Sabine Winter switches to antispin

[pongfugrasshopper]

Yeah, but to reach the finals at Montpellier, where none of the top 3 played if IIRC, who did she play? I think the best player she beat was Shin Yubin. So she would have to hope for more of such events where the top players don't play. The World Cup will definitely give us more info (in March/April).

I think zeio mentioned this before, but Sabine has a Japan problem. The Japanese women know how to play against material (ex: Yuna Ojio beat her last year 3-0 at Feeder Dusseldorf). It's an amazing achievement for Sabine to achieve top 15. In addition to her ranking, her Euro Cup win solidifies her as Europe's best women's TT player. She's exceeded anyone's expectation including Tiebans if they're honest with themselves.

 

[NextLevel]

I think zeio mentioned this before, but Sabine has a Japan problem. The Japanese women know how to play against material (ex: Yuna Ojio beat her last year 3-0 at Feeder Dusseldorf). It's an amazing achievement for Sabine to achieve top 15. In addition to her ranking, her Euro Cup win solidifies her as Europe's best women's TT player. She's exceeded anyone's expectation including Tiebans if they're honest with themselves.

Anyone who knows how to play against anti/non-topspin and can control heavy topspin, both of which the Japanese ladies excel at, is going to give Winter problems. I don't think it is a Japan problem, I think it is a "who are you going to beat to get the points you need at critical stages in a tournament" problem. Sabine is a fighter and the loss to Nagasaki showed that even when she was clearly overmatched, she is not going to beat her self. And Yuna Ojio played her fairly early in her anti-days, Sabine is still getting better, it is not going to be as straight forward as Japan knows how to play anti.

Sabine also has to stay healthy, she goes through injury periods.

 

[zeio]

Here is Shan Xiaona's live stream from 2025/8/13 where she shared her thoughts on XTWC 2025 and Winter.

https://weibo.com/5229334406/PFG0AuHUI
精神病院派来的猴子
08月13日 23:49 来自 微博视频号
单晓娜:我觉得混团应该是训练小的吧，我觉得我们奥运会下个周期肯定会，也给考虑培养一下新人吧，毕竟我都打了三届奥运会了。我也觉得温特这么打下去很有机会，她其实出成绩很早，然后每届奥运会都在努力，运气也差点，奥运会也没参加过，当了一次四号P卡，但也得看大家对她适应之后，毕竟奥运会还有两三年呢。温特原来反手比较弱改了防弧没想到排名上升的特别快。所以我就说温特太励志了，她就太爱乒乓球了，骨子里面，其实她也三十多了吧，这个年纪去改打法，打球的体系都改变了。尼娜要去北京大满贯，她现在在恢复训练了。所以我们德国队跟亚洲队比不算强，但我们人真的挺多的。 L精神病院派来的猴子的微博视频
(Shan Xiaona: I think the XT[WC] should be used to train younger players. I think we'll definitely consider nurturing some new talent in the next Olympic cycle, since I've already played in three Olympics. I also think Winter has a good chance if she continues playing like this. She actually achieved results very early, and she's worked hard in every Olympics. She's also had some bad luck, and hasn't participated in the Olympics before, only being the fourth reserve player once. But it still depends on how after everyone has adapted to her, since there are still two or three years until the Olympics. Winter's backhand was originally relatively weak, but she changed to anti, and unexpectedly, her ranking rose very quickly. So I say Winter is so inspiring; she loves table tennis so much, it's ingrained in her bones. Actually, she's over thirty, and at this age, changing her playing style and system is a huge step. Nina is going to the Beijing Smash, and she's currently resuming training. So, our German team isn't strong compared to Asian teams, but we have a lot of players.)

SGP GS 2026
WS R64
Winter (15) 3-1 Moyland (Q) (-9, 4, 8, 11)
G3 37, 47, 48, 78 TO for Moyland, 118
G4 42, 49, 99, 910, 1010, 1011, 1311

USATT: Winter for LA28!!!

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

SGP GS 2026
WS R64
Winter (15) 3-1 Moyland (Q) (-9, 4, 8, 11)
G3 37, 47, 48, 78 TO for Moyland, 118
G4 42, 49, 99, 910, 1010, 1011, 1311

USATT: Winter for LA28!!!

Still throwing shade at Sabine I see.

 

[karupinkun]

In the german podcast "Plattenplausch" Winter said that she wanted to switch to anti at the end of 2023 already. She even had a little 10 day bootcamp with an high ranked anti player and liked it.

She delayed her switch to anti because the DTTB asked her to following Han Ying`s injury in front of the Paris Olympics.

In my eye`s she must have been even more disappointed to not be nominated even with all the injuries. Maybe the DTTB didnt nominated her, because they already knew of the switch to anti and didnt saw much potential given her age and the uncertainty with the new style. So they did give the experience to "more" promising players.

 

[zeio]

In the german podcast "Plattenplausch" Winter said that she wanted to switch to anti at the end of 2023 already. She even had a little 10 day bootcamp with an high ranked anti player and liked it.

She delayed her switch to anti because the DTTB asked her to following Han Ying`s injury in front of the Paris Olympics.

In my eye`s she must have been even more disappointed to not be nominated even with all the injuries. Maybe the DTTB didnt nominated her, because they already knew of the switch to anti and didnt saw much potential given her age and the uncertainty with the new style. So they did give the experience to "more" promising players.

As SXN revealed in her live stream in 1/2025, Winter would've been selected as the 3rd player and Kaufmann the reserve player if Winter didn't get injured as well.

 

[zeio]

Still throwing shade at Sabine I see.

View attachment 40496

Doesn't change the fact Winter had a lot of trouble with Moyland. Imagine the crowd noise and pressure at LA28.

OTOH, there is quite a bit of complaints by various players over equipment suppliers and TTR affecting their performance at Singapore Smash 2026. ZYL had some weird losses as well in 2025 due to external factors outside of table tennis.

 

[NextLevel]

Still throwing shade at Sabine I see.

View attachment 40496

Man, you ruined everything, I was going to wait to see how long it would take for him to acknowledge the win over a top Asian player with a post here. You did the hard work for him, he just had to make another lame excuse now. All the European(especially German) players who are beating Zhu Yuling are all ready to go to LA 2028 ahead of Winter if Winter keeps her level...

 

[NextLevel]

In the german podcast "Plattenplausch" Winter said that she wanted to switch to anti at the end of 2023 already. She even had a little 10 day bootcamp with an high ranked anti player and liked it.

She delayed her switch to anti because the DTTB asked her to following Han Ying`s injury in front of the Paris Olympics.

In my eye`s she must have been even more disappointed to not be nominated even with all the injuries. Maybe the DTTB didnt nominated her, because they already knew of the switch to anti and didnt saw much potential given her age and the uncertainty with the new style. So they did give the experience to "more" promising players.

They say she was injured, whether she was and to what degree is anyone's guess because while she claims she wasn't, sometimes someone who has never played at the Olympics may downplay issues with her form that others can clearly see. Still watching to see how the next few years go, right now she is clearly a lock for LA, but there is still the potential for Kaufmann and Han Ying to overtake Winter if Winter's form drops (though Han Ying is not getting any younger either).

 

[igorponger]

ANTI FLANTI <0.3 SHOULD BE ROOTED OUT OF THE SPORT.

The early history of table tennis unveils a fact that the "barefoot" wooden racket without rubber coating has remained a legit choice till 1970s.
Аntispin materials is very much like a pure wooden racket due to a very poor dynamical friction, and those infamous Flanti Antis is the most destructive material on markerl to ruin the game badly.
Nope, we dont seek for a total ban of antispin materials, we do argue for an effective restrictive moderation of rubber friction. We did, we do and will strongly insist on the elimination of the low-friction rubbers, such as scandalous materials similar to a pure wooden blade CoF< 0.3. Flanti Antispin gonna to eventually make the game a mockery of the sport, --some unruly game of a chance., full of chaotical rallies and unforced mishits.

Please, note the true reason that ITTF did ultimately disfavoured the uncovered pure wooden rackets -- ITTF stopped the use of uncovered blades back in mid 1970s for natural fear of getting the sport of table tennis into an unruly chaotical spectacle.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Man, it's been a rough week for the Tiebans.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

with her style shes gonna get into WR20 not 50

If it were that easy, the WR should've been flooded with anti players. Anti is actually the hardest combination style to survive (let alone thrive) on the world stage now.

i am too pessimistic as usual. WR10 within reach then an Olympic medal

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Top 50 is a very achievable goal since she is already 57. But top 20 is unrealistic. There's a number of names outside the top 20 that will have a far better chance: Nagasaki, Chen Yi, JCH, Hana Goda, He Zhuojia, Honoka Hashimoto, Yokoi, Qin Yuxuan to name a few. But I'm rooting for her to go as far as she can!

didn't age well

 

[zeio]

i am too pessimistic as usual. WR10 within reach then an Olympic medal

As I stated at the very beginning, the thing Winter needed most was luck to avoid JNT players, which she did, and a year later she has only gotten past 1 of them (1W8L in 2025, 0W1L in 2026), whom is strictly speaking not even on the JNT.

Getting past an injured CXT and WYD, both of whom are known to be poor against combination players, is nothing to write home about. It doesn't change the fact that some relatively unknown players can give Winter hell and that's often what happens at the Olympics.

 

[banbekas]

Seems like Winter has found the sweet spot on playing with anti. Incredible, just incredible.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

As I stated at the very beginning, the thing Winter needed most was luck to avoid JNT players, which she did, and a year later she has only gotten past 1 of them, whom is strictly speaking not even on the JNT.

Getting past an injured CXT and WYD, both of whom are known to be poor against combination players, is nothing write home about. It doesn't change the fact that some relatively unknown players can give Winter hell and that's often what happens at the Olympics.

heretics still in denial. There are a few non-Chinese in top10. and only 2 CNT players at Olympics singles. And Winter is still improving at each tournament and getting more confident. She didn't even overcelebrate the win against WYD because it was too easy...

As for the Olympic medal, she'll get more than a chance at it with doubles and team as well as singles...

 

[zeio]

heretics still in denial. There are a few non-Chinese in top10. and only 2 CNT players at Olympics singles. And Winter is still improving at each tournament and getting more confident. She didn't even overcelebrate the win against WYD because it was too easy...

As for the Olympic medal, she'll get more than a chance at it with doubles and team as well as singles...

Please check out the links to the posts that I just added. Until she has scored wins over SYS and WMY and the top JNT players, it's moot to argue over this. Even SXN had reservations after Winter's breakouts about players getting used to her style eventually. Still well over 2 years of uncertainty and time is against Winter, which was also pointed out by TT-News users. Look at Hashimoto, or even Calderano.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

i do love Hashimoto but she doesn't have the killer FH of Sabine else she'd be well inside WR10. Her FH or BH are dangerous but mostly because of surprise unlike Sabine who has always had a huge FH, maybe the most powerful among all women. (not the most consistent though)

its normal for Calderano to cool down this year after 2025. He will be strong again in 2027 and 2028.

 

[zeio]

i do love Hashimoto but she doesn't have the killer FH of Sabine else she'd be well inside WR10. Her FH or BH are dangerous but mostly because of surprise unlike Sabine who has always had a huge FH, maybe the most powerful among all women. (not the most consistent though)

its normal for Calderano to cool down this year after 2025. He will be strong again in 2027 and 2028.

As for WD, keep in mind Winter/WY lost to Sawettabut/Paranang at China Smash 2025, the same THA players that took out IND and PRK to finish with WT bronze at Asian Games 2022 and handed FRA a tearful 1st-round exit at Paris 2024 (which I foreshadowed not once but twice). For IND, the role model that inspired Winter, they got taken out by SGP w/ 3 young players at ATTTC 2025 (here, here).

Given the above, folks can't just look at the wins and ignore the losses. That's why CNT is so hard to beat as a team.

 

[Ninja26Go]

Very interested to see how this will play out. Makes sense considering she's forehand oriented. Also brings a new type of funky rubber player to the table since the Indian girls right now are all backhand oriented. Sreeja probably has the best forehand but nowhere near as dynamic and athletic as Winter.

I absolutey hate these antispin clowns. They are so no skill and just rely on these dodgy rubbers. just ban it already.