Whos your money on?

  • Timo Boll

    Votes: 17 23.0%
  • Ma Long

    Votes: 24 32.4%
  • Wang Hao

    Votes: 7 9.5%
  • Zhang Jike

    Votes: 4 5.4%
  • Ma Lin

    Votes: 5 6.8%
  • Jun Mizutani

    Votes: 1 1.4%
  • Wang Liqin

    Votes: 3 4.1%
  • Xu Xin

    Votes: 10 13.5%
  • Joo Se Hyuk

    Votes: 1 1.4%
  • Other

    Votes: 2 2.7%

  • Total voters
    74
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In both these matches -- Xu Xin's server looks very suspect on the hidden ball rule. He puts his shoulder in front to obstruct. I'm surprised he was not called on it.

Nah, I think thats really because of the fact that our viewpoint is straight on. We are looking at the table that is completely perpendicular to the table. But when you actually consider the fact that the two players are standing diagonally from each other, and therefore have a much wider view of their opponent's chest, when the ball contacts the paddle is probably perfectly in view of the receiving player.
 

Dan

says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀

Dan

says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
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Nah, I think thats really because of the fact that our viewpoint is straight on. We are looking at the table that is completely perpendicular to the table. But when you actually consider the fact that the two players are standing diagonally from each other, and therefore have a much wider view of their opponent's chest, when the ball contacts the paddle is probably perfectly in view of the receiving player.

Nice point,

When i was at the English Open 2011, the umpires were picking up faults on everyone's serves and it was getting ridiculous. A lot of players were un happy with it. Perhaps the umpires at this tournament were told to back of a bit, and perhaps this is due to the players being able to get away with little things.

But i think Scylla gives a good point how we see it vertical and the players see it diagonally.

My personal opinion is the Chinese train so much, they probably emphasize there service training so much. Perhaps they have mirrors to watch themselves, to expand the boundaries of disguising there serves just to reach the bare minimal requirements in the rule books...
 
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Well it looks like Xu Xin was on and Timo Boll was not. Xu pretty much dominated Boll. I wish things were different but I don't think Boll can really hang with the Chinese.

I think Boll can hang with Ma Long and Zhang Jike, at least at the moment. Boll's offensive game is so good that when his opponent doesn't consistently control the short game, it just becomes random chance who wins the points, because both Boll and the Chinese players have such good offense that who attacks first has a good chance of winning. And therefore it almost becomes random chance who wins and who loses. However, when it comes to Xu Xin and Wang Hao, because of their control of the short game, they get to attack more often, and therefore can dictate the outcome of the game.

So many people in this thread, once who was in the finals was set said Boll would win, but frankly, he has met Xu Xin in the pro tour 3 times in the past and lost all of them. It's scary to think that Xu Xin is only 20....
 
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Xu Xin's serves were so far beyond illegal. You could see the frustration on Ma Long's face, but he can't call illegal serves on another Chinese player in case he loses and then the person won't be able to serve like that in the finals. Nobody can honestly tell me that ma long would ever miss that many serve returns to a guy he trains with 10 hrs a day. The Ma Long-Xu Xin match wasn't even enjoyable to watch because of the illegality of the serves xu xin was doing. You have to watch for the illegal one. He knows they're illegal too, and only does them at important times of the match when he needs a point. At the end of the match with ma long, xu xin came up with 3 serves where ma long couldn't even put it back on the table. The umpire could have called an illegal serve every time xu xin did that particular serve. Timo struggled with the same serve, because you can't see the contact so nobody knew if it was dead, underspin, or topspin.
I hope at the biggest tournaments the umpires call their illegal serves, because these are the best players in the world, so they should be held to the highest standard.
 
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Xu Xin's serves were so far beyond illegal. You could see the frustration on Ma Long's face, but he can't call illegal serves on another Chinese player in case he loses and then the person won't be able to serve like that in the finals. Nobody can honestly tell me that ma long would ever miss that many serve returns to a guy he trains with 10 hrs a day. The Ma Long-Xu Xin match wasn't even enjoyable to watch because of the illegality of the serves xu xin was doing. You have to watch for the illegal one. He knows they're illegal too, and only does them at important times of the match when he needs a point. At the end of the match with ma long, xu xin came up with 3 serves where ma long couldn't even put it back on the table. The umpire could have called an illegal serve every time xu xin did that particular serve. Timo struggled with the same serve, because you can't see the contact so nobody knew if it was dead, underspin, or topspin.
I hope at the biggest tournaments the umpires call their illegal serves, because these are the best players in the world, so they should be held to the highest standard.


I agree with you here regarding the Ma Long game -- There were a couple of very key points toward the end of the match when Ma Long misses the server return , which I believe was because he could not see the ball and miss read the spin. Very unusual that players at this level miss read spin when they are supposed to see the contact on the ball.

I think Xu Xin's servers were suspect. However he was by far the best player on the day and deserved to win the match.
 
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Thanks Guys for your comments, opinions and analysis of this Tournament. I appreciated your insights. Now I must watch some of the play!
 
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This is such a nice open, there are so many different type of game you can see in this game, there are so many different country's player participate in it.
 
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