Swaythling October 2019 (No.107)

Budapest reflections: when did
it last happen?
Ma Long, winner for the
third consecutive time
The dust has settled, concluding
on Sunday 28th April, the Liebherr
2019 World Championships is now
resigned to history; fascinating as
all previous in the past ten decades
but perhaps more than any
other it tested the memory bank.
Above all else the question raised
was “when did this last happen?”
Nowhere was that more relevant
than in the men’s singles event.
An absence from the international
scene for almost six months,
emerging successful when returning
to action on the ITTF World
Tour in Qatar in late March; but
was that sufficient evidence to
suggest that Ma Long could win
the men’s singles title for a third
time and repeat the success of
Suzhou and Düsseldorf?
Was he physically fit enough?
Was he mentally ready for the
test? Was he attuned to international
competition? Ma Long
answered in style and thus joined
the illustrious group of Victor
Barna and Zhuang Zedong, the
only previous players to have held
the St Bride’s Vase aloft on three
consecutive occasions.
Ma Long did not start the favourite;
a new world ranking scheme
introduced in January 2018, the
effects of which meant he was
the no.11 seed. It begged the
question, when had the defending
champion not been listed amongst
the top eight names? The draw for
the 1928 World Championships
in Stockholm, the second staging
of the tournament, suggests that
it might have been the same for
Dr Roland Jacobi, the winner at
the inaugural edition two years
earlier! Equally, when did a player
outside the top eight names last
secure the men’s singles title at a
World Championships; not Werner
Schlager in 2003 in Paris, the vote
goes to Kong Longhui 1995 in
Tianjin.
Thus we watched the draw avidly,
could there be a possible repeat
of the final of two years earlier
in Düsseldorf when in seven
games Ma Long had beaten Fan
Zhendong, a contest which many
believed had taken playing standards
to a new level. In Budapest,
Fan Zhendong was the top seed;
the draw made, the possibility
of a repeat final did not materialise,
they were scheduled for a
semi-final clash. Likewise that did
not happen; Fan Zhendong was
beaten in round four by colleague
Liang Jingkun.
Defeat for Fan Zhendong, he never
reached the heights of Düsseldorf
but can we not draw a parallel
with Ma Long? He needed five
attempts before he succeeded.
Accepted Kong Longhui won on
debut but for most it takes time.
At the 2007 World Championships
in Zagreb, Ma Long suffered the
indignity of being the only Chinese
player, male or female, to
lose a singles match against an
opponent from foreign shores.
He tried to blast Korea Republic’s
Joo Saehyuk out of the water and
came unstuck. On the next three
occasions, commencing in 2009
in Yokohama, he was beaten by
Wang Hao in the semi-final round,
performances below par. Moreover,
he had to watch his contemporary,
the player he had lined up
alongside at the first ever World
Junior Championships in 2003 in
Chile, Zhang Jike, become Olympic
and World champion. In 2015
in Suzhou there were questions
to be answered just as this year
in Budapest but of a rather more
pressing nature; Ma Long answered
with aplomb.
Now, to a lesser extent does that
scenario apply also to Xu Xin?
The fortunes of the draw meant
that he was the only member of
the Chinese national team in the
lower half. Just as Fan Zhendong
had not really lived up to expectations,
it was the same for Xu Xin;
he was beaten in the third round
by Frenchman, Simon Gauzy.
The departure of Xu Xin and
An Jaehyun from qualification to bronze
medal
Simon Gauzy ended the hopes of Xu Xin
later that of Germany’s Timo Boll
through illness, meant the lower
half of the draw was open wide.
The man to take advantage of the
situation was Sweden’s Mattias
Falck, the no.16 seed. He reached
the final beating only one higher
rated player, that being Korea
Republic’s Lee Sangsu, the no.6
seed, in the fourth round.
At the semi-final stage he was the
favourite; he faced An Jaehyun,
named at no.152 on the men’s
world rankings and of the Korea
Republic players on that list, the
tenth highest! He had gained the
last place in his nation’s team
Mattias Falck exceeded all expectations
Liang Jingkun, semi-finalist at first attempt
ahead of Lim Jonghoon, at the
time ranked no.17 in the global
order. Again the question was
raised, when had players with
such rankings or similar contested
a World Championships men’s
singles semi-final?
Simply being selected to compete
in Budapest, for Jaeyhun Christmas
and birthday celebration had
come early; he was born on Saturday
25th December 1999. Furthermore,
he more than justified his
worth. In round two he had beaten
Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto, the
no.4 seed, in the quarter-finals, he
had ousted colleague Jang Woo-
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