At one point we used to have a pretty good 4-start USATT tournament in my city, and we would usually raise some funds to pay the expenses of a world top 100 player to come play. One year I recall like it was yestereday that Thomas Keinath was our guy (because I contributed quite a bit, I got to hit with him for about 30 minutes, so that was really cool). Thomas was somewhere in the world mid 70s at the time. He won the tournament, beat Eugene Wang in the final (and actually had to work at it for that particular match).
But against everyone else, including a bunch of people who at the time were among the best North American players), it was one annihilation after another. It's not like the North Americans looked amateurish or completely any able to hit shots (like it would if most of us were up against a professional). It included people who had played in many international events, like Peter Paul Pradeeban, one of the best North American players of his era. But against all those guys, Keinath won every game, usually at about 11-5 or 11-6 and you could just tell that Keinath felt no pressure in a match against anyone until he played Eugene in the final. He was not visibly "goofing around" and he was respectful of his opponents. And yet, it looked like he was moving in slow motion and simply didn't care when he missed. It was a bit like some of these videos except the players Thomas was destroying were a lot better than Brian Pace or Wally Green.
The contrast when he played Eugene was marked. Then you could see some intensity. Thomas won that final but it was a good match. I think this was probably around 2008, because I remember watching Eugene glue up right before the match.
