Most table tennis pros have a signature shot. Only a select few elicit terror when they bring theirs out. 

Before Halloween night, here are five MLTT players and their signature shots – the ones that spin like a sorcerer’s spell, haunt opponents with logic-defying angles, and turn regular rallies into paranormal events:
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5. Marc Duran – The Two-Handed Backhand Cannon

They call him The Spanish Showman, but under Halloween lights, he’s more like The Backhand Reaper. From deep beyond the barriers, Duran unleashes his two-handed cannon — both hands locked, shoulders coiled, and eyes fixed like he’s sighting his prey. The ball rips through the air with unholy sidespin, dipping at the last instant as if dragged down by unseen forces. Every swing is a jump scare — opponents flinch, crowds gasp, and geometry begs for mercy.

4. Sid Naresh & Matilda Ekholm – Around-the-Net Hooking Flatliners

Some players go over the net. These two go around the realm of the living. Sid and Matilda bend the ball like mischievous spirits guiding it on invisible strings. Their hooked flatliners curve around the post, whisper past the edge, and land exactly where logic says they shouldn’t. When they’re in rhythm, the laws of physics take a coffee break. It’s witchcraft with a paddle — beautiful, risky, and terrifying all at once.

3. Ľubomír Pištej – The Pistol

Pištej doesn’t rally. He hunts. They call his blade The Pistol for a reason — one flick, one kill. Whether it’s the forehand snap or the backhand blast, he fires with surgical precision. Each rally is a duel at midnight, every shot a silver bullet aimed straight at the corner. When Pištej locks in, you don’t hear rubber contact — you hear the click of the trigger. Opponents don’t lose points; they vanish.

2. Kotomi Omoda – The Kickin’ Serve Show

You think you’re ready for her serve — until the ball levitates, jumps, and dies like it’s possessed. Kotomi’s motion is part trick, part ritual. Her fake tosses lure you in, her grin seals your fate. One bounce kicks high, the next disappears into the table like it fell through a trapdoor. She isn’t serving points; she’s casting illusions. When Kotomi steps to the table, you don’t return the serve — you survive it.

1. Alexandru Cazacu – The Flexing Forehand

Every horror movie needs its final monster, and Cazacu’s forehand is the jump scare that ends them all. Smooth, silent, and devastating, it comes from nowhere and leaves a mark you feel two tables away. His follow-through — The Flex — is the victory pose of a player who already knows the ending. Power, precision, and swagger fuse into one supernatural strike. You can’t block it, you can only brace for the next one.

The Beauty of Chaos

Fear in MLTT doesn’t always come from speed. Sometimes it’s the dread of what’s coming next — the curve that shouldn’t curve, the ball that refuses to obey. These are the shots that haunt replay screens and highlight reels long after the lights go out.

👻 Catch the madness on TableTennis.TV and CBS Sports Network.
The rallies are real. The nightmares are optional.

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