(by Steve Hopkins) When’s the last time at a major event that the table tennis community looked at the results and said, What’s Up With China?  It could be the venue or the fans or the altitude or the humidity, but at the ITTF-Asian Table Tennis Championships, China is not performing at the elite level […]

(by Steve Hopkins) China swept Korea in their semifinal match early on Wednesday, the dominating result that we have all come to expect from the squad featuring the top three ranked players in the tournament.   For its part, Japan defeated India 3-1, in a match that was just a few points away from a 2-2 […]

(by Steve Hopkins) With two recent tour wins, Lin Shidong jumped all the way to No. 3.  Wang Chuqin has a huge lead, so despite three early exits from big tournaments, he is in no danger of losing the top spot.  In second is Olympic Champion Fan Zhendong, who has been content to rest (and […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Iran’s 14 year phenom, Benyamin Faraji, defeated World No. 1 Wang Chuqin in early Team action at the ITTF-Asian Table Tennis Championships in Kazakhstan.  China logged a 3-1 win overall in their Tuesday match, but that one loss is newsworthy. Iran has logged some big upset wins in recent years […]

(by Steve Hopkins) PongPlanet is a full-time table tennis club with a variety of programs for adults and juniors of all levels. The club is located in San Carlos, California, about half way between San Francisco and San Jose, just off the 101 on the West side of bay. The facility is 9600 square feet with […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) A changing of the guard in Beijing as Lin Shidong topped Ma Long 4-3 to claim the $100,000 first prize (along with the 2000 ITTF ranking points).  Shidong fell behind 1-3, but dominated the final three games to secure the win.  Ma Long had only lost one game in his […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) The headline yesterday was one big upset – the headline today is competitive matches across the board as five of the eight matches go down to the final game.  Lind continued his “Cinderella” run with the World No. 50 topping Kao Cheng-Jui (No. 23) 3-2 to advance to the Quarterfinals.  […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) Not a lot of “strawberries” and tricky sidespin shots, but Lind logged a career win over World No. 1 Wang Chuqin while showing his unique creativity through variation.  Long serves, tomahawk serves, and pace changes were all mixed in.  Lind’s service return positioning seemed to have given Chuqin the most […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Pleasanton Table Tennis Center is located at the center of Pleasanton, California to the East of San Francisco Bay with quick access to I-580 and I-680 (and each of the major cities in the area).  Pleasanton Table Tennis Center was the first table tennis club in tri-valley to open every day. The club is […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTF) So far, no stunning upsets in Beijing at the China Smash.  Top seed Wang Chuqin won his opening match 3-0, and Tomokazu Harimoto and Felix Lebrun each advanced easily as well.  Most of the bottom half of the draw will not see action until Monday.  There were some small surprises […]