He Zhi Wen v Felix Lebrun - grandpa still got it!

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Pips & Leftie combo, the deadliest of TT style. The Black Mamba of TT universe.
There was a very old Chinese player that came to the Portland Table Tennis Club. The people that knew him called him 'The Master'. The better players would line up to play him and he beat them all. He played like HZW only not as mobile at his old age. It was an eye opener how c-pen blocking at angles could win so many points.

Players like HZW and 'The Master' have a style and their goal is to impose their style on the opponent. It is a matter of execution. If the opponents can't adapt they lose.

In 2010 'The PushBlocker' Olivier Madder won the Florida State open. He got to 2300 by imposing his simple push blocking style on his opponents . Again, if the opponents can't adapt, they lost. Long ago there was another player on MYTT, RoundRobin, that played PushBlocker. It was no contest. Round Robin played simple top spins being aware of the incoming back spin, but he would attack The PushBlocker's high returns. The key here is that the PushBlocker could not impose his style of play on Round Robin.
 
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That match was a few years old and felix probably didn't have a lot of experience against that style.

Still amazing how long hzw kept that level. Of course the equipment helped but he really isn't a trick player, the only real "trick" he uses are his insane serves. apart from that it is a pretty generic (not meant as a derogatory term but more as in "classic") SP hitter style with great TBP blocking and aggressive hitting when he gets a chance to unload the forehand.
 
says 40+ age in the 40+ age
says 40+ age in the 40+ age
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Grandpa ran out of stamina in the rematch. A few years younger and Felix would have no chance. Perhaps these older players show a glimpse of why people find yesterday's table tennis to be more charming.

Also, pips players were extremely aggressive back in the day

This just shows the completely useless argument for the 40mm ball... Even with the crappy video quality of yesteryear these matches can be followed just fine. Could you imagine if this was filmed with today's quality? 100+ FPS footage in 4k? It's absolute bull that we needed bigger, slower balls in order to follow the game.
 
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This just shows the completely useless argument for the 40mm ball... Even with the crappy video quality of yesteryear these matches can be followed just fine. Could you imagine if this was filmed with today's quality? 100+ FPS footage in 4k? It's absolute bull that we needed bigger, slower balls in order to follow the game.
I think the Argument was not so much following the ball but getting rallies at all. The Argument was that players and equipment got so powerful and serves so good that there were too many 3rd ball kills and not enough 5+ shot rallies.

Ittf hoped to see more of this

And less of this
 
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