September 7, 2025
(By Steve Hopkins)
The opening weekend of Major League Table Tennis featured six matches at Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, California.
The first two matches were played on Friday – the Texas Smash versus the Bay Area Blasters and the Florida Crocs versus the Portland Paddlers. The Texas Smash won 15-6 over the Blasters, with Hiromitsu Kasahara, Amy Wang, McBeath/Liang, Liang , and Monteiro collectively giving the squad a 9-6 advantage entering the Golden Game. In that Final Game, the Smash topped the Blasters 21-17, giving them the 6 points and extending their overall victory score to 15-6. In the other Friday match, the Portland Paddlers handily defeated the Florida Crocs, with Hampus Nordberg, Kotomi Omoda, Naresh/Kumar, Kang Dong-Soo, and Jens Lundquist had established a 10-5 lead and then after winning the Golden Game extended their lead to 16-5.
In the Saturday matchups, the Florida Crocs topped the Texas Smash 13-8, leaving both teams with one win and one loss. The winning Crocs squad was Daniel Gorak, Peiyu Zhu, Naranjo/Yeh, Marc Duran, and Chihwei Yeh, but the team was down 7-8 and needed the Golden Game in order to secure victory. In that final game, it was a a 21-19 victory – the narrowest of margins securing the 13-8 win. In the other Day 2 matchup, Portland logged a decisive 16-5 victory over the Bay Area Blasters. Kang Dong-Soo, Kotomi Omoda, Kumar/Nordberg, Lundquist, and Nordberg created a 10-5 lead and then won the Golden Game for a combined 16-5 score.
After losing twice, the Bay Area Blasters managed to salvage the weekend with a Sunday 13-8 win over the Florida Crocs. Elsayed Lashin, Ge Chi, Ma/Silva, Ved Shesh, and Jinbao Ma entered the final game down 7-8, but then dominated the Golden Game for the win. And in the final match of the weekend, the Texas Smash gave Portland its first loss with a 16-5 win. McBeath, Wang, Kasahara/Liang, Monteiro, and Kasahara entered the Golden Game up 10-5 and then extended their winning score to 16-5.
At the end of the opening weekend, the Smash and the Paddlers are each 2-1, and the Cros and the Blasters are 1-2. The next MLTT event will be in Charlotte, North Carolina from September 19-21.
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