The finals ended with SunYingsha beating Wang Manyu 4:3 (8-11, 5-11, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9) and Ma Long beating Lin Gaoyuan 4:3 (9-11, 9-11, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-4, 11-8). These two matches may be the most noteworthy sporting results in the past year, not the highest for their technical and athletic prowess, but full of the drama, mental strength, and significance leading up to the Paris Olympics.
First, the men’s final. By 2023, ML was a sure thing for the Olympics, perhaps not the singles, but certain the team event. But throughout 2023 and the first 16 weeks of 2024 saw Liang Jingkun having much better results than ML, and a good WC would have elevated LJK over ML. Unfortunately an early loss seriously harmed his case. As for ML in this WC, a clear difference is that he hasn’t been so fast with his feet since 2019, a short 5 years ago! He must have been supremely motivated. This showed when ML beat World’s No 1 Wang Chuqin 4:0 in the semi. ML was running left and right, in position to block every shot from WCQ, thereby ending his long losing streak to WCQ in a huge upset.
LGY is another matter. Out for the Olympics, he is playing for honor with no pressure. He beat World’s No 2 Fan Zhengdong in a close 4:2, then HARIMOTO Tomokazu completely 4:0. His BH is fast, and his FH, being left-handed, curves sharply to a right-hander’s BH. HT had no chance, suffering his most lopsided loss in years.
In the final, LGY used the same HT playbook. ML with his new-found speed and familiarity with teammates, perhaps handled it better than HT, but the result was the same. LGY raced to a 3:0 lead, and it looked every bit like the same old 4:0 over ML. Then ML made the crucial adjustments: he served with his BH, and instead of counterlooping, ML blocked from both his FH and BH, the shorter strokes. These changes saved ML precious milliseconds in responding to LGY’s attacks. LGY still tried to hit through ML, but his techniques or playing styles have fundamental drawbacks. LGY’s BH is more flat hitting than top spinning: while this is harder to defend, it is also less consistent. Once ML returned a couple of LGY’s BH, LGY would make an error. On the FH side, LGY has a long swing, so it is not very fast, also not the strongest in power, more side spins than top spins. If ML could handle WCQ yesterday, he could handle LGY’s FH today. In fact, I haven’t seen ML’s BH so tough since his BH countered Zhang Jike’s BH in the 2016 Olympics Final.
So in the last 4 games, LGY had chances only in the 4th and 7th games, with the consistency of ML eventually won out. This event is only the 1st (or 2nd?) win for ML since the 2021 Olympics in the last 3 years, a really long time. But ML is going to the Olympics, again. Will he play the singles? WCQ and FZD still have the advantage, and which ML, the “old” or a rejuvenated one, turns up in 3-4 months is unknown. Another question is: is ML the GOAT, or will this WC win makes the case over the hill? In the stringent GOAT criteria/category (9/13/21 blog), ML is still a borderline case. It is a single win in a long time. Another World Championship or Olympics will do the trick, but ML may not even have the chance any more. But this should not be viewed as a knock on ML, because he is above all his competitors in the GOAT consideration. Only the stringency demand that this distance between ML and others be larger.
Now the women’s final. Before the match, the World’s No 1 SYS is a lock for the Olympics singles. So she may be too relaxed. It showed with her 4:2 win over CHENG I-Ching. She was slow and made a lot of errors, by her standard. She then beat Chen Meng, World’s No 3, 4:2 in the semi. CM is fighting for a spot in the Olympics singles, so she tried hard. In fact, after the 2:2 tie, CM had clear leads in both the 5th and 6th games, only to lose in the smallest margins. CM could have won it, but being 7 years older than SYS, may not be able to keep it up at the end.
WMY is the one competing with CM, and she had two big tests before meeting SYS, compared to CM’s one big test. WMY beat HAYATA Hina 4:1, then HARIMOTO Miwa 4:2, while CM beat HIRANO Miu 4:0. So both WMY and CM did the jobs, just that WMY performed better based on the sheer chance of draws. But as a result, WMY was also more exhausted physically before meeting SYS.
At the final, WMY was a much faster and stronger player from the beginning, and the first two games SYS was no match. By 3:1, WMY was better at FH exchages, while SYS better at BH. This is quite a scene because SYS has the best FH in history, and WMY had the best BH in history. WMY “had” because she is a BH orientated player, and her BH used to have the same power as others’ FH. But not any more since 2021: while WMY’s BH still has the consistency, the power is gone, only average among the top players now. On the other hand, she has improved her FH. (Un)fortunately, because WMY is tall, she has a long FH swing, and she has to exert a lot of energy with the FH swings, so in many fast exchanges and matches WMY has to play harder than her opponents and scramble a lot.
In the first two games SYS couldn’t do anything with her FH. WMY used BH to pin SYS down at the BH corner, a well-known strategy against SYS. When SYS forced her FH down the line, WMY was so tall that her hand was there to counter loop to SYS’s wide FH side. SYS is short and doesn’t have the same reach as WMY. When SYS tried harder with her FH, she made errors after errors. Then at the third game, SYS abandoned her FH, stayed more contently at the BH corner, relying more on the BH, even smashing through WMY’s BH a couple of times. The 4th game WMY won because SYS couldn’t continue her previous BH pace. The turning point is the 5th game. SYS’s BH again became more consistent, and FH started to come back. She got a big lead, saw WMY catching up, and took a timeout. WMY started to make errors. SYS won the 5th game. The momentum was shifting. WMY was too tired to continue at her top form. SYS got a 5:1 lead in the 7th game. WMY being a fighter tied it at 5:5. Then they fought to 9:9. SYS won with her FH at match point.
Looking back at the match, SYS making a stand at her BH side stemmed WMY’s advances and saved SYS enough time to take advantage of WMY’s lack of stamina at the end. As the match progressed WMY was less and less able to cover her FH side, allowing SYS FH to score points later. It is a big win at a major for SYS, especially when not at 100%. Two things SYS needs to improve: first is her FH form. This match saw too many FH errors and brute force even when winning, but no spin or angle variations. The other is, why didn’t SYS hit BH down the line more? She did it a couple of times, but the results were not optimal. Unlike HARIMOTO Miwa’s match against WMY, she used it as a big weapon to great effect, as it changed the rallies from BH to FH exchanges, with WMY’s FH being slower and more energy consuming.
As for WMY, she had a great tournament, ans she simply ran out of gas at the end, more as the results of draws or bad luck than anything. But she has now edged ahead of CM for the Olympics singles spot.
For summary, both ML and SYS made changes amid matches, when the old way was not working out. Further proof that good players are also smart players. Just like in other sports, tennis, NBA, whatever. Not everybody, but definitely most top players. You can’t succeed if you don’t think fast. Under the stressful, hot, and loud conditions, it is even harder to think straight and clearly. Few athletes ever finish high schools, but their intrinsic intelligence rivals the best college students and doctors. A sport is only a medium or way to see their performance as what the best human beings can achieve.
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