Liam Pitchford, Tom Jarvis and Anna Hursey head to the Europe Smash buoyed by recent successes and looking to earn ranking points to continue their upward tracks.
The trio are in Malmo, Sweden, to compete in an arena which hosted last year’s Eurovision Song Contest, but which this time features top talent from all over the world – most of the respective men’s and women’s top 10s are present, including both world No 1s.
Jarvis and Wales’ Hursey will start in the qualifying rounds, with world No 51 Pitchford (pictured above) seeded into the main draw.
Jarvis, the 13th-ranked player in qualifying at WR 84, will face Alberto Mino (WR 143) of Ecuador at 2.05pm UK time on Thursday on Table 3. The pair are the same quadrant of the draw as Alvaro Robles of Spain (WR 64), the fourth-highest ranked player in qualifying.
Hursey (WR 71) is the highest-ranked player in her part of the draw, at fourth, and has been drawn against Jiamuwa Wu (WR 116) of Australia. They meet at 11.10am UK time on Thursday, on Table 3.
Follow the event on the WTT YouTube channel.
Pitchford, Jarvis and Hursey have been preparing with a week’s camp in Spain, followed by another week at the Elite Training Centre in Sheffield, alongside leading players from Spain and Belgium.
Tom Jarvis: I know I can compete with the best
They can all draw on some memorable performances this year to help them tackle the challenges ahead – in Jarvis’ case his amazing run to the last 16 of the World Championships in Doha in May, beating the No 10 seed Dang Qiu of Germany and giving China’s world No 5 Liang Jingkun a real fight before going out 4-2.
“There’s a big shift from the Worlds and it kind of showed the world, and more importantly myself, what I can achieve if I prepare right and I play my highest level there,” said Jarvis (WR 84).
“It’s given me a lot of confidence to know I can compete with people like Liang Jingkun and Dang Qiu, who are both top 10 in the world – but also on the other side, I know how good everyone is. Everyone at a Smash is going to be a very good player and even though I’ve had those performances, you can’t take any matches in the qualifying for granted.
“I’m in a great place now that I don’t have to worry about qualifying for the Smashes, so now my attention has turned to trying to perform well at them rather than going around the tour and trying to qualify for them.”
Malmo is a location he knows well: “I’m really excited to go back to Sweden, it was my home for six years and it’s only 20 minutes away from where I was living. Almost like a home Smash for me, so I’m probably more excited for this one that the others.”
Jarvis hopes he gets the chance to take on one of the top Chinese players in a later round.
“I always think it’s fun to play against the Chinese – they’re very good but once you play against them, you feel the best qualities in the world and from that you can judge where you’re at,” he said.
Anna Hursey happy to have solid training block
Hursey (WR 71) is also starting in qualifying and is confident, having recently been crowned European Under-19 champion – a title she added to her Under-21 gold from earlier this year.
She said: “The preparation’s been really good. Normally we go from tournament to tournament so it’s nice to have two or three weeks’ training before going there.
“Smashes are always nice to play, there’s only four in a year, so always looking to try and play well – and there’s a lot of ranking points. The Smashes are quite difficult as well because everyone really tries to play well and every player’s good there.”
Liam Pitchford feeling in great shape
Pitchford will come in for the first round ‘proper’ in the main draw and says he feels in great shape after the training camps.
“We had a couple of good weeks out in Spain and them back here in Sheffield with the guys from Spain and Belgium,” said Pitchford.
“It’s important to have camps like that and it’s nice to have a bit more variation. Some weeks we travel a lot and play a lot and it’s nice to get a couple of weeks of hard practice in, because it’s hard during the season to find that time. So for me, it’s been really good.
“I didn’t have much time off in the summer but I’m feeling in good shape – I’m doing a new strength and conditioning programme with Dave Hembrough (of Sheffield Hallam University) – and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do.”
Pitchford picked up a big win at the Las Vegas Smash, defeating world No 19 Chen Yuanyu of China before exiting to Lee Sang Su (WR 30) of South Korea.
“It’ll be tough, but I got some confidence from Las Vegas,” he said. “I was a little bit disappointed not to take my chances against Lee Sang Su at 1-1 and 8-5, if I’d won that game it could have been different and it would have been an important win rankings-wise.
“But it did give me confidence to beat (world No 19) Chen Yuanyu, one of the Chinese national team players. I feel I played well there and the way I’ve been practising in the last few weeks, I feel I’m in better shape than I was there.”
With China Smash on the horizon at the end of next month, Pitchford also has an eye on the Star Contender London in October.
He said: “It’s at the Copper Box and I’ve got great memories of playing there in 2018, beating Calderano and Harimoto (in the Team World Cup). It would be nice to play at that level again and in front of a home crowd, that’s worth a few extra points per game.
“To have the best players in the world coming over in the run-up to the World Championships – it should be a great six months for English table tennis.”
John Murphy: We treat the Smashes like a Major
Out in Malmo with the three British players is Pathway and Senior Squad Coach John Murphy, and he too is relishing the opportunity.
“It’s the third Smash of the year but this one’s a little bit unique – we’ve been able to have some sustained training period into it,” he said.
“There are four Smashes – four of the biggest events. Combined with the World Championships, they are opportunities for points to go up in the world rankings. Plenty of points available, chance to get exposure, chance to go deep in the draw.
“We look at it like a Major – we want to have the best possible results. It’s a big opportunity for them.
“Success breeds success. The three athletes who are going to Sweden have had a great year so far, Anna winning two European titles and also going up more than 80 places in the world rankings; Tom, obviously the run he had at the Worlds beating players like Dang Qiu shows that going into an event like the Smash, no one’s safe coming up against Tom.
“Pitch, how he played in Vegas, he’s really back to top shape and these Smash events are coming at a really good time for him. We’ve come to know with Pitch, he can go on a run. If Pitch is in the quarter-finals, semi-finals of either of those Smashes, we wouldn’t be surprised – he has that capability.
“We don’t fear anybody, really. Whether it’s players from Asia or Europe, or even Latin America, we’re comfortable to play against any style. It’s about taking it point by point, match by match.”