WTT Contender Almaty 2025 Sep 2-7

[zeio]

Fraser Riley said during a commentary (and maybe this came from the recent Hashimoto interviews or some other source I should be citing) that Hashimoto doesn't train with women, that she trains almost exclusively with men, Maybe that helps her keep her edge and is an attempt to avoid giving away her improvement to her teammates in this cycle?

That could very well be true since Riley can get up close to see how they prepare for matches.

 

[backspacer]

If Hashimoto has to face He, the latter will definitely go for expedite again. I don't think anyone went for it this year against Hashimoto. Miwa was pretty passive in one match I remember, though.

 

[Catenaccio]

If Hashimoto has to face He, the latter will definitely go for expedite again. I don't think anyone went for it this year against Hashimoto. Miwa was pretty passive in one match I remember, though.

Actually, the expedite came into play during the most recent match between Hashimoto and Miwa in Brazil. Miwa was cruising and took a 2-0 lead. She then seemed to struggle physically and Hashimoto tied the score at 2 games all. Iirc Hashimoto was leading 4:1 in G5 and Miwa had an edge ball making it 4:2. The momentum changed after that. I don't know if Miwa intentionally targeted expedite, but it came into play and both Miwa and Hashimoto subsequently won all their points on serve. Unfortunately, Miwa was leading when expedite was announced and she closed out G5 at 11:9. It was a missed chance for Hashimoto.

EDIT: Added the YouTube video from TV Tokyo Table Tennis. Not sure you can view it, but the WTT highlights for this match are not available in Japan anymore.

 

[BlopChock]

Fraser Riley said during a commentary (and maybe this came from the recent Hashimoto interviews or some other source I should be citing) that Hashimoto doesn't train with women, that she trains almost exclusively with men, Maybe that helps her keep her edge and is an attempt to avoid giving away her improvement to her teammates in this cycle?

I remember him saying something like "she does not train with her JNTeammates nor foreign players - shock and awe/wants to prevent competitors from getting a feel for her play." Was in an early round of SwedenSmash - lemme go see if I can find it.

 

[backspacer]

Actually, the expedite came into play during the most recent match between Hashimoto and Miwa in Brazil. Miwa was cruising and took a 2-0 lead. She then seemed to struggle physically and Hashimoto tied the score at 2 games all. Iirc Hashimoto was leading 4:1 in G5 and Miwa had an edge ball making it 4:2. The momentum changed after that. I don't know if Miwa intentionally targeted expedite, but it came into play and both Miwa and Hashimoto subsequently won all their points on serve. Unfortunately, Miwa was leading when expedite was announced and she closed out G5 at 11:9. It was a missed chance for Hashimoto.

EDIT: Added the YouTube video from TV Tokyo Table Tennis. Not sure you can view it, but the WTT highlights for this match are not available in Japan anymore.

Thanks for reminding me. So it was that match where she was kinda passive. She probably planned for expedite. She seems slow to recover from her bigger fh swings. I don't think she could last like WMY. A ton of videos are actually geoblocked on TV Tokyo's YouTube channel, but bless free VPNs and screw the shitty WTT highlights lol I'm not watching those anymore.

 

[BlopChock]

Here we go, right at the beginning of her match vs Qian ~1hr 22min mark:

(Worth watching up to 1:23:45 to hear Fraser's "She's awesome to watch, Hashimoto.")

PS. Noticed when I was scrolling through - the match right before that was Rassenfosse vs LJK - so have my evening viewing sorted out.

 

[FIXPOINT]

WTT Contender Almaty 2025 QLF WS

WTT Contender Almaty 2025 QLF MS

 

[Vlad Celler]

World Table Tennis

www.worldtabletennis.com

Hashimoto...
Not the best scenario...
China, then ours...

 

[TTTT]

Actually, the expedite came into play during the most recent match between Hashimoto and Miwa in Brazil. Miwa was cruising and took a 2-0 lead. She then seemed to struggle physically and Hashimoto tied the score at 2 games all. Iirc Hashimoto was leading 4:1 in G5 and Miwa had an edge ball making it 4:2. The momentum changed after that. I don't know if Miwa intentionally targeted expedite, but it came into play and both Miwa and Hashimoto subsequently won all their points on serve. Unfortunately, Miwa was leading when expedite was announced and she closed out G5 at 11:9. It was a missed chance for Hashimoto.

EDIT: Added the YouTube video from TV Tokyo Table Tennis. Not sure you can view it, but the WTT highlights for this match are not available in Japan anymore.

 

[Catenaccio]

World Table Tennis

www.worldtabletennis.com

Hashimoto...
Not the best scenario...
China, then ours...

Imo, the first round should be no problem. Hashimoto won against Zong Geman 3:0 (8,1,4) in Taiyuan earlier this year. To potentially face Akae in R2 is somewhat fortunate since Akae has been in great form and probably knows how to play against choppers. Assuming Hashimoto can overcome this potential stumbling block, she then has a clear path to the semifinal (subject to the remaining qualifier in her quarter).

EDIT: I checked the T-League results and found that Hashimoto and Akae split their two most recent matches.

Hashimoto won 3:2 in March 2025 (-5,-10,6,10,11)
Hashimoto lost 2:3 in March 2024 (-11,-9,6,10,-9)

 

[driversbeat]

Semifinals will likely be against Sato or HZJ. Losing there will only give her net 50 points. Path to top 10 gets steeper...

 

[FIXPOINT]

WTT Contender Almaty 2025 WS Draw

WTT Contender Almaty 2025 MS Draw

 

[GAOdp]

WTT Contender Almaty-2025 is the twelfth table tennis tournament of the WTT Contender Series in 2025 (and the seventh event at the WTT Contenders level), held at the Table Tennis Centre ADD, Nurkent District, 14B4B, 050038, Almaty, Kazakhstan. WTT Contender Almaty 2025 is organized by the Table Tennis Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan under the patronage of World Table Tennis (WTT), taking place from September 2 to September 7, 2025.

The total prize money for medalists at the tournament is $100,000.

Tournament qualification
Top 20 Participation Restrictions

Singles events

• A maximum of three (3) players will be permitted to participate if players are inside the Top 20 of the ITTF TTWR, at the time of the entry deadline.

National Entry Restriction (NER)
Singles events

• Each Member Association shall be allowed a maximum of four (4) players per event excluding the WTT nomination. The restriction is applied across both the Main Draw and Qualifying competition, to provide for a maximum total of four (4) players in any combination (i.e., 2 Qualifying / 2 Main Draw or 1 Qualifying / 3 Main Draw).

Doubles events

• Each Member Association shall be allowed a maximum of eight (8) players per event with a maximum three (3) full pairs consisting of players from the same Member Association (i.e., 3 CZE/CZE, 1 CZE/SWE, 1 CZE/GER).

Mixed Doubles events

• Each Member Association shall be allowed a maximum of four (4) players per event in any pairing combination.

The Host is permitted to use its wildcards to nominate additional players from any Member Association and/or pairs in any combination outside of the NER limit.

Wildcards

• The host is entitled to the following Wildcards: three (3) players for the Singles Main Draw and two (2) pairs for the Doubles and Mixed Doubles Main Draw.
• The host is entitled to the following Wildcards: twelve (12) players for the Singles Qualifying Draw and two (2) pairs for the Doubles
• Any unused Wildcards/Nominations will be returned to the direct entries.

Useful Links

Tournament page on the WTT website: WTT Contender Almaty 2025
Tournament match playlist on WTT’s YouTube channel: WTT Contender Almaty 2025

 

[Catenaccio]

Hashimoto vs Zong Geman 3-1 (8,10,-9,9)

Too close for comfort. But a win is a win and it doesn’t hurt to get tested early as long as you pull off the win. Looks like CNT players have been doing overtime practicing against choppers.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Hashimoto vs Zong Geman 3-1 (8,10,-9,9)

Too close for comfort. But a win is a win and it doesn’t hurt to get tested early as long as you pull off the win. Looks like CNT players have been doing overtime practicing against choppers.

Definitely, Hitomi Sato also got quite the challenge from China's Wang Xiaotong before pulling out the 3-2 win -6,11,-9,8,6.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Actually, the expedite came into play during the most recent match between Hashimoto and Miwa in Brazil. Miwa was cruising and took a 2-0 lead. She then seemed to struggle physically and Hashimoto tied the score at 2 games all. Iirc Hashimoto was leading 4:1 in G5 and Miwa had an edge ball making it 4:2. The momentum changed after that. I don't know if Miwa intentionally targeted expedite, but it came into play and both Miwa and Hashimoto subsequently won all their points on serve. Unfortunately, Miwa was leading when expedite was announced and she closed out G5 at 11:9. It was a missed chance for Hashimoto.

EDIT: Added the YouTube video from TV Tokyo Table Tennis. Not sure you can view it, but the WTT highlights for this match are not available in Japan anymore.

i think no attacking player will ever target expedite
the longer the match goes on against choppers, the more difficult it becomes due to fatigue and then you still have matches after that.

 

[NextLevel]

i think no attacking player will ever target expedite
the longer the match goes on against choppers, the more difficult it becomes due to fatigue and then you still have matches after that.

That's not true at all, attacking players target expedite when they want to keep the points short or know that the chopper is not going to take risk to end the point or their ability to push through the rally is secure when they receive. The chopper will only want expedite if they think they can hold all their receiving points and that is very hard with the attacker taking risks. Most choppers only want expedite vs other choppers.

 

[NextLevel]

View attachment 37830

Two players who rely too much on quality and not enough on outthinking the opponent IMHO.

 

[NextLevel]

Coton just surpassed the JNT...