Reviewing My First USATT Tournament

November 10, 2017

(Written by José Miguel Montoro)
Reviewing My First USATT Tournament
On Saturday, I played in my first ever official table tennis competition in the US – the 2017 Sacramento Fall Open. It was a big deal for me, and you can read my thoughts before the event in my previous Eastfield post.

The event was located in the gym at Sacramento’s Inderkum High School. There were 167 players in total, split into several different events organized by ratings. I participated in the following groups:

Under 1075
Under 1200
Under 1375

The structure of the tournament was: round-robin groups of three players, followed by a knockout for the group winners – until the last two players remaining played in the final for their event.

THE PLAYERS

It was very interesting to meet the other players that go to this kind of event. There were players of all levels and ages playing together – men and women, boys and girls. I guess it’s common in table tennis, but that was one noticeable feature of the tournament for me.

As you can imagine, there were a lot of Asian players. Not only because this is table tennis, but also because here in California the Asian population is high. I love to see the Asian kids play – there’s a different quality to their game, a certain flow or way of movement that seems more elastic. It was very enjoyable to see the higher-level players play.

There were many Indian players too. There’s a club in Milpitas, CA called the Indian Cultural Center where a lot of the best USA players were trained. The main coach for the US Olympic table tennis team coaches there too! I guess that made the sport especially appealing for the Indian kids and parents that hang out there.

Finally, there were several players from my current club – San Francisco Sunset TTC. I travelled with one of them. He is 14 years old and a better player than me, with a ranking around 1300. I also met two other guys from the club there and our coach Masaaki managed to come along – which really made a difference, as you will see.

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More information:

The Open Singles RR result:

1st: Truong Manh Tu
2nd: Bryant Lin