Macau World Cup: The 10 Most Valuable Gear Insights, Part 1
A week of watching gave me much to ponder. I organized my 10 deepest gear impressions, to start the discussion.
1
Under the banner of the highest-ever spin value of 100, the Butterfly ZYRE-03 plays the role of restraining the Hurricane 3, especially on the seamless-ball stage. From 2025, Sora Matsushima’s progress is fast. At first, mainly his forehand-side coverage strengthened, with more compact strokes. But in early last October a new turning point came — his already decent backhand had a further qualitative leap. The cause? One, of course, being young, easy to improve fast. Two, switching to ZYRE-03 then. On October 2, the China Smash, Sora Matsushima with the backhand switched to Z03 beat Liang Jingkun 3-2. I wrote then that this rubber boosts his backhand. Under normal power, the arc is short. After firing, the arc suddenly lengthens. And placed on the backhand, it really defends well — stable, high error-tolerance, suited to Matsushima’s backhand drive. This rubber’s speed and power in topspin rallies are quite good. The Z03 suits mindless jamming, with few errors. I am optimistic about its backhand application prospects. At the mid-October Asian Championships team event, Sora Matsushima kept improving, beating Wang Chuqin 3-2. That frenzied backhand began to show. Later I watched Tomokazu Harimoto’s ZYRE-03 video; one focus: before, using D05, he had to mind stroke adjustment, but after getting used to the Z03, he can think of nothing and just freely make strokes. This is a very scary trait. I have to say, the gear athletes seek all their lives may be what lets them freely deploy technique. So my old god-blade definition is “soft yet powerful” — soft enough lets you act freely. Of course, you must quickly enter topspin rallies for the Z03 to be strong enough. Now in Japan, above-medium players use Z03 more and more, finding clear ball-quality gains, because their style was never spin-variation-first. Then at the high level, views on Z03 split severely. One faction thinks the Z03 sacrifices some spin. In my view, if you value the spin variation rubber brings, it does not suit you. If you just want to charge forward, it is decent.
2
Two years ago, I wrote a piece: “Weekly Equipment Watch 207: inner to outer, ZLC to aramid carbon, SALC first?” Then I read recent interviews and reports on Lin Yun-Ju; he mentioned strengthening his own power training, not needing the SUPER ZLC’s fast rebound, needing more stability, and the Super Viscaria performs better here, while bringing better spin. On ALC versus SALC, I wrote before that SALC more easily creates spin and relatively more easily catches the opponent’s spin. Now I have a new conclusion: when your power advances further, you may prefer the more linear ALC. When your power is not especially strong, you may still depend on the SALC’s relatively better rebound and speed. But regardless, gear choice varies by person. Each person’s power level differs, so the choice differs. So the SALC has its unique value. This is also why I designed the “Mozaiti.”