(by Steve Hopkins)
USATT closed out the 2022 American table tennis calendar with the US Open. In other articles, we covered the Open Championship titles – Ukraine’s Lei Kou topped Californian Xin Zhou in the Men’s Final and Amy Wang topped Lily Zhang in an All-American Ladies’ Final. We can also add that Lei Kou and Ye Tian won the Men’s Doubles title, that Lily Zhang and Rachel Sung won the Women’s Doubles title, and Nikhil Kumar and Amy Wang won the Mixed Doubles title.
As the full results and rating changes have now been posted, we can now dig a little deeper. An important mention for this website is that Butterfly-sponsored players had a great week. This included the top two (and 3 of the top 4) in U21 Men’s Singles – Angel Naranjo, Jabdiel Torres, and Aditya Sareen. Rachel Sung won U21 Women’s Singles (and Sally Moyland finished fourth). Patryk Zyworonek won U13 Boys. Mingwei Ju won O40 Men. Both Men’s Doubles and Women’s Doubles had a team member that was a Butterfly player (Ye Tian and Rachel Sung). Five of the nine youth doubles events (U19 down to U11) had a Butterfly player on the winning team – With Irene Yeoh winning two titles, Aditya Sareen taking two titles, and Angel Naranjo and Jabdiel Torres earning one each. Two of the top four in the U2600 (Darryl Tsao and Simeon Martin) and the U2200 winner (Kef Noorani) are also Butterfly players.
Ratings add an additional layer for American players. As an example, an undefeated Kou Lei gained only 14 points (it can be lonely at the top – and he was favored in every match he played). Others with positive movement at the top were Dan Liu who gained 31 points (up to 2591) and Angel Naranjo who gained 24 points (also up to 2591) and the biggest jumps for anyone over 2400 were Jabdiel Torres who gained 78 points and Daniel Lindso who cained 88. Patryk Zyworonek was one of the rating winners – moving from 2304 to almost 2500 (a 184 gain to get to 2488). And some results of note for lower players with big jumps over 2000: Victor Moraga jumped up 327 (up to 327), Jason Louie gained 243 (up to 2180, Zachary Li gained 239 (up to 2121).
By way of competitive field – the tournament featured fifteen players over 2600 and 40 players over 2500. This was a competitive, international field worthy of a US Open. Those that won events, and those that fought to push up their ratings had to earn those wins. Congratulations to all the players, officials, and organizers (and the organization) for pulling off such a premiere event so close to the holidays.
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