Intense championship point of WWT Grand Slam Europe Smash - Sweden. Sweden's Truls Möregårdh upsets World #1 China's Lin Shindong to become the first Non-Chinese national to win a WTT Grand Slam Singles championship

[u/KenshiroTheKid]

[u/LitmusPitmus]

that is an insane rally

[u/KenshiroTheKid]

*Grand Smash not Slam, just realized I made that mistake

[u/mt80]

I remember this dude from 2024 Paris. He had a great run, silver finish.

[u/worm30478 → u/mt80]

Yeah. I thought he looked familiar. It's not like i watch table tennis outside of the Olympics though. These dudes are insane. China is always dominant. Pretty cool to see an upset.

[u/boricimo → u/mt80]

Who did he lose to?

[u/cedric3107 → u/boricimo]

Fan Zhendong, former world No.1.

[u/tom90deg]

Forgive me, I may be asking a stupid question, but why not do a soft flub over the net when the other player is so far back and you're so close to the table? No way he could make the return from halfway across the room.

[u/Hi_Im_Ken_Adams → u/tom90deg]

He probably would have tried a drop-shot just over the net sooner or later but that’s a really hard shot to pull off plus if your opponent returns it you’ve given up your attacking advantage.

[u/Totalsuperstar → u/tom90deg]

The incredible spin on the ball often makes it difficult to a soft flub over the net

[u/Superdaneru → u/tom90deg]

Get a ping pong ball and try throwing it as gently as you can, from across the table. You're not going to get a low bounce and it's very easy for a pro to get to that ball even from a distance.

The Chinese player is also baiting the Swede to do a soft flub because soft flubs would be a great setup for a monster smash for the Chinese player.

[u/sidskorna → u/tom90deg]

Players do try it at the right opportunity. With the bounce of the ball and the amount of topspin/sidespin on the ball, it's not easy to do a "drop shot" like in tennis. If the other player gets to it, you may lose advantage.

[u/mttdesignz → u/tom90deg]

The arm and body movement to prepare for a "drop shot" vs to continue smashing is completely different, so the opponent will see it and be able to anticipate it closing in.

Also, the drop shot is not that easy to do! There's a lot of way that you can mess it up, either by making it too short and hitting the net, or too long and the opponent will be able to save it and counter-smash it

[u/p5ylocy6e]

Lin Shindong was insanely tenacious in that clip. Damn.

[u/KenshiroTheKid → u/p5ylocy6e]

The future of the game is in good hands, both are under the age of 24

[u/Qoppa_Guy]

That's incredible. Well-played to both competitors.

[u/buffdaddy77]

I used to think I was pretty good at ping pong back in my high school days….

[u/See5harp]

Bro how is this even possible?

[u/d3ath5un]

that was hype and crongratulations to Möregårdh

[u/Tyrannosaurus_Dex]

This entire thing could just be two guys pretending to react to an animated ball and nobody would know

Some of these returns are unbelievable 

[u/MrInternetInventor]

I would simply make the ping pong ball table 10x bigger

[u/User9705]

Better than tennis and golf; well everything is

[u/Mountain-Song-6024]

Why not just do a little tap against the guy who is so far back? He lofts it up there making it easy. This seems a lil sus like it's just for show

[u/baraboosh → u/Mountain-Song-6024]

disclaimer: im dog at table tennis and this was told to me by actual good players lol

the kinetic energy and spin on the ball make it almost impossible to accurately drop shot. Players sometimes do it, but you see "wide open" drop shots miss the table all the time. And if you're even slightly off, it sets up an immediate counter attack for the player who was just on the defensive.

its hard to see the spin on the ball in clips but if you ever play against a decent table tennis player that shit is unreal

[u/Mountain-Song-6024 → u/baraboosh]

Awesome 😎