News
Ambekar & Liu Win in Open as Li Takes Three - 2021 Dandenong Open Recap
Published Wed 03 Mar 2021
After the postponement of the 2021 Dandenong Open due to the snap five-day lockdown across Victoria a few weeks ago, table tennis was back in action over the weekend and the Seniors/Para and Junior winners were crowned. Geelong’s Richard Li was the big winner from taking home three titles in the U/21’s, U/19’s and U/17’s.
Sanish Ambekar (Balwyn United) took out the Open Men’s Singles title defeating Dandenong’s own Olympian Heming Hu in five sets. Ambekar came in as the top seed and only lost four sets across all matches on his way to an impressive victory.
(Open Men's Winner Sanish Ambekar)
In the Open Women’s category, NSW’s Yangzi Liu was crowned winner, following three straight sets triumphs in her group matches. She went on to reach the final against Qian Yang (Croydon) where she won the tournament in five sets.
Richard Li and Dandenong’s Parleen Kaur ended the weekend as U/21 champions.
Kaur came into the tournament as the second seed and made her way through the group stage undefeated before outplaying HWATT’s Chermaine Quah in straight sets in the final. First seeded Li dropped two group matches, making it out of the first stage on a countback. He went on defeat Croydon’s Lucas Lum in a four-set final.
(U21 Women's Winner Parleen Kaur)
The Coburg pair of Cheryl Huang and Craig Carter won the O/30 titles. Both players came into the event as the number one seed. Huang lost four sets over her first two matches before winning her final three in straight sets to claim the victory. Carter won all three of his group stage battles before moving on to the main draw where he took out each of his three matches in four sets to get the win.
In the solitary Para Singles category Braybrook’s Jake Ballestrino entered as the second seed and blitzed through undefeated to earn himself the title.
In the Junior events, Richard Li added two more titles to his haul from the weekend with an undefeated run in the U/19 Boy’s category and a five-set victory in the U/17’s final. Sanaya Hasali Buddhadasa (HWATT) also won two junior titles after a pair of four set wins over Parleen Kaur (U/19’s) and Dandenong young gun Connie Psihogios.
In the U/15 Boy’s, Coburg’s Youseff Hassan was undefeated until the final where he knocked out Croydon’s Justin Kwan in five sets. For the girls, Cherry Le (HWATT) took the win in four sets against Croydon’s Inaaya Khan.
Finally, Croydon’s Yi-Jen Hsu and Lucas Lum won the U/13’s events. Lum went through the category undefeated while Hsu dropped just one set for the tournament.
“It was fantastic to see the great turn out for the first Junior and Seniors tournaments back using the COVID-Normal tournament format,” Said TTV ECO Claire Montgomery.
“There were 52 entries in the Men’s Singles alone!
“A lot of the players were a bit rusty in their first matches, but by the time they finished their round robins, you could see they had all remembered how to fight for a point and enjoy the competition.”
