2024 USA Olympic Team Trial, 3/21-3/24

[pongfugrasshopper]

Live stream for this can be found at USATT's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@USATableTennis
Schedule/Info can be found at: https://www.usatt.org/news/2024/mar...-table-tennis-participant-and-spectator-guide
Omnipong results page: https://www.omnipong.com/T-tourney.asp?t=103&r=3588

The women have qualifited a full team, and Lily with the highest world ranking will represent in singles. Two spots remain.
The men did not qualify a team. Top two men here will go onto Pan Am Regional qualifier for Singles.

 

[Jslick89]

when does Khanak play?!

 

[NextLevel]

when does Khanak play?!

Depends on what the format is - they usually have lots of prelims for the people who cannot get in by ranking. But the seeds keep going through knockouts. But they have had other formats.

 

[Gtsnake]

From what I've seen so far the umps are pretty liberal with the illegal serves. Lot's of tosses that are horizontal and low.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Kanak Jha looked great in his 1st match. He beat Dan Liu, who is 2600 level and plays in MLTT, with scores of 2,5,6,10. He had 3 game points against him in game 4, but won 5 points in a row with solid, clean strokes which he's always had, but now with a bit of extra power.

Already, both Amy and Rachel are being pushed to the max 7 games by Angie Tan and Kayla Goodwin respectively.

 

[OvrChkn]

I'm half tempted to travel there, but it doesn't seem like there may not be enough matches tomorrow to justify it. Wish it was in a bigger city, so I can have some downtime on the side haha.

 

[kindof99]

From what I've seen so far the umps are pretty liberal with the illegal serves. Lot's of tosses that are horizontal and low.

I watched the ML occasionally, and I found a lot of players serve illegally as well.

 

[Gtsnake]

I watched the ML occasionally, and I found a lot of players serve illegally as well.

For some reason that ump with Kanak just didn't like his serve. Although he did complain about another player too not just Kanak.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

I don't see anyone beating Kanak.

On the women's side a lot of up and coming young players making waves: Kayla Goodwin pushing Rachel Sung to 7, Tiffany Ke *beating* Rachel Sung, and Hannah Song only rated 2167 but beating Emily Tan 2343 and Jessica Reyes-Lai 2370.

 

[NextLevel]

I don't see anyone beating Kanak.

On the women's side a lot of up and coming young players making waves: Kayla Goodwin pushing Rachel Sung to 7, Tiffany Ke *beating* Rachel Sung, and Hannah Song only rated 2167 but beating Emily Tan 2343 and Jessica Reyes-Lai 2370.

A lot will depend on how the knockouts get structured, it will be a miracle if anyone other than Amy and Sally/Rachel make it.

On the men's side, Kanak and Nikhil are usually too far ahead of everyone else, especially since the Alguettis retired. That should continue here.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

A lot will depend on how the knockouts get structured, it will be a miracle if anyone other than Amy and Sally/Rachel make it.

On the men's side, Kanak and Nikhil are usually too far ahead of everyone else, especially since the Alguettis retired. That should continue here.

I mentioned in the live chat how impressed I was with Tiffany's game. It's no accident she beat a 2500 level player at 6,6,5,-5,6. Someone in the chat said she was her sister (not sure if she meant literally), that Tiffany had been training in China, and that she was so proud of Tiffany. She said Tiffany's biggest hurdle will be mental. All I can say is I was left shocked after her match with Rachel. Tiffany was easily the better player. Can she keep this up with the pressure of single elimination of the Olympic trials? We shall see. In any case, her upside is huge.

Here's her match with Rachel:

 

[NextLevel]

I mentioned in the live chat how impressed I was with Tiffany's game. It's no accident she beat a 2500 level player at 6,6,5,-5,6. Someone in the chat said she was her sister (not sure if she meant literally), that Tiffany had been training in China, and that she was so proud of Tiffany. She said Tiffany's biggest hurdle will be mental. All I can say is I was left shocked after her match with Rachel. Tiffany was easily the better player. Can she keep this up with the pressure of single elimination of the Olympic trials? We shall see. In any case, her upside is huge.

Here's her match with Rachel:

I played Tiffany when she was really really young. I suspect she is the only member of her family still playing. Not sure of that person was a sister, the person I remembered as her sister used to be called Princess. Regardless, she has come a long way.

 

[OvrChkn]

Knockout Brackets: Men https://www.omnipong.com/T-tourney.asp?t=112&r=3588&ev=4&st=4
Women: https://www.omnipong.com/T-tourney.asp?t=112&r=3588&ev=5&st=5

Schedule For Today:

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Top 2 players from combined placement of today and tomorrow get to play Pan Am Singles Qualification Tournament.. Here's today's finals match between Kanak Jha and Jishan Liang for today's 1st/2nd place:

 

[NextLevel]

Today was interesting. Kanak won a thrilling game over Jishan Liang, Jishan showed me a level of TT that maybe he had reached in some victories over European players but which I was skeptical he was routinely capable of. His backhand play overall in the match was the best I had ever seen him execute, all things considered, and if he can regularly be aggressive with his backhand when countering, his level will take a jump.

Amy Wang was a class above everyone else. Rachel's early loss to Tiffany Ke prevented her from getting Sally in the SF, so unless she could beat Amy she was stuck with the 3rd place at best. She did avenge her loss to Tiffany to keep her hopes alive. She will need to get to and win her matchup with Sally tomorrow to be in a good place.

Nikhil lost a nail biter to Jishan and tomorrow will be his chance at vengeance and I think he is well placed to execute again unless there is some new randomness infused into the draw. Of course, he will need to meet and beat Jishan.

Looks like a fun day of TT is ahead for tomorrow. Was addicted to the screen for all the matches today.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Final day, currently as I type JIshan vs. Nikhil:

 

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