Franziska Wins 1 in 10 Tries; Hugo Loses the Short-Ball Battle
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Previously Franziska was completely outmatched against Harimoto Tomokazu, in dire straits, a “nine-loss acquaintance.” At the Singapore Grand Smash men’s singles round of 16, he finally beat Harimoto 3-2, winning 1 in 10 tries and breaking through his own ceiling. Everyone says Little Fran (Franziska) is on the same German Bundesliga team as Fan Zhendong, so he ought to have learned something. It’s about time he improved.
Indeed, beside a master, we always tend to grow faster, whether in technical understanding or inner adjustment. Perhaps, for the young players on the national team, the fact that Fan Zhendong is currently away from the team is a kind of loss for their growth.
Franziska: Franziska ZLC, forehand D05, backhand T09c (suspected)
Harimoto Tomokazu: Harimoto Tomokazu SALC, Z03 on both sides
Besides the difference in fiber, one huge difference between these two blades is: the Franziska ZLC has an ayous core, while the Harimoto SALC has a kiri (paulownia) core. The ayous core is known for better deformation tension, jetting feel, and underlying power, with better power and arc-making ability away from the table. The kiri core is crisp and clear-through, with cleaner defensive feedback, and because it’s controllable and linear, it more easily brings out a close-table advantage.
Watching Little Fran’s two-sided looping in all its violence, yet during backhand rallies he kept thinking about pivoting to the forehand, it gives the impression his backhand isn’t confident enough, perhaps the influence of being that “nine-loss acquaintance.” Moreover, psychologically, he’s always been a bit indecisive, prone to panic and to “losing power.” Fortunately, this time, at least his tactical execution was fairly successful.
He served counterclockwise (reverse) spin more to Harimoto’s forehand short. In that spot, Harimoto can’t easily flip with quality. As the saying goes, what made you can also break you: Harimoto’s strength is also where his weakness was exposed. His backhand is too good, used too frequently, so his forehand inevitably performs a bit worse.
Of course, just relying on serving to Harimoto’s forehand short is hard to keep working. At the key moments of the deciding game, Little Fran still served two fast-long balls to Harimoto’s backhand-toward-middle, with obvious effect. The fast-long ball into the body and the short ball to the forehand corner: the two have to be organically combined for good effect.
In our amateur matches, if you rely on a single tactic, even if it works at first, the opponent will adapt later. But with two or more tactics keeping the opponent in check, the opponent easily gets caught off balance. Harimoto later largely solved the forehand short-ball problem, only to be disrupted by Little Fran’s two fast-long balls.
Beyond that, Little Fran later reduced the proportion of short pushes, either pushing long or directly flipping. After all, opening up after consecutive short pushes is Harimoto’s strength.
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The other upset was Chen Yuanyu beating Hugo 3-1, entering a Grand Smash men’s singles quarterfinal for the first time. I (Heima) saw some players say Hugo started looping after switching to a Juola blade, but I think it has little to do with the brand.
For one, if the blade Hugo used at the World Cup and World Championships was the true structure of the Hugo HAL, he wouldn’t abandon it across the board for no reason. For another, his sudden form decline came in August last year. It wasn’t until December that he started using Juola gear.
Before August last year, his form was basically pretty heroic. Macau World Cup champion, Doha World Championships runner-up. After the Worlds, at the Ljubljana, Buenos Aires, and Iguazu stops, he won all the titles. It wasn’t until the Sweden Grand Smash in August that his form bizarrely cratered, losing 0-4 to Duda.
After that he hasn’t hit a high point again (aside from an inconsequential Pan-American Cup title). After August, he also lost to Jha (Montpellier Champions), Simon, and Felix, and lost in deciding games several times to Chinese players (Xiang Peng, Wen Ruibo, Chen Yuanyu). On one hand, it looks like he’s past the exciting phase of rapid technical growth from earlier. His mind hasn’t settled. Do you know how many specials (different structures) the U.S. headquarters shipped him to test? Because he himself is still groping around.
On the other hand, a true winner has to endure continuous testing. Everyone is studying you. Your own changes also need to keep growing, and the thinking must stay continuously clear.
Yesterday’s loss to Chen Yuanyu wasn’t played smartly. A lot of his short pushes weren’t good enough, and the half-long balls got flicked or wobble-looped by Chen Yuanyu. In reality, although his short game has improved, the bigger threat is still in the long ball. There were far too few proactive long pushes this match. A lot of the time he relied on his own feel; it felt like the coach didn’t give him much effective guidance.