Singapore Grand Smash: Thoughts on Some Stars' Setups
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Wang Chuqin: Q968, NEO Blue National Hurricane, Hurricane 8-20 special
Sun Yingsha: S968, NEO Blue National Hurricane, Hurricane 8-20 special
Debating whether Hurricane 3 is outdated is pretty pointless, since they’ve already won the titles. At most you can say it hasn’t progressed much in all these years; it’s hard to say it’s outdated.
As for whether the 968-plus-Hurricane-on-both-sides setup is tiring to play, it depends on your age. For people in their twenties, it’s actually fine. I (Heima) am a typical example. Five years ago, maybe over 70 or 80 percent of my attacks were forehand, with frequent pivot-stepping. These days, when I play in the evenings, over the course of several games I might do fewer than 10 pivot forehand drives, unless I run into someone stronger than me and have no choice. Young people really are tougher; their stamina and energy are inexhaustible.
One of Hurricane’s strengths is this: the sponge is very sensitive to oil and organic glue, with better effect. Boost it fully, and you solve the elasticity problem, so play isn’t as tiring.
Of course, traditional-type inner blades, led by the 968, all force you to generate your own power. Without generating power, the quality is mediocre; with power, the single-shot ball quality is high, making it easier to settle the fight in fewer shots. That’s determined by the structure.
Let’s revisit the national team’s oil-boosting secret recipe:
Take out a fresh sheet of Hurricane. Brush on two to three coats of oil in advance, doing the same for several sheets (main and backup). On the day before the match, say after a morning of training, peel the rubber off after it’s been broken in. Brush on another one to two coats of oil, let it air-dry, and then on the next day before the match, glue it back on. Because of the repeated oiling, the sponge has expanded again, which is why we often see players using scissors before a match to trim off the excess overhanging edge.
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Vynnyk (Wenter): Andro New Core OFF/S, NUZN 55, Dr. Neubauer Anti ABS 3 Pro
Wang Manyu mainly served short to the middle-toward-forehand of Vynnyk. At that point, Vynnyk’s anti-spin backhand couldn’t do much. After Vynnyk pushed one back, Wang Manyu would loop-drive backhand to Vynnyk’s backhand corner. Manyu’s (Eel’s) backhand can penetrate Vynnyk’s defense. This was one of her scoring points.
Later, with no other choice, Vynnyk turned into an “all-around attacker.” On a short ball to the forehand corner, she’d also flip the bat and receive with anti-spin. In a backhand rally, she’d also flip the bat over and loop with inverted rubber.
Beyond that, there’s another issue. Because of frequent pivot-stepping and all-around movement, a lot of stamina is consumed. This is a problem with the pure-wood five-ply. Its rebound speed isn’t as good as a fiber blade’s, so it’s more laborious. Also, although her own ball quality is still quite good, with good power generation, the single-shot quality is hard to raise further. Although this blade, paired with anti-spin rubber, dumps power very well, if she wanted to raise single-shot ball quality, from an equipment-purist angle, I’d suggest an inner aramid-carbon blade. While maintaining the original arc-making ability, it would further raise the lethality, and wouldn’t be as tiring as the five-ply wood; perhaps she could even break through once more.
Of course, she’s already gotten this far. European Top 16 women’s singles champion, semifinalist at the Singapore Grand Smash. The average person would probably be content and not want to switch blades. After all, even after switching, getting past Shasha (Sun Yingsha) and the Eel (Wang Manyu) would still be very hard.
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Polansky (Pavlovich): Andro ZCO, NUZN 55 on both sides
For the vast majority of relatively hard, slightly tacky grippy rubbers, an outer fiber blade more easily compensates for their lack of speed, and also makes play more effortless.
Pavlovich is tall with long arms, plays long-ball rallies well, and is gifted at that level. But his overall rhythm is still on the rushed side, with low forgiveness. For this type of player, besides growing through their own experience and gradually playing the ball more “round,” maybe they could switch to a more forgiving blade. For example, switching to a VCO, which grabs the ball with more of a pause and is steadier.
Lin Yun-ju’s line of thinking is actually somewhat similar, going from the Super Lin Yun-ju (SZLC) to the Super Viscaria (SALC).