Wen Ruibo's Loss, Wang Chuqin's Win, and Our Men Players' Common Problem
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There is a Bilibili video titled “Lin Yun-Ju: is this all the World Cup’s intensity?” — a highlight reel of the men’s singles round of 16, Lin Yun-Ju beating Wen Ruibo 4-1. On the surface, Wen Ruibo lost to Lin Yun-Ju for lack of ability. Actually, the truth is what we see on the surface. Lin Yun-Ju: Super Viscaria, forehand ZYRE-03, backhand Dignics 05. Wen Ruibo: Luma hybrid carbon, forehand NEO blue national Hurricane, backhand DNA Hybrid 55.
At the early-month Chongqing Champions men’s singles final, Wen Ruibo lost 1-4 to Felix. Overall, Felix’s attack was more active; Wen Ruibo, though all-around, had insufficiently active and sharp first-three-ball attack, with mid-table as his comfort zone, but initiating later than Felix. Losing to Lin Yun-Ju today is about the same reason. Inferior in ability — on one hand, the opponent attacks earlier than you; for some reason, our young men national players mostly lack effective scoring means in the first three balls. They always seem to play not so hard. Maybe more lean toward backhand systems. On the other hand, the ball quality is not as fierce as Lin Yun-Ju’s.
Watching our men national players’ matches now always feels like plain water — said to be all-around, but the first-three-ball attack is far less aggressive and fierce than the overseas F6. There is a “flower raised in a greenhouse” feel — too refined. That passion, blood, shouting, manliness, seen in Felix, Moregard, Hugo, is ever rarer in our young men national players. Only Wang Chuqin still shows some.
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Finally a match looked like the men’s World Cup flavor. Wang Chuqin beat Felix 4-2 to reach the men’s singles quarterfinal. In the second game Felix led by a big margin; had he closed it, he would lead 2-0, and Wang Chuqin’s difficulty would be great. But Wang Chuqin’s toughness now is decent, plus a few lucky balls. After leveling at one game each, the situation differed greatly.
Watching the first two games, again I must mention our men national players’ common problem. Essentially, we focus too much on tactical reasonableness, lacking aggressive attacking at the technical level. Here, Felix (and Alexis), Sora Matsushima, Jang Woojin and others all do better than us. The young master’s match approach is simple: actively get on the offensive, press at the front table. Cannot read a serve? He just chops it. If it goes to short touch, with any chance he rips hard. And his backhand now is very loop-resistant, even directly jamming your forehand — born of conditioned reflex under heavy training. Fourth game, Wang Chuqin played simpler, mainly chopping long, mostly starting from the young master’s middle. Like earlier, tangling in short balls then letting the young master get on the offensive first put him at a disadvantage. Sixth game, Wang Chuqin led 3-0, muttering again. Right, this is what I admire about him. Though I have grumbled about his serve, in fighting spirit he really does not lack it, even if the national curses are not so elegant. But he feels losing is shameful, and truly wants to win. Competitive sport should have fighting spirit, to stir one’s potential. Now we see too many greenhouse flowers.