(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) The China Smash victory last year gives Wang Chuqin 10,900 ranking points, building a buffer of nearly 3,000 points ahead of No. 2 Lin Shidong.  Shidong has 8,075 points, a 2,025 buffer between his spot and Hugo Calderano in No. 3.  No other position in the Rankings is as safe, […]

(By Steve Hopkins, photo MLTT) Major League Table Tennis brought its high-octane  format to the Pacific Northwest this weekend, with Week 3 action at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. The hometown Portland Paddlers hosted three other teams – the Los Angeles Spinners, Chicago Wind, and defending champion Carolina Gold Rush.  The weekend was packed […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo TTBL) Five weeks in to the new season of the German Professional League (TTBL), and there are no undefeated teams.  That parity is not as surprising as the fact that the SV Werder Bremen squad is currently along in first place.  Bremen has a deep squad with Kirill Gerasimenko, Mattias Falck, […]

(by Steve Hopkins) With their location just South of central Rochester along Hwy 390, the Genesee Valley Table Tennis Club is in a great location to serve the Greater Rochester Community of Northern New York.   The roots of table tennis in Rochester go back to the 1930’s as not one but TWO clubs were founded in […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) The China Smash 2025 Presented by Beijing Shijingshan Culture & Tourism Group finished on Sunday.  For Men’s Singles, both the Semifinals and Finals were played on this final day, and fans were treated to a great finish of one of the largest events of the year. In the early Semifinal, […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Felix Lebrun has been as high as fourth in the rankings in the past, so its a subdued level of surprise to see him as World No. 7 reaching the Final Four of the China Smash this week in Beijing.  The more shocking surprise is World No. 9, Xiang Peng […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Sora Matsushima and Yukiya Uda were both underdogs in the early (12:10 and 12:20) matches, but both came away with upset wins to start off an exciting Day 5 at the China Smash in Beijing.  The first men’s match of the day was between World No. 5 Truls Moregard and World No. […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Wang Chuqin and Felix Lebrun had narrow wins, but the top storylines in Day 4 of China Smash action were the lower ranked players surprising the field.  France’s Flavien Coton won 3-2 over Feng Yi-Hsin, sending 17 year old World No. 52 into the Final 16.  Another player coming of […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Zhou Qihao and Yukiya Uda had wins over higher seeds, but most of the Day 3 China Smash action favored the higher seeds in Beijing.   The top two seeds in action today each won 3-1, with Lin Shidong topping Shunsuke Togami and Hugo Calderano defeating Simon Gauzy.  Zhou Qihao had […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Like top-seeded Chuqin yesterday, second-seeded Lin Shidong had no trouble logging a 3-0 win to move into the Round of 32.  He will face Shunsuke Togami, who eliminated USA’s Kanak Jha earlier today.  With Jha in the Men’s Draw and Lily Zhang and Amy Wang in the Women’s Draw, TeamUSA was represented […]