(by Steve Hopkins)
While the Open Singles events, the premiere events of the US Open Table Tennis Championships are just getting to the Quarterfinals, other events have concluded.
Canada’s Simeon Martin won the U-21 Men’s Singles event. Martin took advantage of a lucky draw (top seed, Vlialta Garcia fell in the group stage to Taran Tummala) on his way to the Finals. In addition to Tummala, he also defeated Nishant Lebaka and Puerto Rico’s Gabriel Perez. In the Final, Martin needed all seven games to defeat USA’s Kai Zarehbin.
USA’s Jiaqi Lin entered the U-21 Women’s Singles event as the top seed and maneuvered through the group stage and single elimination undefeated. In fact, Lin won both of her group stage matche at 3-0, had a walkover in the semifinal, and topped Fiona Nie 4-0 in the Final. An impressive title to Jiaqi Lin without losing a game.
USA’s Daniel Tran took the U15 Boy’s title. Tran did in his path to the title, logging 3-0 wins in all four of his matches. Tran topped Darryl Tsao in the Final, Tsao had upset top seeded Aditya Sareen in the Semifinal. Tran defeated Jensen Feng in the other Semifinal.
Sally Moyland won the U15 Girl’s Title. Moyland entered as the top seed and faced the second seed, Emily Quan in the Final. Moyland won the title with a 3-0 win.
Other age group titles went to Aditya Sareen for the U13 Boys Singles, to Yishiuan Lin for U13 Girls Singles, to May Mouchinski for U11 Boys Singles, and to Irene Yeoh for U11 Girls Singles.
Some other recognizable names have scored early successes in Las Vegas. Pete May repeated his Over 80 Men’s Singles title. Connie Sweeris finished second (to Tahereh Roufeh) in the Over 70 Women’s Singles event. Patty Martinez-Wasser finished second (to Yan Ge) in the 65 & Over Women’s Singles event.
A lot of action is still scheduled for the next few days. Visit butterflyOnline.com for scores throughout the event.
