(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld) Update 2: Jennifer Wu was on fire from the first point.  Playing the top seed in her group, World No. 20 Petrissa Solja (GER), Jennifer won 11-5, then 11-4, and then in a closer third game pulled out an 11-7 win.  Jennifer dominated every aspect of the game, placing short […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld) After 8 months of waiting, the ITTF Tour is back this weekend.  The Dishang 2020 ITTF Women’s World Cup, the first of the three ITTF RESTART events gets under way on Sunday.  Twenty one of the world’s best women players are emerging from an isolation period (to minimize potential COVID […]

(by Steve Hopkins) With the German Budesliga’s new season underway, many Americans have been following USA’s top player, Kanak Jha, who has joined one of that league’s top teams, TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen. Ochsenhausen has been a top 3 team in Germany for several years – and currently includes Hugo Calderano and Simon Gauzy.  Ochsenhausen won […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow interview series discusses table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. PongNow is an interview series talking table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. The guest this week is Jörg Bitzigeio, former head coach of the German National Women’s […]

(by Steve Hopkins) USA Table Tennis has lost a legend.  George Braithwaite excelled in Cricket and Track and Field before starting his career in Table Tennis.  In our sport, George was a part of the U.S. Team the launched Ping Pong Diplomacy from the World Championships in Japan. His list of table tennis accomplishments included […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo by ITTFWorld) NASA coined the term “T-Minus” for space launches with the “T” indicating “Time” as the countdown proceeded.  Many of their iconic broadcasts include statements from Launch Control indicating that all systems are “go” before changing over from a countdown of minutes into the final countdown of seconds.  The momentous […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Timo Boll posted this video blog this morning.  It follows his trip to Dusseldorf for his first league match in 5 months.  Aside from hearing from Timo (in English) and seeing a behind the scenes view of preparation and warm-up with his teammates, the quality of the video is very good.  In […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow interview series discusses table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. This week the guest is Vlad Fărcaș, who moved to the US after learning to play in Romania, and after already becoming known as an expert classic table tennis player – having made the […]

(by Steve Hopkins) As the World awaits the ITTF to open again with the World Cup events in China next month, quality table tennis continues to be played at the regional level. Many in the US have been following the German Bundesliga where our top player, Kanak Jha, joined 2019 Ochsenhausen earlier this year.  Through […]