WTT Champions Frankfurt 2023

[Choosikick]

This post looked funny before editing, now its just hilarious

You can laugh all you want, but all the young and promising chinese players are eliminated, Ma Long is in his decline sports career. You really need to cry here.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

To all the Felix Overhypers and Ma Long doubters, where are you now?
Where are your excuses?

Felix was in the lead 8-6 in G1, and just like that ML won 8-11. It clearly affected young Félix mentally, he was not relaxed enough, and wanted to score too quickly the point with his BH after the first loop, and that BH went out a lot. too many mistakes and there was no match in G2 and G3. Félix had also a lot of problem in the short game where he usually is brilliant but ML was just better here as well. in the rallies Félix maybe was a bit better but ML was almost always on the ball.

in G4 ML perhaps breathed a bit, and Félix served much better that helped a lot.

G5 mistakes again, ML more focused. a little comeback too late at the end from Félix

basically i think Félix wasted a bit this match. too eager to win points quickly and too easily affected by the loss in G1. OTOH ML was in great shape and we heard him roaring, which he does only in big matches, so it was a mark of respect I believe. ML was perhaps disappointed that Felix couldn't be more challenging.

Big gap still between the 2 players. I hope Félix can close it in 2024, just in time before ML retires and for the Olympics.

 

[Metaxa]

I know it's hard to tell via video, and I trust the umpire has proper sight of it, but it looks to me like quite a few of WCQ's serves are illegal.

Only a few?🤣

 

[Robin0910]

It’s funny to see whenever a Chinese player cheated during this tournament lost in the end.
(CN and WCQ edge)

 

[Manto76]

This is old news, we will fix this after Ma Long retires lol.

If his serves are a known issue, why do you think he keeps getting away with them?

 

[zeio]

It’s funny to see whenever a Chinese player cheated during this tournament lost in the end.
(CN and WCQ edge)

https://youtu.be/bTwr7xmGZo8?t=559

 

[zeio]

Nah. This was clearly a case of working on something specific. His forehand penetration has been subtly better.

At the Asian Games 2022, WCT said "he caught LYJ" later on and LYJ didn't stop by the mixed zone after the narrow defeat. WCT also said he figured how to play WCQ later on but it was a little too late. After losing to WCQ in MT, LYJ said he simply "couldn't beat him" and that WCQ read his serve and receieve. WCQ said he prepared very thoroughly and paid special attention to limiting LYJ's advantage.

If you ask me, LYJ failed to peak at the right time. Will see what he has to say.

亞運桌球／林昀儒就是打不贏中國天敵　王楚欽：有限制到他的優勢
https://www.nownews.com/news/6268677

王楚欽與林昀儒兩人是老對手，近期王楚欽取得對戰四連勝，他在賽後表示：「我與林昀儒從小打到大，所以非常熟悉，水準也差不多，因此我在比賽前做了徹底的準備，沒有去想著輸贏這些東西，我在思緒上準備比較充分。」

王楚欽還指出，自己在比賽中特別注意限制林昀儒的優勢，並成功發揮自己的長處。而林昀儒在賽後受訪時也坦言自己就是打不贏對手，堪稱林昀儒的天敵。

杭州亞運》男團難越中國天塹　林昀儒：好好準備單項
https://tsna.com/article/77891

林昀儒對同樣左手持拍、大他1歲王楚欽4連敗，生涯對戰被改寫為3勝5敗，他坦然說：「就是打不贏。確實發球、接發球有點被算到，沒打好。既然團體賽程結束了，就好好準備剩下賽程，一場場打好，希望能有成績。和淵哥雙打之前也打過比賽，配合上沒什麼問題。」

亞運現場／林昀儒遭逆轉不受訪 對手暢談奪牌心情
https://udn.com/news/story/7005/7475555

2歲的黃鎮廷年紀比林昀儒年長10歲，世界排名49的他表示，今天能突破關鍵是自己「打得堅定」，設計的戰術也有執行，他說：「對面（林昀儒）打很兇，質量很高，但也相信自己堅定，沒有軟。」

黃鎮廷先接受電子媒體訪問，第二站以粵語和香港媒體對談超過10分鐘，最後一站才用中文受訪。他提到，第一局雖然是林昀儒先拿到「局末點」，但落後狀態下仍對自己有信心，「一球一球打，希望透過那一局，看能不能發現他一些問題，後面幾局能抓住他。」

最終在局數2：3落後下逆轉，黃鎮廷對自己表現直喊滿意，他說：「上屆亞運8晉4輸給伊朗選手，那時給自己太大壓力，沒能打好。這是第3次打亞運，連同奧運打了5屆了，這是第一面獎牌，而且是在男單競爭那麼大的項目拿到獎牌，讓自己充滿信心，打了一劑強心針。」

https://www.stheadline.com/realtime-sport/3277816/杭州亞運黃鎮廷反勝林昀儒振臂咆哮-首奪個人獎牌力保乒隊尊嚴

今屆港乒在亞運未有獎牌落袋，現在終於由黃鎮廷打破悶局，阿廷說沒有想過自己是否最後希望：「沒有想太多了，免得有無形壓力，就算4場入了8強又如何？現在搏得出來了，有獎牌就當成是BONUS了。今日贏在打對方時比較堅定，前3板不要驚怕對方，真係想到如何打、就如何打，一定要堅決去做、去行動。」

已為人父的阿廷笑言，在照顧女兒時每日面對不同情況，BB餓、BB病，突發情況考驗應變能力，無形中都是調整心理狀態。至於比賽狀態，阿廷說乒乓球手始終要看場上發揮：「我的狀態都是打比賽打出來，訓練再調得好，一到比賽都會面對不同困難。對手是左手右手上旋下旋，每個人都不一樣。實戰特別對心理衝擊很大，平常練習輸贏，影響沒有那麼大，但在比賽中，贏一分輸一分，可能像是天跌下來那樣不同。」

4強階段，黃鎮廷將鬥國家隊好手王楚欽，另一線是樊振東對張禹珍。黃鎮廷表示：「王楚欽，同佢打過幾次都是輸波多，都係要搏佢。盡力去打，只有對自己有信心，才有機會創造無限可能。」

杭州亞運．直擊｜黃鎮廷勇挫林昀儒鎖定獎牌　突破全靠心態放得開
https://www.hk01.com/即時體育/946564/杭州亞運直擊-黃鎮廷保住最後希望-港乒闊別三屆再奪男單獎牌

「好激動！」是港隊男單代表黃鎮廷步出採訪區的第一句說話，不單止是因為獎牌，而是自己在場上有突破，「以往打逆境波或實力較強的對手，好多時候自己都會捱不住，或者全場捱打，但今場一路控制住自己情緒，並勝出賽事，是在場上的一大突破，所以這塊獎牌含金量好重。」

LYJ 3 H2H 3 WCT

LYJ 3 H2H 5 WCQ

 

[Choosikick]

Felix was in the lead 8-6 in G1, and just like that ML won 8-11. It clearly affected young Félix mentally, he was not relaxed enough, and wanted to score too quickly the point with his BH after the first loop, and that BH went out a lot. too many mistakes and there was no match in G2 and G3. Félix had also a lot of problem in the short game where he usually is brilliant but ML was just better here as well. in the rallies Félix maybe was a bit better but ML was almost always on the ball.

in G4 ML perhaps breathed a bit, and Félix served much better that helped a lot.

G5 mistakes again, ML more focused. a little comeback too late at the end from Félix

basically i think Félix wasted a bit this match. too eager to win points quickly and too easily affected by the loss in G1. OTOH ML was in great shape and we heard him roaring, which he does only in big matches, so it was a mark of respect I believe. ML was perhaps disappointed that Felix couldn't be more challenging.

Big gap still between the 2 players. I hope Félix can close it in 2024, just in time before ML retires and for the Olympics.

In fact, even though I was rooting for Felix in this match, I’m probably even glad that everything turned out that way.
When two people meet, one of whom is young and has money, and the second is elderly and has experience, the older one leaves and takes the money, and the young one gets experience.
In this case, fate was right. Each of them received what he needed most now.

 

[NoSpin]

He’s pretty right though, in longer rallies Felix clearly had an advantage. Ma Long won primarily in the first 5 balls.

Oh yeah its so easy to force Ma to play your game. Well as you can see its not.

 

[NoSpin]

You can laugh all you want, but all the young and promising chinese players are eliminated, Ma Long is in his decline sports career. You really need to cry here.

What your inability to see that Ma is superior player for now has to do with all this?

 

[Nima Abadi]

In fact, even though I was rooting for Felix in this match, I’m probably even glad that everything turned out that way.
When two people meet, one of whom is young and has money, and the second is elderly and has experience, the older one leaves and takes the money, and the young one gets experience.
In this case, fate was right. Each of them received what he needed most now.

You might wanna check out Ma Long's net worth . He's got money alright.

 

[Choosikick]

What your inability to see that Ma is superior player for now has to do with all this?

Ma Long is a good player, but he is highly overrated by his fans.

 

[Choosikick]

You might wanna check out Ma Long's net worth . He's got money alright.

It wasn't about money at all...

 

[NextLevel]

If his serves are a known issue, why do you think he keeps getting away with them?

Its partly the historical status of the pendulum serve as many pendulum servers have similar issues. Also, Ma Long doesn't always hide the contact so much as have the ball fall behind the plane of his head/back making it harder to keep track of the ball throughout the toss. But my biggest evidence point is when they introduced software to umpire serves, it faulted Ma Long a lot when the umpire did (it faulted Liang Jingkun a bit as well). After that debacle, we never saw the software again.

 

[NextLevel]

You might wanna check out Ma Long's net worth . He's got money alright.

He was using an analogy to make a point, maybe it wasn't quite right, but it should be taken as an isolated story to illustrate a point he was trying to make. Nothing to do with the actuals net worth of Ma Long and Felix Lebrun, but a broader point about experience vs talent (again which you may not find a good analogy, and that is okay).

 

[Metaxa]

Its partly the historical status of the pendulum serve as many pendulum servers have similar issues. Also, Ma Long doesn't always hide the contact so much as have the ball fall behind the plane of his head/back making it harder to keep track of the ball throughout the toss. But my biggest evidence point is when they introduced software to umpire serves, it faulted Ma Long a lot when the umpire did (it faulted Liang Jingkun a bit as well). After that debacle, we never saw the software again.

I look forward to the days when they will put an invisible buzzerline in line with the table width. The buzzer is going to work overtime.
Very sad that no referees dare call the players on this or deduct points.

 

[John Birkin]

Some cracks appearing in the Chinese edifice in this tournament: FZD out of sorts - does he have a problem? The absolute highlight for me, an armchair viewer, was the blitzing performance of Taiwan's LYJ, who for once in this event got it all together: brilliant, spectacular BH, improved FH, a bit stronger in legs and arms, blistering speed and agility - and total concentration from the silent, smiling assassin. It remains to be seen whether he can reproduce all this against ML, who is reaching a new peak and confounding all those of us who felt that he was in a steady decline. There is also a big challenge for the Chinese men from the best Koreans and Europeans. As for the women, I've thought all along that WY and CXT were threatening to topple the top three and it is coming to pass, especially with CM looking a bit care-worn. These are internal conflicts, of course, but now, apart from the knee injury to WMY, Korea, Japan and Romania are posing a threat, with youthful talents such as Joo Cheonhui, who took WMY to 11-9 in the decider - and that was before the injury flared up.

 

[NextLevel]

As Ishida says, she is not bright. Hayata has mentioned multiple times she can only make up through hard work [1, 2]. It wasn't after Tokyo 2020 that she started to change her habit of hitting heavy shots and you can see that she still over-hits too much.

I watched the highlights again and I think I can cut her some slack. I think Wang Manyu's shovel serve increasingly became harder to read and that threw her off considerably. I think over time, with that experience, the gap will close now Hayata has at least experienced it.

 

[NoSpin]

Ma Long is a good player, but he is highly overrated by his fans.

How can one overrate Ma Long? He won everyone and everything and than he did it again. May be you should think about overrating Felix? Time will come and he will be better than Ma coz of age difference but there is close to zero chance he will acomplish same things.

 

[Choosikick]

How can one overrate Ma Long? He won everyone and everything and than he did it again. May be you should think about overrating Felix? Time will come and he will be better than Ma coz of age difference but there is close to zero chance he will acomplish same things.

Don't twist your words. The question was what kind of player Ma Long is now, not about his achievements