November 2, 2017
New ITTF World Rankings
Here’s the ITTF article on the new world rankings, and here’s more from Table Tennis Daily. Here are the new rankings for Men and Women. They are using for the first time a newly updated rating system. Some big changes!
On the men’s side, Xu Xin and Zhang Jike were both removed for inactivity, with Germans Ovtcharov and Boll moving up to #3 and #4. (But their next player is Filus Ruwen, who moved from #24 to #21.) China’s Ma Long and Fan Zhendong are still #1 and #2, but the next two Chinese are Lin Gaoyuang and Fang Bo at #7 and #10. Japan’s Noki Niwa, Jun Mizutani, and Kenta Matsudaira move up to #5, 6, and 9, with their 14-year-old whiz kid Tomokazu Harimoto moving from #18 to #16. (He was #14 two months ago.) France’s Simon Gauzy went from #14 to #8. China is still dominant, but China vs. Germany or Japan could be interesting.
On the women’s side, reigning #1 Ding Ning was removed for lack of activity. The women ranked #2 to #7 last month all moved up one notch, with Zhu Yuling taking over the #1 spot for the first time. Only “big” jump among the top women was Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei, who moved from #10 to #7. China had the top four women last month, but now have only the top three (Zhu Yuling, Chen Meng, and Liu Shiwen), with Japan taking the next three spots (Kasumi Ishikawa, Miu Hirano, Mima Ito). China is still dominant, but China vs. Japan could be interesting.
Lily Zhang, the only USA player in the top 100 (men or women) moved from #80 to #76. Excluding two players who left the rankings for lack of inactivity, all 28 ranked USA players went up in ranking! Here’s a listing.
USA Men
Kanak Jha: 228 => 204
Timothy Wang: 360 => 325
Feng Yijun: 371 => 332
Sharon Alguetti: 547 => 445
Adar Alguetti: 555 => 489
Victor Liu: 560 => 496
Kunal Chodri: 581 => 508
Nicholas Tio: 604 => 524
Nikhil Kumar: 674 => 572
Michael Tran: 731 => 590
Gal Alguetti: 866 => 711
Billy Xu Ding: 841 => 728
Nathan Hsu: 918 => 799
Jason Plog: 1046 => 913
Aditya Godhwani: 1093 => 960
Jack Wang: 611 => off list for lack of activity
USA Women
Lily Zhang: 80 => 76
Wu Yue: 128 => 119
Crystal Wang: 192 => 181
Amy Wang: 252 => 234
Angela Guan: 291 => 260
Erica Wu: 322 => 284
Rachel Sung: 479 => 322
Lavanya Maruthapandian: 396 => 452
Grace Yang: 485 => 421
Rachel Yang: 478 => 424
Ishana Deb: 562 => 485
Isabel Chu: 605 => 527
Joanna Sung: => 798 => 694
Tia Lynn Hsieh: 520 => off list for lack of activity
Belgium Open
Here’s the home page for the event in De Haan, Bel, Oct. 31 – Nov. 4.
Liu Guoliang: Genius of Table Tennis Tactics
Here’s the article and video (19:52) from EmRatThich.
ITTF Decides on Sanctions for Chinese Trio for China Open Forfeits
Here’s the video (3:39). Here’s the ITTF article on this that I linked to yesterday, and EmRatThich’s take on it, also linked to yesterday: Ridiculous Sanctions of ITTF to China Open Forfeits Scandal.
All Tied Up and Nowhere To Go
Here’s the article by Coach Jon.
First Indian, Manav Thakkar to Top ITTF Junior Circuit Ranking
Here’s the article.
Ma Long Will Be Back on Nov. 21
Here’s the music video (48 sec) from EmRatThich.
2017 Butterfly Southeastern Open Final - Yichi Zhang vs Jishan Liang – Highlights
Here’s the video (10:24).
Alex and Jason Piech at Southeastern Open
Here’s the music video (2:32). Don’t they ever miss? Watch the reaction of their opponents as they smash winners. Don’t miss Alex’s “eyebrow” follow-through after his shot 16 seconds in.
Halloween Table Tennis Pictures
Here are four more from Table Tennis North, who had some sort of Halloween kids table tennis party. (Click on each picture to see the next one. Here are the non-Facebook versions: One, Two, Three, Four.) There were more in my blog yesterday.
Drawing of Cartoon Cats Playing Table Tennis
Here’s the image!
Non-Table Tennis – Science Fiction Sales and Publications
The last few days have been crazy in Larry’s science fiction world. Here’s a rundown of the past two months. (Galaxy’s Edge and Compelling Science Fiction are two of the major “pro” science fiction magazines.)
- Nov. 2: Sold science fiction story “Redo” to Compelling Science Fiction.
- Nov. 1: Publication of dark fantasy story “The Nature of Swords” at Galaxy’s Edge as the #1 featured story. (Check out the table of contents and the cover!)
- Oct. 31: Publication of science fiction novel “When Parallel Lines Meet” by Phoenix Pick.
- Oct. 27: Publication of dark fantasy story “Running with the Dead” at Astounding Outpost.
- Oct. 12: Sold dark fantasy story “War of the Night” to Galaxy’s Edge.
- Oct. 12: Publication of satire “Captain Exasperation Woman Meets President Trump.”
- Sept. 30: Sold science fiction story “The Rat Race of Tomorrow” to Galaxy’s Edge.
- Sept. 1: Publication of humorous fantasy “Theater of Death” at Galaxy’s Edge.
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