WTT Contender Taiyuan 2023

[Metaxa]

Great match from Togami. Real shame about his last three moves.
But I have reservations about his tactics, or not...
Pretty much all his BH balls went/were diagonal, at least 90%. Rarely, if ever, did he play a BH > parallel and when he did play one, 99% of them went wrong.
Remarkably, his FH balls that he did regularly place parallel were then again right 98% of the time.
If I were Togami I would put in a training session tomorrow on only BH parallel moves.

 

[blahness]

Great match from Togami. Real shame about his last three moves.
But I have reservations about his tactics, or not...
Pretty much all his BH balls went/were diagonal, at least 90%. Rarely, if ever, did he play a BH > parallel and when he did play one, 99% of them went wrong.
Remarkably, his FH balls that he did regularly place parallel were then again right 98% of the time.
If I were Togami I would put in a training session tomorrow on only BH parallel moves.

He doesn't have the BH fade down the line like Harimoto or FZD lol. I think his movement doesn't lend itself to do the straight line BH.

Also the BH fade down the line is best done if the ball is not exiting the sidelines. If the ball exits the sideline it's better to do a straight BH counter which goes from right to left.

Straight line is also a lot riskier in general especially for BH.

 

[Metaxa]

He doesn't have the BH fade down the line like Harimoto or FZD lol. I think his movement doesn't lend itself to do the straight line BH.

Also the BH fade down the line is best done if the ball is not exiting the sidelines. If the ball exits the sideline it's better to do a straight BH counter which goes from right to left.

Straight line is also a lot riskier in general especially for BH.

I am of the principle that, tactically, there is far too little parallel play, although there has been some change in this in the last few years.
The scoring rate (if carefully executed) will be higher with a parallel ball because of the surprise effect.

 

[blahness]

I am of the principle that, tactically, there is far too little parallel play, although there has been some change in this in the last few years.
The scoring rate (if carefully executed) will be higher with a parallel ball because of the surprise effect.

Yes, the scoring rate will be higher but the error rate will also be higher because of the shorter distance. LJK also rarely goes down the line in his matches, often preferring to just stay in the BH-BH diagonal.

The BH switch down the line is not easy and really only mastered by a few players (especially Fan Zhendong and Harimoto).

 

[TensorBackhand]

Yes, the scoring rate will be higher but the error rate will also be higher because of the shorter distance. LJK also rarely goes down the line in his matches, often preferring to just stay in the BH-BH diagonal.

The BH switch down the line is not easy and really only mastered by a few players (especially Fan Zhendong and Harimoto).

No wonder i often miss that shot in game

 

[blahness]

No wonder i often miss that shot in game

Somehow the penholders are insane at this down the line switch. I keep getting destroyed by this shot lately - the pattern is basically they serve to my short wide BH, I do a diagonal BH loop or chiquita (because I'm forced to due to the stupidly wide angle making it a nightmare to go down the line), it gets TPB faded to my wide FH, I do a crossover step to FH loop it, it gets blocked back short to my wide BH and then it's gg after that. It's the righty version of the stupidly annoying He Zhi Wen tactic.

The only way is to make the guy's job a lot harder by looping with a lot of spin variation but that's also difficult because the pendulum serve has a lot of spin variations too.

I'm also trying to incorporate a bit more variations in the initial BH receive by using more traditional BH flat flicks, sideswipes and pushes. Sometimes looping these wide angle balls is not the best solution when they're already waiting for the loop - It's a trap!

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Somehow the penholders are insane at this down the line switch. I keep getting destroyed by this shot lately - the pattern is basically they serve to my short wide BH, I do a diagonal BH loop or chiquita (because I'm forced to due to the stupidly wide angle making it a nightmare to go down the line), it gets TPB faded to my wide FH, I do a crossover step to FH loop it, it gets blocked back short to my wide BH and then it's gg after that. It's the righty version of the stupidly annoying He Zhi Wen tactic.

The only way is to make the guy's job a lot harder by looping with a lot of spin variation but that's also difficult because the pendulum serve has a lot of spin variations too.

I'm also trying to incorporate a bit more variations in the initial BH receive by using more traditional BH flat flicks, sideswipes and pushes. Sometimes looping these wide angle balls is not the best solution when they're already waiting for the loop - It's a trap!

Or try to receive shorter ? Against pendulum serve it helps (outside of chiquita) to contact the ball on the RIGHT side even if the ball is short wide. That will help a lot. You can do it with BH long push , stop or try to push with FH if you prefer
The problem of chiquita is that in this situation it may be too predictable unless you practice to play it down the line to the FH which is IMO difficult

I think the main objective has to be able with the same initial racket position to play the ball at least in 2 preferably 3 or more ways to make the opponent guess. If he just waits for your chiquita in diagonal or the middle it’s really too easy for him

 

[NextLevel]

I think Togami has cleared a lot of mental blockades in these recent tournaments and was able to play to his own strength, the few last points show his immaturity in great matches (after all it's his first singles final in adult competition) but I once again have high hopes for him to become the #1 JPN player.
Harimoto can play awesomely but he rarely enter this state, but Togami performance in Taiyuan is his actual level when competing domestically

Looking at that physical level, he is practically unbeatable. The only problem with that style is what happens when the energy is low or injury manifests. At this point in the Olympic cycle it is perfect timing for him. I think the next big thing will be a rematch with Wang Chuqin and to see whether he can handle him.

 

[blahness]

Or try to receive shorter ? Against pendulum serve it helps (outside of chiquita) to contact the ball on the RIGHT side even if the ball is short wide. That will help a lot. You can do it with BH long push , stop or try to push with FH if you prefer
The problem of chiquita is that in this situation it may be too predictable unless you practice to play it down the line to the FH which is IMO difficult

I think the main objective has to be able with the same initial racket position to play the ball at least in 2 preferably 3 or more ways to make the opponent guess. If he just waits for your chiquita in diagonal or the middle it’s really too easy for him

I actually tried other methods too, short push is difficult with the BH against very tricky FH pendulum serves because sometimes im not reading the top/under component completely correctly. D05 bounciness doesn't help me out in this area. All pop ups get killed by them too easily. My BH short push isn't great but I'm training it

Even if I receive correctly it doesnt give me a very high winning chance, it only neutralised the server's advantage.

Long pushes is better but then I'm stuck in defence mode which I generally don't like although it is better than the short push.

BH loop and chiquita is really good because it still goes in if I have slight misreads of the spin - I really like the forgiveness of the stroke. Also when I'm in good form the chiquita or loop just kills them on the 2nd ball even if I'm stuck with wide BH / middle as placement options. But I really need to be on point to do that consistently and defend against all the random fast long jamming serves.

One thing I really like lately is the BH fade/sideswipe ( left to right) which has similar preparation position but produces opposite sidespin to the chiquita and its also not easy for them to attack due to the extreme sidespin produced.

If I can catch the ball before it exits the sideline, i can receive with this sideswipe very wide to their FH corner and curving away, which forces them to do a big distance crossover step and then its just straightforward blocking it back to their wide BH for an easy point (basically using their strategy lol).

The flat flick (against sidetopspin) is also excellent because it's fast but hard to borrow spin from.

 

[John Birkin]

Nobody got anything to say about the women? WMY was back to her brilliant, dynamic best, with a rapid recovery from her quad injury. I suppose she and SYS will get the two Chinese singles places for the Olympics, with three other contenders not far behind them. Who can challenge them? Harimoto is superb, but too young at 15, and Szocs is coming on strongly, but perhaps the two young Koreans will have a shout: SHIN Yubin and JOO Cheonhui. Miyuu Kihara? I would put my money on WMY.

 

[NextLevel]

Nobody got anything to say about the women? WMY was back to her brilliant, dynamic best, with a rapid recovery from her quad injury. I suppose she and SYS will get the two Chinese singles places for the Olympics, with three other contenders not far behind them. Who can challenge them? Harimoto is superb, but too young at 15, and Szocs is coming on strongly, but perhaps the two young Koreans will have a shout: SHIN Yubin and JOO Cheonhui. Miyuu Kihara? I would put my money on WMY.

Well, WMY did establish that she is going to the Olympics barring a major accident. I do think she still has something to prove against international choppers. The Gaponova heart-attacks were not good.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Nobody got anything to say about the women? WMY was back to her brilliant, dynamic best, with a rapid recovery from her quad injury. I suppose she and SYS will get the two Chinese singles places for the Olympics, with three other contenders not far behind them. Who can challenge them? Harimoto is superb, but too young at 15, and Szocs is coming on strongly, but perhaps the two young Koreans will have a shout: SHIN Yubin and JOO Cheonhui. Miyuu Kihara? I would put my money on WMY.

SYS/WMY will have more challengers in this Olympic cycle from Japan, S. Korea, Romania. Miwa Harimoto has no chance of making singles. Hayata has pretty much claimed one of the Olympic spots. Miu Hirano and Mima Ito are vying for the 2nd spot with Hirano in the lead by 24.5 points in the 2024 Paris points race for Japanese Olympics singles selection. I think it will end up being Hayata and Hirano in singles. Hirano beat SYS to claim the WS title at WTT Contender Zagreb. Hayata has not fared as well against either, but she did beat WYD to get bronze at the 2023 World Championship. She beat her again at the Asian Games to claim a silver medal. SYB played SYS pretty well in Frankfurt. I'm not sure how the Korean women are selected, but if Joo Cheonhui is eligible, she will be a very dangerous opponent for China as she is most familiar with their style being originally from China herself. She's pushed the top Chinese women to the limit a number of times. Szocs has beaten CM twice. She outrallied Hayata for most of their match in Frankfurt so she will be a strong contender as well. Yang Xiaoxin just beat CXT. Yuan Jia Nan when in good form has a punishing style. I've no doubt SYS and WMY will be well prepared, but at least this time they should encounter more resistance than in Tokyo.

 

[dingyibvs]

Somehow the penholders are insane at this down the line switch. I keep getting destroyed by this shot lately - the pattern is basically they serve to my short wide BH, I do a diagonal BH loop or chiquita (because I'm forced to due to the stupidly wide angle making it a nightmare to go down the line), it gets TPB faded to my wide FH, I do a crossover step to FH loop it, it gets blocked back short to my wide BH and then it's gg after that. It's the righty version of the stupidly annoying He Zhi Wen tactic.

The only way is to make the guy's job a lot harder by looping with a lot of spin variation but that's also difficult because the pendulum serve has a lot of spin variations too.

I'm also trying to incorporate a bit more variations in the initial BH receive by using more traditional BH flat flicks, sideswipes and pushes. Sometimes looping these wide angle balls is not the best solution when they're already waiting for the loop - It's a trap!

I was getting destroyed the same way on Saturday against a very good TPB guy. He'd serve either a heavy topspin very wide to my BH or fast no spin to the corner my BH, basically making me topspin it back and the only place I can put it consistently was to his BH. Then he'd power block it wide to my FH.

The trick I discovered is to just don't favor my BH side so much, stand a little closer to the middle, and quick loop it back. This way I wouldn't need to cross over and can just slide over to my FH side.

You can get away with that because TPB backhand is just not as threatening when attacking. Even with my weak BH I found that I was able to hold my own in a BH/BH rally. This is because I'm the only one who can initiate an attack. When I don't feel comfortable I just soft spin/block it back, and he can't attack it because there's no spin for him to borrow. He tries a few times and they'd just tank into the net.

 

[blahness]

I was getting destroyed the same way on Saturday against a very good TPB guy. He'd serve either a heavy topspin very wide to my BH or fast no spin to the corner my BH, basically making me topspin it back and the only place I can put it consistently was to his BH. Then he'd power block it wide to my FH.

The trick I discovered is to just don't favor my BH side so much, stand a little closer to the middle, and quick loop it back. This way I wouldn't need to cross over and can just slide over to my FH side.

You can get away with that because TPB backhand is just not as threatening when attacking. Even with my weak BH I found that I was able to hold my own in a BH/BH rally. This is because I'm the only one who can initiate an attack. When I don't feel comfortable I just soft spin/block it back, and he can't attack it because there's no spin for him to borrow. He tries a few times and they'd just tank into the net.

Yep TPB is a weird beast. On one end it can't generate heavy topspin and power as easily as shakehand, but heck is it fast, placement is easy and direct, plenty of variations, and most importantly there's no middle weakness and you can even use it on the FH side, and the transition to the deadly penhold FH is so fast.

With the LP twiddle or RPB you'll have double the variation.

I feel like this is probably one of the very underrated techniques in the TT world.

Even with no RPB, Chiang Peng Lung drove everyone nuts with his incredibly powerful TPB.

 

[dingyibvs]

Yep TPB is a weird beast. On one end it can't generate heavy topspin and power as easily as shakehand, but heck is it fast, placement is easy and direct, plenty of variations, and most importantly there's no middle weakness and you can even use it on the FH side, and the transition to the deadly penhold FH is so fast.

With the LP twiddle or RPB you'll have double the variation.

I feel like this is probably one of the very underrated techniques in the TT world.

Even with no RPB, Chiang Peng Lung drove everyone nuts with his incredibly powerful TPB.

The deception is real. A small adjustment of the wrist and a short little push and it can go wide to the FH or BH. Do it well enough and you can be He Zhiwen lol.

 

[driversbeat]

Nobody got anything to say about the women? WMY was back to her brilliant, dynamic best, with a rapid recovery from her quad injury. I suppose she and SYS will get the two Chinese singles places for the Olympics, with three other contenders not far behind them. Who can challenge them? Harimoto is superb, but too young at 15, and Szocs is coming on strongly, but perhaps the two young Koreans will have a shout: SHIN Yubin and JOO Cheonhui. Miyuu Kihara? I would put my money on WMY.

According to this article, Joo Cheonhui is already recognized as one of the strongest players in KTTA but won't be eligible for participation because of KTTA's internal criteria.

하지만 본격적인 국내 무대 등장은 올 시즌에야 가능했다. 한국 국적을 얻었으나 대한탁구협회 규정에 따라 3년의 경과 기간을 거쳐야 했기 때문이다. 지난해 말 이뤄진 대표 선발전에도 요건에서 한 달이 부족해 아예 출전할 수 없었다. 올해 항저우아시안게임, 내년 파리올림픽에는 나갈 수가 없다. 주천희는 “협회의 규정에 따라야 한다. 못 나가도 무명이라고 생각하고 감독님과 열심히 할 것이다. 나중에 더 잘하면 좋을 것”이라고 했다. 그러면서도 “기대를 했는데, 아쉬움은 있다”며 여운을 남겼다.

However, a full-fledged appearance on the domestic stage (referring to KTTA's internal selection tournaments) was only possible this season. Although Joo had already obtained Korean nationality, she had to wait for the required three-year period to elapse according to the regulations of the Korea Table Tennis Association. Even in the national team selection event held at the end of 2022, she was unable to participate at all because she was one month short of the requirements. Neither can Joo participate in this year's Hangzhou Asian Games or next year's Paris Olympics. Joo Cheon Hui said, “You must follow the rules of the association. Even if I can't go (to the Olympics), I will work hard with my coach as if the situation is unknown. It would be good to do better later. Still, I was looking forward to it, and there are regrets.”

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Togami is rewarded with world ranking #24 for his great effort in Taiyuan. Harimoto will drop out of the top 10 next week due to expiring points from his 2022 Asian Cup win. It will be an interesting battle between Harimoto and Togami to stake claim to Japan TT's top male player.

 

[tackyfh]

Togami is rewarded with world ranking #24 for his great effort in Taiyuan. Harimoto will drop out of the top 10 next week due to expiring points from his 2022 Asian Cup win. It will be an interesting battle between Harimoto and Togami to stake claim to Japan TT's top male player.

with the route they're taking, I hope Togami can truly overtakes him. He only lacks experience and wisdom compared to Harimoto while his skill set is already superior.

 

[Choosikick]

Togami is rewarded with world ranking #24 for his great effort in Taiyuan. Harimoto will drop out of the top 10 next week due to expiring points from his 2022 Asian Cup win. It will be an interesting battle between Harimoto and Togami to stake claim to Japan TT's top male player.

Personally, I like Togami more than Harimoto.

 

[SFF_lib]

I like Togami. Needless to say about his beautiful style. He just needs to play smarter and will be Japan’s NO.1 in no time