A 3-0 Rout of Wang Manyu? Satsuki Odo's New Weapon
If you watched this match carefully and still concluded that “Wang Manyu was loafing, saving herself for the World Cup,” I can only say that disrespects both players.
Simply put, in a best-of-five, Wang Manyu got dazed in this match and had not yet reacted. So how did Satsuki Odo daze Wang Manyu?
Chongqing Champions women’s singles round of 32: Satsuki Odo beat Wang Manyu 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-3). In January’s Doha Champions, Wang Manyu had beaten Satsuki Odo 3-0 (12-10, 11-5, 11-6).
First, athletes have ups and downs in form, and this was round one — you cannot always get into rhythm fast. Second, Satsuki Odo is ranked world No. 13 and has been in the top 10. Her WTT win count is similar to Wang Manyu’s; she is no nobody.
So what tricks did Satsuki Odo use to break through Wang Manyu?
One: Long balls opening the way, big and bold
Last August’s Europe Smash in Sweden was instructive: Larsson-Fors beat Liang Jingkun 3-0. I wrote then: this Larsson-Fors match was a bit like Jarvis against Liang Jingkun at the Doha Worlds — often opening with long balls, going straight into topspin rallies, simplifying the game, just changing direction down the line with the backhand into the big fatty’s forehand. If you basically open with long balls, might other countries’ top players actually be incredibly close to our national team’s level? That was my question then. In this match, Larsson-Fors often dragged the big fatty straight into topspin rallies.
Back to Odo beating Manyu. Although her serves mixed long and short, she served a great many hook fast-long serves. Then in the rallies, Odo’s ball was fast and powerful. She executed her tactics resolutely, so her form looked great too. In the first two points of game two, one was a fast long serve followed by a violent backhand quick-rip; one was an all-out forehand in the rally. It looked like rally play, but it ended in three or four strokes, very high quality. She escaped the over-the-table tangle with Wang Manyu as much as possible and simplified the game.
In the post-match interview, Odo mentioned that in January she served more short balls; this time she served more long balls, with more pressure on serve. We can see that her ball, from serve to in-rally power, seemed to be on fast-forward — really fast. At that speed, Wang Manyu, who receives mainly with the backhand, rarely pivots, and prizes stability, felt a bit unable to adapt.
Two: More aggressive receiving
Odo analyzed that last time she pushed a lot on receive; this time she flicked or “reverse-flicked” as much as possible. What is a “reverse-flick”? It should be what we usually call the sidewipe. In game two, from 4-2 to 6-2, two sidewipe points. From 10-5 to 11-5, another sidewipe.
Then on receive, Odo often power-flicked straight into Manyu’s forehand, and Manyu’s counter-loop had some errors. Adding the hook long serves, Odo flailed away on both wings, piling on pressure.
I prefer to believe Manyu simply could not adjust in time, since Odo’s ball speed is quite fast and her attacking is too strong. Her ball quality has always been among the most violent in the women’s game, and her form here was very good.
Beyond that, she used a new weapon this match. Satsuki Odo: Harimoto SZLC, forehand ZYRE-03, backhand Dignics 09c.
I wrote a couple of days ago that Odo and Sakura Yokoi once used the tension-type tensor D05, but later both moved to the lightly-tacky spin-type D09c. Their coach Sakamoto Ryusuke said that because the rubber is spin-type, speed drops, so the blade had to be switched to something springier. We can see Odo uses the Harimoto SZLC, while Yokoi uses the Fan Zhendong SALC. Up to her February Chennai title, Odo still had D09c on both sides. But at this Chongqing Champions, her forehand went from D09c to ZYRE-03. The speed-up effect looks clearly much better — well matched to this fast long-ball, high-speed tactic.