Weekly Equipment Watch 247: Gear Storylines at the London Worlds
Tomorrow the London Worlds begins. This Worlds is also seen as a “centennial celebration,” because the first Worlds was held in London in 1926, and this one returns to the birthplace exactly a century later — meaningful indeed. Against this backdrop, this London Worlds adopts a brand-new format. I looked at it and got dizzy. Is this a format a human devised? Of course. It just looks like working the athletes like beasts of burden.
First, teams expanded from 40 to 64. Then the group stage alone splits into Phase A and Phase B. Phase A is the world’s top 7 teams plus host England. These 8 teams split into two groups, round-robin within. After, no one is eliminated — it just determines your seeding for the knockout. (Liang Jingkun’s aside: my old bones — is this aimed at me?) Phase B has the other 56 teams in 14 groups, battling it out, finally leaving 24. These 24 plus Phase A’s 8 make 32, entering the knockout. 32 to 16, 16 to 8, 8 to 4, 4 to 2, then the final. The young (like Xiang Peng) are happy — there is a chance to play any way you count. The coaches (like Wang Hao) get headaches: every match looks crucial, so they can only work the veterans to death — the problem is, can the veterans last to the end? Well, the format is set; we office beasts of burden can only watch coldly and enjoy the matches. Here I list some interesting gear storylines.
1
Hugo Trinity Charged. 57.5 degrees, slightly-tacky surface. Now both of Hugo’s rubbers are this. The official-import version is already on sale. Also a purple sponge, but by the data, not a complete Hurricane ZGR makeover. The Trinity Charged’s pip diameter is 1.5mm and pip height 0.7mm, while the Hurricane ZGR’s pip diameter is 1.5mm and pip height 0.8mm. Hugo’s bat should launch in July; you can first watch this new rubber’s performance in matches.
2
Darko’s backhand Infinity MX-P. Expected to launch next month. Darko has used this rubber for years. The Lebrun brothers may try the Infinity on the forehand (maybe Infinity MX-S); let us see if they use it at this Worlds, and whether the penetration improves over K3 Pro. If not, just enjoy Darko’s punchy backhand.
3
Nina Hayata’s backhand — sticking with Nittaku GENEXTION V2C, or going back to ZYRE-03 or Dignics 09c? At the All-Japan Championships, Hayata used Z03 on the backhand but failed a third straight women’s singles title, losing to Miwa Harimoto. After, she tried the slightly-tacky GENEXTION V2C, with seemingly so-so results, though this rubber is one of Tabletennis Kingdom’s survey-based top 10 inverted rubbers of the year. Let us see whether Hayata keeps this rubber at the Worlds or switches.
4
Xiang Peng’s backhand — orange national Hurricane or Jinghai C55.0? At last month’s Chongqing Champions event, Xiang Peng’s backhand went from Hurricane back to the Jinghai C55.0. You can see he still wavers — before, he played the Jinghai, switched back to Hurricane. Generally, people always want to switch rubber when losing. If they win a lot, they feel good and are unwilling to change gear.
5
The interpretations of different outer green-aramid-carbon blades. Also Korean-made — this Worlds Wen Ruibo did not compete, so we cannot see the Luma. But there are several others, like the Tibhar Alexis used by Alexis and Puka, the Double Fish Zhou Qihao Project Z, and the Tibhar Oh Junsung. Same-structure blades from the same factory.
6
How to use the 968? The Korean women’s team — Shin Yu-bin, Kim Na-yeong, Yang Ha-eun — will show us different tactics using the 968.