ITTF World Masters Gangneun (Korea) 2026

[NetProphet]

What is this?

 

[Metaxa]

What is this?

Cast-iron skillet...

 

[JackJohnson]

Damn, thats a very long handle haha 😂

 

[Matteones]

When the ball seems unreachable on the far forehand, a quick release and grip again of the bat for a surprising extreme hook top spin. And extreme chop on the far backhand

 

[Tom Lodziak]

If you'd like a flavour of what the tournament was like, here's a video about my experience...

 

[NetProphet]

If you'd like a flavour of what the tournament was like, here's a video about my experience...

Great video Tom, thanks for sharing.
Such a shame that the singles was a farce.
The tournament organisers need a hard slap with a wet fish.
To put players through that singles mess after they travel all that distance is really a disgrace.
At least you got some matches in the doubles but that's a completely different game.

It seemed like you were lacking a bit of a hard edge and belief in some close moments. From what I saw you could (and would have deserved to win) those tight matches, no imposter syndrome required!
I'd imagine it's just a right of passage though (and many of us would likely be the very same) but now this experience will have you better prepared for the next time!

Even booking and travelling is an act of bravery imo and many ppl back out at that stage.
And that's an awesome and inspirational roundup at the end!
Congratulations and well done on everything 👏

 

[JackJohnson]

What exactly happened with the singles?

 

[NetProphet]

What exactly happened with the singles?

It's in the video but his 4 person group was reduced to a 2 person one and so he played only one group match instead of 3.

 

[JackJohnson]

It's in the video but his 4 person group was reduced to a 2 person one and so he played only one group match instead of 3.

So does that mean both him and the other player made it through to next rounds or only top of group goes to the next round?

 

[NextLevel]

So does that mean both him and the other player made it through to next rounds or only top of group goes to the next round?

4 in a group, top 2 go to the upper half knockout, bottom 2 go to the lower half knockout. So he and the other player went to the top half and the lower half had players who were defaulted.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

as for my tournament, after day1 for singles, day2 was for doubles. The fact there were 2 teams composed of mixed nationalities and not coming from great TT countries made us quite optimistic.
First pair was belgium LP + australian guy and we won easily even though we dropped G3 from lack of focus.
Second pair were 2 guys from Canada, a 2-wing looper + a Chinese penholder. We lost 1-3. I think individually there were a little bit above us but as soon as we were in a rally we had chances and they were making mistakes in opener when we managed to push agressively. I would say the defeat is more my fault, as the 2-wing looper guy had a long and slow but heavy backspin serve that I always wanted to loop. I should have given up and push instead, that was very very stupid. Only managed to attack it with success in G4 when it was too late. (had to use the power of my feet better)
For the 3rd pair, it was a Polish guy and a local Korean guy who was so bad no buddy wanted to play with him (joking a bit, but there is some truth in it, looking at the many such double pairs). They had lost their 2 first matches, making many mistakes so we were expecting an easy victory with too much arrogance. And what happened next ?
We just let them play and did nothing, thinking they'd give the match away. But suddenly they made no mistakes and they crushed us 4-11 4-11 sending loud tchooos to our ears... My coach GC then came and asked WTF ? I felt quite ashamed and started to wish i wasn't there. But there was no turning back and we started to fight and play much much better finally. We had a 10-8 lead in G3 which we wasted away with poor finishing, then it was deuce and match point for them ! I was sure we would lose at this point...
But we didn't ! we saved 2 other match points in a very tense deuce and got it 15-13. As if often the case in this situation we won 11-3 easily in G4. But we got tense again in G5, and they got another match point at 10-9. This time they attacked first, i put back a high ball on the table barely, they followed with a strong attack, and my buddy hit it with the side of his racket. The Korean guy shouted a big tchooo in victory

but after flying sky high, the ball came back on the table, and the Korean guy was surprised and missed the penalty. We won the next 2 points and completed the comical comeback...

TBH if we had lost 2-3, it would have been a 3-way tie, and we would have finished 2nd thanks to game count (but would have been eliminated if we had lost 0-3 and not saved all those match points). But i wouldn't have been able to see my coach in the eyes if we had lost this match

---

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Day3 was a rest day. tried to visit the beach side with friends, but could barely walk, the hip pain was at its worst. I was limping and had to sit down and wait for them most of the time. In the evening, our group went to a Korean seafood restaurant. I'll sum it up by saying its the first time and last time for me to go to eat in a Korean seafood restaurant.
Then i forgot that i had actually registered and paid for the Gala Dinner event which was on that day, but no regrets, it was a much more fun experience here.

Day4 was the consolation tournament in singles. Due for having topped my group in Rome in 2024, and finished bravely 3rd, I was seeded N1 ! but played an Indian guy with LP in BH but staying at the table blocking, which is a very bad matchup for me. I saw the guy beated a French guy in his group which was rated only a little bit below me so i knew it would be a difficult match.
I really put all my focus and my tchooos in that match and produced the best that i could given the circumstances. My plan was to try to manage to not play fast (not my nature) and try to produce as much spin as I could. I stuck mostly with BH and YG serve throughout the match.

In G1, came back from 8-10 to win it 12-10. in G2 9-9 but poor play in the end. in G3 again 8-10 but won it 12-10. in G4 again 9-9 but lost 9-11.
in G5 i was 8-5 but missed a receive then started to choke and made 2 poor plays with my serve. and it was 8-10 again. I did it already twice and with my serve to go , i believed I could do it again, it was 10-10 and 11-10 matchpoint for me. Then with the serve, i hesitated between switching to another serve or still go with the same serve i had been using from 8-10 in all games. i stayed with the same strategy but because i was too nervous my serve was not as good as i wanted it to be which allowed for him to receive with LP to my middle i made the topspin but it wasn't very good, he blocked it straight a bit away to my FH but i was slow and caught it too late and too low 11-11 and he scored the last 2 points.
It was a very very big disappointment, from 1 point to being able to boast i have steel balls and can come back 3 times from 8-10 to lose in R1 as N1 seed... Kudos to the opponent for having stayed calm and never having panicked.

As for me i managed to stick to the plan and keep a good attitude throughout all the match, but my biggest regret was not having been able to put my BH topspin into play today (except on receiving) which is my best quality shot when its on. i made a few early mistakes in that shot so i switching mostly to pushing or just blocking on this side but i know that to beat this kind of players easily i need this shot. But i didn't have the feeling and the footwork to do it on that day, and when i tried a few times again in the match it just cost me another point.

---
Day5
I don't know why we deserve that honor but we were allowed to play on a central court with live TV YouTube broadcasting. probably the number of viewers can be counted with my hand but my waifu saw it live.

The pair was a leftie Swedish guy and a Korean guy which did better than us in singles. The Swedish guy won his group but lost early in the main draw. The Korean guy was much worse than him.

So i expected it to be difficult but not impossible. Again my problem was with some poor receiving , notably in G1 i gave away 2 points because with the excitation i forgot the guy was leftie ! The main problem in G1 and G2, my buddy was totally stressed by the TV and it was a disaster while i was doing rather OK. In G3 finally he managed to play better and immediately the score was better 9-11 and we could have won it if not for easy mistakes.
---
So thats it for my tournament. Results wise its quite poor, but the day before the competition started, i really thought i would spend the week in the hospital so I'm grateful that i could have played and participated.
I had some good fun supporting all my buddies, and see my coach GC get the gold medal in Mixed Doubles, after his big disappointment in singles QF (came back from 0-2 to a 8-3 lead in G5 and totally choked). I had quite some good fun outside the court as well.

Went to see the doc and after X-ray recommended a 1month rest, but wtf does he know ? ill listen to my body. there is a local team competition on Jul11 and i want to play it.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

If you'd like a flavour of what the tournament was like, here's a video about my experience...

Hi Tom, it was nice to meet you in Gangneung ( i took a selfie with you and you told me your tournament)

At least you played against a top player and did well getting a game out of another very good player, a very good achievement, and your doubles were far from being a disaster ! you did play very well.

BTW in your videos, the 2 things that i see most damaging to your game

- your serve quality is ok, but its a bit too obvious, you need to be able to make it more difficult for the opponent to read it and be able to vary more the placement and spin
- you want to play attack attack attack , you are like me, but we're not young anymore and i see that most of FH misses is because youre not positioned well (too slow) and when that happens you do funny things with your swing, you're jammed and swing goes up instead of forward, you swing with the shoulder, or you dont use your waist and ball ends up going left too much.

So if you're not in a good position, play the ball a bit later to give you a chance to adjust, and put it back safely with spin. i also believe your grip is not relaxed enough and you should open your wrist more to allow you to play with more spin and prevent the ball to going left too much when you're jammed.

As for me, because i can't move as good as I used to, i chose to develop my BH more.

just my 2 cents.

 

[Tyce]

Hi Tom, it was nice to meet you in Gangneung ( i took a selfie with you and you told me your tournament)

At least you played against a top player and did well getting a game out of another very good player, a very good achievement, and your doubles were far from being a disaster ! you did play very well.

BTW in your videos, the 2 things that i see most damaging to your game

- your serve quality is ok, but its a bit too obvious, you need to be able to make it more difficult for the opponent to read it and be able to vary more the placement and spin
- you want to play attack attack attack , you are like me, but we're not young anymore

That bit in the video puzzled me so hard! Why would you want to change your game for a tournament? If your strength is putting the ball on the table indefinitely and moving the opponent around, why not just stick with that?

Rather than switching up to attack, focus on moving your opponent around better, improve placement consistency and add a pinch more pace on blocks.

Anyway, that's @Tom Lodziak, nice to read your story @Takkyu_wa_inochi and I hope you have a good recovery

 

[Tom Lodziak]

Hi Tom, it was nice to meet you in Gangneung ( i took a selfie with you and you told me your tournament)

At least you played against a top player and did well getting a game out of another very good player, a very good achievement, and your doubles were far from being a disaster ! you did play very well.

BTW in your videos, the 2 things that i see most damaging to your game

- your serve quality is ok, but its a bit too obvious, you need to be able to make it more difficult for the opponent to read it and be able to vary more the placement and spin
- you want to play attack attack attack , you are like me, but we're not young anymore and i see that most of FH misses is because youre not positioned well (too slow) and when that happens you do funny things with your swing, you're jammed and swing goes up instead of forward, you swing with the shoulder, or you dont use your waist and ball ends up going left too much.

So if you're not in a good position, play the ball a bit later to give you a chance to adjust, and put it back safely with spin. i also believe your grip is not relaxed enough and you should open your wrist more to allow you to play with more spin and prevent the ball to going left too much when you're jammed.

As for me, because i can't move as good as I used to, i chose to develop my BH more.

just my 2 cents.

You make some good observations. I'm at a stage in my game that I know if I want to reach a higher level I need to be more positive. Just keeping the ball on the table doesn't work against very strong players. But in the transition from being a more controlled player to a more attacking player, there are many, many gaps in technique, footwork, positioning etc. But I will keep on trying to make small improvements bit by bit and see where it leads. Nice to meet you in Korea and I hope your hip recovers to allow you to play and train more.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

You make some good observations. I'm at a stage in my game that I know if I want to reach a higher level I need to be more positive. Just keeping the ball on the table doesn't work against very strong players. But in the transition from being a more controlled player to a more attacking player, there are many, many gaps in technique, footwork, positioning etc. But I will keep on trying to make small improvements bit by bit and see where it leads. Nice to meet you in Korea and I hope your hip recovers to allow you to play and train more.

yes but there is a wider range of options. In your age group its a bit different still, the top players are very very good and play aggresively, but in my age group, just next after yours, the strongest players don't attack attack attack, they play with a lot of control, they just are very very consistent and make no easy mistakes at all.

They still are positive and active, but rarely go with 100% shot, more like 70-80% instead and they don't try to play every FH with fast timing , they wait for a chance in the rally or they go hard on a 3rd ball after a good serve.

Look at the mens final in 50s, they do nothing too crazy and the Russian guy technique looks awkward especially FH, but they are in good control and play effectively.