(by Steve Hopkins) This is a Butterfly Favorite.  To set the stage, Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna had won the Africa Cup two years in a row.  The Africa Cup serves as that continent’s qualification event for the World Cup, and like North America, there aren’t a lot of athletes that qualify by World Ranking so winning […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow interview series discusses table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. In this edition we have, Dell Sweeris, Connie Sweeris, David Sakai, and Donna Sakai discussing their overlapping histories in the sport.  They were each strong junior players, each had a successful and notable career, […]

(by Steve Hopkins) This is a Butterfly Favorite.  To set the stage, World No. 1 Ma Long entered the tournament as the top seed.  Timo Boll was not the top European qualifier – that honor went to Dimitrij Ovtcharov.  In fact, at the European Top 16 qualifying event, Shibaev had finished second and Gauzy had […]

(by Steve Hopkins) A USA Table Tennis announcement released today allows for the sanctioning of tournaments beginning July 1.   This will end the March 13th order that suspended all events – a part of a broader series of suspensions and cancellations across all sports including  ITTF and USOPC events.  This is welcome news after so […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Some of the country has opened and most of the rest is on schedule to open in the next few weeks. Table tennis clubs will need time to comply with local rules and regulations, but very soon we are all going to have opportunities to return to the game that we love.  […]