It's a tough life for defenders. The defensive style is reminiscent of a cat who prepares to fight by lying on its back, its quizzically aggressive look seemingly saying, "Come at me, bro." Unless the cat is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, luring unwary opponents into a variety of scientifically sadistic submission holds, it seems counterintuitive to approach a fight from an inherently vulnerable position. Nonetheless, there is a long and unbroken tradition of ceding the table and fighting from the floor in table tennis. Before the advent of sponge rubber in the 1950s, the defensive style was so prevalent that every single point played out like an interminable chess match. After a famous two-hour point at the 1936 World Championships, the "expedite rule" was created to... well, expedite matters. Suffice it to say, defensive players like to get their money's worth out of every point. Even after sponge rubber led to the proliferation of topspin-oriented offense, the stubborn defensive counterculture persisted. Using a variety of combination rackets, usually with longs pips rubber on one side, the defenders dug in their heels and fought the attackers by sending their own spin back to them. South Korea's Joo Sae-Hyuk chopped and counter-looped his way to the men's singles final at the 2003 World Championships, the best result for a defender in over half a century. Nowadays, the style persists but never quite seems to break through for a major world title. Japan's Hitomi Sato and North Korea's Kim Song I are among the leading women to play defense, and Germany's Ruwen Filus and Greece's Panagiotis Gionis carry the torch for the gents. Nonetheless, no defender has yet been able to prove once and for all the superiority of the style in the only way that matter: by beating everyone in the world with it. The latest stalwart defender of the downtrodden is 24-year-old Florian Bluhm, world #694 from Germany. Bluhm has never cracked the top 600, thus far topping out at #606 in 2019. However, seeing his countryman Ruwen Filus crack the top 20 in the world (#18 in 2018) must give him hope. Armed with such optimism, Bluhm entered this week's Challenge Series in Biberach, Germany, to take on the world, or at least a small but spirited contingent thereof. After upsetting world #77 Alberto Mino of Ecuador in the semifinals, Bluhm found himself in the finals against Fedor Kuzmin of Russia. The 37-year-old Kuzmin, currently unranked due to inactivity in ITTF events but listed as high as world #30 in 2005, is a frequent finalist in the Challenger Series. His two titles in the last two months are second only to Lebanese representative Dauud Cheaib's seven. After losing Tuesday's tournament to Cheaib, Kuzmin turned the tables with a 3-2 win over Cheaib in today's semifinals. Needless to say, Kuzmin was certainly motivated to reclaim the title. In his way stood Bluhm, the dogged defender armed with long pips on his backhand. Unlike most modern defenders who look to counterattack with a forehand topspin, Bluhm prefers to twirl his racket and fire a backhand smash with the smooth inverted rubber in a crisp motion reminiscent of vintage Jörgen Persson. The match went back and forth, much like the ball itself in the protracted rallies which often topped 40 shots. Kuzmin's two-winged attack earned him the first game point at 10-9, an advantage Bluhm promptly erased with his backhand attack. At deuce, they put on a 49-shot display which ended only when Bluhm uncorked his seldom-used forehand attack. An error from Kuzmin's forehand helped Bluhm steal game one, 12-10. Kuzmin leveled matters in the second, 11-9. In the third, for the third straight game, Kuzmin seized game point, 10-9, after a modest 36-shot rally. As in game one, Bluhm escaped, this time courtesy of a 47-shot point. After three deuces, Bluhm seized the pivotal third game, 14-12. Down but not out, Kuzmin rallied to pull ahead 7-0 in the fourth, only to see Bluhm reply with a 5-1 run to keep things interesting. The veteran Kuzmin held on, however, punctuating the 11-6 win with a merciless cross-court backhand winner. While Bluhm had covered much more ground in the match, acrobatically running around to chase down almost every loop, smash and drop shot, it was Kuzmin who appeared tired. Changing shirts before the fifth game, Kuzmin would need every ounce of energy he could marshall as Bluhm won the first five points. A forehand smash got Kuzmin on the board, but it was too little, too late as he succumbed to Bluhm's indefatigable defense and backhand blitzkrieg, 11-5 in the fifth. While Fedor Kuzmin is once again relegated to the role of bridesmaid, it is Florian Bluhm who is on his honeymoon, married to the defensive style. For a chosen few, it is the cat's meow.

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