Sandpaper Singles to the Semifinals at the Ping Pong World Cup

January 5, 2024

Sponsored by Mecano Sports, presented by Caliente.mx, sanctioned by ICTTF

(by Larry Hodges, photo by Larry Hodges: “Jungang Huang of China right after his win over Andrew Baggaley in the Sandpaper Open Quarterfinals)

Play began at 8:15AM on Thursday, Jan. 4. There were 75 players competing in 15 groups of five, with two tables for each group. The top two in each group (30 players) advance to the money brackets, the next three to consolation.

Let’s take a moment to describe the surroundings. There are bleachers along one side of the playing area, often jammed with fans. There are two huge TVs on the wall on opposite sides of the gym, about 15 feet wide, ten feet tall, playing matches from the feature courts. On the side wall there’s an even bigger video wall, about 30 feet wide, 15 feet tall, playing graphics for PPWC, Mexico, and sponsors. There are umpires on all 16 tables, all individually barriered. And the main feature court is surrounded by video barriers that have all sorts of wild graphics – especially when someone calls for a 2-point play, where they push a button and the barriers go crazy with flashing graphics for about eight seconds with table tennis, PPWC, Mexican, and sponsor graphics. There’s also a huge box of free Electrolit drinks – lots of flavors, I favored lemon (when I wasn’t sipping Dr Pepper). Here’s a more visual guide – here’s Mike Babuin’s video (2:24) of the conditions and preview from this morning

There are a few rules variations for sandpaper, besides the obvious sandpaper covering. The rackets were supplied by the tournament, with all players using the same ones. Matches are two out of three to 15 points, with the server changing every two points. You do not have to win by two points – 15-14 wins. There is also one “2-point” ball, where once a match, on their serve, a player can call for it, and the next point is worth two points. They cannot do it at 0-0, and they cannot do it once they have scored 13 or more points. For this point, they switched from a white ball to an orange ball so that spectators know it’s happening.

Three things struck me while watching the sandpaper matches. First, lots of chopping! Second, long rallies – often because of that chopping. And third, the diversity of styles. Roughly speaking, I would divide the styles into the following:

Two-winged attackers and counter-hitters
All-out forehand attackers (often chopping on backhand)
Blockers
Choppers (often pick hitting)
Mixtures of the above, especially choppers who would suddenly counterhit

With players from 16 countries, it was a diverse set of players, with cheering in numerous languages. (Alas, the Philippines players, who are known for their sandpaper play, wanted to come to the Ping Pong World Cup, but ran in to visa and money problems. Hopefully next time.)

A lot of money was at stake: 1^st: $5,000; 2^nd $2,500; 3-4: $1,500; 5-9: $500. Note the $500 for 9^th – there will be playoffs for players who don’t make the quarters to see who gets that.

The seeding was surprisingly good, considering the lack of knowledge about the level of many foreign players. The top seed won their group in 11 of the 15 groups, with two of them finishing second (and so advancing), and two finishing third (and so going into the consolation bracket). The top seed finished first in groups 1-5, 7-8, 10-12, and 15, mostly winning all their matches 2-0. Here is a quick rundown of the 15 groups – feel free to browse them or jump to the money single elimination stages.

Top seed Alexander “Flash” Flemming (GER) easily won his group, going 4-0, with nobody getting more than 7 in a game. Third seed Mattheiu Gonnin (FRA) upset second seed Fabio Bereg (BRA) for second, 15-12, 15-9.
Top seed Wang Shibo (CHN) had some struggles, losing games to the second and third seeds, but finished 4-0. The “big” one was his 11-15, 15-9, 15-14 win over Pawel Lemanski (BEL), with Pawel coming in second at 3-1.
Top seed Andrew Baggaley (ENG) easily won his group, going 4-0, with nobody getting more than 9 in a game. Adam Vitasek (CZE) came in second at 3-1, with Bradly Robbins (USA) losing to him at 9-15, 15-9, 15-9 and finishing third. Mexican rock star Miguel “Miky” Huidobro went 1-3 to finish fourth, and had a massive crowd watching his match with Baggaley, where they had lots of long rallies.
Top seed AJ Carney (USA) easily won his group, going 4-0, with nobody getting more than 12 in a game. Beau Devos (POL) came in second at 3-1, defeating Marek Zaskodny (CZE), 15-13, 8-15, 15-13, who came in third.
Top seed Huang Jungang (CHN) easily won his group, going 4-0 with nobody getting more than 12 in a game. Bryce Milford (USA’s junior star) upset Oscar Hernandez (MEX), 15-9, 15-13, to finish second at 3-, winning the rest of his matches 2-0.
This is the first group where the top seed didn’t win – but he came in second. Second seed Robert Rob (GER) defeated top seed Paul McCreery (NIR), 15-14, 12-15, 15-11, with both advancing in first and second, and nobody getting a game off either.
Top seed Benjamin Sorensen (DEN) easily won his group, going 4-0, with nobody getting more than 11 in a game. Second seed Gavin MaGuire (IRE) came in second at 3-1, winning the rest of his matches 2-0.
Top seed Filip Syzmanski (POL) easily won his group, going 4-0, with nobody getting more than 9 in a game. Second seed Pavel Gutierrez (MEX) came in second at 3-1, winning the rest of his matches 2-0.
Third seed David Garrido (MEX) and top seed Cao Jing (CHN) both went 3-1, but David won head to head, 7-15, 15-11, 15-13, to advance in first, despite losing to second seed Tiago Da Silva (BRA), 15-7, 11-15, 13-15. Adding to the “craziness,” Tiago lost the rest of his matches, Ali Ammar (USA and recent US Open Over 40 Hardbat Champion) finishing third at 2-2.
Top seed Dwain Schwarzer (GER) won his group, going 4-0, but had to struggle with second seed Xavier Raynal (FRA) before winning, 14-15, 15-12, 15-10, with Xavier advancing in second. Fifth seed Miguel Lara (MEX) pulled off a couple of upsets to finish third.
Top seed Vladi Kutsenko (RUS) won his group, but it was a struggle as he lost to third seed Mathias Dietrich (GER) at 15-14, 15-14 (so close!), and had to go three with second seed Ian Johnston (SCO), 9-15, 15-10, 15-8. Ian finished second with a 12-15, 15-11, 15-8 win over Mathias.
Top seed Ying Yuyue (CHN) won her group, but it wasn’t easy as she lost to second seed Alexis Perez (USA), 9-15, 15-10, 15-8. But fifth seed Emiliano Romero (MEX) went 3-1, including a 15-10, 15-10 win over Alexis, to come in second. Alexis and Luke Walsh (ENG) both finished 2-2, but Luke came out third with a head-to-head win over an exhausted Alexis, 15-8, 15-4.
This was the first group where the top seed didn’t advance, with Jan Olek (POL) going 2-2 to finish third. Second seed Bryan Anglemont (ENG) went 4-0 to finish first, with fourth seed Julien De Haes (BEL) going 3-1 to finish second.
This was the other group where the top seed didn’t advance, with top seed Petr Poliakov (RUS) going 1-3 to finish third in a three-way tie with Ricardo Villa (MEX), who finished fourth, and Cayphas Valentin (BEL, who finished fifth. Coming in first was Christophe Raynal (FRA), at 4-0, without losing a game. Finishing second was Jan Hermann (GER), 3-1.
Top seed Ethan Walsh (ENG) easily won his group, going 4-0, with one 15-14 , and nobody else getting more than 9. Finishing second was third seed Ismael Alonso (MEX) at 3-1.

With fifteen groups and two advancing from each, that brought us to 30 players. Matches would be played to the semifinals today (Thursday), with the semifinals and final on Saturday (along with semifinals and final of all Open events). That meant three rounds today – and there was one “shocker” in each round.

Round One (Round of 32) – The shocker here was USA’s AJ Carney, seeded fourth, losing to Pawel Lemanski of Poland, 15-13, 15-12. As noted previously, seeding is tricky in a tournament like this since not a lot is known about all the players. And so Pawel was assigned a 2101 rating and seeded 29th, to AJ’s 2800 (based on past sandpaper play). I didn’t see the match, but AJ was grumbling later about his forehand. But while he’s very good in sandpaper, his forte is hardbat, and that’s tomorrow. Alas, Pawel would lose in the next round to Christophe Raynal (FRA), 15-11, 15-13.

Round Two (Round of 16) – this was an even bigger shocker, as the top seed, Alexander “The Flash” Flemming (GER), with a well-earned sandpaper rating of 3043, lost to Ethan Walsh (ENG), who was rated 2239 and seeded 15^th. The Flash is the reigning World Ping Pong Champion (sandpaper), and has been in the final four times – fourth time was the charm. (Before he got into sandpaper, The Flash was two-time Men’s Doubles Champion in Germany and finished third in singles at the German Nationals.) What’s even more crazy were the scores. The first was close – but at 14-all, Ethan won the next point and the game. But he didn’t stop there – amazingly, after that close first game, Ethan went up 13-0 in the second (!), and won that game 15-4. Alas, Ethan would lose in the next round to Paul McCreery (IRE), 15-11, 15-6.

Filip Szymanski (POL) won the playoff among the eight players who lost in the Round of 16, defeating countryman Pawel Lemanski for ninth place and $500.

Round Three (Quarterfinals) – Remember above about The Flash losing in the final of the World Ping Pong Championships (sandpaper) three times before winning it? In all four finals his opponent was Andrew Baggaley (ENG), the second seed here at 2927. But he lost here to the fifth seed, Huang Jungang (CHN), rated 2535, in an incredibly tight match. It was also a contrast in attacking styles, with Huang right up at the table hitting and counter-hitting, and Andrew a step back, counter-hitting with almost sweeping, almost looping stroke. So, how close was it? Andrew won the first, 15-6, and seemed to be coasting. But he lost the second, 15-11. In the third game, Huang led 14-12 match point. Andrew smacks in a gutsy forehand that barely hits the white line, 14-13. Then they have one of those incredibly vicious rallies that always seem to happen when it’s close – and Andrew wins again, deuce! It’s now 14-14, i.e. match point for both sides. They have another vicious rally, backhand to backhand, with Huang smacking backhands as Andrew lifts them up from a few feet back – and he goes into the net. And so match and semifinals for Huang.

Semifinals

These will be played on Saturday, starting at 4:30 PM (5:30 PM Eastern Time). They will be playing for 1^st $5,000; 2^nd $2,500; 3-4 $1,500. The matchups are:

Paul McCreery (IRE) vs. Adam Vitasek (CZE)
Wang Shibo (CHN) vs. Jungang Huang (CHN)

Who will win? None of them have had an easy time reaching the final; all have lost games. Gavin lost a match in the preliminaries and advanced in second place, and lost a game in the quarterfinals. Adam also lost a match in the preliminaries and advanced in second, and had to go three games in all three rounds. Wang lost two games in the preliminaries and another in the quarterfinals. Huang didn’t lose a game in the preliminaries or the first two rounds, but was at 14-all in the third in the quarterfinals, i.e. match point down (for both sides). So it’s a tossup who will win. So . . . who is your pick? I’m going with Wang Shibo. Why? Because he was the 2018 World Ping Pong Champion (sandpaper) and a finalist in 2019.

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