Swedish Open 2013 - ITTF World Tour

Fan Zhendong beats Xu Xin 4:3 (9-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-9)! It was a great match. Fan goes to final that will be played at 15:00 Local time (+40' GMT). Go Fan!

Men's Singles Semi-Final Results:
Xu Xin vs Fan Zhendong 3:4 (11-9, 11-7, 5-11, 8-11, 11-9, 4-11, 9-11)
Panagiotis Gionis vs Yan An 0:4 (4-11, 9-11, 7-11, 5-11)

Men's final will be at 15:00 local time (+40' GMT) between Yan An and Fan Zhendong. I hope Fan Zhendong to win and complete a hat trick.

Damn! Fan Zhendong lost to Yan An 4:2 (12-10, 13-11, 8-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6)

Yan An deserves it. Hes older and more experienced. But Fan Zhendong performed against Xu really great. Hes playing ZJK Style 100%, its like seeing Jike 2 years ago. Yan An is playing like Ma Long but not that good… Probably thats going to be the biggest competition between Yan An and FZD. Im wondering whats wrong with Ma Long, he didnt play World Cup, not the Polish, German or Sweden Open. Hes not in the mood anymore after he won Chinas National Games and Harmony China Open? hmmmnnnn

Butt Stallion said:

Yan An deserves it. Hes older and more experienced. But Fan Zhendong performed against Xu really great. Hes playing ZJK Style 100%, its like seeing Jike 2 years ago. Yan An is playing like Ma Long but not that good… Probably thats going to be the biggest competition between Yan An and FZD. Im wondering whats wrong with Ma Long, he didnt play World Cup, not the Polish, German or Sweden Open. Hes not in the mood anymore after he won Chinas National Games and Harmony China Open? hmmmnnnn

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I agree with you about Fan Zhendong's style but about Yan An, His style is similar to Timo Boll. Yan An's forehand loop is more like European loon than a Chinese loop with straight arm.
Fan Zhendong's performance goes up and down so much. He played great against Xu Xin then his performance went down so much in his match against Yan An. I think it is because of his lack of experience and after some years his performance will be stable.
Fan Zhendong is now like Zhang Jike 3 years ago. If he improves like this he will be a great player.
Ma Long is just resting after winning the China National Games. Last year Zhang Jike rests four-five month after winning the Oylmpic Games so it's not that strange why Ma Long isn't playing so much like before.

No I wouldn't say Yan An looping is like Timo Boll or european style. Sure he doesn't stretch out his arm like Ma Long and he may lose a little speed on the ball but by keeping arm close to his body the way he does it enables him to quickly switch to backhand if he needs to.

His looping is more like a rotation, his body goes in circles all the time and his arm perfectly synchronized with the body. While the european players mostly loop with the elbow and with a little help from the legs. If you carefully examine Yan An looping, he actually loops with the body and uses only arm to final-touch the ball giving him such power that you can see in his shots.

I think Ma Long prepares for something big that's why he doesn't take part in these small tournaments.

Butt Stallion said:

Yan An deserves it. Hes older and more experienced. But Fan Zhendong performed against Xu really great. Hes playing ZJK Style 100%, its like seeing Jike 2 years ago. Yan An is playing like Ma Long but not that good… Probably thats going to be the biggest competition between Yan An and FZD. Im wondering whats wrong with Ma Long, he didnt play World Cup, not the Polish, German or Sweden Open. Hes not in the mood anymore after he won Chinas National Games and Harmony China Open? hmmmnnnn

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Firstly, I dun think FZD style matches 100% to ZJK style. He inherits a lot from Wanghao. His blocking is more like ZJK but faster and better placement and variation. His BH flick somehow is mixed between Ma Long and ZJK. So in other word, he basically learns the best game of each individual top player and makes his own game. One thing makes me believe he is gonna be on top is his tactics, which is usual weak point of young player without coach. Looking back how Yan An performed totally different between with and without coach in end of last year and early this year. FZD seems not experience this much as he has crushed Xu Xin and ZJK, almost destroyed WangHao in Paris Wttc trial (FZD first shows) and push Ma Long to the max in China National game.

Secondly, Yan An winning makes a lot of sense to me at the moment, as both finalists yesterday played quite similar game, which tends to kill the ball by very risky placements. And basically Yan An got better day and more experienced in this sort of game.

Lastly, Ma Long was not invited to play Worldcup. Initially only Xu Xin and Zhang Jk were on board, but Yan An replaced ZJK coz he needed to rest his shoulder injure. Ma Long better takes a rest in this period as his rating point is far enough to be safe. And he will return to take care of his No.1 ranking spot before Olympics screening the ranking of all players to qualify. Of course WTTC also, but CNT does have fair contest for all player to be qualified, so ML will be fine ^^

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Yan An's game is similar to Fang Bo

Fang Bo uses Ma Long's formula, Yan An is unique, he contacts the ball not from the side of the bat like most players but from the top so that he can loop very effectively even if the ball is below the table in a side spin kinda way, so Fang Bo is totally different because he usually tries like Ma Long to contact the ball at the top of the bounce or as is rising.

bzing said:

Fang Bo uses Ma Long's formula, Yan An is unique, he contacts the ball not from the side of the bat like most players but from the top so that he can loop very effectively even if the ball is below the table in a side spin kinda way, so Fang Bo is totally different because he usually tries like Ma Long to contact the ball at the top of the bounce or as is rising.

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From the details that you provided I am sure you would have seen them live. I have seen them on youtube and stuff , from that their footwork and style looked very similar to me. But as I said, if you have seen them live you are better placed to make a judgment.

y does all th polls linked with tournaments really soon?

aLeX-12345 said:

y does all th polls linked with tournaments really soon?

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How do you mean Alex?