Sponsored by Mecano Sports, presented by Caliente.mx, sanctioned by ICTTF
(by Larry Hodges, photo by Larry Hodges: “Hardbat Champion Wang Shibo and Mexican Rock Star Miky Huidobro”)
The preliminary round robins and single elimination to the semifinals was covered in the article “Hardbat Singles to the Semifinals at the Ping Pong World Cup.” We’ll continue here with the semifinals. There’s a lot of money at stake – $5,000 for first, $2,500 for second, $1,500 for 3-4, and $500 for 5-9. (There was a playoff for the 9th spot, as covered in previous article.)
Semifinals
Alexander “Flash” Flemming (GER) vs. Andrew Baggaley (ENG)
The two have played each other a number of times. Andrew won the World Ping Pong Championships three times in a row, each time over the Flash – but then the Flash won the next one in 2021 over Baggaley. This was going to be an epic battle. Style wise, they play somewhat similarly, but with some differences. Flash is a relentless attacker and counter-attacker, taking nearly everything at the top of the bounce, sometimes a little later. In fast rallies, this often means he backs up some, but it also means he can get to and counter-attack against almost anything. Baggaley tends to stay closer to the table, especially with his quicker backhand. This means he is able to rush opponents more, but also means he’s sometimes jammed at the table blocking. Flash’s relentless attacks and counter-attacks put pressure on Baggaley’s forehand, since he was often close to the table and so had little time to react. Flash mostly serves forehand, with backhand serves as a variation. Baggaley serves a lot of backhand from the middle of the table.
Flash is a highly animated player. He’s a ball of energy. He also has a collection of exclamations after points: “Yeah!” “Yo!” “C’mon!” and everyone’s favorite, “Chule!” (Pronounced “Chu-lay.”) In contrast, Baggaley is mostly silent.
In the first game, Baggaley jumps to a 5-1 lead, and stays in the lead to 17-14. The rallies are vicious, almost all attack and counter-attack, with both players occasionally chopping when forced off the table. This happens at 17-15, with Flash out of position and off the table. He chops – and gets an edge, 17-16. The next three rallies all end with Baggaley missing a forehand – two of them seemingly easy ones, one a more difficult counter-attack – and Flash has scored five in a row to go up 19-17. (Both players tend to hit forehands off the end more than normal – the thin air?) Two nice rallies later, however, and Baggaley has tied it,19-19. But Baggaley misses another forehand, and then Flash pulls off a spectacular forehand smash, and he’s won game one, 21-19.
In game two, it’s Flash’s turn to jump to a lead. Down 5-9, Baggaley wins four in a row to reach 9-all. They battle back and forth – lots of great rallies – 12-all, 13-all, 14-all, 15-all, 16-all. The Flash makes his move, goes up 19-16. Then it’s 19-18, 20-18 match point for Flash. Then, as so often happens when it’s close, they have an incredible rally, which ends with Flash putting a backhand into the net, 20-19. But then Flash serves and follows with an incredible backhand kill! And so Flash wins and is into the final, 21-19, 21-19.
Wang Shibo (CHN) vs. AJ Carney (USA)
I’ve seen AJ play hardbat many times, and he’s the reigning US Hardbat Champion. But all I can say is . . . he did not play well here. He simply didn’t adjust to the 7,400 altitude as well as others. Over and over he either played tentative shots or just outright missed, mostly off the end, especially on the forehand side. And yet, he had his chances here, and in fact if he’d played just a little better this would have been a dead-even match. (Of course, if AJ played better, that might have forced Wang to play at a higher level – it works both ways.)
Wang is a penholder, with a conventional backhand (so he only uses one side of his racket). He controls play and changes pace with his backhand blocks while looking for chances to attack with his strong forehand. As the match went on, his backhand got more aggressive and he kept finding chances to smack in forehands. Lefty AJ likes to favor the forehand, especially when serving. While this was often effective, it also cost him when he sometimes got tentative with the forehand.
In the first game, Wang went up 5-1 and 7-2. AJ battled back to 8-9, then Wang got an edge, 8-10. Wang jumped to a 14-11 lead, but AJ, playing aggressive (no tentativeness for now), ties it at 15-all. And then . . . AJ puts a tentative backhand off the end. Misses an off-balance forehand. Puts another forehand into the net. Looking tentative on the forehand, against a ball he should have easily attacked, AJ chops a forehand off the end. Then he hits a forehand off his racket edge – and he’s down 15-19, then 16-19. Wang plays a controlling point, then smashes a forehand, 16-20. Then AJ hits a backhand off, and its 21-16 for Wang.
Game two for a time looked like what I’ve called an “immaculate” game.
The scores were 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, and 6-6. Down 6-7, AJ puts an easy backhand off, and so no 7-7. Then it’s 8-8, 8-10, 10-10, 11-11, 12-12 (12-14 when AJ puts a backhand into the net), 14-14. (So only missing 7-7, 9-9, and 13-13.) But from here on, AJ keeps missing forehands while Wang is consistent and makes his smashes. AJ calls a timeout at 14-17, to no avail. At 14-18 I wrote in my notes, “Can AJ pull another Houdini comeback?” He’d pulled off three already in two matches. But not this time. Match to Wang, 21-16, 21-16.
Final
Alexander “Flash” Flemming (GER) vs. Wang Shibo
This was a classic matchup – East vs. West, penhold vs. shakehand, backhand blocking vs. backhand drives. Wang, who plays very much like former Chinese star and then six-time US Men’s Singles Champion David Zhuang, controls play with his backhand, with both changes of pace and more aggressive jab-blocks that are basically backhand kills. He played his backhand more aggressively in this match than he did in the semifinals against AJ. Both players like to step around and attack with their forehands. When Wang steps around, he usually creams a winner. Flash will often smash as well, but more often plays strong forehand which often wins the point or sets him up for the next shot. But when Flash does step around, Wang’s backhand block or forehand counter-hit to his wide forehand is dangerous. Much of the match became backhand-to-backhand rallies as both tried to keep the ball away from the other’s forehand. Wang would often block over and over to Flash’s wide, wide backhand, while Flash, while often going to the wide backhand to avoid Wang’s forehand, also looked for chances to attack Wang’s middle or wide forehand. But Wang’s blocking – he just doesn’t miss much.
In the first, it’s 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 5-3 and 7-5 for Flash, 7-7, 8-8, 11-8 for Flash, 11-11, 12-12, 13-13, 14-14, 16-14 and 17-15 for Flash, 17-17, 18-18. But Wang has a relentless blocking rally until Flash misses, then he steps around and smashes, and Flash hits a backhand off, and game one to Wang, 21-18.
In the second, Flash seems to run away with it, leading 5-1 and 9-5. But Wang just won’t miss, and he wins six in a row to lead 11-9. Then we’re back to battling – 11-11, 12-12, 13-13, 14-14, 15-15. But from there on it’s all Flash, 21-16.
In the third, they trade points again – 1-1, 2-2, 4-4, 6-6, 8-8, 10-10, 11-11, 13-13, 14-14, 16-16. Wang goes up 18-16 and 19-17. But Flash serve and backhand kills, 19-18. Then steps around and creams a forehand “winner” – but Flash, miraculously, blocks a clean winner to the forehand! So, after all this, we’re at 19-19. But not for long – Wang steps around and smashes, and Flash doesn’t block this one, and Wang is up 20-19 match point. They have another backhand-backhand rally, Wang blocks off, and it’s 20-20.
And two points later, it’s over. Wang steps around and pulverizes a forehand down the line – and it hits the edge, giving him match point #2. Flash misses a forehand in the next rally, and it’s match, title, and $5,000 to Wang Shibo, 18,-16,20. Flash gets $2,500, Baggaley and AJ get $1,500, and the four other quarterfinalists get $500, along with ninth place finisher Vladi Kutsenko (RUS). And there went my planned headline if Flash had won: “The Flash Smash Bags Cash.” But I’m sure I’ll use it in the future.
So, who is Wang Shibo? He’s the 2018 World Ping Pong Champion (sandpaper), and also made the semifinals of the Sandpaper Open here. He used to play with sponge, but now mostly plays sandpaper. This was actually his first hardbat tournament – and he’s won it on his first try. He’s from Xuzhou in the Jiangsu Province of China, where he teaches physical education – including table tennis. He doesn’t have time to practice as much as he used to, but when he does, he’s mostly sandpaper. The irony is that the two hardbat finalists here are really sandpaper specialists!
Visit ButterflyOnline.com for the latest in table tennis news and results.
