I agree fully.

I like Kreanga' frank playing style better than Timo's though I admit Timo is better.

Sheesh... again Vladi didn't break through. He was pretty close but after he lost that 4th set (leading 8-1 !!) he kinda gave up, I guess.Which is disheartening to me since I would like him to show character and fight - I think he was missing that lately (except for WCup 2009, probably).

JimT wrote: Sheesh... again Vladi didn't break through. He was pretty close but after he lost that 4th set (leading 8-1 !!) he kinda gave up, I guess.Which is disheartening to me since I would like him to show character and fight - I think he was missing that lately (except for WCup 2009, probably).

yeah, it was disheartening to see--i was actually predicting vladi would win.  i know it appears that he "gave up," but the problem for him is that boll just keeps getting the balls back, no matter where he goes, how hard he rips or how difficult the shot he makes, it just keeps coming back, with interest (and an occasional net).

also, he has technical issues that i think boll is well aware of.  there's 2 shots that boll has that vladi consistently misses (unlike the chinese & korea's oh sang eun), that being the inside-out fh from the bh side down the line and the outside-in bh cross-court.

he consistently misses those 2 shots and so, no matter how deep a hole boll gets into, against vladi, he can always hit himself out of it.  they both know that.  so, you can't blame vladi for giving up after being up 8-1.  cuz he's been up 3-1 in games on a coupla occasions recently and boll still came back and won.

I was there with my GF and there were some really good matches, the atmosphere was excellent and the crowd showed their appreciation. A million miles away from the English Open where there was very little atmosphere and the distance between crowd and finals table was huuuuuge, here in Dusseldorf the action was closer ( Im guessing it is like this in most places, UK cant organise a piss up in a brewery when it comes to Top Class TT)

The ladies final was for me the most enthralling match of the tournament, nip and tuck all the way, you didnt know who was going to win until the last point, great match.

The Mens final was a slight anti climax after Boll winning the 4th game after being 8-1 down. Some great points, Samsonov gave up after that, body language said it all. Boll seemed to struggle with Chen in the group matches yet Samsonov blew him away, its interesting how different styles match up, I think Boll has a big psychological advantage now over Samsonov, who is still brilliant. Boll has won the ET12 5 times to Samsonov 4 times, and 4 of Bolls wins have been against Samsonov!! Id like to see the head to head of these 2 players. Boll always seems to win now.

Other highlights for me were seeing Kreanga unleashing some amazing Backhands and I was really impressed with the allround skill of Kristina Toth, she was lobbing  and occasionally chopping away from the table like Maze does, particularly agains Daniela Dodean and Paskausiane. Only disappointment  was that Maze couldnt play...

http://nos.nl/video/135004-li-jiao-succesvol-in-dusseldorf.html this is only the final set, and comment in dutch...

JimT wrote: Sheesh... again Vladi didn't break through. He was pretty close but after he lost that 4th set (leading 8-1 !!) he kinda gave up, I guess.Which is disheartening to me since I would like him to show character and fight - I think he was missing that lately (except for WCup 2009, probably).

Cyrilix wrote: But then again, taller people don't have to move as much or as far. Samsonov and Oh Sang Eun both have "lazy" looking games, so surely they must be saving that energy for when they need to move.

benfb wrote: Cyrilix wrote: But then again, taller people don't have to move as much or as far. Samsonov and Oh Sang Eun both have "lazy" looking games, so surely they must be saving that energy for when they need to move.   I agree that both players have that reputation for looking slow or lazy, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are.  Waldner always had the reputation for being slower or looking lacsidasical.  However, I heard from someone who should know that Waldner was actually one of the very fastest, even among the greats.  The difference was that his anticipation was so good that it never looked like he needed to move much because he was already there, waiting for the ball.   That's really a side comment to my first idea.  It is true that a shorter person would have to move more.  However, consider this analogy: you're going to have a race, such as 5 km.  The short guy has to run the normal way, but the tall guy has to run squatted very low to the ground.  That tall guy is going to have very sore thighs by the end of the race.

There really could be something to that - I am 6`1" and I sometimes wish I were a little closer to the ground when I play. But then again, I am able to get to some fast cross shots by simply stretching and reaching with my arm... so it's a trade-off... I think I simply needs to lose another 10 pounds and get a bit more stamina in me...

SoWhySoSerious wrote: Timo Boll-Vladimir Samsonov(good quality): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYQ_8qaBn0w

The video is squished.

that was cool watching kreanga pull a joo at about 6:50 i think

bull_harrier wrote: that was cool watching kreanga pull a joo at about 6:50 i think

Throwing in a chop to reset the rally a little is really effective. Legout did it all the time with plenty of success.

Fully agree - Kreanga's backhand is simply the best!

Vladimir Samsonov-Chen Weixing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odbvUJe5bx4