We take a closer look at seeds five through eight in the women’s singles event (Jeon Jihee, Feng Tianwei, Miu Hirano, and Kasumi Ishikawa) at WTT Doha, what is at stake for them at Qatar, how they’ve played since the ITTF restart after the pandemic, and their potential quarterfinal match-ups.
Read moreToday’s post goes over one X-factor in each of the Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles events at WTT Doha. An X-factor is a young promising but lower ranked player (outside the top 20) who has an exciting playing style, has previously upset a higher seeded player before, and has high potential to upset one or more higher seeded players in the upcoming event. We note past high profile upsets by Lily Zhang and An Jaehyun, what part of their game to watch out for, and what is at stake for them in Qatar.
Read moreThe 2021 World Table Tennis (WTT) Middle East Hub (formerly known as the Qatar Open) will be happening in early March. In preparation we will take a look at the tournament format and major differences with previous iterations of the Qatar Open. Notably, the event has been split into two tournaments and all matches until the quarterfinals will now be three out of fives instead of four out of sevens.
Read more16-year old Shin Yubin (WR #94) won the qualification tournament to represent South Korea in the women’s singles table tennis event at the Tokyo Olympics. She is the youngest ever Korean Olympic table tennis player, breaking the record previously held by an 18-year old Ryu Seungmin in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Read moreLee Sangsu won both his remaining day 4 matches against Lim Jonghoon and Jeoung Youngsik and qualified for the Olympics. He will represent Korea at the Tokyo Olympics alongside Jang Woojin, who qualified directly via world rank.
Read moreTimo Boll recently did an interview with the German Newspaper Fuldaer Zeitung discussing his personal life during Covid and how he’s approaching the twilight of his career. We provide a rough translation of the interview below.
Read moreDay 3 of action at the Korean Olympic Trials has completed. In the most exciting and important match of the day, after five match points and nearly blowing a 9-1 lead in Game 6, An Jaehyun defeated Lee Sangsu 4-2 (14-12, 11-7, 7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 14-12) and now controls his own destiny going forward in the Olympic trials.
Read moreLee Sangsu (WR #22) defeated Jeoung Youngsik (WR #13) 4-0 (11-8, 12-10, 11-9, 11-9) in their final match at South Korea’s Olympic trials on Feb 1, winning the first leg of the Korean qualification event for the Tokyo Olympics.
Read moreITTF has completely revamped its tournament structure for 2021 and rebranded the world tour as World Table Tennis (WTT). Here we will break down what events are planned and analyze their importance and likelihood of occurring.
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