Despite the fact that Boll and Ovtcharov are the top targets of the CNT, from XX s perspective, it was in the third match facing off Franziska whose game was the trickiest. "I ran into him in the Open earlier the year, winning 4:2. Very few people outside of China can take two games off of me." XX knew at that time that this player was not easy to handle, but never thought he would come across him in his own first final at the WTTTC. "This reminds me of last year playing against Samsonov in the World Cup final. For the first two receives, one hit on my fingers, and for the other I whiffed the loop. Those two shots didn t even touch the paddle. The match against Franziska at the WTTTC was more or less the same. I didn t serve the first one well and it drifted long. It turned out the dude on the other side was nervous as well and sent it flying. For the second serve I even sent it into the bottom of the net. I was so tense. My hand was not listening to me." In the final, both sides were nervous, and the key at that moment was to see who could first immerse in the match. "When under immense pressure, it felt like the upper body was constantly pushing down on the lower body, as if I couldn t run, and got heavy legs, and hand that didn t listen, and losing very promptly without even my realizing. Yet, this time midway through the first game, I was running the whole field and the body didn t feel that heavy. I was totally in the zone, both technically and tactically."
