(by Steve Hopkins) The Qualifiers have finished sending eight more players into the opening round of the United States Smash, the WTT Smash Series tour event being held at the Ontario Convention Center in Los Angeles. Sweden’s Elisa Ranefur defeated Lim Jonghoon to claim the first spot on Saturday evening.  Chan Baldwin, the dangerous (but […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The Texas Table Tennis Training Center (“TTT”) has about 50-60 regular members, as well as a number of premium memberships for business people.  One emphasis of the club is on professional coaching for elite players and juniors in the greater Houston area. The club has 12 Butterfly tables on red rubber flooring in […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Ljubijana was the host of this week’s tour stop, as the WTT Star Contender series reached Slovenia.  The top seeds this week were Felix Lebrun, Lin Shidong, and Hugo Calderano.  Felix Lebrun reached the Round of 16, but fell to Hiroto Shinozuka 1-3.  Lin Shidong fell a round earlier, also upset by […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Table Tennis Minnesota has three locations in the greater Minneapolis-St.Paul area.  The Training Center location is on Concord Street in South St. Paul, the Jewish Center location is on Cedar Lake Road in Minneapolis, and the Bloomington Armory location is in Bloomington.  Normally, the Training Center is open Monday-Thursday and Sunday and […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The top of the ITTF Rankings were stable this week with Chuqin, Harimoto, Moregard, Lebrun, and Shidong all safely in the top five slots.  Darko Jorgic slid up two spots to No. 13 on the strength of his tour win in Skopje last weekend – and second place finisher, USA’s Kanak Jha […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Zagreb was host to this week’s tour stop as the WTT Contender series visited Croatia.  Lin Shidong was the top men’s seed, but he didn’t make it past the second round – losing 2-3 to Chen Junsong.  Dang Qiu, the second seed, reached the Semifinals where he fell to Lim Jonghoon.  Only […]

(by Steve Hopkins) With their location in Fremont, California, Table Tennis America is great position to serve the large table tennis community in the Southern San Francisco Bay area.  The group’s founder, Hailong Shen, was a Chinese-trained professional who has been coaching in the bay area for 15 years.  Table Tennis America has been the […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Jenson Van Emburgh continued his international campaign with a pair of strong results at ITTF World Para Challenger events in São Paulo, Brazil and Laško, Slovenia.  Both events featured world-class competitors, and Van Emburgh finished with a tournament victory, a runner-up finish, and some hard-fought quarterfinal appearances. The trip began in Brazil […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Dang Qiu won his third German National Championship – dominating at the LOTTO Thuringen TT-Finals in Erfurt, Germany.  Qiu beat Kay Stumper in the Quarterfinals and Benedikt Duda in the Semifinals.  Today, Qiu topped Patrick Franziska 4-1, dropping only the second game.  Perhaps the turning point of the match came early as […]