Small Ball Spins the Big Ball

Catch Up: Japan Trials for 2020 World Team Championships (Stage 1)

The 2020 World Team Championships is still 5 months away from now but the Japanese Team starts the first stage of the selection process early on 22-23 October.

With team and individual qualification slots feeding into next year's Olympic Games, the pre-Olympic edition of the Women's World Cup might mean a little more than just a World Cup. The 2019 Women's World Cup, held from 18-20 October in Chengdu, China, invites 20 athletes representing the best of their continent. They will go through 2 stages with the most exciting knockout stage to be played across the weekend. Who will walk away with the champion? Can the World Cup champion translate it into an Olympic champion? We can't foresee the future but we can always review history. Let's look back at the Women's World Cup which were played in the pre-Olympic years!

The North American Olympic Team Trials took place on 5 October at Rockford. Team USA won both the men's and women's team title with two 3-0 victories over Canada.

Time flies and we are now halfway through the Olympic qualification for the continental team quotas. Coming up this week, from 15 to 22 September, the 2019 Asian Championships touches down Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Winners of the men's team and women's team in the Champion Division will qualify a full team to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Olympic qualification continues in Rabat, Morocco where the 2019 African Games takes place from 20-29 August. One team from each gender will qualify a full team to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games thorough this tournament.

Photo: http://www.people.com.cn

Held every 4 years, the second edition of the China Youth National Games touches down Taiyuan, Shanxi from 9 to 17 August.. Have a look at who are the promising juniors burst onto the scene.

The table tennis event of the 2019 Pan American Games taking place 4-10 August 2019 in Lima, Peru serves as a continental qualifier for the singles events, and teams are bringing their A games to fight for medals at this important step on the road to Tokyo.

Coming into this year's Chinese Nationals, knowing the 2020 Olympics is just about a year away and the Nationals has replicated the format of the Olympics, many expected this would be a pre-match for the Chinese Olympic hopefuls. The withdrawal of the 'Big 5' was disappointing but it had not reduced the level of excitement of this Nationals. 39-year old chopper Hou Yingchao celebrated his second singles national title, and it was her first for Sun Yingsha. The men's and women's team title went to PLA and Shandong respectively both were stretched to a full distance 5 matches in the finals. Lin Gaoyuan and Wang Manyu improved from their second-place finish and claimed gold in the mixed doubles.

If you happen to miss this enthralling 11-day event, this recap will save your time without having you missing the best part of it!

In a roller coaster ride of a final, it was PLA prevailed in their encounter with Beijing, the defending champion.

Tension mounted on day 10 at the 2019 Chinese Nationals, as teams were vying for the top step of the podium. All women's team matches played on day 10 were stretched the full 5 matches distance, and in the concluding match of the day, the women's team final, Shandong put an exclamation mark to the action-packed day with an epic comeback.

Teams secured their spots in the semifinals after actions of day 9. A dramatic women's team showdown between Liaoning and Heilongjiang was played in the quarterfinals, and the latter made to the semifinals by upsetting the defending champion with a 3-1 win. On the other hand, Beijing celebrated another straightforward 3-0 victory in the quarterfinals over a very strong team, Shandong Luneng. Shandong, Hebei, PLA 1 women's team and Sichuan, PLA, Guangdong have also made to the semifinals.

The opening round of the team events contributed a day of exciting actions. The newly crowned men's singles national champion Hou Yingchao leading Team Shaanxi was eliminated in the opening hurdle. So did the 3-time men's team champion (2014, 2015, 2016) Shanghai. While strong contenders of the women's team podium, Hebei and Shandong survived the 3-2 nailbiter and advanced to the quarterfinals.

It's not about the age nor is it the playing style. The prowess of an athlete said it all. Sun Yingsha topples 3-time women's singles national champion Zhu Yuling to win her first women's singles national title. Whereas Hou Yingchao ends 19-year wait and wins his second men's singles national title.

Disappointments for defending champions as Wang Manyu and Liang Jingkun, both seeded for respective women's and men's singles events, were knocked out in the singles semifinals. Defenders Hou Yingchao and Ma Te break into mix in the men's singles semifinals.

Day 5 at the 2019 Chinese National Championships, Hou Yingchao proves he's still very competitive as he makes the top 8 at the men's singles of the Chinese Nationals. In the mixed doubles final, Lin Gaoyuan and Wang Manyu crowned mixed doubles national champion with a 4-1 victory over Zhou Qihao and Chen Xingtong.

Day 4 of the Nationals was not perfect but the crowd would not be disappointed with all the enthralling mixed doubles and singles matches.

Notable names fell on the third day of qualification at the 2019 Chinese Nationals. Underdogs challenged mixed doubles top seeds and young players overthrew big names in singles qualification round.

The withdrawal of top seeds, Ma Long, Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong, Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen hit the headline of day 2 of qualification action. While some strong contenders in mixed doubles almost fell short from making the main draw, some 'lucky loser' received a second chance.

Women's team draws and results from the 2019 Chinese National Championships held from 23 July to 2 August in Tianjin, China.

Men's team draws and results from the 2019 Chinese National Championships held from 23 July to 2 August in Tianjin, China.

The 2019 Chinese National Championships commenced in Tianjin on 23 July. With over 100 pairs of mixed doubles contested in the qualification rounds, it was an action-packed opening day.

Men's singles draws and results from the 2019 Chinese Nationals held from 23 July to 2 August in Tianjin, China.

Women's singles draws and results from the 2019 Chinese Nationals held from 23 July to 2 August in Tianjin, China.

Mixed doubles draws and results from the 2019 Chinese Nationals, held from 23 July to 2 August in Tianjin, China.

While we all think athletes and fans can finally take a break from a series of World Tours and T2 Diamond competitions, the Chinese have one more to go and it is going to be a tough one. The 2019 Chinese National Championships will take place from 23 July to 2 August, in Tianjin, China. Top Chinese paddlers will gather in Tianjin in the coming 11 days, vying for 5 national titles. How to watch, schedule, seeding lists, competition format and related links are included in this article. We will be reporting all the action as well, so check back at competition time to follow along.

Table tennis dates back to England in the 1800s but the Chinese are truly the ones who take the sport to the next level. Now, they are not just focusing on honing their craft and winning more medals but bringing the sport to a wider audience. Marvellous 12 the Chinese selection meet for World Championships first launched in 2017, has incited a new wave of table tennis boom in China. Could this be the future of table tennis?

While the 2019 European Games is just around the corner, the Korean Team held trials to pick its team for the 2019 Asian Championships which also acts as an Olympic qualifier for athletes from the Asian region on 19-21 June.

The table tennis event of the 2019 European Games taking place 22-29 June 2019 in Minsk, Belarus serves as the first qualification event for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The Olympic qualification process begins in June 2019 when the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is about a year away. In order to better keep track of the qualification process, we have constructed an Olympic qualification events calendar, listing every tournament that matters.

How would you like to spend your holiday? The reigning women's singles world champion Liu Shiwen made a humble request on a TV program "A Date with Luyu", hoping to spend hers like an ordinary youth would have normally spent. Without further ado, let's delve into a day in the life of Liu Shiwen and learn about the tidbit in her training and daily life.

While the 3 World Tour events (China Open, Hong Kong Open and Japan Open) in Asia have drawn tons of attention from the world of table tennis, the 2019 Chinese Cadet (U15) Nationals was held from 28 May to 3 June in a relatively low-profile manner at Jiujiang, Jiangxi, There was no live stream but we managed to dig out the final results and a few clips of the tournament.

How does positive thinking help Ma Long came back mentally stronger after an injury? Here's a translated interview about the 3-time men's singles world champion, Ma Long.

The 65th Korean National Classified Championships touched down Jecheon, Korea from 8 to 15 May. The 8-day event welcomed over 1000 athletes taking part in the U13, U16, U19, college and open categories to contend for the team, doubles and singles titles.

What makes a world champion? A world-class playing style? An Olympic-champion-winning coach? Or a good sleep before the match? Liu Shiwen, the 2019 women's singles world champion, talks us through every important detail that makes her the world champion.

The preliminary stage of the 2019 Chinese National Championships commenced on 6 May, in Meihekou, Jilin. Only the men's team and women's team events are played at the 7-day tournament and the top 8 teams of each event will advance to the main round which will be held from 25 July to 2 August in Tianjin, China.

Dramas' staged, history's made, tears' shed and here's everything happened at the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary, from 21 to 28 April.

Why did every match hosted in Hungary start with an 'edge'? Why did players stay up late for the World Championships? Discover more stories about World Table Tennis Championships in Hungary.

Now that the draws are confirmed in Budapest and we are waiting for the athletes set to compete. It's time to take you through what we can expect over the next few days of competition.

As we get closer to the 2019 World Championships, to be held from 21-28 April, in Budapest, Hungary, we decide to recollect briefly the history of Hungary's table tennis achievements at each World Table Tennis Championships.

As the 2019 World Championships is just 10 days away, here's a brief summary/updates on how the teams are doing.

Photo: http://www.people.com.cn

The preliminary stage of the 2019 China Youth National Games is played from 27 March to 10 April. Have a look at who are the promising juniors burst onto the scene.

Result updates and quick notes for the 2019 WTTC Warm-up match held in Longgang, China from 4-5 April.

Photo: ATTU

This year, 2019 Asian Cup returns to Japan, as Yokohama will play host to the Asian qualification tournament for 2019 World Cup from 5-7 April. The field is headlined by Ma Long, who went on a 4-month hiatus recovering from his injuries and has just had a golden comeback performance at the Qatar Open. The other players in attendance include last year's title-holder Fan Zhendong and Zhu Yuling and other top 14 men and 15 women from Asia.

2019 World Championships is less than a month away and the Chinese are going to prepare their athletes with the Warm-Up Matches, to be held from 4-5 April, in Longgang, China. All athletes on the Chinese 2019 World Championships squad will take part in the event but Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Zhu Yuling and Chen Meng who will be competing at the 2019 Asian Cup in Yokohama, Japan.

Photo: T League

The first edition of T League ends on a high note with the finals staged down in Tokyo, Japan on 17 March.

The Chinese always have a 1-month intensive closed-door training to hone their craft before the big meets come. Get a peek at what has been going on at this year's closed-door training for 2019 WTTC!

CTTA released a nominative list of athletes to attend the 2019 World Championships in Budapest this April. The list comprises Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin, Lin Gaoyuan, Liang Jingkun and Wang Chuqin for the men and Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen, Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, Sun Yingsha and Zhu Yuling for the women. While mostly an accurate glance at those set to attend, the team can finalize the lineup before 18 April.

Photo: Sina

It has been a ridiculously busy weekend but we all love it, don't we? There are the Marvellous 12 in China, the Top 12 in Japan, the Korean Trials and tons of national championships in Europe. It can be hard to follow every tournament in detail, so we write you this 2019 Marvellous 12 recap to help you save some time without missing the best moment of the tournament.

While the Marvellous 12 (Chinese Trials for 2019 WTTC) is in full swing, Japan has its edition, Japan Top 12, from 2-3 March in Sendai, Japan.

The 2019 Korean World Championships squad selection was held from 27 February to 1 March in Jincheon, Korea.

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