When was the last time we saw Ma Long serving reverse pendulum throughout the WHOLE match?! He clearly spent time strategizing his response to WCQ after losing several times to him in recent matches. He knew WCQ has a stronger backhand, so he consistently served to the forehand. Being a left-hander, WCQ had to run to his left in order to flick, giving Ma Long a positional advantage. Also, because they practice so much together, WCQ knew all his forehand serves like the back of his hand. The change-up in serves and strategy definitely surprised and confused WCQ. Such an adaptive player - the GOAT!
Ma long changed his tactics after losing to Wang so many times in the past. He used a lot more back hand fast counter to Wang's forehand. Ma long did lots of control instead of brute force forehand.
Table tennis is a game of speed, power and quick reflexes (low reaction time) above all. I see that the GOAT improvised in this match. With age, his reflexes and body has slowed down (the exact same problem that Fan Zhendong is going through). So, he switched from a forehand oriented approach (the one for which he is known) to a backhand dominant game. The reason is that a backhand oriented game is much less taxing on the body and due to the shorter movements required in the backhand, even a slightly higher reaction time is ok. In his original Forehand dominant game, he could afford it because of his accompanying very quick reflexes and extraordinarily quick movements. Now that that quick movement has gone, he was not able to win with the Forehand approach. In this match he clearly adopted a new BH oriented approach that is more suitable to his aging body and slower reflexes (as compared to earlier). Additionally, another new change I see in this match is that he is visibly purposefully much calmer than his original self which was like a hungry predator waiting to pounce on his prey. If you see his game in his heydays - he had visibly hyper aggressive body language and a very low stance with a menacing look while receiving serve. In this game he is standing slightly higher and much more relaxed and that menacing look is not there. So, his new formula to adapt to his slowing reflexes is
WCQ usually destroys Ma on backhand, but not today. Ma's backhand all tournament has been solid. WCQ should have focused more on spin into Ma's backhand, I suspect outcome might have been different had he done that..
No one can beat Ma Long at his Best... Bravo Ma Long.... 👍👍
ML was so confident and calm. Beautiful.
Ma Long GOAT🎉🎉🎉
When was the last time we saw Ma Long serving reverse pendulum throughout the WHOLE match?! He clearly spent time strategizing his response to WCQ after losing several times to him in recent matches. He knew WCQ has a stronger backhand, so he consistently served to the forehand. Being a left-hander, WCQ had to run to his left in order to flick, giving Ma Long a positional advantage. Also, because they practice so much together, WCQ knew all his forehand serves like the back of his hand. The change-up in serves and strategy definitely surprised and confused WCQ. Such an adaptive player - the GOAT!
Ma long changed his tactics after losing to Wang so many times in the past. He used a lot more back hand fast counter to Wang's forehand. Ma long did lots of control instead of brute force forehand.
Ma Long is the player and person I respect mostly.
1:21:33
Congrats to Gaoyuen for this spectacular win over Harimoto. Good games and good match. Good luck to him on the final!!!👍👍👍✊
Table tennis is a game of speed, power and quick reflexes (low reaction time) above all. I see that the GOAT improvised in this match. With age, his reflexes and body has slowed down (the exact same problem that Fan Zhendong is going through). So, he switched from a forehand oriented approach (the one for which he is known) to a backhand dominant game. The reason is that a backhand oriented game is much less taxing on the body and due to the shorter movements required in the backhand, even a slightly higher reaction time is ok. In his original Forehand dominant game, he could afford it because of his accompanying very quick reflexes and extraordinarily quick movements. Now that that quick movement has gone, he was not able to win with the Forehand approach. In this match he clearly adopted a new BH oriented approach that is more suitable to his aging body and slower reflexes (as compared to earlier). Additionally, another new change I see in this match is that he is visibly purposefully much calmer than his original self which was like a hungry predator waiting to pounce on his prey. If you see his game in his heydays - he had visibly hyper aggressive body language and a very low stance with a menacing look while receiving serve. In this game he is standing slightly higher and much more relaxed and that menacing look is not there. So, his new formula to adapt to his slowing reflexes is
龙队很多拧拉得分，太厉害了，他是真的想赢
Ma Long, Russia love you❤ You are great player and man👍👍👍
ma long's backhand was the difference.
WCQ usually destroys Ma on backhand, but not today. Ma's backhand all tournament has been solid. WCQ should have focused more on spin into Ma's backhand, I suspect outcome might have been different had he done that..
Ma Long is legend .👍👍👍👍👍
OMG! WCQ and Screamoto are destroyed 4-0😱
林高遠終於熬出頭了
So happy for Ma Long
Lin Gaoyuan, hope you'll play as well as this in the final!
Ma Long’s adaptive tactics was expressed at the best level in this game!
I guessed Ma would flick Wang’s back hand the last point of the first game. For he had done it times beautifully. And really he did it and won.