Why did Joo Se-Hyuk barely forehand-chop in his match against Ma Lin in 2003?
Did he used to play like this? Why did he change from this to chopping with his forehand often?
I think you have to realise that a chopper playing against Ma Lin can't really stop ma Lin if he chooses to drive into the LP. When Ma Lin is topspinning into the pips he can control the amount of spin and speed, but in spite of this theoretical advantage he is not able to penetrate JSH's defence easily, with either power or variation.
However, we can see that JSH does use forehand backspin often when pushing over the table, but away from the table he mixed fh junky low pace soft lifts with tremendous FH counters, and above all he showed superhuman fitness to be able to extend the rallies to matter where Ma Lin sent the ball. I feel that for a 3rd ball specialist like MA Lin this must have a challenge that he must have found difficult. Maybe JSH felt that using his fh chop might not be effective against Ma Lin's varied spin.
I don't know how ML played JSH in subsequent matches but would expect him to demonstrate dealing with that soft ball stuff more severely. Easier said than done
The match is like lifetime masterpiece for JSH