Any pros that might be ranked higher if given full control

Mark Jung Asked 8 years ago

Professional players are generally sponsored, which means they need to advertise the sponsor. Obviously Ma Long can use whatever he wants, but past the first couple dozen players a lot of sponsored players are using equipment entirely from their sponsor. Do you think any of these players might rise up a few ranks if given full reign of their setup?

Alois Rosario Answered 8 years ago

Hi Mark,

Yes I think that would be the case. I am not sure what everyone uses but I know that some pros even though are sponsored by one company will use a better rubber anyway, against the wishes of their sponsor.

This was happening a lot when Tenergy05 first came out and players were using it even if sponsored by a company other than Butterfly.

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D K Posted 8 years ago

Also Joo Sae Hyuk,sponsored by Butterfly,refused to use Butterfly longpips,using Tibhar Grass and TSP Curl p-1.
Many defenders are this case.
Weixing Chen,sponsored by Joola,uses TSP Curl p-1 too.
young Muramatsu Yuto,who knows who sponsors him as I read that he uses Victas Koji Matsushita Offensive blade,Tenergy forehand rubber and TSP Spinpips Chop shortpips.
Shiono Masato,sponsored by Donic,I also am not sure if he uses Donic longpips.
Eugueni Chtetinine also does not use TSP blade despite seemingly being sponsored by TSP

Mark Jung Posted 8 years ago

Yeah, I mean, if somebody's in the top ~100, I don't think the sponsors would drop them for using other equipment (and if they did I imagine they'd be getting other offers a day later). However, some of the lower ranked players surely need to act as advertisement, as there are plenty of aspiring almost-pro players hoping for their spot. I imagine those players would suffer the worst from it. Also the off-sponsor pips players makes a bit of sense. inverted users can (I assume?) get the sponsor to brew up whatever sponge they want, combine it whatever topsheet they want, and probably get whatever performance characteristics they need. However, with pips users it's all about the pips bending, and if the sponsor's pips don't do the job, there's sponge switching that'll make them.

Jean Balthazar Posted 8 years ago

Assuming a player has to use his sponsor's products, could any player get better results if he were sponsored by the brand manufacturing his favourite rubbers (and blade) instead of another one? Certainly. Would a top 200 player suddenly become a top 50 player? Certainly not. I think if you have the potential to reach the kind of ranking that gives you the freedom to actually play with whatever you want regardless of what's written on your shirt, you can achieve it with any major table tennis supply company as a sponsor (the pips issue might be an exception, I don't know much about them).

Now, from a "moral" perspective, should a player be forced to use his sponsor's products? I'm inclined to say yes. Non-experts will see their favourite player X tagged with brand Y and will want to buy stuff from company Y either to look like X or to perform like X (I'm not saying it would work anyway!) So when player X is "secretly" using brand Z, that's kind of a fraud. I'm saying this knowing that even if you knew the actual rubber and blade your preferred player uses, you would never be able to get them, their stuff always being a bit tailored / cherry picked for them, while you will get the mass produced stuff.