Representing Farmington Table Tennis Club at the 2018 US Open in Orlando

This past week was the US Open in Orlando Florida.  There were nearly 600 players from all over the world that participated. One week of table tennis spanning dozens of events.

There were four Utah players that competed:

Wayne (Volunteer), Viorel, Adam, Ruslan, Gordon, Austin (Observer)

• Ruslan Woodward
• Adam Davis
• Viorel Onofrei
• and myself (Gordon Gridley)

This was the first tournament where a majority of my events were hardbat events. The format for the tournament was different this time than years past.  It made for fewer conflicts (double booked match times). 

I played in the the following events:

• Men's Singles
• Under 1800 Hardbat - Semifinalist
• Under 2100 Hardbat - Finalist
• Over 40 Hardbat - Semifinalist
• Hardbat Doubles - Semifinalist
• Men's Doubles

The hardbat play was dominated by a handful of players:

• Dan Seemiller Jr who won the Under 2100 hardbat event and finalist in the Men's Hardbat Singles.
• Ryan "The nightmare" Gibson - Champion of the Men's Hardbat singles.  That match was awesome to witness.
• Lidney Castro - This was his first hardbat tournament and based on his rating alone was the favorite. (2529) - He was a semifinalist in the Men's hardbat singles.

It was a fantastic week of play and it was great fun!