2009 Evanston Table Tennis Tournament

This year Austin, Jacob and myself went up to Evanston with some of my coworkers from Tomax: David To and Cameron Meyer.

Austin and I were doubles partners as usual. However this year we didn't play so well together. We did beat a couple teams, but didn't get very far.

In singles, Austin was in the A and Jr. Divisions. Jacob was in the B and Jr. Divisions. I was in the Open. I had to beat Bruce Majors (who is over 100 rating points higher than me) to get into the open. I won 3 games and lost zero. I was in the zone. The games were close and I was playing well and had several net and edge shots.

From Table Tennis

There were over 45 people at the tournament so the divisions were double elimination. I played Meg Tsedenbal (who came back with us from Vegas when we were in Nationals). All the games were pretty close and I beat her once, but she got three games on me and gave me my first loss. I then played Bruce again, who I beat earlier in the day. But the outcome was not the same. He easily handed me my second loss and I was out of the tournament. Playing in Open usually means I need to really step it up. I'm playing the best players in the state and the need to focus mentally is key.

From Table Tennis

Austin did pretty well in the A's, but didn't end up placing in that division. In the Jr. Division he lost to Slobodan's son Daniel, which was a surprise. Daniel usually goes with his Dad to the club but doesn't play. This was the first time I've seen Daniel play and he did quite well. Austin was getting frustrated and ended up beating himself in poor shot selection. Austin took a while to recover from that loss. He then refocused, ended up going undefeated after that, beating Daniel again, as well as Skyler and Jason in two matches. He took first place in the Jr. Division. We didn't get out of Evanston until 8pm. Sure made for a long day. We all had fun and will definitely do it again.

From Table Tennis