Competitions – 360TT Blog

Double Happiness: the story of DHS, the brand intertwined with Chinese table tennis

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:12:00 -0300

If you play table tennis, you have seen those three letters a thousand times: on your training ball, on your forehand rubber, on the colorful table in the World Championships broadcast. Few people know that DHS stands for Double Happiness, and that the name was born from two celebrations in 1959, one of them a world title. By the way, many players call a ball that clips the net and then the edge a double happiness: double luck for the hitter, none for the receiver.

Telling the story of DHS means telling the story of Chinese table tennis. Since the first title, the two have walked together, in a cycle that has repeated itself for more than 60 years: the team tests, the factory adjusts. When the rules change, both adapt together, and they almost always come out ahead.

This post is based on the DHS Service Guide, the brand’s technical handbook (4th edition, 2022, in Chinese), which DHS made available to 360TT as its official distributor in Brazil. It includes a timeline of the sport and of the factory. Since it is the brand’s own version of its history, I checked what I could against other sources and I point out when a figure comes only from DHS.

TL;DR: the ball reached China before the national team did: the sport landed in Shanghai in 1904 and the first Chinese ball came out in 1927 (before the national team, the ball). In 1959, China’s first world title gave the brand its name, and it debuted at the 1961 World Championships in Beijing, the same event where a 15-year-old Brazilian knocked out the champion. Then came ping-pong diplomacy, the 40 mm ball and the Hurricane (the world against China), the Ma Long era and Paris 2024. At the end, what this story teaches players.

The story in one picture: from the English dinner table to the tables of Paris (text in Portuguese). Infographic: 360TT

Before the national team, the ball

Table tennis was born in England at the end of the 19th century as a dinner-table game: rackets made of stretched skin, rubber or cork balls wrapped in wool so as not to damage the furniture, a net strung between two chairs. Around 1890, the Englishman James Gibb adapted a hollow celluloid toy ball, and the game got the ball we know. From there the sport went to Japan, where it became takkyu.

In 1904, Wang Daowu, the owner of a stationery shop in Shanghai, brought ten complete sets back from Japan and gave the sport the name that stuck: pingpang, after the sound of the ball. Curiously, in the West that name had an owner: the English company Jaques registered “Ping-Pong” as a trademark in 1901, and in the United States the rights went to Parker Brothers (today they belong to Escalade). That is why the federations adopted the name table tennis. In China, pingpang simply became the name of the sport. In 1926 the ITTF was founded and held the first World Championships in London that December. And Shanghai started manufacturing: the first ball made in China came out in 1927; in 1928 and 1929 the first racket workshops appeared (one of them made 2,000 to 3,000 a year); in 1937, the Lianhuan ball (“linked rings”) was the first Chinese ball good enough for competition. In English, DHS itself calls that ball Double Circle, and the two interlocked rings survive to this day as the mark of DHS’s training ball line, such as the Double Circle D40+. In 1946 the Hualian ball factory was founded.

Old Double Circle balls, made in Shanghai: the two rings of the 1937 Lianhuan still on the stamp. Photo: reproduction

An old Chinese racket, from the days of the first Shanghai workshops. Image: DHS Handbook

Meanwhile, world table tennis already had an owner. The handbook tells this story in five eras, and in each one the game and the equipment change together. From 1926 to 1951, Europe ruled: 109 of the 117 world titles, with the shakehand grip, defensive play and pips rubber with no sponge, which gave little speed and very little spin; the idea was to miss less than the opponent. From 1952 to 1959, Japan changed the game twice: it swapped the shakehand grip for the penhold, to attack from a distance with the forehand, and brought the novelty that changed everything, the sponge, which gave rise to sandwich rubber (rubber with sponge), still used today, and multiplied speed and spin.

China only joined the ITTF in March 1953, and that same year it played its first World Championships, in Bucharest: it beat Austria and Sweden and lost to England and Hungary. Between 1956 and 1958, Hualian and three other Shanghai factories became joint ventures with the state and formed the basis of what would become DHS. In 1957, Hualian made the first Chinese ball with a sealed seam. All that was missing was the name.

Packing balls in a Shanghai factory, in DHS's early years. Image: DHS Handbook

1959: two joys and a name

In 1959, in Dortmund, Germany, Rong Guotuan won the men’s singles at the 25th World Championships and became China’s first world champion in any sport. That same year, the People’s Republic turned ten. Two joys. According to DHS and the Chinese press, Premier Zhou Enlai named the ball made in Shanghai Hong Shuang Xi, “red double happiness”, the same name as the 囍 symbol the Chinese use at weddings. In English, Double Happiness. As an acronym, DHS.

The ball with the “double happiness” stamp. Image: DHS Handbook

The name came with a deadline. China was going to host the 1961 World Championships and wanted to play with its own equipment, so the country set up a joint technical effort with factories and research institutes. In September 1959, the new ball and table were tested by national team players, among them Xu Yinsheng, and approved. The same effort produced the first Chinese racket with inverted rubber and sponge. In 1960, the ball was approved by the ITTF, the first Chinese sports product to get that approval. It was the first turn of the cycle: the team tested, the factory adjusted.

An old table from the DHS collection. Image: DHS Handbook

1961: Beijing, the home debut

At the 26th World Championships, in Beijing, the ball, the table and the scoreboard were DHS: it was the first time sports equipment made in China appeared at a world championship. And at home, China won the men’s team event, the men’s singles and the women’s singles. For the handbook, this is when the center of table tennis moves from Japan to China, with fast close-to-the-table attack, and the game becomes China’s “national sport”.

The 26th World Championships, Beijing, 1961: the debut of DHS equipment. Image: DHS Handbook

🇧🇷 Biriba, 15, against the world champion

At that same World Championships, in April 1961, a boy from São Paulo wrote his name into history. Ubiraci Rodrigues da Costa, known as Biriba, aged 15, beat Rong Guotuan, the 1959 champion whose title had given DHS its name. It was in the third round of the men’s singles, in front of some 15,000 Chinese fans, and he reached the last 16. He received a telegram from Brazilian President Jânio Quadros, and his run was only matched by Claudio Kano in 1987 and surpassed by Hugo Calderano in 2021.

It was no bolt from the blue. At 11, Biriba was already South American champion among adults; at 13, he beat two Japanese world champions, Ichiro Ogimura and Toshiaki Tanaka, in exhibition matches at the Ibirapuera arena in São Paulo, the school that dominated the sport at the time. On November 18, 1958, the sports newspaper A Gazeta Esportiva put him on its front page alongside Pelé and tennis player Maria Esther Bueno: “the golden triangle of Brazilian sport”.

Biriba, aged 13, with Pelé and Maria Esther Bueno at the A Gazeta Esportiva offices, on November 18, 1958, each holding the other's tool. Photo: A Gazeta Esportiva

Biriba died in São Paulo on September 25, 2025, aged 80. This is 360TT’s tribute to the first great name in Brazilian table tennis.

The rest of the decade strengthened the partnership. In 1963, in an ITTF test, the DHS ball tied for first place with England’s Halex. In 1965, at the World Championships in Ljubljana, every Chinese player used DHS rackets (the “65” series), China took 5 of the 7 titles and the Chinese women beat Japan, which had dominated the women’s game for eight years.

The small ball moved the big ball

China stayed away from the World Championships for six years and returned in 1971, in Nagoya, Japan. That is where the most famous episode in the sport’s history took place. The American Glenn Cowan, 19, got on the Chinese team’s bus (by mistake, according to the best-known version). Zhuang Zedong, three-time world champion, went to talk to him and gave him a silk painting of the Huangshan mountains; Cowan returned the favor with a T-shirt bearing the peace symbol. The photos went around the world, and days later the American team was invited to play in China, one of the first groups of Americans to enter the country since 1949. This was “ping-pong diplomacy”, which brought China and the United States back together after 22 years of closed doors and paved the way for Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing in February 1972. “The small ball moved the big ball”, as the Chinese say.

If you want the behind-the-scenes story, there is a great book: Ping-Pong Diplomacy: The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World, by American journalist Nicholas Griffin (Scribner, 2014). He tells how table tennis was used as a political tool from the 1950s on, and he even doubts the “chance” encounter in Nagoya: in his view, the Chinese were expecting Cowan.

Ping-Pong Diplomacy, by Nicholas Griffin (Scribner, 2014). Image: book cover reproduction

With the sport back to life in the country, DHS production grew again, and in 1972 its ball got the highest overall score in an ITTF test.

The 1970s, however, belonged to Europe’s comeback. The Europeans combined Chinese fast attack with Japanese topspin and caught up with the Asians. China’s answer came in 1981: after two years of rebuilding, the team won all 7 titles at the World Championships in Novi Sad, the first time a single country took everything in 55 years of the event.

In the early 1980s, DHS also went out into the world with the PF4 line (ball, racket and rubber), the first Chinese brand to open markets abroad. The PF4 still exists, today as a family of tacky-topsheet rubbers.

The old PF4 package. Image: DHS Handbook

DHS PF4The legendary rubber that took DHS to the world, updated for the 40+ ball: the same spin as always, with more speed in attack. Visit the store →

In 1988, in Seoul, table tennis became an Olympic sport. In 1995, DHS unified its brand into a single company, and its ball was the official ball of the World Championships in Tianjin, where China, once again, took all 7 titles. That is the birth of what the Chinese call “the world against China”.

The PF4 ball presented as the official ball of the 43rd World Championships, Tianjin, 1995. Image: DHS Handbook

The world against China

With China winning everything, the ITTF began changing the rules to make the game more competitive and easier to watch on TV. DHS was involved in those changes. In 1996, according to the handbook, the ITTF commissioned it to develop the bigger ball. The Sydney Olympics, in 2000, were the last major competition with the 38 mm ball, and a DHS ball: the first time Chinese equipment was official at an Olympic Games. That same year, the World Cup in Yangzhou debuted the 40 mm ball, also DHS. I covered that change in detail in the ball guide, from 38 mm to 40+. Next came 11-point games (2001) and the serve without hiding the ball (2002).

The Sydney 2000 ball, the last major competition with the 38 mm ball. Image: DHS Handbook

In rubbers, the turning point had come in 1998, when DHS launched the rubber already glued to its sponge at the factory. Until then, Chinese players bought the topsheet and the sponge separately. That is how the G888 (used by Wang Liqin and Yan Sen while the ball was still small) and the Kuangbiao family, known worldwide as Hurricane, were born. With the 40 mm ball, speed became the priority, and the Hurricane 2 and the Hurricane 3 were designed for it.

The G888, from 1998: DHS's first rubber already glued to its sponge. Image: DHS Handbook

DHS G888DHS's first rubber already glued to its sponge is still in production: a very tacky topsheet for maximum spin in mid-distance attack. Visit the store →

In blades, it is a comeback story. Since the 1980s, the Chinese team had used almost only foreign blades. In 2003, DHS studied the game of eight national team players and launched Hurricane blades named after each of them. In 2005, at the World Championships in Shanghai, the Hurricane Wang helped Wang Liqin win the singles and the mixed doubles. In 2006, the Skyline 2 and Skyline 3, made for Ma Lin and Wang Hao, completed the lineup, and 70% of the team’s forehands were already on DHS rubber.

Wang Liqin at the 2005 World Championships in Shanghai. Image: DHS Handbook

In 2008, DHS supplied the Beijing Olympics, and China won the team events and the top three places in both singles.

The table of the Beijing 2008 Games. Image: DHS Handbook

Shortly afterwards, on September 1, 2008, the ban on solvent-based speed glue came into force (I told that story in Why Is Your Glue Water-Based Today?). It is the best example of the cycle: DHS tested less tacky rubbers and thicker pimples with the national team, and the players’ answer was to keep the rubber tacky. So the factory worked on the sponge instead. That is how the NEO line was born, with a sponge treated at the factory to be “stretched”, imitating the effect the glue used to give.

DHS Hurricane 3 NEOThe rubber that has followed the Chinese team from the 40 mm ball to the present day, with a factory-treated NEO sponge. Visit the store →

The Ma Long era

Ma Long signed with DHS in 2008, and the history of his blades shows the cycle in detail. According to the handbook:

2008: the first Hurricane Long, built on the blade he was already using;
2011: he switches to a seven-ply, all-wood blade and puts together 51 straight wins starting at the Suzhou Open. DHS launches the Hurricane Long 2;
2012: the Hurricane Long 3, with improved internal glue at his request, and the blue handle with the yellow crescent that became his trademark;
2013: the Hurricane Long 5, with inner carbon and aramid layers, with which he wins the National Games;
2016: after the gold in Rio, the Long 5 gets a smaller blade face;
2021: the Golden Slam edition, to celebrate his Tokyo feat.

The evolution of Ma Long's blades (labels in Portuguese). Images: DHS Handbook; layout: 360TT

Ma Long and the Hurricane Long 5 Golden Slam. Image: DHS Handbook

I covered that evolution, and what it teaches about changing blades, in the post Ma Long’s Lesson. In 2015, with the Long 5 and Hurricane 3 on both sides, he won the World Championships, the World Cup and the Grand Finals. In 2021, in Tokyo, with the same setup, he completed the Olympic, World Championship and World Cup singles titles for the second time, the “golden grand slam”, and was the first player ever to do it.

Meanwhile, the ball changed again. In 2011 DHS announced a ball made of a new material, and the ITTF decided to retire celluloid, which had been used for more than a hundred years. The change took effect on July 1, 2014. Besides changing the game, it solved a practical problem: celluloid catches fire easily and was shipped as dangerous goods; the plastic ball travels by air without restrictions. DHS’s first new ball was the official ball of the World Championships and the Rio Olympics; in 2017 came the ABS plastic ball that led to the DJ40+, the Tokyo ball.

The figures DHS publishes about the Chinese team and the market show how big this is. They are the brand’s own data, from 2022, but they are impressive:

97%of the Chinese team's forehands on DHS rubber

46%of the team's blades are DHS

50%+of the world's table tennis balls are made by DHS

70%of major competitions use the DHS 3-star ball

The handbook also shows a lesser-known side. In 2010, the top four in the men’s singles at the World Championships all played with DHS equipment. In 2017, the brand launched the Gold Arc 5 and Gold Arc 8, non-tacky, European-style rubbers, made in Germany by ESN and tested by Wang Liqin and Ma Long. And, in 2022, the colored Hurricane 9, after the ITTF allowed colored rubbers. On the backhand, DHS rubber also gained ground with the 40+ ball: 32% of the team’s backhands in 2022.

From Paris 2024 to today

The handbook dates from 2022, so from here on the sources are the ITTF and the specialized press. At Paris 2024, DHS was the official supplier of the tables and nets for the Olympic and Paralympic tournaments, with a table made for the Games based on the Rainbow II. It was the seventh Olympic Games in a row with DHS equipment, from Sydney to Paris.

In April 2025, the ITTF renewed DHS as the official table supplier for the World Championships Finals from 2025 to 2028, starting in Doha, with the Rainbow table. It was on that table that Hugo Calderano reached the World Championships final, the best result ever by a Brazilian.

The Rainbow table at the 2025 World Championships in Doha, before play began. Photo: ITTF

🏓 Curiosities from the handbook

The 44 mm ball: in 2003, DHS launched a bigger ball, slower and with less spin, for recreation and beginners. Today it is used in physical education classes in Chinese schools.
The racket gauge: the device that measures rubber thickness at racket control in international competitions is supplied by DHS.
A museum table: the Rainbow table from the London 2012 Games, with arches shaped like the Olympic rings, was kept permanently by the International Olympic Committee at its headquarters in Switzerland.
The Beijing table: the table for the 2008 Olympics was designed from the Chinese character for Beijing, 京.
The two-color ball: in 2014, DHS and the Chinese federation tested a two-color ball, which makes spin more visible on TV and for the receiver.
The World Championships trophies: each of the 7 titles has a trophy with its own name, such as the Swaythling Cup (men’s team) and the Corbillon Cup (women’s team). They are made of silver and pass from champion to champion: the winner only gets to engrave their name.

The London 2012 Games table, now in the IOC collection. Image: DHS Handbook

The two-color ball, from 2014. Image: DHS Handbook

DHS D40+ ABS Bi Colour ball (box of 10)The two-color version of the D40+: you can see the spin as it rotates, great for training how to read spin. Visit the store →

Leaf through the handbook

For those who want to see the original, here are some pages from the DHS handbook: the cover, the nine timeline pages this post is based on, the page on Ma Long’s blades and the one on the history of the balls. Click any of them to enlarge it.

Cover

1890–1937

1946–1963

1965–1989

1995–2000

2000–2005

2007–2009

2010–2014

2014–2020

2021–2022

Ma Long's blades

History of the balls

Pages from the DHS Handbook (Service Guide, 4th edition, 2022, in Chinese). Images: DHS Handbook

What this story teaches players

🤓 360TT technical view

Reading the whole timeline, one thing stands out: equipment changes because the rules change. The 40 mm ball, the end of speed glue, the plastic ball: every ITTF change forced manufacturers to rework rubber, sponge and blade. DHS had the advantage of being inside those decisions and of testing everything with the strongest team in the world before it reached the shop.

That is why Chinese rubber is the way it is. The Hurricane, tacky and hard, was born for the Chinese style, which generates speed and spin through technique: technique is what puts real energy into the hard sponge. With little energy, the rubber feels slow; with technique, it becomes practically two rubbers in one, with control on passive balls from the tacky topsheet and power from the hard sponge. I explained this in detail in So, which rubber should you use? The null hypothesis method, where I also tell how the rest of the world adopted tacky and hybrid rubbers, driven by the German company ESN, the same one that makes the DHS Gold Arc.

The other lesson is simpler: what the Chinese team uses is available in the shop, with differences in quality control between versions (I explained this in the Hurricane 3 guide). Since 2023, 360TT has been the official DHS distributor in Brazil, and it was as a distributor that we received from DHS the handbook this post is based on.

Now I want to hear from you: what was your first piece of DHS equipment? A PF4, a Hurricane, a box of balls at the club? Did you know this story? Tell me in the comments.

See DHS rubbers in the shop

What If Table Tennis in Brazil Had the USATT Rating System?

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 22:40:00 -0300

If you play table tennis tournaments in Brazil, you have surely heard — or taken part in — a heated debate about the real level of the players. Who hasn’t seen someone entered in a theoretically lower category surprise everyone and take the title, while players from different states find huge technical gaps even though they sit in the same division?

In Brazil, the technical organization of our sport is dictated by the CBTM (the Brazilian Table Tennis Confederation) Manual, which structures the National Rating into static letter “drawers”. But on the North American circuit, the culture is completely different thanks to the USATT (USA Table Tennis) model. There, players don’t say they play in “Absolute C” or “Bronze Series”; they proudly introduce themselves with their exact number. You simply hear: “Nice to meet you, I’m a 1650 player” or “I’m training to break 1900”.

As a coach, I like to analyze systems that drive improvement. So let me invite you to think: what would happen if Brazil adopted a “living score” system like the American one?

In the United States, the rating is not just a label on a piece of paper; it dictates who you train with, which tables you can challenge at the club, and it defines your progress point by point.

TL;DR: in Brazil, the CBTM rating uses letters and fixed point bands, and a tournament’s weight counts for more than consistency. In the USATT model, the rating is a number that changes with every match: an upset earns many points and a favorite who wins earns none. A living score like that would give players a clear improvement goal, like a golf handicap. But whatever the system, the players who improve are the ones who train and study the game.

The current picture: how rating works in Brazil (CBTM 2026)

To draw a fair parallel, we first need to understand our current system precisely. The official CBTM regulation organizes players by technical level through fixed point bands. For men, for example, Rating A covers anyone with 3,300 points or more, Rating B runs from 2,800 to 3,299, going down the alphabet until Rating O, for those with up to 250 points.

When singles matches take place at official events on the national calendar — such as the Winter National Championship, the Summer National Championship, or the stages of the Brazil Cup Gold Series and Silver Series — the points you win or lose are calculated from a fixed table of “Expected Wins” (when the favorite wins) and “Unexpected Wins/Losses” (when the famous upset happens).

The core of our model is that the points earned in the basic table are always multiplied by the political and technical weight of the event. It works like this:

Winter National / Summer National: Weight 18.
National Selection: Weight 12.
Brazil Cup Gold Series: Weight 9.
Brazil Cup Silver Series: Weight 6.
State events: Weight 3.
Regional tournaments / Leagues: Weight 1.

Although this model protects the institutional importance of the big tournaments, it has a side effect: a player’s ranking depends heavily on how many expensive trips they can afford to play high-weight events (like a weight-18 Summer National), and less on their day-to-day consistency against the players in their own region.

The USATT model: the living-score algorithm

In the United States, the system removes the letters and the political weights of tournaments. The rating is a continuous, floating number (usually from 100 to 2900+). The calculation runs on a pure points-exchange algorithm based only on the mathematical difference (the so-called differential) between the two opponents before the match starts.

If a 1400-point player faces a 1410-point player, the difference is small and the match yields few points to the winner. But the real engine of American engagement is the upsets. If a focused, fast-improving 1400-point player surprises and beats an experienced 2000-point opponent, the algorithm punishes the favorite and injects a massive 50 points at once into the underdog’s pocket. On the other hand, if the 2000-point favorite wins, they gain exactly zero points, because the system understands that victory was merely a statistical obligation.

The psychological impact: a more logical line of progression

The great advantage of a dynamic, unified score in Brazil would be its direct impact on player motivation, especially for beginners and intermediate players. Instead of being stuck behind category barriers that depend on how many people entered on the day of the tournament, the player gets a clear, continuous individual line of progression.

The focus stops being purely a medal in a circumstantial knockout bracket and becomes a measurable improvement goal. The sport gains a sense of progress much like online game rankings or golf handicaps: you know exactly where you stand on the national table tennis map and how much you need to improve to reach the next step. Your opponent stops being just an unknown rival and also becomes a clear mathematical challenge.

Whatever the system, progress happens at the table

Of course, a change of this magnitude would bring gigantic logistical challenges for the CBTM to manage in a country of continental size like Brazil. But while the political backstage debates formulas, spreadsheets and tournament weights, the hard reality of table tennis stays the same everywhere in the world: whoever doesn’t train seriously and doesn’t study the game stays stuck.

In the end, whether you are counting the little letters of a static rating or climbing numbers in a living algorithm, the only real way to improve is to stay focused on refining your movements and sharpening your tactics.

We want to hear from you!

Now the table is yours: do you prefer the current CBTM system, based on well-defined letter bands (divisions) and weights by championship importance, or do you think a living-score algorithm like USATT’s would bring more fairness and motivation to Brazil’s amateur players? Leave your comment below and join the debate!

PS: Now that you’ve reached the end of the text and exercised your brain with so much theory, how about dropping by our store to make sure your equipment is as sharp as your tactical mind? There’s no point having a Ma Long rating if your rubber is slicker than a bar of soap! 🏓🔥

Visit the 360TT store

The Antifragile China: From Chaos to the World Title

Sun, 10 May 2026 23:04:00 -0300

Analysis · 2026 World Championships

The antifragile thrives and grows when exposed to chaos, volatility and stress.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile

Nassim Nicholas Taleb spent years developing a concept that goes far beyond what most people call “resilience”. Being resilient means withstanding the shock and returning to the same state. Being antifragile is different: it means coming out of the shock stronger than you went in. The antifragile needs stress in order to improve.

At the 2026 World Table Tennis Team Championships, held at the OVO Arena Wembley in London, China’s men’s team gave the world a practical, unforgettable lesson in what it means to be antifragile. Two defeats in the group stage. A 26-year legacy thrown to the ground. And then: a dramatic semifinal against France, a dominant final against Japan, and the 24th world title in history.

This post tells that story, with all the real data, match by match.

TL;DR: China arrived in London with 26 years without a defeat in the tournament and lost twice in the group stage (South Korea and Sweden). It reacted with revenge on Korea, a comeback semifinal against France, in which Liang Jingkun came back from 0-2 down after a talk from coach Wang Hao, and a 3-0 over Japan for the 24th title. For the author, it is a real case of Taleb’s concept of antifragility: the team that needed the chaos to show what it is made of.

26years without a defeat in the tournament

83consecutive team matches without losing

262individual matches in that streak

24world titles in total

The unthinkable: the two group stage defeats

To understand the magnitude of what happened in London, you first have to understand the size of the myth that had to be torn down.

Since the final of the 2000 World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, when China lost to Sweden, the Chinese men’s team had built one of the most impressive streaks in the history of any team sport: 83 team matches without a defeat, involving 262 individual matches and only 13 sets lost in 26 years. Eleven consecutive world titles. An unbeaten run that felt more like a philosophy than a result.

In London, that myth died twice in two days.

1st defeat: China 1 × 3 South Korea (group stage)

The first blow came on Saturday, May 2. South Korea, with a bold strategy and a calculated team lineup, beat China 3-1, breaking a 26-year streak of Chinese wins in the tournament.

The most telling detail: the world No. 1 and reigning champion, Wang Chuqin, was rested. The Chinese delegation had underestimated the opponent. In his place came Zhou Qihao, 29 years old. South Korea took advantage and won with authority.

The reaction from the Chinese media and fans was immediate and brutal: questions about the team’s decline, about the quality of the squad, about the end of an era. In just 48 hours, what had been seen as the most dominant team in the history of table tennis became a question mark.

2nd defeat: China 2 × 3 Sweden (group stage)

If the first defeat was a shake, the second was an earthquake.

On Sunday, against Sweden, Wang Chuqin came back and was brilliant, winning both of his matches with authority:

Wang Chuqin (No. 1) 3×0 Anton Källberg (No. 33): 11-8, 11-5, 11-6
Wang Chuqin (No. 1) 3×0 Elias Ranefur (No. 70): 12-10, 11-6, 11-4

But it wasn’t enough. Sweden adopted a brilliant strategy: they entered Truls Möregårdh, world No. 2 and silver medalist at Paris 2024, as the team’s third player, avoiding a direct clash with Wang Chuqin. Möregårdh played only one match and sealed the deal:

Elias Ranefur (No. 70) 3×2 Lin Shidong (No. 6): 9-11, 6-11, 11-3, 11-6, 9-11
Anton Källberg (No. 33) 3×1 Lin Shidong (No. 6): 12-10, 10-12, 11-8, 11-8
Truls Möregårdh (No. 2) 3×2 Liang Jingkun (No. 21): 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 3-11, 12-10

China finished third in Group 1. For the first time in its modern history, it did not finish in the top two of a group stage at the World Team Championships.

The WTT broadcast commentator spoke with the legendary Ma Long, considered the greatest table tennis player of all time, who had traveled to London to watch the matches. Asked about his presence, he simply answered:

I came to learn.

Ma Long

A sentence that summed up the moment of a nation.

The turnaround begins: the round of 16 and the quarterfinals

Before the semifinal, China had to get through two knockout rounds. And the signs of recovery began to appear.

In the round of 16, against Romania, China won 3-1, but not without scares. Romania’s Eduard Ionescu (No. 41 in the ranking) beat Liang Jingkun in straight sets, one more reminder that nothing was guaranteed. Wang Chuqin, unbeaten in the tournament, closed out the match.

In the quarterfinals, China met exactly the South Korea that had beaten it in the group stage, and this time delivered a categorical revenge: 3-0, in a match that lasted only 2 hours and 56 minutes. Wang Chuqin, Lin Shidong and Liang Jingkun all played. The message was sent.

China had secured its 32nd medal in 34 appearances in the history of the tournament. But the big story was still to come.

Semifinal against France: the night the myth was reborn

With Ma Long in the stands of Wembley Arena, China stepped up to the table on Saturday, May 9, to face France, the only unbeaten team in the men’s event up to that moment, which had knocked out Brazil in the quarterfinals 3-0 with a devastating performance from the Lebrun brothers and Flavien Coton.

What followed was the match that defined the spirit of the whole tournament.

Match 1 · semifinal

Wang ChuqinCHN · 1st

3×2

Flavien CotonFRA · 23rd

Wang Chuqin came in as the absolute favorite. Coton, just 18 years old, a former world cadet champion, wanted none of it. The Frenchman played fearlessly, pushing Wang to the limit. In the first set, Coton gave nothing away: Wang had to get to 15-13 just to win the opener. France turned it around in sets 2 and 3. Wang reacted, but needed a deciding set to confirm the win. Wang remained unbeaten, but had been taken to a fifth set for the first time in the tournament.

Match 2 · semifinal

Lin ShidongCHN · 6th

0×3

Félix LebrunFRA · 4th

Félix Lebrun, 19 years old, Olympic bronze medalist at Paris 2024 and world No. 4, was relentless. With his sharp counter-attacking game, he dominated Lin Shidong in 3 straight sets. Team match tied.

Match 3 · semifinal⚡ The turnaround match

Liang JingkunCHN · 21st

3×2

Alexis LebrunFRA · 12th

This was the heart of the semifinal. And probably one of the most dramatic moments in team table tennis in years.

Alexis Lebrun, 22 years old, European champion and world No. 12, dominated the first two sets in crushing fashion, conceding only 4 points in total. Liang Jingkun looked finished. China was on the edge of the cliff.

That was when the team’s coach, Wang Hao, himself a three-time individual world champion, stepped in during the break between the second and third sets with words that mixed technique and mental release. The talk was caught by the WTT cameras:

🎙️ Wang Hao, China's coach, during the timeout

“On the serve receive, you have to have the attitude of going firmly into the ball, of taking his serve on head-on. Don’t overthink things, take the weight off your head.

If you go on the attack, go all in. After you flick the receive, stay very sharp. If you open the rally with the flick, he’s going to block quickly in your direction, so you have to be ready to defend or counter-attack that ball coming back.

There’s no room to count on luck now, there’s no free ball.

Play as if you’ve already lost, go all or nothing. Let your arm go without fear of missing! Value every chance you get on the table. Believe in your game, you can turn this around. Let’s go!”

It was, at the same time, a precise technical instruction and an act of psychological release. The key was in the central sentence: “play as if you’ve already lost.” Taleb would call this removing the downside: when there is nothing left to lose, fear disappears and the player can act with total conviction.

And that is exactly what Liang did. The third set went to 15-13 in Liang’s favor. In the fourth, he opened 10-3; Alexis fought back and tied it at 10-10. Liang closed it out. In the fifth set, it was quickly 9-2, and he finished it at 11-2.

Wembley Arena exploded.

Match 4 · semifinal

Wang ChuqinCHN · 1st

3×1

Félix LebrunFRA · 4th

With China ahead and Liang Jingkun having rekindled the team’s flame, Wang Chuqin returned to face the best French player in a classic of world table tennis. The rallies were of a high level from the start. But Wang, energized by Liang’s reaction, grew progressively and closed it out in four sets.

What Liang showed tonight moved me. Seeing him fight back from that position made me believe more when I went back to the table.

Wang Chuqin

Final against Japan: the 24th title and the 12th in a row

In the final on Sunday, May 10, in front of more than 7,000 spectators in a packed Wembley Arena, China faced Japan, which had reached its first men’s World Team Championships final since 2016, after beating Chinese Taipei 3-0 in the semifinal.

It was the seventh time the two countries had met in a men’s final in this tournament. China had won all six previous ones. This time, the story was different from what many expected, not because of the margin, but because of the protagonists.

Match 1 · final⚡ Another epic comeback

Liang JingkunCHN

3×2

Harimoto TomokazuJPN · 3rd

Sets: 8-11 / 4-11 / 11-9 / 13-11 / 11-8 (comeback from 3-8 in the decisive set)

Harimoto, 22 years old and world No. 3, won the first two sets. In the fourth, he had match point. It looked as if the semifinal comeback had been an isolated flash.

But Liang Jingkun, the man who had risen from the dead in the semifinal, was not willing to die again. In the decisive break, Wang Hao gave the instruction and calibrated without stirring things up:

🎙️ Wang Hao, China's coach, in the deciding set

“Keep exactly this rhythm. Overall, there’s no need to rush and speed up the game.

When you attack, pull the ball more toward the middle of his side of the table, got it? Go a bit more measured and focus there in the middle.

If you use the forehand, play heavy, right in the middle of him. If it’s the backhand, since he steps up to the table, turn the ball to the other side.

Very good. That’s it, total focus now. One point at a time. Hold his game. You don’t need to try to force impossible balls, just pin him down.

In this final stretch, you have to believe in yourself. If you go on the attack and sink your teeth into the game, he’s the one who will get desperate and panic. Okay? Go.”

Where before Wang Hao had freed Liang from fear, now he rebalanced him: control, patience, faith. Two timeouts. Two completely different registers. One same principle: put the player in the right mental state for the moment.

Liang Jingkun listened. He came back from 3-8 in the deciding set. He closed it out at 8-11, 4-11, 11-9, 13-11, 11-8.

Two matches in a row. Two epic comebacks. One same man.

Match 2 · final

Wang ChuqinCHN · 1st

3×1

Matsushima SoraJPN · 8th

Sets: 8-11 / 12-10 / 11-2 / 11-9

Wang Chuqin maintained the solidity and leadership he had shown throughout the tournament. He lost the first set to the talented young Matsushima, but responded with authority in the next three. Wang finished the tournament unbeaten in every individual match he played, a historic performance.

Match 3 · final🏆 The title

Lin ShidongCHN · 6th

3×1

Togami ShunsukeJPN · 18th

Sets: 11-9 / 11-5 / 7-11 / 11-9

Lin Shidong had been China’s most inconsistent player in the tournament: he had lost four matches, including to the Swedes Ranefur and Källberg in the group stage. He was the big unknown of the Chinese team.

In the final, when it was time to close out the championship, he was the one who sealed the conquest. China is a twelve-time consecutive world champion (12x), with 24 titles in total, double Hungary, the second-biggest winner in history with 12.

The organizers raised the Swaythling Cup. Ma Long smiled in the stands.

The parallel with antifragility: why this is more than sport

Taleb describes three categories of systems: the fragile, which breaks under pressure; the robust, which resists without changing; and the antifragile, which gets stronger with chaos. China’s men’s team in London 2026 was a perfect case study.

Principle 1 · defeats as a stimulus

When a team that went 26 years unbeaten loses twice in two days, the natural response would be panic and a defensive reorganization. China did the opposite: it used the defeats as information. It identified vulnerabilities (Lin Shidong inconsistent, Liang Jingkun in poor form) and exposed those players to the fire of competition, instead of protecting them.

Principle 2 · individual stress, collective strength

Liang Jingkun lost matches against South Korea, Sweden and Romania. On any fragile team, he would have been rested. On China, he was picked for the most important match of the tournament, and responded with a comeback that defined the championship. The accumulated stress converted into extraordinary performance exactly when it mattered most.

Principle 3 · the psychology of legends

Ma Long “came to learn”. Xu Xin was in the stands. Coach Wang Hao freed Liang from fear with the paradox “play as if you’ve already lost” and then, in the final, rebalanced him with tactical calm: “one point at a time, don’t try to force it”. Two timeouts, two completely different registers for the same player in different situations. Accepting defeat removes the pressure of avoiding it and allows you to act with total conviction.

Principle 4 · the system is bigger than the parts

Lin Shidong, the player with the most defeats in the tournament, closed out the championship. Liang Jingkun, the one who suffered the most, was the hero of the semifinal. Wang Chuqin, the most brilliant, was the anchor and finished unbeaten. None of them, alone, tells the complete story. The team was the system. Taleb writes that antifragile systems need skin in the game (real exposure to the consequences). China had that in London.

The difference between dominating and winning

There is a difference between a team that dominates because the others are weak and a team that wins because it is, structurally, capable of growing under pressure.

During 26 years of being unbeaten, China piled up titles with relative ease. In London 2026, for the first time in decades, China was forced to find out what it is made of when the comfortable scenario disappears.

The answer was the clearest demonstration of antifragility that team table tennis has ever seen.

They did not survive the chaos. They needed it.

Now I want to hear from you: what did you think of this final? Would you have bet on China to win the title after the group stage defeats? What did you think of Liang Jingkun? And of Wang Hao’s talks during the timeouts? Tell me everything in the comments, I’ll love reading it!

Who Is the GOAT of Table Tennis? 100 Years of History and Magic

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 20:02:00 -0300

The ITTF has just released an epic documentary (video above) celebrating the centenary of our sport (1926-2026). It is 40 minutes of pure history, but since the video is in English, I made a point of dissecting every detail to bring you what really matters. This is not just a retrospective; it is the story of the revolutions that shaped the racket you hold today.

TL;DR: the ITTF documentary tells how the game was born in British basements, was turned upside down by Hiroji Sato’s sponge, saw the Swedish miracle and the Chinese symphony, and ends with Hugo Calderano’s 2025 World Cup. At the end, the coach picks his GOATs: Deng Yaping, Waldner and Ma Long.

Tip

The video is in English. While watching, turn on the automatically generated captions in English and, if you want, set up the automatic translation into your own language, so you can follow along with subtitles you read easily.

The beginning: when rackets were corks

Did you know that table tennis started out as Whiff-Waff in British clubs? In the late 19th century, it was an elite after-dinner pastime. It was only in 1926 that the ITTF was founded in London. Back then, Hungary dominated everything. The legendary Victor Barna, with his surreal 41 medals at world championships, was the face of the sport.

The game changed its name, its table and its rules, but its competitive essence was born in London basements and conquered the planet.

The sponge revolution and the end of “Marty Supreme”

The documentary highlights a painful break in 1952. Until then, the American Marty Reisman, “Marty Supreme”, was the king of hardbat. Everything changed when the Japanese player Hiroji Sato showed up with a thick, soft sponge. Sato didn’t make the classic sound of impact; the ball came out silent, but with a spin and speed that Reisman couldn’t read. It was the beginning of modern table tennis.

Sweden: the miracle and the Glenn Östh orchestra

Many say that Jan-Ove Waldner faced China alone, but the documentary and history prove he was the sun of a flawless constellation. Under the strategic command of Glenn Östh, Sweden built the greatest challenge the “Wall” has ever faced:

Jan-Ove Waldner (the Mozart): the first man to complete the Grand Slam. He won Olympic gold in Barcelona (1992) and was a two-time singles world champion (1989 and 1997). The video highlights his absurd feat in Manchester in 1997, where he was world champion without losing a single set, 21 to 0 overall.
Jörgen Persson: the pillar of consistency. Singles world champion in Chiba (1991), Persson was Waldner’s ideal partner, reaching historic finals and keeping Sweden on top for almost two decades.
Mikael Appelgren: the master of control and counter-attack. He was a three-time European singles champion and a world doubles champion. His left hand was the Chinese players’ nightmare, and it was fundamental in the team victories.
Team dominance: Sweden didn’t just win, it dominated. There were four team world titles (1989, 1991, 1993 and the historic return in 2000). The documentary reverently recalls the 5-0 over China in the Dortmund final in 1989, a score that shocked the planet.

Names like Erik Lind and Peter Karlsson rounded out this team of legends, proving that the Swedish miracle was, above all, a triumph of teamwork and tactical intelligence.

China: the unbroken symphony

Since 1996, China has won almost 90% of all world titles available. The documentary details how this hegemony was built through legends who shaped the modern game:

The women’s dynasty: the video pays tribute to the era of Deng Yaping (the first great sovereign), followed by Wang Nan and the “invincible” Zhang Yining, who retired at the peak as Olympic and world champion.
The tactical architects: the transition to modern table tennis went through the hands of Liu Guoliang (master of the short pips and of the serve) and Kong Linghui, the first to unify the major titles.
The golden trio: the documentary highlights the era of Wang Liqin (the giant of physical power), Ma Lin (the master of touch and of the classic penhold style) and Wang Hao, the man who revolutionized the reverse penhold backhand (RPB) and was the direct mentor of the next generation.
The modern phenomena: you can’t talk about history without mentioning Zhang Jike, the “mad dog”, who holds the record for the fastest Grand Slam in history (445 days), and his immediate successor Fan Zhendong, who consolidated his greatness by inheriting the world throne with impeccable technique.
The captain: and, at the center of it all, Ma Long. The video crowns him as the only man to win the double Grand Slam, defining what it means to be perfection on two legs.

The video points out that the Austrian Werner Schlager, in 2003, was the last non-Chinese player to win the men’s singles world title, a reminder of how relentless the Chinese training system is.

Brazil: Hugo Calderano and the future

The climax for us Brazilians is seeing the spotlight given to Hugo Calderano. The documentary celebrates Hugo as the great force that changed the balance of the sport in the WTT era.

Hugo’s title at the 2025 World Cup is cited as the milestone when the world realized that Chinese hegemony has real cracks. Brazil is no longer just a participant; we are protagonists in the ITTF’s hundred-year history.

The verdict from the coach: who is your GOAT?

Note

GOAT is an acronym for “Greatest of All Time”.

After 100 years of evolution, who are the greatest of all time? Here is my pick:

🏆 Women: for me, it’s Deng Yaping. Her aggressiveness and mindset were from another planet. She didn’t just win; she dominated her opponents’ souls.
🌍 Men (Earth): Jan-Ove Waldner was the greatest of all time on Planet Earth. His creativity and his “feeling” were human, yet brilliant.
🌌 Men (Galaxy): Ma Long… well, Ma Long is the greatest of all time in the Galaxy. That guy is not human. He is an efficiency machine built by aliens.

The video mentioned Victor Barna, Angelica Rozeanu, Waldner, Deng Yaping, Ma Long, Hugo Calderano and so many others. Who gets the GOAT title for you? Is there any other name the video forgot?

Now I want to hear from you: who is your GOAT? Leave your comment below, let’s debate these 100 years of passion!

Sun Yingsha: Character Matters More Than Victory (The World Cup Gesture)

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 17:20:00 -0300

In table tennis, we often get lost in technical analysis: the speed of the forehand, the precision of the backhand, the spin on the serve. China, with its overwhelming dominance, is the gold standard of that technical excellence. But recently, the world number 1, Sun Yingsha, reminded us that an athlete’s true greatness goes far beyond the scoreboard.

During the 2025 ITTF Mixed Team World Cup, in Chengdu, she was at the center of a moment that has already gone down in the history of fair play, proving that her sportsmanship is as flawless as her game.

The gesture that silenced the arena (and won over the world)

The scene was one of high tension: a decisive match against Germany. During a hard-fought point against Nina Mittelham, that classic situation every table tennis player knows came up: the doubt about the “let” (the ball touching the net) on the serve.

The video review system (TTR) was called in. In the footage shown on the big screen, it was clear that the ball had touched the net. But, through a startling failure of communication or interpretation, the officials made the wrong call: they validated the serve and awarded the point to Sun Yingsha.

At that moment, 99% of professional athletes would have accepted the “gift”. After all, the official decision had already gone in their favor. But Sun Yingsha did the unexpected. Even with the point secured by the umpire, she refused to win through a mistake.

With absolute integrity, she voluntarily corrected the officials, signaling that the ball had indeed touched the net and that the point should be replayed. She turned down the unfair advantage and put the truth of the game first.

That gesture resonated around the world. In an environment of absurd pressure like the Chinese National Team (‘Guo Ping’), having the mental clarity to correct an official error against yourself is the ultimate proof of character. As the international media pointed out: “what makes her respected is not just the number of titles, but her exemplary conduct”.

Nobility recognized: athlete of the year

It is no coincidence that, right after showing such class, Sun Yingsha received another huge recognition away from the tables. She was the only Chinese athlete nominated for the prestigious 2025 Female Athlete of the Year award by the International Sports Press Association (AIPS).

That nomination places her alongside the greatest legends of every sport. It crowns a season in which Sun Yingsha not only achieved the “double Grand Slam” (winning everything in singles and doubles), but also earned the unanimous respect of opponents and fans.

The 360TT lesson

For those of us who live table tennis, the lesson is clear. Our sport is fast and aggressive, but above all it is a game of honor and gentlemanly conduct. Sun Yingsha’s attitude teaches us that winning is important, but how you win defines who you are.

If the world number 1 was able to correct an umpire so she would not win an unfair point, we can also bring that spirit of honesty to our training sessions and club tournaments.

Sun Yingsha proved that it is possible to be the best in the world and, at the same time, the most noble.

Now I want to hear from you: would you have the courage to give back a point the umpire has already given you? Tell us in the comments!

From VHS Tapes to 'Bashing': A Reflection on Table Tennis Today

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 20:38:00 -0300

It has been a while since watching matches was as fun as it used to be. Let me explain: I stopped playing in 1995 or ‘96, I don’t even remember exactly. Back then, to watch a recent match, we waited months for a VHS TAPE (ask your dad or grandpa what that is… lol) to arrive from Europe or Asia. That’s how it was with the 1995 World Championships, won by China’s Kong Linghui, who was a complete unknown to us. I watched the match in early 1996, when I got hold of a tape with the final, the full match, no highlights, commentary in a language I didn’t understand, no subtitles and pretty mediocre picture quality.

From VHS to live

Back to 2025: today we watch a World Championships final LIVE, in ultra-high resolution, with an electronic scoreboard on screen, replays and even a VAR called TTR. Along with those great advances came changes to the game to make it more “TV-friendly”. Since the ban on speed glue and the switch to the 40+ ABS ball, the game has changed a lot. Before, it was much more serve and third ball; today, there are far more rallies. That’s great for television, but now the game is much more physical, players have to be far more athletic and, because of that, we joke that it’s just bashing. This is not about disrespecting the impressive athleticism of today’s players, just a personal preference. With Xu Xin retired, there are only a few crazy ones left, like Simon Gauzy, playing interesting, creative matches.

The end of pure penholders

These changes killed the pure penholders (one rubber). Penholders in the men’s game have very slim chances at the top level, where we once had a World Championships runner-up with this style. Short pips penhold like the old-school Chinese players? Unthinkable. The heavier, slower 40+ ball took away part of the speed and the “venom” of pips, demanding a physical strength that tips the equation against these styles. And that made the game a bit samey: serve, smash and more smashing. Is it fun? Sure, but I admire creative variety more than raw power. That’s where it got kind of uninteresting.

Women’s play is still creative

On the other hand, for a while now I have preferred watching the women’s matches. Penholders still perform very well. We have the pips “little auntie” Ni Xia Lian, over 60 and still wreaking havoc; North Korea’s Kim Kum-yong with long pips on the backhand and an absurdly effective style; Germany’s Sabine Winter, who swapped her backhand rubber for an anti-spin and has played memorable matches; not to mention the Indian players and their pips bathed in the Ganges River (credits to Marcelo Hilário… lol). I can’t leave out Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico, who seems to work magic at the table, and the incredible Sun Yingsha of China. Even with conventional equipment, their matches are a joy to watch.

At the end of the day

In short, men’s matches have become boring to watch, and women’s matches are great fun.

Now I want to hear from you: do you agree with me? Which playing style do you enjoy watching most today? Tell us here in the comments.