On the 14th April the round of 32 at the Asian Championships took place with one notable result in particular which went down as the biggest upset in 2017. The World Number 1, World Champion and Rio Olympic Champion Ma Long lost to Korea's Jeong Sangeun (9-11, 8-11, 11-6, 6-11). This is the first time in 5 years Ma Long has lost to a player outside of CHINA! In fact its been a total of 1659 days and 136 wins since Ma Long lost to a non Chinese player.
Ma Long records first loss in 5 years!
MA LONG POST MATCH INTERVIEW:
In a post match interview Ma Long was not happy with the plastic ball being used and expressed, "I did not win the first set when I was leading. The match is best of 5 sets. I did not play well when I was trailing 0:1. The change to the new Nittaku plastic ball also affected my performance more or less, causing more unforced errors throughout."
"I had a good start of 3-0 at the beginning of the fourth set. Then the umpire called a fault service, which was ridiculous. I was affected somewhat. Although I told myself 'Don't be affected by it', I did run into some trouble delivering my techniques and tactics of services. Also I had too many unforced errors. "
"I did pay attention to my opponent. He is of good level in Team Korea. I was fully prepared before the match. But I made too many errors during the match and gave him too many chances. I was not able to stop his momentum most of the time, which made him more comfortable."
FOOTAGE OF THE MATCH:
Ma Long vs Jeong Sangeun
Match provided by the ITTF
What do you think of Ma Long's loss? Just a bad day in the office?
Stay tuned on TTD for all the updates from the exciting Asian Championships for the line up, draws, seeds and more. Plus keep up to the date with all the latest videos in the TTD Video Library.
Like and tweet our articles to the World. Lets spread the word of Table Tennis.
TableTennisDaily
Ma Long records first loss in 5 years!
MA LONG POST MATCH INTERVIEW:
In a post match interview Ma Long was not happy with the plastic ball being used and expressed, "I did not win the first set when I was leading. The match is best of 5 sets. I did not play well when I was trailing 0:1. The change to the new Nittaku plastic ball also affected my performance more or less, causing more unforced errors throughout."
"I had a good start of 3-0 at the beginning of the fourth set. Then the umpire called a fault service, which was ridiculous. I was affected somewhat. Although I told myself 'Don't be affected by it', I did run into some trouble delivering my techniques and tactics of services. Also I had too many unforced errors. "
"I did pay attention to my opponent. He is of good level in Team Korea. I was fully prepared before the match. But I made too many errors during the match and gave him too many chances. I was not able to stop his momentum most of the time, which made him more comfortable."
FOOTAGE OF THE MATCH:
Ma Long vs Jeong Sangeun
What do you think of Ma Long's loss? Just a bad day in the office?
Stay tuned on TTD for all the updates from the exciting Asian Championships for the line up, draws, seeds and more. Plus keep up to the date with all the latest videos in the TTD Video Library.
Like and tweet our articles to the World. Lets spread the word of Table Tennis.
TableTennisDaily