On Saturday March 26, the first Fox Valley Open table tennis tournament took place at the Eola Community Center in Aurora, IL. The tournament attracted 48 players mostly from Chicago's western and northern suburbs but also from Chicago and Rockford. It was truly a family event as young players were brought by their parents, and adult players brought their spouses and children. At one point we had to add chairs to provide seating for all the extra spectators we hadn't anticipated.
If you are interested in reading opinions about this tournament click
here.
The ages of players ranged from 7 to 82, and the skill levels ranged from beginners to 2000+ rated players. Here is the view of the gym where the tournament took place.
The players competed in three divisions. There were 18 players in the beginner, 18 in the intermediate and 12 in the advanced division. Here is the breakdown of how each division played out.
Beginner Division
The following players comprised the beginner division represented by groups A through C.
Group A (from left to right): Chenping Ni, Fran Prokop, Alan Hoffman, Mary Marzano, Arcot Prabhakar, Zita Bayr.
Group B: Nipun Dubey, Mahmood Khan, Rohan Pisharody, Poojan Tharkar, Dominic Pizzo, Chris Vas.
Group C: Mahit Ramakrishnan, Naman Tharkar, Christopher Magno, Sid Naresh, Matthew Magno, Dominic LaCalamita.
The winners of the beginner division were the following:
1st place - Zita Bayr
2nd place - Naman Tharkar
3rd place - Dominic Pizzo
The rest of the beginner division was as follows:
4. Chenping Ni
5. Nipun Dubey
6. Dominic LaCalamita
7 - 9 places
Fran Prokop
Chris Vas
Mahit Ramakrishnan
10 - 12 places
Arcot Prabhakar
Rohan Pisharody
Sid Naresh
13 - 15 places
Alan Hoffman
Mahmood Khan
Christopher Magno
16 - 18 places
Mary Marzano
Poojan Thakrar
Matthew Magno
Intermediate Division
The intermediate division had groups D through F.
Group D (from left to right): David Nwosu, Jason Wu, Ramiro Lynch, Mirza Alikhan, John Liu, William O'Brien.
Group E: Rajendra Balaka, Alexander Haizman, Gene Bender, Sandra Thompson, John Brandt, Diana Frost.
Group F: Carol Thies, Jose Jr Magno, Sarah Dallal, John Lipa, Ron Chin, Shoo Chen.
The winners in the intermediate division were:
1st place - John Brandt
2nd place - Mirza Alikhan
3rd place - Jose Jr Magno (advanced in place John Lipa who took 1st place in group F but had to leave early due to sickness)
The rest of the intermediate division players placed as follows:
4. Alexander Haizman
5. Ron Chin
6. David Nwosu
7 - 9 places
John Liu
Gene Bender
10 - 12 places
Ramiro Lynch
Diana Frost
Sarah Dallal
13 - 15 places
Jason Wu
Rajendra Balaka
Shoo Chen
16 - 18 places
William O'Brien
Sandra Thompson
Carol Thies
Advanced Division
The advanced division was comprised of groups G and H.
Group G (left to right), Styadeep Prassanna, Gary Cudworth, Mark Hoffman, Vivek Kini, Arcot Naresh. Missing from the picture is Stanley Stankiewicz who arrived later.
Group H: Joseph Magno, Dick Loescher, Ron Cassidy, Ben Ritter, Ken Oh, Hussain Khan.
The top 3 finishers in advanced division were:
1st place - Vivek Kini
2nd place - Hussain Khan
3rd place - Ken Oh
The rest of the division players placed as follows:
4th place - Stanley Stankiewicz
5 - 6 places
Arcot Naresh
Dick Loescher
7 - 8 places
Satyadeep Prassanna
Joseph Magno
9 - 10 places
Gary Cudworth
Ben Ritter
11 - 12 places
Mark Hoffman
Ron Cassidy
I want to thank all players for good sportsmanship and patience with tournament organizer. I would like to thank our sponsor Paddle Palace for donating high quality balls for the tournament.
I would like to extend special thanks to Mr. Chen Chin Woo, who photographed the matches and shared the following
album of action photos. Mr. Woo masterfully captured the intensity of the games, apparent in facial expressions of players and graceful gestures and movements that are part of this game.
Here is another
album of photos taken by tournament organizer.
I would like to invite all interested players to the next tournament which is scheduled for June 4th.
Sincerely,
Swavek Lorenc
Tournament Organizer