Japan Open 2019

[NextLevel]

SYS has beaten the 2019 WTTC Champion, the Silver medalist as well the Bronze medalist, adding to the fray along the way, the top Korean, the top Japanese in one single tournament.
What's LGL going to do now? ;-)

Pick the most experienced team, which is what China has traditionally done.

In any case, Sun Yingsha has no big titles so it will be a huge stretch. She will also be young at the next cycle.

 

[FruitLoop]

And if she wins almost everything before then and becomes the inarguable world number 1? Always a possibility although slim.

 

[NextLevel]

And if she wins almost everything before then and becomes the inarguable world number 1? Always a possibility although slim.

The thing is that at 19, for people to feel comfortable putting the pressure on you, you have to have a serious track record of doing amazing things. She didn't beat Wang Manyu in the WTTC. When you look at a 3 year or 4 year period, she is not going to stack up with the Liu Shiwens and Ding Ning's. The big matches count. The coaches also know what these players do on a daily basis so it would take a lot for Sun Yingsha to get the #1 internal ranking. But no doubt if someone wants to take the risk , they can go for it. For the Chinese. You don't get World #1 by winning small events. To them, FZD is still ultimately an unproven quantity.

 

[drunix80]

Sad FZD lost after breaking past ML. The mental game is still not there yet. Given ML is a sure shot choice for Tokyo, the second choice is now surely up for grabs between XX and FZD. Will be interesting to see how it goes. Next up in the tour is Korean Open. Hope it is not too late for FZD to get his act right.

 

[Michal_Z]

This had to be saved for the future generations. Watch with subtitles

Keep a straight face when watching this.

I think this is tactics from ITTF ...
They want to force players to learn english more so they can do interviews in english directly

 

[Janard]

The thing is that at 19, for people to feel comfortable putting the pressure on you, you have to have a serious track record of doing amazing things. She didn't beat Wang Manyu in the WTTC. When you look at a 3 year or 4 year period, she is not going to stack up with the Liu Shiwens and Ding Ning's. The big matches count. The coaches also know what these players do on a daily basis so it would take a lot for Sun Yingsha to get the #1 internal ranking. But no doubt if someone wants to take the risk , they can go for it. For the Chinese. You don't get World #1 by winning small events. To them, FZD is still ultimately an unproven quantity.

I will agree with you but I also sometimes wonder why FZD gets so much trust? Technically, he only has the World Cup to his name out of the three TT 'holy trinity', which also happens to be the 'lowest-ranked' among the trio. Likewise, WR#1 seems to be a mere reference for the CNT (LSW is a good example during the 2016 Rio selection), particularly in the face of the new ranking system which prides participation above all. No doubt he was a standout star among his generation in the early/mid 2010s but it seems like the rest are catching up (or have overtaken?). So, what really sets FZD aside from his peers? A naturally domineering presence? Well-roundedness?

 

[NextLevel]

I will agree with you but I also sometimes wonder why FZD gets so much trust? Technically, he only has the World Cup to his name out of the three TT 'holy trinity', which also happens to be the 'lowest-ranked' among the trio. Likewise, WR#1 seems to be a mere reference for the CNT (LSW is a good example during the 2016 Rio selection), particularly in the face of the new ranking system which prides participation above all. No doubt he was a standout star among his generation in the early/mid 2010s but it seems like the rest are catching up (or have overtaken?). So, what really sets FZD aside from his peers? A naturally domineering presence? Well-roundedness?

1) His overall technique is excellent.
2) He is more powerful than most players on any given day.
3) His consistency vs. foreign opposition. Yes, Ovtcharov, Harimoto and Calderano have beaten him once, but who else really?
4) The example of ML and the fact that ML is the only one that Fan consistently loses to.

I don't think there is anyone on the CNT that evokes more fear in foreigners than Fan (other than ML and in some cases, more than ML because backhand dominant players can trouble ML but they don't faze Fan usually - his issues are more with lefties). XX just has too many bad losses to foreigners now to command the same absolute fear. For Fan at least, the players were all above a certain threshold. For XX, you really shouldn't be losing to CCY, Gauzy, LJH, Koki Niwa, JWJ etc. That said, a lot of that came from the fundamental imbalance of Xu Xin's game so who knows?

 

[yogi_bear]

Where are they getting all these translators?? Lol

 

[tropical]

I lost hope in XX only to see him so dominant against LYJ in this tournament. But the Taiwanese kid was so talented. He beat SW easily and made him look pretty bad. I think it is still a bit early for LGL to decide who will represent China in 2020.

 

[Zaid323918]

What was the last tournament FZD has won?

 

[BlipBlop575]

I lost hope in XX only to see him so dominant against LYJ in this tournament. But the Taiwanese kid was so talented. He beat SW easily and made him look pretty bad. I think it is still a bit early for LGL to decide who will represent China in 2020.

He wasn't that dominant. The only set that was one sided was the 4th where he won 11-3 but the rest were very close.

 

[BlipBlop575]

What was the last tournament FZD has won?

Asian Cup

 

[Hysteresis]

1) His overall technique is excellent.

2) He is more powerful than most players on any given day.
3) His consistency vs. foreign opposition. Yes, Ovtcharov, Harimoto and Calderano have beaten him once, but who else really?
4) The example of ML and the fact that ML is the only one that Fan consistently loses to.

I don't think there is anyone on the CNT that evokes more fear in foreigners than Fan (other than ML and in some cases, more than ML because backhand dominant players can trouble ML but they don't faze Fan usually - his issues are more with lefties). XX just has too many bad losses to foreigners now to command the same absolute fear. For Fan at least, the players were all above a certain threshold. For XX, you really shouldn't be losing to CCY, Gauzy, LJH, Koki Niwa, JWJ etc. That said, a lot of that came from the fundamental imbalance of Xu Xin's game so who knows?

To add to that, he also did 11:0 the last marvellous 12. The dedicated internal selection competition.

Well roundedness/overall technique matters alot. It's really hard to strategically exploit a weakness in his game, because he doesn't have glaring weaknesses.

He is quick in the short game on par with the likes of Harimoto and LGY, strong on the power game on par with LJK, increasingly solid in the short push/control game on par with Ma Long and overall physicality in both speed and power parts of the game, pretty much unrivalled by his peers.

So even if you found a weakness in his game, you'd REALLY have to work at it, he wouldn't just fall apart because you'd only be marginally stronger at it than him at that element of the game. That makes him very difficult, especially for a non-chinese player to beat.

 

[CoolPug7]

ITTF: We're getting them from Free translators.com

 

[will_999]

FZD playing ML was a totally different animal when playing XX. He made just too many errors on backhand and service returns. If he played like how he played against ML, then no one can beat him. FZD needs to be more consistent before he can really ascend the throne.
Congrats to XX. I am surprised how he sometime looses to non CNT players. Lack of focus during the initial games?
Looks like anyone on CNT can beat anyone on any given Sunday.
XX is probably the best doubles player out there, because of the right-left combination and also mixed doubles.

 

[igorponger]

https://www.ittf.com/ittf-world-tour/2019-ittf-world-tour/world-tour-standings/

FALCK Mattias is booked for the ITTF Grand Final. Happy boy he is. Your money chunk would be some 5,000 USD just to enter the event.

 

[Hysteresis]

I am surprised how he sometime looses to non CNT players. Lack of focus during the initial games?

Xu Xin's problem is that his preferred style of play is big swings from behind the table. This also happens to be, comparatively, where top European players are also strong. (i vaguely remember some coach or another complaining about this as a part of Xu Xin's play being outdated)

The entire CNT has a very strong "first three balls"(serve receive and first attack) sort of play, due to the team's emphasis on fundamentals. This is often used to smother less fundamentally sound players and makes CNT members difficult to beat, even without specific research on players.

While is is perfectly capable, indeed one of the best, at this, Xu Xin doesn't always use this to his full advantage (maybe as a part of showmanship?), and with his inherent weakness on the backhand side from being a penholder he can be vulnerable to upsets.

He has, however, cleaned up his RPB a lot of late. I think it takes away a bit from XX to not mention that he looked like a different animal out there too. It looked like FZD was constantly surprised at one more shot coming back with quality than he expected on quite alot of rallies, especially from XX RPB.

 

[John V Nerro]

So the net ball was because of the table quality?

This Victas table is really something...

I've lost count of the number of serves that were sent right into the net.

 

[alas26]

He has, however, cleaned up his RPB a lot of late. I think it takes away a bit from XX to not mention that he looked like a different animal out there too. It looked like FZD was constantly surprised at one more shot coming back with quality than he expected on quite alot of rallies, especially from XX RPB.

What do you mean it takes away from XX? Like, it takes away from his showmanship style?

He definitely is a different beast and his RPB is really starting to come together. It’s really fun to watch him!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[usualsuspect]

I think this is tactics from ITTF ...
They want to force players to learn english more so they can do interviews in english directly

Or maybe they want to see more smiles from the winning players during interview.
I feel like all the CNT players being interviewed are holding back laughters. Just look at XX's face.
I'm guessing the Chinese translation is pretty broken.