Summary:

The Women’s Final of the Liebherr 2019 World Table Tennis Championships was an all Chinese affair between Liu Shiwen and Chen Meng. Liu Shiwen fans speculated that this could be her final chance of winning a singles title in a World Championships . At a 28 years old, Liu Shiwen may end up retiring before the next World Championships singles event in 2021.

In the past year leading up to the World Championships, Liu Shiwen was not in her best form. She lost to Japan’s Mima Ito and Hina Hayata (the former in which she lost to twice). In addition, she lost to her severely lower ranked compatriot, He Zhuojia.

Chen Meng, on the other hand, was in the form of her life, losing to no player on the international scene beside Wang Manyu and Zhu Yuling in the past year. Chen has made rapid improvements in her game in the last year, finding ways to maximize the power in her strokes while keep them very concise. In my opinion, she was the favorite to win the whole tournament

Oh, how wrong I was.

Liu Shiwen Proves She Can Handle Pressure

Liu Shiwen has somewhat of a poor reputation when it comes to participating in the finals of big events. In 2010, she lost 2 matches in the finals of the World Team Table Tennis Championships to Wang Yuegu and Feng Tianwei of Singapore. In 2015, Liu Shiwen lost to Feng again in the Asian Cup final and to an injured Ding Ning in the finals of the World Championships

It looked as if history was to repeat itself, as Chen Meng took game one. Liu had no answers for the serves of Chen nor did she have any solution for Chen’s deadly forehand attacks. Fans of Liu Shiwen fell silent as they watched Liu walk to the bench after game 1, shaking her head.

In Game 2, Liu Shiwen found her tactic. Move Chen into her forehand, preferably through short balls, and then play soft and spinny into her backhand. Liu had to play this strategy perfectly though, which precision and absolutely stunning timing. If Liu was a second too slow, or too fast, Chen would destroy any imperfect ball Liu threw at her.

Liu began serving her infamous shovel serve more as the match progressed. This serve forced Chen to play back into Liu’s backhand, which Liu then spun slowly into Chen’s backhand, which helped her dictate the play and pace of the match. Liu’s goal was to force her speed upon Chen after she opened up on the backhand. Liu’s overwhelming speed made it difficult for Chen to play her powerful, but ever so slightly longer forehand stroke, and when she was able to, it wasn’t as powerful.

When receiving Chen’s serve, Liu almost always elected to push the ball after losing the first game. Even against long and half long serves, serves that could be attacked, Liu elected to push instead of attack. Liu figured out that she couldn’t attack Chen’s serves aggressively, which made it very easy for Chen to counterattack. These counterattacking strokes gave control of the point to Chen. Pushing these serves allowed Liu to control her returns, which allowed her to attack first to put Chen under pressure.

Chen Meng Did Not Play Poorly, Liu Shiwen Played Well

Chen Meng did not play badly throughout this final. She stuck to her game and went for her shots.

The one exception to this was in game 5, in which Chen lost 11-0. Chen seemed very out sorts in this game, especially towards the end. In an interview Chen had after the match, she said that she lost focus in game 5. She never one controlled a rally, and was always playing to Liu’s rhythm instead of her own, which is almost always a recipe for disaster.

If there was two things that I thought Chen could have done differently, it would be her service selection and distance from the table. I thought that Chen could have served longer and faster more often. Fast and long serves make it difficult for the opponent to control the receive and play it short. Usually, this is a bad tactic, as this gives away the highly coveted first attack. However, Liu had consistent issues with Chen’s counterattacks, and Chen had issues with Liu’s short returns.

Serving longer and faster would have changed how often Liu could have received short, which would have opened up the game for Chen. In addition, if Chen had stayed a bit further back, to give herself more time to add power to her shots, Liu would have been troubled. Liu , true to her style, stayed very close to the table. Chen could have elected to take a few steps back and power the ball past Liu instead of staying close and trying to find angles. Chen played Liu’s game, and Liu is unbeatable when her opponents play her game.

Final Thoughts

Being a huge Liu Shiwen Fan, I am thrilled to see her win and put her name out there for Tokyo 2020. I thought Liu did well in forcing the pace of her game during the match. I also felt that Chen accepted Liu’s dictation a bit too easily, as she could have done more to force Liu off her game. Overall, this historic match was truly a spectacle to watch. Liu Shiwen, World Champion, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to say that, but I’m glad that I am.