(by Steve Hopkins, photo USATT)
The US Open is in Ontario, California this year. Many events have already concluded – with lots of action over the next few days. The premiere events (Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles) begin today and will conclude with the finals on Tuesday.
In early action, Lily Yip cruised to a Women’s 50+ title, not losing a single game in the group or single elimination stages. Top seeded Derek May has fought through two 5-game wins on his way to the semifinals in Men’s 50+ Singles. He will face Yuxiang Li in one semifinal as Rudy Miranda and Parvis Mojaverian battle in the other semifinal.
In addition to Lily Yip (who already has two golds and a silver)- other well-known American seniors have already appeared on the leaderboard as well. Donna Sakai won Women’s 75+ Singles with Connie Sweeris finishing second. In Men’s 75+ Dell Sweeris topped David Sakai in a semifinal match-up (Sweeris finished as runner up to Alireza Hejazi after a 3-2 Hejazi win in the Final). These same names are repeated in other spots on the leaderboard – with Connie and Donna teaming up to finish second in O70 Women’s Douubles, and David and Dell teaming up to finish third in O70 Men’s Doubles. Patty Martinez-Wasserman has already collected a pair of silver medals in both Over 50 Women’s Doubles and Over 60 Women’s Doubles and teamed with Lily Yip to win Over 40 Women’s Doubles.
In the concluded Para events, Tahl Leibovitz won singles (Para Class 6-10) and finished second in Para Doubles Standing – teaming with Nenad Bach (the winners were Alex Christie and Daniel Rosenfeld). Ilya Rozenblat swept the Parkinson events – winning Open Singles, winning Class 1 Singles, and teaming with Hamid Ezzat-Ahmadi to win Parkinson Open Doubles.
Lots of quality table tennis scheduled for the next few days – we’ll have more updates soon.
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