(by Steve Hopkins) In the Summer of 2019, Lin Gaoyuan was the fastest rising player on the circuit.  His three year rise up the rankings had taken him steadily up from No. 62 all the way to No.2.  However, the momentum didn’t last, and through the frozen rankings of the Pandemic he was No. 5, […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) By Sunday afternoon, all that was left was the Final.  With an upset taking out Fan Zhendong (he fell to Alexis Lebrun), and Harimoto’s loss to Wang Chuqin, the last two players standing were World No. 2 Chuqin and World No. 4 Ma Long. After such a long and decorated […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The Ly Table Tennis Academy in Montreal has been home to many members of the Canadian Junior national team and provincial team. LYTTA offers quality training sessions up to the highest of levels to help even the strongest players perfect their game. Youth development programs are available for juniors.  Whether they are […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Following a similar script to last week’s WTT event, there were a lot of surprises through the early and middle rounds – but the underdogs have failed to reach the Final.  The final day in Macao will be a battle between World No. 2 Wang Chuqin and World No. 4 […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Six months ago at the WTT Champions Macao 2022, France’s Alexis Lebrun introduced himself to the world with a surprise upset over  World No. 3 Liang Jingkun.  Six months later, Alexis has returned to Macao for the WTT Champions Macao 2023 – and he has improved upon last year’s results […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The Austin Table Tennis 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 the back of a bar where they started.  That current facility offers high ceilings, great lighting, 15 tables for normal play and three […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo by WTT) If you only tuned in on Saturday for the Finals of the WTT Champions Xinxiang event, you saw a somewhat predictable No. 1 over No. 7 Final in Men’s Singles and an equally predictable No. 1 over No. 3 Final in Women’s Singles.  Those winners were Fan Zendong and […]

(by Steve Hopkins) There was a moment on Wednesday when Lee Sang Su was up a game on World No. 1 Fan Zhendong, where this tournament could have been turned on its ear with nearly all of the top seeds out before the Quarterfinals.  However, Fan righted the ship and ran off three wins in […]

(By Steve Hopkins) Essential Table Tennis operates two club locations.  The Oklahoma City location is just South of downtown Oklahoma City off of I-35.  The club operates every day in this main location.  They also have weekend hours at the Moore Community Center in Moore, a few miles South of the City on Highway 35. […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld) On the Men’s side, Jishan Liang was the only competitor to beat Nandan Naresh (a 4-1 score in the final match-up for both players).  By the time these two top seeds met, the top position was already decided.  Nandan Naresh was 6-0 with the other competitors, though his 4-3 win […]