Japan Open 2017

[Baal]

CNT probably had a room full of PhDs breaking down video to analyze her game. LGL mentioned that JNT has a larger budget than CNT. OK maybe in total dollars, but Japan is expensive, and almost without question CNT has a lot more people of all sorts including coaches, therapists, psychologists, training partners to emulate foreign player's style, etc. You have to constantly add new things and you can't be predictable or they will beat you. That is not a critique, thats just how it is. And has been.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

CNT probably had a room full of PhDs breaking down video to analyze her game. LGL mentioned that JNT has a larger budget than CNT. OK maybe in total dollars, but Japan is expensive, and almost without question CNT has a lot more people of all sorts including coaches, therapists, psychologists, training partners to emulate foreign player's style, etc. You have to constantly add new things and you can't be predictable or they will beat you. That is not a critique, thats just how it is. And has been.

I'm confident HIRANO will get better and challenge the Chinese again. She'll be ready for the Olympics in time.

 

[ajtatosmano2]

In real for the CNT the only homework was to prepare for the battle against the japanese girls. And MH might be a very strong player, but she has opponents outside china as well. She is very young, has a lot of time to win the titles, therefore can't only focus on tactics. She has to develop her overall technique and consistency too.

 

[TTHopeful]

What time semis tomo guys

 

[Tiktian Chan]

What time semis tomo guys

The times are on the ITTF website (in japan local time GMT+9):
http://portal.ittf.com/competitions...asp?competition_ID=2728&rnd=4&s_Event_Type=MS
http://portal.ittf.com/competitions...asp?competition_ID=2728&rnd=4&s_Event_Type=WS

 

[ttmonster]

Also felt they are tucking her up on the body more than ever, saw cheng meng start serving from the middle of the table to her body ... and then not let her open up her arms to play those powerful shots she was doing earlier ..

I agree -you can see that they are doing specific new things designed for Hirano. They are pushing her serve extremely heavy much more rather than pushing to get into a rally. She served her topspin kicker to Chen's backhand and Chen looped it without hesitation which Hirano was completely surprised by. Hirano won her fair share of rally points, but she no longer won any cheap points off serve and she often looped balls into the net. I think this was the difference and was enough to turn around the score. Chen even returned a couple of half-long serves over the table with her backhand.

The fact that Hirano wasn't out classed in the rallies shows where the problem is. And the fact that her serve and return game has been taken so thoroughly apart means that it needs more than what she has. The Chinese are so confident they have even spoken a couple of times about the specific things they do to her.

 

[Tiktian Chan]

First match (Sun Yingsha vs Wang Manyu) has just started

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Also felt they are tucking her up on the body more than ever, saw cheng meng start serving from the middle of the table to her body ... and then not let her open up her arms to play those powerful shots she was doing earlier ..

you and NL both got it right

HIRANO said in an interview after the match that the Chinese would not let her develop her game. She couldn't use her BH attacks. She said she had a lot of difficulties dealing with long underspin pushes, and her opponent targetted her. She also said she didn't get any cheap point in serve/receive this time and in rallies it was tough... TLDR she said she has to improve a lot if she wants to beat the Chinese again and said she hopes to do better at the coming China and Australia open.

----

MIZUTANI said he wasn't playing his best against LSS but much better than at WTTC. He said his YG serve was key to winning the match, and is happy to have won this match although he wasn't playing very well.

ITO was crying after losing to WANG , and said that if she can't beat the Chinese today it would be even more difficult in the future...


-----
regarding the Open, there was a horde of young Chinese female fans shouting "ZHANG Jike JIAYOU", sorry MA Long... there was a Chinese flag and many banners cheering for MA Long FAN Zhendong and others. The Japanese public was just clapping hands, but the Chinese fans were more vocal.

The only other fans you could hear shouting is the French ones (aka my friend and myself)... TBH we were sitting close to all the French National Team, but we were the ones wearing the official French shirt , (same than Lebesson) while the rest of the team was in casual clothes...

I was cheering for ITO and shouting her name, but i was the only one to do so. Actually the Japanese public started being vocal only at 8-10 match in the last point, matchpoint against ITO... very sad... Next week it's the Chinese Open, its gonna be even worse for the Japanese / non-Chinese players....

 

[ttmonster]

Just finished watching the 1st semifinal of women's , looks like China has got its next champion in Sun Yingsha .. NL was right , she is a female version of FZD , only the reverse serve is not there yet.

Funny thing , I suprised myself by correctly predicting her switching from Backhand Flip to Forehand Flip , when she messed the first point in the 3rd set ...

 

[Tiktian Chan]

Just wondering, is Wu Yang considered a better Chopper than Han Ying (Wu Yang doesn't play much internationally these days)? (I watched their 2014 China Open match, and a what an interesting thing a chopper v chopper match is may I add!)

Also interesting article, about chinese players moving to other countries (I was amused that the german side, was a chinese player and a chinese coach).
https://qz.com/759973/chinese-ping-pong-players-now-represent-congo-ukraine-and-luxembourg/

 

[edgy]

ma long seems to be playing a little sloppy. will the 2016 japan open repeat itself?

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

ma long seems to be playing a little sloppy. will the 2016 japan open repeat itself?

nope... its all over

 

[edgy]

haha yeah he really flipped the switch on in game five. couldn't miss after that

 

[drunix80]

ML really turned it on. He seems to be comfortable against XX these days. Last year XX posted few wins against ML but there is a clear gap between their levels now.

 

[Henry Tang]

Wu Yang is one of my favorite female players in CNT. I would say WY is the world NO.1 chopper in her prime. I believe her offensive ablity is better than most female choppers including HanYing. Watch her games in slovenia open vs. Lixiaoxia and german open vs. Kasumi
However, she has very serious back injury all the time after she became a pro. Nowadays it's even more difficult for her to compete with younger teamates casue they are so familiar with Wuyang's playstyle. Hanying (or Sato) has more chance to beat young chinese players.
Wuyang is almost in the end of the career, sad but ture.

 

[Tiktian Chan]

Wu Yang is one of my favorite female players in CNT. I would say WY is the world NO.1 chopper in her prime. I believe her offensive ablity is better than most female choppers including HanYing. Watch her games in slovenia open vs. Lixiaoxia and german open vs. Kasumi
However, she has very serious back injury all the time after she became a pro. Nowadays it's even more difficult for her to compete with younger teamates casue they are so familiar with Wuyang's playstyle. Hanying (or Sato) has more chance to beat young chinese players.
Wuyang is almost in the end of the career, sad but ture.

I was thinking that was likely true frome their only encounter in 2014, she's also much younger than Han Ying. She still does perform quite well when she competes though, beating notably Ai Fukuhara and Kasumi Ishikawa in the 2016 German Open and Mima Ito at the Asian Championships. Albeit it seems that choppers have a great record against a lot of players, as long as their not in the CNT!

Albeit considering the young talent in the CNT and the way they send people to tournaments her chances at competition are highly limited unfortunately.... But then again she's got 9 years on Han Ying, so who knows...

 

[Henry Tang]

Agree.
At least we can see more games from her in CSL, maybe some team events internationally.
Hope everything goes well with her.

I was thinking that was likely true frome their only encounter in 2014, she's also much younger than Han Ying. She still does perform quite well when she competes though, beating notably Ai Fukuhara and Kasumi Ishikawa in the 2016 German Open and Mima Ito at the Asian Championships. Albeit it seems that choppers have a great record against a lot of players, as long as their not in the CNT!

Albeit considering the young talent in the CNT and the way they send people to tournaments her chances at competition are highly limited unfortunately.... But then again she's got 9 years on Han Ying, so who knows...

 

[drunix80]

Another day, another ML-FZD final. I hope FZD wins this one to make their rivalry interesting. So, far it has been utterly one-sided. Go little fatty, grab the legend !!!

 

[NextLevel]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2017/06/18/more-sports/hirano-vows-face-chinese-challenge/


The article that talks about some of the things Takkyu mentioned.