mhtabletennis.com LYTTC April Open 2015

I am excited to be sponsoring my first tournament in the USA at the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center. The LYTTC April Open will be taking place on Saturday 11th April at LYTTC, you can link to the entry form HERE or check online at www.lilyttc.com for the online registration.

I would love to see more people participating so if you live in the New Jersey or New York area it would be great to have you playing. We also have players who travel from Trolley Car in Philadelphia and as far as Penn State to compete.

We have a lot of surprises up our sleeves at LYTTC in the coming months, one of which I am personally organising. It's an exciting time! Hope to see you at the tournament! :)

TableTennisDaily Launches Equipment Review Centre

TableTennisDaily has established itself as one of the top table tennis websites on the internet, partially due to its incredible level of user interaction and input. More than anything else is of course the hard work of Daniel Ives the website creator and webmaster. Dan is constantly working to improve TableTennisDaily and as a result the brand and site have continued to grow exponentially.

The TableTennisDaily Review Centre

The latest in Dan's undertakings is the new Equipmen Review Centre (link) where users can post reviews of table tennis equipment. The layout and format of the Review Centre is simple and easy to follow, posting and reading reviews is incredibly easy.

Having posted a number of reviews myself, I am well aware of how easy it is to enter a review. The system involves a small number of ratings and a short written review. It takes about 1-2 minutes to enter a review. There are already a great number of products entered in the system collecting multiple reviews from different users and as with all things on TableTennisDaily it is growing rapidly!

You can see a review I did here for the Acuda S1 Turbo while I was trying out the centre.

There are currently around 300 user reviews and the Center has only just been launched, it is a great place to go and find other user opinions and also some expert opinions on equipment you may be interested in. Be sure to check it out!

Winning in Qatar 'A Pleasant Surprise' For Samsonov

Recently, Vladimir Samsonov showed that age in table tennis really does have no limits. I recall writing a blog on Table Tennis Master about 'Why Samsonov Will Last the Long Mile' and I wasn't far wrong. Vladi is looking as calm and collected as ever and still playing the same fluid, brilliant table tennis he always has.

A Timeless Legend of Table Tennis, Vladimir Samsonov

"I think I can still play well. At least I still believe I can beat the best" Samsonov had to say after the Qatar Open. He credits his ongoing success to the support of his wife and children, family, friends and his coach of the past 6 years V.Shubin from Russia.

After a string of great results, victory over Monteiro, Chuang and then Ovtcharov in the final, he is showing now sign of giving up, sighting future goals at the World Championships, European Championships and of course in his Club League Championships. There really is no saying how long Vladi could remain a top player in the world for, as he seems to be sustaining his level incredibly well!

Richard Prause Impressed by 11 Year Old Japanese Wonder-Kid

Tomokazu Harimoto has stolen the spotlight in the past week after the 11 year old Japanese prodigy defeated Omar Assar (World Ranked 43) and Jens Lundqvist (World Ranked 71) at the Safir International Open 2015.

Tomokazu Harimoto, 11 year old Table Tennis Star

Werner Schlager Academy Head Coach Richard Prause had seen the Japanese boy at the Czech Junior and Cadet Open and also saw the match against Lundqvist and seemed fairly impressed, stating Harimoto has "amazing anticipation for his age and really good acceleration."

Prause went on to comment, "He is able to win points not only by good placement or control but also by using the right timing which enables him to play quite fast topspin or flips above the table for a player his age."

Japan certainly have a lot of young potential, with their amazing young doubles combination of Mima Ito and Miu Hirano who made history by winning a World Tour Event at the age of 13. Mima Ito also stunned audiences in her earlier performances at age 12, beating Mathilda Ekholm of Sweden (who was top 50 in the world at the time).

No doubt, promising prospects for Japan who haven't secured a World Championships singles title since 1979 despite having formerly been dominant in the sport.

Richard Prause shares the same sentiment as all of us, "It will be interesting to see his further development, for sure a young boy with great potential and nevertheless still a lot of work to do."

Check out this accurate display of skill by the young Japanese player!

Aruna Struggles on World Tour With Empty Bench

The success of Quadri Aruna in 2014 was unparalleled, resulting in his receipt of the ITTF Star Awards for Best Male Player and Best Point of 2014. Following his impressive ranking increase of over 150 places to the edge of the top 30 players in the world, the pressure to perform is stronger than ever.

ITTF Star Quadri Aruna

In the Kuwait Open ITTF World Tour Event 2015, Aruna was defeated by his Portugese league teammate Joao Geraldo, ranked outside the top 100 players in the world. Following in Qatar he faced a tough matchup against Bojan Tokic and also suffered defeat. Aruna says it is difficult to play alone and the support from a coach in his corner could help him perform at a much higher level.

At the 2014 World Cup, Aruna had been fortunate enough to have the support of German Coach, Martin Adomeit. Now he finds himself in need of that support and is finding it difficult to get the support he needs to fund a coach to travel with him.

"Playing without a coach makes life difficult, it's going to be great if I can have a good coach behind my back in upcoming tournaments. The support of German coach Martin Adomeit made a great difference during the World Cup in Dusseldorf, Germany" Aruna comments on his situation. As you can read in my interview, Pride of Africa Takes The World By Storm, there is a difficulty in getting support from the Nigerian Table Tennis Federation as the sport is not majorly funded there.

Aruna is working tirelessly to try and secure further sponsorship to enable a coach to travel with him to important events. He is fortunate enough to be backed by Sengled for 2015 and by Equipment Giant Joola, but is seeking support for a travelling coach. As an embodiment of the fighting spirit of table tennis, an entertaining rallier and an outstanding performer he is a player we want to see succeeding on the world stage!

For any prospective sponsorship information or offers you can contact his official Facebook Page: Quadri Aruna