World Cup 2024

[Robin0910]

Really, they can’t spare a little more space for little Miwa?

 

[kindof99]

Yes, those BH serves were a trap. They look so simple - even I was reading the spin on them easily. But they are all placed in hard to attack trajectories and placements. LGY tried to directly chiquita kill those "disrespectful simple serves" and ended up making 1001 mistakes on them because he was chiquitaing way too flat with no safety (obviously because there are always subtle differences and the trajectory is a bit too low). Somehow for a pro player he doesn't know how to slow down, adjust and play with more spin and consistency until he gets his rhythm back. He's like the amateur guy who pisses away all points trying to attack low percentage balls wtf...

When faced with weird shit you can always do a slow spinny chiquita to enter the topspin rally. No need to take unnecessary risks at all!

return with more spin less speed will likely get a kill from Ml

 

[NextLevel]

No clues without the prospectus.

The bronze column for 2024 is empty as of this writing but the award ceremony shows we have double bronze medalists. (Ok, it's been updated just now to show the bronze medalists.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_Tennis_World_Cup#ITTF_World_Cup

They probably saw Harimoto play Lin Gaoyuan and decided it wasn't worth the match.

 

[zeio]

A great game by Ma Long, did Lin choke?? Personally I don’t think so, when you see Ma Long start to serve BH you know he is struggling, he had to change something. ML’s BH serve changed the dynamics of the points and his confidence rose.
Lin could have changed his serve or another part of the point strategy but didn’t, he just kept plugging away, in the end it was his inability to adapt that lost him the match, this isn’t choking, it’s match awareness.

2 great finals to watch, very enjoyable!!

5:1 and 6:2 in G5 and 3-1 in games for LGY. Blowing the lead like that qualifies as choking. I mean, we can debate for other players but it's not new with LGY.

Same thing for WMY leading 3-1 in games, unless there is something wrong with her body.

 

[IB66]

Inability to adapt is part of choking, but there were some loss of form dynamics in play. There were quite a few forehands in that match that Ma Long hit without his lower body.

Is that loss of form dynamics? Or did ML feel that the best option was to get the ball back without needing to use his body for power, more a case of controlling the fast rallies. Many of the points ML seemed to be waiting, ready to get a ball that he could play a higher quality shot with precision. Todays ML is not the loop killing monster of yesteryear!!

 

[dingyibvs]

Yes, those BH serves were a trap. They look so simple - even I was reading the spin on them easily. But they are all placed in hard to attack trajectories and placements. LGY tried to directly chiquita kill those "disrespectful simple serves" and ended up making 1001 mistakes on them because he was chiquitaing way too flat with no safety (obviously because there are always subtle differences and the trajectory is a bit too low). Somehow for a pro player he doesn't know how to slow down, adjust and play with more spin and consistency until he gets his rhythm back. He's like the amateur guy who pisses away all points trying to attack low percentage balls wtf...

When faced with weird shit you can always do a slow spinny chiquita to enter the topspin rally. No need to take unnecessary risks at all!

That's just who he is though. It's the reason his play has been unstable and prone to allowing comebacks by the opponent. Ma Long's range of adjustment is just wild. He basically played a pure countering game instead of his usual loop kill game this time. Using the BH serve allowed him to start the point at the center of the table facing the opponent, already in position to play the two wing counter game, which I bet he will practice some more as he can introduce a lot of spin and pace variations in this type of game than most players.

 

[Atas Newton]

Ms Long clearly injured, the commentators can't even tell those are injured player shots. Ma Long has lost his form and is just swinging and trying stuff to compensate for some injury that he obviously will not discuss.

the worst performance of the entire WC goes to the 2 commentators, absolutely useless 🤡🤡
I was especially tilted by the condescending advice to LGY to "play like he wants to win it for once" and the little segment where one of them failed to comprehend the chop block by Ma Long and thought LGY did something stupid not to play it back on the table.

 

[IB66]

5:1 and 6:2 in G5 and 3-1 in games for LGY. Blowing the lead like that qualifies as choking. I mean, we can debate for other players but it's not new with LGY.

Same thing for WMY leading 3-1 in games, unless there is something wrong with her body.

LGY does have a history of losing, that’s a fair comment!!
But how many times have we played matches, been 0-2 down and then come back and won 3-2, how many times been up 2-0 up and lost 2-3?? Did we choke? Did the opponent choke? Or did we or the opponent ‘up their game’?

 

[Kopp]

I was about switching off the TV in the 4th game when ML behind. LOL

 

[NextLevel]

Is that loss of form dynamics? Or did ML feel that the best option was to get the ball back without needing to use his body for power, more a case of controlling the fast rallies. Many of the points ML seemed to be waiting, ready to get a ball that he could play a higher quality shot with precision. Todays ML is not the loop killing monster of yesteryear!!

Playing a player with injured form is much harder for pros who are used to the player than you realize because many of the signals you use to read the ball don't show up. But I would like to believe that Lin got more and more nervous as the match went on and couldn't even think objectively about things that he should have clearly had his spider senses for. When he was up 6-2 in the 5th game and Ma Long scored those two points for 4-6, even the commentators could tell he was due for a timeout. But he waited for an epic point to call it, and then still couldn't do anything to change the dynamics. I can't give Ma Long *that* much credit.

 

[backspacer]

Feel bad for LGY. The man was crying.

 

[Robin0910]

Feel bad for LGY. The man was crying.

When did he cry?

 

[Metaxa]

LGY definitely belongs in this topic: https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...-tennis-players-are-very-weak-mentally.33592/, which is very unfortunate.

 

[backspacer]

When did he cry?

He was tearing up during the ceremony and who knows what was happening backstage.

 

[M51]

Savage.

 

[OvrChkn]

I was surprised by the commentators talking about the equipment both Ma Long and LGY were using for like one or two points, then hardly added anything tactically about the match.

Rough match for LGY to lose on, his backhand looked so superb this entire tournament.

I can imagine the singles lineup for the Olympics to be WCQ and FZD, but let recency bias get me. What a win for Ma Long.

 

[kindof99]

This turned out to be a great world cup. Better with more drama than previous ones.

Things to improve: better group stage rules, other commentators...

 

[NextLevel]

This turned out to be a great world cup. Better with more drama than previous ones.

Things to improve: better group stage rules, other commentators...

They got a massive event done on two tables. As crappy as the round robin rules were on ties, they deserve some credit.

 

[backspacer]

The venue looked very impressive. I liked the men's and women's tables next to each other.

 

[zeio]

They probably saw Harimoto play Lin Gaoyuan and decided it wasn't worth the match.

That reminds me of what Ovtcharov said after losing to Boll in SF and then LGY in 3rd place match at World Cup 2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_ITTF_Men's_World_Cup#Main_draw
赛后 | 奥恰洛夫：我不明白为什么要打三四名决赛？它对我并不重要 (Post-match | Ovtcharov: I don't understand why the 3rd place match is needed? It is not important to me)
https://video.zhibo.tv/detail/video/43789.html