(by Steve Hopkins) Royal Badminton Academy is located to the Northwest of Washington DC near Dulles International Airport.  Like many other locations across the US, Royal Badminton Academy will be blending their existing Badminton facility to also offer Table Tennis. (Royal Table Tennis)  The Sterling, Virginia location has offered a variety of badminton activities for […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Sunday’s Final of the WTT Champions Series event in Frankfurt will match two of the world’s hottest players against each other.  Sweden’s Anton Kallberg will face World No. 2 Lin Shidong.  Kallberg defeated Truls Moregard 4-2  in their Semifinal match, and Lin Shidong blanked Lin Yun-Ju 4-0 in the other […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) The WTT Champions Series event this week is in Frankfurt.  Half a million in prize money split between two events – Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles.  The events have advanced through to the Semifinals, with Semis played late today and the Finals on Sunday. The biggest story of the tournament […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The Rhode Island Club is open 5 days for open play and leagues, and the other two days are set aside for juniors programs and lessons.  Rhode Island is the smallest State by size in the USA, but the depth and breadth of its table tennis impact reaches well beyond the State’s […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Lin Shidong entered as the top seed and didn’t disappoint as he won both Men’s Singles and Mixed Doubles, a pair of first place finishes.  Shidong was down 0-2 to Sathiyan Gnanadekaran in the opening round, but three strong games set him on the right track again.  Shidong went on to win […]

(by Steve Hopkins) No movement in the Top Four as Wang Chuqin, Lin Shidong, Fan Zhendong, and Liang Jingkun hold their positions in that order.  Felix Lebrun is the biggest mover in the Top 10, jumping two spots over Ma Long (now 6) and Hugo Calderano (now 7).  Harimoto, Gaoyuan, and Franziska round out the […]

(by Steve Hopkins) World No. 1 Lin Shidong has pressed through to the Semifinals of the WTT Champions Series Event in Montpellier with relative ease.  Shidong has been on a roll – with wins that clearly make him the best player since the Olympics this Summer.  However, France’s young star stopped him in his tracks […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Ottawa has a 200,000 square foot sports facility (indoor and outdoor) in the heart of the city. The RA is a multi-sport facility offering Archery, Badminton, Chess, Curling, Cards, Firearm Ranges and Courses, Martial Arts, Pickleball, Racquetball, Squash, and other sports.  They have recently added table tennis space offering five or six […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Table tennis fans have been following Tomokazu Harimoto on the Men’s tour for many years.  More recently, his 16 year old sister, Miwa Harimoto, has shined as well.  The results of these two at the recent ITTF Asian Table Tennis Championships was historic. For Tomokazu’s part, he won the Men’s Singles title.  […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld) Seedings matter.  This lesson was all-to-clear for Kanak Jha who continues to rise in the rankings, but has not yet reached the levels he had two years ago.  Jha entered the event as World No. 72, and  after logging two solid wins (over Ramon Vila and Rogelio Castro), he fell […]