[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]There have been some major international tournaments in the world recently, especially for the continents such as the European Championships, Asian Cup, and the Pan Am Championships.
In the European Championships, the German team led by Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll, won the men’s team event. Romania won the women’s team event.
Both Ovtcharov and Boll are two of the most accomplished European players of all-time. Ovtcharov has 4 Olympic medals which is the most of any European player in table-tennis history and Boll has 6 European Men’s Singles titles which is also the most all-time. I was able to play Dimitrij Ovtcharov at the 2013 LA Open and lost 3-1 and was satisfied winning one game as he beat all the Chinese players in the tournament in straight games. I was up 10-5 in the second game and started thinking, “I’m about to win a game against Dimitrij Ovtcharov!”. At 10-7, he probably started thinking, “I’m about to lose a game to an American player” so he missed his serve! Here are the first 2 game against Ovtcharov: Game 1 | Game 2
In the Asian Cup, it was held in my city of birth, Ahmedabad, India where I spent the first 6 years of my life before moving to Fremont. This is the first time a major international table-tennis event has been held there. Lefty Lin Gaoyuan of China defeated teammate Fan Zhendong to win the men’s title. Lin is becoming one of my favorite players to watch as he is often ripping everything smoothly from both wings. China fielded both women’s finalists as well with Zhu Yuling defeating Liu Shiwen in a close 4-3 final.
The Pan American Championships featured an all-Brazil final with Hugo Calderano defeating Thiago Monteiro in the men’s final. Monteiro is my best international tournament win as I defeated him at the 1999 Swedish Open World Tour when I was training full-time in Sweden in preparation for the 2000 Olympic Trials. I knew he had defeated some of the top North American Olympians and Olympic contenders earlier in the year at the 1999 Pan Am Games so that was a critical test for me. Calderano had the home Rio crowd going nuts at the 2016 Olympics in his run to the final 16 where he nearly defeated eventual bronze medalist Jun Mizutani of Japan. Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico, who won the 2016 US Open women’s singles title, won the women’s Pan Am title.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
