Bohan Zhang Wins 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup
by Barbara Wei
Bohan Zhang (2696) cruised to the 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup championship title, taking out Triangle Table Tennis’s coach Di Yu (2473) in the round of 16, followed by Canada’s Jeremy Hazin (2461) in the quarter final, and then LYTTC’s Kaden Xu (2670) in the semifinal. In the final against Zirui Zhao (2649), Bohan took an early 3-0 lead in games before ceding the 4th game 11-2. In the 5th game, Bohan looked like he had the title in his hands when he was up 10-5 with 5 match points. However, Zirui mounted an amazing come back and won 7 points in a row to force a sixth game. In game 6, Bohan took another lead but Zirui shrunk the lead to 9-10, before Bohan made a beautiful backhand loop to close the match 11-9.
Other notable matches in the single elimination championship round, included an athletic and close quarterfinal match between Kaden Xu (2670-LYTTC) and Bowen Chen (2558-MDTTC). In a match full of incredible counter looping rallies, both players fought tooth and nail until the end, with Kaden pulling out a close 3-2 win. On the top half of the draw, USA team members competed against each other to advance to the next round. Jiaqi Zheng, 2015 Women’s National Champion, took out 2012 Olympian Timothy Wang 3-0 in the round of 16, and then fell in the next round to 2015 National Men’s Champion Yijun Feng 1-3. Yijun Feng bowed out in the semifinal to Zirui Zhao 4-2, in a strategic and tactically excellent match.
Congratulations to Bohan Zhang for winning his first Cary Cup championship title and $2500 in prizes. Best of luck to the Bohan in his future competitions in the US!
Continual coverage of the 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup and stories about the athletes will be available at ButterflyOnline.com, or via Butterfly North America’s Twitter and Facebook pages.
