2017 Butterfly Cary Cup: Thursday & Friday Events: Taste of Excitement to Come

2017 Butterfly Cary Cup: Thursday & Friday Events: Taste of Excitement to Come
(By Barbara Wei)

2017 Butterfly Cary Cup: Thursday & Friday Events Taste of Excitement to Come

Six exciting events took place on Thursday (3/30) and Friday (3/31) at the Triangle Table Tennis Center in Morrisville, NC as part of the hotly anticipated 2017 Butterfly Cary Cup. Even prior to the main giant round robin event set to take place on Saturday, tense matches and incredible upsets were already the norm at the state of the art facility which most recently hosted the 2017 USA Table Tennis National Team trials the week prior.

In the Thursday Open RR event, third seed Azeez Jamiu (2609) upset 2017 Butterfly Arnold Challenge champion Jian Li (2690) 3-1 in the semi-final and 2015 Cary Cup champion Jishan Liang (2669) 3-0 in the final to win the event in style. Jishan Liang got his revenge in the Friday Over 1800 RR, where he overcame Jian Li in the finals 3-1. Azeez, Jishan and Jian will all play in the main Open Round Robin event on Saturday along with a slew of other 2400+ player, setting the stage for a competitive and intense competition this weekend.

Triangle Table Tennis (TTT) local players and employees found success as well in the early events of the 2017 Butterfly Cary Cup, with Yanyu Xie and Rob Taylor causing upsets to win the U1150 and U1500 events respectively. TTT along with many other clubs from the up and down the east coast and around the country will be represented in the main round robin with each member looking forward to taking home honors for their home club.

Continual coverage of the 2017 Butterfly Cary Cup and stories about the athletes will be available at ButterflyOnline.com, or via Butterfly North America’s Twitter and Facebook pages.