately, ML's poor form at last year's WTTC seems to have created some lasting problems for him.



ma long has not "absolutely dominated" ZJK ... winning pro tours that only worth for money is something that many pros have achieved , ZJK has showed that in crucial moments he is the man to do it ! He and wang hao also , the world is waiting for malong to win a major event from 2009 and he didnt even manage to win the world cup when he had the chance (samsonov was no match for him) .

besides its obvious in his mentality during matches that its more easy for ma long to beat ZJK or any other chinese player because he knows exactly how they are playing . With other non chinese difficult players he struggles , and thats because he has poor mentality comparing to ZJK or wang hao . Check WTTTC 2012 final liu put ZJK 1st to play timo boll , he knew that if he put ma long against boll the game was risky , but ZJK managed to win even with a close score


And one last thing , i see ppl say about ma long being #1 and stuff like that , that is absolutely irrelevant , world ranking doesnt show the true value of a player but a general image of him , olympics are not 10 tournaments like pro tours , its 1 tournament the pressure is big and malong has proved that he got his chances and he didnt manage to win any major event for the past 2 years ...and after his injury @ 2009 he came back in top form !


In my humble opinion #1 is zjk #2 wang hao and #3 ma long because of his poor mentality , if he fixes this problem and just relax and deliberate his mind then we shall see monstrous TT from him
 
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Ma Long has absolutly dominated Zhang Jike. He won always every match they two meet. ZJk needs the Pro Tour Grand Finals to get his grand slam but wait .... Ma Long won 2011 against him at this tournament.

And if you watch the latest results you wouldn't say Ma Long is only #3 ... mentality is an important point but you can't fix the world ranking just by saying Player "X" has a good or poor mentality.

So Wang Hao has a poor mentality,too? Athen 2004 ... Beijing 2008? Lucky draw in 2009 WTTC? He always beat Wang Liqin and he knows him from the training sessions, so mentality does not count ....(In my opinion WH does not have a weak mentality)

In my eyes you are a little bit deluded ....
 
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@TTFrenzy
Ma Long has absolutly dominated Zhang Jike. He won always every match they two meet. ZJk needs the Pro Tour Grand Finals to get his grand slam but wait .... Ma Long won 2011 against him at this tournament.

And if you watch the latest results you wouldn't say Ma Long is only #3 ... mentality is an important point but you can't fix the world ranking just by saying Player "X" has a good or poor mentality.

So Wang Hao has a poor mentality,too? Athen 2004 ... Beijing 2008? Lucky draw in 2009 WTTC? He always beat Wang Liqin and he knows him from the training sessions, so mentality does not count ....(In my opinion WH does not have a weak mentality)

In my eyes you are a little bit deluded ....

Pro Tour Grand Finals is not part of the grand slam ;) Zhang just needs Olympics to complete it. It is true that Ma often wins, but often it looks like Zhang doesn't even feel like putting up a fight. If you watcht that match from the Grand Finals you will see a very different Zhang than during for example Austrian Open or Slovenian Open. Zhang has a motivation problem, but when he goes all out he and Ma are practically equal. Ma is only no. 1 because he has more disciplin and therefore is more consistent. That is also the reason he is better than Zhang overall, but if they meet in a big tournament it will be a close match when Zhang feels like it :p
 
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ma long has not "absolutely dominated" ZJK ... winning pro tours that only worth for money is something that many pros have achieved , ZJK has showed that in crucial moments he is the man to do it ! He and wang hao also , the world is waiting for malong to win a major event from 2009 and he didnt even manage to win the world cup when he had the chance (samsonov was no match for him) .

besides its obvious in his mentality during matches that its more easy for ma long to beat ZJK or any other chinese player because he knows exactly how they are playing . With other non chinese difficult players he struggles , and thats because he has poor mentality comparing to ZJK or wang hao . Check WTTTC 2012 final liu put ZJK 1st to play timo boll , he knew that if he put ma long against boll the game was risky , but ZJK managed to win even with a close score


And one last thing , i see ppl say about ma long being #1 and stuff like that , that is absolutely irrelevant , world ranking doesnt show the true value of a player but a general image of him , olympics are not 10 tournaments like pro tours , its 1 tournament the pressure is big and malong has proved that he got his chances and he didnt manage to win any major event for the past 2 years ...and after his injury @ 2009 he came back in top form !


In my humble opinion #1 is zjk #2 wang hao and #3 ma long because of his poor mentality , if he fixes this problem and just relax and deliberate his mind then we shall see monstrous TT from him


Well i guess everybody has their own opinion, no disrespect to yours but i think ma long does not have a poor mentality, and he has dominated zjk in majority of their matches
after the china harmony he leveled up his game and mental toughness, he missed his chance to be in the olympics singles and i agree that ZJK and WH are deserving of the slot since they are in good form during the selection, olympics indeed puts more pressure to each players but it does not mean that ma long cant deliver a gold at his current form
 
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For me it is part of a grand slam( WTTC, World Cup, Olympia, Pro Tour Grand Finals) or is there a official definition of Grand Slam?
Yeah you are right at this Zhang-Ma match up's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_tennis Look it up under notable players ;) But if I were to define it, I guess I would include the Grand Finals as well. In fact it's probably the hardest tournament to win after the WTTC.
 
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@TTFrenzy
Ma Long has absolutly dominated Zhang Jike. He won always every match they two meet. ZJk needs the Pro Tour Grand Finals to get his grand slam but wait .... Ma Long won 2011 against him at this tournament.

And if you watch the latest results you wouldn't say Ma Long is only #3 ... mentality is an important point but you can't fix the world ranking just by saying Player "X" has a good or poor mentality.

So Wang Hao has a poor mentality,too? Athen 2004 ... Beijing 2008? Lucky draw in 2009 WTTC? He always beat Wang Liqin and he knows him from the training sessions, so mentality does not count ....(In my opinion WH does not have a weak mentality)

In my eyes you are a little bit deluded ....


dude u compare 2 different situations . wang hao had never had weak mentality. he just lost to players who played better than him both @ 2004 and 2008 (wang hao also won world cups , ma long couldnt..) ! .

ma long has lost from samsonov niwa koki timo boll which are players that do not match him . so his mentality is poor , even himself admits it ! check this video

besides that in 2012 he didnt join qatar open because he wanted to improve his mental state and psychology :) Im not deluded these are his words , not mine
 
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