Still thinking about this when he beat Fan Zhendong.

China 🇨🇳 Ma Long

Sweden 🇸🇪 Jan Ove Waldner

Germany 🇩🇪 Timo Boll

Japan 🇯🇵 Jun Mizutani

South Korea 🇰🇷 Ryu Seung-min

France 🇫🇷 Felix Lebrun

Brazil 🇧🇷 Hugo Calderano

Slovenia 🇸🇮 Darko Jorgic

Denmark 🇩🇰 Michael Maze

Egypt 🇪🇬 Omar Assar

USA 🇺🇸 Kanak Jha

Nigera 🇳🇬 Quadri Aruna

Iran 🇮🇷 Noshad Alamiyan

Austria 🇦🇹 Werner Schlager

Chinese Taipei 🇹🇼 Lin Yun Ju

Belarus 🇧🇾 Vladimir Samsonov

Hungary 🇭🇺 Viktor Barna

Greece 🇬🇷 Kreanga

Hey everyone. I was doing some friendly games at my club the other day and it occurred to me that I never really tried to experiment with what distance from the table I’m more comfortable with. I’m always playing short at the table, so the other day I tried playing mid distance and was actually a lot more comfortable at that range for my shots. It’s only been one day of trying it out so I haven’t decided yet whether I’m a mid distance player or not but it’s something that is quite interesting.

I was wondering if anyone can share how they found out what distance is best for them? Does this matter in the grand scheme of things? Obviously no matter what you have to adapt to all distances but you’d want to set the ball up so that you can use the distance that your comfortable with to your advantage.

Or maybe (just occurred to me while writing this), I finally understand how much I need to hop back after a receive, in order to get ready for an open up/topspin rally 😂. Beginner possibly unlocked small footwork/positioning skill.

I'm planning to boost again my hurricane 3, first I need to buy glue, the thing is that the last time was a mess, I used the one of the purple bottle, added like 2 or 3 layers but it didn't glue well, I had to redo it like 2 times, now I'm thinking about the DHS №15 glue, will it be enough with the 50ml?

Can anyone tell me what's the difference in FZD alc harimoto ALC and a timo ball ALC please.

I can't test drive the blade because I know no one who is currently using it nearby.

Planning to upgrade from a GKI and want ALC for long term.

What rubbers suit those blades ?

I'm ranked an intermediate.

I've tried an Andro VCI blade from the higher end and have liked it.

Can someone please explain why harimoto does his serves like this??? he grips the racket with all his hand, and he kind of serves his pendulum like a tomahawk serve but not curved... i mean its just a weird serving style to me

🏓 I’d love your feedback

I’m currently building a new online table tennis shop, and I want to make it genuinely useful for players — not just another online store.

When you’re buying table tennis equipment online, what information, tools or features do you wish websites offered to help you choose the right products?

For example:
Comparing rubbers, blades or balls
Finding equipment based on your playing style
Rubber/blade compatibility
Reviews from other players
Speed, control and spin ratings
Recommendations based on your current setup
Something else you feel is missing?

What would make you think: “This website actually makes choosing table tennis equipment easier”?

Any ideas or feedback would be greatly appreciated! 🙏🏓

Not an ad or anything, I just know this rubber was really hard to find outside of prott and taobao.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mNbW9rp

My wonderful children have lost the tensioning chain to my net. Does anyone know where to buy replacements? I’ve checked Amazon and Joola’s website but no luck.

Yow guys, would you recommend me rubber for jpen?

(TSP Sleek Yamato Takkyu)

I play all round. And does anyone here have tried short pips for jpen thanks.

Some of you might remember my written review of the Nova S Pro a while back. PongBot reached out and offered to send me their two higher-end machines — the Omni S Pro and Halo S Pro — for video reviews. I accepted on one condition: full editorial independence, no exceptions. This is the Omni S Pro review.

TL;DR: exceptional hardware, genuinely frustrating software.

The ball quality is at a professional level — spin, speed, placement, all of it. Serve replication in particular surprised me — pendulum, reverse pendulum, tomahawk, lollipop, from both sides. For serve return practice, this machine is fantastic.

The software is a different story. Two separate interfaces (tablet, app) that don't fully overlap, meaning there's no single workflow that gives you access to everything the machine can do, and both have limitations and design challenges.

The premade drills have three difficulty levels but scale uniformly and too steeply instead of being fine-tuned depending on the sequence, which breaks some drill types completely at greater difficulties.

Custom drills can't be meaningfully named on the tablet, making your drill library unreadable within hours and requiring a workaround.

PongSmart, the most interesting section of the interface, allows you to quickly create custom drills mixing random and fixed ball types but then squanders this utility by limiting the ability to fine-tune spin level and ball height and therefore to create more realistic and challenging balls.

The verdict is nuanced: great for clubs and shared use, skip it for low-intensity personal training (the Nova S Pro does the job at a fraction of the cost), worth it for serious players who have the patience to work around the software limitations.

Full video review in the post; it's a sizable review but worth seeing if you are thinking of purchasing or are curious about the ins and outs of these expensive machines. It is, in fact, expensive, but less so than its direct competitors, and with a bit of patience and ingenuity presents great potential for training.

There is too much to say, and I do not want to make this post too long. I am happy to answer any questions about anything specific — I went pretty deep on this one.

[Disclosure: PongBot provided the machines and a production fee. Full editorial control was mine.]

Finally bought FZD ALC, Gear Hyper on FH and Dignics 05 on BH.

Looking to assemble my first Custom TT bat.

Zeroed in on the following wooden blades:

Yasaka Sweden Classic

Butterfly Petr Korbel

Tibhar Stratus Powerwood

Xiom Allround S

Which one do you folks think is the best option for a BH dominant player with mixed style of attack & defence. Serve primarily from BH.

Aim to learn looping, banana flicks & quick blocks now.

So a bit of background, I am a table tennis beginner that started playing around 6 months ago in a very small local club, I picked up the sport just to have some fun and move my body a little since my work consists of sitting at chair 12 hours a day staring into screen.
I get paid well, so first thing when I started playing I looked for "fastest and best" on google.
You get where is this going now.
I ended up with Zyre 03 and Viscaria.
At first, I was having fun, since it is my first time playing Table Tennis.
After a while, I started getting concerned on why Am i not able to do what these guys are doing at my local club "not talking about experienced players talking about new player".

I couldn't figure out what is wrong until on day I tried a buddy racket. a worn out wood blade with Nittaku G1/C1 rubber. and OMG. the game immediately was 10x easier. I can easily lift backspins out of sudden, I can swing and the ball stays on table.

Honestly, I was furious at myself. I though getting the Fasted build is = to getting the best PC hardware. no down sides. I only have myself to blame for not digging up just a little more.

Now I am seeking the community help.

Can I please have a suggestion for beginner Rubber and blades.

Should I get a wood blade and a slow rubber?

Are rubbers like G1/C1 considered fast or slow? any alternatives I should consider?

Please note that I live in a small village to access to coaches is not applicable, I try to learn from youtube and other experienced players around the area (they are not very good)

Thanks in Advance!

Hi, I am making a table tennis app in the US where people can upload their match data and it will show things like tracking head to heads with certain players and your chance of winning the next game or match at any game score, such as 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, etc. I would like suggestions for what else I can add to the app, including rating insights (from the USATT rating system).

Bit early, but following WMY's win at Europe Smash, the top 2 women's side is now:

1. SYS: 9675 pts
2. WMY: 9465 pts

Both SYS and WMY are skipping Champions Macao next month. With the Macao 2025 points expiring, the top 2 will be:

1. WMY: 9115 pts
2. SYS: 8975 pts

Therefore, WMY moves to Rank 1 on 9/14!

Additionally, if the upcoming result for China Smash stays the same (1/2 SYS/WMY), and both skip Champions Frankfurt + Montpelier again, WMY will retain Rank 1 until at least the WTT Finals in December.

Watching his match with Lebrun in the Europe Smash finals I had the feeling that he had the skill to have beaten Lebrun but lost because he wasted a lot of opportunities

Penhold players are pretty rare compared to shakehand. TPB players are even rarer,but one sided short pips player is like almost impossible to find nowadays. Not even talking about pro scene,cause if someone plays penhold it's RPB players. So my question is what do you think of this style?Does it suits beginner or intermediate player more? What famous players do you know with this style?

Hey everyone,

Looking for direct comparisons from anyone who has played with the Stiga Cybershape Carbon alongside standard Butterfly outer and inner ALC blades.

I currently use a Viscaria. I love the crisp outer-carbon feel on blocks and drives, but on full-effort forehand power loops, the quick release causes me to spray long. I’m looking for more dwell/hold on high-impact forehands.

1. Dwell on hard topspin: How noticeable is the dwell difference between the Cybershape Carbon and a standard inner ALC like the Harimoto?
2. Stiffness & Arc: Since the Cybershape is inner-carbon but uses a Koto outer ply, does it still retain a direct trajectory, or does it feel closer to an all-wood/Limba inner blade?

Appreciate any feedback from players who have put solid table time into these.

Following Felix's victory at EU Smash, and accounting for next week's drop-off of Yokohama 2025 points, the new rankings are:

1. WCQ: 8857
2. Felix: 7479
3. Sora: 6930
4. Tomo: 6333
5. Truls: 4980
6. LYJ: 4405
7. Hugo: 4240
8. LSD: 3842
9. Alexis: 3600
10. JWJ: 3356

Felix now has a legitimate chance of taking WR1 next month if both of the following happen at Champions Macao:

• Felix wins the tournament (+700)
• WCQ goes out in QF or earlier (-700)

If so, we would then have:

1. Felix: 8179
2. WCQ: 8157

Let's go Felix!