(by Steve Hopkins) Hugo Calderano has had a perfect start to 2023 – two WTT events and two wins.  In defense of his competition, Calderano has been the top seed in both events – but in Durban last week and Doha this week, the draw was packed with dangerous players in the Top 50 and […]

(by Steve Hopkins) These Puerto Rico Open invitations/info cards went out this week to WE ARE BUTTERFLY clubs. If you haven’t yet looked at this event, now is the time. $17,000 in prizes.  A 4-Star event.  International teams.  And for those of you in the Northern half of the US (or anywhere in Canada) – […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Brazil’s Hugo Calderano was the top seed, and aside from a tight 3-2 Quarterfinal win over China’s Lin Shidong, her did exactly what he needed to do. Kallberg and Franziska each reached the other Quarterfinal – and it was Kallberg that emerged to face Calderano in the Semis.  Calderano won 3-1 to […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Calderano, Qiu, Franziska, and Aruna are the headliners in Durban this week as the WTT Contender Series opens the New Year in South Africa. Each of those top four seeds has reached the Quarterfinals.  On Saturday, Hugo Calderano will face a 17 year old rising Chinese star, Lin Shidong.  Patrick Franziska will […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Table Tennis Minnesota has three locations in the greater Minneapolis-St.Paul area.  The Training Center location is on Concord Street in South St. Paul, the Jewish Center location is on Cedar Lake Road in Minneapolis, and the Bloomington Armory location is in Bloomington.  Normally, the Training Center is open Monday-Thursday and Sunday and […]

(by Steve Hopkins) USATT closed out the 2022 American table tennis calendar with the US Open.  In other articles, we covered the Open Championship titles – Ukraine’s Lei Kou topped Californian Xin Zhou in the Men’s Final and Amy Wang topped Lily Zhang in an All-American Ladies’ Final.   We can also add that Lei Kou and […]

(by Steve Hopkins) Neu-Ulm has won the Pokal-Finale – the midyear Final Four championship of the German Table Tennis League. A year ago, it was all that TTC Neu Ulm could do just to stay in the middle of the pack in the German Table Tennis League.  The squad had solid players – in fact, […]

(by Steve Hopkins) The countdown is on for the 2023 Butterfly Puerto Rico Open Teams.  The clock running on the PR Open Teams Information page currently notes that the tournament starts in 82 days.  *There are already 41 teams signed up – and the big news this week is that defending champions Zhou Xin and […]

(by Steve Hopkins) China holds the top three spots to start 2023 with Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, and Wang Chuqin holding those positions (in that order).  Tomokazu Harimoto has dropped two placed to fourth and Truls Moregard has held the fifth position. The next five are Liang Jingkun, Hugo Calderano, Lin Yun-Ju, Darko Jorgic, and […]