The PingSkills Classic qualifying tournament was a huge success played in front of a crowd of over 50 people at the Coburg Table Tennis club. There were 10 athletes competing in the tournament which were split into 3 groups. The winner of each group would play another round robin with the top 2 progressing to the main draw.
In this PingPod we discuss the strengths of Christopher Kek and talk about how far he can go in the PingSkills Classic? Christopher has a great forehand and great footwork. He’ll need both of these to be working extremely well if he’s going to press for a semi-final birth or better.
If you like cool calm players with great footwork and powerful forehands then you should be supporting Christopher!
In this PingPod we’re talking about Eric Tan who is the only penholder in the PingSkills Classic. He uses the reverse penhold backhand which is very rare to see in Australia. To get past the quarter finals Eric will need to be fired up and play very aggressively by serving well and making a lot of good third ball attacks.
Percy Lu is going to get a lot of support in the PingSkills Classic and will have a home ground advantage since he is from the Coburg Table Tennis club. He’s going to need to make use of his deadly serves if he has any chances of getting past the quarter finals and into the semis. He’s also the only left hander in the field. Watch the video to decide if you’ll be supporting Percy.
For the first time in many many moons Table Tennis will be on TV in Australia on Fox Sports 3 this coming Thursday (4th August 2011) @ 8am and Friday (5th of August) @ 8:30am for 2 x 2 hour programs of the Liebherr 2011 ITTF – Oceania Cup.
It may not be Prime Time TV, but we need all Table Tennis people to support us by switching it on. This will ensure we can help the product to grow and win further support of the TV network Fox and in the future hopefully improve our allocated time slot. Its important for our future growth of the commercialisation of Table Tennis in the region and Australia.
So please let all your Table Tennis buddies, your non Table Tennis buddies, your grandmother and generally any sports fans know. I am sure they will appreciate to see some extremely high quality Table Tennis. Any way you can help us promote this is appreciated.
Brian Berry is the oldest and most unique player in the PIngSkills Classic. His game varies from fast aggressive topspins to heavy defensive chopping. The biggest problem facing Brian will be his consistency. To beat the top players he will need to mix up his game and have a very low unforced error count. Brian can also be quite entertaining during his matches and often comments aloud about his performance after a critical point. If you like to see unusual players and support the underdog then the Berry is your man!
We are very excited to have Simon Gerada join PingSkills to initially help out answering some of the Ask the Coach questions via video. Simon runs the successful Health Wellness and Table Tennis club. He’s had a fantastic playing career which you can learn more about in this PingPod interview. Below is the first question he has answered regarding the pendulum backspin serve.
Will our only female player in the main draw be able to take the title at the first ever PingSkills Classic? Miao Miao is a legend of Australian Table Tennis who uses short pimples on the forehand and medium pimples on the backhand. She plays very attacking Table Tennis with powerful smashes from close to the table.
Can Trent Carter win the PingSkills Classic? Being a home grown Coburg boy, he will have tremendous support. He’s no stranger to winning big events either as he has won on the World Junior Circuit and was also the Oceania Men’s Singles Championships.
The Draw for the inaugural PingSkills Classic has been done with some interesting results. Te top two seeds for the event have been set as Simon Gerada and Shibaji Datta. They look to be the favourites but you can now see who they will be up against. You can also check out how your favourite player has fared in the draw.
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