PongNow: Tim Wang

August 22, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow interview series discusses table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. This edition features Tim Wang, 3-time U.S. National Champion and 2-time U.S. Olympian. Tim shares stories of his early years, his first National Championship, his Olympic run, and a trip to China. __________________________ […]

China “2020 Olympic Warm-Up” Finals

August 21, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) As much of the table tennis world is beginning to emerge from their various lock-down circumstances, we are beginning to see club and regional events as well as some larger challenge events. The U.S. has been running Thursday night live, carefully playing one challenge match a week to help build enthusiasm here. […]

Dusseldorf Masters X Video Highlights: Featuring Duda and Assar

August 18, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) After the Dusseldorf Masters X event concluded last weekend, Benedikt Duda was the last man standing. It was his second win, the only repeat winner except for Dima Ovtcharov. The highlights video below was posted by BorussiaDuesseldorf (the host of the event). This includes some of the best points across the whole […]

Steve Isaacson Interview: The Hall of Fame

August 17, 2020

(Intro by Steve Hopkins) As I have been collecting stories from Hall of Fame members, players, and personalities in the sport, I recently had opportunity to converse with Hall of Fame Member, Steve Isaacson. I will be sharing some of his many stories in a series of articles over the next few weeks. This article […]

Dusseldorf Masters X: Duda Doubles Down

August 16, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The 9th men’s Masters event concluded over the weekend. The winner, Germany’s Benedikt Duda, the only player except for Ovtcharov to repeat as a Series Winner (Dimitrij Ovtcharov has won three times). This week, the event progressed almost exactly by seed. The top 7 seeds all advanced, and the only early upset […]

WAB CLUB FEATURE: Hoboken Table Tennis

August 15, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Hoboken Table Tennis, Hoboken’s first social ping pong club, is located at 1012 Grand Street (3rd Floor) in Hoboken, New Jersey. The club has easy access to 95 to the West and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels provide easy access West to Manhattan. HiTT is a BYOB table tennis facility with 8 tables, […]

PongNow: Lily Yip and Adam Hugh

August 14, 2020

(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 Hall of Fame member and former US Olympian Lily Yip, and her son Adam Hugh (a player and club owner with a distinguished resume of his own). Enjoy […]

USATT’s Thursday Night Live Series: Adar Over Amy, Team Butterfly Up 3-0

August 13, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) USA Table Tennis conducted its third Challenge Series event on Thursday. This week, “America’s First Virtual Table Tennis Challenge” matched Adar Alguetti (2541) versus Amy Wang (2505). Table tennis is one of the few sports where men and women compete against each other in major tournaments using the same rating system – […]

Challenger Attack: A Non-Pro Review

August 12, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) I recently had opportunity to try Challenger Attack, Butterfly’s pips out rubber designed for high tempo attacking with heavy spin possible. I’ve been playing with Butterfly Dignics 09C, so the change was a big one. I had never used short pips before, so I found some very interesting differences with this rubber […]

Dusseldorf Masters IX: Dima Logs Third Title

August 10, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The 8th men’s Masters event concluded over the weekend. The winner was a familiar champion, Dimitrij Ovtcharov. Dima cruised through the event logging a 4-1 win in the Quarterfinals, a 4-2 win in the Semifinals, and a 4-2 win over Franziska in the Final. The event went mostly as expected with four […]