March 11, 2010
The U.S. Recession Fighter Open
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By Mark Nordby (El Paso Coach) |
We called this the US Recession Fighter Open and made every event $5 to help promote the sport. Try to remember what year you last paid $5 for one event? My best guess was in the 80’s!!!
Now for a brief rundown of the highlights:
In the Open, Bernardo “Pretty Boy” Escoto (EP-1992) again proved he was just barely the best in the area, losing a fairly close match to Greg “Loopin” Castillo (from NM 1982 who has recently returned to competition) and then coming all the way back thru the losers bracket to narrowly defeat Robert “Free-Swingin” Compton (EP-1850), Landry “Silent Assassin” Nfonsam (NM-1992) and then Greg and then still needed to defeat Stefan Russ(EP-1962) twice in a row. 3 out of those 5 matches he won “all in a row” were tight 5 gamers. Mr. Compton (long-time high-level EP player) had a rough day losing several close matches due to some poorly timed freaky nets and edges. Martin Sevcik (NM) had a very good showing in his first US tourney defeating Michael “The Chameleon” Gopin(1870) twice in close matches.
In the U-1950, Marcus “Runnin man” Gritzner (Germany/EP-1800) had a very solid day winning all the close ones (3 out of 4 of his wins were 5 gamers) and showing off his newly acquired looping style. Ed “Steady” Roche (NM-1830) lost two tough 5 gamers to 2nd place finisher Robert Compton.
In the U-1700, Juan “Sweet” Molina (EP-1600) defeated Alex “Fundamentally sound” Guima(Ep-1575) twice in a showcase of great looping and blocking. Both of these players were 900-1100 8 months ago, but with training/coaching are rising quickly and giving our established local 1800+ players a run for their money.
In the U-1350, Juan “Rizin” Gonzalez(EP-1133) dominated after he relaxed and started trusting his new developing strokes.
In the U-1000, Johnny “Dynamic“ Gagas(EP) got on a roll defeating up-and-comer Luc “The Professor” Longpre(EP) twice. We need to mention Neil “Ironman” Naputo(EP) who showed off his continuing good form while playing 19 singles matches and 2 doubles matches today (Very Impressive!). And last, but certainly not least our U-750 and Recreational divisions where we saw 10 new USATT players slugging it out. Pramod Mogallapu(NM) rose to the top with Sean Ko(EP) and Gustavo Martinez(EP) close behind.
The U3000 doubles was won by Marcus/Jeffrey Warber JR(EP) in the most impressive manner. They lose in 5 in their 1st tough match to pre-tourney favorites Bernardo/John G and then have to battle back late at night to win 5 straight matches including two 3 gamers with Bernardo and John in the finals. We all assumed Marcus would play solid, but the wildcard was Jeffrey(12 yrs old) who played so much “SMARTER” than he normally has in the past keeping the ball in play if he was in trouble or going for nice safe spinny loops instead of trying to smack-a-whack winners all the time.
In closing, It was a very busy day of high-level play in a really beautiful little facility provided through the generosity of local El Paso attorney Michael Gopin. Also, a sincere THANK YOU to Butterfly for providing all the Gift Certificates for our winners. One last shout-out to John Gagas, Luc Longpre and Jeff Warber Sr. for their help before/during/and after the tourney!
Mark Nordby (El Paso Coach)
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