World Table Tennis Championships 2023

[Kopp]

Interesting WTTC this year. All double event finals are between China and other countries.

 

[JJ Ng]

Do you think Harimoto will ever switch to D09c or tacky rubber? Or will he permanently use his D05 style rubber?

I feel like he should take a chance and try out D09c or H3 on his FH at least and force himself to play better forehand shots.

Harimoto has a very compact forehand stroke. Using H3 on his FH will be a disaster. D09c maybe. But D09c is slower than D05. He is doing just fine. He knows what he needs to improve. I think he will always be a backhand dominated player no matter what. His game is also built on speed so D05 suits him just fine on his forehand side.

 

[turbozed]

We've got some geat storylines in this WTTC Finals with guys like Anders Lind and Omar Assar making unlikely deep runs in the tournament.

But Hina Hayata is the biggest story so far pulling through in a MOTY candidate to solidify herself as the ace for the Japan women's team. I guess most people following closely have already known this, but this leaves no doubt now for the international audience.

I enjoy that she really wears her heart out on her sleeve. She's been very open about feeling overshadowed for a long time by the success of girls like Hirano and Ito. And seeing all her hard work pay off and her emotions on full display during one of the most memorable games in recent TT history shows a compelling human element that is sometimes missing from this sport (or at least hidden from view).

On a side note, Nittaku really needs to use this Hayata win to push their Gyo-En blades since that's what she appears to be using (at least the old unreleased handle design of it). Expect another super expensive Nittaku Hina Hayata blade in the future.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Apart from Hayata - Wang Yidi , the only womens matches in that category that I can think of are :
1) final of world champs won by an injured Ding Ning against Liu Shiwen

2) Bernie Szocs against Ni Xialian at Europe championships last year. Incredible match from the first to the last point.

 

[zeio]

Rebellions are built on hope. Looks like Hayata started a wave. Huge congratulations to Shin Yubin and Jeon Jihee winning 3-0 over SYS/WMY !!!

Speaking of hope, Hayata's given name ひな, which is written in 平仮名/hiragana/flat false name (derived from kanji) instead of 漢字/kanji/Chinese characters, happens to be transliterated as 希娜 in Chinese, where 希 means hope and 娜 means delicate, graceful or elegant, and the radical 女, the left side of the character, means woman, and so, 娜 is often used in female personal names. The given name 希娜, coupled with the surname 早田, can therefore be interpreted as "the graceful woman of hope in the morning field".

 

[zeio]

Fun facts:
The previous female player to reach the SF was HIRANO Miu at WTTC 2017. Before that, it was Tamara Boros at WTTC 2003, who happened to defeat the previous holder of that record in R16, Otilia Badescu, the former bronze medalist at WTTC 1993, and went on to defeat the former CNT player and former WD and WT World Champion Gao Jun in QF.

The last time a JNT female player defeated a CNT female player was back at WTTC 1995.

The last time a JNT player, regardless of gender, defeated a CNT player to earn the gold medal was 小野誠治/ONO Seiji at WTTC 1979.

 

[Haito]

How can I watch Hayata's game? It's region locked when I try to watch

Opera has built in free VPN.

 

[SFF_lib]

Why is Hina not using her FH?

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Hayata changed her tactics from G4. She should have changed earlier. Too bad

 

[turbozed]

SYS proved to be a bridge too far, but Hayata showed a lot of fight in the last half of that match. Not getting blown out was maybe the best we could've expected.

Sometimes it's easy to forget how amazing SYS is because she's consistently winning everything and that narrative is less compelling than an underdog story. But damn that girl is good at table tennis.

 

[ronz91]

Decent crowd in today

 

[ronz91]

More Chinese fans than SA tbh

 

[NextLevel]

More Chinese fans than SA tbh

That was how it was in Houston as well, though to be fair, a lot of players did travel in from all over the country to watch, including myself.

 

[ronz91]

Apparently the Chinese requested 5000 tickets for tomorrow, the venue doesn't even take that many😂

 

[zeio]

Why is Hina not using her FH?

Because she would've lost even more easily. Look up her previous encounters with SYS and you will see.

 

[NextLevel]

Fan Zhendong is so respected that no one is talking up Wang's triple crown chances which were just as real as Sun Yingsha's.

 

[zeio]

More Chinese fans than SA tbh

LOL

 

[Metaxa]

I think ITTF/WTT should delete rule 16 from their rules...
Unbelievable!

 

[AchyGeorge]

Chen Meng playing very well! Can she do it against SYS in the final?

 

[dingyibvs]

Chen Meng playing very well! Can she do it against SYS in the final?

Both must be quite motivated. SYS is like ML at her age, so dominant already but has yet to win a grand slam title. Chen Meng is like Ma Lin at her age, close to retirement but still one WTTC title away from a grand slam.