United States Smash 2026, Los Angeles, 6/26-7/5

[NextLevel]

Wow Sidorenko getting all the lucky breaks, takes game 7 12:10

That has been a theme even in the matches he wins by good margins lol. I guess the harder he works, the luckier he gets, because to be fair, a lot of his luck comes from his never-die attitude.

 

[quanghuysk]

Adam is crying for Sidorenko

 

[Kopp]

In the post match interview Sidorenko indirectly said that Truls was playing mind games against him.

 

[NextLevel]

Bobrow called Sidorenko a forehand dominant player. I beg to differ .

He is powerful from both sides, and very complete. But complete players like that are forehand players by definition, same with Sora and Wang Chuqin. It is the ones that sometimes struggle to defend the middle or counterloop with forehand like Harimoto and Lin Shidong or the ones that win a lot of points on backhand to backhand like Felix and LJK that start getting the backhand names lol.

 

[zeio]

Table tennis philosopher Harimoto: 0-3 or 3-4 doesn't make any difference. Staying injury-free does.

Things started going south for Moregard after the cry from the pain in his playing arm?

MS SF
Moregard WR3 (3) 3-1 -> 3-4 Sidorenko WR37 (4, -8, 5, 3, -9, -4, -10)
G7 29 Moregard had to replace his racket after table hit (can't rule out gamesmanship), 89, 810 Moregard hit his hand on the table edge, 1010, 1012 endline edge for Sidorenko

 

[NetProphet]

In the post match interview Sidorenko indirectly said that Truls was playing mind games against him.

And itt almost worked! 🙂

 

[FIXPOINT]

Scheduled Matches:
All times are local time.
Live streaming: https://www.youtube.com/wttglobal

Sun, 5th Jul 2026
19:00 WS Final SUN Yingsha(CHN) - KUAI Man(CHN)
20:00 MS Final Sora MATSUSHIMA(JPN) - Vladimir SIDORENKO(AIN)

 

[latej]

I wish he wins and then simply doesn't attend the ceremony! He owes that to us...

But it will be hard, Sora is great.

 

[NextLevel]

Table tennis philosopher Harimoto: 0-3 or 3-4 doesn't make any difference. Staying injury-free does.

Things started going south for Moregard after the cry from the pain in his playing arm?

MS SF
Moregard WR3 (3) 3-1 -> 3-4 Sidorenko WR37 (4, -8, 5, 3, -9, -4, -10)
G7 29 Moregard had to replace his racket after table hit (can't rule out gamesmanship), 89, 810 Moregard hit his hand on the table edge, 910, 911 endline edge for Sidorenko

1. The score is wrong in the notes - it was 9-10, 10-10, 10-12, endline for Sidorenko.
2. 0-3 and 3-4 is a difference because it speaks to the ability of the player to solve the problems posed by the opponents in real time, though Truls had the advantage of knowing Sidorenko and playing him recently. Just like Vlad had the advantage of having played Shinozuka in Champions LEague and beating him already. At this point, may be Sora is beating Harimoto 3-0 in practice matches for all we know...

 

[NextLevel]

I wish he wins and then simply doesn't attend the ceremony! He owes that to us...

But it will be hard, Sora is great.

His victory speech about being unable to play WTT events and having dreams where he won a big one and then waking up to acknowledge it was a dream made me happier for him knowing how sad he must have been in those days.

Sora has an edge, but Vlad is also a lefty so that helps a little. Vlad is not going to give Sora strawberries to tee off on, that is for sure and it isn't clear who is the more powerful player.

I hope the final is great.

 

[joshmak10]

Not saying you are incorrect but here's the current Top 15:
1 WANG Chuqin
2 Tomokazu HARIMOTO
3 Truls MOREGARD
4 Felix LEBRUN
5 LIN Shidong
6 Sora MATSUSHIMA
7 LIN Yun-ju
8 Hugo CALDERANO
9 JANG Woo-jin
10 QIU Dang
11 WEN Ruibo
12 Alexis LEBRUN
13 Benedikt DUDA
14 Anders LIND
15 Darko JORGIC

Who would you say he is a more complete player than?

Im not here to lean on this one way or the other, I don't know Sidorenko or half of the players on this list well enough but given that Sidorenko has beaten Jorgic, Karlsson, Assar, Poret before his streak this week I'm kinda interested in what people think his ceiling is?

I definitely think he’s a more complete player than Darko and Duda. Lind is a hard measure given his unique playstyle. Otherwise I don’t think he’s better than any of the other top 15

 

[Kopp]

And itt almost worked! 🙂

It was. Sidorenko should have taken more time before each serve to disrupt Truls' momentum. IMO

 

[NextLevel]

I definitely think he’s a more complete player than Darko and Duda. Lind is a hard measure given his unique playstyle. Otherwise I don’t think he’s better than any of the other top 15

This is not about being the better player, this is about being the complete player. Usually, the move that separates a complete player from an incomplete player at the top level is the ability to pivot and hit the inside out forehand - Vlad has a good backhand and short game so that is not up for debate. If we really want to do this going off NP's ranking list, the simplest way to do the test is this - can the player he is being compared to do a pivot forehand thirdball kill?

NOTE: Probably not is not accepting that Vlad is less complete, it is saying he isn't definitely more complete.

1. Probably not.
2. Obviously more complete,
3. Probably not.
4. Obviously more complete,
5. Obviously more complete.
6. Probably not.
7. Probably not,.
8. Probably not.
9. Probably not.
10. Probably not.
11. Obviously more complete,
12. Probably not.
13. Probably not.
14. Probably not.
15. Obviously more complete,

 

[IntegrateDan]

If Sidorenko wins, he could jump into the top 10 with those 2000 points but for sure he's top 20 now with the 1400 points for being a finalist!

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

ya, wow... Sora still bringing his A-game out here and Sidorenko vs Truls was something else...

Sora vs Sidorenko, what a treat!

 

[shaibu]

He is powerful from both sides, and very complete. But complete players like that are forehand players by definition, same with Sora and Wang Chuqin. It is the ones that sometimes struggle to defend the middle or counterloop with forehand like Harimoto and Lin Shidong or the ones that win a lot of points on backhand to backhand like Felix and LJK that start getting the backhand names lol.

My post was just a reaction to this point

 

[zeio]

A Tieba user nailed it before the match against Shinozuka when many didn't believe in Sidorenko, citing H2H against Moregard and F. Lebrun. The OP also projected that Lind would get crushed by Matsushima.

From a screenshot of Miguvideo live stream in another Tieba post, many viewers knew Moregard was at it again with his gamesmanship in the decider against Sidorenko.

俄罗斯小哥这么能杀生估计能进决赛 (This Russian guy is so good at killing raw [unfamiliar players], he might reach the final)
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/10842279005
西多伦科要成为史上最强黑马吗？一黑到底进决赛 (Will Sidorenko become the biggest dark horse in history? Will he go all the way to the final?)
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/10846460934

 

[shaibu]

WTT is uploading the full Sato - Kuai Man match, as a pretend live feed:

No VPN needed for US viewers.

 

[NextLevel]

My post was just a reaction to this point

Oh, the Russian backhand tradition is well and alive lol.

 

[NextLevel]

If Sidorenko wins, he could jump into the top 10 with those 2000 points but for sure he's top 20 now with the 1400 points for being a finalist!

So we will get to see him at Champions events - that's one of the best things for this year. And maybe Harimoto and Shinozuka can seek vengeance...