World Rankings for March:  Largely Stable at the Top (by Steve Hopkins/Photo by ITTF) After an eight month hiatus, the ITTF World Rankings are back.  Fan Zhendong tops the final rankings of a very strange year.  He overtakes Xu Xin on the strength of his World Cup title.  Ma Long finishes third, and Harimoto is fourth. […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo by ITTFWorld) World Table Tennis is a new ITTF entity designed to create table tennis entertainment events – and their inaugural event concluded over the weekend in Macau.  The official name of the event was WTT MACAO 2020 Presented by Galaxy Entertainment Group.  The event is at the TAP SEAC Multisport Pavilion […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The Harimoto Innerforce ALC Blade is on sale right now at ButterflyOnline.com. The ALC have been among the best selling Butterfly Blades for years – the technology in the plies of the wood are proven technology.  That said, the Harimoto Innerforce is a little different from the earlier ALC versions in the […]

(by Steve Hopkins) I recently had opportunity to try Butterfly Rozena, 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 those […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The final RESTART Event, the 2020 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals, has finished in Zhengzhou, China.   The Sixteen best Men and Women were narrowed down to the final two for Sunday’s Final – and two the most celebrated players of recent years closed out this very strange year on top. THE FINAL: […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The final RESTART Event, the 2020 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals has advanced to the Final.  The ITTF’s China Bubble moved to Zhengzhou, bringing sixteen of the world’s best Men and Women. UPDATE 2: Fan Zhendong and Ma Long Repeat The Saturday Semifinals saw Fan Zhendong and Ma Long advance – this […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The ITTF’s China Bubble has moved to Zhengzhou for the third and final RESTART Event, the 2020 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals. Sixteen of the world’s best are competing – based upon accumulated point totals from previous tour events. UPDATE 1: Another Day, Another Woojin Surprise The headline of the first day […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The ITTF’s China Bubble has moved to Zhengzhou for the third and final RESTART Event, the 2020 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals. Sixteen of the world’s best are competing – based upon accumulated point totals from previous tour events. The participating Men are: Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin, Ma Long, Harimoto, Lin Gaoyuan, […]

(by Steve Hopkins) COVID-19 continues to cause disruptions in the table tennis world as different areas experience travel restrictions.  Like other sports, table tennis has managed to use the “bubble” model to create safe environments for select events.  Unfortunately, many of the Continental Federation qualifying events for the Olympic Games were unable to occur earlier this […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The World Cup ended on Sunday (click here for the Butterfly article about the Semifinals and Finals) with Fan Zhendong securing the title in an All-Chinese Final. Some of the matches were amazing – a side effect of having a tournament filled with the best players in the world – but there […]