(by Steve Hopkins) After a league hiatus for the Middle East Hub Events, the final matches in the German Bundesliga were played this weekend and the final four are now set. Dusseldorf secured their top seed over a month ago, but they coasted to a 3-1 win in their final match anyway.  The win may […]

(by Steve Hopkins) I recently had opportunity to try Butterfly Tenergy 19, I’ve been playing with Butterfly Tenergy and Dignics rubbers for some time.  Most recently I have had Dignics 09c on my forehand and Dignics 05 on my backhand.  There are some interesting differences with this rubber and I’m going to try to relay […]

(by Steve Hopkins/Photo by WTT) The two WTT Middle East Hub Events have had some effect on the Rankings.  Harimoto (who won the second event) has moved back into the World’s Top 4, and Ovtcharov (who won the first event) has moved up one position to No. 9.  Others who finished in the Top 4 in […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo from ITTFworld) Despite surprises throughout the event, the final story in both the Men’s and Women’s event is that the top seed cruised on the final day. Harimoto beat Ovtcharov in the Semifinal (flipping the script from a week ago in the first Middle East Hub Event) and then rolled over […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow Interview Series – talking table tennis with the best players and personalities in the sport. The guest this week is Kai Zhang, a US Team who has been steadily improving with solid international results.  _________________________ PongNOW Interview are powered by Butterfly.  Comment on videos via twitter @PONGNOW.     […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo from ITTFworld) The Semifinal rematch between Harimoto and Ovtcharov flipped the script from a week ago in the first Middle East Hub Event- this time with the players trading games to a 2-2 tie before Harimoto pulled ahead for the 4-2 win.  Last week Ovtcharov won that match and went on […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Dimitrij Ovtcharov overcame 6 match-points by Anton Kallberg to log one of the biggest come-backs of the young 2021 ITTF Calendar. Kallberg won the first two games and the two were tied 13-13 in the third game of the best-of-three match.  But Ovtcharov won 15-13, 12-10, 11-9 to pull out three 2-point […]