Croydon’s Nicholas Lum and NSW’s Yangzi Liu have carried their great form into the new year as the pair picked up the first Open titles of 2022 at the Geelong Open Championships last weekend.

Lum went through the group stage unchallenged before going on to defeat Croydon’s Sajith Silva in straight sets, he then moved past fellow rising star Finn Luu after a tough five-set match in the semis. Eventually coming back against 2021’s top ranked player Sanish Ambekar (Balwyn United) in a six-set final.

Liu came out on top after cruising to a quartet of straight set wins in the group stage before coming up against Loops’ Cherry Le, Liu defeated the young gun in four sets. She then set her sights on another rising star from Loops Hasali Sanaya Buddhadasa, eventually winning the title in another four-set match.

Lum also won the U/21 Men’s singles by blitzing the field of competitors without dropping a set. Loops’ Chermaine Quah also went undefeated on her way to the U/21 Women’s Singles title.

Across the Junior categories Hasali Sanaya Buddhadasa (Loops) defeated Dandenong’s Connie Psihogios in the U/17 Girl’s final. Psihogios did however take home the U/19 Girl’s title. While Croydon’s Lucas Lum took home another two titles for his household with wins in the U/19’s and U/17’s Singles. Coburg’s Yousef Hassan won the U/15’s Boy’s Singles while Croydon’s Serena Zhang won both the U/11 and U/13’s Girl’s titles.

FULL SENIOR/JUNIOR RESULTS HERE

In the Veterans, Warrnambool’s Simon Johnson was one of the big winners coming away with three titles in the O/40 Men’s Singles, O/30 and O/40 Men’s Doubles while narrowly missing out on the O/30 Men’s Singles going down to Coburg’s Craig Carter in the final.

Croydon’s Case De Bondt also had a fantastic day with three titles in the O/85 Singles, O/80 Men’s Doubles and O/85 Men’s Doubles. Vivienne Halocha (Croydon) had a great day with victories in the O/40 and O/30 Women’s Singles. As did Geelong’s Debbie Wilson in her home tournament winning the O/50-60 Women’s Doubles and O/60 Single’s.

FULL VETERAN’S RESULTS HERE

Later in the week we spoke to Geelong President Damian Taranto who was thrilled with the Junior and Senior turnout. “From a club perspective it was great to see so much support from the table tennis community. Numbers for the Junior/Senior Open were up significantly on previous years,” he said.

“It was also great to see the likes of Finn Luu, Nicholas Lum and Yangzi Liu playing at Geelong with their busy schedules.

“Sunday numbers were down a little with the Veterans but that’s to be expected with the temperature being so hot. Overall, we were thrilled with the turnout for the weekend.”

Taranto’s thoughts on the weekend were mirrored by TTV’s HP & Competitions Coordinator Yugandh Zende who attended and played in the tournament.

“It was great to see a jump in numbers this year for the Junior and Senior tournaments, I have it on good authority that it was the largest Junior/Senior tournament in Victoria for about 10 years,”

“As a player it was a fantastic weekend and as the HP & Competitions Coordinator for TTV I’m very keen to see the rest of our 2022 tournaments to run as smoothly.”

The next tournament on the calendar is the 2022 Croydon Masters Open, find details below to enter.

Vets – https://www.revolutionise.com.au/croydondtta/events/118972/

Senior – https://www.revolutionise.com.au/croydondtta/events/117534/

Junior – https://www.revolutionise.com.au/croydondtta/events/117542/