WTT Champions Chongqing 2026...

[AJ Scott]

For those of you who, like myself, are looking for a distraction from
what appears to be the start of WW3, this Champions event is about to
start at 11 pm tonight (Monday) and goes on till Sunday:
https://www.worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&innerselectedTab=Scheduled&eventId=3235
[tonight and tomorrow's schedule].   Due to the clock change yesterday,
China is now 12 hrs. ahead of us.  Only 1 table is in play--Session 1
starts at 11 and goes on to about 3:30 am and then Session 2 starts at
6:30 am and goes to about 9:30 am.  You can find livestreams and
individual match videos at the WTT YouTube channel.

This is an invitational event of 32 men and women in singles only.  The
top 10 men's seeds Wang Chuqin, Truls Moregard, Hugo Calderano, Harimoto
Tomokazu, Felix Lebrun, Lin Yun-ju, Matsushima Sora, Xiang Peng, Dang
Qiu and Liang Jingkun.  The top 10 women's seeds Sun Yingsha, Wang
Manyu, Chen Xingtong, Zhu Yuling, Kuai Man, Wang Yidi, Chen Yi, Harimoto
Miwa, Sabine Winter, and Hashimoto Honoka.

Penholders...  Only on the men's side this week--Felix Lebrun and Dang Qiu.

Pips-out/Anti-spin players...  Only on the women's side this
week--Sabine Winter (anti-spin/bh--just fell short of the top-10 in the
ranking update), Hashimoto Honoka (chopper), Han Ying (chopper), Yuan
Jianan (short pips/bh), Liu Yangzi (short pips), and Sreeja Akula (long
pips/bh).

Americans...  Kanak Jha, Lily Zhang and Adriana Diaz...  Kanak plays
Matsushima Sora at 2 am--a tough one...  Lily plays Berni Szocs
Wednesday morning at 2:30 am.  I think that's a winnable match for
Lily...  And Adriana plays Lee Eunhye Thursday morning at 2 am.  That's
a winnable match for Adriana.

Anyhow, this should be interesting.  The conditions could be
tricky--Chongqing is in the mountains which would suggest fast
conditions, but I hear it's one of the most humid places on the planet. 
Humidity slows down the conditions and causes bad bounces due to the
wetness in the air.  Anyhow, I guess we'll see in a little bit--like now.

Oh, there are 2 other events happening this week--WTT Feeder Otocec is
on now till Wednesday and WTT Feeder Varazdin starts on Thursday. 
There's a very talented Japanese chopper by the name of Yuka Kaneyoshi
shooting up in the rankings.  She could be the best chopper in the Game
today.  She just won the WTT Feeder Duesseldorf last week.  She played
Sabine Winter (now ranked 11th in the world) last year in the German
League.  Here's how it went:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pczXwQ0XDqk.  Kaneyoshi is currenty
ranked 115 in the world.  Oh, her name is written this way in Japan:
兼吉優花 (Kane-yoshi Yuu-ka, pronounced ka-NEH-yo-she YOO-ka).

[AJ Scott]

The finals (full matches): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRANnfHiSow

Most of the matches from the quarterfinals to the finals were
excellent.  The players put on a great show this weekend.

As for what's coming up next, there isn't much happening this week, but
next week you'll have WTT Contender Tunis starting on Tuesday, March 24,
and then a major event, The Men's/Women's World Cup starting Sunday
night, March 29 (in our time zone).  It'll be held in Macao as it was
last year.  The player lists and schedule have already been released:
https://www.ittf.com/tournament/3379/MWC_WWC_Macao2026/.  Kanak Jha, Amy
Wang, & Lily Zhang will play for Team USA and Adriana Diaz for Team PR

As I've said before, I'm aware of the fact that someone at the ITTF is
ready our posts, so I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the
ITTF/WTT leadership for being excellent stewards of the Game.  I've been
watching TT broadcasts for more or less 40 yrs. now and the Game now is
the most entertaining it has ever been. That said, as I've also said
before, there's a few rule changes I would like to see, namely, I'd like
to see the ITTF replace the 6-inch toss with the over-the-head toss
which most players already have.  And again, I'd like to see them
eliminate the "without imparting spin" language in the service rule and
I would like to see them get rid of the 30-degree angle rule on the toss.

Other changes I'd like to see would be a rule creating an age limit for
ballkids no lower than 12 yrs. of age and I'd like to see them placed
completely outside the playing area.  I personally think at present they
are too close to the players and now that the Game is the most physical
it has ever been, there's a higher risk for a bad accident.

I also think they should turn down the volume on the music or eliminate
the music alltogether during the matches.  I see all the time in the
breaks between games players and coaches not being able to hear or
understand each other due to the loud music. Also, I would like to see
them experiment with adding an additional timeout in the deciding game
of a 7-set match in the big events.

Also I think that, whenever possible, they should use umpires in matches
who speak the languages of the players in the matches.  So often I see
umpires make a call, but the player is unable to understand what the
umpire is saying because he or she doesn't speak English.  Also,
sometimes, the umpires themselves don't speak English well enough to
communicate clearly.  I think most Europeans and most players from the
British Commonwealth countries speak English, but most players not from
those areas do not. Also, most kids in the world don't speak English.  I
think it's time to make some sort of accomodation for them.  Another way
to fix this problem would be to create software that allows an umpire to
push a button on their computer to voice "canned umpire messages" in a
player's language if he/she doesn't understand English.

Also, another language accomodation that I think should be made would be
for players who come from countries where they write in non-Roman
script.  I think it would be helpful to their fanbase to display their
names in whatever their writing system might be. For example, decades
ago, I noticed that, at events in China and Japan, the digital
scoreboards on the TT courts would display Chinese, Japanese and
sometimes Korean names in both Roman script and then in Chinese script. 
People from China, Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei, and Singapore write
their names in Chinese (Koreans write their names both in Korean and
Chinese).  If you could set up the oncourt displays and the onscreen
scoring graphics to flash their names in both scripts that would make it
much easier for the fanbase from those countries to identify the
players.  The way it used to happen back in the day is the screens would
display the name in Roman script and then they would switch for a few
seconds to Chinese script and then switch back to Roman script and then
back to Chinese script and so on and so forth.  I also think that this
should be done for other non-Roman scripts like Arabic, Hindi, Cyrillic
alphabet, Thai, etc.

Lastly, I would like to see part of the injury timeout rule changed,
namely, that part where the player has get permission to get an injury
timeout.  I think if a player says they're hurting, they are usually
telling the truth and they should get treatment immediately.  But, even
if they are tired and just need a bit of a break, which currently is
considered "cheating", I think they should be allowed that, because, at
the end of the time, the audience in attendance paid their money to see
a match and the fans viewing the match on TV also want to see a match,
so I don't think most people will care at all if, occasionally, a player
feigns injury to get a break, because all the spectators want to see a
good match!

Ok, that's enough for now!