United States Smash 2026...

[Albert]

The main draw at this big event will be starting in about 30 mins. from now at 3 pm our time: https://www.worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&innerselectedTab=Scheduled&eventId=3242 [today's schedule]. It's being held in the mountains of Ontario, CA which is a suburb of LA.  As you all know, LA is 3 hours behind us, so with this late start, the action today should go on past midnight for us here on the East Coast.

All the matches on all 4 tables in play will be shown on the WTT YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@wttglobal/streams.  And the TV Table (in the Maverick Arena) will be shown on ESPN+.  Those of you who have cable TV will have to check to see if that's part of your TV channel lineup or if you can access it online.

And with the prize money over $1.5 million, most of the top 150 players in the world will show.  That said, they've just concluded 2 days of qualis and a lot of people have been eliminated.

The top 10 men's seeds are Wang Chuqin, Harimoto Tomokazu, Truls Moregardh (his older brother, Malte, also coaches Vladislav Ursu of Moldova), Felix Lebrun, Lin Shidong, Matsushima Sora (2-2 vs. Wang Chuqin in the last 4 matches they've played?), Lin Yun-ju, Hugo Calderano, Dang Qiu and Jang Woo-jin, followed by Alexis Lebrun at 11.  As for the women, the top 10 seeds are Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Zhu Yuling, Harimoto Miwa, Chen Xingtong, Chen Yi, Kuai Men, Wang Yidi, Sabine Winter (upset the 3 Chinese immediately above her recently?), Hayata Hina, followed by Shin Yu-bin at 11 and Ohdo Satsuki at 12 (upset Wang Manyu recently?).

Penholders...  The only ones still alive in the draw are Felix Lebrun, Dang Qiu and Wong Chun Ting for the men and, for the women, Shan Xiaona and Yu Fu.

Pips-out/anti-spin players...  None for the men, but, for the women, it's many more, as per usual--Sabine Winter (anti-spin/bh), Hashimoto Honoka (chopper), Itoh Mima (short pips/bh), Han Ying (chopper), Satoh Hitomi (chopper), Yuan Jianan (short pips/fh), Liu Yangzi (short pips/bh), Sreeja Akula (long pips/bh), Manika Batra (long pips/bh), Yu Fu (short pips/bh?), Zhang Mo (short pips/fh), Jessica Reyes-Lai (short pips/bh), YD Ghorpade (long pips/bh), Audrey Zarif (short pips/fh), Shan Xiaona (short pips/both sides?), Peng Yu-han (long pips/bh, short pips/fh--scored lots of upsets this year), Tan Zhao Yun (chopper), and Clio Barcenas of Mexico (long pips/bh?--playing doubles only).  Peng Yu-han of Chinese Taipei has been beating people left and right.  In my opinion, she's the one to watch this week, this year.  She plays her 1st match vs. Anna Hursey, the fiery Red Dragon of Wales today just after 4 pm on table 4.  Anna is going to have to be fiery red today, because Peng is playing like a woman on a mission.  Anna is going to have to be relentless, because Peng is relentless--the most offensive chopblocker in the Game, in my opinion.  Due to the thin air, the conditions are fast, so Anna will most likely have to back off the table and make the match a slugfest.

Americans...  Unfortunately, none of the Americans that went through qualis advanced to the main draw, which leaves the ones who were already seeded there--Kanak Jha, Nandan Naresh, Liang Jishan, Daniel Tran, Bosman Botha (doubles only), and Sid Naresh (doubles only) for the men and Lily Zhang, Amy Wang, Sally Moyland, Jessica Reyes-Lai and Irene Yeoh as well as Adriana Diaz of PR.  Kanak will also play doubles with the Chinese penholder Xue Fei.  Lily will pair up with Sally and Amy will pair up with Jessica and they all will play each other later on in a Women's Doubles match at around 6 pm on Table 3.  Speaking of Sally, her first singles match is tomorrow afternoon against Prithika Pavade of France.  If she needs advice, she should talk to Adriana Diaz who has owned Pavade in the recent past.  

There's a lot of interesting doubles pairings this week...  Bosman Botha will pair with Qin Yuxuan of China in the Mixed.  Adriana Diaz will pair up with Patrick Franziska of Germany.  Luka Mladenovic of Luxembourg will pair up with Ng Wing Lam of HK.  Luka lost in the singles qualis, so now he's only playing doubles.  Anna Hursey will pair up with Anders Lind and Ohdo Satsuki of Japan will play with Alexis Lebrun of France again.  Hugo Calderano will play with his usual partner and girlfriend, Bruna Takahashi.  I mention them because they are, surprisingly, the no. 2 seed in the Mixed Doubles this week under the South Korean pair, Lim Jung-hoon/Shin Yu-bin.  Hugo & Bruna have been quietly moving up the rankings.

More interesting pairings...  Manika Batra will play alongside Jee Min-hyung (medium pips/bh) of AUS by way of South Korea.  And Sabine Winter will pair in the Mixed again with Dang Qiu and in the Women's Doubles with Yuan Wan (short pips/fh).  To be frank, I don't like that particular pairing. Sabine and Wan played once recently and they bumped into each other causing Sabine to trip over and fall head-first into the floor.  And though she quickly got up with a big smile on her face, that had to hurt.  I personally think Wan has shaky footwork and is not someone Sabine should pair up with.

Anyhow, looking at the schedule, I see that Amy has to play Itoh Mima late tonight at around 11:20 pm our time.  I think she has a good chance in that match.  She may or may not remember that she played Itoh 2 years ago at the ITTF Men's/Women's World Cup.  It was a 4-game match in the preliminary round.  The winner was to advance, but if the match ended up in a tie then neither player would advance.  If Amy & Coach Gao are looking for ideas on how to play Itoh tonight, they should revisit that match here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esd2dXNz0YY.  Amy served beautifully in that match.  I think that will be the deciding factor tonight.

Lily plays Yuan Jianan of France tomorrow.  If memory serves, I think Lily upset Yuan the last time they played.  I did a search and found this match from 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29-iK84YBJ8.  I think Lily needs to be backhand-dominant against Yuan, because she's more consistant than Yuan on the bh.  And the match above took place in Chongqing, which is another city at high elevation.  You can see in the video above that Lily hit a lot of balls out.  When you play at altitude, the balls tend to fly on you, especially when you try to lift backspin.  Also, when you serve, the balls tend to go longer than normal and bounce up higher than normal. Everyone this week is going to have to adjust these fast conditions.

[Albert]

Here's the ESPN+ link for those of you who can access it: https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/2a1546e8-fb01-4c64-85e9-77af91d47a41

[Albert]

A few good matches from last night...

1. Kanak vs. Togami Shunsuke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rixILc5lf5c [highlights]

2. Lily vs. Yuan Jianan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA4xgyyBTDw [highlights]

3. Han Ying vs. Chen Yi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYwK133McWw&pp=0gcJCU4LAYcqIYzv [highlights]

I forgot to mention the ranking points race in my last post...  There are a lot of points on offer this week, which could significantly improve the rankings of a few players.  For example, if Anders Lind can make the quarterfinals, he might earn enough points to make the top-10.  That would be a historic milestone for him as well as Danish TT as the last Dane to make the top-10 was Michael Maze, back in 2010--16 yrs. ago.

Also, If Kanak can make the round-of-16, he might earn enough points to make the top-20 for the 2nd time in his career.  You might remember he made the top-20 the first time due to an ITTF rankings adjustment that took place while he was suspended from competition.  This week, however, he can make the top-20 without an assist from the ITTF.

As for other Americans, Sally Moyland is still alive in both the Women's & Mixed Doubles.  She and Lily play Harimoto Miwa/Hayata Hina late tonight after 10 pm on the TV table in the Maverick Arena and then she & Liang Jishan play Hugo Calderano/Bruna Takahashi tomorrow (Wednesday) at 6 pm on Table 2 .  I think she & Liang have a good chance to win that one.

And Amy unfortunately fell short against Itoh Mima.  Looking at the WTT schedule, it appears her next event is WTT Feeder Asunsion in Paraguay, starting next Monday, July 8.  She is the top women's seed and has a good chance to win, but the next 2 seeds below her also have a good chance--Li Yu-jhun and Huang Yu-jie of Chinese Taipei.  If I were Amy, I'd spend the next few days studying those 2 just in case they meet next week.

[Albert]

Men's semifinals: 

--Matsushima Sora vs. Felix Lebrun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfOGKuiccKA [highlights]

--Truls Moregard vs. Vladimir Sidorenko: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G_Fl9Y_joc [highlights--the commentator, Adam Bobrow, was brought to tears by the post-game interview]

Women's semifinal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM-0qla1R1w [Harimoto Miwa vs. Kuai Man -- highlights]

All 3 matches were entertaining as the shotmaking was off-the-charts.  As for today's schedule, the women's final is set to start 15 mins. from now (10 pm) and the men's final, one hour later (11 pm).

And, as for this week's schedule, the WTT Feeder Asuncion (sounds like "ah-soon-see-OWN") starts this Wednesday morning at 9 pm.  Again, Amy Wang, the US no. 2, is the top seed in the women's singles event.