Chongqing Champions: Equipment Is Shaping Technique
1
Zhou Qihao beat Huang Youzheng 3-1.
Zhou Qihao: Double Fish Project Z, NEO Blue National Hurricane, D09c Huang Youzheng: Fan Zhendong SALC, NEO Blue National Hurricane, NEO Orange National Hurricane
At some point Zhou Qihao’s backhand switched from D05 to D09c. Worth noting: our national players’ backhands are now basically high-tack Hurricane-family or lightly-tacky tensors — grippy-only tensors are being abandoned, including the top-tier D05.
Clearly Huang Youzheng stuck with the W968 for a while, but how could the god of blade-swapping not swap? This time he took up the Fan Zhendong SALC. By the look of the match, the ball quality was indeed fiercer than with the Fan ALC, but errors rose too. In theory, a slightly rash young man like this might suit a steadier blade better. The Fan SALC is not unable to be steady, but you must settle down to adapt to it and learn to use its various contact times and points.
Shi Xunyao, since the first stop of the Year of the Horse (Singapore Smash), also switched to the Fan Zhendong SALC. Before that, she seemed more aggressive on attack, but the ball quality always felt a size smaller than Sun Yingsha’s or Chen Meng’s. After the switch, she is indeed a bit more powerful. Yesterday she beat Yuan Jianan 3-0.
2
Lin Yun-Ju beat Karlsson 3-1.
Lin Yun-Ju: Super Viscaria, ZYRE-03, D05 Karlsson: Korbel SK7, D09c, ZYRE-03
At the Singapore Smash, Lin Yun-Ju swept Karlsson 3-0. After game two, Karlsson looked at his bat, a little dazed. That is right — you should have switched blades long ago, not rubber! What I mean is…
His backhand was 05H before. The earliest I can find: around last November, Karlsson’s backhand went from T05 Hard to ZYRE-03. The spin and power he flicked over felt stronger before than now. Of course, the rubber is not the main issue. If you cut yesterday’s loss to Lin Yun-Ju into a quick montage, you would see: many rally balls, Karlsson, while hitting or defending, inexplicably nets them. Why? The blade’s support is not enough. Either it was rattled soft and needs replacing, or it is the all-wood blade’s problem — under powerful exchanges, the support and quick rebound are not good enough. Switch to a fiber blade.
I recall playing a retired provincial-team big shot a couple of years back — usually fine, but a few times my ball kept dropping into the net during exchanges, because his power was always so big. Later I found the blade had been rattled soft — though I strongly suspect I did not rattle it soft myself; it was rattled soft by his repeated heavy drives over the long term.
3
Hugo beat Chen Yuanyu 3-2.
Hugo: Joola Hugo ARY-C, Trinity Charged on both sides Chen Yuanyu: gold-label Viscaria, NEO Blue National Hurricane, K3 Pro
His continued use of this inner arylate-carbon probably shows Hugo’s trust in it — even though at the previous stop he lost 1-3 to Chen Yuanyu with it.
Chen Yuanyu has an edge in flicking and driving when watching half-long balls. But learning from last time, Hugo made some changes this bout:
One, serve some “half-long” balls. As long as Chen Yuanyu does not attack proactively on receive, or does not read it clearly, he struggles to drop short well, and Hugo opens up easily.
Two, drop short more tightly and raise the proportion of chop-long. As I said last time, confined to an over-the-table short battle, Hugo is at a disadvantage. Once it goes half-long, Chen Yuanyu attacks first, very efficiently. What Hugo must do is dissolve it with more chop-long. And he already knows Chen Yuanyu’s routine, so now Chen’s short drop is something Hugo is mentally prepared for, and the effect is not as good as before.
Beyond these, Hugo’s receiving was bolder and more varied — power flicks, wobble-flicks, riding-the-spin drops, richer than last time. Actually, in the decider, Chen Yuanyu still had chances. But he was a bit indecisive. And some details were not done well enough — for example, his front-and-back footwork affected his short drops, and he got pinned down by Hugo. These need slow practice and slow growth.