The October 2 star Loopalalooza event featured 65 entries from North & South
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee & Virgina. Over $1000 in prize money as well as
trophies were presented to winners of 11 events.
Equipment was 7 Sky Blue Butterfly tables & Orange Butterfly balls.
Thanks to sponsors: Butterfly, Paddle Palace & Charlotte TTC.
Officials:
Tournament Director/Referee: John Pahl
Umpire: Ray Filz
Tournament Committee: John Pahl/Ray Filz/Tom Miller/Rick Thigpen/Khang Vu
Saturday:
Under 18
3 groups of 4 players advanced the winner of each group to a final 3 way RR.
Players ranged from 7 to 15 years, 100 to 1733.
1st place trophy went to top rated David Ding, 2nd to Elias Gomez, with
Robert Dong coming in 3rd.
Under 1000
2 groups of 5 players advanced the winner of each group to a final match.
367 rated Khoa Vu upset 637 James Du 9,10,-10,8.
Both played well with forehand & backhand technique many adults wished they had.
It's obvious that they will soon be upsetting higher rated players as they
have very good basic training. Vu was a looping machine, Du had the stronger
backhand, both had good serves.
Charlotte had 3 new players competing for their initial rating, all performed
well: Mat Tegegne & Tristan Rich played well considering they had only been
playing for a few weeks, but still managed to implement good strokes & strategy
surprising many.
Khang Vu at 7 was the youngest & smallest with the biggest heart.
He stroked forehand & backhands, served well, kept positive.
A future champion if he keeps it up.
Under 1500 RR
6 groups of 4 players advanced the winners to single elimination.
Gr 1: Daniel Espejel over Victor Plugovoy, John Traino & David Gong.
Gr 2: Chris Saade over Israel Dumbuya, Bill Englebreth & Nichaek Xu.
Gr 3: Robert Dong upset Dave England, Richard Rowland & Tristan Rich.
Gr 4: Mike Stroupe upset Mevlut Tascan, Alfredo Azporua & Christian Amidi.
Gr 5: Sumit Anand over John Griffing, Janes Du & Khoa Vu.
Gr 6: Kohei Takamuku over Elias Gomez jr, Ercan Gurhan & Charles Voland.
(Anand & Takamuku were unrated & did not advance with wins)
1/4 Finals (Gr 1 & 6 byes)
Mike Stroupe (1290) upset John Griffing (1356) 3-2.
Elias Gomez jr over Robert Dong 3-1.
Semi Finals
Daniel Espejel over Mike Stroupe 3-0.
Chris Saade (1171) upset Elias Gomez jr (1303) 3-2.
Final
1373 Daniel Espejel won ($50) over 1171 Chris Saade 3-2.
Under 1750 RR
8 groups of 4 players advanced the winners to single elimination.
Preliminary Groups
Gr 1: David Ding over John Pahl, Gerard Schreuders & David Gong.
Gr 2: Heiko Plankenhorn over Jon Gustovson, Victor Plugovoy & John Traino.
Gr 3: Ming Shi over Marcus Miller, Daniel Espejel & Sumit Anand.
Gr 4: Ethan Jin over Kehong Ding, Israel Dumbuya & Dave England.
Gr 5: Yuri Godin over Arm Auriemmo, Mevlut Tuscan & Chris Saade.
Gr 6: Mike Wetmore over David Phelps, John Griffing & Robert Dong.
Gr 7: Tim Hoagland over Rick Thigpen, Kohei Takamuku & Mike Stroupe.
Gr 8: Eric Bailey over Russell Buxton, Elias Gomez jr & Richard Rowland.
1/4 Finals
Eric Bailey over David Ding 3-0
Heiko Plankenhorn over Tim Hoagland 3-1
Mike Wetmore over Ming Shi 3-2
Ethan Jin over Yuri Godin 3-1
Semi Finals
Heiko Plankenhorn over Mike Wetmore 3-0
Ethan Jin over Eric Bailey 3-0
Final
Ethan Jin (1689) over Heiko Plankenhorn (1709) 3-0
Jin won $80 & the respect of many.
U2000 Doubles
Each player had to be rated under 1000.
The final saw Christian Amidi & Khoa Vu defeat James Du & Charles Voland 3-0.
There was some excellent play from these players, they might have done well
in the U3000 division.
U3000 Doubles
$60 to David Ding/RobertDong won over Rick Thigpen/Mike Stroupe 3-1.
U3500 Doubles
$80 to Ling Fan/Ming Shi over Steve Dreyfus/Tim Hoagland 3-2.
Sunday Events
Under 1900 RR
6 groups of 4 players sent the top player to single elimination.
The winners of group 1 & 2 (the highest seeds) received a bye in the 1/4 finals,
while 3 would play 6, & 4 would play 5. Semi finals was 1 vs 4/5, & 2 vs 3/6.
Gr 1: Heiko Plankenhorn upset Amir Amidi, Ming Shi & Israel Dumbuya.
Gr 2: Van Vu over Ling Fan, Ethan Jib & Yihua Huang.
Gr 3: Elias Gomez sr upset Ray Filz, Yuri Godin & Jon Gustovson.
Gr 4: Edem Komlanvi over Salil Surendran, Dennis Lee & Marcus Miller.
Gr 5:Tom Miller over Steve Dreyfus, Eric Bailey & Armadillo Auriemmo.
Gr 6: Sina Fischer over Bilal Soylu, Tim Hoagland & Mike Wetmore.
1/4 Finals
Edem Komlanvi over Tom Miller 3-2
Sina Fischer over Elias Gomez sr 3-0
Semi Finals
Heiko Plankenhorn upest Edem Komlanvi 3-2
Sina Fischer over Van Vu 3-0
Final
1744 after 1 USATT tournament, Sina Fischer visiting here from Germany was a
little under rated, & those who underestimated her fell hard. Good strokes,
good serves & a few tricks led to her 3-0 victory against fellow German
Heiko Plankenhorn. This all out krautfest featured good european style
playing & gamesmanship from both. Heiko has great loops from both sides,
but Sina was able to control serve & return better, countering often.
$100 to Fischer, $60 to Plankenhorn.
Open RR
7 groups of 4 players sent the top player to single elimination.
No byes this time. With 8 spots to fill & 7 groups, the last spot, (wild card)
would be decided by matching the top 2 rated players that did not advance.
They would receive the honor of facing #1 seed Peng, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5.
Gr 1: Peng Xin over Tom Miller, Sina Fischer & Jon Gustovson.
Gr 2: Didi De Souza over Edem Komlanvi, Bilal Soylu & Yihua Huang.
Gr 3: Joe Stewart over Ray Filz, Salil Surendran & John Pahl.
Gr 4: Ashwin Peres Da Silva over Chris Obrian, Elias Gomez sr & Arm Auriemmo.
Gr 5: Jim McQueen over Amir Amidi, Ling Fan & Eric Bailey.
Gr 6: DJ Settle over Van Vu, Heiko Plankenhorn & Tim Hoagland.
Gr 7: Ty Petty over John Lee, Ethan Jin & Dennis Lee.
Wild Card: John lee over Amir Amidi 3-2.
Semi Finals
Peng Xin over John Lee 3-0. John Lee has solid shots, but Peng had no problem
blocking him down. After seeing 2500 level loops for 25 yrs, Lee's 2000 level
loops needed more sizzle to break through.
Didi De Souza over Ty Petty 3-1. Ty actually gave Didi a hard time. Ty can
loop from out of nowhere effectively & surprised Didi often.
The game loss seemed to wake up Didi as well as his backhand.
Jim McQueen over Joe Stewart 3-1. McQueen is patient, Stewart wants to challenge,
Patience won out. McQueens serves befuddled Stewart from beginning to end.
DJ Settle over Ashwin Peres Da Silva 3-2. They know each other well, this time
DJ played better.
Semi Finals
Peng Xin over DJ Settle 3-1. All you have to do is hit your hardest spinniest
shot over & over from both wings with pinpoint accuracy. DJ's loops are more
powerful than John Lee's controlled spins, so he was able to make some headway
against Peng. Some.
Didi De Souza over Jim McQueen 3-0. De Souza was not fooled by the serves &
McQueen couldn't keep him from looping that ultra spinny backhand.
Open Single Elimination
24 players with a 1700 minimum rating started.
Upsets along the way:
1744 Sina Fischer continued her dominance over 1953 Ty Petty, but got stopped
cold in the next round by Peng Xin. 1813 Bilal Soylu slightly upset 1866 Amir Amidi.
There were many other great matches as most of the field was within 150 points of
each other. In the end, Peng Xin & Didi De Souza rolled through with few problems.
Championship Final
Tournament director John Pahl decided with both players to combine the Open RR
& Open SE finals: 1 match, 4 out of 7 games, for the combined winnings:
1st place/$300, 2nd place/$150.
Ray Filz to Umpire, All other matches were stopped for the final.
2394 Peng Xin vs 2363 Didi De Souza. Augusta vs Atlanta. Penhold vs Shakehand.
Pips hitter/blocker vs spin/looper. Subdued vs ferocious. I could go on forever.
Throughout the day all were doing their best to derail these 2, & some actually
pressed them & made it a challenge, although the end result was never really in
question. We all got a taste of what was to come: Peng cemented to the table,
winning points easily with angles & blocking, sometimes hitting clean winners;
Didi looping balls with crazy amounts of spin. The forehand is strong, but many
backhands bulleted by opponents with a cry of "don't do that!" by Didi meaning
if you challenge him there he will surely & easily kill it.
Game 1 made it look like we were to have a great match. Both players knew what
the other brought, most points were straight forward as expected. The player that
had an opening attacked. When Didi attacked forehand, he often had to hit 2 0r 3
to earn the point. When Peng attacked, it usually ended the point. The 1st game
was an impressive lesson in how to block a 2300 spinny loop. It could be done!
Didi won 11-8, but this one could have gone either way.
Game 2 & 3 to Didi De Souza, 11-9, 11-9. More of the same, but now Didi was looping
more from the backhand side. Peng had good safe serves, but it was amazing how
Didi could mount an attack when there seemed to be nothing there. Serves were
short & well placed, yet he could spin it in not just to start the rally, but
effectively either winning the point or causing a weak return. Many of Pengs
points were errors by Didi, (you could argue that Peng forced the errors), but
Didi was relentless in his attack & game plan: attack 1st, attack hard & spinny.
Game 4. Didi was on a roll & we all sensed there was no stopping him. Some of his
backhands now earned him points untouched. His shots & confidence were off the map.
A huge 7-1 lead led to a 11-2 victory & championship.
We appreciate these great players coming to Charlotte with few challenges putting
their points on the line. (I guess that's where the $450 comes in).
Great players & great competition appreciated by all.
Under 4000 Doubles
2 RR groups of 5 teams each advanced the winner to the final.
In the end 1964 Jim McQueen & 1953 Ty Petty won over 2394 Peng Xin & 1600 Yihua
Huang. Huang is unrated & the rating was approximate. McQueen kept the ball on the
table, Petty performed acrobatic loops, Peng kept them in the game & Huang hung
in as best he could, making some good shots but a little outclassed.
$120 to McQueen/Petty.
