Swedish Open 2016

[JeffM]

I would love to find out what happened to Kenta Matsudaira in terms of his movement problem during the semi final. He has been playing so well recently, a bit unfortunate to see him go down like that.

 

[TableTennisDaily]

Final Schedule

Mens
Begins 4.15pm local time

Dimitirj Ovtcharov 2-4 Mattias Karlsson
Yuya Oshima 4-1 Kenta Matsudaira

Women
Begins 3.30pm local time

Kasumi Ishikawa 4-3 Cheng I-Ching
Hu Melek 4-3 Han Ying

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

he was holding his lower back

 

[ajtatosmano2]

The Kenta - Oshima match was so much entertaining! Kenta is my all-time favourite player, I just love to watch his creative play. And good to see how he smiles during the match, because he enjoy it!

 

[Dan]

Now Live! Mattias Karlsson vs Yuya Oshima in the FINAL of the Swedish Open! Live streaming here: http://www.tabletennisdaily.co.uk/livestreaming/

 

[NextLevel]

Tough final. It seemed to me that Karlsson's over the table backhand short push and block will need some more work if he wants to play that way and break the highest level.

 

[Jonathan_]

So the guy I predicted to win last week ended up winning this week instead

Fun week to watch overall. Matsudaira and Oshima are my 2 favorite Japanese players, glad to see them both making progress.

Koki Niwa is falling behind quickly on his national roster. He is #5 at best in Japan at the moment, and hard to see much reason for optimism.

 

[PiZa]

Koki Niwa is very talented player but in my opinion he must improve his footwork.

 

[ajtatosmano2]

Niwa was on every single Austrian Open training hall videos and worked hard. I hope he'll be back. I want to see the Kenta-Niwa double in action again! They played close matches against the chinese top doubles.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Niwa is very talented seems to lack passion and hard training to get more power. Look at how he is skinny compared to top Chinese players.

 

[NextLevel]

Niwa is very talented seems to lack passion and hard training to get more power. Look at how he is skinny compared to top Chinese players.

The thing is that his strengths are things that go away once your opponents get familiar with you at that level. His serve and serve return game is still amazingly good but it won't get him past his JNT mates and it won't get him past the top Chinese given all the resources they put into breaking down the games of potential threats. He may just not have found the optimal training regime as I find it hard to believe that he is not trying. In any case, the competition on the male JNT is going to get extremely hot with Tokyo coming and it will be fun to see. Oshima did some things today that I thought he couldn't do. If he had the skill set he had today a year ago, Ma Long would have lost that match where Oshima was up 6-2 in the 7th.

 

[ttmonster]

Completely agree with you , I somehow feel that he is overly dependent on his god like touch. His JNT team mates have already adapted to it , CNT players either have adapted or make sure they get him into a rally and not let him finish the point in the first 3/5 balls. Its still baffling how come , he has not yet been able to develop the rest of his game to complement his touch and also his body language shows how fragile he is mentally , I have seldom seen him come back from the dead and he tends to give away all games where is down by a large margin ...

The thing is that his strengths are things that go away once your opponents get familiar with you at that level. His serve and serve return game is still amazingly good but it won't get him past his JNT mates and it won't get him past the top Chinese given all the resources they put into breaking down the games of potential threats. He may just not have found the optimal training regime as I find it hard to believe that he is not trying. In any case, the competition on the male JNT is going to get extremely hot with Tokyo coming and it will be fun to see. Oshima did some things today that I thought he couldn't do. If he had the skill set he had today a year ago, Ma Long would have lost that match where Oshima was up 6-2 in the 7th.

 

[ttpshot]

Niwa's overall record against CNT is better than Mizutani despite his often criticized attitude and 162cm physique.

Mizutani has often said in his interview how he doesn't understand people criticizing Niwa as he said it's obvious to him that Niwa never gave up.

Thing is, his close to the table, counter attacking style is inconsistent by nature and I'm not sure if gaining more strength would help much.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Completely agree with you , I somehow feel that he is overly dependent on his god like touch. His JNT team mates have already adapted to it , CNT players either have adapted or make sure they get him into a rally and not let him finish the point in the first 3/5 balls. Its still baffling how come , he has not yet been able to develop the rest of his game to complement his touch and also his body language shows how fragile he is mentally , I have seldom seen him come back from the dead and he tends to give away all games where is down by a large margin ...

well we have to credit NIWA for his win at the Olympics against WONG Chuting. He made a quite incredible comeback, and i would not have bet 1 yen on him...but the next game, he was nothing again...

 

[Samee85]

I really don't understand why the top seed players are not performing .. finally world no 41 won the open. Even with top 10 players he managed to win it. Semi finalists are World number 35 , 36 and 41 and 5 . it's weird.

 

[Ilia Minkin]

I really don't understand why the top seed players are not performing .. finally world no 41 won the open. Even with top 10 players he managed to win it. Semi finalists are World number 35 , 36 and 41 and 5 . it's weird.

Because it was an Olympic year and they probably emotionally empty after that. If one is a top 10 player, the pressure to do well in the Games is tremendous, and it is very natural to lose motivation and passion afterwards. Maybe I am wrong though.

 

[Suga D]

Niwa's overall record against CNT is better than Mizutani despite his often criticized attitude and 162cm physique.

Mizutani has often said in his interview how he doesn't understand people criticizing Niwa as he said it's obvious to him that Niwa never gave up.

Thing is, his close to the table, counter attacking style is inconsistent by nature and I'm not sure if gaining more strength would help much.

Interesting point and also makes sense. If you want to move quick it can be hindering having a too big body.
But I believe why people criticize is mostly his body language. He just looks not very motivated at times or actually sometimes even a little bored or something.
Maybe his superb touch [which is btw one of the best in the world IMO] is why people think he could be much better if his body language would send out different signals and a different attitude. I think many people criticizing actually just want to see him win more.
Man, i really love those chop blocks of him, where he almost caresses the ball, hardly touching it. Just imagine this touch combined with the will-power of FZD for instance, i think this kid would be unstoppable.

 

[ttpshot]

Interesting point and also makes sense. If you want to move quick it can be hindering having a too big body.
But I believe why people criticize is mostly his body language. He just looks not very motivated at times or actually sometimes even a little bored or something.
Maybe his superb touch [which is btw one of the best in the world IMO] is why people think he could be much better if his body language would send out different signals and a different attitude. I think many people criticizing actually just want to see him win more.
Man, i really love those chop blocks of him, where he almost caresses the ball, hardly touching it. Just imagine this touch combined with the will-power of FZD for instance, i think this kid would be unstoppable.

I used to have the same feeling about his body language. He just seem to go about his own way. Niwa does say that he does it to disguise and also says that no one gives up till the end if you're in Worlds or Olympics. It's probably true in some way but it's frustrating to watch nonetheless.

 

[ttmonster]

The thing is , I have heard this argument elsewhere ... and have seen it in some kids up close, that "disguise" works like an energy sapper with people who mimic the behavior in front of them and there is no way its going to work against top level CNT players .... on the other hand it will just give him the mental upper hand ...
its one thing to create an emotional wall like waldner used to do , not give away anything , its quite another thing to display negative body language ... cannot say I am convinced with Niwa's reasoning/claim ...

I used to have the same feeling about his body language. He just seem to go about his own way. Niwa does say that he does it to disguise and also says that no one gives up till the end if you're in Worlds or Olympics. It's probably true in some way but it's frustrating to watch nonetheless.

 

[Sali]

There ismore about Koki. No doubt he is a very talented player, maybe consideringtalent he could be the no 1 in the world. The problem is that he started very early in international stage. He is only22 but seems rather 30 considering how long he play world tours. It is clearlyvisible that for last 2-3 years he lost his motivation and looses a lot. If wethink about his strengths they are for sure touch shots, 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] ballattack, serve receive. But his strategy is too simple, he is not creative anymore, he do not move sides correctly. Usually after the serve he just stay inthe corner and wait for the opportunity to attack with his FH. I think it washalf year ago when Samsonov said after he won with Koki “he always wants to usehis FH attack from BH corner, so I played wide to his FH and he was never there”.