Hugo Beat Liang Jingkun with Stunning Skills, By-talk on Doha World Table Tennis Championships

         The Doha World Table Tennis Championships ended last month. The most exciting match should be the semi-final between Hugo Calderano and Liang Jingkun. Hugo narrowly won at the seventh game, so eye-catching. There were also some new initiatives in this tournament, so let's talk about them here.

Hugo a Different Person

         Hugo, 28 years old Brazilian, is an unprecedented top player from South American. He became famous years ago and was known for his unparalleled power on both sides. A few years ago, I looked for his matches to watch on purpose due to his fame and was quite disappointed.

         At that time, he was indeed strong and powerful, but his organization was chaotic, having no tactics at all. He just looped and attacked randomly. When he was on fire, no one could resist. Otherwise, he lost miserably. In Doha this time, taking advantage of the momentum of winning the World Cup in April, I took a special look and found that he was a completely different person!

         His opponent, Liang Jingkun, also aged 28, although he isn’t the most famous in the Chinese team, he’s uneasy to cope with at all. In 2019, Liang participated in the World Championships for the first time in Budapest and defeated his senior Fan Zhendong, who was at the peak of his career, and became famous.

         His playing style is all around and solid, and his rally ability, especially backhand, is strong. This time In Doha, he beat his junior, Lin Shidong, who has been surging quickly in recent years and ranked world no. 1.

         In this match, Hugo was in peak condition, showing unbelievable delicate control of short balls as well as varied speed and power. Sometimes he was as light as a feather, sometimes as fierce as thunder, coupling strength and gentleness, even better than the Chinese team. He was also calm and focused, making him extremely hard to deal with.

(Photo source: WTT)

         The rarest thing was that in today's era of monotonous big ball, he played a kind of rhythm change that was most lacking, which made the match much more attractive.

         Liang Jingkun played at a full level and performed well, but he had no advantage in techniques and tactics at all. He could only wait for the opponent to make mistakes, being so passive. It was a glorious defeat, nothing to blame.

         He was trapped in a hard battle, but he still fought stubbornly, always calm and composed, tenacious, and fought to the last point, which was worth learning for the younger generation of players.

Ordinary Skill, Superb Usage

         At the critical moment of the end of the first game, Hugo only used long push, combining it with placement, to indirectly or even directly win three points! It was seen at 8:9, 10-10 and 12-12 respectively (Please refer to the attached video below, 1:46).

         In today's generation obsessed with "backhand banana flip," following Ma Long's Macau World Cup last year, Hugo perfectly demonstrated how to cleverly use tactics and the power that basic skills can be exerted, as long as being used wisely, even if they seem simple and ordinary.

“With Tactics Not Even in Textbooks, Ma Long beat Wang Chuqin at Macau World Cup”

         The best ball of the entire tournament might be the one in the seventh game when the score was 3:4 (please refer to the attached video below, 13:13). In the era of small ball, it wasn’t too special, but in the age of big ball, in addition to back and forth strong looping, it also had some other skills and rhythms, which was rare.

         Surprisingly, the camera capturing Liang's coach Liu Zhiqiang, leaned back to the sky, raised his hands and smiled losing that point. It was very different from other Chinese coaches who were nervous and tense all day. In the eyes of this coach, there were other things to enjoy in matches besides winning.

         Unfortunately, Hugo failed to maintain his peak state in the final against Wang Chuqin. He played stiffly and carelessly, not as good as before, and didn’t pose a threat. Otherwise, even if those two retired seniors had come out, I’m afraid they would have been helpless. They couldn’t stop him.

Table Colour Backfired

         In addition, the table used purple-red colour. Allegedly, it was from the Doha national flag, but it turned out brighter actually. In the past, such bright colours were deliberately avoided for fear of dazzling and affecting the players. As a result, the incoming ball was difficult to see, and it wasn’t nice looking. This so-called innovation makes you shake your head.

         The two Grand Slam events, the World Championships and the World Cup, were only two months apart. It should probably be the most frequent among all ball sports in the world. Fortunately, the long-awaited video review (TTR) was finally implemented, making the competitions fairer.

         Moreover, the good tradition of free online live broadcast of each match before WTT was finally restored, but it seems that there is no replay afterwards. Also, the records of each match weren’t as individual and clear as before, less convenient to search.

         The shooting angle was a big drawback. That was from the side, the judge's angle, which was the worst position. It was so puzzling that why this could happen. It should be taken from the end of the table, and even better from the either corner of the table, which was the best angle.

         Which match do you like?