Austrian Open 2017

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Yuki is the younger brother of Sayaka, a former multiple national champion and silver team medalist at London 2012 olympics

He is really good but I have heard he's been permanently barred from the national team for bad attitude

 

[Garrison]

Xue Fei also playing in mens singles. Currently 2-3 down vs Joao Monteiro in pre groups

 

[drunix80]

Xue Fei also playing in mens singles. Currently 2-3 down vs Joao Monteiro in pre groups

Followed the match for sometime. Frankly I dont see anything special in Xu Fei at this point. Lacks anything striking in his arsenal by CNT standard. RPB is nowhere comparable to the legendary WH. Just keeps the ball in play and lacks power to threaten top players. But yeah he is young (not by FZD and Harimoto standard), hopefully he can improve.

 

[Garrison]

Followed the match for sometime. Frankly I dont see anything special in Xu Fei at this point. Lacks anything striking in his arsenal by CNT standard. RPB is nowhere comparable to the legendary WH. Just keeps the ball in play and lacks power to threaten top players. But yeah he is young (not by FZD and Harimoto standard), hopefully he can improve.

His serves are super illegal though... Throws them mostly backwards and hides with his arm, again umpire not interfering. I will keep calling this out until finally ittf starts dealing with it

 

[drunix80]

His serves are super illegal kthough... Throws them mostly backwards and hides with his arm, again umpire not interfering. I will keep calling this out until finally ittf starts dealing with it

Completely agree. That serve cant be legit !!!

 

[suds79]

Followed the match for sometime. Frankly I dont see anything special in Xu Fei at this point. Lacks anything striking in his arsenal by CNT standard. RPB is nowhere comparable to the legendary WH. Just keeps the ball in play and lacks power to threaten top players. But yeah he is young (not by FZD and Harimoto standard), hopefully he can improve.

Really. Nothing striking in his arsenal? I guess we're seeing different things.

I think I am ready to get ahead of the curve and say I think he has the current best RPB on the planet. Even over Wong Chun Ting. Now is his BH on WH level? The greatest RPB of all time and one of the truely great penholders? No and that's a little unfair at this point. But he's young and I'll put his RPB up against anybodys. Xu Xin would be world champion if his RPB was remotely as good as Xue's RPB.

Side note:

His serves are super illegal though... Throws them mostly backwards and hides with his arm, again umpire not interfering. I will keep calling this out until finally ittf starts dealing with it

And I will contend that it'll keep being legal as long as it's not called. Honestly we could play the "he hides his serves illegally" game with virtually every pro out there. We really could. So in my book of it's not called or if the opponent isn't arguing it, then that means it's fine.

 

[Garrison]

And I will contend that it'll keep being legal as long as it's not called. Honestly we could play the "he hides his serves illegally" game with virtually every pro out there. We really could. So in my book of it's not called or if the opponent isn't arguing it, then that means it's fine.

But it is super inconsistent. Pros never know if an umpire is strict or not. Players like Timo Boll are too humble to call it out, sometimes you can see him get frustrated over the ref not doing anything. You don't want to be the that guy calling others out, it is not their job, that shit is discussed on amateur levels and shouldn't in pro play...

 

[TTHopeful]

My vote is for Liang Jingkun. Did not realise he was in the draw....

 

[ajtatosmano2]

Gaoyuan has a good chance. Liang Jingkun as well if he stands the pressure.
The Oshima/Morizono double is back! And good to see that 2 Hungarian double reached RO16.

 

[Sali]

this time is really hard to say who is going to win. Definitely not number 1 Wong. I think Lin Gaoyuan or Fang Bo. But I will be really satisfied if anyone outside of China take it.

 

[JesperStef]

Men's Singles:

Round of 32:

Wong Chun Ting vs Omar Assar
Benedikt Duda vs Kristian Karlsson
Stefan Fegerl vs Ho Kwan Kit
Florent Lambiet vs Yan An

Kenta Matsudaira vs Jonathan Groth
Pavel Sirucek vs Emmanuel Lebesson
Maharu Yoshimura vs Ng Pak Nam
Andrej Gacina vs Fang Bo

Simon Gauzy vs Ricardo Walther
Alvaro Robles vs Masaki Yoshida
Hugo Calderano vs Masataka Morizono
Bastian Steger vs Yuya Oshima

Marcos Freitas vs Lin Gaoyuan
Liang Jingkun vs Robert Gardos
Ruwen Filus vs Alexandre Cassin
Joao Monteiro vs Koki Niwa

http://old.ittf.com/competitions/te...sp?s_Event_Type=MS&rnd=32&Competition_ID=2735


Women's Singles:

Round of 32:

Chen Meng (CHN) vs Miyu Maeda
Miyu Nagasaki vs Lee Ho Ching
Sofia Polcanova vs Chen Ke
Minnie Soo Wai Yam vs Wang Manyu

Liu Jia vs Kyoka Kato
Marina Matsuzawa vs Doo Hoi Kem
Sakura Mori vs Chen Xingtong
Saki Shibata vs Sun Yingsha

Kasumi Ishikawa vs Wang Yidi
Zhang Rui vs Miyu Kato
Maki Shiomi vs Fu Yu
Gu Ruochen vs Hitomi Sato

Honoka Hashimoto vs Ni Xia Lian
Li Qian vs Hina Hayata
Melek Hu vs Yui Hamamoto
Gu Yuting vs Miu Hirano

http://old.ittf.com/competitions/te...sp?s_Event_Type=WS&rnd=32&Competition_ID=2735


Live streaming:
All matches should be covered by live streaming / on demand videos by: https://tv.ittf.com/

 

[suds79]

But it is super inconsistent. Pros never know if an umpire is strict or not. Players like Timo Boll are too humble to call it out, sometimes you can see him get frustrated over the ref not doing anything. You don't want to be the that guy calling others out, it is not their job, that shit is discussed on amateur levels and shouldn't in pro play...

That sounds like a Timo Boll problem to me if he's too meek to call out another player for not following the rules. Even if that means it could cost him in a game where they're professionals and there's $$ on the line. I just don't get that line of thinking.

Anyways, if you'll watch the Men's under 21 final, you'll be happy to see Xei got called for faults a lot in that match. Pretty sure as the way the ref was gesturing was from the toss being to far into his body. In those cases I would agree with you. They were illegal because they were called.

If it starts to get called a lot on a certain player, they probably should look to change their technique.

I've gone on record some time ago that I think the service rules are silly. A lot of players hide their serve. The rest who don't are within a fraction of an inch of hiding their serve. The whole thing is kinda dumb IMO. It seems radical but I'm in favor of them just going to that two toned ball DHS has in the China super league some time back and saying hide as much as you want. Then you take out that silly gray area if a serve is hidden or not.

 

[Sali]

lambient florent from belgium is close to make a big sensation, he was leading 2:0 with Yan An, now it is 2:2 and he is leading 9:7

 

[Sali]

Assar Omar is sending home Wong

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

ISHIKAWA once again losing to a Chinese, WANG Diyi (who ???) 1-4

 

[drunix80]

LJK playing like a novice who cant hold on to a rally of 3-4 strokes. Down 2-0 vs Gardos. Please get back the fab 4 to CNT. Its a sore sight to see CNT players who are afraid to face the world and play like cadet boys

 

[Trismegistus]

Fang Bo also narrowly avoided going down 2-0 to Gacina.

I think Lin Gaoyuan (who isn't even included in the poll?) is the obvious bet to win the tournament, but his next match against Marcos Freitas might be a tough one!

 

[Ilia Minkin]

Please give some credit to European players, their mental toughness, experience and technical skills. Gardos and Gacina are fantastic players.

 

[Trismegistus]

After being down 3-0 to Gardos, LJK is on the comeback trail now. Down 3-2. I think he will complete the comeback if he can keep his own inconsistency in check. His game can really go off the boil badly.

Fang Bo is locked in battle with Gacina at 2-2. He's a bit lucky that he didn't go down 3-0 also.

 

[Trismegistus]

Well done Gardos! He takes it over LJK 12-10 in the 6th.

I'm not sure if LJK can ever truly be one of China's top 3 players with how little margin for error he has on his strokes. They seem to work well only against players he's very familiar with.