Europe Smash - Sweden 2025...

[Albert]

This started with the qualis on this past Thursday--the main draw starts this (Sunday) morning at 6 am or a little over 4.5 hrs. from now and goes on thru Sunday, the 24th: https://www.worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&innerselectedTab=Scheduled&eventId=3128 [tomorrow's schedule].  This is also a two-part series--the Youth Smash starts on the 21st.  A lot of the juniors playing this week have signed up for that event in the middle of the coming week.

Player list: https://www.worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Player%20List&eventId=3128...  The top 10 men's seeds are Lin Shidong, Hugo Calderano (upset Lin the last time they played), Harimoto Tomokazu (also lost to Calderano last time they played), Liang Jingkun (also lost to Calderano last time they played), Felix Lebrun (upset Calderano last time they played?), Truls Moregard, Darko Jorgic, Xiang Peng, Benedikt Duda and Lin Yun-ju.  

The top 10 women's seeds are Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Chen Xingtong, Kuai Man, Wang Yidi, Harimoto Miwa, Zhu Yuling, Itoh Mima, Ohdo Satsuki, and Chen Yi (the Chinese now have 6 women in the top-10 again which I believe is a record for them).

Penholders...  For the men, it'll be Felix Lebrun, Dang Qiu, and Wong Chun Ting.  On the women's side, it'll be Yu Fu and Shan Xiaona.

Pips-out/anti-spin players...  On the men's side, the only one who got thru qualis was Luka Mladenovic (anti-spin/bh), the Luxembourg no. 1. and the no. 3 chopblocker in the world, behind Ylane Batix (long pips/bh) and Amirreza Abbasi (long pips/bh?), who both lost in the qualis.  As for the women, it's more, as per usual: Itoh Mima (short pips/bh), Hashimoto Honoka (chopper), He Zhuojia (long pips/bh), Yuan Jianan (short pips/fh), Han Ying (chopper), Liu Yangzi (short pips/bh), Sabine Winter (anti-spin/bh--had match point on Wang Yidi last week, but failed to convert), Jee Min-hyung (medium pips/bh?), Sreeja Akula (long pips/bh), Zhang Mo (short pips/fh), Manika Batra (long pips/bh), Linda Bergstrom (chopper), Yuan Wan (short pips/fh--plays doubles with Winter), Shan Xiaona (short pips on both sides?), Yu Fu (short pips/bh?--I recently saw that she does actually use them), Choi Hyo-joo (short pips/bh?) and YD Ghorpade (long pips/bh).

Americans...  All the Americans who went thru qualis were eliminated, so the only ones left in the main draw are the US no. 1 man and woman, Kanak Jha and LIly Zhang, and the PR no. 1 woman, Adriana Diaz, who's paired up in the mixed doubles with Anders Lind, the Danish no. 1 and now a top-20 player.  They play in the first match on the TV table (in the Renaissance Arena) at 6 am our time (Sweden is 6 hrs. ahead of us).  And then at 2:20 pm, Anders LInd has to come back out and play Kanak on the TV Table.  I think that's a tough but winnable match for Kanak.  I don't think Lind moves well, so I think Kanak needs to jerk him around with short serves and then a 3rd ball attack or a long push, but also drop shots.  I think Kanak's upset of Dang Qiu was huge.  He beat Qiu with the short game, even though he doesn't appear to be comfortable playing the short game.  I think Kanak should continue to practice the short game and become comfortable with it.

Oh wait--I'm looking at the player list again and I don't see LIly's name now--I guess she must have pulled out again?  She pulled out of the last event after upsetting Doo Hoi Kem the first time in her career, after losing the 10 previous times.  Guo Jiangshan, our top chopblocker, went thru qualis and took out Ece Harac ("EH-jay HA-ratch") of Turkey in spectacular fashion.  You might remember I said last year that Harac appeared to know exactly how to play pips/anti-on-the-bh players.  Anyhow, in the next round, Guo got trounced by Charlotte Lutz of France who also appears to know how to play players like Guo.  It seemed like Lutz finished every point with a smash or loop-kill.  If anybody wants to learn how play against pips/anti-on-the-bh players, go watch the Guo Jiangshan vs. Charlotte Lutz match from yesterday in the qualis.  Lutz' tactics were perfect

[Albert]

2 good matches from yesterday...

1. Kirill Gerassimenko vs. Luka Mladenovic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR0XVKCVVDs -- close match with some controversy at the end

2. Anders LInd vs. Kanak Jha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtYOyfkW45U&pp=0gcJCa0JAYcqIYzv -- Adam Bobrow had Michael Maze, the former Danish no. 1, as a guest in the commentary booth.  I suspect he was there in the event Lind survives to make the men's singles final, because, win or lose, he earns enough points to make the top-10 for the 1st time in his career.  Also, it would be the 1st time for a Dane to make the top-10 since Michael Maze did back in 2010, I believe.  To my eyes, Lind and his nat'l teammate, Jonathan Groth, are Maze-clones, so Maze would be very proud if either or both of them were to make the top-10, because it would be proof-positive that his identity has been stamped on the Danish Nat'l Team.