2015 Millcreek Open
Erie, PA
Oct. 17-18, 2015
By Sam Steiner – Erie Table Tennis Club
Coming into this tournament, defending Open winner Samson Dubina acknowledged that he might not be able to play his best owing to the recent birth of his 4th child and the resultant impact on his training and mental state not to mention sleep. Nevertheless Samson came out on top after facing numerous challenges from the other semi-finalists, and especially from Alex Averin who made a strong 2-4 effort in the quarterfinals. Positions 2-4 in Open were tied on matches and games requiring a tie-break on points. Keith Pech placed 2nd, Alex Csibi from Toronto 3rd, and Buffalo’s Yong Ren 4th, all by the slimmest of margins. This provided the spectators with excellent drama and quality play throughout the round robin semifinals.
2015 Millcreek Open – Tomo Teraoka: 1st U1800 & 2nd U2000
Other players of note were newcomers Kevin Turner of Syracuse and Tomonori Teraoka of Pittsburgh, both vastly under-rated coming into the tournament rated 1790 and 1600 respectively. Kevin and Tomo played in the finals of U1800 with Tomo coming out on top 3-1, and Tomo making the finals of U2000 where Ken Roskos avenged an earlier loss with a 3-1 win.
2015 Millcreek Open – Samson & His Student Janset Displaying Their Winnings: 2nd U700 & 1st Open
Thanks to the hard work of the tournament staff, the tournament ran like clockwork with every event starting on time and finishing at a reasonable hour. Special thanks to Butterfly Online for sponsoring the balls, which seemed to survive their beating better than in the past. It may be that the manufacturers have tuned up the plastic formulation to improve ball performance.
2015 Millcreek Open – Alex Csibi vs Keith Pech
RESULTS
U2400 Semi’s: Yong Ren d. Roger Liu 3-1; Alex Csibi d. Keith Pech 3-1.
Final: Ren d. Csibi 3-2.
U900 Final: Mike Keim d. Chris Jordan 3-1.
Senior Over 40 Semi’s: Yong Ren d. Iraj Golmohammadi 3-0; Chip Coulter d. Sunny Lee 3-0.
Final: Ren d. Coulter 3-0.
Open Quarter’s: Samson Dubina d Alex Averin 4-2; Alex Csibi d. Roger Liu 4-1; Keith Pech d. Tak Cheong Ip 4-1; Yong Ren d. Shrey Bafna 4-0.
RR Semi’s: 1. Samson Dubina d. Ren 4-2; d. Pech 4-2; d. Csibi 4-2.
Positions 2-4 tied on matches and games broken on points
2. Keith Pech d. Csibi 4-1.
3. Alex Csibi d. Ren 4-1.
4. Yong Ren d. Pech 4-1.
U1100 Semi’s: Joseph Kneer d. Greg Cosby 3-1; Richard DeVenezia d. Yansong Lin 3-1.
Finals: DeVenezia d. Kneer 3-0.
U1700 Semi’s: Dave French d. Joe Sabella 3-2; Shuhei Shimamura d. Joe Grandalski 3-2.
Finals: Shimamura d. French 3-2.
U700 Final: David Lauinger d. Janset Aykanat 3-0.
U1300 Semi’s: Tony Ioffe d. Carl Swindell 3-0; Pete Spearman d. Craig Nivens 3-0.
Finals: Spearman d. Ioffe 3-0.
U2200 Semi’s: Ali Khatami d. Tak Cheong Ip 3-1; Alex Averin d. Don Hamilton 3-0.
Finals: Averin d. Khatami 3-2.
2800 Doubles Semi’s: Malis/Scarnato d. Baker/Diamond 3-1; Pepper/Rostankowski d. Grandalski/Nivens 3-1.
Finals: Pepper/Rostankowski d. Malis/Scarnato 3-1.
U1800 Semi’s: Kevin Turner d. Joe Ciarrochi 3-0; Tomo Teraoka d. Scott Badillo 3-1.
Finals: Teraoka d. Turner 3-1.
U1600 Semi’s: Jabari Jourdan-Ali d. Logan Herman 3-1; Sarah Jalli d. Eric Sindledecker 3-2.
Finals: Jourdan-Ali d. Jalli 3-0.
Pro Singles RR Finals:
1. Alex Averin 2-0 d. Csibi 3-1; d. Liu 3-1.
2. Alex Csibi 1-1 d. Liu 3-1.
3. Roger Liu 0-3.
U1450 Semi’s: Sarveen Lhatami d. Jeff Pepper 3-2; Carl Swindell d. Roman Kozlov 3-2.
Finals: Swindell d. Khatami 3-1.
U2000 Semi’s: Ken Roskos d. Carl Bradley 3-0; Tomo Teraoka d. Raymond Nagel 3-0.
Finals: Roskos d. Teraoka 3-1.
Junior U14 RR Event:
1. Sarah Jalli 3-0 d. Khatami 3-0; d. Nagpure 3-0; d, Su 3-0.
2. Sarveen Khatami 2-1 d. Nagpure 3-0; d. Su 3-0.
3. Nilaksh Nagpure 1-2 d. Su 3-1.
4. Matthew Su 0-3.
3400 Doubles Semi’s: Ng/Strawn d. French/Gransalski 3-2; Kron/Kron d. Luo/Teraoka 3-1.
Finals: Kron/Kron d. Ng/Strawn 3-1.
2015 Millcreek Open – Jabari Jourdon Ali: 1st U1600
