Site Products

US Nationals A-to-Z: Rocking the Rocket City

(by Steve Hopkins, photo USATT)

Huntsville is home to the largest space museum in the world, the US Space & Rocket Center.  This week, the discussion in town wasn’t focused on Moon Rocks or the development of the rockets that put man on the moon – rather, the focus was on a thousand of America’s best table tennis players descending on Alabama to rock the Rocket City for the 2024 US National Table Tennis Championships. Huntsville’s Von Braun Center was a new venue for this event, with its location and size working well for this massive showcase for table tennis in the United States.  This year, there were 115 events with a series of rating events, singles and doubles across age and rating levels, classic events in hardbat, para events, and the featured National Championship titles in Men’s and Women’s Singles, as well as Men’s and Women’s and Mixed Doubles (with the Hsing Family Foundation sponsoring the Men’s and Women’s Singles events as well as U-21 Men’s and U-21 Women’s events).

 

Unlike many other sports’ national championship events, this table tennis event brings both the best current elite players and many of the best players from past eras.  Some of the names over the years have now been repeated so many times that it would be difficult to count the number of age division championship for some of our more seasoned players. Titles this year went to many familiar names: Patty Martinez-Wasserman won four events (and placed in 5 others),  Derek May won five events, Pete May won another Men’s 80+ title (and won a Doubles title, and had a pair of second place finishes), USATT CEO Virginia Sung won three events (and added a second place finish), Jimmy Butler won three events (plus a second place finish), Yan Ge won five events (and placed in three others), and Jian Zhuang won four events (and added a second place finish).  There were certainly many other great performances from our more seasoned players as well.

 

In the featured events, it was Kanak Jha taking his fifth National Singles title and Hong Lin winning her first (Hong Lin also won the Over 30 Women’s Singles event).  Men’s Doubles went to Nandan Naresh and Daniel Tran and Women’s Doubles went to Amy Wang and Rachel Sung.  Amy Wang doubled up in doubles titles with her win in Mixed, paired with Andrew Cao.  Not to be outdone, Andrew Cao won three events (U2600, Mixed U17, and Mixed) and placed in two more doubles events – securing five medals for the week (so far, he is still active in at least one late-finishing event today). In Para Class 8-10, Tahl Leibovitz took the title – he also finished 3rd in Men’s Over 30 Singles, and Over 40 Men’s Doubles.  Para 6-7 went to Ian Seidenfeld and Para 3-5 went to Jenson Van Emburgh  – two additional titles going to some of America’s best Para team members. For full results, visit the tournament page at omnipong, or USATT’s event page.  See Butterfly’s U.S. Nationals Photos.

 

Visit Butterflyonline.com for the latest table tennis news and results.

Latest News

Keep the Swing as Compact as Possible

July 16, 2025
Robot will play RANDOM top spin balls to 2/3 of the table (Backhand, only Forehand topspin from this… Read More

Reviewing Bugller with Logan Rietz

July 15, 2025
(by: Logan Rietz) I love pips.  I like chopping with them, hitting with them, anything I can do… Read More

Keep Your Elbow Closer to Your Body

July 14, 2025
WAIT FUNCTION: Serve long serve to elbow and Robot plays topspin to Forehand, Forehand spin block or counter… Read More

#3 High toss serve that disrupts the opponent’s rhythm and leads to a quick attack

July 14, 2025
[Feature] [Special feature] America’s star! Jha’s strong points #3 High toss serve that disrupts the opponent’s rhythm and… Read More

Ten Tips for Faster Footwork

July 14, 2025
(By Larry Hodges) Tie your shoes tight so there’s less give when you move. Grippy shoes on non-grippy… Read More

Rogelio Castro – Third Ball Attack

July 14, 2025
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly Training Tips, Rogelio Castro is executing the “Third Ball Attack” using his… Read More

MLTT Featured Team: Chicago Wind

July 14, 2025
(by Steve Hopkins, photo MLTT) The Chicago Wind plan to blow over competition in the upcoming Major League… Read More

Wang Chuqin and Zhu Yuling

July 13, 2025
(by Steve Hopkins) Wang Chuqin made quick work of Tomokazu Harimoto in the Men’s Singles Final of the… Read More
View All News

Get the latest from Butterfly

Stay “In The Loop” with Butterfly professional table tennis equipment, table tennis news, table tennis technology, tournament results, and We Are Butterfly players, coaches, clubs and more.