(By Barbara Wei)
Top Seeds Advance in Southeastern Open Main Event
The Main Event kicked off at the 2017 Butterfly Southeastern Open on Saturday morning with the placement round robins. Divisional play continued in the afternoon with each player competing in an 8 person giant RR, with 4 players advancing, to determine seeding into the single elimination bracket.

In Group 1 of Division A, top seeded Jishan Liang (2672) swept his round robin matches, only dropping 2 total games in the 7 matches. Phong Nguyen (2563) former Vietnam national team member and current resident of Louisiana finished 2nd in the group, with his only loss to Jishan. Triangle Table Tennis coach Di Yu (2439) finished third, as seeded. Xizi (Stephanie) Sun (2173) rounded out the top 4 advancers from Group 1, upsetting Gabriel Perez (2255) to take the last spot.

In Group 2 of Division A, second seeded Yichi Zhang (2602) also topped his group easily, similarly dropping only 2 games in 7 matches. In the Main Event, Yichi avenged his loss to Jiangshan Guo (2419) from the day before in the Over-1800 event, by winning 3-1. In today’s encounter, Yichi adjusted his power to reduce mistakes and slow down the pace, forcing mistakes from Jiangshan. Jiangshan Guo finished second in the group and will also advance to the single elimination bracket, followed by Triangle Table Tennis coach Rachid El Boubou (2442) and Asaf Azarsky (2334).

If the top two seeds progress to the final, the event is ripe for a rematch between Jishan Liang and Yichi Zhang. The two played against each other last weekend at the 3-star Maryland Table Tennis Center October Open, where Yichi came out on top. However, traditionally Jishan has had the upper hand and is looking to take home top honors in the 4-star Butterfly Southeastern Open at his local club.

Continual coverage of the Southeastern Open and stories about the athletes will be available at www.ButterflyOnline.com, or via Bowmar Sports/Butterfly North America’s Twitter and Facebook pages.