Table Tennis News: Players, tournaments, products & more

Ovtcharov and Jha in Action in Dusseldorf

June 10, 2020

by Steve Hopkins (These photos and the full article *in German* can be found at tischtennis.de) A week ago, Timo Boll won the first installment of the Dusseldorf Masters, a tournament series held at the team facility of Borussia Dusseldorf and with the support of the German Table Tennis Federation. The top players in Germany […]

Ask The Experts: Xin Zhou, No. 346

June 8, 2020

Butterfly Table Tennis Question and Answer Question: Should you close the racket angle when you topspin loop the backspin ball with your backhand? Should you drop down the racket as much as you can? Should you squat a lot or as my couch says, you should squat as long as your waist doesn’t drop below […]

Daniel González agrees with a new club in the Spanish League

June 8, 2020

(Translated to English by Elixaira Zunun / Photo by Carlos Rivera Giusti / EL VOCERO) The Utamanian tenimesista reached an agreement to play with the Real Club Tenis de Mesa Linares in the Honor division. Daniel González will be in charge of helping the Real Club Tenis de Mesa Linares to ascend to the Super […]

Coaching Tip Of The Week: How to Never Miss an Easy Smash

June 8, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Few things are more frustrating than missing an easy smash that costs you a game or match. Especially under pressure, it’s easy to miss them. But if you follow three rules, you will never miss another one. Really! The three rules for never missing a smash are simple. Until the point is […]

WAB Featured Club: Boston Table Tennis Center

June 7, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The Boston Table Tennis Center is in Medford, just North of Cambridge and Somerville and only four miles from Boston’s city center. The club is just off I-93 (Northern Expressway), and near the Orange and Blue Lines, providing easy access to the greater Boston metropolitan area. The BTTC is a 3000 square foot […]

Open Doors: A Cautionary Korean Tale

June 7, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins, photo from Yonhap News where caption notes this club in Western Seoul had a confirmed infection) South Korea reported 57 new cases of COVID-19 today, a day after reporting 50 new cases. This is two days in a row over a threshold of 50 – a government set limit on new cases […]

BUTTERFLY FAVORITES: Omar Assar v. Quadri Aruna 2018 Africa Cup

June 6, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) This is a Butterfly Favorite. To set the stage, Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna had won the Africa Cup two years in a row. The Africa Cup serves as that continent’s qualification event for the World Cup, and like North America, there aren’t a lot of athletes that qualify by World Ranking so winning […]

PongNow: Dell Sweeris, Connie Sweeris, David Sakai, Donna Sakai (and Steve Hopkins)

June 5, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow interview series discusses table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. In this edition we have, Dell Sweeris, Connie Sweeris, David Sakai, and Donna Sakai discussing their overlapping histories in the sport. They were each strong junior players, each had a successful and notable career, […]

OPEN DOORS: Rhode Island Table Tennis Reopens

June 5, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The State of Rhode Island started a new COVID-19 recovery phase on June 1 allowing gyms and sports venues to open with new regulations in place for reporting, operation, cleaning, and social distancing. The Rhode Island Club will be opening beginning on June 8. Initially the club will be open for three […]

Have You Missed the Interviews? Catch Up Here.

June 4, 2020

Steve Hopkins’ PongNow Interview Series started on May 2nd. There are now six posted interviews in the series and more coming soon. As the intro notes, the purpose of the interview series is to discuss table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. So far, those interviewed include Sean O’Neill, […]