(by Steve Hopkins) The title on the Borussia Dussedorf article today contains the perfect alliteration with Benedikt and the German word  “beendet” – a reference to Benedikt Duda closing out a perfect week.  And a perfect week it was – Duda won the Dusseldorf Masters event a week ago, was named to the Germany Olympic squad […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Located in Rosemead, California, in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley outside of Los Angeles, is a unique, full-time table tennis facility.   California Table Tennis offers 16 Butterfly tables, professional rubber flooring, and some of the best playing conditions available in the United States.  The club has 200 active members […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Kanak Jha and Benedikt Duda were the top ranked players in this week’s Dusseldorf Masters event.  Each advanced to the Final where Duda outlasted Jha for a 3-2 win with the players traded games and momentum. Sunday’s event was the fifth of seven events.  Like the other events in the series, there was […]

(by Steve Hopkins) China announced their Olympics squad today. The team includes World No. 1 Fan Zhendong, World No. 2 Xu Xin, and World No. 3 Ma Long.   There are no surprises here as the event seeding will be based upon World Ranking and Chinese players hold the top three spots in those Rankings. Interesting, […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The Boston Table Tennis Center is in Medford, just North of Cambridge and Somerville and only four miles from  Boston’s city center.  The club is just off I-93 (Northern Expressway), and near the Orange and Blue Lines, providing easy access to the greater Boston metropolitan area. The BTTC is a 3000 square foot […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photos by ITTFworld) Often there is a changing of the guard after an Olympics – a time when top players retire and move on to their next challenge.  In a normal cycle the Olympics would have occurred a year ago and the landscape of our sport would already have changed – but this […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo by ITTFworld) If this event were a true Olympic Trials, the table tennis world might have just been turned on its collective ears. As each of the Chinese Olympic Team members fell to much lower ranked opponents – and if the winner made the team, a relatively unknown Zhou Qihao would […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo by ITTFworld) The teams are already set, so the 5-day event is more of a warm-up than a true Olympic Trial.  That said, the goal of the Chinese was to have a competitive internal event that simulated the format of the Tokyo Olympics and prepared their top players for July.  What […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Sunny Culture & Sports Center is located at Scarborough, Sheppard, and Brimley Street in Scarborough – a city within the greater Toronto Metropolitan area.  The club is just off of the Ontario 401 Express, about 25 kilometers to the North of the Toronto city center and easily accessible via public transportation. The […]