Saturday, October 3, 2015

Jan Ove Waldner the Table Tennis all time great's birthday

Waldner turned 50 yesterday. It is an important day for any human being, but this is no ordinary human being we are talking about.

Do you know that there are stamps in countries in honor of Waldner. China, Sweden, Benin have issued stamps for Waldner, which other countries do you know who have done this?

Sweden - 6 Krona stamp
China - 1.2 Renmibi stamp

Central Zone Table Tennis tournament at Jamnagar, Gujarat from October 6

Jamnagar will host the Central Zone Table Tennis tournament in an attractive stadium from October 6 to 11. Most of the top players in the country are expected to participate. In addition to this, there will be hordes of aspiring juniors who will try to win laurels and reach higher in the rankings.

This is an important event for Gujarat as they will be hosting the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at Surat late this year.

Semi final line up at the European Table Tennis Championships 2015

The semi final lineup at the European Table Tennis Championships has been decided.

In the Women's singles, Polina Mikhailova takes on Elizabeta Samara in the first semi final, followed by Li Jie who faces Fu Yu of Portugal.

In the Men's singles, top seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov meets Tiago Apolonia while Par Gerell will face Marcos Freitas.

Photo by courtesy of the ITTF.

Fan Zhendong wins a triple crown at the Asian Table Tennis Championships at Pattaya

Fan Zhendong, who had earlier captured the mixed doubles and Men's doubles titles, won all the titles at stake in the Asian Table Tennis Championships at Pattaya, Thailand. In addition to the open events, he had also a big part of the winning China team.

Zhendong survived a scare as his doubles partner Xu Xin came back from 0-3 to equalize at 3-3 before he prevailed 11-9 in the decider.

Important Table Tennis tournaments coming up

Two important Table tennis events are coming up soon in the US.

A 4 Star Tournament with $ 5000 cash and prizes will be held at Morrisville, North Carolina (NC).
The event is the 2015 Triangle October Open.
The tournament will be held from Oct. 16 - 18, 2015.

A 3 Star Tournament with $12,000 in prize money will be held at San Diego, California (CA).
The event is the San Diego Open Neil Smyth Memorial and will be conducted by San Diego Table Tennis Association.
The tournament will be held from Oct. 03 - 04, 2015.

Friday, October 2, 2015

Liam Pitchford gives Ovtcharov a run for his money

Liam Pitchford of England fought gallantly against top seed Dmitrij Ovtcharov of Germany in the pre-quarterfinals of the European Table Tennis Championships at Ekaterinburg but eventually lost 2-4 ( 11-4, 7-11, 8-11, 11-6, 3-11, 4-11). The match was actually balanced till the fourth game at 2-2, but Ovtcharov showed his class by beating the Englishman quite handily in the last two games.

Photo courtesy of the ITTF.

Zu Yuling wins the Women's singles title at the Asian Table Tennis Championships at Pattaya

Cheng Meng could not complete the final match at the Asian Champions, thus handing the crown to Zhu Yuling. Cheng Meng pulled an upper leg muscle when she was down 1-2.

Incidentally, the two are supposed to partner and defend their doubles title later in the tournament!

2015 Australian Veterans Table Tennis Championships at Queensland

The 2015 edition of the Australian Veterans Championships tournament will be held at Caloundra, Queensland from 17th October to 24 October 2015.

Australian Senior Top 10 Table Tennis tournament

The 2015 National Senior Top 10 Ranking Tournament will be held at Seagulls Table Tennis from October 23 - October 25, 2015.

The cream of Australia and some up coming talent will be seen in action at the tournament.

Thursday, October 1, 2015