Sha-tou Escapes Death — This Is the World Cup!
The Macau World Cup enters its climax. Even Wang Manyu’s hard-fought attack-versus-chop battle with Honoka Hashimoto was so watchable, let alone Hugo’s awesome violent backhand, the young master’s dashing air, and Sun Yingsha’s and Wang Chuqin’s two “narrow escapes.”
1
Sun Yingsha 4-3 Hana Goda. Normally, by the ability gap between them, a 4-1 score is about right. 4-2 would already be Hana overperforming. But 4-3, with Hana even leading 3-2 — really unexpected. Sun Yingsha: S968, Neo blue national Hurricane, Hurricane 8-20 national custom. Hana: Cybershape 6, Platinum DNA on both sides (hardness m). To know an opponent, you must start from knowing her gear. Hou Yingchao, commentating this match, said: why is this ball so short? Because Hana’s sponge is soft. I knew she used m-hardness on both sides a couple of years ago, and thought it too soft then. I recently confirmed again — still m. But soft rubber flicks well, drives through fast. In this match, Hana scored many points with backhand flicks — straight-line, high-speed, low-flat arc, which Sun Yingsha was not so used to. On the other hand, Shasha’s serve was too monotonous. Hana’s forehand short is a bit weak. But you cannot serve like that start to finish, with little variation. Ultimately, I feel she set her posture too high, feeling her ability was clearly above the opponent, hence serving like this throughout. This is the World Cup, not an ordinary match. Now WTT’s yearly schedule is too dense, so even at the World Cup, players may not mobilize themselves well. Hana is still young, and at the key moment Shasha’s forehand was reliable enough.
2
Wang Chuqin 4-3 Darko. Shasha’s match counts as a narrow escape; Datou’s, more precisely, was tough enough. Normally it should be 4-1 too. The first game was won too easily; the second had a bit too many inexplicable errors. By the third game, Darko’s several net-and-edge balls in a row changed the situation, letting him see hope of beating Wang Chuqin. So his state came, his defense better. I have to say, Hurricane 3 playing this seamless ball really is not ideal. Hurricane has no speed advantage to begin with, and playing the seamless ball, the spin drops too. This is a gear shortcoming. Wang Chuqin: Q968, Neo blue national Hurricane, Hurricane 8-20 national custom. Darko: Tibhar Darko (heterogeneous structure), K2, MX-P Infinity. Fourth game, Wang Chuqin should have had a serve advantage but instead could not receive Darko’s backhand serve well. And Darko’s backhand power is just big. Down 1-3. Very critical, but by my understanding of Darko, he always has short-circuits when leading. Last August’s WTT Sweden, Darko 3-2 over Shunsuke Togami. Look at the scores and you understand it was an abstract match of the year: 11-3, 11-9, 2-11, 1-11, 11-5. Right, Darko is just like this. So even at 1-3 down, I felt a reversal was possible. Fifth game, Wang Chuqin 2-4 down, then the turning point came — he tore off his kinesio tape, seeming to go all out. Plus, his tactics got clearer. One, on the receive try to flick, do not short-touch or long-chop — both have average effect. Two, do not fire too much on loop-drives, which Darko conversely defends better; more importantly, mind continuity and attack Darko’s middle more. I have to say, this match Wang Chuqin won over even my MZT. If you ask what MZT is, it is actually the pinyin abbreviation of a blade I will release at month’s end: Mozaiti.