(by Steve Hopkins, photo USATT) Nikhil Kumar logged wins over England’s top two players (Liam Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall), and Jishan Liang added a win over Drinkhall to give TeamUSA their first win at the ITTF World Team Championships in Busan.   Kumar (World No. 379) took out World No. 25) Pitchford 3-1 to give the […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Action is underway at the ITTF World Team Championships in Busan.  In the Men’s Teams, top group seeds are all still undefeated: China (3-0), Germany (2-0), Korea (2-0), France (2-0), Japan (2-0), Sweden (2-0), Slovenia (2-0), and Portugal (2-0).  TeamUSA has played only one match (falling to Germany), though they are scheduled […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Rhode Island Table Tennis is running three school-focused events this Winter.  The organization sent out invitations to schools and school systems in our area, and tapped youth players that have participated in clinics and other club events over the last year.  In February, they scheduled two “Invitationals” bringing schools together from Rhode […]

(by Steve Hopkins) TeamUSA is seeded third in Group 2 when action starts later this week at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in Busan, Korea.  At the top of USA’s group is Germany (second overall seed) and then England before USA, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.  TeamUSA will feature Jishan Liang, Sid Naresh, […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Bob Chen Table Tennis was founded in 2017 by Bob Chen.  The goal of the center is to popularize the sport of table tennis by building a diverse table tennis community and helping to improve all players’ table tennis skills.  Bob Chen Table Tennis offers group and private lessons. With its location […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The website for BAPPA Table Tennis opens with “Fast, Fun & Fierce”.  The club offers a great atmosphere with a community of players within its professional quality table tennis facilities with red rubberized flooring, high ceilings, and great lighting.  They offer youth camps private lessons, group lessons and Open Play. The club […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Manchester is usually a soccer town, but this week the industrial hub in Northwestern England (with two of the best soccer clubs in Europe) was host to a WTT Feeder Series event.  The top seed in the Men’s Singles event was England’s own Liam Pitchford, and the top seed in […]

(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 […]