Want to watch Albino Unicorn?

[Gozo Aruna]

Pardon for the click-bait. But I am not too far from the truth. To see Malaysian TT National Team in international action is akin to watching albino unicorn, i.e., they are rare. However, I am happy to present them in action during the WTT Feeder @ Antalya, Turkey. Enjoy.

For this event, my national contingent consisted of five men & five women players.

p/s The below are the two reasons I can think off why they hardly play at international event. It may be true or false, I don't know.
1. lack of funding. Plane tickets, hotel, food, who is going to pay for it?
2. slow in opening up after the Covid lockdown

 

[Gozo Aruna]

 

[Gozo Aruna]

At the time of writing this, three Malaysian Men Players are in the MD QF & two women players made it to R32 in the WS event. Video coming...

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

They played in world team champs last year and commonwealth games

how does TT work in Malaysia
are they club based or province based? ie where do each national player train

 

[Gozo Aruna]

They played in world team champs last year and commonwealth games

how does TT work in Malaysia
are they club based or province based? ie where do each national player train

Some things to know about Malaysia TT.

1. There is no ranking system like what is seen in USATT or European side of things.
2. There is no league play.
3. The National Players definitely belongs to some club. The most famous two clubs are Union TT ( partnered with Donic ) & Star Elite ( partnered with BTY ).
4. They train in their respective clubs, maybe there are centralized training when major tourney is upcoming.
5. They, the National Players cannot sustain 100% their income from playing TT, they have to do something else to survive. Some gives coaching, some become TT equipment salesperson to earn commission. Some have regular 9-5 jobs.
6. This is so different from badminton where the pro-players enjoy government funding and corporate sponsor. It is always a chicken or egg scenario. You don't have a player that win big tournament to start getting noticed hence money is not forthcoming. You don't have money, many things cannot be done. This is the sad reality.

p/s:
a) There are club level player like me who play in local tourney mainly.
b) There are state level player who represent their respective state / provice in National Level tourney
c) Then there are the top state level player who are chosen to represent the country in international tourney such as Commonwealth Games & WTT Feeder etc.
d) They are not too bad actually, in the previous Commonwealth Games, our players did manage to defeat Team India in the QF, beating the likes of Manika Batra, Sharath, Gunasekaran et al.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Our National Players uses mainly Donic products as Donic is the major sponsor.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Just now our MD just got into SF defeating their SGP rival 3-1.

I'll share the video if available in YT. The Choong / Wong pair played a superb game.

In the other MD QF, it was sad coz they have to give a walk-over due to injury.

In the WS, a player got through to the R16. She is a classical chopper.

Not too shabby for a team that seldom play in international events.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

As of today writing, only one Malaysian National Player is still in contention in WTT Feeder @ Antalya, Turkey:

1. Ms Alice Chang who is a classical chopper will be facing Miwa Harimoto of Japan in WS SF. Alice is what you could say as classical chopper because she seldom attack and rely 90% of the time on chopping with her pips to place the ball back onto the table. She plays like a wall. Despite her bulkiness, this girl can move, very good footwork she has.

2. The MD pair of Javern Choong / Wong Qi Shen met their end of the road in MD SF against the SGP pair of Issac Quek / Koen Pang. The Malaysian pair played well but they were just out-classed by the higher level SGP pair. Do note that Isaac Quek, the giant killer took down Matthias Falck & Sharath Achantal in the recently concluded SGP Smash event.

3. Some trivia: A clubmate of mine was sharing with me story while drinking piping hot milk tea and beef noodles that a few years ago, perhaps 4-5 years, this clubmate of mine had a chance to play against Master Wong who, at that time was a U15 category player in one of the local minor tourneys. He said, even at that time, when Wong is still at such a young age; his shots felt like bullet when it does land on one's hands / fingers.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

MD QF

 

[Gozo Aruna]

This is my national chopper who went all the way to WS SF and met Harimoto's younger sister and lost. Harimoto was just too strong and on another level.

Alice plays an ol'skool classical chopper style. There are two chopper in my national team; Alice who is playing above and a U15 who hail from the same town as I am.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

MD SF: SGP vs MAS

This match was intense with very fast & powerful rallies. Sometimes I could not even see the ball.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

This is my national chopper who went all the way to WS SF and met Harimoto's younger sister and lost. Harimoto was just too strong and on another level.

Alice plays an ol'skool classical chopper style. There are two chopper in my national team; Alice who is playing above and a U15 who hail from the same town as I am.

Li is actually pretty good against choppers
so very well done by Alice

 

[jammmail]

Cool game to watch.
Does she use pips on the BH - long or short?

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Li is actually pretty good against choppers
so very well done by Alice

After this event, I am sure her ( Alice's ) WTT rating is gonna overtake my country Top ranking woman player ( Karen ). She will most likely be my country No. 1 ranked woman player. How's that? A chopper for the number one spot. Now, that you seldom see everyday, ain't it?

@jammail,
Alice uses Long-Pips on her BH.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

After this event, I am sure her ( Alice's ) WTT rating is gonna overtake my country Top ranking woman player ( Karen ). She will most likely be my country No. 1 ranked woman player. How's that? A chopper for the number one spot. Now, that you seldom see everyday, ain't it?

@jammail,
Alice uses Long-Pips on her BH.

Yeah, thats cool

but these weekly ranking updates, rankings will change...weekly.

no matter who, they need to take part is heavy ranking point events, and try and get as far as possible to get those bigger ranking points. Since they only valid for a year, you need to be consistently spending money to get points. And since costs are all about the same, it is higher return to find contender series where there isn't strong opponents (like in Africa or South America). A few of those and that is guaranteed highest ranking for your country.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

This is a just concluded match between Singapore versus Malaysia ( 3rd Men Single in the Team Event for Gold Medal ).

Malaysian Wong Qi Shen is up against Singaporean Isaac Quek.
Remember Isaac defeated Sharath of India and Matthias Falck in WTT Singapore Smash 2023.

Enjoy.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

As rare as the albino unicorn, sometimes, once in a very long while you will see one or two of this very rare species out in the wild. Here, our Nation's second men single player is performing some exercise with a foreign player.

p/s As some more experienced forumers here had pointed out in the past, going to play in WTT event may be cost prohibitive. Nonetheless, a man's got to what is best for the Nation. Ask not what the Nation can do for you, but ask what you can do for your Nation.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

ITTF World Team Championship @ Busan, S. Korea

In two days time, the albino unicorns will make her rare appearance again. I'll be posting these rare albino unicorn games here. These albino unicorns barely made it into the draw, having been seeded No. 40 out of 40 teams qualified, but nonetheless, they are in and play they will against the best the world has to offer. These rare creature will face the onslaught of the likes of Hugo Calderano and Darko Jorgic. Will link YT vids her when it is available. Stay tuned.

 

[rbtitco]

ITTF World Team Championship @ Busan, S. Korea

In two days time, the albino unicorns will make her rare appearance again. I'll be posting these rare albino unicorn games here. These albino unicorns barely made it into the draw, having been seeded No. 40 out of 40 teams qualified, but nonetheless, they are in and play they will against the best the world has to offer. These rare creature will face the onslaught of the likes of Hugo Calderano and Darko Jorgic. Will link YT vids her when it is available. Stay tuned.

what an experience!

 

[Gozo Aruna]

MAS ( 2 ) vs CAN ( 3 ): Our little male unicorns lost the match despite winning MS1 & MS2. They do not have the mental fortitude to convert that advantage to a win. Sigh! They are doing what a seeded no. 40 team is suppose to do, that is losing.