(by Steve Hopkins) The World Table Tennis series is active again with a WTT Star Contender event in Doha this week.  The top two seeds in Men’s Singles were Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Hugo Calderano – and other seeded players included USA’s Kanak Jha, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Darko Jorgic, Woojin Jang, Sangsu Lee, Kristian Karlsson, Liam Pitchford, […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Hoboken Table Tennis (HiTT), Hoboken’s first social ping pong club, is located at 1012 Grand Street (3rd Floor) in Hoboken, New Jersey.  The club has easy access to 95 to the West and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels provide easy access West to Manhattan. HiTT is a BYOB table tennis facility with 8 […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The USA flexed its muscles this week at the ITTF Pan American Youth Championships (U15 & U19) tournament in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic.  TeamUSA showed its potential by winning 8 of the 15 events. Here is the list of US Champions: U19 Girls’ Singles was won by Rachel Sung (in a 4-3 […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The European Table Tennis Union’s Pomegranate Europe Top 16 Cup concluded today.  Neither Timo Boll nor Dimitrij Ovtcharov played (both are taking some time off from major tournaments after the Olympics), but that didn’t stop Germany from taking the top prize.  Germany’s Patrick Franziska won the Men’s title, and Nina Mittleham dominated […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow Interview Series – talking table tennis to some of the best players and personalities in the sport. The PongNow interview guest this week is gold medalist Ian Seidenfeld. He talks about Tokyo and his experiences there both on and off the tables.    ________________________ PongNOW Interviews are powered by […]

(by Steve Hopkins) No one is surprised that defending champion Borrussia Dusseldorf is in first place atop the German League, though a 6-0 start is better than their start a year ago.  Still, their strong roster will have them favored in every match this year – so thus far, the top ranked squad is in […]

(by Steve Hopkins) With their location in Santa Clara, Spartans Table Tennis Club is just North of San Jose at the South tip of the San Francisco Bay with easy access to the major metropolitan centers of Northern California.  The facility is over 16500 square feet; ample space for 30 tables. Spartans Table Tennis Club […]

(by Steve Hopkins) A week ago in the German League (TTBL), there were three undefeated teams.  Borussia Dusseldorf topped Neu Ulm, leaving just Dusseldof and Ochsenhausen undefeated.  Today, Ochsenhausen faced off against No. 3 Neu Ulm, with the winner holding the second position. In the opening match, Tiago Apolonia beat Simon Gauzy 3-2, giving Neu […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow Interview Series – talking table tennis to some of the best players and personalities in the sport. The guest this week is Jenson Van Emburgh – fresh off his Bronze Medal performance at the Tokyo Paralympic Games.  Big smiles from Paralympian Bronze Medalist Jenson Van Emburgh this week as […]

(Steve Hopkins) Egypt and Nigeria have each had periods of dominance in Africa.  Nigeria has had strong individual players, with recognizable names like Quadri Aruna and Segun Toriola leading the way.  Egypt has had depth, and has dominated the team competitions – winning 10 of the last 12 African Men’s titles and 9 of the […]