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WILLOWBROOK, Ill. — Two very different outcomes awaited the Smash at the end of Week 10, depending on how they performed.

If the Smash win the majority of their games, they would re-assert themselves as contenders and make up for their winless Week 9. If not, the prospect of missing the postseason for the first time in team history becomes a genuine possibility. No team has felt more pressure this season than the Texas Smash to start Week 10. If they didn’t want to continue their freefall down the West Division, they needed to win the majority of these matches.

And that’s exactly what they did.

It didn’t look that way at first, though. Three straight losses became four following the Smash’s 5-16 loss to the New York Slice on Friday. But they followed that up with a 16-5 rout of the Florida Crocs on Saturday, which included the largest Golden Game deficit this season at 21-2, to put themselves back into the win column. And after facing the Chicago Wind, who recently usurped them to become the second seed in the West Division, they secured a 14-7 victory against their biggest threat to a playoff spot and snapped their six-match winning streak in the process.

Some teams crack under pressure. Others thrive. And others are the Texas Smash, who’ve turned that pressure into two consecutive West Division championships.

The crowd at Willowbrook roared during each of these two victories. Including the Smash’s win against the Chicago Wind on Sunday. Many of the people in attendance didn’t come to cheer on the Wind on Sunday. They came to support Lyle, Ill. native Nandan Naresh, their friend and teammate who just so happened to be wearing a Texas Smash jersey just a few minutes away from his hometown. 

The crowd certainly helped. Naresh won four of his six games, which included two against two against Florida’s Daniel Gorak on Saturday and two against Chicago’s Sean Zhang on Sunday. It takes a lot of points to win those games, which meant a lot of roars from the crowd in between rallies. All in support of Naresh, and by extension, the team he represents.

“It kind of felt like a home atmosphere, and we're all really pleased for it,” Smash captain David McBeath said. “
It's no better feeling than to play like that in front of your friends and family.”

This successful weekend was a team effort from Texas, which included an up-and-down performance from Amy Wang. A sweep from Jessica Reyes Lai on Friday may not have been the perfect way to start the weekend, but taking two from Florida’s Peiyu Zhu and sweeping Chicago’s Mo Zhang all but nullified the first three games of her weekend and proved that she could bounce back.

Speaking of backs, Texas came into this weekend lucky and thankful to have Joao Monteiro. Monteiro suffered a lower back injury near the end of Week 9, but played in all three matches after the team determined he was capable enough to play. Though he only won four games, he forced two additional golden points against New York’s Tao Wenzhang while recovering from his injury. He’s expected to play during the Smash’s homestand in Houston, hopefully with a fully healthy back.

A four-game skid turned into a two-game winning streak ahead of their homestand in Week 11. They’re still outside the playoff picture as of Week 10, but they jumped back to .500 and crossed the 100-point threshold. At this point, that’s all they need. They have two consecutive weekends ahead of them, which gives them six more opportunities to add to their win total. If they have more weeks like this, they’ll be in good position to compete in Championship Weekend for their third straight year.

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Chicago Wind‍

Peiyu Zhu: Four Golden Game points. 

Koki Niwa: Five Golden Game points.

Hiromitsu Kasahara: Five Golden Game points.

Nope, that’s not how many points these stars scored in the Golden Game. That’s how many points Chicago’s Mo Zhang scored against them.

Zhang had a solid weekend. She took two games from Florida’s Peiyu Zhu on Saturday and swept New York’s Jessica Reyes Lai on Saturday before losing all three of her games against Texas’s Amy Wang on Sunday. But those numbers don’t include the 16 Golden Game points she won against three of the league’s best players. It was a gamble for Eric Owens to give Zhang that workload, which only happened on Saturday because Owens felt like rolling the dice against an Olympic silver medalist.

“I thought long and hard [about that decision], because am I really going to put Mo against one of the best players in the league?” Owens said. “And I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going for it.’”

But Zhang’s five points against Niwa not only erased their three-point deficit, but it brought them to a 21-18 win in the Golden Game to win that match. One they do not win without her.

“That’s what I love about Mo; she’s such a solid competitor,” Owens said. “She can play against women, she can play against the best men in the league, and she can battle. She delivers, and she pulled through for us.”

With those Golden Game performances, Zhang finished the work that Robert Gardos started. He added six games to his MLTT-leading singles win total, taking two games from each of Marc Duran, Tao Wenzhang and Hiromitsu Kasahara to start each match. Gardos has quietly been one of the league’s best players all season, and his performance this weekend added even more fuel to an MVP candidacy that grows louder and louder with each passing week.

“Starting with Robert is never a bad idea, because you know that we'll probably get a good start with him,” Owens said.

Both players had reasons to celebrate this weekend, and not just because of how well they played. Gardos celebrated his 47th birthday on Friday, the day before Zhang turned 37. A perfect sweep may have been the ideal birthday present for the two stars, and it likely would have happened if a few points went their way on Sunday. But their 7-14 loss to Texas doesn’t overshadow their 18-3 rout of Florida on Friday, or their 12-9 comeback against New York on Saturday. They’re still in position to embark on a postseason run, which is exactly where they want to be.

“There is so much table tennis left before we can even remotely celebrate being in the playoffs or anything,” Owens said. “It is a long way to go, so I have not lost sight of that one bit.”

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New York Slice‍

After leading the East Division for multiple weeks, the New York Slice closed out their 2025 with a one-win Week 8 at Terosaki Budokan in Los Angeles. The team that once sat comfortably atop the East plummeted to the division’s third seed, facing a postseason-less reality for the first time since Week 2. No longer was a strong weekend a luxury for the Slice. Like the Smash, they had to leave Willowbrook with their first few wins of the new year if they wanted to make up the ground they lost.

They did just that. The Slice left Compass Arena with two wins: a 16-5 statement victory against the Texas Smash on Friday, and a 15-6 domination of the Florida Crocs on Sunday. Their only loss came against the Chicago Wind by a score of 9-12, which was decided by a three-point Golden Game. It may not have been a complete sweep, but they still accomplished their primary task of picking themselves up after their disastrous Week 8.

“It’s always good to have a positive weekend,” Slice coach Adam Hugh said on Sunday.

This weekend proved that Week 8 may be just an outlier. Koki Niwa was sick that entire weekend, and it showed through his winless first two matches and his absence in the third. He was almost a detriment to the Slice in Los Angeles, which was certainly not the case in Willowbrook. Niwa faced Texas’ Hiromitsu Kasahara, Chicago’s Emmanuel Lebesson and Florida’s Marc Duran and won seven games against them, and he added six of nine doubles games and 13 Golden Points. 

When Niwa is fully healthy, there aren’t many players that can take him down.

“[Niwa]’s the top dog on our team,” Hugh said. “If he’s able to perform at his best, it definitely sets the tone for the rest of the team.”

‍Two of the Slice’s players won seven games in Week 10. One of those two players was Niwa, the Olympic silver medalist and second overall pick in the Season 3 MLTT Draft. The other was Haocheng Wang, who won his seven games against Texas’s David McBeath, Chicago’s Alex Cazacu and Florida’s Carlos Hernandez to cement Week 10 as his best performance as a member of the Slice.

“Earlier in the season, [Wang] was telling me that he was sad; he was disappointed that he wasn't performing at the level that he normally would,” Hugh said. “We talked about what things could change, how to prepare better for the MLTT format, and to his credit, he took all that feedback really well.”

Niwa and Wang had impressive weekends, which come after several weeks and years of MLTT experience. That experience doesn’t apply to Jessica Reyes Lai, who played the first three games of her MLTT career against U.S. Olympian Amy Wang in the absence of two-time Female Player of the Week Haeeun Choi. But Reyes Lai looked like a longtime MLTT veteran in those three games, all of which she won. 

She wasn’t able to replicate her success against Chicago’s Mo Zhang and Florida’s Peiyu Zhu, but her first impression was one of the best all season.

“[Reyes Lai] did not back down,” Hugh said. “That was really the key.”

No team improved their standing this week more than the Slice this weekend, who jumped the Carolina Gold Rush to earn the second seed and re-enter playoff position. If they keep winning, they could very well reclaim the throne they lost in Los Angeles and finish their first MLTT regular season at the top of the East Division.

Florida Crocs

Willowbrook wasn’t the bounce back the Crocs were looking for. A team that desperately needed wins to stay alive in the playoff hunt only added to what is now a five-match skid with a 3-18 loss to Chicago on Friday, a 5-16 loss to Texas on Saturday and a 6-15 loss to New York on Sunday. The team that lost Liam Pitchford before the season began continues to lose.

And yet, there was still enough to be excited about. The Crocs’ revolving door of female free agents paused for a moment with the return of Peiyu Zhu, who hasn’t played for the Crocs since she won Female Player of the Week for her six-win Week 1. She picked up right where she left off, winning five singles games against Chicago’s Mo Zhang, Texas’s Amy Wang and New York’s Jessica Reyes Lai in her return. Those five wins now give Zhu a singles percentage of 61.1% (11-7), which is the third most among all women.

Zhu’s return came during the absence of Asuka Sakai and Angel Naranjo, two of the Crocs’ strongest contributors this season. That meant the Crocs had to add two free agents to their roster, and they chose Carlos Hernandez and Jonatan McDonald. Hernandez returned to the Crocs for the first time since Week 1, and he reintroduced himself to the league by taking a game from Texas’ Joao Monteiro and New York’s Haocheng Wang. McDonald made his Season 3 debut this on Saturday against Texas’ Hiromitsu Kasahara and Guodong Liang, and he took one game from them alongside Chihwei Yeh.

With that said, a few strong returns and introductions doesn’t always translate to wins. The Crocs fell down to the bottom of the East Division, which the Atlanta Blazers held since Week 2. A rough season for the Crocs only became more painful after Week 10, and they’ll next head to Broward Table Tennis Club in Week 13 with only two more weekends to make a miraculous playoff push. 

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