(by Steve Hopkins)
A lot of familiar names are at the top of the leaderboard as the 2021 US National Table Tennis Championships comes to a close in Las Vegas.
Olympian Zhou Xin won Men’s Singles, topping 2021 US Team member Sharon Alguetti 4-1 in the Final. Zhou entered the event as the top seed (US rating of 2774) and Sharon Alguetti entered as the second seed – so the result was arguably as expected. Jishan Liang was also one of the top four seeds, and he reached the Semifinal before falling to Zhou. The other half of the draw was all-Alguetti, as Gal Alguetti faced brother Sharon in the second Semifinal.
The Women’s Singles progressed by seed until the Semifinals with the top four seeds each advancing. Lily Zhang, the top seed, blanked Sarah Jalli in one Semifinal and Amy Wang defeated Sally Moyland 4-1 in the second Semifinal. Amy Wang then upset Lily Zhang 4-1, winning all three of the close games between the two players.
Amy Wang also won the U21 Women’s event. Sharon Alguetti topped the U21 Men’s event, and his brother Gal finished third – both logging additional successes. Sarah Jalli was all over the leader board with a third place finish in Women’s Singles and U21 Women’s and then winning both U17 and U15 events.
USA’s Paralympians fared well this week with Jenson Van Emburgh, Tahl Leibovitz, and Ian Seidenfeld each winning their para class event.
Patty Martinez-Wasserman continued to log national titles with a win in Women’s 65+ and Women’s Sandpaper, and second place finishes in Women’s 60+ and Hardbat Women’s. Pete May won both Men’s 75+ and Men’s 80+. Larry Hodges took two hardbat titles: 40+ and 60+
The full results can be viewed at USATT’s Nationals Omnipong page.
