2019 Butterfly Fall Cape Fear Open

October 16, 2019

The 2019 Butterfly Fall Cape Fear Open held on Saturday, October 5 was a “smashing” success! The tournament was sold out two weeks prior to the tournament. There was a waiting list of seven and it was decided to add four more players for a total of 28. The event opened up for warm up at 8:30am with the straight snake seed tournament beginning at 10:00am. The first award was furthest traveled. It went not to a player from Atlanta. Not to a player from Boston. But to a young player from Israel! Divon Tal was traveling in the US for his Bar Mitzvah and chose to play in our Cape Fear Open! He is a bright young man with a very bright future! He and his family were lovely and a welcome addition to our tournament.

For the first time, Cape Fear Table Tennis Club had seven players in the tournament with five of them competing for the first time. It brought Alan Anzagira from the Newport News, VA area just to compete against Ryan “The Nightmare” Gibson from Charlottesville, Virginia. Ryan is a two time runner up in the Cape Fear Tournaments and came focused and ready to be the 32nd Cape Fear Open Champion. It was a diverse group with players from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Israel. The tournament was divided into four groups of seven and there were many five game battles. The top two from each group would proceed into a single elimination playoff. As the playoffs proceeded Ryan Gibson defeated Matt Worrell (Myrtle Beach, SC); Phani Chitti (Raleigh, NC) defeated Irvin Martin (Charleston, SC), Allan Anzagira defeated Blair Wilson (Atlanta, GA); and David Pannell (Myrtle Beach, SC) defeated Stuart Gordon (Raleigh, NC) to proceed into the final four. Ryan Gibson defeated Phani Chitti to play David Pannell who upset Allan Anzagira in the semi-finals. The final count was Ryan Gibson finally winning his first Cape Fear Open title! David Pannel came in second with Allan Anzagira in 3rd and Phani Chitti in fourth. All four players received cash prize money. Cash prizes was also awarded for biggest upset which went to Qin Ding (Greenville, SC) and Glenn Goodrick (Greenville, SC) as 2nd biggest upset.

Amy Karpinski

President, Cape Fear Table Tennis Club