Carl , I agree with NL and there is also that difference in mental stability for a pretender vis-a-vis somebody who thinks I belong at this level ...
Ma Long started exploiting his weakness on the backhand from the get go and then when he got the confidence that he has a 60-40 chance on FH - FH exchanges he opened up.
I was expecting Aruna to stage a comeback in the later sets once he got used to Ma Long's power , but unlike the famous Bojan Tokic - Ma Long match , which I still consider the definitive fight of a two winged looper vs Ma Long when both are at the top of their form and neither is breaking down mentally , I was somehow let down by the fact that Ma Long started looping his serves , long or over the table .
I felt thats where Aruna failed to take the game to him ... again .. different perspectives .. NL's understanding of the game is superior than mine and he spends much more time thinking and studying the game ... so I would readily defer to his observations ...
I think what you might underestimate is how exposed the top Europeans are to the Chinese. Nigeria has a strong TT tradition dating back to the days of Atanda Musa and his teammates in the 80s and Segun Toriola's in the 90s and 2000s. So the players can pretty much learn Nigerian technique and develop unique skill sets similar to the Europeans. You don't need to travel to China to become a good TT player if you have a good coach in Nigeria. Of course, how far you go depends on the level of TT you are exposed to and Aruna has been playing in Europe (first Portugal, now France). As you can see the coach was Nigerian. I and a friend actually hoped that Aruna would use Toriola for this match but who knows what the dynamics were.
What you are saying about Aruna's technical soundness under pressure is true but the problem is that Hurricane creates a different trajectory and ball quality which you have to train against. The Chinese also have the best disguised and powerful serve and third ball games so you aren't going to practice against that level of power and speed even playing the best European players. You need to play against Hurricane to read it better once you are playing at a high enough level.
Read Dima or Timo when they write about these things. Dima was complaining that Germany had lost Christian Suss and that losing a powerful looping training partner always hurts the level of practice. Timo talks about the temporary effect of playing in the CSL and training against that quality of ball.
When you don't have major success against that quality of ball, what memories are you going to draw upon to motivate you? Aruna had lost to Zhang Chao, Feng Yijun, Cao WeI, Xu Xin and Ma Long with this same issue. Some players adapt to that ball better than other but you need to train against it. Germany probably imported a few Chinese training partners for this. Nigeria doesn't have that kind of TT budget.
It will be interesting to see what Aruna does to address this and whether he wants to go further. But we also have to see if he retains this level as he didn't play people with tricky serve and third ball games. It would be interesting if he could join the super team in Russia with Mizutani and Dima and Samsonov for a week of training.
It's not about knowing more TT. The Nigerian TT Federation got new management about 3 years ago and that and Aruna's hard work is part of what is driving this improvement. Working with good coaches has shown me how important it is to train against a ceramic style and level to be able to read and play against it properly. People laugh when I check paddles before I play matches but trust me, I read strokes and my approach to the Hurricane ball is not the same as my approach to the Tenergy ball. The Hurricane ball can have both spin and speed in a way that the Tenergy or ESN ball, even with hard sponges, does not. People downplay it and put it down to the skill of the Chinese but just realize it is something you have to practice against. With European rubbers, spin and arc go together. With Chinese rubber, spin and speed can go together at a level you have to accept or you will get blown off the table.
Tokic has something in his background that explains his ability to deal with that ball. His father was a high level coach and I don't know his specific history but just take it from me, Tokic even with his losses vs them in recent times, just deals with that power at a better level than most.
It is like the first time you face a close to the table counter loop vs your opening loop. You are like WTF. But I'd you practice against it, you can learn to counter that loop as well. Ma Long has done that a lot against Aruna's ball. Aruna has not had to do that against the quality of Ma Long's ball. And once that gets into the game, the rest is frustration.
Aruna can back off the table and survive that ball against many players. But at this level, no chance.
