2002 Texas Top Ten Invitational
(& Farewell to the HTTC)

Qualifying was fierce on Friday night.  Here Byles plays Oshodi.

April 2002 will see the closing of the Houston Table Tennis Center.  It will not mean the end of table tennis in Houston or of the Houston Table Tennis Association, or the Houston Table Tennis Association, Inc. (two different entities).  As a fitting closure to the building, the first Texas Top Ten Invitational was staged there, April 20th.

This event invited the top 8 rated players in Texas to compete for $1000 in prize money.  Additionally, 2 qualifiers from a preliminary tournament (held Friday April 19th) join the field.  7 players entered the qualifying.  Roberto Byles 2167, Taju Oshodi 2350, Henry Chan 2218, Howard Lamb 2239, Randy Hou 2101, K.C. Huang 1807 & Hector Bennet 2306.  Qualifying was best of 5 games to 11 points.

The qualifiers joined the Texas top rated:
Eric Owens2678 (US National Champion), Jim Butler 2610 (1996 Olympian), Razvan Cretu 2572 (1999 US Team Member), Darko Rop 2560 (1998 US Team Member), Viktor Subonj 2548 (Yugoslavian Jr. Team Member), Niraj Oak 2450 (Indian Team Member), Jasna Reed 2414 (2000 Olympian), & David Wang 2365
for Saturday's competition.

Eric proved he was not only the best in the US, but the best in Texas, too!  He went undefeated on his quest to seize top prize money and bragging rights.  This was a fitting ending to the HTTC.  Taken over by fencers, the building will stay a sports facility.  Most likely it may be renamed the Houston Fencing Center.  Next Sunday, the HTTA will remove the tables and barriers and transfer them to their new facility.  Table Tennis goes on in Houston.

The double round robins produced a couple of upsets.  All matches were best 4 out of 7 with games to 11.  First to succumb to an upset was Darko Rop.  Niraj Oak played at his absolute best, rivaling his play when he won the under 2500s at the 1998 US Open.  This loss was a critical one as it gave the RR tie breaker to Niraj, knocking Darko out of the finals round robin.  Darko nonetheless felt he had a good tournament.  "You'll have plenty of chances to see me play", he said. "I'll be playing a lot more tournaments now."

The next upset came when #2 seed and 3 time National Champion, Jim Butler fell to Viktor Subonj.  Viktor had just fallen to Owens.  Disappointingly, Razvan Cretu and Jasna Reed were unable to make it down from Dallas to compete.  Their places were taken by the numbers 3 and 4 qualifiers from Friday night.

Eric also polished off Niraj 4 straight and then was left with a final match against Butler.  If Butler won, it would create a three way tie, a tie which would have put him first.  After dropping the first game, Eric upped his level of play to convincingly take the second.  They traded the next two to stay even.  In the fifth game, Owens benefited from consecutive, net, edge, net, winners.  This seemed the signs of fate as he played out that game and the sixth to win 4-2 and go undefeated.

What a great event!  Spectators were talking about how they could hardly wait for the next Texas Top Ten!
 

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