Rally Niagara Winter Classic Table Tennis Singles Tournament
Saturday, March 1st - *Recap*
Table tennis is much more than a casual game; it is an electrifying sport that requires skill, strategy, and quick reflexes. The Rally Niagara Winter Classic Table Tennis Singles Tournament invited players of all abilities to showcase their talents in a thrilling tournament setting. The event was structured with two divisions of players, recreational & competitive. The action was non-stop and the game play was exciting.
The Rally Niagara Winter Classic delivered a jam packed afternoon with 24 players participating in 69 fast-paced matches and a host of impressive performances on the tables. See recap of tournament results, scores, and gallery of photos shown below:
We had 10 players compete in our "competitive" division. The game play was intense, but there was a feeling of "let's give it our best" when two players arrived with Matchpoint shirts on and they looked like they meant business. :)
Competitive A:
Yong Ren (GBTTC) & Pastor Sunny Lee (Buffalo) showed that they were the favorites producing solid performances through round robin play and then facing each other in the elimination final, both being undeafed of course. Yong won it all with a convincing 11-3,11-4,11-6 performance over Pastor Sunny. As a matter of fact, Yong did not drop a single game in the whole tournament. Rohan Anand (Buffalo) won the 3rd place match over William Wung (GBTTC) 14-12,11-5,13-11
Competitive B:
Basically the "best of the competitive rest" battled it out and there was definitely excitement in the air as Victor Zhou (Rally) played his heart out narrowly beating Ben Bolyard (GBTTC) in a semi-final match of the ages 6-11,11-9,12-14,11-7,11-9. Just when you thought it was Victor's destiny to punch it in for 1st place, he met his old friend, Pete Spearman in the final. This match superceded the last with a historic and clutch victory for Pete 12-14,11-9,4-11,11-5,12-10.
"Recreational" Division
If you thought only the "competitive" division was where all the action was, you would have been mistaken. 14 players took part in the "recreational" division and the competition was outstanding. No player made it out of the round robin unscathed with all players dropping at least one match. But, it was the elimination round where things got interesting.
Recreational A:
All 6 players in the group finished their round robin groups with 3-1 records, so it appeared to be a toss-up. Not so as Raj Inturi (unaffiliated) was concerned. He surprised everyone with his strong play. His skill was a bit of an unknown until this event and he proceeded to beat a hard core veteran in Alfredo Torres (ASC) in the final 11-5,8-11,11-7,11-9 to cap off a "Cinderella run performance".
Recreational B:
Justin Yan (UBTT) made the UB table tennis team proud with his performance winning 1st place. The round robin was a little shaky losing to a couple of good players in Alfredo Torres (ASC) and Chanchal Kesarwani (Rally). However, this did not detur Justin as he then went on a 3 match run to beat Steven Ford (Rally) 9-11,11-4,11-4,11-7 in the final. Kudos to Justin and UB.
Gallery of photos:
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