Service - Return(Pictures 1 – 3): Even if we can only see the follow through of the service does Jun’s position of the bat indicate that he has played a short, parallel  serve in the middle of the table with side or topspin. He likes these spin varieties because he can answer the expected flip of the opponent actively (1).Chan recognizes the serve early and moves with a big step towards the middle of the table (1, 2) and flips the ball, obvious through the closed bat position, towards the middle of Jun’s backhand(3). Jun anticipated Chan’s flip early and moves already around the backhand side (3) to prepare for a forehand topspin.

Forehand – spin topspin – backhand – spin block (pictures 4-7): Picture 4 shows clearly the extreme footwork with this forehand loop from the backhand side. A long step with his right leg to the side enables Jun to lower the body weight far down. At the same time he takes the upper body back at the hips and creates the necessary tension of the whole body for the following forehand topspin. A comparison of picture 4 and 5 shows that Jun is looping straight upwards with a lot of spin. At the end of the follow through Jun’s bat is above head height (5). The ball has got a high flight path. That indicates a lot of spin. Chan has prepared himself early for this topspin and lowers his body (picture 6) to answer with the right stroke. We can’t see exactly how Chan hits the ball, but his outstretched arm at the end of the stroke (7), the closed bat angle and the low flight path indicate a very fast backhand spin block. Here the topspin ball is hit early and tangentially above the table.

Forehand speed topspin – backhand spin block (pictures 8-11): Chan’s spin block is going to the far backhand side of Jun. Accordingly the Japanese has to jump round and is almost standing beside the table in an extremely low position at the end of the backswing (8). He loops a powerful speed topspin from his far backhand to the far backhand of his opponent (9). The position of the bat at the end of the follow through (9) shows that this topspin has been played low and forward against a topspin. The bat is above the right shoulder, whilst it was above the head with the spin topspin (5). Chan reaches Jun’s spin by cleverly shifting the weight of his upper body to the side over to the right leg and is standing behind the ball so that he can keep up the pressure (10). Here too, is seems to be a spin block which Chan places parallel to Jun’s open forehand. At the end of the stroke Chan lifts both feet from the ground, which indicates an upwards spin impulse.

Forehand topspin from the low forehand – backhand spin block – backhand topspin (pictures 12-17): Jun has recognized the parallel placement of Chan very quickly and now tries to reach the ball. This can only be successful with a large cross over step. On picture 11 he puts down the left leg which has been brought far forward. Now he can take the backward right leg powerfully as far forward as possible (12). At the moment of making contact with the ball the right leg can take the weight for the topspin stroke, while the left leg is being brought forward to take the weight afterwards and again push off to the backhand side (14). Jun loops the ball from a low position with a relatively high spin topspin and places it again to Chan’s backhand. Again Chan answers with a fast backhand spin block to Jun’s backhand. Jun just manages to get into stroke position (14, 15, 16) and plays a powerful backhand topspin to Chan’s backhand.