WTT Singapore Smash 2025 (30 Jan ~ 9 Feb 2025)

[jbvttcc]

This is encouraged by WTT and players choose who to pair with.
ie, Bernie and Sofia has paired to win the Euros just last month.

I personally feel, WTT, players need to loose the national identity and play as an individual - a proper professional player/individual.
ITTF (events) can have the national identities.

So what WTT is doing is great.

I fully agree. Too much national identity. Although in a lot of cases it may seem otherwise, fans aren’t required to have their favorite players be from their own country. When I was in my heyday as a runner, my favorite elite/(professional) runners weren’t necessarily from the US. Same holds true now that I’ve returned to table tennis. I have enough trouble finding penholders to root for let alone finding one from the US 😉

 

[ThePongCommenter]

legit question: is Lily Z considered over the hill?

What is your definition of over the hill? She can probably still maintain a level good enough for North and Pan American standards which may be all she wants at this stage...

 

[NetProphet]

Christ, does Gauzy always get the hardest draw possible! Maybe my memory is selective but I haven't seen a half decent draw for him in ages.
I see he has LSD in the next round already 😂

 

[NextLevel]

Christ, does Gauzy always get the hardest draw possible! Maybe my memory is selective but I haven't seen a half decent draw for him in ages.
I see he has LSD in the next round already 😂

He is a lower seed, he is supposed to get at most one easy round, you make it sound like he is supposed to be playing as the #1 seed.

 

[NetProphet]

He is a lower seed, he is supposed to get at most one easy round, you make it sound like he is supposed to be playing as the #1 seed.

I know his seeding and all that but I mean you can draw the no 2 seed after your first match or you can draw a no 32 or a another qualifier etc.
Walther, Charita, Redzimski, Pucar are there.
Only saying it really because I remember he had some tough draws at the end of last yr, drawing the Lebruns 3 times early and a few others like it but yes, his seeding does greatly increase that probability I suppose.
Anyway, just my musings, you may go back to more productive engagements now! 😁

 

[NextLevel]

I know his seeding and all that but I mean you can draw the no 2 seed after your first match or you can draw a no 32 or a another qualifier etc.
Walther, Charita, Redzimski, Pucar are there.
Only saying it really because I remember he had some tough draws at the end of last yr, drawing the Lebruns 3 times early and a few others like it but yes, his seeding does greatly increase that probability I suppose.
Anyway, just my musings, you may go back to more productive engagements now! 😁

You can't really draw the #32 - seeds are only up to 16, and Groth at 16 even lost to unseeded An Jaehyun - I hear you but Grand Smash draws are very tough by round of 32, and in prelims, you may get lucky with an occasional Oceania or American matchup but even those are no longer as easy as they once were.

BTW, Gauzy lost to Ionescu in TTBL and beat him here, which is already a good result. If you look across all the other matches, while Lin Shidong is a beast, he at least will help Gauzy relax, all the other matches have crazy matchups as well. Jorgic, Duda and Groth are already gone. It's just the nature of the beast, nothing to do with Gauzy being especially unlucky.

 

[dingyibvs]

I see LJK has gone back to the W968 after his brief experiment with the Vis. The 968 definitely suits his heavy spin game better.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I've never heard of NDAs being involved in any MLTT contract discussions that I'm aware of (or if they exist they get violated all the time) but if you are referring to Huang Yan Cheng I think he's a great player with potential and I'm excited to see him join the league, but I wouldn't say that beating Pitchford without a problem is a guarantee for him.

NDA is very common. Not everything is for the public knowledge, until the player or club want to make announcements, I am not in the liberty to say more than what I can, otherwise I am breaching my NDA with the parties involved.
Also why is it you only name a Taiwanese players, when I mentioned I am also servicing that of JNT, HKNT and CNT players?

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Digging into Pitchford's current season Pro A results a bit more. He has 6 losses on the season which are:

Geraldo
Katsman
Alexis
Felix
Sun Wen
Quadri

Alexis and Felix seems expected, I would say Sun Wen too. Quadri is not a surprise either.

So we are left with Geraldo and Katsman as his potential bad losses, neither of which are really slouches.

Won BOURRASSAUD FLORIAN 3-0
Won RANEFUR ELIAS 3-2
Won MINO ALBERTO 3-0

Lost LIU YEBO 1- 3
Lost KATSMAN LEV 1- 3
Lost LEBRUN FELIX 0-2 (Yep, this is what the site says)
Lost LEBRUN ALEXIS 0-3
Lost QUADRI ARUNA 1-3
Lost SUN WEN 2-3
Lost GERALDO JOAO 1-3

I would say Liu Yuebo, Sun Wen and Aruna are all beatable given Pitchford's top form and ability as his fans have pointed it out.
But if we want to be fair and say loosing to the trio I listed isn't surprising, then winning those 3 matches shouldn't be surprising either.

Pitchford over the past 2 years, was basically 1 match away (every event) from turning a 40%~50% win rate to his high of 60%~70% win rate. If he had beaten the trio I have named, this moves him to a 60% win rate. He didn't win, so left with a below career average win rate.

Interesting to see on the MLTT spindex, there are many players with higher than 50% win rate. I wonder how they will feature in Pro A and who could maintain high win rates, or keep them over 50%

 

[ThePongCommenter]

NDA is very common. Not everything is for the public knowledge, until the player or club want to make announcements, I am not in the liberty to say more than what I can, otherwise I am breaching my NDA with the parties involved.
Also why is it you only name a Taiwanese players, when I mentioned I am also servicing that of JNT, HKNT and CNT players?

I said that I've never seen an NDA in MLTT contract discussions meaning that I am not aware of MLTT agreeing to or mandating NDAs between them and their potential players. I am not sure if you have an NDA with the players you represent as an agent (?) between you and their current clubs or what, but my point was that I haven't seen NDAs as part of MLTT contract discussions. So if your NDA is between you and the player and MLTT I would be very surprised. Has MLTT started using NDAs in their contract discussions?

I hadn't seen that you are doing things for other national teams because Taiwan, and I guessed Huang Yan-Cheng just based off comments I have read, but I guess you aren't at liberty to confirm...

 

[NextLevel]

Way over the hill Wong Chun Ting (33) still doing what he can in doubles...

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Way over the hill Wong Chun Ting (33) still doing what he can in doubles...

MLTT player Lily Zhang wipes Lee Eunhye 3-0 as Lee plays right into her strengths for three straight games lol.

Into R16 for Lily.

 

[Brs]

Lily cruises into R16.

 

[NextLevel]

Barely still in his prime Jang Woojin battling spring chicken Chen Yuanyu...

Not sure how Lily pulled off that one... Lee looked very different from her last match....

 

[ThePongCommenter]

legit question: is Lily Z considered over the hill?

Is she? 3-0 against Korean Lee Eunhye.

 

[zeio]

Hirano: I expect nothing less from the one who stood in my Olympic way.

WS R32
Lily 3-0 Lee Eunhye (7, 2, 4)

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I said that I've never seen an NDA in MLTT contract discussions meaning that I am not aware of MLTT agreeing to or mandating NDAs between them and their potential players. I am not sure if you have an NDA with the players you represent as an agent (?) between you and their current clubs or what, but my point was that I haven't seen NDAs as part of MLTT contract discussions. So if your NDA is between you and the player and MLTT I would be very surprised. Has MLTT started using NDAs in their contract discussions?

I hadn't seen that you are doing things for other national teams because Taiwan, and I guessed Huang Yan-Cheng just based off comments I have read, but I guess you aren't at liberty to confirm...

my NDA is with parties I am in official discussions with.
even with no NDA signed, I won't talk about it, until it is confirmed.

In my other thread about leagues in Europe, I talked about other countries.
This season, I have NZ, Japanese, Malaysian players.
For next season, I am aiming to have double digit Japanese players, maybe 1 or 2 CNT players, and also HK

So NL may think I am joking about 2800+, but I am not zeio and sure not ert, I really have access to a lot of pro stuff.

 

[turbozed]

MLTT player Lily Zhang wipes Lee Eunhye 3-0 as Lee plays right into her strengths for three straight games lol.

Into R16 for Lily.

Lily ran right over her last opponent too in wide 3-0 games. Wonder if she's the leader in points differential now after 2 rounds.

I guess Ser has an excuse being young and inexperienced. But Lee played just godawful.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

my NDA is with parties I am in official discussions with.
even with no NDA signed, I won't talk about it, until it is confirmed.

In my other thread about leagues in Europe, I talked about other countries.
This season, I have NZ, Japanese, Malaysian players.
For next season, I am aiming to have double digit Japanese players, maybe 1 or 2 CNT players, and also HK

So NL may think I am joking about 2800+, but I am not zeio and sure not ert, I really have access to a lot of pro stuff.

Got it. When you say you "have" these players that means you are an agent representing them in contract discussions with clubs and leagues?

 

[NextLevel]

Lily ran right over her last opponent too in wide 3-0 games. Wonder if she's the leader in points differential now after 2 rounds.

I guess Ser has an excuse being young and inexperienced. But Lee played just godawful.

Yeah. Something must have been really wrong vs the display she had in her CIC match. I wouldn't be surprised if she had a death in the family given how she played...