Table Tennis

The World Championships in Houston kick off tomorrow! Aside from the Olympics, this is one of the few real chances we'll get to see the absolute best in action, especially since the Chinese players haven't been competing much outside of China lately.
That said, the Chinese coach opted to leave out Ma Long and Xu Xin this time around. It looks like he's focusing on blooding the younger talent as part of the long-term prep for the Paris Olympics. Even without those two legends, the lineup is still stacked; the Chinese squad will be led by the world number one, Fan.

We are likely looking at a total shake-up in both categories, with brand new world champions emerging. Even in the women's side, Liu Shiwen isn't on the roster.

https://www.ittf.com/tournament/5298...championships/

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll definitely check that out soon. Honestly, the last time I really sat down to watch any table tennis was during the Olympics, and man, that final was absolutely wild.

I’ve been wondering lately—is it actually possible for anyone to break this incredible Chinese stranglehold on the World Championships? The last person to pull it off wasn't even Chinese;
it was Jan-Ove Waldner back in 2003. It might be a little easier this time around since Ma Long and Xu Xin aren't in the mix, so perhaps someone like Lin Yun
who looked absolutely phenomenal at the Olympics, or maybe Tomokazu Harimoto, who has already proven he can take down both Fan and Ma Long.

When you look at the women's side, the Chinese dominance is even more overwhelming. The last non-Chinese winner of the world title was Jung from South Korea back in 1993. On top of that, the Chinese players tend to sweep up almost every single medal. In fact, the last non-Asian woman to grab a medal at the World Championships was the legendary Tamara Boroš
back in 2003 when she took bronze. Over the last 40 years, it's really just been Boroš and Badescu who have managed to land a medal outside of the Asian powerhouse nations.

The opening rounds have kicked off, featuring the players who aren't seeded. We also have two talented Americans, Jeger and Malobabić, competing in the early stages. For those of you looking to catch the action, here is a stream where you can toggle between eight different tables!
https://www.youtube.com/c/WorldTableTennis/videos

Polish Dyjas pulled off a massive upset against Tomokazu Harimoto—definitely the first huge shock of the World Championships! Meanwhile, Tom Lebrun managed to fight his way into the Round of 32, while Gacin had a bit of a rough outing, dropping a relatively easy match to an American player.

The World Championships have finally reached the business end! Today we’re diving into the Quarterfinals for both divisions, and honestly, the matches so far have been absolutely electric. From what I’ve caught on screen,
the standout performances have definitely come from Aruna-Karlsson, Chen, and Hirano in the women's bracket.
Men's Quarterfinal matchups:
Fan-Lin
Liang-Calderano

Moregard-Aruna
Boll-Jha

I have to say, the guys in the bottom half of the draw really lucked out. With all the Chinese players knocked out in the upper bracket and top seeds like Tomokazu Harimoto and Lin being sent home early, there's a real opening here. Boll could very well make a run all the way to the finals at this rate.

Women's Quarterfinal matchups:
Chen M-Ishikawa
Chen X-Wang M

Ito-wang Y.
Suh-Sun

Looking at the women's side, it’s pretty much an Asian takeover. It's looking like five Chinese players, two Japanese players, and Suh from Korea will be the ones left standing.
The first match kicks off at 11:00 PM.

What an absolute turnaround by Liang against Calderan, who was sitting pretty at 3-0!🙏 And man, old man Boll just won't quit—what an absolute legend, especially considering he’s fighting his way back after that injury. If I had to pick a headline for this tournament, he’d be my top choice, though it won't be easy; he still has to get past the Swede Moregard before facing either Fan or Liang in the final.



As for the Women's final, it's total dominance from the Chinese women, who have once again swept all the semifinal spots.

A Swedish kid in the final! Honestly, massive respect to Boll—to play at this level during the World Championships at age 40, especially coming back from an injury, is incredible.
I can definitely feel those old bones aching whenever a rally starts getting long.😁
Wang knocked out the world number one in a spectacular match, all while those idiots on the US broadcast kept using a camera angle that basically blocked the table.

That was an incredible Women's final, especially that last set! 🙏
Now, let's see if Moregard can actually give the fan a run for their money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7g...b_channel=zamo

https://worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?eventId=2536

Last year, the World Tour was completely sidelined due to everything going on globally. This year, however, the ITTF is rolling out this brand-new series that looks set to redefine the WT entirely. I believe this specific tournament features the largest prize pool we've ever seen, sitting at a massive $2 million! Plus, all the heavy hitters and major stars are showing up to compete in both brackets.

The Singaporean powerhouse has punched his ticket to the semifinals, and honestly, besides the Japanese player Uda, there haven't been any massive upsets. Lin put up some really solid resistance in his match against Ma Long, but in the end, it just wasn't enough to topple the legend. On the women's side, things are looking pretty predictable with the top four Chinese women sweeping into the semifinals. I was trying to catch the action on some unofficial stream on YouTube since WTT doesn't broadcast the marquee matchups, but they shut that down too—so looks like I'm out of luck for watching the semis live. Also, can we talk about that camera angle right in the middle of the table? I don't care how many times I watch it, I just can't get used to that view.

We’ve got another absolute classic on our hands! It’s Ma vs fan in the final.
https://en8.sportplus.live/table_ten...64777/3325905/

Calling all table tennis fans!
There is an incredibly high-stakes tournament happening right now in Budapest, and honestly, the absolute cream of the crop is present in both brackets,
with the exception of Fan, who is unfortunately missing. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that SK is handling the broadcasts—it’s a total game-changer because finding decent streams has been a nightmare since this WTT series kicked off. Last week, there was a similar event here in Budapest with smaller categories, but you still had all the heavy hitters; Wang managed to take down SF Ma Long, only to face the Swede Moregard in the final. Unlike last week's setup, this week is strictly focused on the Men's and Women's singles.

Tomioka ended up getting knocked out in the first round by Jorgić.

We actually pulled off first place in our group during the World Team Championships!

I can't help but wonder who the Chinese players will be facing in the finals, and just how many
sets they might drop along the way. Looking at the women's bracket, they've got four of the top players in the world on their side, and honestly, the men aren't
far behind at all—we've got Fan, Ma Long, Liang, and Lin 😁 ready to go.

Honestly, if we end up facing the French or the English instead of the Germans, I guess it might actually work out in our favor. Maybe we'll just get lucky for once.

wiredcanyon39 said:If we face the French or the English instead of the Germans, I’d say we’re in luck. Maybe our luck is finally turning.

Beating the Germans is going to be a massive uphill battle. Even if they aren't playing their absolute strongest lineup, they still have Qiu on the roster.
He’s easily a top 10 player globally and just recently clinched a major championship title here in the States.
Meanwhile, the French managed to pull through after the younger Lebrun dominated Walker in that deciding match.

I mean, if Duda is playing it safe against Gacin, then yeah... that’s pretty much all there is to say about our chances.

what a total mess from that guy

The real question is just who’s going to drop a point to the Chinese side, even if it's just 😁. These Portuguese players aren't actually bad, but they just seemed to lose focus, kind of like how the Indian guys were playing today.

The Chinese guys in both brackets still haven't dropped a single point, though I guess they were sweating it a little against Sweden today. Still, they're sitting pretty at 3/0. They've got that big double header against Japan tomorrow... honestly, you gotta wonder if it's finally time for them to drop a set.