I don’t know how the director of this year Utah Open tournament Mr.Majors could comprehend the high turnout for this tournament. There were 60 players at this year Utah State Open Table Tennis Tournament and it was higher compared to last year.
This was my second tournament at the Utah State Open. I’ve played in 2006 and you can see some pictures here. I was in Europe last year and could not participate.
Did I mess up myself?
I was under pressure for the last few weeks – a family situation keeps taking my focus from really practicing. I have travelled a long way when it comes to issues, but it was worrying me. I have worried much to lose this tournament miserably.
I hate changing equipments before a tournament. I did my best to “stay put” with the equipment that I had, but there were few things that distracted me. We have opened our table tennis business in June, and the orders of assembled blades is increasing. Last week I had to quality control 5 paddles – isn’t important to make sure the paddle meets the requirements of the players. This enormous testing finally bite me bad.
Qualification
The Utah State tournament has a qualification round the day previous to the Championship tournament day. I was seated B in the qualification. I haven’t had a look at the chart, but I have heard comments why I have been listed as B rather than A. It did not bother me where I’m seated. The player who was listed lower than me in the chart beat everyone and advanced to the Open. He is a good JPen player recently came to the club.
I have lost to Kevin 3 – 0. The greatest challenge I had was the touch with the ball. I had lost touch after my testing with many blades. His Hinoki generated very high arc hits and it has worried me a lot. I have used TSP Yanagi DEF blade which lacks power is getting chops to the other side from far distance. Although I have earned points through third ball attack, most of my countering went long as well as the chops dropped before landing on the other side. I had confidence in coming back, but that did not work out.
Open B
I had my first match against Matt. This young player played intelligently serving no spin serves to my long pips. It has not bothered my much, but I could not get many of loop strokes on the table. The match against Bryce took a turn in the fourth game when started serving to the forehand. The lack of top spin I generated helped him to loop back. The fast and chopped shots from Gordon troubled me a little, but instead of offense, I stood in defense to pull a 3 to 0 win.
The final against Byron was an interesting match. We both use long pips on the back hand. He uses short pips on the forehand and I use inverted. I was able to pull a 2 – 0 but he played on my forehand to keep me away from loops when he has found my loops are not working. He beat me 3 to 2 with a 11 – 9 win in the fifth game.
Some Observations:
Speed Glue & Frictionless Pips:
This tournament does not fall under 3 or 4 or 5 star USATT tournaments category, so it is up to the organizers to enforce the new ITTF rules. The new ITTF rules do not allow the use of the speed glue and using frictionless pips rubbers in 3 to 5 star tournaments. The checking of players’ equipments will be time consuming process and it can lead to a chaos in the tournament. However, trying to enforce some of the ITTF rules can start awareness among the players about the new rules and do they require changes in their equipments.
Serves:
It just goes back to the basic etiquette – the rule of serving the ball 6 inches high. This is an area where some players have struggled – even high rated players. They serve without toss as well as some have been trying to hide the ball after the serve.
Skill:
The players who have moved to this club recently as well as played in this tournament like Victor and Kevin show a high level of offensive game. There are local players like Bryce and Matt have also raised their level of play with good looping techniques. Still I see, the players are more favoring an offensive game with speed rather than spin. Against the long pips players like me, the most favorable tactic being used is “no spin balls”, “speed” and “pushes” rather than top spin.
Missing Persons:
There are players who have attended the qualification the previous day but missed the tournament. As someone has pointed out in the tournament, these players could have given those opportunities to other players.
Seating:
Normally, the tournament organizers follow the USATT ratings to put the players into various divisions. The problem arises when the players are USATT unrated and where they can be fit in. This tournament followed a ladder system for qualification. This tournament had 60 players. They are put into 10 groups with 6 players each. These 6 players are seated from A to F. The play start with last two players in the group and the winner among them plays with next in a ladder format, and the ultimate winner goes to the Open Division. This is a quick and fastest way to seat the players, but this leaves a problem for the losers who all have lost one match each. In that case, the players go to divisions based on the seating, so their prior ranking matters. There were at least few people who were not happy with the divisions they were put in or where they had to go.
Woman takes the lead:
Did I say woman? Yes. Meg, a regular in our club has lead her way to win 3rd in the Championship. In a highly competitive men’s world, it was a tough road she has taken. She has played well from my personal observation and from the comments that I have received from others. I’m sure I would have lost if I have played her on that day. I’m glad that her victory will help our doubles match at the US Nationals next month.
Fireworks:
Did I say fireworks? From screaming to cheering, a lot of things were part of this tournament. The Utah state is very conservative when it comes to screaming, self-cheering or anything of that nature.
The rule is not to waste time between points. The self-cheering players take breaks between points and this can distract other player – the other player has to wait for him to come back.
Final Words
I’m sad that I could not perform well at this years Utah Open. But this tournament has proved a fact that the table tennis game is becoming more and more popular in Utah.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I have never made it to finals in the Utah State Open Championship. I was really overjoyed with the result.If you played with me that day, I would have beaten you badly. I am a kidding. Some mornings I just want do physical exercises. Other days when you play at the club, you loss the concentration very fast. But I tried my best. Eventually all the hard work paid off.
Yes it is that in a highly competitive men’s world, it was a tough road!