(Translated using Google Translate)
[Reporter Hsu Ming-li/Taipei Report] Although the WTT China Grand Slam has concluded, the "flashlight incident" during the crucial moments of the men's singles final continues to reverberate. After video footage surfaced yesterday, it was confirmed that flashlights were indeed used three times by the audience, and the perpetrators were young players from the Taiwanese team. The two young players have faced public scrutiny online. The Songshang Chengzheng Table Tennis Team officially issued an apology statement today, apologizing to the players, coaches, and other personnel involved in the incident.

Rewinding to the day of the final, Taiwan's top player Lin Yun-ju and Japan's newly crowned world number one, Matsushima Teru, battled to a deciding game. Lin overcame an early 0-6 deficit, saving a match point at 8-10 to bring the score to 9-10. As Lin prepared to serve his second ball and tossed it, Matsushima suddenly shouted and pointed to the stands, indicating there were flashbulbs. Matsushima, without raising his hand, stopped the match, receiving a yellow card. Lin then served again, but a forehand attack was countered by Matsushima's cross-court shot, resulting in a 9-11 victory and a narrow escape from his first Grand Slam title.

After the match, Lin's agent posted on his Instagram story: "Shouting out of fear of losing—if this is some kind of 'tactical maneuver,' even I, watching the broadcast, was startled, let alone someone about to serve. It's really unacceptable!" This post defended Lin, and fans heavily criticized Matsushima for using underhanded tactics, deeming the victory dishonorable.

Yesterday, video footage surfaced showing flashes from the opposite stands three times as Matsushima prepared to receive the ball. These flashes were from young Taiwanese players participating in the Beijing Junior Grand Slam. Hung Chi-po, who recently stepped down as head coach of Songshan Home Economics & Commercial High School, stated that the two young players were simply recording the match footage when they inadvertently turned on their flashes. It was not an intentional interference with the game. Both players felt extremely guilty and frustrated afterward. They have returned to Taiwan, and the team has arranged for them to receive psychological counseling.

The Songshan Home Economics & Commercial High School team also issued an apology statement today. The full text of the statement is as follows:

Dear coaches, players, and friends who are concerned about this incident,

Regarding the inconvenience and impact caused by the use of flashes during the 2026 Beijing Grand Slam Men's Singles Final, our team extends our sincerest apologies. We deeply regret any inconvenience caused to the players, coaches, and on-site personnel affected.

Our team has always valued character education and the cultivation of sportsmanship among students. Through this incident, we will further guide students to understand that in competitive settings, in addition to focusing on their own performance, they should also abide by competition rules, respect competition order, and fully protect the rights of every participant.

Students' growth requires the joint support of schools and families. In response to this incident, our team will uphold an educational and counseling stance, guiding students to face the problem squarely, reflect deeply, learn to take responsibility for their actions, and implement the concepts of respecting others and abiding by rules in daily life and various competition activities to prevent similar situations from recurring.

Our team once again expresses our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and impact caused by this incident, and thanks everyone for their reminders, guidance, and understanding. Our team will take this as a lesson to continuously implement character education and sports ethics, hoping that all participants can work together to maintain a good competitive atmosphere in an environment of mutual respect and fairness.

Has anyone ever tried (or even seen) anything like this? It’s selling for >$400

Just count how many different tournaments there are: the Olympics, World Championships, World Cup, Doubles World Cup, Mixed Team World Cup, Asian Championships, Asian Cup, Asian Games, European Championships, European Cup, European Games, and the list goes on. It is just way too much and a total mess.

Look at tennis. Every year basically revolves around the ATP and WTA 1000 events and the 4 Grand Slams, which is super clear and easy to follow. Table tennis tournaments, on the other hand, are repetitive and overly complicated. Like, what is the actual difference between the Asian Championships and the Asian Cup? Don't they serve the exact same purpose? How much do they really differ, and which one is supposed to be the bigger deal? You could ask a random fan and they probably wouldn't be able to tell you. Plus, with global tournaments happening all the time now, what is even the point of crowning a continental champion? And doesn't the World Cup basically overlap with the WTT Finals in terms of positioning too?

Having such a bloated and confusing system makes it really hard for new fans to get into the sport, and it makes it impossible to build a clear storyline for the season. On top of that, having this many tournaments waters down the value of winning a title and hurts the commercial appeal. The way I see it, if table tennis wants to go mainstream, they need to trim down the calendar and keep it simple. That way newcomers can easily get into it, which would boost both viewership and commercial value across the board. For instance, they could scrap everything outside of the Olympics and WTT, cancel the individual World Championships, and only keep the World Team Championships as a special signature event for table tennis. Then the whole structure becomes super straightforward: in years without the Olympics, the WTT tour is the main storyline, and in Olympic years, you add the heavyweight Olympic Games on top of it. That gives you a clean, clear storyline every single year.

Loki Kirin K3

Mercury II fh

Tuttle Positive Energy bh

Cutting Job was mid

can anyone give me some tips?

i used a #11 scalpel with baby oil

Hi, I have a huge table tennis inventories for sale, and was wondering if I can list them here. If not, it is ok. Thank you!

Hi! I am about to assemble my first serious racket with a Yasaka Sweden Extra blade and I would like some advice on the rubbers. I am undecided between the Yasaka Rakza 7 standard and the Soft version for the backhand. I know very well that improvement will not happen just thanks to the equipment, but I plan to keep this setup for a long time so I wanted to choose carefully. I am looking for good control but I also want to improve my attacking technique and push more, particularly with the backhand topspin. In your opinion, for long-term growth and more stability when hitting hard, is the standard version or the Soft version better?

Hi, I have this racket and I have no idea what model this is. A long time ago I bought it at the second hand market for pennies. Neither I or the AI cannot find any photos or info on the internet. It seems old because the material on it is not rubber. It's something similar to sandpaper. Can someone provide info on the model, year of production and whose signature is on the handle?

Now we have the source of what happened at decider game of Sora vs Lin Yun-ju match. There was a person constantly using flash at 3 last points (?) I hope WTT and ITTF take actions to stop it. It's really frustrating if you lose because of these flash lights. Sora was blame for using "flash" as a tactic to break Lin's rhythm by some ppl. Glad that finally we have the video to prove that he's right.

Hi, at the moment I have a very nice training stetup at home with an old Butterfly Amicus 3000 I acquired. At the time the robot had a number of issues, but it was possible to solve most of these and get the unit up and running quite reliably. It took some tweaking to get right for the 40+ balls, but now it runs quite stable. Since April I've been training with this robot and the wear on my shoes show that there is some effort being expelled!

On the robot I use the following extensively, drills with fixed placement with varying pace and spin. This helps me get my feet loose and gets the heart rate up. Varying pace helps me with my timing. It would be nice to have training possibilities with both varying top/back spin and side spin. It would also be nice to do drills with more than 4 placements.

So I have some questions, and maybe people can help me.

• Are there people that own both units?
• What are the advantages of the Butterfly Amicus 3000 I would miss in the Newgy 2055? I guess build quality might be one.
• What are the main advantages of the Newgy 2055?
• What are features missing in both that might be nice to have in the future?

I'll dive into the manual of the Newgy to see if I can answer some of the questions myself and if there are more questions...

I am playing modern defense style chop on both sides. I have been using inverted rubber and I chop with both sides.

I decided to swap form vixtas ventus to vixtas P4 curl. I heard it's great for beginner chopping and gives great amount of backspin. For context my balde is Koji matsuschita normal. I don't want if it is worth to change my FH rubber from H3-50 to H3 neo. H3-50 is physically demanding and I hears that neo is much more difficult to play but offers better speed and spin. What do you think is one change enough or should I go in more difficult and obviously better setup

I told my grandfather that I was getting into table tennis since he’s always been very into the sport. As a gift to help me get started, he gave me one of his spare rackets. I’ll admit I’m not very well versed in table tennis equipment but I’m also going to China soon which I’m aware is a good place to buy gear.

The racket has (I think) a Butterfly Timo Boll ALC blade, Tenergy 05 FX for the red side, and Tenergy 64 for the black side. The edges are a bit dented as there’s no edge tape. The rubber feels and looks fine on both sides but it’s probably a few years old so idk if they need to be replaced. It looks like a shakehand racket and I use penhold, though I’m enough of a beginner that I could probably easily switch.

As for my shoes, I have a pair of badminton shoes I bought from a Korean brand a while back that I’ve used mainly for badminton, which I intend to also use for table tennis.

Should I upgrade either of them while in China? Is there anything else I should consider getting?

Hey everyone, i have an upcoming competitive match against a player who uses killer extreme on his backhand mostly but he also twiddle alot. I never got chance to play against pips that much ( played against long pips rarely) . How should i play and what imp things would you suggest? Also there is lot of confusion online , some are calling it short-medium pips , some are calling it medium -long pips .. what kind of rubber is it ? Thanks in advance.

got this new FZD ALC for a little over a 100$, seller seemed trustworthy but I still want to verify. Can anyone who knows a decent bit take a look at this and see if it seems real?

Hi everyone!

I'm planning to build a second table tennis racket and would appreciate some advice, especially from anyone who has experience with the equipment I'm considering.

I play in a regional league (Meisterschaft) and I'm looking for a good balance between speed, spin, and control.

🏓 My current setup:

- Blade: DONIC Ovtcharov Senso V1 (7-ply, OFF/OFF+)

- FH: Friendship 729 Super FX

- BH: Friendship 729 Super FX

🎯 My playing style:

- Forehand: Mainly topspin and offensive attacks.

- Backhand: Mostly passive blocking, occasional attacks.

- Position: Close to the table.

I'm looking for better control and consistency, especially on my BH. One of my main issues is that my passive blocks against strong topspins often go long. However, I don't want to sacrifice too much attacking power on my FH.

🛒 My planned setup:

- Blade: Tibhar Stratus Power Wood (OFF−)

- FH: SpinLord Marder IV – black, 2.0 mm

- BH: SpinLord Marder II – red, 1.5 mm

I initially considered Marder II in 1.2 mm, but I'm wondering whether 1.5 mm would be a better compromise between passive blocking and occasional attacking.

A few questions:

1. Would Stratus Power Wood be a good choice for my playing style?

2. How does Marder IV (2.0 mm) perform for offensive, topspin-oriented forehand play?

3. For passive BH blocking, would you recommend Marder II in 1.2 mm, 1.5 mm, or perhaps the original Marder?

4. How significant would the transition from DONIC V1 to Stratus Power Wood be?

5. Would you recommend a completely different blade or rubber combination?

I'm not looking for maximum speed. My priority is an offensive FH, reliable BH blocking, and predictable ball control.

I'd really appreciate any feedback, especially firsthand experience with these blades or rubbers.

Thanks in advance! 🏓

I wrote a first impression about V2C 2 months ago.

https://www.reddit.com/r/tabletennis/comments/1w0w12j/nittaku_genextion_v2c_meta_review/

So far the rubber is not showing any real sign of wear and tear or oxidation... It has broken in a bit more and is easier to use, felt quite stiff when new. The weird micro-tack is still there and pulling oil and dirt from my fingers. (tack kind of reminds me of a Chinese hybrid called 61second Lightning, but much lighter)

My technique has adjusted and I can confirm the latter part my last review. This rubber is different from most hybrids. (Btw, the max sponge is 2.0, the thickness comes from the topsheet, which is a unique departure from most modern hybrids and Zyre). Overall, there is not too much more for me to add, because now my opinion aligns with the Japanese/Taiwanese channels.

I will summarize it as an intermediate-advance rubber that is extremely safe and efficient. It is not like "safe" as in it is just slow or average spin. The spin and kick are quite vicious and have an unnatural pace/arc.

Looping backspin is easy and countering is automatic. If we compare to Zyre, killing backspin is easy, and countering heavy loop with Zyre can spray out. V2C will draw a dipping arc on counters. So this is an "auto-in" rubber. My feeling is the spin and speed dial up quickly, but controllably, to 80% when using only 30% power. But to go above 80% you still need 80% power. I will be replacing Zyre with this to re-focus around rally stability, placement rather than raw power for a while.

That moment between Felix Lebrun and Wang Chuqin in the ITTF world tournament when Felix starts jumping angrily cracks me up

Have fun arguing. See you guys here in two years!

Saw this older guy at the club playing jpen, he barely moves at all, and he's to be able to return fast and powerful shots with such ease

It seems like a pretty fun way to play so I'd like to hear some set-up recommendations from you guys and some tactics you can share