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The European leg of the ITTF Pro Tour will be held from 28th October - 1st November at the English Institute of Sports, Sheffield.

It was last staged in 2001, so its return after 8 years is eagerly anticipated. This year’s tournament will boast a glittering field, with most of the top table tennis talents on the planet aiming to win a share of the $172,000 prize money on offer.

It is one of only four ITTF Major Pro Tour events this year with the others being held in Japan, Germany and China. There will be well over 30 nations represented, so it will be a truly global event and one not to be missed. The English players confirmed so far are Paul Drinkall, Darius Knight, Joanna Parker and Kelly Sibley.

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The English Open is the next best thing after the European Table Tennis Championship held in Stuttgart, Germany for the Europe continent. It is just a month away from today.
Stay tuned for more updates.

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The English Open in Sheffield is on this weekend. The tournament commences on Wednesday 28th October and concludes on Sunday 1st November 2009.
Schedule : http://www.ittf.com/Protour_new/PDF/200 ... hedule.pdf

Eight years ago, on a Sunday (11/02/2001), Wang Liqin(China) beat Christophe Legout (France) to capture the Men’s Singles title at the English Open, the last time the tournament was held in the town of Chatham. Now, both names appear on the entry list as the country which hosted the first ever tournament on the ITTF Pro Tour in 1996, in the town of Kettering, returns to the programme.

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More information from this link : http://new.etta.co.uk/english-open/

[varghese]

Here is my favorite. She is a good chopper. Unfortunately she is little inconsistent.

[iluvtt]

Is that Joanna Parker? I think her backhand rubber is short pips, Raystorm P.O.

[varghese]

Yes. She is. Her backhand is short pips. I met her a while ago. She is very friendly. She was practicing with Paul D. when I have met her. She was very friendly explaining her strokes. In the real game, I have seen her making a lot of mistakes - not consistent with defending. I felt her opponents were overpowering her. May be in few years she can be more consistent, however I fear with her short pips she can't come to the higher level.

[iluvtt]

Did you meet her in the US or UK?
Why do you think with her short pips she can't go to a higher level? What do you suggest?
She changes her short pips to long pips?

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Updates from Sheffield.

Women
Hungary’s Li Bin, was the 30th highest world ranked player on duty and expected to finish in first place in her group. But alas, she met her match in Chang Chenchen(China), who won the Girls’ Singles title at the ITTF Junior Circuit Finals in Stockholm in 2002, champion in the World Junior Championships in Kobe in 2004 , and champion in the Women’s Singles event at the ITTF Pro Tour tournament in St Petersburg in 2007.

The top eight seeded players, namely Zhu Fang (Spain), Zhang Rui (Hong Kong), Wen Jia (China), Kasumi Ishikawa(Japan), Li Xue (France), Xu Jie(Poland), Renata Strbikova and Iveta Vacenovska (both Czecholovakia), enjoyed success to proceed to the next round.

Men
England’s 16 year old Liam Pitchford, from Chesterfield, caused the biggest upset on the opening day of play, Wednesday 28th October 2009 at the English Open. After losing a close seven games duel against Daniel Kriston(Hungary), recovered to beat the vastly experienced Liu Song of Argentina in a duel that also went to full distance. Liu Song, winner of the Latin American Championship 4 times, is currently ranked no.95 on the ITTF Men’s World Rankings, having occupied a top 50 place in 2001, whilst Liam Pitchford presently stands at no.560, the highest position of his career.

Furthermore, Liu Song is a very difficult adversary for a player feeling his feet on the ITTF Pro Tour and very different to anyone Liam Pitchford has faced to date. Left handed, he uses long pimples on the backhand, varying between blocked and backspin returns, with a fast forehand to follow; he is quite unique and the techniques employed have brought him success, especially in Latin America

In the Men’s Singles event the top four: Damien Eloi (France), Pår Gerell (Sweden), Sharath Kamal Achanta (Sweden) and Andrej Gacina (Croatia) all enjoyed trouble free days. So do Leung Chu Yan (Hong Kong), Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth (Germany), Adrian Mattenet (France), Tiago Apolonia (Portugal), Constantin Cioti (Romania) and Lars Hielscher (Germany) all came through the opening day unscathed.

Play continues on Thursday 29th October 2009 with the qualification stages of the singles and doubles events, matches in the main draw start on Friday 30th October 2009.

(Note : Excerpts from ITTF News)

[varghese]

Did you meet her in the US or UK?
Why do you think with her short pips she can't go to a higher level? What do you suggest?
She changes her short pips to long pips?

I met her in Europe.

There is tons of topspin the women can generate in their loops like men do. It is hard to defend such heavy top spin with short pips unless she gets a court large as tennis court and run like a dog in the court. Look at Chen Weixing who is a close to the table defender. He is not successful at defending like before. The new generation rubbers his opponents use are fast and spinny. If men has that problem, how big it would be for women.

She has to use long pips to defend. Either run the opponents crazy like the Korean Sisters (Kim & Park) do, or attack on the forehand. That is my suggestion. However, I don't think she will change her set up, because she is already a professional. Who knows, she will increase her athleticism and go to the top. She is a very cheerful player.