(by Steve Hopkins) With seven of the World’s Top 10 present, the WTT Star Contender in Ljubljana Slovenia has provided high quality action.  And while there is little surprise that World No. 1 and No. 2 will face off in the Final – the order those players on Sunday is a bit of a surprise […]

(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTFWorld) After 142 weeks atop the World Rankings, Fan Zhendong has fallen to second place.  Wang Chuqin is the new Number 1, but for how long?  Chuqin and Zhendong are separated by only 210 points and the are set to face off in the Final of the WTT Star Contender in […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Last year’s Men’s Singles Champion entered the tournament as the second seed this year, but Nikhil Kumar’s epic run through the draw included winning 20 games while dropping only 1 as he nearly swept his way through one of the toughest tournaments in North America.   As an aside, that one dropped game […]

(By Steve Hopkins) The Houston International Table Tennis Academy (HITTA) is located in one of the largest cities in the largest State, so its only natural that HITTA provides one of the largest professional table tennis training academies in the country.  The facility is 11000 square feet with 18 tables, quality lighting, and rubber flooring. […]

(By Steve Hopkins) China dominated in Croatia this week at the WTT Contender Zagreb event.  Hugo Calderano fell in the opening round (to Japan’s Togami 3-2), leaving Fan Zhendong, Lin Gaoyuan, Lin Shidong, and Xiang Peng to fight it out for the title .  World No. 1 Fan Zhendong  beat Lin Shidong in one semifinal […]

(By Steve Hopkins) Germany was expected to be atop the Men’s podiums from the start.  They had the top seed, Dang Qiu, and even without Timo Boll, their deep team included Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska.  But after a singles competition that left Germany completely out of the Top 3, there was some unexpected intrigue […]

(By Steve Hopkins) The European Games Singles Champions were crowned on Tuesday at the European Games in Krakow, Poland.  Marcos Freitas had an amazing run to the Final, and 16 year old French penholder Felix Lebrun surprised the field to reach the Final as well.  The momentum of the match changed several times with Freitas […]

(By Steve Hopkins) The European Games Singles Champions were crowned on Tuesday at the European Games in Krakow, Poland.  Bernadette Szocs emerged as champion in Women’s Singles.  She defeated Poland’s Natalia Bajor in the Semifinals and then topped Xioxin Yang of Monoco 4-3 to claim the title.  Szocs fell behind early, losing the first two […]

(By Steve Hopkins) The singles semifinals are now set at the European Games in Krakow, Poland.  The final four pairings in Men’s Singles are Alexis Lebrun versus Marcos Freitas, and Felix Lebrun versus Andrej Gacina.  The top seeds have all fallen, and however the final matches shake out, there will be some neat story-lines.  Could […]