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

          A few months ago, in the semi-finals of the Macau Table Tennis World Cup, Ma Long defeated Wang Chuqin 4-0. This is a rare and excellent living teaching material on the use of modern tactics. You can't find it even if you read all the textbooks in the world. It is worth thinking over and over again for fans, especially advanced ones, and savouring it carefully, so don’t miss it.

         In my impression, Wang won both of the two recent matches between the two sides. After all, time and tide wait for no man. Naturally, before this match, people were generally optimistic about the 23-year-old Wang, who was ranked number one in the world. Unexpectedly, ranked fourth, the 35-year-old Ma, without any burdens, used new tactics and performed great feats. It was refreshing and eye-opening!

Ma Long’s Three Major Tactic Changes

         First, Ma practiced a set of new reverse pendulum serves. In the past, he didn't completely avoid reverse serves, but he only occasionally used one or two in a game. This time, he used that as his main serves, accounting for most of it. The placements were all on Wang's forehand short and in the middle. This method worked well, Wang was obviously not used to it. His specialty backhand banana flick could not be used and he often “ate” the backspin putting into the bottom of the net, losing points directly.

         In addition, while receiving the serves in the same forehand short table positions, Ma changed his usual controlling style of push, drop shots and used a lot of backhand flip to attack. This performance was outstanding and cracked Wang's serves. Many balls were flipped straight to his forehand open corner. He could not even touch the ball and lost directly.

(Photo Source: xinhuanet)

         During rallies, Ma strengthened his backhand and became firmer in defense. He basically stood in the middle and guarded both sides of the table. When Wang's forehand attacked diagonally, Ma often used backhand to force his way back to his forehand wide angle opening. Wang was unable to move quickly enough and often missed. He staggered to make saves many times, sometimes even leaning on the ground with his hands. It was so embarrassed and he was defeated completely and ugly.

         The above two methods of attacking forehand wide crosscourt corner, usually are left-handers’ huge advantages against right-handers. Unexpectedly, Ma did the opposite this time. It showed that he knew how to deal with left-handers well.

“Why Left-handed Table Tennis Players Especially Hard to Deal With?”

Tactic Reasoning

         Why did Ma use the above tactics? Fans who were familiar with his playing style could easily find that he was completely different in this match. Those forehand looping, stepping-around… etc. that were common in the past were only done occasionally, all because Ma was no long young. It could be seen from some of his forehand side looping in the first two games that he faltered. If he were to fight the young and strong Wang with the usual attack and rally, he would definitely lose.

         He then put up a desperate struggle. The tactic was to get things done quickly. Rallies and moving should be reduced to the minimum. All the angles and the placements of return had to be as cut-throat and tricky as possible, without trying to be steady. In addition to the above-mentioned main methods, there were also many other ways. For instance, Ma lobbed to defend when falling back to the middle court; using “chop block” to return looping. Just these two ways were often in vain.

         Ma's timeout was used at 8-9 in the first game. It seemed too early, but in fact he knew that he could only fight the early part, not the latter. If he could take the lead by one game, there is still hope. On the contrary, if he fell behind, even if he could call three more timeouts, it would be of no avail.

(Photo source: RTHK32)

Low Flexibility of the New Generation of Chinese Table Tennis Team

         Just Ma himself probably never expected that his performance and his tactic effect would be so outstanding and Wang would be so at a loss. In fact, as long as Wang was more steady and conservative, forcing Ma to make more rallies and held for a while longer, Ma’s fatal weakness would be revealed and the situation would be greatly improved.

         For example, when returning the serves, to control more to reduce mistakes; when serving, to avoid letting Ma flip powerfully, changing the placements and did more heavy backspin; when rallies and attacks, to move closer to the middle and to the table reducing the forehand corner opening; to return wide angle strokes more, forcing Ma to move; or even to push heavy backspin to the wide crosscourt corner of Ma’s forehand, forcing him to loop first with much energy first... and so on. However, Wang was frightened by Ma’s some beautiful raids. Speaking of tactic use, it is always that the standby sees more than he who plays.

         The biggest difference between Fan Zhendong and Ma Long is not in technique or will, but in tactical application and adaptability. Fan only knows to play his best set of skill at any time, but Ma can play the set that has the largest winning chance at the time, regardless of whether it is his best.

         In the current Chinese team, only Ma is comparable to Wang Hao, Ma Lin and other predecessors in terms of tactical adaptability, while other new generations, such as Wang, are even worse than Fan.

         In the chapter six, “Weak Points And Strong,” of "The Art of War” says, “Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.”