Fan Zhendong Picks Up the Butterfly ZYRE-03 — What Is There to Say?
In the Champions League men’s team semifinal, Fan Zhendong, with the ZYRE-03 swapped onto his forehand, crushed Redn’imski 3-0 and led Saarbrücken to a 3-0 win, advancing to the final. The very Grand Slam player who once called the ZYRE-03 a junk rubber personally demonstrated using it (forehand Z03, backhand D09c) in an important match like a Champions League semifinal. This — what reasoning is there? It fully shows that even top stars’ understanding of equipment is constantly being revised.
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Who is Redn’imski? Anyone who can play in a team semifinal at least has some fighting strength. At last October’s WTT China Smash, in the men’s singles round of 16, Wang Chuqin edged Redn’imski 3-2. This gentleman then used an inner-ZLC structure blade (said to launch this year), glued with K3 Pro on both sides. Last night’s I could not see clearly.
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What does Fan Zhendong’s successful use of the Z03 show? First, players of this level have enough ability to cover most equipment differences. We have discussed this a lot. Wang Chuqin and Liang Jingkun went from the outer Vis to the 968 structure. Chen Xingtong: in 2019, Viscaria, then Tomokazu Harimoto ALC; in 2020, gold-label Vis; in 2022, Lin Gaoyuan ZLC; from 2023 to now, W968. Different fibers, different inner and outer — she adapted to them all. Fan Zhendong’s teammate is Franziska, a rubber-changing master. D05, D09c, Z03 — swapped back and forth on both wings. Group stage and knockout can be different combinations, barely affecting his results. Fan Zhendong is like this now too. In these European campaigns, forehand blue national Hurricane backhand D09c, occasionally flipping the bat; or D09c on both sides; this time forehand Z03 backhand D09c. He adjusts by the different match tables and balls. With thick enough ability and a level above, equipment’s influence is much smaller. Normally, it is best for opponents to meet at their peak, to better test your equipment’s fit. But if your ability really is too high, it does not matter. Besides, Xiaopang has good feel and strong adjustment ability anyway. Back when Ma Long temporarily replaced the 968 with a Yinhe blade in the Super League, it was also like cutting vegetables.
So is there anything to inspire us amateurs? Maybe not. We just need to play our own two rubbers clearly. For many players, keeping rubber stable is even more important than keeping the blade stable. Adjusting feel is not that hard.
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Will Fan Zhendong using the Z03 on the forehand this time make it sell hotter? Of course, even if only temporarily. Whatever rubber a top star and Grand Slam player uses, everyone will follow. When he used D09c on the forehand, everyone believed it was better than the Z03. When he uses the Z03 on the forehand, quite a few people will at least want a taste. But ultimately, whether it suits us still has to be asked of ourselves. If you want richer layered spin, Hurricane and D09c are better choices. If you play simply, charging forward, then the Z03’s own ball-holding and sense of speed are quite nice. It is just that, for forehand use, it is a bit picky about the blade; currently a soft outer blade is more suitable.