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.