2015 Nikon Hong Kong Junior & Cadet Open

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I know that it is rare to discuss junior events here, but with all due respect to other junior events, the Hong Kong Open is one of the very few junior events (perhaps the only one aside from China Junior Open) that the Chinese team participates in regularly. Some notable names that have been through the Hong Kong Open are:

Yu Ziyang (World Junior Champion)
Liang Jingkun (Chinese player at the 2015 WTTC)
Hu Limei (Chinese player at the 2013 WTTC)
Wang Manyu (World Junior Champion)
Gu Yuting (World Junior Champion)
Liu Gaoyang (Youth Olympics Gold Medallist)


This year's event has just concluded. These are the names who came through.

U18 Boys
Champion: Zhu Cheng
Runner-up: Xu Yingbin

U18 Girls
Champion: Sun Chen
Runner-up: Wang Yidi

So they may be on the lineup for China in the upcoming World Junior Championships.

Video Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIl_mJ3zK7B-Fm6S3J7Qm64IPDfAbsEvL

CHN%20-%20ZHU%20Cheng.JPG

Zhu Cheng CHN

CHN%20-%20SUN%20Chen.JPG

Sun Chen CHN
 
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I followed this event too (like every year) but it seems that this year China didn't send their best juniors (unlike in this 2015 Asian Junior & Cadet Championships where there were the best juniors). They almost swept everything though (they didn't take part in the cadets category although some of the boys are in the cadet age).
Sun Chen (18 yo) did great. After winning the Pyongyang Open last week, she won this. She is a RPB penholder with short pips on the FH.
 
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Here's the women's U18 final between Sun Chen and Wang Yidi.
(The first video is labelled incorrectly. It's not the cadet boys final)

I'm really interested in Sun Chen's play as I'm a penholder with SP on the forehand myself. Unfortunately there seem to be only two snippets available from this match, but I'd love to see the full match.

 
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Here's the women's U18 final between Sun Chen and Wang Yidi.
(The first video is labelled incorrectly. It's not the cadet boys final)

I'm really interested in Sun Chen's play as I'm a penholder with SP on the forehand myself. Unfortunately there seem to be only two snippets available from this match, but I'd love to see the full match.


The second to the last match.
 
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Sun Chen

Sun Chen also interested me, as she won the U18 final, being a penholder, she will highly likely be one of the top 3 next generation Chinese girls I would assume.
I managed to get a nice picture, of the black side of her bat (from the video)
Can clearly notice it's butterfly and pips out. Also pretty sure it's short pimples.
Top 3 short pips out would be flarestorm 2, flarestorm then raystorm. So I would guess flarestorm 2?
"Increased speed is the biggest difference between Flarestorm and Flarestorm II. This rubber has what an attacking pips player needs: low trajectory and fast speed." She is using that very well, so seems fitting.Also worth noting that the sponge is white.. (and possibly more or less 2mm sponge?)
But what about her blade? and maybe bh rubber? probably Tenergy?
Jun bat.jpg

EDIT:
I found this, so it's probably a flarestorm/2 yup.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_otGsW2l5bkM/T...-ElcDbNDNU/s640/Flarestorm sponge hardnss.JPG
 
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Sun Chen also interested me, as she won the U18 final, being a penholder, she will highly likely be one of the top 3 next generation Chinese girls I would assume.
Hopefully yes, but not necessarily so. Short pips players face increasing disadvantages the higher the level is. Granted, probably less so in the women's game than in the men's.

In 2005, Jiang Haiyang beat Xu Xin in the final of the Chinese U17 championships, but sadly failed to make any greater impression after that. He's a great short pips player to watch though. You can find a playlist featuring the Xu Xin video and others of Jiang here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfhkjbmTzcYkOWXl1BA-ziQqb51uoOjlY

I managed to get a nice picture, of the black side of her bat (from the video)
Can clearly notice it's butterfly and pips out. Also pretty sure it's short pimples.
It is short pips, judging by your picture it's definitively Butterfly and I too guess it would be either Flarestorm 1 or 2. (Most likely not Raystorm, but you never know).

But what about her blade? and maybe bh rubber? probably Tenergy?
No idea what her backhand rubber is, but she's using a Stiga Clipper CC blade. It's clearly visible in another video, but I'm not sure which one. As far as I remember perhaps the Sun vs Kim one over here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfhkjbmTzcYm-xVjzHsAJz5iytxGrrAzp

It's great to see a young, up-and-coming short pips player in this day and age. I really do hope she can make it to the top, because I love the idea that short pips possibly could make a comeback at the highest level. For the sake of table tennis, i certainly hope so, as more variation makes the sport much more interesting.
 
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