Ariel Hsing is the Youngest ever US Table Tennis Champ

Ariel Hsing became the youngest ever US Table Tennis Champion. She beat Lily Zhang in the finals. Ariel also won the U-21 Women's title.

Titles in the junior and cadet girls was the consolation for Lily Zhang.

Both Ariel and Lily train at Rajul Seth's ICC at Milpitas, California. Timothy Wang, the Men's Champion from Texas also attends camps and private training sessions at the ICC.

Timo Boll is World No. 1 after a 8 year gap

Breaking News! Timo Boll of Germany ascended to the No. 1 spot in the Table Tennis World Rankings after a gap of 8 years. Ma Long slips to the 2nd spot.

India's shining star, Sharath Kamal is on the 40th spot in the list.
However, the biggest news for India from the lists are the huge jumps by Soumyajit Ghosh, Gnanasekharan Sathiyan, and Harmeet Desai, who occupy the 29th, 40th and 44th position in the Under 18 Boy's section.
Mallika Bhandarkar and Manika Batra have also moved up impressively in the Girl's U-18 section.

Sharath's brilliant win over World no. 18 Christian Suss

Sharath of TSV Grafelfing won over the highly rated Christian Suss of Borussia Dusseldorf in the German league. Here is a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YThCe6OS7-8

Happy New Year to all our readers

Wish you all success in everything you do, especially in your Table Tennis.
- From the www.tabletennisbug.com team

Ping Pong film - An award winner

Excerpts:
Peco (real name Yutaka Hoshino) and Smile (real name Makoto Tsukimoto) are members of Katase High table tennis club. Peco is charismatic and has a passion for the sport, while Smile is introverted.
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The film then jumps forward several years: Peco has fulfilled his dream of playing professionally in Europe.

Read more about this fascinating film at Wikipedia at the following location:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_Pong_%28film%29

Director: Fumihiko Sori

Timo Boll runner-up in German Athlete of the Year Poll

Timo Boll came second in the race for Germany's athlete of the year. Sebastian Vettel topped the poll in which 1,300 journalists participated. The event was held at the ZDF Gala evening in Kuhaus, Baden Baden. Golfer Martin Kaymer finished third.

Timo Boll's achievements:

• Led Germany to the Silver medal at the Liebherr World Team Championships at Moscow
• Third at Liebherr Men's World Cup
• Three titles at European Championships (Men's singles, Men's Doubles and Team)
• Men's Singles winner at German Open, Europe Top 12, Volkswagen Cup
• Main player at Borussia Dusseldorf in Bundesliga. Won German Cup and European Champions League

USATT Coach of the year

The following coaches have been nominated for the Coach of the year to the U.S. Olympic Committee's Coach of the Year selection process.

National Team COY - Lily Yip (Current Women's Jr. National Team Coach) - Warren, NJ
Development COY - Sean O'Neill - Portland, OR
Paralympic COY - Daniel Rutenberg - Frisco, TX

USATT new Membership Rates Effective April 1, 2011

The following are the new USATT Membership Rates effective April 2011:

Adult one-year membership $ 49
Adult three-year membership $130
Collegiate one-year membership $ 25
Junior one-year membership $ 25
Junior three-year membership $ 60
Household one-year membership $ 90
Household three-year membership $250
Millennium Life membership $1,000
Foreign one-year membership $ 75

China to train foreign Table Tennis players

Liu Guoliang and Shi Zhihao will head the coaching team that will train foreign players at the Shanghai Table Tennis Academy. China has been criticized for dominating Table Tennis at the World level.

The training will include Table Tennis theory and practice based on the Chinese methods.

Players who train at the academy will have to work hard. It may entail spending 7 hours of hard sweat and toil for around 6 days a week. The sessions are expected to start from next September and the academy has the strong backing of the Shanghai government.

Flash news: Sathiyan wins at Vadodara

G Sathiyan created a major upset by beating Soumyadeep Roy to win the Central Zone national ranking tournament at Vadodara 4-2.

Details awaited.