World Cup Day 1: Old Faces, New Faces, and Kuai Man's Scare
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The 64-year-old New Zealand Chinese veteran Li Chunli keeps refreshing the table tennis World Cup’s oldest-competitor record. She reached the women’s singles final four at this year’s Oceania Cup, earning a direct Macau World Cup berth. When she joined China’s national team in 1981, I was not yet born. Later, in 1987, she went to New Zealand as a coach and player. The Japanese-penhold style is rare now; her forehand has a Moristo SP raw rubber. Her style now is not fierce — more deflecting four ounces with a thousand pounds, borrowing pace to hit pace.
2
The 47-year-old Portuguese player Fu Yu, though younger than Li Chunli, also counts as a veteran. A 1990s style — high-toss serve, push-left attack-right. In the years before 2025, she mainly used the Hurricane King 2nd gen. Yesterday, women’s singles first round, she lost 0-3 to Wang Manyu — really could not contend. But Manyu still ate several high-toss serves. This time Fu Yu’s blade is the Yasaka Sweden Power. At last month’s Singapore Smash, women’s singles round of 32, with the Sweden Power she edged Australia’s Chee Min-hyung 3-2, the decider 12-10. Probably feeling that even this opponent made her so tired, she swapped the blade to the N301 for the round of 16, then lost 0-3 to Winter. Ultimately, still ability.
3
Kawakami Ryusei, the All-Japan junior men’s singles champion, lost 1-3 to Zhou Qihao. Zhou Qihao: Double Fish Project Z, NEO blue national Hurricane, D09c. Kawakami Ryusei: outer SALC custom, ZYRE-03 on both sides. This time I cannot tell clearly whether he uses the Fan A or Fan SA handle. But at last November 30’s World Juniors men’s singles semifinal, Kawakami Ryusei beat Wen Ruibo 4-3, confirmed using the Fan Zhendong SALC handle then. Per Butterfly’s info, he now uses an outer SALC custom. His experience and adjustment ability are less than Zhou Qihao’s, but he plays with real traits, fitting the new era’s technical trend. His flick is very explosive — small, compact, smooth strokes, with very fast linking. The whole is a speed-type loop style. The Japanese team trends ever more this way: spin matters not, even power matters not — speed first.
4
Kuai Man 3-2 Charlotte Lutz. This match left me a bit dazed; I thought the gap between them was about a provincial-team teacher playing me. Kuai Man: gold-label Viscaria, NEO blue national Hurricane, D09c. Lutz: Tibhar Alexis, K3 or K3 Pro on both sides. Lutz can serve forehand but uses the backhand more. The placement and spin variation she serves are quite rich. Kuai Man won the first two games easily; the next two, she played a bit confusedly. Lutz long-chopped as much as possible, then Kuai Man loop-hung up, and Lutz ramped up speed and drove. With just this trick, Kuai Man lost two games without reacting. Either prepare to raise the loop-drive quality after the opponent’s long chop, or deliberately add spin. Losing two games inexplicably, by the decider she still seemed not to have figured it out. This Tibhar Alexis green-aramid-carbon blade is used by quite a few Tibhar stars — besides the familiar Alexis, also Croatia’s Puka and India’s Thakkar (ST handle, 85g). I reviewed it before.