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Definitely, Guo YueHua stands in a special class. But arguably, it was before the modern developments of the backhand, it would be interesting to have seen him play in era of evolved backhand technique.

I made my point that opinion is not fact. If we can't even agree on the dictionary definitions of what facts are, then there is no need to discuss. I mean you have a right to your opinions but not a right to your facts. And there are no facts that show that Hayata has less potential than...

Wait, so based on facts widely accepted in China and Japan, who has played better the past 4 years, Hirano or Hayata? Based on facts widely accepted in China and Japan list all the players that are supposed to retire. Maybe facts has a different definition on China and Japan from the Western...

No, he is not, he is holding Hirano to the standard that zeio's famous Tieba users have set for her.

Waldner doesn't have that much competition unless we are focused only on the top of Grand Slams. It is easy to underestimate Waldner when you don't take into account *all* the medals that were not gold. Olympic Singles: 1992 Gold, 2000 Silver (2004 4th place) WTTC Singles: 1987 Silver, 1989...

That's the problem with comparing people at the highest level of an activity - even people that are far ahead of the rest of us can be made to look average by comparing them exclusively to people at that end of the bell curve, while forgetting that compared to the average joe in their sport...

There is as much money on the embedded side of the sport and TT also has some limitations as a spectacle. But I agree that people should stop just doing that has already been done, there should be some risk taking to get more people into the sport, including variants that may not be popular...

There is something to be said for winning key matches and events where the pressure is higher, so no not just world tours, World Championship matches, 3 times in a row, and only started winning after that player retired. But your view is also part of the full picture. Just as zeio's is. But...

Humility (partly feigned and partly motivational) is taken as literal truth. Is this the level of reasoning we are using here?

Harimoto is entiled to his opinion as are many others, and I can see the value in his opinion. It is always difficult to compare across eras, but just by every statistical metric we use to quantify careers in the modern era, ML is the GOAT. You can argue it away all you want, Harimoto is...

Look at Cheng I Ching today - playing great table tennis. Last year at WTTC 2023, she had a tremendous lost lead/choke vs Chen Xingtong that may have cost her a medal though she would have had to beat an out of form Wang Manyu to get it. But her heroic struggles should be celebrated, not just...

I thought that since he is playing Olympic singles that they would conspire to boost his ranking. But it is clear that they really believe he has a path to redeeming himself or a plan B. Or maybe they may get separation of nationality back into the Olympic draw. So no, I didn't feel he would...

Oh, most people can tell the difference between speculation and reality, I will trust their judgement and accept your right and mine to draw whatever conclusions we want. But my position has always been that Hayata, Hirano. Harimoto, Ito and Ishikawa are all players working hard and doing...

I think he needs these events for his Olympic seeding.

Hype her how so? She played well and lost as expected. I am surprised that FZD lost, things have really changed on CNT.

Samsonov did it for years, Bernie and Ding did the Tomahawk. It is not *that* awkward. But it does require changes.

This is what I mean when I say players don't really want to change the culture. They can fix some of this by actually making some of these things illegal and adjusting their body orientation a bit. However history and tradition and refusing to retain their serves are still king

Unusual bounces can be returned or created to sometimes display an even higher level of skill in the game. Such is life and table tennis.

Definitely many are invested, but compensation often speaks to the quality of individuals you can get to show up, sometimes on short notice. Many invested people are retirees, which may not be quite what you want/need for professional umpiring at a world class level in a competitive sport...

Tennis umpires can make over $1K per match. If something even close to that was often possible in TT, a lot would change immediately.