Did The Sacramento Summer Open.
Got wiped out in doubles with a team having a 2500+ level guy with a consistent lady.
Entered the U2200 Giant Round Robin. Was a B player (2nd ranked) in classification group stage. Went 1-1 to move to Giant Round Robin group (3 players) as a B division player. (All players in the Giant Round Robin stage groups are same classification. My Giant RR group had 3 players, I was highest rated of the 3, so I should win, right? I did, but more on that later. I advanced to semi finals, won, made finals. Played vs a crafty dude who is a full level or more better player than me. He came 1 point away from defeating Scoobie Doo Tsos Sergey, he lost 12-14 in the 5th set vs him. (And Scoobie is 3 levels better player than me.)
Lost the final 1-3. Overall, a 4-2 record in singles. My ratings will barely be affected, maybe a 10 point move. I will discuss some take-aways and why this is another strong tourney performance.
- For the 6th tourney in a row, I was very composed and imposing my tactics where I could. I had a plan, several plans, but ultimately, in those tourneys, I played vs way better players or had a few bad bounces. (In Giant RR classification stage, I came back in 3rd game from 6-10, then opponent immediately on his first touch of ball gets a edge for 11-10 and a net dribble in for 12-10) Up o a year ago, I wasn't a tourney player in this regard.
- There are many sandbagging or severely under classified players (rapidly improving and cannot do enough tourneys to keep ranking realistic) or players who are simply on fire hot. Sometimes, you run into all three in the same person back to back to back in your own division. Sometimes, you run into a sticky tough player, sometimes you run into someone who gave you the business last time and had really good breaks go his/her way.
- I met several severely under classified players. The two losses I had accounted for 2 of them. I won vs 2 others of that category. (but they were ringers with a lower ranking, but very dangerous) I met a couple sticky tough players and won, I also won vs a guy who ran me over (averaging 4-5 nets a game if you get the idea of fortunate breaks)
- The guy with OX LP on BH, last year, I lost 1-3 being on the bad end of nets and he didn't miss attacks. This time, I served well, gave him zero chance. Won points directly on serves to his pips, or got the long or high balls to spin heavy or blast away depending height/pace of ball. Won 4,4,9 which is expected result (I am 2 levels higher ranked) but the manner which I controlled and executed was tourney William playing.
- My Giant RR B Div group had 2 more players who were dangerous. One, whose name is "Wireless Lovebird" (Look up his ratings on Pong Mobile, this name is for real) put a big scare into Ken Penilli, who is a 2200-2300 high level player. Ken BARELY got by Wireless, I mean Ken was on the floor panting and expressing he was very fortunate to not lose. He was under pressure in rallies all match long. Wireless moves great and is a super retriever with excellent touch.
- I played Wireless in my second match and won 4,5,6 by serving, getting long or high ball, and opening very heavy topspin slow or power loop away to side. 1st match in group was vs one of those 9 yr old pro-trained Chinese kids with father who does the "3 Star General" thing strong leading to his kid. This kid won vs Wireless 3-0. Wireless could not understand why he missed nearly every attack or counter. (Hint, kid kept giving dead pushes) The kid is typical trained kid who can bang it with little spin close to table and never miss. I avoided those kind of rallies and limited it to 2-3 per game. Still, kid has "strange" touch and difficult to read the ball when he declines an attack.
Since kid doesn't BH topspin, all I had to was push underspin to his BH deep, get a long push, then open heavy. Easy, right? Concept is simple, but that kid could push sudden, could push heavy or deep, and very difficult to discern the direction... he had great hands for a kid. So, I made more mistakes than normal. When I landed the BH heavy opener, he would try to punch it... would go very long every time. He would block nearly all my power shots within his reach. I won 12, 9, 8. His father was giving a strong operational brief and tactics session between each set. I bet that father was telling the kid he better not lose to that fat 50 yr old dude who doesn't take professional TT Warrior training... among a bunch of other things.
- In semi finals of Div B Giant RR, I met (an Indian or Pakistani?) dude who had already defeated a few 2000 plus rated players. That is very remarkable for an upper 1800s guy to do. That means he took out several players 1.5 or more levels higher players... in a tourney. Tough task, so hand it to that dude, he already delivered the goods multiple times just to reach semi finals. This guy could step around and power it, or spin heavy time warp. Serve tricky to read, but favored a serve with deceptive light spin, slow, half long to BH or a few inches past half long. Took me a game or so to realize I do not need to flip that serve (although I DID flip it decently high percentage).
I would stay loose, use a 6-8 inch stroke, and heavy spin the ball high arching to his BH, he would BH punch, and ball goes out 6-10 feet. Player would after the miss do a shadow stroke trying to press downward, much like giving the ball CPR. He kept serving long, I would keep looping it BH slow heavy high arch, he would keep punching the ball out with ever downward force, but still out. I would serve varied, get pushes into net, get long pushes to powerloop or spin heavy. I made more mistakes in Game 1 or 2 and lost one game, but overall, was still in control and won 3-1 very easily.
Guy's coach was telling Sergey "How does he get that spin without Chinese rubber?" That coach who defeated me in finals uses H3 hehe. His side and side top short was tough, but I flipped it where I could, and he punished, I pushed heavy, he pushed back, but SIDEsSPIN !!!Tough ball. I stepped in and flipped some of his short returns, but he was ready. I finally figured it out in game 3 and took charge really strong and got my chance to use every Korean Cho slogan ever made, but guy adjusted game 4 and suddenly had great short touch when I expected a long ball. He wins finals with a score of something like 7, 9, -8, 4.
- I realize I see the ball better once the sun is no longer so strong and making glare in the hall. I see this in many halls I play in now.
Long discussion, but I think it is something tourney players should look at - how they won and lost points and how it affects games and matches, plus ways to adapt to how opponents adapt. It is important to be "Tourney (insert first name), instead of Club (insert first name).
You can see Next Level discuss these kind of things throughout his posts about his play and tourneys, but in a different style of story and analysis. This stuff is needed.
). After a bit of exercise and doing drills, I played the manager of the team (1st in individual stats in polish 4th league, 100% winning matches). Won 4:1 
