2018 Oregon State Table Tennis ChampionshipsAfter setting the record for 90-degree days here in Portland, summer is at long last chilling the heck out. While the weather may be cooling, the table tennis is hotter than ever! Case in point: the 2018 Oregon State Championships, a USATT-sanctioned event, held September 8th at the Paddle Palace Club in Tigard, Oregon, brought out a pantheon of table tennis luminaries. Champions past and future battled to see who would represent the present.To get more table tennis news, you can visit shine news official website.
OPEN DOUBLESThe first event of the day, the Open Doubles saw eight teams competing for the title of top tandem. The top two seeds in the singles draw, Paddle Palace pros Jiwei Xia (2621) and Ryan Hoarfrost (2195) paired up to form double trouble, blazing their way to the finals without dropping a game. In their way stood two steely-eyed veterans of Oregon table tennis: Hau Lam (2119) and Jay Crystal (1957, also the year he was born!), each a former state champion in the Open Singles.
Before the match, Jiwei expressed a simple game plan: "We will try hard,” although a hint of a sly smile perhaps betrayed a justifiable confidence. Hau’s goal was also simple: "Just try to survive and not get blasted out too bad.” Easier said than done against such formidable firepower!Hau and Jay, an ideal pairing of big lefty-righty forehands, put up an admirable fight but never really got into a rhythm. Ryan’s befuddling variety of high-toss inside-out serves created an abundant buffet of attacking opportunities for Jiwei to feast on. After Jay and Hau lost the first two games at 3 and 4, it was looking grim for the more tenured twosome. When Jiwei’s chop-block dribbled over the net to go up 4-0 in game 3, it looked all but over. Perhaps remembering their modest but attainable goal of not getting blasted out,
Hau and Jay rallied admirably to tie it up at 8-all. Could the momentum be shifting? Not so fast, said Jiwei and Ryan, who summarily rattled off three straight points to seal it. Joked Hau: "We did our job: not at zero!” More than that, both teams put on a great show. Congrats to Jiwei and Ryan, truly a dynamic duo!After the thrilling doubles action, partnerships are dissolved and players go off in search of individual glory. A total of 27 players threw their hats in the ring, making for a highly competitive field. The Open Singles trophy dates back to 1939, with first and second places engraved each year.
Could anyone stop Open Doubles winners Jiwei Xia and Ryan Hoarfrost from etching their names on the eightieth row? As anyone who has played for any amount of time can attest, anything can happen in table tennis. After all, tournaments wouldn’t be much fun if they just handed out the prizes to the top seeds!The top two players in seven round-robin groups graduated to the elimination rounds. Of these 14, only one was not seeded first or second: unrated Pradeep Anthony Roy overcame his group’s #2 seed Samir Patel to advance, only to run into tough-as-nails chopper Nicholas Daescu (2025), who dispatched him in straight sets. Congrats, Pradeep! As Bruce Willis said in Die Hard, "Welcome to the party, pal!”

Posted by: shinenewstop at 08:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 556 words, total size 4 kb.