2005 Alabama Closed

Hosted by the  
And the North East Alabama Table Tennis (NEATT)

Sponsors:

• BumperNets
•   China Luck
•   Buffalo Rock (Pepsi)
•   Anniston Foot Care
•   Civilian Welfare Fund
•   AFGE #1945

      BumperNets will be selling ...      

... table tennis equipment at the tournament site! Come prepared to shop! BumperNets features Butterfly brand products. Let's support our sponsor!

59 PLAYERS Competed April 23 !

Thelma McCollough sang the National Anthem at the opening ceremonies for the second year in a row. Great job, Thelma!)

See this year's shirt design. Yep, it's purple. Looks good, too!

Read the story of last year's tournament.

There have been visitors to this page!

Countdown to the tournament:       ( days : hours : mins : secs )

Bumper Nets and the NEATT present:

The 2005 Players:

Event Codes:
Tier: 1 or 2 for Main Round Robins
Dbls: Doubles: C = Championship, A = A Doubles
Spec: Special: Sr = Seniors, Jr = Juniors, W = Women

Championship Doubles Pairings:

"A" Doubles Pairings:

Strongest Field Ever?

Some long-time Alabama ping-pongers may remember when Don Gaither was in his prime going head to head with Ralph Kissel, between them winning 19 state singles titles from 1967 through 1987. They were strong but largely dominated the field. Those two decades were punctuated with only two other champions Warren McNeil and Raphael Zambrano.
   There was a strong era after that in the 1990's lead by Keith LaFrance's 8 victories. Keith's 2100+ rating outclassed the field. Still there were able challengers in Don, Ralph, Bill Mobley, and Jack Wise among others.
   But the top of this year's field contains 11 players rated above 1850, with several more bubbling in the hundred points below that. The defending champion Adam Brown is the favorite with a recent strong showing in Cary, NC that pushed his rating up to 2083. Three of the top five seeds already have an Alabama state singles title, while David Landry, the second seed and the only other player rated above 2000, does not have one to his name. Landry is also coming off a strong showing in an even more recent Atlanta tournament. Don't feel bad for him, at 18 he already has 4 state Junior's titles and 2 Open doubles titles. Homer Brown, Adams father, rounds out the top 5. Homer also has missed taking an open title, despite often being the highest rated active player in Alabama in recent years. He did claim the Seniors event in 1999.
   There are more titles sprinkled among the top entrants, four former singles champions (Adam Brown, Ernesto Kawamoto, Jason Denton and Warren McNeil), 7 Doubles Champions (Landry, Kawamoto, Adam Brown, McNeil, Mobley, Chip Patton, and Mike Wetzel). Mobley is the defending Seniors champion. Landry and A. Brown both have Juniors titles and Jane Ng Wang has 3 Women's titles to her credit. Former runners-up in the open singles competion include Landry, Patton, Mobley and Terry Hamilton. Many of these players are currently or recently at their personal best for ratings, like Tommie Dailey and Yi Zhou. Others like Patrick Sullivan and Chuck Outlaw (in orange) are rising quickly and looking for upsets. It should be a wild ride!

The 2004 shirt:

Future Events:

The 2005 Decatur Open is officially scheduled for August 20th, look for entry forms in early July.