WTT Star Contender Chennai-2025

[Tony's Table Tennis]

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. We've gotten nothing but fake news and misinformation in return, other than "can't disclose" and "better discussed in private"...

Question from me to MLTT:
The coverage of hotel and meals stipend, is that 3 nights only? If teams wish to meet earlier, would that be for teams/individual costs.
Answer by MLTT..... who wants to see it?

so easy to brush off zeio with his fake claims

if my information is fake news, then MLTT is faking the news? or are you a really lost soul?
surely by now, you know I am dealing with over a dozen leagues by now.... or are you just trolling like a teenager still?

still waiting for you to disclose who you are,,,
just like ert, we all waiting or are you ert? because you both think you know it all and take information from others as your own

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

So it's Miki House that's footing the bills for Honoka to appear here?

Wonder what the internal politics of those decisions are like. They have been pushing Odo recently and Hashimoto has been sitting on the sideline. Would seeing more Hashimoto require Odo to underperform? Kinda sucks if that were the case since I enjoy watching both.

Most of the time it's out of Japan's hands altogether. There is a National Entry Restriction (NER) which limits the number of players per event. For a Star Contender (and Champions) the limit is 4. Japan was fortunate in this particular tournament because the tournament was probably undersubscribed and there is a provision to allow more players in that scenario. Odo is a top 4 Japanese player so you'll see more of her. But I'm with you... I would like to see more of Hashimoto as well. We will see her in doubles with Sato though at high level tournaments like Grand Smashes as they are very highly ranked as a doubles pair.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

For future reference while JCH and Nagasaki are getting steamrolled by Hashimoto and SYB...

The birdie is really rubbing it in. Funny interactions between SYB and the ump...

LIVE! | T3 | Day 3 | WTT Star Contender Chennai 2025 Presented by Indian Oil | Session 1
https://youtu.be/BbHDM-JtFc8?t=4021
SYB: There, up, down, wipe (using hand gestures)
Ump: What is it?
SYB: There...
Ump: Here's the handkerchief. Help yourself, Lee.
LEH: What on earth? (looks at SYB)
SYB: THERE...
Ump: Oh... (goes over to confirm)
Ump: Hello! (waving at the staff)

Same thing happened when Odo and KNY just finished warm up, toweled off and headed back to the table to start. KNY's reaction was funny.

Seriously though, this can present a safety hazard in more ways than one. Definitely do not want athletes slipping and falling due to something as silly and preventable as this.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Actually, I only found out the specifics after you made the initial post that piqued my interest. I knew about the interview but it has been on the back-burner. If you didn't make that post, I wouldn't have gotten the motivation to read through it.

Same with MLTT, which I took a brief look at the very beginning before the draft, hence the translation error. Good to know they are off to a good start.

Season 3 will start to really put them on the map internationally

 

[5545]

Overrated Shin beats Nagasaki.

Both of them are so inconsistent (although Shin has done decent recently) and over-ranked that this result hardly tells anything anyways

 

[zeio]

So it's Miki House that's footing the bills for Honoka to appear here?

Wonder what the internal politics of those decisions are like. They have been pushing Odo recently and Hashimoto has been sitting on the sideline. Would seeing more Hashimoto require Odo to underperform? Kinda sucks if that were the case since I enjoy watching both.

Yup.

My guess is as good as yours when it comes to their internal politics. In terms of hierarchy, the official site of Miki House shows them in the following order: Sato (1997/12/23), Shibata (1997/8/25), Hashimoto (1998/7/5), Odo (2004/5/16), and Yokoi (2004/4/23). Note that seniority is not strictly followed here. It has been that way since at least late 2023 when Odo and Yokoi moved up from JSC (Miki House Junior Sports Club).

As far as participation goes, Sato and Hashimoto have so far gotten roughly half the opportunities compared to Odo and Yokoi.

WS events - Total (2024/2025), WTT Only (2024/2025)
WR8 Odo - 19 (13/6), 17 (12/5)
WR30 Hashimoto - 7 (6/1)
WR34 Yokoi - 13 (10/3)
WR74 Sato - 7 (6/1)
WR as of 2025 WK13, https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_13_SEN_WS.html

From the table below, they split into 2 teams and started playing WTT events around the second half of 2024.

Event	Name	Assoc	Category	Gender	MS	WS	MD	WD	XD	SinglesMatches
WTTChampionsChongqing2025PresentedbyAITO	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		QuarterFinal				3
SingaporeSmash2025	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf16		QuarterFinal		3
WTTContenderMuscat2025	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		SemiFinal		Champion	RoundOf16	4
WTTStarContenderDoha2025	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf32		Champion	RoundOf16	1
WTTFinalsFukuoka2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		QuarterFinal		Finalist		2
WTTChampionsFrankfurt2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		QuarterFinal				3
WTTContenderMuscat2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		SemiFinal		QuarterFinal		4
WTTChampionsMontpellier2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion				5
WTTFeederPanagyurishte2024PresentedbyAsarel	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion		Finalist		5
WTTContenderAlmaty2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf32		Finalist		1
WTTContenderLima2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion		Champion		5
WTTContenderTunis2024PresentedbyKIA	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Finalist		Champion		5
WTTContenderZagreb2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf16		Champion		4
WTTFeederCappadocia2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion				5
WTTFeederDusseldorf2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion				6
WTTFeederVarazdin2024	ODOSatsuki	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion		Champion		9
SingaporeSmash2025	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female				QuarterFinal
WTTContenderMuscat2025	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		QuarterFinal		Champion		3
WTTStarContenderDoha2025	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf32		Champion		2
WTTFinalsFukuoka2024	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female				Finalist
WTTFeederPrishtina2024	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion		Champion		5
WTTFeederCagliari2024	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Finalist		QuarterFinal		5
WTTFeederPanagyurishte2024PresentedbyAsarel	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf16		Finalist		2
WTTContenderAlmaty2024	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		QuarterFinal		Finalist		3
WTTFeederMuscat2024	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion				5
WTTContenderLima2024	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		SemiFinal		Champion		4
WTTContenderTunis2024PresentedbyKIA	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		QuarterFinal		Champion		5
WTTContenderZagreb2024	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Qual.Round2		Champion		2
WTTFeederDusseldorf2024	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf32			RoundOf16	5
WTTFeederVarazdin2024	YOKOISakura	JAPAN	SEN	Female		SemiFinal		Champion		8
WTTFeederOtocec2025PresentedbyIFeelSlovenia	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		SemiFinal		Champion
WTTFinalsFukuoka2024	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female				Champion
WTTFeederDoha2024	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion		Finalist		4
WTTFeederPanagyurishte2024PresentedbyAsarel	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		QuarterFinal		Champion		3
WTTFeederOlomouc2024	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf16		Champion		2
WTTStarContenderBangkok2024	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf16		Champion		3
WTTContenderRiodeJaneiro2024	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf16		Champion		5
WTTFeederCappadocia2024	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Finalist		Champion		6
WTTFeederEuropeanSummerSeries2022	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf16				3
WTTFeederOtocec2022PresentedbyIFeelSlovenia	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf16				3
WTTContenderZagreb2022	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Qual.Round2				1
SingaporeSmash2022	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf64				1
WTTCupFinalsSingapore2021	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		QuarterFinal				2
WTTStarContenderDohaII2021	SATOHitomi	JAPAN	SEN	Female		RoundOf32		RoundOf16		1
WTTFinalsFukuoka2024	HASHIMOTOHonoka	JAPAN	SEN	Female				Champion
WTTFeederDoha2024	HASHIMOTOHonoka	JAPAN	SEN	Female		SemiFinal		Finalist		3
WTTFeederPanagyurishte2024PresentedbyAsarel	HASHIMOTOHonoka	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Finalist		Champion		5
WTTFeederOlomouc2024	HASHIMOTOHonoka	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Champion		Champion		5
WTTStarContenderBangkok2024	HASHIMOTOHonoka	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Finalist		Champion		7
WTTContenderRiodeJaneiro2024	HASHIMOTOHonoka	JAPAN	SEN	Female		QuarterFinal		Champion		6
WTTFeederCappadocia2024	HASHIMOTOHonoka	JAPAN	SEN	Female		SemiFinal		Champion		4
WTTFeederEuropeanSummerSeries2022	HASHIMOTOHonoka	JAPAN	SEN	Female		Finalist				8

 

[joshmak10]

That being said, she also was down 0-2 before coming back against Ivy Liao from Canada at Singapore Smash recently.

Ivy goes to my school, this was heartbreaking to watch 😭

 

[joshmak10]

Looking at the draws, I think Yubin and OJS must feel they have to win as the favourites

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Both of them are so inconsistent (although Shin has done decent recently) and over-ranked that this result hardly tells anything anyways

Luckily for Shin, Szocs stayed consistent in losing to Shan Xiaona again, and the ever-consistent Hirano suffered shock losses to Kim Nayeong, retired ZYL, and Liu Yangzi. Hopefully Shin can fend off her inflated ranking against her more deserving opposition for longer.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Looking at the draws, I think Yubin and OJS must feel they have to win as the favourites

Most mature athletes go into their matches with the appropriate respect for their opponent regardless of being the favorite on paper or not, while still always feeling like they are the favorite or "should" win.

Shin is not a favorite over Miwa, in fact she is the underdog. And OJS in his current form, anything can happen.

 

[zeio]

Same thing happened when Odo and KNY just finished warm up, toweled off and headed back to the table to start. KNY's reaction was funny.

Seriously though, this can present a safety hazard in more ways than one. Definitely do not want athletes slipping and falling due to something as silly and preventable as this.

To illustrate how poor a "treatment" that is, here is a real story. I have an old friend that qualifies as a semi-pro (with an HKTTA coaching license, a former runner-up in Div B (121-360) of a city-wide competition, stayed in Div A (top 120) for a short while and won a club tournament with prize money in Shenzhen), who once got rather annoyed at playing in an old indoor sports center without A/C for an ad hoc meetup.

These are world class players gathering in India. If HKTTA couldn't convince WTT to let them host a WTT series just because the Queen Elizabeth Stadium that hosted ITTF Men's World Cup 1980 (inaugural edition) and 1982, Women's World Cup 1996 (inaugural edition) and 2003, WTGF 1997 and 2006 didn't meet its requirements (superseded by the recently open world-class Kai Tak Sports Park), it makes one wonder what makes India qualify here?

 

[5545]

Luckily for Shin, Szocs stayed consistent in losing to Shan Xiaona again, and the ever-consistent Hirano suffered shock losses to Kim Nayeong, retired ZYL, and Liu Yangzi. Hopefully Shin can fend off her inflated ranking against her more deserving opposition for longer.

Hirano "ever-consistent"? 🤣 Please tell me where you got that from, because I never labelled any of them as such.

Shin also stayed consistent in losing to essentially Japan B-Tier Kihara. She is definitely not any more impressive just because she managed not to lose to people ranked below her for a few tournaments. Keep in mind she still has lost much more against lower-ranked than Hirano or Szocs and has possibly the worst record ever against players ranked above her

 

[zeio]

Yet another instance of bird droppings in the WS SF between Hashimoto and KNY after G1...

SF
Hashimoto 3-0 KNY
116
60, 62, 112
31 TO for KNY, 61, 62, 112
Ugly G2 and G3...

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...ender-bangkok-2024-july-2-7.34377/post-466806

KOR is no longer the team from 2004 and 2008. They don't produce choppers like they used to and hence don't play choppers as well now. Remember KOR lost to GER at Tokyo 2020 and SYB, their best hope, was the culprit. Like I touched on last month, JPN is now better than CHN (and likely the best) at playing defenders (and combination players in general), which is another reason why Hirano's subsequent loss to Pavade was insignificant in comparison. Bergstrom, SHW and HY are the pot stirrers. But without SHW and HY, KOR and GER will be a lot weaker at Paris 2024, a lame duck for the latter especially.

 

[joshmak10]

Most mature athletes go into their matches with the appropriate respect for their opponent regardless of being the favorite on paper or not, while still always feeling like they are the favorite or "should" win.

Shin is not a favorite over Miwa, in fact she is the underdog. And OJS in his current form, anything can happen.

I stand corrected. I forgot abt how Shin plays against Miwa and also completely forgot Miwa was even in the tournament 😭. Oh destroyed Coton today, so I think he has his biggest chance yet against whoever he plays

 

[JackJohnson]

The coach that is currently coaching Hashimoto in the women's SF is that the same coach as what T Harimoto is using now after Tasei left? Looks like the same guy but I could be wrong

 

[zeio]

The coach that is currently coaching Hashimoto in the women's SF is that the same coach as what T Harimoto is using now after Tasei left? Looks like the same guy but I could be wrong

That's 川村大貴/KAWAMURA Daiki of 静岡ジェード/Shizuoka Jade. Not a JTTA coach/staff.

The Harimoto siblings are coached by their own dad, HARIMOTO Yu.

Tasei was the men's team head coach until 2025/3/31 and will be replaced by Kishikawa on 4/1. Watanabe was the women's team head coach and will be replaced by NAKAZAWA Rui (aka Wang Rui).

 

[JackJohnson]

That's 川村大貴/KAWAMURA Daiki of 静岡ジェード/Shizuoka Jade. Not a JTTA coach/staff.

The Harimoto siblings are coached by their own dad, HARIMOTO Yu.

Tasei was the men's team head coach until 2025/3/31 and will be replaced by Kishikawa on 4/1. Watanabe was the women's team head coach and will be replaced by NAKAZAWA Rui (aka Wang Rui).

I know Miwa dad usually coaches her at WTT events but Tomokazu usually had Tasei until he left.

 

[zeio]

Question from me to MLTT:
The coverage of hotel and meals stipend, is that 3 nights only? If teams wish to meet earlier, would that be for teams/individual costs.
Answer by MLTT..... who wants to see it?

so easy to brush off zeio with his fake claims

if my information is fake news, then MLTT is faking the news? or are you a really lost soul?
surely by now, you know I am dealing with over a dozen leagues by now.... or are you just trolling like a teenager still?

still waiting for you to disclose who you are,,,
just like ert, we all waiting or are you ert? because you both think you know it all and take information from others as your own

Look, ThePongCommenter has done in 1 post what you have failed to do over the years. Offer concrete insights that are verifiable. In this instance on MLTT, my language skills happen to be far more reliable and trustworthy than your unverifiable "networking".

Do the above or stop wasting my time. What else can you do other than pulling rank and making threats? As ZJK's dad pointed out in episode 2 of the TV series Table Tennis in China, the ultimate height reached by a player is largely determined by the level of the 初級教練/entry-level instructors. I have reasons to believe you're just a mere ball feeder as I have hardly seen you put in writing your insights on table tennis skills. As driversbeat pondered after cross-referencing your fake news with his critical thinking, can you even read Chinese?

As long as you 鬼食泥噉/speak as if suffering from constipation, from here on out, I'd rather watch Tony's ads from LC Sign than spend my precious life on interacting with you.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Look, ThePongCommenter has done in 1 post what you have failed to do over the years. Offer concrete insights that are verifiable. In this instance on MLTT, my language skills happen to be far more reliable and trustworthy than your unverifiable "networking".

@ThePongCommenter Please can you speak up and tell zeio if my info is day dreaming or came from MLTT

Do the above or stop wasting my time. What else can you do other than pulling rank and making threats? As ZJK's dad pointed out in episode 2 of TV series Table Tennis in China, the ultimate height reached by a player is largely determined by the level of the 初級教練/entry-level instructors. I have reasons to believe you're just a mere ball feeder as I have hardly seen you put in writing your insights on table tennis skills. As driversbeat pondered after cross-referencing your fake news with his critical thinking, can you even read Chinese?

As long as you 鬼食泥噉/speak as if suffering from constipation, from here on out, I'd rather watch Tony's ads from LC Sign than spend my precious life on interacting with you.

until you willing to show your name and face, your are as good as a keyboard warrior, so why you still interacting with me?

 

[zeio]

I know Miwa dad usually coaches her at WTT events but Tomokazu usually had Tasei until he left.

For self-funded competitions like this one, players usually bring coaches from their own team or those they know/trust well. The head coaches bench-coach mostly at the majors and select ITTF/ATTU/WTT Series events.