Wang Chuqin's Achilles Heel; Is Franziska Using Tenergy 09c?
Wang Chuqin’s Achilles heel
Singapore Grand Smash, men’s singles round of 16: Wang Chuqin survived a scare to beat Mattias Karlsson 3-1. If you watched the first half, you’d agree “survived a scare” is exactly the right phrase.
In the third game, Karlsson was up 7-1, got one point clawed back to make it 7-2, and called a timeout. If we’d had a crystal ball, we’d realize that timeout served to give Wang Chuqin a breather. Wang ended up turning the game around 13-11, which changed the whole match.
Karlsson beat Wang Chuqin at the 2024 China Grand Smash. Why was Wang in so much trouble again this time? Because his weak spot has been found.
While Wang Chuqin’s rallying ability has improved considerably, the tempo and lethality of his game still rest mostly on the first three balls. If the rhythm of the match and the opponent’s returns are within his expectations, it’s as easy as a practice session for him. But if the opponent handles his serve well and at the same time disrupts his anticipated tempo, his ability to adjust still falls somewhat short of Ma Long and Fan Zhendong.
I’ve written before that when receiving Wang Chuqin’s serve, it’s best not to rush your shot: pause first, then strike. But most players just pause and then either flick or push it long (like Tomokazu Harimoto). Karlsson’s technique is different. He pauses, then suddenly chops or pushes short, slow-chops (mostly side-chops), and occasionally rips an aggressive flick. He disrupted Wang Chuqin’s expected rhythm, making it hard for him to loop-drive directly. And because the placement and second bounce of those chopped returns were a bit tricky, Wang Chuqin’s first-ball backhand threat was hard to bring out.
There were other details too. For instance, serving longer to bait Wang Chuqin into attacking, even though that length was really only just past half-long. His defense was excellent, and he had sudden bursts of added power while redirecting the incoming pace.
Speaking of which, back when I joined my university’s varsity team, the coach had us analyze the breakdown of how we scored points each game. I used to think most of my points came from attacking, but after analyzing it, I realized a lot of them actually came from my opponents’ errors.
How do you make an opponent miss? That’s actually a kind of talent too, and it can become an important part of tactics.
Of course, as long as Wang Chuqin settles down and grinds it out with Karlsson ball by ball, getting into the rallying phase, he holds the advantage. It’s just that this isn’t his preferred way of playing. Also, Karlsson’s backhand is pretty good, so attacking more short balls into his middle and forehand side would make it harder for him to cook up so many variations.
Franziska is apparently using Tenergy 09c
On the equipment front, the most interesting thing from the last couple of days might be the following.
First, we can see that Franziska’s forehand is the red Dignics 05.
Then I went through a lot of photos trying to confirm his backhand. Over this past year, his forehand and backhand have basically rotated between D05, D09c, and Z03. But this time, the sponge color on the backhand looked like a Tenergy-series sponge. So I suspected it was T05 Hard.
(The two images above are from WTT.)
But on closer inspection of the topsheet, the arrangement of the letters and numbers rules out almost every Tenergy model. On T05 and T64 and such, the number isn’t on the same line. T19 is a slight possibility, but what follows “Tenergy” looks more like three characters. So it could be the not-yet-released tacky Tenergy: Tenergy 09c.
Late last year, when speculating about the new year’s products, I mentioned the Tenergy 09c that Timo Boll used back in 2019. Boll is, of course, Franziska’s teammate.
When the D09c topsheet is paired with a Tenergy sponge, what’s the effect?
A lot of players have said the D09c sponge feels a bit hard on the backhand, and that lowering the hardness a touch would make it better.
But if a player adopts T09c, it’s probably not because of the lower sponge hardness. Rather, it’s that at mid-to-far distance, the Tenergy sponge’s slingshot effect is greater than Dignics’. Just compare T05 and D05 and you’ll see; Boll also gave this feedback in a review video. At mid-to-far distance, T05 takes less effort and produces elasticity more easily.
Speculating about new Butterfly products isn’t groundless. And Butterfly’s new factory is now built, which will solve the earlier production-capacity shortage. I believe more new products are ready to fire.
On the new factory and the “matryoshka” claims
Speaking of this new factory, it suddenly occurs to me that a lot of players have been debating whether Butterfly’s outer-ALC series is just a set of nesting dolls, with some even claiming Butterfly’s market versions and custom-made (tokuchu) blades are identical in quality. I just find that funny. The Tamasu custom workshop has limited capacity and exists independently of the market-version production line. They aren’t even made in the same place: different facilities, different material selection, different fiber treatment, different adhesives.
It’s just like Yinhe’s Blue-Gold workshop versus its market versions, or DHS’s research institute versus its market versions. As everyone knows, the digital-version 968 is made by the research institute itself, not on the market-version line. Speculating that custom-made specials are identical in performance to the market versions is a bit of cheap sensationalism.