WTT Contender Muscat 2026...
AJ Scott
This is about to start momentarily with the qualis and go on through Saturday: https://www.worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&innerselectedTab=Scheduled&eventId=3251 [today (Monday) and tomorrow's schedule]. When looking at the schedule, please remember that Muscat is 9 hours ahead of us. There are 6 tables in play, but the TV tables are only tables 1-4. They are being livestreamed right this moment at the WTT's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@WTTGlobal/streams.
Player list: https://www.worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Player%20List&eventId=3251&innerselectedTab=Scheduled. The top 5 men's seeds are Lin Shidong, Liang Jingkun, Xiang Peng, Benedikt Duda and Darko Jorgic. The top 5 women's seeds are Shi Xunyao of China, Cheng I-ching, Qin Yuxuan, He Zhuojia and Zeng Jian of Singapore (by way of China).
Penholders... This week, on the men's side, it's Wong Chun Ting, Xue Fei and Xu Haidong. For the women, it's Shan Xiaona of Germany, Yu Fu of Portugal and Tin-Tin Ho of England.
Pips-out/anti-spin players... For the men, I see Chen Junsong of China (short pips/bh--he often chopblocks), Mattias Falck (short pips/fh), and Wang Yang (chopper). For the women, I see He Zhuojia of China (long pips/bh), Linda Bergstrom (chopper), Manika Batra (long pips/bh--playing better lately), Yu Fu (short pips/bh?), Shan Xiaona (short pips/both sides?--only hits with the fh), Yang Yiyun (chopper), Yuan Wan (short pips/fh), Tin-Tin Ho (short pips/fh), YD Ghorpade (long pips/bh), Ayhika Mukherjee (anti-spin/bh, short pips/fh), Zhu Ziyu (chopper), Tatiana Kukulkova (short pips/bh?), Audrey Zarif (short pips/fh), Wong Hoi Tung (short pips/bh), Deng Zhen (medium pips/bh), and Tan Zhao Yun of Singapore (chopper).
Americans... This week, it's Ma Jinbao on the men's side and Deng Zhen on the women's side. They are both in qualis. Everyone has been divided up by groups. Ma is in Group 12 and Deng, in Group 3. I think Deng has a chance to win her group, but, unfortunately, I don't see Ma getting out of his group. He's the no. 2 seed in the group under Daniel Habesohn, but above 2 Chinese players. I think he can beat Habesohn, but I'm not sure about the 2 Chinese. His 1st match is on table 4 against one of them, Zeng Beixun, at around 3:30 am this morning or about 3.5 hours from now.
As for Deng, she's the 3rd seed in a 3-player group that includes Ayhika Mukherjee of India and Sarvinoz Mirkadirova of Kazakhstan. I think Deng has enough game to beat both of them. Mukherjee has anti-spin on the bh and short pips on the fh and Deng has medium pips on the bh, so it should be an interesting match. If Deng is looking for ideas on how to play against players with pips/anti on the bh--Mukherjee, in this case--she should remember her match a coupla years ago vs. Ece Harac of Turkey or she can watch this match from last year's Europe Smash - Sweden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rusq7kNlDmQ&list=PLIl_mJ3zK7B8zYggLKFP9UC_6BXuToDkP&index=133 [Charlotte Lutz, the French no. 3, vs. Guo Jiangshan, the US no. 5]. Her first match is about 30 mins. from now (1:40 am). One last thing about Deng--it appears she has developed a solid bh-flip--something that's hard to do with pips. I would say now that she has the flip, she shouldn't forget the other backhand shots--the chopblock, the side-swipe (both left-to-right and right-to-left), the punch and, lastly, the chop. It's not 1 shot that wins matches--it's a variety of shots that wins. Use all the different techniques on the backhand--not just one. I would say this also to Guo Jiangshan and also to an upcoming junior chopblocker in the US, Amber Liu, whom we might see at the end of the month at the ITTF-Americas Cup in San Francisco.