(by Steve Hopkins) World No. 1 Lin Shidong has pressed through to the Semifinals of the WTT Champions Series Event in Montpellier with relative ease.  Shidong has been on a roll – with wins that clearly make him the best player since the Olympics this Summer.  However, France’s young star stopped him in his tracks […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Ottawa has a 200,000 square foot sports facility (indoor and outdoor) in the heart of the city. The RA is a multi-sport facility offering Archery, Badminton, Chess, Curling, Cards, Firearm Ranges and Courses, Martial Arts, Pickleball, Racquetball, Squash, and other sports.  They have recently added table tennis space offering five or six […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Table tennis fans have been following Tomokazu Harimoto on the Men’s tour for many years.  More recently, his 16 year old sister, Miwa Harimoto, has shined as well.  The results of these two at the recent ITTF Asian Table Tennis Championships was historic. For Tomokazu’s part, he won the Men’s Singles title.  […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld) Seedings matter.  This lesson was all-to-clear for Kanak Jha who continues to rise in the rankings, but has not yet reached the levels he had two years ago.  Jha entered the event as World No. 72, and  after logging two solid wins (over Ramon Vila and Rogelio Castro), he fell […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Princeton Pong’s 10,000 square foot table tennis facility is in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.  They are located between Philadelphia and New York City – centered in one of the largest population centers in the United States.  The elite facility features 14 professional tables,  custom sport flooring, high ceilings, great lighting, a player’s […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Tomokazu Harimoto beat Xu Yingbin, Lin Yun-Ju, Oh Junsung, and Lin Shidong as he won Men’s Singles at the 2024 ITTF-Asian Table Tennis Championships. Lin Shidong was the last of the Chinese players after a series of upsets – but it was Harimoto who headlined on the final day. Harimoto started strong, […]

(by Steve Hopkins) When’s the last time at a major event that the table tennis community looked at the results and said, What’s Up With China?  It could be the venue or the fans or the altitude or the humidity, but at the ITTF-Asian Table Tennis Championships, China is not performing at the elite level […]

(by Steve Hopkins) China swept Korea in their semifinal match early on Wednesday, the dominating result that we have all come to expect from the squad featuring the top three ranked players in the tournament.   For its part, Japan defeated India 3-1, in a match that was just a few points away from a 2-2 […]

(by Steve Hopkins) With two recent tour wins, Lin Shidong jumped all the way to No. 3.  Wang Chuqin has a huge lead, so despite three early exits from big tournaments, he is in no danger of losing the top spot.  In second is Olympic Champion Fan Zhendong, who has been content to rest (and […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Iran’s 14 year phenom, Benyamin Faraji, defeated World No. 1 Wang Chuqin in early Team action at the ITTF-Asian Table Tennis Championships in Kazakhstan.  China logged a 3-1 win overall in their Tuesday match, but that one loss is newsworthy. Iran has logged some big upset wins in recent years […]