MATCH HIGHLIGHTS_ Taehyun Kim vs Kayama Yu _ MLTT Week 8 (Los Angeles, CA)

With Kim, you could understand it. Coming back from an injury and having performances that probably less than you would expect from him, but Kayama has been a bit of a firecracker for the Blazers. This is going to be an interesting one though. Both left-handed players, so placement really comes into play here, and I think if the forehand diagonal gets opened up, could have some big rallies. There were a lot of great rallies in the Golden Game Week Six when these two teams were playing, and it was Kayama Yu who clinched the win, having scored the final point of the Golden Game Week Six. It was the same week that Taehyun Kim made his MLTT season debut, played only one doubles match, did not play singles until Week Seven. He's playing his third singles match this week. I've really seen Kim coming back into form. I think that win for him against Kole yesterday must have given him so much reassurance that he was on the right track. He'll be a tough opponent for Kayama today. Certainly Kim has the advantage when it comes to forehand power. And not only did he win two of three against Kole, that return of serve was way off from Kim, but Kim clinched the Golden Game in a very odd way as he was taking on Alex Robineau, and Robineau had the service toss and let the ball hit the ground, and that was the end of the Golden Game. Still haven't really figured that out. Nor could Yu figure out that serve that was infused with spin. Interesting to see Kim serving a lot of backhand so far in this first game. Kayama gets on the forehand first. It's very typical in the left-hand-left-hand battles of which player can get in a dominant forehand position first. He had so many winning shots and kills off that inside-out forehand. The lefty Yu in the doubles match. Roman Lorenz looks on, the head coach of the spinners. They will be part of our next match, which you can see here on Table Tennis TV. It's a big save there from Kayama, but he can't recover the ground. Actually did a really good job of adding some backspin to that and dropping it quite short. Kayama put into defensive mode to be more assertive. See two left-handers play against each other. A lot of the points will be contested across that backhand diagonal. Game points for Kim. They'll stow away the first game, 11 to 5, and sort of a silence amongst the crowd. Just murmurs as Taehyun Kim made no doubt about it as he towered over Yu. Win of the day as he serves and goes too strong on the low driving fast long serve. It's a great tactic to start a match growing in a long fast serve. A great tactic to miss your first serve of the game. You've seen Kayama play some of his best attacking shots when he can get up over the table. So when the ball is a little bit high and it's short or half long. That's the assertive side of Kayama Yu coming to fruition. Something that he got away from in game one. Still getting in some great backhand swings. Does generate more power in his big backhands than forehand. A lot of that comes down to the rubber differences on the forehand and the backhand. He uses a much harder sponge on the forehand and a kind of tackier top sheet. So it's a bit stickier. Helps you really grip the ball in place spin and quick. Whereas the backhand is a lot more elastic. So the rubber will play more power for you. So I think on the backhand he's really able to hit some more powerful shots. Of course that also comes down to how you're hitting the ball. As Kim also uses a similar forehand style of rubber but it's a lot more direct. As Luvermere Pichet in the LA Spinners. What do you think he's thinking about right now? Oh it could be anything. How not to get swept like he did earlier this week. Tough crowd. All love for Luvermere. Yeah he would certainly like to finish this weekend on a bit of a stronger note. See whether he can do that today. Hayama Yu up in the lead here. Every time he had an ample response for what Yu was throwing at him. One corner to the other for Taeyoon Kim. It's a great counter punch from Yu but he left a lot of space open. There's that massive backhand swing. Goes right into the body of Kim. Oh what a redirect. Kim almost didn't even flinch towards that ball. A little bit of top or side spin off the forehand return from Yu. But Kim wins the point. Backs up Kim early in the exchange. Approaching game points which he'll take care of at the first time of asking. Splitting the first two sets we have done in singles four as Kayama Yu gets one back. One more game to go before the golden game to close out this head-to-head. Throwing in season three MLTT. Much like Kayama Yu missed his first serve at the beginning of the second. Taeyoon returns the favor. Now I think we'll see a big shift in mentality from Yu. I think he's gonna get pretty vocal. What about a shift in mentality for Kim in terms of serving as he does grace the edge to swipe the point away. Steal one from Yu. Hard to tangle with that forehand from Kim. He gets himself in position and has that stable foundation with his feet. A lot of forehand power. There is a change in philosophy here serving for Kim. He's not serving off of his backhand now. Why do you think he's gone to something different? Well he's certainly looking like he's trying to serve a little bit more long and fast. Short serves with a little bit more pace on them so the pace has been quicker in this third game. With that one sailing too deep on the push. Three serving four. Lots of nets were struck there and it's Kim who's the most of the victim by hitting the net and missing the shot. Not sure if this strategy of serving faster is doing Kim any favors. He's trying to set a quick pace and get on the attack earlier. With how quickly those receives are getting back it's taking time away from Kim off of his third ball to do something damage inducing. Five all. Stomping the return of server there. Kind of an erratic backhand there from Kayama. He took that timeout with a lead in this third game as well. Yeah it's a little unusual to see especially given that Kayama had lost the point. So Kim won the point before he called the timeout. So you know perhaps he just felt like he needed to revisit his strategy. Maybe he wasn't happy with how things were going in game three so far. I do think the pace that he was setting was a little bit quick. Maybe it was worth slowing down and serving a little bit more backspin and playing the short game more. Definitely come out swinging after the timeout. So that little moment to recollect himself is paying off big time. He hasn't lost a point since the timeout. That is a ridiculous backhand. Yeah that is just going forward all and not holding anything back. Pushing back a little here. Those two serve receives are going to be really important for Atlantic Blazers. Things are tightening up for Kim. Miss fires on a down the line. You had him locked up in the corner. Set points. Forehand there. Still in a good position here with a couple of game points. First one nullified off the errant receive and there's another errant receive meaning the golden point comes into play. Sudden death point. The next point one will give that player the third set. Coming back is Kayama Yu. 11 to 10. Saved three set points along the way. It takes two of three against Kim who had things rolling late only to have it go the wrong direction as Kayama Yu breaks through late and it's one point differential heading in to the golden game.