WTT Champions Doha 2026 Jan 7-11

[zeio]

Moregard has something to say about JWJ's serve.

https://m.weibo.cn/status/5253662092827722

莫儿赛后采访：无忌遮麻了
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/10385017756

 

[Sali]

And a certain mod gave me an earful on development. Riley isn't the first commentator to comment on that.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...der-doha-2025-6-11-jan-2025.35821/post-502781

Considering his skills meaning footwork, power, serves, cofidence he has almost everything maybe more variations should be useful. So he does not have to improve much to beat anyone. All that he needs is to calm down and maybe read some books of Stoics and behave on certain level.

 

[NextLevel]

And a certain mod gave me an earful on development. Riley isn't the first commentator to comment on that.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...der-doha-2025-6-11-jan-2025.35821/post-502781

You mean the same mod that pointed out your reticence to discuss Sora's beating of your favorite Uda?

No one has said that Sora doesn't have issues. You are the person who the mod gave an earful because you treat these issues in an 18 year old as something to write him off for, not as something to work around and see how good he can get despite having these issues. It's your general approach to discussing players you don't like, while re-framing literally the same issues when they show up in players you like. If Hayata is injury prone, it is a result of frail health and bad judgment, but when it turns out Uda has missed months of play for similar reasons, it is good to hear about his commitment to the sport and improved self management, something Hayata is clearly attempting as well while being insulted continually by you.

In the end, just about any reasonable person will acknowledge that any 18 year old talent, as long as he isnt a criminal and sometimes even then,you find ways to work with him. Sports psychologist is nothing special for top athletes.

 

[NextLevel]

Considering his skills meaning footwork, power, serves, cofidence he has almost everything maybe more variations should be useful. So he does not have to improve much to beat anyone. All that he needs is to calm down and maybe read some books of Stoics and behave on certain level.

Who knows the solution?? Maybe zeio is right and there is no solution. But is accepting there is no solution the way you build top talent in any country? Especially at the age of 18?

By the way, LYJ beat Dima just as well. We might be giving too much credit to Sora's attitude and too little credit to LY*is form. You only can form a good picture when you have perspective. But clearly, Sora sometimes needs more gears, he won't always get opponents who are going to give him what he wants. Truls and Lin have figured out how to disrupt him in their own ways. Others will take note.

 

[Sali]

Who knows the solution?? Maybe zeio is right and there is no solution. But is accepting there is no solution the way you build top talent in any country? Especially at the age of 18?

By the way, LYJ beat Dima just as well. We might be giving too much credit to Sora's attitude and too little credit to LY*is form. You only can form a good picture when you have perspective. But clearly, Sora sometimes needs more gears, he won't always get opponents who are going to give him what he wants. Truls and Lin have figured out how to disrupt him in their own ways. Others will take note.

The problem is also that he goes into a match without any respect for his opponent. The referee waits to flip the coin because he happens to be tying his shoes right now. There are plenty of situations like this. I get the impression that nothing interests him besides winning. Confidence is good, but if you don't have respect for your opponent, it can ultimately only provoke anger, which is perfectly visible in Sora. As I mentioned before, he doesn't lack talent. If he works through in his mind how to handle stress when things aren't going well in a match and how to find a new strategy, it should be fine.

 

[backspacer]

I keep hearing that from everyones serve. At that level everyone serves good.

Watch Jimmy Butler come in and roast Kanak's serve.

 

[NextLevel]

The problem is also that he goes into a match without any respect for his opponent. The referee waits to flip the coin because he happens to be tying his shoes right now. There are plenty of situations like this. I get the impression that nothing interests him besides winning. Confidence is good, but if you don't have respect for your opponent, it can ultimately only provoke anger, which is perfectly visible in Sora. As I mentioned before, he doesn't lack talent. If he works through in his mind how to handle stress when things aren't going well in a match and how to find a new strategy, it should be fine.

The other part is that is sometimes not said out loud - whatever you think of his attitude, who is a bad player for losing to Truls Moregardh and Lin Yun Ju? So other players are better because they do it with a smile on their face? It's a turn off for sure, but again nothing to lose sleep over. Same with losing leads in matches to Ma Long, Timo Boll and Xu Xin in my opinion but of course, I am on a lonely island for that one.

 

[Jafar]

Watch Jimmy Butler come in and roast Kanak's serve.

What's wrong with Kanak's serve? Could you please explain this joke to a guy who's out of the loop

 

[NextLevel]

What's wrong with Kanak's serve? Could you please explain this joke to a guy who's out of the loop

You have to watch Jim Butler commentate a Kanak match to understand. Look for a US Nationals or US Open match where Kanak is playing and Butler is commentating. At some point, Butler will go into a rant on how poor Kanak's serve is and how he needs to improve it.

 

[M51]

Sora's problem isn't disrespect. He tends to present the body language of a quitter and his whole attitude today and back in Montpelier against Truls was like "I'm not comfortable here because reasons, so f**k this s**t, f**k this ball, f**k this table and f**k this tournament.

I've seen this a bunch of times, just never thought I'd see it on a level this high.

 

[FIXPOINT]

WTT Champions Doha 2026 WS QF

WTT Champions Doha 2026 MS QF

 

[FIXPOINT]

Scheduled Matches:
All times are local time.
Live streaming: https://www.youtube.com/wttglobal

Sun, 11th Jan 2026
12:00 T1 WS SF Ying HAN(GER) - ZHU Yuling(MAC)
12:45 T1 WS SF CHEN Xingtong(CHN) - KUAI Man(CHN)
13:30 T1 MS SF LIN Shidong(CHN) - JANG Woojin(KOR)
14:15 T1 MS SF Tomokazu HARIMOTO(JPN) - LIN Yun-Ju(TPE)
18:30 T1 WS F -
19:30 T1 MS F -

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

I'll pick: Zhu Yuling, Kuai Man, Lin Shidong, Lin Yun-Ju

 

[rpb23]

Scheduled Matches:
All times are local time.
Live streaming: https://www.youtube.com/wttglobal

Sun, 11th Jan 2026
12:00 T1 WS SF Ying HAN(GER) - ZHU Yuling(MAC)
12:45 T1 WS SF CHEN Xingtong(CHN) - KUAI Man(CHN)
13:30 T1 MS SF LIN Shidong(CHN) - JANG Woojin(KOR)
14:15 T1 MS SF Tomokazu HARIMOTO(JPN) - LIN Yun-Ju(TPE)
18:30 T1 WS F -
19:30 T1 MS F -

Looking at men's semi-final:
LSD vs. JWJ, JWJ has been in good form throughout the tournament. Against Truls, even his backhand looked impressive. But that's against Truls. Now he will meet someone who truly is a backhand monster in LSD. JWJ's journey likely will end there.
Tomo vs, LYJ. Tomo has been in a tear with newly crowned WTT final champion. You can say with WCQ's absence due to injury, he is the favorite against anyone. However, his opponent LYJ is in even more impressive form whose shots are crispy, powerful with precision. What's more, by sweeping an upcoming star Sora, JYL showed a rare form of aggression and desire to win. This will be a hard battle. Tomo still holds a slight edge. But I'm rooting for LYJ and betting it's about time a talented player like him to win a major title. Plus, if LYJ does pass Tomo he very likely will meet LSD who has claimed fame at the expense of LYJ for several times. If LYJ can finally beat LSD, his trophy will carry more weight than usual.

 

[JackJohnson]

I’m finally happy to see LYJ back. His recent performance before this event have not been good. I hope we continue to see more good performances from LYJ. Switching to VSALC was a good decision so far.

 

[longle]

Coming soon... Butterfly LYJ Super ALC.

Thanks, Chen for giving us good matches befoee LYJ made his opponents look like tourists....

what, a FZD Super ALC but has better serves ?

 

[zeio]

Sora's problem isn't disrespect. He tends to present the body language of a quitter and his whole attitude today and back in Montpelier against Truls was like "I'm not comfortable here because reasons, so f**k this s**t, f**k this ball, f**k this table and f**k this tournament.

I've seen this a bunch of times, just never thought I'd see it on a level this high.

Not new. IIRC, Chinese media even asked him on the spot through Miwa about it before.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...n-cup-2025-shenzhen-2-19-23.36119/post-509914

He's been like that since his childhood. Some sort of personality defect from the peer pressure of being born to a table tennis family. 5ch users hate him for exactly that kind of behavior, consistently producing poor results yet enjoying blatant favoritism.

 

[zeio]

But I'm rooting for LYJ and betting it's about time a talented player like him to win a major title. Plus, if LYJ does pass Tomo he very likely will meet LSD who has claimed fame at the expense of LYJ for several times. If LYJ can finally beat LSD, his trophy will carry more weight than usual.

LYJ already has a major WTT title with a ton of weight. He has a hand in why ML doesn't have any WTT MS titles. WTT CS Frankfurt 2023, LYJ (8) 3-2 Franziska in R32, 3-1 Duda in R16, 3-1 Harimoto (4) in QF, 4-2 WCQ (2) in SF, 4-1 ML (1) in F.

A World Cup medalist like Harimoto, rather than WTT titles, what LYJ needs is a breakthrough in the Olympics and WTTC.

 

[zeio]

Now we need to see more of the players from the English speaking countries speak Mandarin, Korean and Japanese more often.

Imagine the following among table tennis players.

 

[Lazer]

Moregard has something to say about JWJ's serve.

https://m.weibo.cn/status/5253662092827722

莫儿赛后采访：无忌遮麻了
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/10385017756

Yea Waldner was commenting on Swedish television, he interpreted it to that M complained that he couldn’t see the serve…

Cheers
L-zr