Ball secures South Island men’s titles
Manawatu’s Matthew Ball has claimed the top men’s honours after the South Island table tennis championships ended at Nelson’s Saxton Stadium on Sunday.
Ball took out the open men’s singles crown with a 14-12, 11-6, 11-1, 11-5 win over Canterbury’s Hongyi Li in the final, having beaten Auckland’s Nathan Xu 11-4, 11-6, 11-6, 11-5 in the semifinals. Li had qualified for the final with an 11-6, 11-6, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9 semifinal win over Canterbury’s Ivo Mikulec.
Ball then completed the double by joining his Manawatu team mate Jae Lee for a straight sets 11-8, 11-6, 14-12 win over Canterbury’s Yi-Sien Lin, ranked ninth in New Zealand, and Mikulec in the doubles final.
The Manawatu duo reached the final following an 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8 semifinal win over North Shore’s Yuhan Gao and Manawatu’s Rajitha Samaraweera while the Cantabrians had beaten Stuart Armstrong and Craig Dye, also from Canterbury, 11-9, 11-9, 8-11, 11-5.
Ball is ranked 12th in New Zea- land and was seeded third for the tournament behind Canterbury’s Lin Y-Sien and North Shore’s Gao Yuhan.
The two-day tournament involved 90 players competing over 46 events and 392 matches.
Jenny Hung won the women’s round robin open singles event from her Canterbury team mates Avon Liu and Jiayi Zhou.
Hung and Liu also combined to win the round robin open women’s doubles title, with Liu also picking up wins in the under-18 girls’ singles, doubles and mixed doubles events.
In the hotly-contested under-18 boys’ competition, Canterbury’s Alex Zhou beat Marlborough’s Jae Lee 11-6, 13-11, 12-10 for the singles title before combining with Alex Wilson for an 11-2, 14-12, 11-4 win over Otago’s Rhys Dunbar and Martin Page in the doubles decider.
Nelson’s age group competitors were among the titles with Mark Nalder and Glenda Ferguson dominating the over-60s division.
Nalder beat fellow Nelsonian Stanislav Petrovic 17-15, 9-11, 11-4, 4-11, 11-8 in a tough five-setter to take out the men’s singles title before combining with Wellington’s Malcolm Wong to win the round robin doubles competition.
Ferguson beat Marlborough’s Marian Wood 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 to win the women’s singles crown then fought back from two sets down to win the doubles 4-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-3, 15-13 with fellow Nelsonian Rebecca Nesbitt. Ferguson also won the women’s C singles round robin title from Nesbitt.
Nelson’s Daniel Astle picked up two titles, beating Wellington’s Depak Patel 11-9, 12-10, 11-6 to win the men’s over-40s singles then joining his Nelson team-mate Paul Op den Buysch for an 11-9, 11-8, 10-12, 11-7 win over Canterbury’s Julian Main and Patel in the doubles.