The God of Rubber-Swapping, and Moregard's Achilles' Heel
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If we are to name a “god of rubber-swapping,” Franziska is the first who comes to mind. At the Singapore Smash that just ended March 1, I updated Franziska’s gear: Franziska ZLC, forehand Dignics 05, backhand Tenergy 09c (suspected). At yesterday’s Chongqing Champions round of 16, beaten badly by Wang Chuqin, he had swapped again: forehand ZYRE-03, backhand Dignics 09c. Back to his late-January Muscat setup, when he took men’s singles runner-up, losing 3-4 to Wen Ruibo.
On updating stars’ gear, I dare not claim 100% accuracy, but it is fairly high, and on timeliness, worldwide, if not first then at least top three — because who else, like me, looks at hundreds of pictures a day?
Little Franziska 0-3 to the big head — not much to say. He kept receiving serve poorly, and the balls he returned were all within Wang Chuqin’s expectations, as simple as training. To beat such an opponent, you must first produce balls outside his rhythm and expectation — like Lind, or the flash-in-the-pan Moregard (who has a win over Wang Chuqin).
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Moregard’s Achilles’ heel.
For most players with a good enough forehand (especially pivot) and a not-good-enough backhand, the backhand-corner end-line ball (the lower-left corner) is roughly their weak spot. Such end-line long balls need more footwork adjustment while also accounting for the incoming ball’s length. On half-long balls, they often pivot and drive harder. But if you return long enough, they cannot necessarily drive with quality — sometimes they can only loop-and-lift. And when your return (poke-long) is fast enough, they may not have time to pivot, while the backhand cannot attack steadily enough.
Men’s singles round of 16: Moregard lost 1-3 to Wen Ruibo, falling into exactly this bind. Watching such a match, the calmest one is surely Stiga — both palm and back of the hand are flesh, both contracted players.
Moregard: Cybershape 6 gold label, Helix Platinum 55° on both sides Wen Ruibo: Luma mixed carbon, NEO Blue National Hurricane, DNA Hybrid 55°
Still, thinking about it, Stiga must be a little flustered. Because after Wen Ruibo won this match, everyone keeps asking when the Luma will launch. Sorry — currently estimated May or June. It may even be later.
In game one, Moregard won 11-8. Receiving serve, Wen Ruibo still “touched” too much, so he received poorly. Especially when using a domestic tacky rubber, you must dare to add force to control it — that is the nature of tacky rubber. In game two, Moregard lost 10-12. Had he won this one, the ending might have been very different. Up 8-3, he was found out by Wen Ruibo, who twice served a fast long ball to Moregard’s backhand corner with good effect. Moregard’s backhand struggled to return quality, and he was quickly chased to 7-9 (Wen behind). In the closing points, Moregard still used the backhand too much. In the past, at moments like these he more often pivot-looped half-long balls, with good effect.
By games three and four, Wen Ruibo’s thinking was clearer. Receiving serve, he avoided dropping short as much as possible — either chop-long or directly flick. Very clear tactical execution. In the stands, national head coach Qin Zhijian was tutoring Xiang Peng and Chen Yuanyu, as if saying: this is how the ball should be played.
Back to a men’s singles round of 32: Källberg lost 2-3 to Tomokazu Harimoto. It was similar. Källberg, the “European little Ma Long,” is fine on small balls and slick pivot-driving half-long balls (the whole Swedish team is like this), but his backhand stability is also ordinary. Harimoto’s short drops and poke-longs went at an urgent rhythm, and in the decider Källberg’s backhand attack made many errors. On gear, Källberg recently gave up his familiar custom Innerforce ALC for the Boll ALC (he used it for a while years ago too), which seems not to suit him well.
Then back to the Helix 55° Moregard uses. I even put a clip of my own play on Bilibili using this rubber. This is probably my favorite forehand German tensor of the last two years. The kill-drive is very sharp, the rubber surface has a certain toughness when gripping, the spin value is higher than the DNA Platinum XH, and the sponge’s throw beats the Helix Platinum XH. On killing half-long balls it feels stable and domineering. For those who like a forehand tensor, the Helix 55 really is sharp, feeling a bit like a Tenergy 19 with better bottom power. The sponge hardness is between T05 and T05 Hard — I would not call it too hard.