The top seeds were the HTTC's Roberto Byles and a recently resurrected from a 20 year absence, Bruce Smith from San Antonio. Several dozen athletes turned out to compete for the considerable prize money. The Chamber of Commerce even hosted a catered gathering on Saturday evening. There were half a dozen competitors from across the border that made this an international event.
Gabriel Carpizo
topped the Mexican contingent and ended up placing third in a highly competitive
field. The third seed Jacob
DeLeon from San Antoino was upset in the prelims by an up and coming
Oscar
Beristain from Monteray. Jacob then turned around and defeated Roberto
to force a three way tie on his side of the cross-over. It wasn't
enough as
Byles
and Oscar advanced.
On the other side, it was much more predictable as the second and third
seeds moved forward. Roberto
dominated the final matches without losing a game. He added his
title to the doubles
trophy he picked up with
his partner Tere Carranza from McAllen. Since only two teams pre-registered
in the doubles and the rest left themselves to be paired, it was decided
to pair all of the doubles to create the most even teams possible.
Many people commented how much they enjoyed the event the way it was structured. The teams were so even that most of the matches went three games. Eventually 17 teams competed. Second place went to Houston's D.G. VanVooren and Kingsville's Daniel Salinas while third was taken by Corpus Christie'es Doug Wade and Houston's Lawrence Clarke. Rooting for the teams was encouraged.
Another pleasent surprise occurred in the B division which turned out (after the qualifiers and the preliminaries) to be a Houston junior, Niv Regev versus a trio of the Mexican team. Niv managed to come in third. This is quite a step up for him and bodes well for the future.
The facilities
were excellent and the Stiga tables added to the professionalism of the
tournament. Raul
Morin was instrumental in helping to put this event together and umpired
the semis and finals. Sue and Terry hated to have to come back to the big
city so soon, but they did take time
to shop and cross
over the border and soak in some
of the culture on the other side of the
river. The sites are memorable
and colorful. After all what's a trip like this without a few pink
flamingos and a little music?
