United States (US) Smash 2026, Los Angeles, California, USA 26 Jun - 5 Jul 2026

This user has no status.
This user has no status.
🏆 Top 1% Commenter
Well-Known Member
Jan 2016
5,351
6,893
27,839
The men have had something like this for a while now since LJK disappeared. On the women's side, WMY lost to Sato, that's the only real thing that changed. What will be interesting is whether they can get Kuai Man past Sato and Miwa.

Wang Chuqin losing to Anders Lind is not a surprise I can give you that
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
🏆 Top 1% Commenter
Well-Known Member
Moderator
Oct 2014
20,149
26,760
71,406
Read 17 reviews
Maybe the chinese hurricane rubbers have been surpassed by butterfly rubbers and no longer give the chinese an advantage . The rest of the world are catching up.
I was thinking something alongst those lines when I saw LSD repeatedly fail to gain an advantage on Alexis while Alexis was well off the table. Feels like you need really special technique to get away with Hurricane on the forehand at that level.
 
  • Like
Reactions: andymagata
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Oct 2025
103
108
261
I was thinking something alongst those lines when I saw LSD repeatedly fail to gain an advantage on Alexis while Alexis was well off the table. Feels like you need really special technique to get away with Hurricane on the forehand at that level.
To me there was never an absolute advantage to the hurricane, but a combination of a variety of factors, possibly a synergy between the way they approach the game and how hurricanes support it. Perhaps the last generation played first with the celluloid balls and had to transition, it's a little different than growing up with the ABS ball. The commercially available hurricanes are a bit more hybridy now, and maybe that's also the case on the team side, and they're having a hard time adjusting. Who knows.

It also seems like LSD has been working on some things through the last few events, so winning might not be a necessity right now. I have no idea how it's going in terms of progress to where he wants to be in his game - his forehand has never been a strong suit - it's actually a bit of a wonder to me he was ever ranked #1.
 
This user has no status.
To me there was never an absolute advantage to the hurricane, but a combination of a variety of factors, possibly a synergy between the way they approach the game and how hurricanes support it. Perhaps the last generation played first with the celluloid balls and had to transition, it's a little different than growing up with the ABS ball. The commercially available hurricanes are a bit more hybridy now, and maybe that's also the case on the team side, and they're having a hard time adjusting. Who knows.

It also seems like LSD has been working on some things through the last few events, so winning might not be a necessity right now. I have no idea how it's going in terms of progress to where he wants to be in his game - his forehand has never been a strong suit - it's actually a bit of a wonder to me he was ever ranked #1.
For some time he was unbeatable - he looked GOAT
 
Top