Impressive. Another proof of how strong Ovtcharov has become recently, he was mostly on par with Ma Long. It's good for table tennis if the top chinese find opponents that really challenge them.
Awesome! Thanks Dima for trying as hard as you could! I feel he has the best attitude among all european players, the best will to win against the Chinese, even better than Boll. Ma Long actually had to sweat to win this match, he realized that after 3 sets.
Ovtcharov has one of the best backhands in the world, as mentioned by chinese coach Liu Guoliang and admitted by Zhang Jike and Ma Long themselves. That's Ovtcharov's strong point and throughout the match he was clearly trying to capitalise on that. To substantiate my point, look at 6:35 , 0:44 and 4:03 . Ma Long's chances of winning when Ovtcharov gets to play his backhands in a point is 50/50 at best and he realised that soon enough, after dropping 2 sets.
Ma Long turned the game around when he stopped trying to fight backhand vs backhand with Ovtcharov and started to step around to play his forehands even on the backhand side. Notice that Ma Long has problems receiving Ovt's first backhand topspin from an underspin ball because the shot quality is extremely high and also when he's forced to block. So he changed tactics to avoid the initial strong backhand by initiating the attack himself. Notice Ma Long's services and service receives.
Ovtcharov has great potential to become a champion. To achieve this, he must overcome his biggest fear which is the Chinese players. In order to beat players like Wang Hao, Ma Long, Zhang Jike and Xu Xin you must be confident, determined and enter the court in order to beat them. Table tennis is a very strategic game. I can guess what was ovtcharov thinking during the game " Ma Long is too strong, mb some good points, a couple of sets and a satisfying performance is ok for.me" ...
Same Thing like timos Game - Borg went to passive After half of the Match!! So sad!! A Few Points at the right Time and he had won this Time!!! Dima is our Future!! Maybe the next non-chinese Single World Champion
Ma Long tries to play long services to start a fast ball game where Ovtcharov plays a fast ball in return and ml is already waiting to forehand topspin even if the ball lands in the backhand position. Or he plays a long backspin forcing Ovt to topspin and ml is waiting to counter topspin. In service receive, ml tries to play short balls to force Ovt to chop a long ball so ml can topspin it. Hence those service receive errors when ml was overeager to play these short balls, but went too high
A dynamic interplay you expect of a match between a Chinese dragon and a German top gun! Great shot after great shot! No chicken-shit counter-attack play! ★★★★★
Dima has improved so much!Even Ma Long had a really hard time in the first four sets.
Impressive. Another proof of how strong Ovtcharov has become recently, he was mostly on par with Ma Long. It's good for table tennis if the top chinese find opponents that really challenge them.
Awesome! Thanks Dima for trying as hard as you could!
I feel he has the best attitude among all european players, the best will to win against the Chinese, even better than Boll.
Ma Long actually had to sweat to win this match, he realized that after 3 sets.
what spectacular plays!
Ovtcharov has one of the best backhands in the world, as mentioned by chinese coach Liu Guoliang and admitted by Zhang Jike and Ma Long themselves. That's Ovtcharov's strong point and throughout the match he was clearly trying to capitalise on that. To substantiate my point, look at 6:35 , 0:44 and 4:03 . Ma Long's chances of winning when Ovtcharov gets to play his backhands in a point is 50/50 at best and he realised that soon enough, after dropping 2 sets.
Such a good game to watch!!!
Ma Long turned the game around when he stopped trying to fight backhand vs backhand with Ovtcharov and started to step around to play his forehands even on the backhand side.
Notice that Ma Long has problems receiving Ovt's first backhand topspin from an underspin ball because the shot quality is extremely high and also when he's forced to block.
So he changed tactics to avoid the initial strong backhand by initiating the attack himself. Notice Ma Long's services and service receives.
never seen such a handshake from chinese players at the end of the match : D NICE!!!
Ma Long was satisfied with Ovtcharovs play
ovtcharov played his best table tennis.
Ovtcharov has great potential to become a champion. To achieve this, he must overcome his biggest fear which is the Chinese players. In order to beat players like Wang Hao, Ma Long, Zhang Jike and Xu Xin you must be confident, determined and enter the court in order to beat them. Table tennis is a very strategic game. I can guess what was ovtcharov thinking during the game " Ma Long is too strong, mb some good points, a couple of sets and a satisfying performance is ok for.me" ...
Best backhand-topspin against best forehand-topspin.
7:24 nice topspins
Same Thing like timos Game - Borg went to passive After half of the Match!! So sad!! A Few Points at the right Time and he had won this Time!!! Dima is our Future!! Maybe the next non-chinese Single World Champion
its because he has no forehand flip or short push AT ALL people must adapt. Its built into his euro style
4:25 nice rallye
After the 4th set Ma Long decided to win.
no cho from dimitri? :D:D
I smell another all-Chinese semi-final coming....
Ma Long tries to play long services to start a fast ball game where Ovtcharov plays a fast ball in return and ml is already waiting to forehand topspin even if the ball lands in the backhand position. Or he plays a long backspin forcing Ovt to topspin and ml is waiting to counter topspin.
In service receive, ml tries to play short balls to force Ovt to chop a long ball so ml can topspin it. Hence those service receive errors when ml was overeager to play these short balls, but went too high
I thought there was no chance for Ma Long
Ovtcharov's backhand is even better than Ma Long I think and he can use backhand on "full-table".
*after the third set MA long decided to win. ;D
@bollforte du weißt Bescheid :D
A dynamic interplay you expect of a match between a Chinese dragon and a German top gun! Great shot after great shot! No chicken-shit counter-attack play!
★★★★★
Ovtcharov uses backhand return from the forehand side even when he is not flicking. He should stop this.
Where is the Ma long in 2010_2012?? This ma long is not the old one at all, lack of balance and weakness is obvious. Too much backhand.
打穿了奧洽；不過奧洽很有進步，看得出來他很努力想跨過中國長城～顯然調整了對付中國選手的反手快攻方式
dimitrij ovtcharov could win this stage
Odd play by Ma long.
Another boring match for ma!I am excited for his quality.I don't believe that he is making fun with Ovtcharov!!
typical chinese fanboy comment... ma long is the better play and started playing better, he didnt decide anything and ovtcharov played great
The body-language of european players gets so bad after they make some easy errors. Chinese players just keep playing and fighting.
zu passiv im fünften