Maze's amazing lobs

Hi Coach

I was just watching a replay of Maze's amazing performance against Hao Shuai in the quarter finals of the Shanghai 2005 world championship (during one of my sleepless nights with the baby).  This probably rates right up there with Schlager's victory over Wang Liqin in the Paris world championship as the most exciting games I've seen.

Maze's performance in that match (and also against Wang Hao the previous round) was particularly remarkable for the efficacy of his lobs.  Of course, all world class table tennis players can lob consistently, and they occasionally steal a point as well - but this usually is only possible if they can get into position for a counter attack.  In the case of this match, it was the first time I'd seen where the lobber looked more in control than the smasher.  Every time Maze had position and was lobbing, you EXPECTED him to win the point.  You could also tell by Hao Shuai's reaction that the ball was curving back and forth in the air, and he was often caught out of position. 

My question is: from your viewing of the match, what was Maze doing so differently/well?  Was it his technique of lobbing?  Were there some weird drafts in the building that was swirling the ball around?  Was the Chinese team not used to his style of lobbing?  Why did they have such a hard time dealing with it?  That was like a weird anomaly.  No player since (including Maze himself) has been able to dominate on the lob since that event.  What exactly happened?

Hi Ji-Soo,

This was an intersting match.  I wasn't there but from watching it the main thing I see was the tension in Hao Shuai.

It looks like the accumulated pressure of Maze's lobbing got to him.  There was a lot of tension in his shoulder by the end of the match.  Maze was definitely seeing the ball unbelievably well that day.  The more errors that Hao Shuai made the more difficult it became for him to put the ball away.

In a friendly match in training, I think Hao Shuai that day would have been able to put most of those balls away.  The pressure of the situation for the relatively young player was all a bit too much.  If you see his face between points, especially in the 7th set, the tension is all there for you to see.

As I said that is my reading of the match without being there.