For all the criticism of Team World, Team Asia wasn’t actually great. Chua was great. Biado played very well, but Moritz had his chances in their singles match. He didn’t take them.
Manas was on or a bit above par. Yapp and Duong clearly underperformed.
It was the litany of errors by ROW that did them in. If, as in Groundhog Day, ROW played the day over and over, I don’t think they could be that bad again.
Some fans say the team match is a crapshoot, but it really isn’t. ROW made clear, identifiable errors to lose the team match. FSR missed a very makeable 8 ball in the very first game to cost ROW a 1-0 lead. Then Moritz underdrew a 6 ball to end what should have been a runout in a fourth game. ROW lost again.
FSR missed several big shots in the first doubles match and he often left Shaw in bad spots. Sky cost ROW in the final doubles match.
Had Team ROW just played to par, or even slightly under par, the score after day 1 is 2-2.
Maybe team Asia will show true dominance the next few days, but they didn’t on the first day. They can thank their foes.
