The men's singles semifinal, Lin Zijun vs Hook, which took place at 10:22 a. m. on the third day of the German Open main draw, will still be remembered by fans many years later. Some fans believe that this is the most exciting game of this Open, and its excitement even exceeds the later mixed doubles finals and Men's Singles finals.
This view is of course biased, because judging from an objective level, the level of the finals must be higher than the level of the semi-finals.
But this view also has its rationality.
Because the strength of both sides in the final was clear at a glance, no matter who won or lost, it was all justified, and the result of the game was within the predictions of some fans.
As for the game between Lin Zijun and Hook, before the game, everyone was overwhelmingly optimistic about Hook. Even Mr. Qin from Huaping, who had just become a new popular anchor, personally left the game. Jinkou Yuyan said that Hook would win.
But it was not Hook who reached the finals.
So the drama of this game can be described as full.
Many years later, those fans who are getting older will recall the past and remember that there was a long and dark time in the world table tennis world, which was dominated by the super Great Demon King from Huaping. The former Great Demon King of Huaping usually only dominated Men's singles, but the super Great Demon King monopolized Men's Singles, Men's Doubles and mixed doubles. He kept zero opponents in the finals of the three events again and again, making people completely unable to think of resistance.
That period of deepest darkness is what they call the "dark night."
Great Demon King who rules the dark night is called King of the Dark Night by them.
The rule of King of the Dark Night is so despairing, but there are still very faint points of light shining in the dark night, occasionally making unyielding resistance.
One of these spots of light is none other than contestant Lin Zijun from Bay Island.
The reason why player Lin Zijun can become one of the few lights in the dark night is precisely because he completed the most important breakthrough in his career in today's game and stepped into the realm of a super first-class player in one day.
So this is actually a historic moment.
Standing in front of the table with a small ball in his hand, Lin Zijun doesn't know what will happen in the future. He only knows that his judgment is correct.
"I should really use my own understanding to fight Hook."
In the past six months, in order to defeat Hook, he asked many people and referred to many competitions.
In fact, Hook lost a lot. Apart from the balls he lost by dropping the chain, he also lost at least to Sun Tianlong, Luo Jiu and Fan Xiaodong, so the reference sample is sufficient, and many people around the world are studying methods of playing Hook. Many of the theories, Lin Zijun thinks are very reasonable.
At that time, his attitude was to learn with an open mind, but he never thought about forging a new path on his own.
It's not because he lacks the ability to think independently, but because he has been accustomed to practicing obediently under the arrangements of his parents and coaches since he was a child. Following the rules for too long has unknowingly become a habit, restricting his free-flying mind.
And after he truly understood "Heart of Freedom", it actually only took him three minutes to think of a way to deal with Hook.
It's actually really simple...
"My only advantage over Hook is speed."
"Yes, everyone has top speed, but I know that I am faster than most people."
"I watched other people with Extreme Speed Talent play games. At that time, I felt that they were not fast enough. But at that time, I was too obedient. The whole world said that they were fast, so I took it for granted that they were as fast as me."
"With the same subtle talent, Wang Chao and Luo Jiu can be better than Mizutori Hato, so with the same Extreme Speed Talent, why can't I be faster than others?"
"So how do I use my strengths?"
"Of course it's defense. After all, I'm no match for him in a stalemate."
"So how do I use my strengths on defense?"
"Of course we try to shorten the flight distance of the ball as much as possible."
"There is one last question left: In such a short distance, even if I have time to react, how should I deal with his ball so that he can force him to play faster with me?"
"Push and block, only push and block."
In the past, Lin Zijun's first reaction would have been to deny his answer, because the whole world was saying that pushing and blocking has long been outdated.
But this time he kept thinking.
"I'm very lucky because my coach Jiang Peirong was a famous pushing and blocking master in the table tennis world when he was a player, known as Hercules Push. When he was training me, he often practiced with me in person, so I am actually not unfamiliar with the straight pushing and blocking technique, and I am even quite familiar with it."
"Then there's only one last problem left: the push block is a straight technique, and I'm a horizontal technique."
"This is easier to solve. Now that I already know the correct posture, shot timing and technical essentials of pushing and blocking, can't I just change it myself?"
"I didn't dare to change it casually before, but now I dare. After all, theories are dead, but people are alive."
"Isn't the reason why Wang Chao is able to achieve his current results just because he dares to use all kinds of strange tricks in the game?"
"I used to think he was hitting randomly, but now I know it's just that my understanding hasn't caught up with him."
"Now, I'm finally following him."
Lin Zijun was really lucky. When he broke through the limitations of his thinking for the first time, his technical and theoretical reserves were sufficient, which allowed him to directly apply his new ideas into actual combat at the first time, without any problems of "impossible to think of".
He stood in front of the table and fired his second ball.
It is still directly aimed at the Hook forehand position Sneak Long Serve.
Like the first ball, he did it on purpose.
He just wants to test the limits of Hook's offense first.
Topspin is introduced from the forehand position, which is definitely the best serve for Hook. If Hook didn't have time to use all his strength on the first ball because he underestimated the opponent, then this time, please use all your strength.
Hook's choice is indeed to go all out.
Hook and Lin Zijun are old rivals. He has a great advantage in historical record, so when he found out that Lin Zijun dared to steal a long ball from his forehand position, his reaction was a very standard seven-point attack.
According to his past experience, this kind of force is enough. Either he can directly penetrate Lin Zijun, or he can beat Lin Zijun into absolute passivity, and he can kill him with another hit.
But in the end, Lin Zijun made a beautiful defensive counterattack in an absolutely unexpected way.
So Hook also changed his tactics.
He is a wild boy. Although he has no routine, he also has no shackles. Since seven points of strength is not enough, let's try ten points of strength.
As soon as Hook drew the ball, Lin Zijun quickly entered the high-speed defense mode and once again pressed against the table and forced the block.
Facts have proved that even if Hook explodes with all his strength, he can still block it.
At this moment, the audience all exclaimed, "Wow."
Not because they really understand the mystery of this ball, but because the visual effects of this scene are really exciting.
No one doesn't know how violent Hook's actions are.
When all the players faced Hook, once they saw that Hook was about to attack, they immediately retreated without exception.
Lin Zijun dared to hit the first ball, which can also be said to have taken advantage of the opponent's lack of understanding.
But the second ball Hook obviously had psychological expectations.
Lin Zijun still pressed hard against the table.
This movement is not beautiful, but because the straight push block technique is forced with a horizontal board, the twists of the wrists and arms are rather awkward, making it look like a weird octopus.
Hook, who is at the other end of the table, has tendons all over his arms, which are holding up the fabric of his jersey.
The Lin Zijun at the other end of the table is tall and slender, and looks pretty good, but it looks a little thin on the sports field.
However, he used his thin body to counterattack powerfully. This momentum of strong attack made the audience feel the blood in their bodies surge involuntarily.
With a "bang" sound, the ball hit the racket, making a sound like a hammer blow.
But the ball was still passed by him, and it was another super-fast turning ball.
Pushing and blocking, a backward technology, shines with unparalleled brilliance at this moment, because it has an extremely unique advantage that is not available in the most advanced double-sided loop ball offensive technology in today's table tennis world: the harder the ball you attack, the faster I push the ball back.
A typical example of using the other person's way to give back to the other person.
Of course Hook couldn't be pushed to death directly, but he was indeed forced to speed up. He caught the second board, then the third board, and then tried to catch the fourth board, but missed it and the ball missed under his arm.
2:0, Lin Zijun scored another point.
By this time, Hook already knew that something was seriously wrong.
His continuous explosive power and physical strength are enough to support him to fully exert his strength in multiple consecutive boards. The reason why he missed the fourth board just now is not that his strength cannot keep up, but that his speed cannot keep up.
Lin Zijun hit the racket too fast, almost pushing the racket near the center line of the table on his side, which caused the ball to come back faster and faster. Hook Even with Extreme Speed Talent, he still had to move the racket, and it took time to make the movements, but he had no time to do the movements of leading the racket and pulling the ball.
After all, Lin Zijun only needs to raise the racket and push it forward, but his side has a complete pulling action. The lengths of the paths of the two rackets are completely different.
Hook tried his best to think about how to respond. In order to buy time, he deliberately ran around the half court after getting the right to serve, and then waited for a few seconds before officially serving.
It can be seen from this detail that Rohlskov's guidance to him is still meaningful. At least in terms of these game common sense, it helps Hook solve the bad habit of being too impatient in the past.
However, Hook didn't think of any good solution.
Because in the past, he relied on intuition when playing basketball, and all his judgments on the court were based on situations he had encountered in actual combat in the past. As the saying goes: People can never imagine things beyond their own experience.
Hook has really never encountered this situation before, because he himself has Extreme Speed Talent. In the past, when others encountered him, they tried every means to neutralize his speed and strength. This was the first time he encountered someone who forced him to speed up.
Without any ideas, he made a short backspin that was perfect for all.
Lin Zijun directly passed the ball to his forehand baseline. The ball was passed very casually, and there was not even much extra spin.
This is a naked invitation to Hook to attack.
In the past, Lin Zijun would never play this kind of ball anyway, because it is a typical imprecision. Theoretically speaking, even if you are not afraid of Hook's attack, you should take precautions carefully. Even if he finally finds an opportunity to attack, it should be something he fought for by himself, not something you gave to him.
But now Lin Zijun feels it doesn't matter. His current state is very strange. He wants to win, but he is not afraid of losing. In fact, including his direct start of Sneak Long Serve, it actually has a strong sense of gambling. He just made it because he thought of it. As for whether this is a loss or a profit, and whether it conforms to the basic idea of a formal game, he no longer cares.
He felt very happy because he was unrestrained and no one could restrict him.
Hook exploded forehand again.
He knows that Lin Zijun is waiting for him to attack, but if he doesn't attack this kind of ball, then he doesn't know how to play.
But he also has changes, this time it is a seven-point burst and a line change.
He believes that changing the line may be an opportunity to break the situation.
However, Lin Zijun had already anticipated this and still moved into position as quickly as possible and continued to push forward.
Only this time, he failed to top the ball because the angle of the racket was not pressed down enough, and the strongly spinning ball rushed out diagonally from the bottom of the racket.
2:1.
Until then, a certain popular anchor who had been keeping his eyes wide open and said nothing relaxed his upper body, which was leaning forward, and sighed softly, humming. "That's pretty much it."
At this time, the barrage in the live broadcast room was going crazy. Everyone was waiting for him to talk about the game with questions in their heads, but it was only now that he was finally willing to speak.
Now that he was relaxed, Qin Huachang didn't hold back. "Okay, let me explain briefly."
"This situation is indeed very strange, so I had to concentrate on seeing all the details just now so that I could figure out what happened."
At this point Qin Huachang clicked his tongue twice, a little unhappy. "Watching the live broadcast is worse than watching the scene. None of these guides are professional. They don't look where they should. The camera just chases the ball. The problem is, you haven't caught up yet, so why don't you just take a closer look at the details of the players' movements or facial expressions?"
In fact, this is purely an emotional complaint. After all, the live broadcast source is for ordinary viewers. What ordinary viewers see is the excitement and scenes. If the camera doesn't follow the ball, what else can it follow?
As for Qin Huachang, an expert among experts, he would of course prefer to guess the player's specific thoughts when handling the ball through the physical details of the player before and after hitting the ball. He can even analyze the player's mentality at the moment from the micro-expressions shown when the player hits the ball.
What? You said some players are good at hiding their emotions?
In fact, it is impossible to completely hide emotions, especially in an extremely fierce high-end game. When both sides are fully devoted to the game, how can they distract themselves from hiding their emotions? When they hit the ball with all their strength, there will definitely be an emotional release. It may be very short-lived, but it will never be a stagnant water.
In fact, Wang Chao remembers that in his previous life, someone specially collected the way the national team players grimaced and grimaced when they pumped the ball with all their strength. The emotions in the players' eyes at that moment were a true reflection of their mentality, and they couldn't be deceived.
For example, if he regards the other party as a strong enemy and wants to beat him to death, then he will have murderous intent in his eyes.
Or maybe he is at a disadvantage and is just trying his best to resist the pull, then there will be a worried look in his eyes, or a particularly solemn expression.
In short, after complaining, Qin Huachang started to talk. "Although I don't know why, it is obvious that Lin Zijun has super evolved. I can't figure out the direction of his super evolution. There are only two guesses at the moment. Xiang, either he has figured something out in terms of actual combat concepts, or his Extreme Speed Talent has evolved again. His current speed is probably at least one level faster than other players with Extreme Speed Talent, and maybe more."
"If it's the former, it's an improvement in golf quotient, and if it's the latter, it's an improvement in hard power. In short, they are both scary, but the greater possibility is that both of them have improved together. In this case, he will be a strong enemy of our Huaping in the future."
"Besides, his strategy against Hook is really amazing. I seriously doubt that Jiang Peirong can't come up with such an excellent strategy. After all, I know him quite well. Hehe, we have played against each other before when we were players."
"His strategy is quite good. I was stunned by the first two balls. I thought at the time, it's understandable that his speed has increased, but how can he push back Hook's balls successfully every time? This is unreasonable. What this requires is the improvement of touch and judgment, but he didn't pay attention to it. Hook's balls are so explosive, how can he push them all back?"
"So I didn't dare to speak because I thought it was too fake. If he can keep being fake like this, it will only prove that I haven't understood it yet and I have to keep reading."
"It wasn't until I saw the third ball that he failed to block that I felt that this ball finally returned to my understanding. It turned out that it wasn't that I really couldn't understand it, but that he had better luck with the first two balls."
"Okay, now that you understand, I'm going to start commenting. Lin Zijun's current style of play still has hidden dangers. He can keep up with Hook's balls, but he may not be able to block Hook's balls. The first few balls were caused by Hook's lack of defense., but once Lin Zijun fails to block more times, Hook will quickly realize the problem, and then Hook will work on the details of the attack to make Lin Zijun make more mistakes in judgment when pushing."
"So, the outcome has not yet been decided. It will be a very difficult tug-of-war next."
Thanks to "Meow's Schrödingerjin" for the reward.