In honor of what would have been the continuing 2020 Olympic Games, let’s look at the Women’s Team Final between Germany and China!

Match 1- Li Xiaoxia vs Han Ying

China’s Li Xiaoxia is no stranger to playing choppers like Han Ying from Germany. Known for her strength and powerful forehand, Li was my pick to win the match.

Han made it very close in Game 1. Han established an 8-5 lead in the first game. I felt that Li Xiaoxia was trying to end the points too quickly. There were many occasions where she tried to put away balls that simply had too much backspin, leading to simple mistakes.

This changed towards the latter part of the first game. Li began to slowly spin the ball up against Han, this slowed the pace of the game down and led to Han having less quality on her chops. Li would then finish the point with the trademark forehand she’s known for. The end of game 1 resulted in an 11-9 victory for Li, and she never looked back.

Sadly for Han, she never established any sort of rhythm after Game 1. Li Xiaoxia began to introduce immaculate dropshots and flat smashes to further diversify her game, leaving Han completely on the backfoot.

Had Han won the first game, maybe the match would have come out differently. Han could have found more answers, more tactics, being 1 game up instead of 1 game down. Sadly, this wasn’t the case and China were to take a 1-0 lead.

Match 2- Liu Shiwen vs Petrissa Solja

Arguably Germany’s ace offensive player, Petrissa Solja is currently, and was back then, one of the largest names in European table tennis. However, she stood very little chance against Liu Shiwen.

What really stood out to me was the strength of Liu’s short game. The left-handed serves from Solja are often very difficult to keep short, and that is something Solja relies on to win matches. Liu Shiwen made clinical work of these returns, never letting Solja initiate any aggressive attacks. The attacks the Solja was able to get off were simply lackluster, and Liu Shiwen made quick work counterattacking them.

This was also where we saw the complete contrast between the Asian and European styles of table tennis. Solja plays slower, with more spin and upward strokes. This produces a slow, spinny ball that pops up instead of forward. The problem with this style is that it gave Liu too much to work with. Liu did not have to generate any of her own rotation, she simply redirected it back to her opponent. On the other hand, Liu’s sharp, quick, dart-like attacks pierced Solja. There is more forward force on Liu’s attacks, giving Solja far less to work with.

Liu ultimately won 3-0 to move China into a 2-0 lead.

Match 3- Liu Shiwen/Ding Ning vs Petrissa Solja/ Shan Xiaona

The German pair of Solja and Shan was very interesting to watch. Shan, a tradition penhold player with short pips mixed with Solja’s spinny style complemented each other well. This match was closer, sadly for Germany, only slightly closer.

I feel that China simply took advantage of Shan. Shan is good at playing her style, and in theory, Solja’s style should have complemented Shan’s. However, the Chinese pair abused Shan’s inability to handle strong, low, and direct loops.

Recall how I mentioned that Solja’s loops have an upward trajectory and bounce. This gives the Chinese pair the room to counterattack these with their lower-arching strokes. Shan’s short pips cannot handle this type of shot, the ball simply falls off. Against other pairs in the tournament, Shan was a wall, being able to block the weaker shots of her previous opponents. This wasn’t to be against the Chinese pair.

However, the German pair was able to take game 3. The main tactic in this game was exploiting the left-handed Ding Ning. In this game, the German pair worked Ding into the middle and wide forehand. This made it difficult for Ding to play with her strong loops, and it also disrupted the movement pattern of Liu Shiwen. Shan Xiaona was also more aggressive, going for her patented forehand flat hit on balls she wasn’t going for earlier. This tactical and risky play won the German pair game 3. Sadly for Germany, the Chinese adapted and took game 4, winning the Gold Medal. 3-0.