It bled my heart to watch live HK went down to Japan in nail biting games. I thought we had a shot going into the 2014 World Team final against mighty China, with an upset this morning despite logic tells me otherwise.

The local crowd/supporters made a huge difference, as expected, in this semi final outcome. Japan won 3-1 in three 5 set winners with plenty of drama.

The critical game is Game 3 when 吳穎嵐 was up 2-0 (down 0-5 in 2nd) against 平野 早矢香 and could clinch the all important 3rd game to give HK a 2-1 lead overall. I thought the upset on the way against home court favorite. >From the game line up. We will clinch the game with a tight 3-2 in 5th set with veteran 姜華珺 strategically placed to face a lesser Japanese competitor in the final and deciding game.

Ng collapsed in Set #4, lost momentum, fought a good battle in 5th set and lost (too tentative in her last 3 sets. Wits made a slight difference in the final outcome). That sealed the final outcome of this semi final.

Game 4 was a nail biter but 李皓晴 (#14 World ranking with a great climb in ranking this year) has never beaten 石川佳純 (was #8, currently #9). Lee played fearlessly and went down in 5 sets and I consider that a major boost in confidence going forward for this young lady. BRAVO. She won the only point on record for Hong Kong in the opening game against Yuka Ishigaki (石垣優香), who was recent Egypt Open winner (a medium pip chopper) and could have been the heroine of the day. She is a passionate player like 石川佳純 who wept after clinching her 2nd 5 setter winner over Hong Kong.

The two 21 years old HK born & trained players LEE & NG are a big part of the HK team future success and should hold their heads high going forward.

So bring your friends to 6/28/2014 HKISAA Table Tennis Tourney at CCTTA and cheer for our team even if you are not playing.

SUPPORT MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

We are the defending champion but opponent strength has been deepened and they have home court advantage in a way. Re-ignite your passion and support our team (s)!

You can watch the games on tape now on http://www.ittf.com/ittv/

Go WYK go! Come to the Game on 6/28/2014 Saturday from 9.30 am to 6.00 pm and join banquet after. We need your help!

平野 早矢香 versus 吳穎嵐 3 sets of deuce, changes of momentum, strategy, controversial service calls, crictical since HK/Japan had a point each before this 3rd set.

Lessons to be learnt
1) focus on each stroke
2) momentum will change
3) serve very very important (Japan excel, Ng had a service fault and serve into net also)
4) Aggressiveness pays . If you play defensive away from the table you are at a disadvantge no matter how good your defense or counter attack is.
5) Try to be on offense on receiving serve pays in ths game.
6) High risk high return (make sure you practice for these game changing strokes during regular pratice so that you are confident in critical game execution.and have a high percentage play)

世乒賽進高潮! 看國乒雙線衝決賽 女隊再碰新加坡, 港隊土炮 摔 主場日本隊 2014-05-03

http://sports.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/nw/show.cgi/811/4/1/883617/1.html

TV live game on 2nd link top left corner.

http://www.ittf.com/

A bunch of Chinese Taipei undergraduates and research students put the country in Final 4 in Men’s Team final for the first time, by taking care of ailing South Korea, now faces the formidable task of  taking on reigning world champion China. 男團：國乒怎排陣  誰來「捉」莊智淵

Hong Kong women is underdog in semi final against Japan. The bright side is that two young HK local players (born & trained in HK) continue to shine.

兩位同為 21歲 (as of 2014) 的「土炮」年輕球員，將會是港隊未來重要資產，前途無限。

” 兩名新秀李皓晴、吳穎嵐表現不錯。日本隊在8強中險些翻船，主將石川佳純壓力過大，發揮不夠正常，全隊在福原愛缺陣後實力明顯受到影響，但整體實力仍略強於香港隊，又有主場之利，取勝的希望略大”

http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/sport/20120302/00286_007.html

谁能阻止国乒卫冕：德男乒仍坚挺 日本缺顶尖球星

http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2014-04-27/09427138497.shtml

http://www.ittf.com/competitions/competitions2.asp?Competition_ID=2278&category=WTTC

http://video.sina.com.cn/p/sports/o/v/2014-04-10/225763726427.html

Happy watching.

Picture taken at the lunch gathering with Anthony Yeh (’69) after a friendly table tennis game in the morning (from left to right, standing – Allan Lee, David Ho, Thomas Lau, George Cheng, Wilfred Wei, Peter Poon; sitting – Eric Lam, Anthony Yeh, Mr. Anthony Ho, Jeff Mah) ~ March 29, 2014.

During the morning , David Ho, Allan Lee , Mike Yam of Team A and Wilfred Wei rallied with Anthony Yeh at CCTTA and played against HKU Ontario Alumni Team A (Sidney Chu/Martin Ho and HK Pong) for fun. Anthony also took 30 minutes lesson from our coach Diana Zhu. Thomas Lau, class mate of David Ho/Anthony Yeh from MCS (Primary Section), came for lunch (see above).

Please mark down Saturday 3/29 as the day that our buddy, keen supporter of alumni activities in HK and our table tennis activities, Dr. A.Yeh (Cl. 69), is scheduled to play socially with us. He will arrive the evening before and stay for 2 days before returning to Hong Kong.

Date: Saturday 3/29/2014
Venue: CCTTA, Denison location
Time: 9.30 – 12.15 PM

12.30 – 2.30 PM dim sum lunch @ Casa Victoria Fine Cuisine 紫爵金宴 (Warden & Hwy 7).

Click here and let us know if you are interested in joining us.

For those of us who have not watched Fan Zhendong  樊振東 (ITTF Wolrd #5) played, here he is playing against Zhang Jike 张继科 (ITTF World #3) and YAN An 闫安 (ITTF World #7).

Watch out for these guys in 2 months time in the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Championships.

Staged in the Japanese capital city of Tokyo from Monday 28th April to Monday 5th May, the ZEN-NOH 2014 World Team Championships move ever closer; thus logically so does the deadline date for submissions (today).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuJdM52MHD8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlp-ODKQ8dE

Then follow the man against robot game between Timol Boll and KUKA the robot on 3/11/2014 at www.kuka-timoboll.com to find out who is the winner.

Keep playing as a human with emotion and passion are my takes.

Cheers and see all at the tables soon.

Chuang Chih-Yuan (TPE) is currently ranked #9 in the world and Jean-Michel Saive (BEL)  is currently ranked 128 but was a top 10 player in 2005/2006.

Sure we can have some fun in competition (this is an invitational meet shown on the Youtube video clip) like these two pros.

Best wishes for another sparkling and successful 2014 with lots of laughter and happiness.

Cold cold Toronto. Warm yourself up with 12 minutes of the best table tennis action clips and highlights of who’s in and who’s out (just posted yesterday) at year end.. Choppers had a great year in 2013.

國際乒聯1月2日公佈了2014年第一期世界排名，由於去年12月沒有重大賽事，排名前列的選手沒有明顯變化，削球女將武楊升至女單第四，而參加了世青賽的小將們則賺足了積分實現躥升。

男單前17名座次都沒有變化，國乒的馬龍、許昕、張繼科、王皓和樊振東(this guy made a quantum leap in ranking in 2013.. see below) 占據前五，德國的奧恰洛夫第六，之後7-10名依次是中國新秀閆安、德國名將法烏、中華台北的莊智淵和白俄羅斯老將薩姆索諾夫。兩名已經退役的老將馬琳和王勵勤排名第11和12，再次殺進直通東京國乒選拔賽的郝帥排名第14。

儘管在世青賽上沒有阻擋住韓國選手張宇鎮，丟掉了男單冠軍，幾名中國男單小將排名仍大幅上升。梁靖崑從第112位升至第101位，周愷從第289位躥升 91位至第198位，孔令軒則從沒有排名一躍升至第200位。其中梁靖崑和孔令軒已經入圍國乒直通東京世乒賽選拔賽首階段爭奪。在世青賽上連殺中國三虎爆 冷奪冠的韓國選手張宇鎮從第228名升至第142名。

劉詩雯、丁寧和李曉霞繼續排名女單三甲，削球好手武楊反超新加坡的馮天薇，升至第四。陳夢、朱雨玲、郭焱和日本的福原愛、石川佳純列6-10位，郭躍排名第11。世青賽女單冠亞軍中國小將顧玉婷和劉高陽從上期的並列第51位分別上升到第32和35位，並列第三名劉曦和王曼昱也分別躥升至第76和107位。(新體)

http://www.ittfranking.com/cgi-bin/ttplayer.cgi?number=121404&lang=0&format=summary

Happy swinging and hope to see you more often at Saturday afternoon rally.

We had a great tourney year with Team A  but Team B (and C?) need younger players to step up and perhaps add some ladies so that we can play co ed eventually in those inter school alumni games.

Start recruiting or this Saturday interest group is not going to last through 2014.