Ma Long Illegal Serve in Detail

[Dan]

Okay, so we had the huge debate about whether Xu Xin's serve was illegal. Now we have a whole new discussion with Ma Long's service. Watch the video below, is the serve legal?

What do you think?

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images AsiaPac

 

[dici]

I have no idea because the serve looks fine for me. To me, the fault should called by the umpire on the other side if Ma long's serve is illegal.

What I'm feel is that there should a guideline for a umpire, who should pay attention and call the fault for the serve by depends on which side of the player is serving. Since I found that you just can't judge all the serve just from one side at all.

 

[sunilcse04]

Well the umpire cant have Owl eyes to catch him everytime ! Most of the Chinese players use almost the same technique. Either they try hide the ball with arm or shoulder or impart spin while throwing it up!

 

[poltery]

WTF now the Ma long serve!!!!!!! l Im so mad!!!!!

 

[TTFan01]

Can´t see what´s the problem? Sure, he lifts his hand very high before letting the ball go, but it´s clearly 16 cm. The only problem with the serve that I can see is that his palm isn´t flat when he throws the ball and that doesn´t even affect the ball.

 

[Mr. RicharD]

I've said this many times. You guys are confusing the paddle with the ball. The Chinese Service hides the stroke of the ball until point of contact so that a player can't use their stroke to tell what the service is. They have to wait until the ball bounces to their side to register what the spin is giving the Chinese that split second to get ready for the third ball attack. My understanding is that the ump wasn't calling an illegal service because of the toss, but because it may have looked like he hid the ball from Ma and that's why Ma failed to return. The reality is that she couldn't have seen the ball to begin with and that in itself is a biased opinion toward calling a fault rather than a warning. If an Ump is not facing the server they have no right to call a fault or warning on the service.

This is the most biased rule in the game and because the ITTF stands behind their umps many umps take advantage of this. In the league and organization I plan on creating this will be dealt with via camera angles and a line ump. There are so many rules that I think the ITTF created just to disadvantage the Chinese from pulling ahead of us. In my opinion each rule since the 2000 Olympics has been a rule to hinder the Chinese dominance. It's sad really.

 

[YosuaYosan]

Weee, another candidate for the most viewed thread Dan

Okay, gotta watch the vid atm..

 

[Michal_Z]

Well I watched it 5-6 times and I think Ma Lin could see the ball flight and also it was a good toss..
I think the server was legal and ok..
Also I dont think in the second serve he put some spin into it, its ridiculous and even if he did, it wouldnt affect the serve..
(I have tryed it, hehe)

So my opinion is that it was legal.

 

[JustAlt]

Ma failed to return.

Just to make it clear, Ma Lin didn't return the service because the umpire made the call. He definitely didn't fail to do it.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

I cannot see anything from the video but Ma Lin certainly does a damn good job of acting absolutely sure that there is something wrong with the serve. It looks like Ma Long's left arm is possibly in the way as the ball is dropping and that would qualify as against the rules. If there is any point where the ball is blocked by that left arm it would be against the rules. But all you can really see is Ma Lin's reaction.

In basketball a lot of the time a guy will fall down in this dramatic way and then get a call from a ref who might not have seen the play clearly. The refs sometimes call a foul simply because of the guy doing this whole big thing. And it definitely looks like Ma Lin does the Table Tennis version of flopping on the floor with arms flailing there. He has no intention of trying to get the ball on the table or seeing what happens to his return. His back is turned before his ball reaches the net.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

By the way, I don't know that Ma Lin would act like something was wrong with a serve unless there was something wrong with the serve. At least not like he does on that serve. So my guess is that there is something that he sees that we are unable to see on the video.

 

[Mr. RicharD]

Carl, pay attention to the left side of the video. Right after the serve, but before Ma Lin touches the ball the Ref raises her hand to award him the point. He acted that way because he felt it was a bogus call as well. He obviously just wanted to play the point and was given a "cheap" point in his opinion. That is my understanding of the video. It was a bogus call and biased that an ump can even call it. I know that in the leagues I'm creating something will be done about crappy reffing and also I'm thinking video playback will be an option for the players when a ref has a bad call. It's in Tennis so I feel it should be in Table Tennis.

 

[scylla24]

To be honest, a lot of people read the serve rule way too strictly, rules in general, and writing in general is rarely ever so concrete and unyielding. Pros because they have the time and put in the effort, they make their serves often as close to breaking the rule outright, without doing so.