WTT Contender Muscat-2026 (19- 24 January 2026)

[pongfugrasshopper]

Great win for Anna Hursey!

 

[Deep74]

He was faulted for moving his head close to where he contacted the ball. (or more playing, for using his head to obscure the ball during the toss). You rarely see umpires make the call but the umpire was 100% correct about call. The problem is that you rarely see umpires make it so when one umpire makes it, he becomes the villain for following the rules when even TTR sometimes doesn't.

I think LSD dodged a major upset. That 3rd end comeback was vital and would have had him under so much pressure in 4th.

The title has his name written all over it but recently he just hadn’t looked very convincing for WR2.

Having said that LJK has exited early twice now I expected him to do better.

 

[Deep74]

Great win for Anna Hursey!

View attachment 40081

Great win good for her. Having seen her train at my club few yrs ago she has come a long way in rankings since then.

 

[NextLevel]

I think LSD dodged a major upset. That 3rd end comeback was vital and would have had him under so much pressure in 4th.

The title has his Dipak Kuchhadia written all over it but recently he just hadn’t looked very convincing for WR2.

Having said that LJK has exited early twice now I expected him to do better.

I agree, Vlad is arguably top 20 player who juat missed the tour because of the war and over time this will show either in his ranking or his upsets- he is at least as good as Kiril Gerassimenko and possibly on the same level as Gauzy.

As for LSD, some people still think it is e lame excuse to point out the kid is 20. I hope the pressure from all this competition doesnt damage him, it's very different playing at that age when you have Ma Lin and Wang Hao or Ma Long and Xu Xin ahead of you. His results are still pretty strong just not what we have come to expect from the Chinese.

 

[Deep74]

I agree, Vlad is arguably top 20 player who juat missed the tour because of the war and over time this will show either in his ranking or his upsets- he is at least as good as Kiril Gerassimenko and possibly on the same level as Gauzy.

As for LSD, some people still think it is e lame excuse to point out the kid is 20. I hope the pressure from all this competition doesnt damage him, it's very different playing at that age when you have Ma Lin and Wang Hao or Ma Long and Xu Xin ahead of you. His results are still pretty strong just not what we have come to expect from the Chinese.

I just don’t think lsd is mentally as strong as fzd or even wcq. He’s quite beatable from what I have seen in the last few months.
Compared to just prior to ma long retiring had powerhouses in fzd ma long and wcq. At moment if there’s no wcq then Chinese aren’t as strong as say couple years ago. Other players in the men’s have caught up. WCQ seems the hardest to beat at the moment any other you can’t really bank on.
In this comp with so many big names missing its there for the taking for LSD. Be interesting if he can

 

[joshmak10]

He was faulted for moving his head close to where he contacted the ball. (or more playing, for using his head to obscure the ball during the toss). You rarely see umpires make the call but the umpire was 100% correct about call. The problem is that you rarely see umpires make it so when one umpire makes it, he becomes the villain for following the rules when even TTR sometimes doesn't.

I'm not totally sure about the serve at 0-0, 4-1 because it was a bad angle but it looked like a legal serve to me, but the serve at 1-0 4-3 had nothing wrong with it, didnt see him hide the ball with his head at all. Not sure he founded Fraser's claim that the umpires were mainly faulting the Chinese young guys but it's still strange that there wasnt even a warning given.

 

[NextLevel]

I just don’t think lsd is mentally as strong as fzd or even wcq. He’s quite beatable from what I have seen in the last few months.
Compared to just prior to ma long retiring had powerhouses in fzd ma long and wcq. At moment if there’s no wcq then Chinese aren’t as strong as say couple years ago. Other players in the men’s have caught up. WCQ seems the hardest to beat at the moment any other you can’t really bank on.
In this comp with so many big names missing its there for the taking for LSD. Be interesting if he can

That's fair. I don't think it has to do with mental strength, he just got so good at beating up on people on the backhand diagonal that he didn't develop some aspects of his game to the max. It might be too late but he is beating his teammates so that buys him time.

My point in part though was that FZD got older before the pressure rested on his shoulders. So did ML. LSD is trying to carry it at an age and time that is a bit unfair to him. People may say so did FZD but FZD for me is the greatest player of all time. Being compared without caveats to the greatest players of all time is not really fair. And when WCQ was his age, I didn't feel WCQ was as balanced.

 

[NextLevel]

I'm not totally sure about the serve at 0-0, 4-1 because it was a bad angle but it looked like a legal serve to me, but the serve at 1-0 4-3 had nothing wrong with it, didnt see him hide the ball with his head at all. Not sure he founded Fraser's claim that the umpires were mainly faulting the Chinese young guys but it's still strange that there wasnt even a warning given.

By the rules the umps have a right to make that call. Like I Said, most umps don't make it so players think it is okay to be borderline. But there is nothing wrong by the book with the umpire making that call. This is a clip during the toss and not where he hits the ball but remember that by rule, the ball should be visible to the opponent throughout the toss.

 

[joshmak10]

By the rules the umps have a right to make that call. Like I Said, most umps don't make it so players think it is okay to be borderline. But there is nothing wrong by the book with the umpire making that call. This is a clip during the toss and not where he hits the ball but remember that by rule, the ball should be visible to the opponent throughout the toss.

View attachment 40082

Sure but you can clearly see the ball in this shot? And Im not WCT obviously but from this shot it looks like he can see the ball?

 

[NextLevel]

Sure but you can clearly see the ball in this shot? And Im not WCT obviously but from this shot it looks like he can see the ball?

You can also clearly see that his body is in front of it and likely blocks it from the receiver at this point in the toss.. Of course at contact the ball is visible but this is one of the most commonly unenforced rules in TT (visibility throughout the serve and not just at contact. Ma Long was a notorious violator.

Edit: BTW, when I say the umpire has a right to make that call, what i mean is that the rule places the onus on the server to serve transparently and th umpire is allowed to fault edge cases. You can see that when Huang serves from the forehand side, the serve is besides him and there is no possibility of a fault. But from the backhand side, where rhe ball ends up is open to the referee making the call. Part of the reason I care about this is that with the way the lines are blurred, you never know when the switch from dodgy to fully hidden is being made especially on critical points. TTR should be available everywhere and the rules should be enforced.

 

[SFF_lib]

Xue Fei is an interesting one. He consistently beats Harimoto. Harimoto consistently beats most in the top 50.

But Xue Fei consistently loses to almost anyone.

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

LSD (W), Ruibo (W), Pucar (L), CJS (W), Duda (W)... Sidorenko (W), Jorgic (W), CIC (W), XP (W), Bardet (L), Gerassimenko (W), LJK (L), Bergstrom (L)

9-4, not terrible.

----

Picks: Lin, XP, Duda, HYZ, Batra, Franziska, Jorgix, Jian, CJS, Zong

LSD (W), XP (L), Duda (L), HYZ (L), Batra (L), Franziska (W), Jian (W), CJS (W), Zong (W)

5-4, borderline terrible. Counted out WCT again (will I let it happen again?), poor judgment on The Service Duda, Batra was close, thank goodness for Patrick Franziska and LSD, keeping me from a losing record that round.

Combined 14-8 through R32/R16 (select notable* matches)

----
QF matches:

Shi Xunyao vs Zeng Jian
QY vs Zong G
LSD vs Jorgic
Franziska vs WCT
Hursey vs He Zhuojia
DHK vs CIC
Yuanyu vs Kallberg
Ruibo vs CJS

Picks: Shi, Zong, LSD, Franziska, HZ, DHK, Kallberg, Ruibo

*notable according to me

 

[NextLevel]

Xue Fei is an interesting one. He consistently beats Harimoto. Harimoto consistently beats most in the top 50.

But Xue Fei consistently loses to almost anyone.

There is a good case for Picard being just anyone at the top pro level but even then the loss was deuce in the 5th and Picard's serve was on fire that match.

Jorgic is not just anyone. Whether we admire his game or not.

 

[M51]

Lin Shidong's downward spiral is nothing if not entertaining.

 

[passifid]

Sure but you can clearly see the ball in this shot? And Im not WCT obviously but from this shot it looks like he can see the ball?

as a lefite, you're wrong. The ball is visible at contact to us out wide but wouldnt have been during the toss from where WCT was standing. This happens to me a lot, when people serve it would be legal to a right handed player because they stand on the other side of the table but to a leftie is is blocked, the same happens in reverse. It is up to the player to serve where the opponent can see the ball.

 

[zeio]

WS QF
DHK 3-2 CIC (8, 7, -5, -5, 10)
G5 710, 1210
DHK: Miss Final-Game never misses (on a good day).
7W7L between the two after this.

WD SF
SXY/Wang Xiaotong 0-3 DHK/Ng Wing Lam (-8, -8, -14)
G3 56, 510, 1010, 1011, 1211, 1213, 1413, 1416
A good day, indeed.

 

[joshmak10]

LSD is struggling. It’s probably mental at this point.

It seems CYY only knows how to play here in Muscat, but great win for him over Kallberg. Hopefully can challenge Franziska too.

WRB’s unstoppable right now. Great 3-0 win over CJS, but the high flying Jorgic will be tough to beat

 

[M51]

LSD is struggling. It’s probably mental at this point.

Truls broke him.

Can't remember the last time a top-tier CNT member had a losing streak against non-Chinese players this long.

 

[NextLevel]

Wen is such a Unit, he plays better at the senior level than at the junior level.

 

[CyNyC]

Franziska's BH topspin down the line in full power mode is definitely a pleasure to look at.
Leaves you with no more to ask, completely satisfied