Grot Table Tennis

Michael Dashow Art

Bobby Fischer, the ultimate enigmatic Chess genius excelled at Table Tennis

Fischer played table tennis the way he played chess: fiercely, ferociously, going for his opponent's jugular. He was a killer, a remorseless, conscienceless, ice-blooded castrator...' wrote Marty 'The Needle' Reisman in his autobiography The Money Player - The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler.

From kenilworthchessclub.org:

Both chess and table tennis are played within the confines of a physical space that you can grasp completely within your field of vision.  There is nothing hidden in either game.  Yet, paradoxically, in order to play both successfully you need to grasp the image of the board or the table in your mind so that you actually have a feel for where the corners are.  In chess we call this "board vision," and table tennis definitely has its "table vision."

Awesome Table Tennis facility in a salt mine

The Turda Salt Mine has amazing recreation facilities including Table Tennis under beautiful lights! One can spend a day having fun and still not cover them all!

Turda is near the town of Cluj. The entertainment facilities include a ferris wheel, a collection of children’s playground toys, a mini-golf course, a set of bowling lanes, several pool tables, a number of ping pong tables, and a small amphitheater, and so on.

So, is this some kind of a large scale recycling?

Editor

Jan Ove Waldner and Mikael Appelgren have fun in SPiN New York

Table Tennis legends Waldner and Appelgren had some fun when they visited SPiN New York.

Seen in this video is Waldner playing David Fernandez, who is ranked in the US top 100.

Appelgren is seen sitting with Susan Sarandon, the famous hollywood actress. Susan is the co-owner of the club. SPiN New York is a 13000 square foot table tennis social club on Park Avenue in Manhattan's Flatiron District

Rajahmundry Zonal Table Tennis, one of the best held

By Vikramadithya Shivaram
Most people who attended the recently conducted South Zone in Rajahamundry, Andhra Pradesh would call it the best zonal ever. Apart from the usual events, participants were treated like royalty. The APTTA (Andhra Pradesh Table Tennis Association) spared no expense in making life comfortable for the players over the 5 day course of the tournament. Conducted at the Cherukuri gardens, this was the first national event to be conducted at Rajahmundry.
The matches were conducted in two air conditioned halls accomodating 6 tables each. A number of school and college students were enthralled by rally after rally. Each match left them wanting more. All meals were free and this was not your regular 2 course meal. It consisted of a gigantic buffet! Everyone was certainly fed up at the end of this zone. To and fro transportation was organised for the players at no cost, and yes accomodation for everyone was free as well and many players would regard their stay as more than comfortable.
Music Programmes went on through the night and these were telecasted all over India. Another notable thing about this tournament would be the availability of free wi-fi connectivity.
One can definitely say that this south zone was like no other. Hats off to all the organisers and the APTTA for making it so special.

Sharath in Henzell's road to the Olympic video series

William Henzell features in a series of videos that he is preparing on his preparation for the London Olympics 2012. In this particular episode, he talks about his competition in Austria and his performance in the Swedish Pro Tour and others.

Henzell is in very good physical condition since he's been focusing heavily on Table Tennis in the Schlager Table Tennis Academy in Vienna Austria. Unfortunately, he was beaten quite easily by India's Sharath Kamal. You can see the short clip mid way in the video.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fUsw9FQn_o

But still, Henzell beat some very good players and qualified to the main draw, which is quite an achievement. Incidentally, Sharath lost to Ma Long, who was in top form in that tournament.

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Shamini, Soumyajit win titles at Rajahmundry zonals

Soumyajit Ghosh and K Shamini beat Harmeet Desai and Poulomi Ghatak to win the South Zone National Ranking titles at Rajahmundry.

Soumyajit won Rs. 60,000 while Shamini collected Rs. 50,000 for their efforts.

Incidentally, Soumyajit had beaten Sathiyan in the Men's semi finals, but lost to the same opponent in the Youth boy's finals.

The Indian juniors have been taking training in Sweden and the results are encouraging. It started with some wins on the Pro tour, followed by other good performances and capped by the team's superlative performance in the Asian Junior championships. Hope the good times continue!

Results (all finals)

Men's singles
Soumyajit Ghosh bt Harmeet Desai 4-1

Women's singles
K Shamini bt Poulomi Ghatak 4-0

Youth boy's singles
G Sathiyan bt Soumyajit Ghosh 4-2

Youth girl's singles
Ankita Das bt Mallika Bhandarkar 4-0

Young blood hunts for the old

The new generation was seen asserting its progress at the South Zone National Ranking Table Tennis tournament at Rajahmundry.

Soumyajit Ghosh beat G Sathiyan to reach the finals. He meets Harmeet Desai, who overcame southpaw Sanil Shetty's challenge.

It is interesting to note that three of the four semi-finalists are just 18 and even Sanil has just recently finished his Youth participation. This augurs well for Indian Table Tennis. Of course, the big India stars, Sharath Kamal and A Amalraj did not participate, but it at least means that these youngsters are right on the heels of the legends of Indian TT.

Photo of the day: Soumyadeep Roy in action

Soumyadeep in Action - Photo courtesy Prasad Naik

Soumyadeep has carried India's flag high for over a decade. He has faced three generations of Table Tennis players in India and is still among the very top players.

Soumyadeep has won several South Asian and Commonwealth medals and has other notable achievements in his treasure chest.

Video of the Day: Ma Long Service Practice

Ma Long doing service practice. Notice how he tries to keep the ball in. Also, he aims at mid forehand and the ball curls into the opponents body.

Sumana Saha and Birdie Boro, the Sub junior Table Tennis National champions at Cochin. Sumana Saha is International Sourav Saha's sister.

Photo courtesy Vipin Chandran for The Hindu

Training to the summit: Ma Lin and Wang Hao climb 100 floors

Climb photo courtesy tabletennista.com and nddaily.com

Many people feel that the Chinese Table Tennis players are dominant and do not understand the hardships they go through. Most of the present day stars including Ma Lin, Wang Liqin, Wang Hao, Zhang Jike, Ma Long and others are already millionaires, but they do not hesitate to put in more and more hard work to reach their goals.

A recent example is the winter training that Liu Guoliang put them through. At Shenzen, Guoliang made Wang Hao and Ma Lin climb one of the tallest buildings - the 100 floor 442 metre high Kingkey tower.

Both the players could not complete the climb in their first attempt, but fiesty as they are, they did it on subsequent attempts and even wore a relaxed smile as they took in the beautiful landscape of Shenzen from the very top.

Akash and Koshani are Cadet National Champs of 2011

Akash Nath and Koshani Nath bagged the Cadet boys and girls titles at the Nationals being held at Kochi beating ZK Gogoi and Selena Deepthi respectively.

Cadet Boys

Final:
Akash Nath (NB) bt ZK Gogoi (NB) 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 11-4, 11-7

Semifinals:
Akash Nath (NB) bt SFR Snehit (AP) 11-5, 11-3, 11-4, 11-5
ZK Gogoi (NB) ZK Gogoi bt Sarthak Seth (UP) 11-5, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8

Cadet Girls

Final
Koushani Nath (WB) bt Selena Deepthi S (TN) 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-2

Semifinals
Koushani Nath (WB) bt Priyanka Pareek (Raj) 4-11, 13-11, 11-5, 14-12, 11-6
Selena Deepthi S (TN) bt Varuni Jaiswal (AP) 11-7, 11-7, 11-2, 11-9

North Bengal Boys, Tamil Nadu girls clinch titles at Kochi

North Bengal and Tamil Nadu won the Cadet Boys and Girls team titles at the Cadet and Sub Junior Nationals at Kochi.

CADET BOYS:
North Bengal bt West Bengal 3-0 (Gogoi Z K  bt  Jeet Chandra  9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7; Akash Nath  bt Debomitra Chakraborty  11-8, 9-11, 11-3, 7-11, 11-5; Gogoi/Akashnath  bt  Jeetchandra/Debomitra 11-5, 9-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9.

CADET GIRLS:
Tamil Nadu bt West Bengal 3-2 (Yashini S   bt  Moumita Dutta  11-1, 11-5, 11-13, 11-3; Selena Deepthi S  bt  Koushani Nath  11-9, 11-7, 11-8; Selena/Yashini  lost to   Koushani/Moumita 6-11, 3-11, 11-8, 7-11; Selena Deepthi  lost to Moumita Dutta 8-11, 5-11, 5-11; Yashini  bt  Koushani Nath  11-4, 16-14, 9-11, 11-8.

Soo Yeon Lee - Super Model and Top Table Tennis Player

Soo Yeon Lee is a Super Model, who has done several fashion assignments including Nike. For Soo, it's not Ping Pong for posing, it's serious Table Tennis. She is a serious Table Tennis player with a USATT rating of 2468 and is associated with Killerspin. It is interesting to see various personalities of different cultures and approaches associated with Table Tennis. Do you Like the glamour that Soo brings to Table Tennis?