(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) When you look at the short list of Men’s and Women’s rankings on the WTT website that show only the Top 5 Men and the Top 5 Women, every player listed is Chinese except for Hina Hayata of Japan (who is No. 5 on the Women’s list).  Chinese dominance is […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The Austin Table Tennis Club is located at 8956 Research Blvd in Austin.  They are just off of US Highway 183 on the North side of Austin. The Club has been around for more than thirty years.  Their current 12,000 square foot full-time facility is a big change from the wooden dance floor in […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The top two seeds met in the Final of the WTT Star Contender Event held this week in Goa, India.  Top seeded Hugo Calderano won each of the first two games 11-9, before dropping the next four games to Felix Lebrun.  Lebrun’s four wins included two tight games, a 13-11 win in […]

(by Steve Hopkins) While little changed at the top of the Rankings, there are two big jumps with new names making appearances this week in the World Top 50.  Canada’s Edward Ly on the strength of his Pan Am win jumps 140 places all the way up to No. 37 and Timo Boll on the […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The CCB Europe Top 16 Cup was held in this week in Montreux ,Switzerland.  The event was originally launched in the 70s as a Top 12 event, but it has expanded to Top 16 – evening out the draw for the highest ranked 16 players on the Continent and providing all players […]

(by Steve Hopkins) With their location just North of Atlanta in Suwanee, Atlanta International Table Tennis Academy has a strong presence in the largest metropolitan area in the Southeast.  AITTA is the result of a 2014 merger between Yang’s Table Tennis Academy and Atlanta Table Tennis Academy.  They have full-time coaches across and have been […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo USATT) This year’s Pan Am Cup was hosted in Corpus Christi, Texas.  In Men’s Singles, Nicolas Burgos was the top seed and Andy Pereira were the top seeds, and American’s Sid Naresh and Jishan Liang hoped the home field would provide an advantage.  But, in the end, the biggest story was […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The American Bank Center in Corpus Christi has been busy over the last two weeks as the host of the US Team Trials, the Pan Am Games, and a WTT Feeder Series Event.  Americans (as well as players from Mexico and Canada and other places in this hemisphere that don’t have opportunities […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Forty two is just a number – Or at least that is the message being delivered by Germany aging star.  Timo Boll has won the Final, turning back the clock, at the WTT Contender Series event in Doha this week.   Boll defeated Tomokazu Harimoto in a thrilling 4-3 Final (-8, 9, 6, […]

(by Steve Hopkins) One star is turning back the clock and another is righting the ship at the WTT Contender Series event in Doha this week.  Tomokazu Harimoto has squeezed past two consecutive tight rounds with 3-2 wins over Simon Gauzy in the Quarters and Shunsuke Togami in the Semis.  Harimoto had an inconsistent time […]