Balwyn United’s Sanish Ambekar and NSW’s Yangzi Liu have both won back to back Open titles following a six-set win over Dandenong’s Heming Hu for Ambekar and a four set victory over Dandenong’s Parleen Kaur for Liu in the Open finals of the 2021 Croydon Masters Open over the long weekend.

Despite most players competing in the Dandenong Open just a week prior due to a COVID-19 postponement, plenty of fantastic talent showed up at the Kilsyth International Table Tennis Stadium to provide three fantastic days of table tennis.

Ambekar defeated Hu in the Men’s final after a tough seven set match against LOOPS young gun Finn Luu in the semi-final, previously he cruised through his group stage matches going undefeated and only dropping one set along the way.

In the Open Women’s category, NSW’s Yangzi Liu made it to the final after an impressive display in the group stage where she didn’t drop a set, followed up by strong performances against Chermaine Quah (LOOPS) and Kaur on her way to the title.

Croydon’s rising star Nicholas Lum took out the U/21 Men’s title defeating 2021 Dandenong Open U/21 champion Richard Li (Geelong) in a three-set match. Lum impressively went completely undefeated during his run, not dropping a set from the group stage through to the final to win his third title of the weekend.

In the U/21 Women’s event, Sanaya Hasali Buddhadasa (NSW) stayed in good form and came out with two great performances earning her the title, adding to her two junior titles from the Dandenong Open.

Six groups of players competed for the O/30 Men’s title with number one seed Reddy Rohit Tatikonda (Tarneit) getting the win over Mornington’s Myles Collins in four sets. In the Women’s division, Knox Indoor’s Vivienne Halocha won both her matches in four sets to get the title.

In the solitary Para category, Paralympian and Croydon’s own Rebecca Julian won the title after winning both her matches in straight sets.

There were eight Veterans titles crowned during the first weekend of the tournament with the remaining Vets set to play this weekend on March 14.

Albert Park’s Igor Klaf won two titles with wins in the O/80 and O/75 categories, he went undefeated in both group stages and won the O/75’s with a four set victory over Michael Ede (Wonthaggi). Croydon’s Case De Bondt added to the home club’s haul with a win in the O/85 division.

In the O/60’s, Coburg’s Be Phu Huynh won the Men’s title after a three set win in his last match while Jeanne Strong (SETTA) went 5-0 in her group stages and also claimed the title with a straight set win in the final.

Croydon’s Judy James and Jeff Dever continued the Veterans dominance for the home club with wins in the O/65 Men’s and Women’s categories. While Dandenong’s Willy Labagala rounded out the Veterans results with a victory in the O/70’s Men’s event.

Kicking off the Juniors, Nicholas Lum claimed the win in the U/19 category. The Croydon young gun beat Coburg’s Raymond Myrteza in three sets to give himself the title, he also took out the U/17 category. Parleen Kaur went 4-1 and finished ahead of Sanaya Hasali Buddhadasa to claim the U/19 Girl’s title.

Dandenong’s Connie Psihogios may not have won a title at her home club the weekend before, but she made up for it with a fantastic display in the U/17 Girl’s category with a four set victory of LOOPS’ Chermaine Quah.

LOOPS’ Cherry Le was victorious in the U/15 Girl’s while Lucas Lum (Croydon) followed in his older brothers’ footsteps by winning his own pair of titles in the U/15 and U/13 Boy’s events. Yi-Jen Hsu (Croydon) won the U/13 Girl’s final in four sets.

Finally, Croydon’s Joshua Ding and Tarneit’s Ananya Nandakumar were crowned U/11 champions. Ding had a three-set final and Nandakumar won hers in four.

“It was a bit poignant being back at Croydon again – they had the last tournament before we all went into lockdown in 2020. For a lot of players, it was the first time they had seen or played each other in 12 months,” said TTV ECO, Claire Montgomery.

“The COVID-Normal format seems to be working nicely, with players getting lots of games and minimising the number of people in the hall at any one time.”

TTV would like to thank and congratulate Croydon & Districts Table Tennis Association on a well run tournament, and wish them luck for the remaining event on the weekend (O/30’s, O/40’s & O’50’s).

FULL VETERAN RESULTS

FULL JUNIOR RESULTS

FULL SENIOR RESULTS

PHOTOS HERE (Credit Kenneth Lum)