Foothills X Tournament Results
JONATHON LIAN FOOTHILLS X
GOLD DOLLAR UPSET OPEN TABLE TENNIS TOURNAMENT
On Saturday November 13, the Knoxville Table Tennis Club hosted one of their better tournaments of the year, the Jonathon Lian Foothills X Gold Dollar Upset Open. This tournament was named in honor of a special young man, Jonathon Lian, the grand upset winner in the previous tournament, the Foothills IX Gambler Gold Dollar Upset Open. There were 18-upsets during this tournament.
The Upper divisions were characterized by play befitting that of National events. There were 9-players rated above 2000, some of whom could have been under rated judging from their play. The matchup in the final Championship round could not have been predicted.
In the end, however, the top seed, Richard Doverman from Potomac, Maryland prevailed over third seed, John Mar from Atlanta. This final began at what appeared to be a walkthrough for Doverman, but that was not to be. After being down 2-0, Mar came back with blistering loops and smashes to win the third game at 4. From that point on, the games see-sawed, back and forth, with Doverman winning at 5, Mar at 4, and finally, Doverman took the seventh and final game at 11-6. (See Photo, Richard left, John right.) For their efforts Doverman and Mar rode off into the night with $500.00 and $300.00, respectively.
Yuichi Yageyama, after hard-fought losses, to John Mar, 7,-6,-9, 10, and -4, and to Richard Doverman -9,-5, and -9, won third place by defeating Liedy Handoko at 7, -7, -7, 8, and 5. Yuichi won $200.00 for his efforts.
Other great matches saw John Mar narrowly defeating Yevgeny Puzyrev at -8, -9, 9, 10, and 6: John Mar defeating Petro Stirbu at 7, -9, -9, 7, and 6: Richard Doverman defeating Liedy Handoko at -8, 5, 7, -5, and 9: Di Di De Souza defeated Slawomir Waclawik at-3, -5, 8, 9, and 7; and Slawomir Waclawik defeated Liedy Handoko -9, 8, 8, -7, and 7.
The other results were:
Division A: Jude Lam (Knoxville) 1st, Guido Schnable 2nd, Kui Zhang 3rd, and Yoshiyuki Okawa 4th were all money winners.
Division B: Tatiana Peskova 1st, Albert Zhang 2nd, Carl Bradley 3rd, and Roger Dickson 4th, again all were money winners.
Division C: Perry Smith 1st, Art Xu 2nd, Anene Onyemelukwe 3rd, and Kirin Kasichayanula 4th.
Division D: Kathy McMillin (Knoxville) 1st, Josh Cook 2nd, John Edd Walker 3rd, and Manuel Dy 4th.
Division E: Archie Jordan (Knoxville) 1st, Jonathon Lian 2nd, Tim Roundtree 3rd, and Daniel Decker 4th.
First, second, and third place winners for Divisions C, D, and E won beautiful plaques designed by Kathy McMillin.
The “Winner-Take-All” winning doubles team was Petro Stirbu and Nick Broussard (Knoxville), each winning $107 for their wins.
Our thanks to Newgy, Zero-Pong, Horizons Avionics, Crown Plaza, and Phyllis Wheatley YWCA for their continued and invaluable support.
Written by Bill Neely
KTTC President