Table Tennis deadly service

Deadly Table Tennis action.

Always try hard.

Editor

Kunal Chodri, talented young Table Tennis player from ICC, Milpitas, CA

Kunal Chodri is an extremely talented youngster, who trains at the ICC center, Milpitas, CA. He is one of the top players in his age group in the USA.

Editor

World Team Classic at Guangzhou in March

The World Team Classic will be held at Guangzhou, China from 28th to 31st March. The hosts are of course, the favorites.

Leonardo Mutti on ITTF site

Leonardo Mutti has been profiled on the ITTF site (World Top Table Tennis body). Soumyajit Ghosh of India beat Mutti in straight games at the Qatar Open World Tour Table Tennis tournament at Doha recently.

Editor

Ma Long beats Yan An to win Qatar Open World Tour Table Tennis tournament

Ma Long tops! He beat Yan An in a thrilling final. World and Olympic champ, Zhang Jike, retired hurt in an earlier round.

Ding Ning won the women's title beating Liu Shiwen.

(Photo courtesy xinhuanet.com

Editor

Soumyadeep Roy plays World No. 1 Xu Xin at Kuwait Open World Tour Table Tennis tournament

Soumyadeep Roy is in good form at the World Tour Table Tennis tournaments at Kuwait and Qatar. He played well in the qualifiers and Pre-rounds, reached the main draw, eventually losing to World No. 1 Xu Xin. Sharath reached the 2nd round where he lost to Bastian Steger of Germany. Reigning National Champion, Soumyajit Ghosh did extremely well in the qualifiers, but could not maintain form in the Pre rounds.

Indian teams for Kuwait and Qatar World Tour Table Tennis tournaments

Shamini and Soumyajit. Photo by thehindu.com

A 13 member squad will embark on a tour to the Kuwait and Qatar World Tour Table Tennis tournaments. Of these, Poulomi will not play at Kuwait. The two tournaments are of premium level on the World Table Tennis stage. This can be gauged by the fact that several of the top 10 players in the World are participating and some former Pro Tour winners have to actually play qualifying rounds!

Indian players and their world rankings.


1     GHOSH Soumyajit   175    
2     ACHANTA Sharath Kamal   71
3     AGGARWAL Neha  
4     DAS Ankita     242
5     ROY Soumyadeep 338
6     SHETTY Sanil  360
7     KUMARESAN Shamini 245
8     SAHASRABUDHE Pooja 528    
9     DESAI Harmeet   IND 282
10     KUMAR Jubin   IND 493    
11     GHATAK Poulomi 196
12     PATKAR Madhurika
13     PAUL Mousumi 434

2013 US Table Tennis team trials

Lily Zhang and Timothy Wang finished No. 1 in the Men's and Women's section of the US Team Table Tennis trials at San Jose, California. While Lily won all her matches, Timothy lost just one. The top five in each category qualify for the World Table Tennis Championships 2013 to be held at Paris.




Women's Final Placement

1. Zhang, Lily (ICC) 11-0
2. Wu, Erica S. (Gao Jun TTC) 10-1
3. Hsing, Ariel (iTable Tennis) 9-2
4. Jha, Prachi (WCTTA) 8-3 
5. Lin, Tina (Lily Yip TTC) 6-5 
6. Guan, Angela (ICC) 6-5 
7. Jiang, Diane (iTable Tennis) 3-8 
8. Li, Joy (XTTS) 3-8
9. Ma, Lucy (Seattle Pacific TTC) 3-8 
10. Chu, Isabel (WCTTA) 3-8
11. Leitman, Marina (TopSpin) 3-8
12. Malek, Amanda (Power Pong) 1-10 

Men's Final Placement

1. Wang, Timothy (ICC) 10-1 
2. Zhang, Yahao (TWUTTC) 9-2
3. Nguyen, Khoa Dinh (TopSpin) 9-2
4. Li, Peter (iTable Tennis) 7-4
5. Butler, Jim (Houston TTC) 7-4
6. Hazinski, Mark (TWUTTC) 6-5 
7. Dubina, Samson David (Strongsville TT) 5-6
8. Jha, Kanak (WCTTA) 3-8 
9. Chodri, Kunal (WCTTA) 3-8 
10. Cretu, Razvan (TWUTTC) 3-8

Zhuang Zedong of Ping Pong diplomacy fame, dies

Zhuang Zedong, one of the heroes of the famous "Ping Pong diplomacy" between the United States and China, died on Sunday. He was 72. Zedong was battling against Cancer for almost five years.

Zedong took the first step towards the eventual Ping Pong diplomacy situation one day at the Nagoya World Table Tennis Championships in 1971 by offering a gift to Glenn Cowan of the USA, who had missed the official bus. The gesture was photographed, and eventually led to President Nixon's visit to China. Before this, the American team was invited to China for a Ping Pong match. All this helped thaw relationship between China and US during the cold war period.

Zedong was married to a Japanese woman in the late 1980s.

Top ranked Ping Pong players in New York

Damien Provost: Photo - www.leprogres.fr

The strongest Table Tennis players in New York are the following:

Top 10 Open

Provost, Damien     2670
Liu, Juan         2641
Wang, Chen         2624
Majekodunmi, Yinka     2611
Gao, YanJun         2578
Landers, Michael     2567
Lee, Sang Mook         2556
Wang, Max Qinmin     2556
Manousoff, Stefan John     2552
Oyebode, Michael     2552