WTTC 2013 Tournament Statistics

I am lucky enough to be able to present to you some statistics collated by a good friend of mine Matt Solt a.k.a TTGuru. Matt works endlessly over the tournament to database the result of every match so he can organise these statistics, it is not easy work!

LONGEST and SHORTEST MATCH

The match with the highest total points was in the Men's Singles Round of 64:

Cho Eon Rae (KOR) beat Taku Takakiwa (JAP) 10-12, 13-11, 19-21, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-8. (156 points).

The matches with the lowest total points were in the Women's Singles Group Stage:

Alina Arlouskaya (BLR) beat Noura Almaazmi (UAE) 11-2, 11-1, 11-1, 11-1. (49 points).

Hu Limei (CHN) beat Illirjana Haliti (KOS) 11-2, 11-2, 11-0, 11-1. (49 points).

SCORE STATISTICS

Most Common Game Score: 11-7 (916 occurances, 13.79% of all games)
Highest Games Score:           21-19 (Cho vs. Takakiwa 3rd game & Zhu vs. Jiang 6th game)
Number of Donuts (11-0):      16

Number of Walkovers:          88
Number of Disqualifications: 1
Number of Injury WDs:         1

MATCHES PLAYED

Singles:             Matches          Games             Points
Men's                     520                 2562               45689
Women's                399                 1905               33461
Total                      919                 4467               79150

Doubles:           Matches          Games             Points
Men's                    161                  695                 12786
Women's               120                  529                   9517
Mixed                    207                  951                 17180
Total                     488                 2175                39483

Totals:              Matches          Games             Points
Men's                    681                 3257                58475
Women's               519                 2434                42978
Mixed                    207                  951                17180
Total                   1407                6642               118633 

TTGuru selects Kenta Matsudaira as his outstanding player award. A selection I can definitely agree with!

The Biggest WTTC Ever

What a week it has been in Paris and around the world, the massive success of the 2013 World Championships has been blasted all through the media. This is my chance to look back on the week and make some special mentions to the people who are making table tennis a greater growing sport. 

Visit www.ittf.com

Last year at the WTTC I remember staying up all night, live streaming all the video. This year was no different. On New Zealand time I was awake till 7am most mornings, making sure I could keep up with all of the news and results for you guys. It was a long week and certainly taxing but it was incredibly enjoyable. So first of all I want to thank the readers of my blog, without positive feedback and appreciation I really wouldn't have the passion to keep doing this, when you are doing something for the love it's that extra appreciation that makes all the difference.

Of course the big shout out goes to the ITTF. They have made a quantum change in their online involvement this year, pushing media through their facebook and youtube channels (follow word links). Just days ago they reached a pinnacle 80,000 fans on their facebook page. Onwards and upwards for them as the sport continues to grow its online presence.

Visit www.tabletennisdaily.co.uk

I would say in the last 2 years, the strength of online coverage of major events has grown substantially. It is without surprise that this coincided with the birth of TableTennisDaily a site which I was involved with at it's very young stages and I have watched grow into one of the most successful table tennis sites in the world. On men's semifinals day the site achieved a record 30,000 page views over the 24 hour period with over 8,000 unique visits. This is all down to the extremely hard work of Daniel Ives. I've had the pleasure of working with Dan and spending so much time talking about table tennis and I can tell you this; there are not many as passionate about Table Tennis and it's international events and happenings as Dan. He works incredibly hard and is constantly innovating and looking for ways to improve his site. Congratulations on a fantastic World Championships week Dan :)

www.tabletennista.com

The Youtube Producers are out of this world. To really understand how good these guys are, you have to compete with them a bit. You try, just once, to edit and upload a match video before these guys. It's not humanely possible. Over the years they have become so efficient and so fast. The media is right at your screen within sometimes just an hour of the match finishing. So please visit my friends and appreciate their hard work, not just from this week, but over hundreds and hundreds of videos: (Click links)

Geca Phoenix and TTCountenance

Table Tennis Events

TTLondon2012

Janus

Finally thanks go out to Tabletennista who have been very supportive of my work this week and beyond. They have provided excellent media coverage of the events over this week and in the leadup. They are working on a new project, a digital magazine, so make sure you check that out!!!

My last request of you all is that you sit back and enjoy my last video from the WTTC. 26 Matches, the very best points. Relive an amazing tournament in just 14 minutes :) Enjoy and thank you all!

Zhang Jike Defends World Title

Zhang Jike has again asserted himself as the dominant player in the world by claiming victory in Paris at the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships. Not only is it a world title, it is the defence of his title won in 2011 and against the very same opponent, 2009 World Champion Wang Hao.

Zhang Jike defends his World Championship Title

While Zhang's performance has been questioned time and again this year after his multiple losses to foreign players and seeming lack of motivation at events, it was on the big stage where the Grand Slam winner performs at his very peak, that Zhang Jike came to excel again. To begin with Jike looked like he would continue where he left of in his semifinal 4-0 decimation of Xu Xin.

Executing basic tactics seemed to be working well for Zhang Jike, dominating in the backhand to backhand rallies and using a brilliant short game and receive or service to play into the areas where Yan An and Ma Long both failed. The effects could be seen instantly as Zhang jetted out to a 2-0 lead. Wang Hao was making the small errors and not quite finding his tactics in the game, that was about to change. Wang Hao started bringing the points back, winning the larger proportion of points off his serve, something he continued to do for the remainder of the match.

Forcing the errors back on Zhang Jike and playing some incredible forehand shots with successful speed and placement, Wang Hao came firing back to win the next set. It was at 3-1 down when the match came close to a crucial point. Wang Hao held a couple of game points in the set but Zhang Jike stormed through, utilising his point with a 13-12 lead to ensure he could win potentially what was in hindsight the most important point of the whole match. To win this set saved Jike from facing a 2-2 situation, instead the defending world champion led the match 3-1.

Wang Hao didn't give up the fight yet, playing smart and opening up space, he executed more world class forehand play and fought hard. The result, Wang Hao closed the gap even more to 3-2. With the game getting closer both players still remained very focused and very calm, there was not much character shown in the match, minimal celebration, even at the end of the match when Zhang Jike outplayed his opponents and sealed his victory 4-2, it was a quiet wave to the crowd, a sincere handshake with his respected opponent before he headed off into the crowd to share a moment with his parents.

Zhang Jike, a step on his way to becoming the first player ever to complete the Grand Slam twice, the very challenge set out for him by Liu Guoliang to which he has very firmly answered by winning here in France.

Li Xiaoxia Completes The Grand Slam with WTTC Gold

Li Xiaoxia has completed the coveted Grand Slam by winning the World Championships Women's Singles title at the 2013 WTTC in Paris. After winning the 2008 World Cup and the 2012 London Olympic Games, Li Xiaoxia just needed a World Championships to complete the set. I had the fortune of interviewing Li Xiaoxia before the WTTC, make sure you check it out HERE.

Li Xiaoxia win the WTTC Final 2013!

So the great match began, Li Xiaoxia no doubt confident after having beaten defending World Champion Ding Ning in the semifinal stages. She certainly took to this match with wings. As I say so often I feel Li Xiaoxia has the most similar playing style to Zhang Yining among her teammates, something which I think has attributed to her success. Where Xiaoxia has good reach, great spin and a solid ability close and far from the table, her finals opponent Liu Shiwen is a fast, high paced and close to the table player.

Li Xiaoxia was consistent in the backhand to backhand rallies and able to vary her forehand play in position and spin, sometimes opting or a high arc forehand to disrupt the rhythm of her opponent and sometimes playing hard and fast. This caused problems early on for Liu Shiwen. It was 1-1 before Li Xiaoxia gained momentum, the next set was close but Xiaoxia found herself leading 3-1 and just one set away from gold and a Grand Slam.

Nerves set in as Liu Shiwen brought in her focus, her consistency stepped up, her fighting spirit pumping out. Forcing errors from Li Xiaoxia and often letting her open up first and taking the opportunity to use the pace to redirect the ball, it was Liu Shiwen who came flying back, not only taking the next set but pressing to deuce in the 6th set. She saved 2 match points at 10-8 down and even led 11-10 before Li Xiaoxia pulled out the shots and won 13-11. Huge smiles for Li Xiaoxia who ran to hug her coach, the pinnacle individual in her career as she mentions in my interview.

Fantastic match, fantastic result. Keep your attention on the Bercy Arena for more quality matches soon!