Best of the West OPEN

I played a table tennis tournament this weekend. Got eliminated in the Quarter Finals by the winner of the tournament Xiaozhou Hu.

Round Robin:

Krishnamoorthy (1754) - won 4-0

Harrington (1727) - won 4-2

Dok (2016) - lost 2-4


1/8 finals:

Chernobelski (1856) - won 4-1



1/4 finals:

Xiaozhou Hu (2211) 8-11 / 15-17 / 9-11 / 11-8 / 9-11 - lost 1-4

I played the best match of my life. I hardly made any mistakes. I was very glad with my performance this match.

My record is now 26 - 6 ( lost against 2216 - 2213 - 2211 - 2079 - 2016 - 1807) and my new rating is 2057.(number 6 in Arizona)

Picture of the final: Bhoo (2249) - Hu (2211). Hu won.

Table tennis

I try to visit the PTTC ( Phoenix table tennis club) once a week. It is a 41 mile drive (one way!), and takes about 50 minutes. A few months ago there were so many people you had to wait 45 minutes before you could play, with high gas prices ... I didn't have to sit down at all the last few weeks. Me likes high gas prices, oil $200 would be great.

It is the only place I really feel at home, because nobody speaks decent English there. We have people from Romania, China, Korea, Japan, Poland, UK, Peru, Mexico, ... and a few Americans.

PTTC

Results online.

Pictures online.

And NO, not all hairdressers in Arizona are dead!
Total setcount for the week-end: 55 (Saturday W42-L13) + 29 (Sunday W16-L13) = 84
Won 6: 7 setters (belles) :-)

2008 Arizona OPEN table tennis tournament (updated)

Saturday:
I won the Arizona OPEN (biggest tournament in Arizona) table tennis tournament in both series: -2000 and -1900. Won 12 consecutive matches, lost none, played 55 sets and won 43. I was totally exhausted. What a day.

Sunday:
I played semi-finals in the OPEN series of the Arizona Open. I beat a 2045 (number 4 in Arizona) and 2 1900's (one of them was number 7 in Arizona) players. Won my round robin (poules) and won the quarter final. Lost the semi-final to number 2 in Arizona Hu, Xiaozhou(2216) I didn't have a chance, he blew me away. Godlike! B0 or better for Belgian standards.

Won 16 this week-end and lost 1. Record until now: 23-4. Next rating will be higher, possibly between 1950-2000. Won 2 awards on Saturday and $25 for my fourth place in the open event.

Semi-finals were played by a Korean (female 2231 she is new to Arizona and is now number 1), a Russian (former youth coach of Samsonov 2081), a Chinese (2216) and a Belgian (1853). No americans.
Excerpts from the final (Korean female 2231 pimps out,switches sides all the time, incredible / Hu, Xiaozhou 2216 normal rubbers, out of the ordinary backhand)

Post for my team members of TTC Temse

I browsed the official site of the vttl and saw we didn't have any fines just yet, so that means Guy is still in charge of the secretary work :-)I checked out the results from teams and players on the web. Most of the teams are in the top half so we are doing very well this year. As I am now officially "transferred" to PTTC, I still feel like a TTC Temse member of course. You wouldn't expect me to find the personalities of a Kurt or a John or a Hugo here. But it seems they play everywhere :-) Except we don't have beer and showers here. The Phoenix table tennis club/players were very helfull the first few sessions. So there is still hope for you guys, if you want to transfer to a different club, maybe I can arrange something for you. Some negatives of playing here: the 45 minute drive, the waiting for your turn can take 30 minutes, no showers, no beer and no bar.

Enjoy: