2003 Maryland Winter Open
February 1-2, 2003 By Barbara Wei

In most major tournaments, you get a surprise; the first seed usually doesn't plow through the competition. Although the MDTTC Open wasn't an attention-grabber with its about 67 rticipating players crammed into an industrial park warehouse, there were still plenty of surprises and upsets to go around.

The first surprise of the tournament was that I was forced to withdraw due to illness. Therefore, the first seed in the Open event was long pips player John Wetzler, rated 2288, who appeared to be favored to win the event. However, Wetzler struggled in his round robin, barely squeaking out a win against 2056-rated Pegah Ghiasi, 12-10 in the fifth. Wetzler managed to advance into the quarterfinals unscathed. Second seed Khaleel Asgarali advanced as well, but he needed some luck in order to do so. After losing to 1912-rated Chao Wang, Khaleel needed Wang to lose to Naser Nikakhtar, putting Asgarali, Wang, and Nikakhtar in a three-way tie. Asgarali and Wang advanced to the next round. Also needing a bit of luck was third seed Larry Hodges. In a match against Raghu Nadmichettu, Larry found himself down 6-10 in the fifth. But Larry's experience would pay off as he rallied back to 10-10. Still, Larry couldn't find a way to stop Raghu's barrage of backhand and forehand smashes, and lost quite unfortunately at 16-14 in the fifth game after a gallant effort. Luckily, Hodges defeated Nazruddin Asgarali 3-0, and after Asgarali easily beat Nadmichettu the second three-way tie of the event moved Asgarali and Hodges into the next round. The surprises continued in the playoffs. After Khaleel Asgarali defeated Larry Hodges easily 4-0, his father Nazruddin was in a heated battle against Wetzler. After trading leads in games, the match went to a deciding seventh. Wetzler grew annoyed at himself for missing serves and making various other mistakes, allowing Nazruddin to win by a convincing 11-2 in the seventh.Surprise, surprise, father vs. son in the finals. This time, age defeats youth in an exciting 11-9 in the seventh match. The open event was certainly the most exciting series of matches that the Maryland Table Tennis Club has seen in some time.

The surprises and great matches extended to some of the other events as well. Larry Hodges avenged his earlier loss to Raghu Nadmichettu in the playoffs of the U2250 event, only to lose in the next round to pips-out blocker Lixin Lang, rated 1999, who would emerge as the winner of the event. Julian Waters looked to win the U1950 event, but was stopped by 1704-rated penhold attacker Fernando Ramirez, and had to settle for second place. Julian finally "redeemed" himself by winning the U1900 final, an 11-9 thriller against Brian Ponczak, rated 1597. In the U1400, Some of the young juniors played some tight matches. Charlie Sun lost a match against Aaron Smolarz after being up 8-3 in the fifth game, while Vincent Ning also lost a tight match after being ahead. There was even a surprise in the U1150 event. Donald Franklin (estimated 550) ripped through the event until he reached the final, where he faced 1016 rated Jeffery Kleiberg. Down 2-0 in the best of five match, Franklin rallied to capture the title and a first place trophy, 11-7 in the fifth.

The tournament was a success, well organized and on time thanks to tournament director Wei Xiao and the work of Larry Hodges in attracting participants. There was no lack of surprises or exciting matches, and nearly all the participants enjoyed themselves. In conclusion, the MDTTC February Open was one of the most eventful tournaments that the club has seen so far.

Event Name		First		Second
Open Finals		Nazruddin Asgarali		Khaleel Asgarali
Under 2250		Lixin Lang		Georgiy Bunyakyn
Under 2100		Eric Eisley		Patrick Kin Luen Lui
Under 1950		Fernando Ramirez		Julian Waters
Under 1800		Julian Waters		Brian Ponczak
Under 1650		Brian Ponczak		Jianqing Lan
Under 1400		Krishna Nerella		Nicolae Popovici
Under 1150		Donald Franklin		Jeffery Kleiberg

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