WTT Champions Macao 2025 - 9-14 Sep 2025

[JJ Ng]

If it was the collision that caused the injury then that was likely a fracture, how they let him come back after that is crazy to me. But I thought it was something in the fall after. Hence my mistaken comments.

I saw the video and read some comments online. The main cause of the injury is not his leg/ankle hitting the table. The injury happened after that, when he tried to break his forward momentum by staying upright and most likely twisted his ankle as a result. Some people commented that he should try to break the fall and not try to stand up which I agree with. Sometimes when you need to hit the ground, you should just "roll with it." Trying to stay upright with his forward momentum would only lead to something strained/injured in the lower body. In martial arts, they also teach how to fall gracefully to prevent such injuries and not fight with body's momentum.

 

[NextLevel]

I saw the video and read some comments online. The main cause of the injury is not his leg/ankle hitting the table. The injury happened after that, when he tried to break his forward momentum by staying upright and most likely twisted his ankle as a result. Some people commented that he should try to break the fall and not try to stand up which I agree with. Sometimes when you need to hit the ground, you should just "roll with it." Trying to stay upright with his forward momentum would only lead to something strained/injured in the lower body. In martial arts, they also teach how to fall gracefully to prevent such injuries and not fight with body's momentum.

Many good athletes have similar issues, it can be helped by the right kind of training.

 

[Nakira]

Well done Franziska! I used to enjoy watching XP, but I didn't know how low his fair-play was.

 

[backspacer]

Well done Franziska! I used to enjoy watching XP, but I didn't know how low his fair-play was.

What happened?

 

[shmek]

I almost stopped loving Miwa for Honoka and here she comes kindling the flame again Average of 2 points per game for Samara… That was surgical.

 

[Nakira]

What happened?

At the first game, he received a ball and played it until he asked for a let to the empire (?), when the point was lost.
In the same game, the empire did not see an edge ball. Obviously XP saw it, and he did not say anything to the empire.

Of course it's part of table tennis, but some like me appreciate that if a player deserves a point, he gets it.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

The main cause of the injury is not his leg/ankle hitting the table. The injury happened after that, when he tried to break his forward momentum by staying upright and most likely twisted his ankle as a result.

Why was he massaging and icing his thigh, the exact part that hit the corner of the table, during his medical timeout if that was not the main injury? Nobody on the bench nor him was tending to his ankle.

 

[turbozed]

I never miss any match featuring Anders Lind and this performance against Jorgic might be one of the sharpest ones I've seen him play. Guy has such a bizarre but entertaining style with the slow spinny blocks and pushes to go with some absolute ripping shots (his BH flick/smash receive maybe the fastest in the game right now). Also with his self-commentary and overall strange behavior, he really deserves an appropriate nickname.

The Madman of Table Tennis?
The Insane Dane?

Guy is definitely one of a kind.

 

[TTTT]

I almost stopped loving Miwa for Honoka and here she comes kindling the flame again Average of 2 points per game for Samara… That was surgical.

Can't you love both? (You don't have to marry them.)

 

[latej]

At the first game, he received a ball and played it until he asked for a let to the empire (?), when the point was lost.
In the same game, the empire did not see an edge ball. Obviously XP saw it, and he did not say anything to the empire.

Of course it's part of table tennis, but some like me appreciate that if a player deserves a point, he gets it.

The 1st ball was at 4:4, 2nd at 7:7. @backspacer, check it. @Nakira - it seemed to me he was not as guilty, the 1st perhaps he really thought it was net/let, and then asked for it, hard to say. And second - it was the umpire who called let, it was not about the edge ball. At least so I think. I'm actually glad, I'd be very dissapointed in XP otherwise...

 

[Bollwerk]

The 1st ball was at 4:4, 2nd at 7:7. @backspacer, check it. @Nakira - it seemed to me he was not as guilty, the 1st perhaps he really thought it was net/let, and then asked for it, hard to say. And second - it was the umpire who called let, it was not about the edge ball. At least so I think. I'm actually glad, I'd be very dissapointed in XP otherwise...

On the first one the umpire called "XP was not ready", that certainly wasn't the case

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

The 1st ball was at 4:4, 2nd at 7:7. @backspacer, check it. @Nakira - it seemed to me he was not as guilty, the 1st perhaps he really thought it was net/let, and then asked for it, hard to say. And second - it was the umpire who called let, it was not about the edge ball. At least so I think. I'm actually glad, I'd be very dissapointed in XP otherwise...

Patrick was robbed on both points. On the first point, umpire says "he's not ready" ... XP 100% absolutely was ready and played the point as such. On the 2nd point, umpire calls a non-existent let (net on serve) after both players play the point and Franziska wins. You can easily see the ball clear the net on the side view replay.

Fortunately, Franziska wins the match. Just bad umpiring with a complicit XP.

 

[Bollwerk]

Is there a reason why the draw of players seems to be very repeated? I seem to recall that we are seeing similar match up all the time?

E.g. Felix met Lee Sang Su twice in the past year at the Star contender and Champions. While Dang Qiu played against Kanak Jha in Yokohama Champions, Singapore smash and I believe Chongqing Champions late last year as well?

The amount of similar events with mostly the same players will always have many repeats, especially in the small fields of Champions events. When you even include further rounds than the first one there are lots of different draws that can lead to the same matchups. Kanak and Dang meeting in QF of Yokohama because they both managed to take over the seed is a very different draw than getting matched directly in round 1.

 

[latej]

On the first one the umpire called "XP was not ready", that certainly wasn't the case

I know that the umpire said that, and it's stupid. XP was clearly ready. But my point was about XP, not about the umpire. It is hard to say what really was XP's intent here, it seemed to me that when trying to return the serve (which he put to the net), he had an impression it was let. I can't really condemn him for this in myself.

I agree it was bad umpiring @pongfugrasshopper. But I don't care about umpire's mistakes as much as about player's intentions/fair-game.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

I know that the umpire said that, and it's stupid. XP was clearly ready. But my point was about XP, not about the umpire. It is hard to say what really was XP's intent here, it seemed to me that when trying to return the serve (which he put to the net), he had an impression it was let. I can't really condemn him for this in myself.

I agree it was bad umpiring @pongfugrasshopper. But I don't care about umpire's mistakes as much as about player's intentions/fair-game.

If you are clearly ready and you played the point and you lost the point, rather than being complicit with the umpire, dump the ball into the net if you want to show fair play. The same can be said for the 2nd point where both players see that it did not touch the net and played the point as such with XP losing on the edge.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

OMG! Like watching a regular Corolla vs Yaris GT. I blame Zyre03. Its almost criminal!

 

[rpb23]

Well done Franziska! I used to enjoy watching XP, but I didn't know how low his fair-play was.

Not surprised here as Franziska is a well known Chinese giant killer, beating a fragile little giant like XP is within his reach. is Franziska the only German who has winning record against all recent Chinese top players(ML, FZD, XX, etc)?

 

[rpb23]

I almost stopped loving Miwa for Honoka and here she comes kindling the flame again Average of 2 points per game for Samara… That was surgical.

In table tennis, no one says you can not love them both. If your heart has more capacity, you can still add more.

 

[Infernal]

Xiang Peng stole 2 points.

"Not ready" on the first point is laughable.

After the edge ball he actually nodded to the umpire confirming that the call was correct and there was no edge. As dirty as it gets.

 

[rpb23]

Wide carder Anna Hursey met with the current best female player SYS. Anna is only 19 and from a little known Europe country in terms of table tennis. Anna managed to take a game from Sun, a remarkable feat from a teenager. She is a very rare European girl who plays like Asian with lightening speed from both wings.

If she keeps developing, she very likely will be Europe's best female player in a few years.

Well, turns out Anna has 50% Chinese blood and spent years in Tianjin, China training table tennis. No wonder she plays like Chinese. Regardless, she has fast reflex, fearless with high quality shots. With experience and better handling of shot balls, she's only gonna get better.