Singapore Smash 2026, Singapore, 2/19-3/1

[NextLevel]

That's funny coming from the one who got into a stupid game of liking posts with Tony's Table Tennis and getting hung up on the so-called "insult" that is admitted by the very players, telling people they are free to disagree when the very person needed to be reminded about his inconsistent past comments on certain players, and yet OTOH, has consistently failed to respect the opinions of former/current players and coaches.

Again, these are things that if I felt thwy disqualified me, I would not participate in them and they are your opinion. At the risk of derailing threads and to protect this one, you are free to make your own thread to discuss all these things. But I do not do things I believe would disqualify me from being a moderator. Everyone has a different personal standard and the first thing in life is to pass your own personal standard. That said, if you wanr to continue this, open another thread or send a PM. We have a tournament in play and comments should largely be focused on that.

 

[zeio]

Didn't watch the match but surprised to hear Yu Ziyang is coaching now? I'm astonished he came back to the team as a coach given the "repression" allegations we've heard from Mr Agent.

Repression? LMAO

If anything, there is a public outcry over YZY's "parachuting" into the coaching team...

 

[NextLevel]

Didn't watch the match but surprised to hear Yu Ziyang is coaching now? I'm astonished he came back to the team as a coach given the "repression" allegations we've heard from Mr Agent.

Stockholm Syndrome is a thing. I hate to use that analogy but you make it sound like Franziska and Winter, to give examples from Germany, would have never worked with Germany's association because of unfair treatment they have perceived from such associations. Human relationships are far more complex than the caricature you are making out.

 

[Amit Mehta]

You make it sound like there is someone else who has beaten more than a few CNT women whether they wanted to settle or not. Her goal was to be the best player she could be and in many ways she ha achievements to show for it (see last post). We can agree to disagree but she has been extremely successful even with her style limitations. Losing to the CNT is what everyone does, hopefully Harimoto or someone else will break through but you can look at the rankings and tell me who has Mima done that much worse than in facing the Chinese.

She would not have gotten the opportunity to play much outside of China if she was on the Chinese national team because of the competition she would have faced and the limits of her style. Think about the trouble Mu Zi had making the team and then think about the Zhang Ruis and Sun Mingyangs and He Zhuojas of the world.

It is extremely hard to beat the CNT. Mima dedicated a lot of time to innovating and looking for things to use to challenge them. When people were writing her off, she got a good draw and used it to get to the WTTC singles medal that was missing from her collection in 2025. Comments like yours were made about her back then as well. If she wants to continue the fight, she will do so. If she does not, I unlike you will not hold it against her. Look at Hayata's reward for fighting - 2 deuce in the 5th wins skating uphill against the ice. And she is only at the quarter finals stage lol. And some think she was lucky to win those matches. Not that I disagree since I am not certain she would win rematches but that doesn't change the actual results. And the possibility they might not reproducible without a healthy dose of fortune.

That is exactly MY point, She is NOT here to just settle with few wins and happy being somewhere in the top 10 list. However in the last couple of years, Ito hasn’t been a threat as she used to be against the CNT players and that is what I miss and feel bit dismayed to see her not coming up with new answers.

 

[joshmak10]

That is exactly MY point, She is NOT here to just settle with few wins and happy being somewhere in the top 10 list. However in the last couple of years, Ito hasn’t been a threat as she used to be against the CNT players and that is what I miss and feel bit dismayed to see her not coming up with new answers.

So we are just going to ignore her bouncing back from a terrible 2023-24 to getting a world championship bronze, which included beating WYD?

 

[NextLevel]

That is exactly MY point, She is NOT here to just settle with few wins and happy being somewhere in the top 10 list. However in the last couple of years, Ito hasn’t been a threat as she used to be against the CNT players and that is what I miss and feel bit dismayed to see her not coming up with new answers.

I understand that feeling and frustration. But again, at the WTTC in 2025, did you predict her bronze? And what was the difference between then and now?

Who would you want her to be more like? Who has had sustained success beating the CNT despite countermeasures being taken against them after their initial successes?

 

[Shine]

Stockholm Syndrome is a thing. I hate to use that analogy but you make it sound like Franziska and Winter, to give examples from Germany, would have never worked with Germany's association because of unfair treatment they have perceived from such associations. Human relationships are far more complex than the caricature you are making out.

Just to be clear, the claim Tony made was that during their young years, WCQ was scheduled to face YZY in a regular friendly match, And the coach told Wang that if he loses, the team would have to do exercises/push-ups.
Sure it's a strange thing to propose, and there are questions of conflict of interest, but the CNT is no stranger to arranging asymmetric match-ups with stringent match-scores or conditions for whatever reason. I'm just using the word "repression" in jest here.

I know human relationships are complex. My point was with the way his career panned out (serving as practice partner particularly to ML for many years) it's only right to assume he wouldn't want much to do with the team moving forward. I don't have his comments on tape, but I assume he didn't feel too happy about the chances he got to play in tourneys outside China. Fan Siqi felt the same way.

Besides, He doesn't have the accolades/materials/training to be a national coach though. So he and the higher-ups must have a good relationship for him to bypass the provincial and Team B/C coaches waiting for their chance. So what's the narrative now? Repressed into nepotism with the higher-ups? Or This is all just a grand apology/compensation package for his devoted service to the team?

 

[NextLevel]

Just to be clear, the claim Tony made was that during their young years, WCQ was scheduled to face YZY in a regular friendly match, And the coach told Wang that if he loses, the team would have to do exercises/push-ups.
Sure it's a strange thing to propose, and there are questions of conflict of interest, but the CNT is no stranger to arranging asymmetric match-ups with stringent match-scores or conditions for whatever reason. I'm just using the word "repression" in jest here.

I know human relationships are complex. My point was with the way his career panned out (serving as practice partner particularly to ML for many years) it's only right to assume he wouldn't want much to do with the team moving forward. I don't have his comments on tape, but I assume he didn't feel too happy about the chances he got to play in tourneys outside China. Fan Siqi felt the same way.

Besides, He doesn't have the accolades/materials/training to be a national coach though. So he and the higher-ups must have a good relationship for him to bypass the provincial and Team B/C coaches waiting for their chance. So what's the narrative now? Repressed into nepotism with the higher-ups? Or This is all just a grand apology/compensation package for his devoted service to the team?

Don't want to litigate this too seriously but my main point is that nothing you have posted so far is inconsistent with Tony's story being true. Even people in the US who are cheated of 95% of a billion dollars are millionaires. Yu Ziyang doesnt have the accolades to be a head coach. But there are no special accolades to be a member of the coaching team that I remember but you can provide what you have. He is still a WJTTC champion and has played in the Super League for many years. I can agree that Tony was maybe focused on one part of the story but the part of the story he was focused on might have been important to share.

 

[NextLevel]

LYJ is just a terminator.

 

[Robin0910]

Does anyone know what sort of rubber Chen Yuanyu uses on the backhand? It seems to have a yellowish sponge. Is it H3 or perhaps a Stiga rubber?

 

[NextLevel]

When you serve to Lin Yun Ju, you feel more pressure than when you receive as horrible as both situations are.

 

[chandyrandy]

Patrick Franziska classic reverse sweep incoming, my goat just needed a banana buff

 

[NetProphet]

LYJ has a level of consistent excellence at the moment.
His remaining matches in this tournament will be fascinating because anyone wanting to beat him is going to need one hell of a performance!
Ma Long breezed to the final in Frankfurt in '23 before LYJ took him down in the final.
He's at that level again now and ready to take on WCQ imo.
While I don't really have favourites and am happy for who plays well enough to win I do kinda hope now that JYJ v WCQ is the final we see!

 

[NextLevel]

LYJ has a level of consistent excellence at the moment.
His remaining matches in this tournament will be fascinating because anyone wanting to beat him is going to need one hell of a performance!
Ma Long breezed to the final in Frankfurt in '23 before LYJ took him down in the final.
He's at that level again now and ready to take on WCQ imo.
While I don't really have favourites and am happy for who plays well enough to win I do kinda hope now that JYJ v WCQ is the final we see!

I feel that way but clearly Franziska is showing he is not invincible and can be beaten with hus own strategy lol.

That said he might become the poster boy for what slowing your blade down can do for you lol....

 

[zeio]

MS QF
Violent LYJ (8) 4-1 Franziska (7, 13, 7, -8, 7)

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/calderano-signs-with-joola-139.38480/post-566237
米橙珊 下半区感觉是老盒的天下
IP属地:湖南来自Android客户端31楼2026-02-27 15:03收起回复
(The lower half of the draw seems to be in the bag for Old Carton)
晏疏皖0IE7a5: 前提是老盒不能跳楼
2026-2-27 15:14回复
(The premise is that Old Carton doesn't jump off the building)
米橙珊: 回复 晏疏皖0IE7a5 :老盒跳楼感觉就是老云，他一般不跳楼。
2026-2-27 15:18回复
(I feel that if Old Carton jumped off the building then it's Old Yun. He usually doesn't jump off the building)
晏疏皖0IE7a5: 回复 米橙珊 : 同意
2026-2-27 15:26回复
(Agreed)

 

[Metaxa]

When you serve to Lin Yun Ju, you feel more pressure than when you receive as horrible as both situations are.

I am very pleased with LYJ. And indeed, he has been playing very consistently lately. I am happy. His forehand has improved even more, but his backhand timing remains superior. Hopefully the semi-final against Truls and the final against WCQ.

 

[JackJohnson]

umpires making too many wild guesses on those serves
View attachment 40545

Always that same umpire as well who get the calls wrong. It was so funny that WCQ who usually gets accused of doing illegal serves overturned 2 of his serves through TTR that the umpire thought were illegal one of them was around 25.5 and then another one I think was around 27.

It’s fine when umpires make mistakes but when it happens all the time to the point where it’s the same umpire making the same mistakes might be time for WTT/ITTF to revoke that ITTF/WTT umpire license, it’s always her every time.

Ronald still the best umpiring this tournament so far.

 

[JackJohnson]

Lin Shidong loses to anyone playing inspired table tennis these days. Things are not looking good because I foresee his ranking dropping drastically over the course of this year. Who knows what his ranking is gonna prior to the Olympics. Who plays second singles? I don't think CYY's performance here is a good omen of things to come. He's just having a good tournament. The men's team are in a world of trouble imo. The women's team will be fine until 2032.

At this rate he won’t even be 2nd singles spot for CNT. It’s too risky for CNT to select him at the Olympics singles cause lets say LSD makes it to the semi’s theres a good chance Felix might be there. They need to bring FZD back, at the moment I still don’t have complete trust in WCQ that he can medal in Singles at the Olympics.

 

[JackJohnson]

Does anyone know what sort of rubber Chen Yuanyu uses on the backhand? It seems to have a yellowish sponge. Is it H3 or perhaps a Stiga rubber?

Hybrid K3 I think.

 

[NextLevel]

At this rate he won’t even be 2nd singles spot for CNT. It’s too risky for CNT to select him at the Olympics singles cause lets say LSD makes it to the semi’s theres a good chance Felix might be there. They need to bring FZD back, at the moment I still don’t have complete trust in WCQ that he can medal in Singles at the Olympics.

LA is in 2028. Lin Shidong has Harimoto issues but issues are not just about today