OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have been up in Sydney for the last few days and played in the STIGA Western Sydney Championships at Olympic Park yesterday. It was a strong event with the Australian nr 1, nr 4 (Robbie Frank), nr 5 (Kiet Tran), John Tawadrous, George Tang and Justin Han (who I would guess is nr 2 in Australia). A total prize pool of over $3000 was up for grabs in the heat of a beautiful Sydney day.

Justin Han has joined Aussie Table Tennis as a Gold level sponsored player. Justin created a storm at the Australian Open a couple of months ago by staying undefeated in the teams event and making the semi-final of the Men's Singles. He was a member of the Chinese junior national team and is now living in Sydney after arriving in Australia a few months ago.

Justin and I made the final of the singles without many problems. I beat Kiet Tran in one semi 3-0 and Justin beat Nana Boateng 3-1 in the other. Kiet struggled with his consistency. I think he felt the pressure that he had to play his strongest shots on every ball which is fine if you are playing well but devastating if you're not. Kiet normally has a flashy game playing the ball quickly straight off the bounce and that is tough to play against if he's having a good day. He showed his quality in May this year making the final of the Australian Closed Championships in Cairns and giving me a good game in the final. However, yesterday he missed returns of serve and first topspins and he can't afford to do that against me.

The final was the first time I've played against Justin. He plays a fairly typical Chinese game with a strong forehand topspin and heavy, heavy backspin pushes. He won the first set 11-9, I came back from 10-8 down to win the second set 15-13, he won the third 11-2 and I came back from 8-4 down in the fourth to win 12-10. The crowd at Homebush was really getting into the match with big support for hometown boy Justin and some support for me. Return of serve is very important against the Chinese style of game and mine wasn't working well at all. You can't afford to give away 3 or 4 points per set by doing weak returns and still hope to beat good players. Somehow I managed to turn things around when I needed to and we were set for a deciding fifth game.

There weren't too many long rallies as both of us are comfortable trying to get the point over and done with as soon as possible. He does this by trying to hit his forehand hard and I do this by trying to get a low, spinny, fast topspin with my backhand. We were both serving mainly short no-spin or topspin serves to try to stop the other player pushing short and getting a strong topspin in first. Justin was up 8-4 but I clawed back again. Scores were locked at 9-9 and he went ahead 10-9. I got in with my backhand topspin on the next point to level at 10-10. I flicked strongly with my backhand off his serve, 11-10 to me. Heavy topspin serve and heavy spin loop by me which hit the edge of his racket. I'd survived a spirited challenge and took the title.

Something tells me this is only the first of many future big game match-ups against Justin.

I've only been playing with new equipment for a couple of weeks and there is some adjusting to do. I'm pleased with how my XIOM Zeta rubbers are feeling and I think that once I learn how the rubber reacts in all circumstances I won't notice much of a difference compared to before the speed glue ban. More on this soon.