ITTF WTTTC Finals London 2026, 4/28-5/10

[piligrim]

Our team finished last. I’m cautiously optimistic, as we managed a 50/50 record. That said, I was playing against opponents who were between 14 and 29 years younger than me.

Wasn't better to watch World Teams Championships?

 

[kindof99]

Wasn't better to watch World Teams Championships?

even just hitting ten minutes on the table is better than watching any tournaments....

 

[kindof99]

even just hitting ten minutes on the table is better than watching any tournaments....

in other word, playing with sweat yourself is way way better than sweating for any professional or any team...

 

[travelt123]

Does winning the championship mean CNT still very strong and continue to dominate? My feel is maybe not. LJK will retire soon and LSD could not solve his technique problem here. WCQ is still the only one standing for CNT ATM. We will see how WRB progresses in the near future, another WCQ or another XP.

They're in a transition phase but winning this Championship helps them save face and borrow more time to develop the younger players.

 

[dewnyc]

in other word, playing with sweat yourself is way way better than sweating for any professional or any team...

I was inspired to play after watching but then reality quickly hit lol

 

[NextLevel]

in other word, playing with sweat yourself is way way better than sweating for any professional or any team...

Yes, but not the way you are thinking about. You can actually maintain your level watching good table tennis without playing it as often and get worse hitting the ball with challenging yourself.

 

[NextLevel]

They're in a transition phase but winning this Championship helps them save face and borrow more time to develop the younger players.

France is still extremely interesting. Felix, Flavien, and any of Alexis, Gauzy, Poret, and even beyond that a few others make for extremely tantalizing possibilities. China usually makes their talent mature into superheroes, but they don't have anyone in the pipeline that is clearly at the level of Felix or Flavien (apologies to Li Hechen and Wen Ruibo) so this will remain interesting up tilll 2030 I think.

 

[Metaxa]

Wasn't better to watch World Teams Championships?

Nothing beats a game of table tennis with friends.

 

[Shine]

Depending on their current tier (Elite B/Elite C, Full Time/Part Time), they could get double/triple the raise (Elite A). DHK is Elite A+.

Of note here is that the athlete/team must have defeated 1 athlete/team to qualify (W/O doesn't count), which is similar to the requirements for CNT players to be considered Olympic/World Champions. So touch luck for ZQH [(ost his match) and XP (benched throughout) if CHN raises the championship this time.

Elite Training Grant Criteria 2026-2027
https://www.hksi.org.hk/support-to-...inancial-support/elite-training-grant/details

ETG Recipients List 2026-2027
https://www.hksi.org.hk/recipient-l...lite-training-grant#accessibletabscontent0-29
https://www.hksi.org.hk/f/recipient_list_category/5326/ETG Recipients list 2026-27 - web (4.26).pdf

Does China have a similar system with different salary tiers for their players? Do you have any insider info? I knew that ML/XX and the other big stars used to earn more from the CSL, which is to be expected, but I didn't know how it worked for monthly renumeration and benefits.

 

[Shine]

8 consecutive point! Talk about choking, or maybe LJK is a master in psychology.

I wonder what Tony and the table tennis coaches he knows in China have to say about this "choke" from Harimoto. I remember they had a lot to say about Wang Chuqin consecutive run of points lost against ZQH a few years ago.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Some random final thoughts.

Miwa had a nice breakthrough match against WMY.

Hina had a frustrating final, but what can you do against SYS when she plays like that. OTOH, Hina scored more points against SYS than Miwa did. Hina needs to get stronger, recover faster between shots, maintain balance, and though she usually has high quality serves, occasionally they become too easily attacked if she's not careful.

Shout out to Kim Nayeong for taking SYS to a decider losing 11-9 in the 5th.

Sabine has gotten even better taking Hina to the decider. In the past you could say she has trouble with Japanese players, but the way she played here I suspect she'll be beating some of them.

On the one hand, the Japanese men did get a silver medal which hasn't happened since 2016. On the other hand, I'm not getting National Head Coach vibes from Seiya Keishikawa. He barely says anything at all during Tomo's timeouts. I also don't get why seasoned players Hiroto Shinozuka and Yuta Tanaka [Edit: Yukiya Uda, thx ai_yo] didn't play at all throughout the 15 day tournament. Thus, not providing any relief for the top 3. Coach Nakazawa of the women's team was able to play young newcomer Rin Mende twice.

Tomo's serve, although high in quality, lacks variation. Lots of underspin to the middle was too predictable and allowed opponents to set up their own tactics.

Al;exis Lebrun needs a sports psychiatrist specifically assigned to him.

Flavien Coton is making a great case for LA2028.

I think there are legitimate concerns about the format. A grueling Group stage for 1A immediately followed by KO stage.

 

[tt-clips]

Some random final thoughts.

Miwa had a nice breakthrough match against WMY.

Hina had a frustrating final, but what can you do against SYS when she plays like that. OTOH, Hina scored more points against SYS than Miwa did. Hina needs to get stronger, recover faster between shots, maintain balance, and though she usually has high quality serves, occasionally they become too easily attacked if she's not careful.

Shout out to Kim Nayeong for taking SYS to a decider losing 11-9 in the 5th.

Sabine has gotten even better taking Hina to the decider. In the past you could say she'll has trouble with Japanese players, but the way she played here I suspect she'll be beating some of them.

On the one hand, the Japanese men did get a silver medal which hasn't happened since 2016. On the other hand, I'm not getting National Head Coach vibes from Seiya Keishikawa. He barely says anything at all during Tomo's timeouts. I also don't get why seasoned players Hiroto Shinozuka and Yuta Tanaka didn't play at all throughout the 15 day tournament. Thus, not providing any relief for the top 3. Coach Nakazawa of the women's team was able to play young newcomer Rin Mende twice.

Tomo's serve, although high in quality, lacks variation. Lots of underspin to the middle was too predictable and allowed opponents to set up their own tactics.

Al;exis Lebrun needs a sports psychiatrist specifically assigned to him.

Flavien Coton is making a great case for LA2028.

I think there are legitimate concerns about the format. A grueling Group stage for 1A immediately followed by KO stage.

Yeah great to see Miwa playing so well, and SYS is just too strong.

With Sabine she was giving Hina a hard time with the antispin, but after going 2-0 down she figured it out and came back.

The Japanese men's coach was the complete opposite of Wang Hao! Seems like Wang Hao has really done his research into sports psychology for this event, his advice to LJK when he was 2-0 down vs Alexis was perfect.

 

[ai_yo]

I also don't get why seasoned players Hiroto Shinozuka and Yuta Tanaka didn't play at all throughout

Small correction but I agree on all points stated
*Yukiya Uda
Yuta Tanaka did not get selected for this tournament

 

[NetProphet]

Yeah great to see Miwa playing so well, and SYS is just too strong.

With Sabine she was giving Hina a hard time with the antispin, but after going 2-0 down she figured it out and came back.

The Japanese men's coach was the complete opposite of Wang Hao! Seems like Wang Hao has really done his research into sports psychology for this event, his advice to LJK when he was 2-0 down vs Alexis was perfect.

Is there a transcript of what he said to Liang during the Alexis match? Would be interesting to see that

 

[zeio]

Does China have a similar system with different salary tiers for their players? Do you have any insider info? I knew that ML/XX and the other big stars used to earn more from the CSL, which is to be expected, but I didn't know how it worked for monthly renumeration and benefits.

Yes, they do. They give out certs (see Wikipedia for a pic) to players who have reached certain tiers. XP is a world champion but not considered one in China for not having been fielded (less benefits after retirement back in his province, unlike ZQH even though he lost which I thought a win was needed).

运动员技术等级管理办法 (Management Method for Athlete Technical Levels)
https://www.sport.gov.cn/n315/n20001395/c27632556/content.html
运动健将
https://baike.baidu.com/item/运动健将/4180550
運動員技術等級
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/运动员技术等级

关于我国体育运动项目统计世界冠军、奥运会冠军（金牌）的管理办法 (Management Method for Statistics on World Champions and Olympic Champions (Gold Medals) in Chinese Sports)
https://www.sport.gov.cn/gdnps/html/zhengce/content.jsp?id=25523454

第三条 我国体育运动项目统计为世界冠军的必须符合以下三条：
...
　　二、世界冠军必须是在单项国际联合会正式批准举办的世界锦标赛、世界杯赛或世界杯系列赛总决赛中获得(各项目确认世界冠军的大赛名称附后)，必须是上场正式比赛的运动员，并有大会授予的金牌或证书。

(Article 3. To be recognized as a world champion for a sport in my country, it must meet the following three conditions:

... II. A world champion must have won the title at a World Championships, World Cup, or World Cup series grand finals officially approved by the international federation of the sport (the names of the major competitions for which world champions are confirmed are attached), must be an athlete who participated in the official competition, and must have been awarded a gold medal or certificate by the organizing committee.)

 

[zeio]

Is there a transcript of what he said to Liang during the Alexis match? Would be interesting to see that

Wang Hao to Liang Jingkun: "You’ve Lost Already... It’s Not Bad You Got to Step On the Court... Cherish It!"
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...ou-got-to-step-on-the-court-cherish-it.39391/

 

[NextLevel]

Some random final thoughts.

Miwa had a nice breakthrough match against WMY.

Hina had a frustrating final, but what can you do against SYS when she plays like that. OTOH, Hina scored more points against SYS than Miwa did. Hina needs to get stronger, recover faster between shots, maintain balance, and though she usually has high quality serves, occasionally they become too easily attacked if she's not careful.

Shout out to Kim Nayeong for taking SYS to a decider losing 11-9 in the 5th.

Sabine has gotten even better taking Hina to the decider. In the past you could say she has trouble with Japanese players, but the way she played here I suspect she'll be beating some of them.

On the one hand, the Japanese men did get a silver medal which hasn't happened since 2016. On the other hand, I'm not getting National Head Coach vibes from Seiya Keishikawa. He barely says anything at all during Tomo's timeouts. I also don't get why seasoned players Hiroto Shinozuka and Yuta Tanaka [Edit: Yukiya Uda, thx ai_yo] didn't play at all throughout the 15 day tournament. Thus, not providing any relief for the top 3. Coach Nakazawa of the women's team was able to play young newcomer Rin Mende twice.

Tomo's serve, although high in quality, lacks variation. Lots of underspin to the middle was too predictable and allowed opponents to set up their own tactics.

Al;exis Lebrun needs a sports psychiatrist specifically assigned to him.

Flavien Coton is making a great case for LA2028.

I think there are legitimate concerns about the format. A grueling Group stage for 1A immediately followed by KO stage.

The team dynamics between the men's teams and the women's teams are very different and I think the Group stage for 1A explains a lot. Japan could field the benched players on the women's team and still win the silver, even with risk. Doing that on the men's team given no real preliminary rounds and trying to keep the team sharp ran some real risks. Sora didn't help things either with his play in the first match and then the loss of top group seeding to France made things worse as they got slightly better teams to play. Consider that China almost did the exact same thing.

 

[NetProphet]

Wang Hao to Liang Jingkun: "You’ve Lost Already... It’s Not Bad You Got to Step On the Court... Cherish It!"
https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/wang-hao-to-liang-jingkun-you’ve-lost-already-it’s-not-bad-you-got-to-step-on-the-court-cherish-it.39391/

My brain🤦 I had actually read this yesterday 😂
For some reason I was remembering it as having referred to 0-2 in the Harimoto match.
Is there a transcript from the Harimoto match also?

 

[crystalline]

Is there a transcript of what he said to Liang during the Alexis match? Would be interesting to see that

This video clip recorded one of the timeouts (likely in game 4 or 5 when Liang was gaining momentum), the one line Wang Hao was shouting that I would translate differently than the captioning here is this : ”打到这份儿上, 不是他说了算, 就是你说了算!”, instead of translating to “at this point, it’s not his game, it’s yours!”,
I would make it instead “you came this far already, either he’s da boss, or you are!!”

But to be honest I think people are over estimating a bit Wang Hao’s impact here (he deserves some credit of course); Liang knows what to do in these situations, he’s been through these many times before, he has a long history of success in winning in Teams events, he won the National Teams championship at age of 22…

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[igorponger]

Heh, admiration of cheaters seems a mental deviation. Is it not? Loki brand owned by WHao came down to infamous reputation for darefully distributing on market those nasty boosters in plenty.