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Neil Smyth 4 Star Tournament 2013
October 28th, 20132 comments
The second annual Neil Smyth 4 star Tournament brought an extremely talented
collection of players to San Diego. The premier player was Chinese
National B Team member and current ICC coach, Xin Zhou. His off the charts
skills and nonchalance were demonstrated in warm ups where he could paint
every corner of the table at a flick of the wrist. His curling loops turned
so fast a player had to dive to retrieve them. The almost same motion a
second later would go straight down the line.
The most compelling match of the tournament, that captured the largest crowd
, was the semi-final between U.S. Champion Timothy Wang and former Chinese
National Team member Xiang Jing Zhang. Zhang cruised to a 3-0 lead in the
best of seven before losing focus and perhaps determination as he allowed
Timothy to crawl back into the game. Surprisingly, the U.S. champ elevated
his game and managed to tie up the match at 3-all. Perhaps Wang was helped
by skillful coaching by ICC teammate and number one Xin Zhou. Still it
looked like number two of China Mr. Zhang would prevail in the ultimate game
leading 9-4 in the seventh. He went for a crowd pleasing sensational shot
that just missed and opened the door for Timothy. Suddenly 10-10 occurred
and before you could blink a shocking 12-10 victory was achieved by the U.S.
champ, moving him into the finals against his coach and ICC teammate Xin
Zhou.
The finals, regrettably, among friends lacked the drama and Zhou cruised
easily. One still wonders who on this continent would push Zhou into his
4th gear. That is a match I am waiting to see.
Besides the finals, the stadium room filled with tremendous matches
everywhere as the top Western players converged on San Diego.
We will continue to expand this event in future years and hope to capture
more of our National players to visit San Diego.
James Kahn, President - San Diego Table Tennis |
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