Nationals Christchurch

Day One: National Senior Mens Trial.

Congratulations to Yi-Sien Lin who came out on top, with a huge battle between Matt Ball, Craig Dye and Matt Hetherington for the important second and third spots, with them finishing in that order, after countback.

It was the veteran, Craig who was the surprise package, beating Matt Ball and pushing Yi-sien to the wire.

Jonathan Wang came in 5th, ahead of Zhiyang Cheng and Ben Collins.

Senior Trial Results

Day 2 & 3: Senior Teams

Local Success in Nationals TeamsCanterbury won the Kean Shield, beating Auckland 4-3 in a keenly contested mens teams final. Essien Lin, who works at the Canterbury Stadium, capped a very busy week, having already come out on top in the Seniors Mens trial.

The Canterbury team comprised Essien, Mirek Janca, Ivo Mikulec and Jong Eub Han. Auckland fronted with Teng Teng Liu, Craig Dye (who upset Essien Lin), Dean Shu (who had a monumental battle with Essien) and Roger Wang.

The two visiting Korean teams had romped through pool play, losing just one game each, but were ineligible to play the final. This added more meaning to the contest for fifth place, which Waitemata (Victor Pollett, Kelsey Amor and Jae Sung Oh) took 4-2 over a strong Auckland 2 team (Daniel Lowe, Victor Ma, Zhiyang Cheng, Kevin Lin and Allen Zhao). Wellington took seventh place from Manawatu in a tight contest.

B Grade was won convincingly by Waikato (Matt Hetherington, James Harter ,Mark Page and Jonjon Zhao), who beat Canterbury 2 by 4-1. C Grade went to Otago 2.

The Womens final was not affected by overseas entries, and saw Auckland 1 (Lucy Lu, Sunshine Li, Vicky Yang and Hea Youn Choi) comfortably defeat a youthful Auckland 2 (Ruofei Rao, Nai Xin Jiang, Zhiying Cheng and Sarah Sandley), by 4-0. Canterbury (Timea Tapai, Ola Ratka, Jenny Hung and Cath Fogarty) beat Southland (Debbie Garrett, Shelly Neal and draftee Natalie Paterson) 4-2 to take third place.

Day 4 & 5: Open Individuals Events

The visiting Korean squad has proven too strong for New Zealand's best in the Open Mens events in Christchurch.

Won Jin Choi took out the open singles final from Jung Hwa Seo. Teng Teng Liu reached the semi-finals before losing to Jung. The next best performances by kiwis were by Allen Zhao, surprise 4-3 winner over Essien Lin, and Jonjon Zhao, who gained revenge over Ricky Yeung in the round of 16, both making the quarter finals. along with Mirek Janca and Ivo Mikulec.

Other locals making the round of 16 were Victor Ma, Nathan Xu, Matt Hetherington, Dean Shu, Matthew Ball and Jae Sung Oh.

Overall it was pleasing to see strong performances from a number of juniors in the senior event.

The womens event was won, as expected by Tianyi Li - Sunshine, defeating Guiting (Lucy) Lu 4-2 in the final. Lucy had convincingly despatched Man Wang 4-0 in their semi-final, while Timea Tapai unfortunately came up against a rampant Sunshine in the other semi. Quarter-finalists included Armindeep Singh, Hea Yong Choi, Ruofei Rao and Nai Xin Jiang.

The mens doubles was taken out by Seung Jun Lee and Jung Hwa Seo, with 3 Korean pairings making the semis. Matt Hetherington and Ten Teng Liu were the only kiwis making it that far.

The womens doubles were won by the new pairing of Man Wang and Hea Youn Choi, who surprisingly beat Tianyi Li and Lucy Lu 3-2 in a tight final.

Teng Teng Liu and Tianyi combined well to take the mixed doubles comfortably from a busy Essien Lin and Timea Tapai.

In the under 21 event Victor Ma provided a stunning return to his best form in beating Ricky Yeung 3-1 in the final, after beating the giant-killer Allen Zhao. Ricky had earlier beaten the consistent Dean Shu in their semi-final.

Lucy Lu beat Ruofei Rao to take the girls title, with the pair combining to take the doubles also. Lucy made it a hat-trick, winning the mixed doubles with Victor Ma.

The boys under 21 final was a splendid contest with Waitemata's Kelsey Amor and Victor Pollett beating Ricky Yeung and Sean Hanson from Wellington, 3-1.

In the Over 30's final, Essien Lin managed to retain enough energy to beat Craig Dye 3-1 in the final, after both had very busy weeks. He combined with Ben Duffy to take the mens doubles also.

Debbie Garrett beat Mimi Walle to take the womens event, with Cantabrians Mimi and Akiko Goto taking out the doubles. Akiko combined with Gregg Davey to take out the mixed doubles.

Day 6 to 8 Graded and Age Group Events

Nathan Xu, named TTNZ Player of the Year for 2015, added the Under 13 singles title to his long string of victories this year. After dropping the first set against Ivan Zhou, he cleared out 3 sets to 1.

The Under 13 girls final saw yet another battle between Jiayi Zhou and Grace Qin, with the local girl Jiayi prevailing in straight sets.

Nathan and Jiayi combined to take out the mixed doubles, while Nathan and Ivan prevailed in boys doubles, giving Nathan a hat-trick of under-13 titles.

The Counties pairing of Sophia Ying and Sophie Zhang triumphed proudly in the girls doubles.

The under 15s were also won by Nathan Xu, with a surprising 3-0 victory over Jonjon Zhao in the final. Wellingtonian, Hui Ling Vong bested Zhiying Cheng in the girls final.

Zhiying did one better in the mixed doubles, in tandem with fellow Aucklander Kevin Lin, who combined with Nathan to win the boys doubles.

Zhiying also took a second gold, with Zoe Ngo in the girls doubles.

The under 18 boys singles ended with a battle between TTNZ Junior Player of the Year, Dean Shu, and Victor Ma, with Dean triumphing.

In the girls event, Lucy Lu was taken to 4 sets by Ruofei Rao in an all-Auckland final. Victor got his gold meal, pairing with Roger Wang to take the boys doubles from Dean Shu and Kevin Lin.

One of the biggest upsets in the individuals finals came when Zhiying Cheng and Nai Xin Jiang beat Lucy Lu and Ruofei Rao 3-2 in the girls doubles final.

Canterbury Veteran Lyndon White returned to the podium for the umpteenth time in winning the over 45 mens singles, beating Abhay Joshi in the final.

Christine Young took out the over 45 womens title after a tough battle with Anny Li in their round-robin.

Rodney Bygrave and Ebi Kleiser combined to win the over 45 mens doubles, with Christine taking the womens doubles in partnership with Helen Beumelburg.

Christine completed her hat-trick, combining with Paul Kyle in winning the mixed doubles.

Christchurch local, Stuart Armstrong took out the over 55 mens singles, defeating John Fogarty in the final. John's sister, Yvonne won the womens singles. Brother Kevin combined with Murray Hay to take out the mens doubles. However, Dave Scott and Anny Li prevented a Fogarty family sweep, beating John and Yvonne in the mixed final.

The B Grade mens singles was fiercely contested, with a number of fine matches along the way. These included Kevin Lin's fifth set comeback after a stunning burst from Alfred de la Pena, and Jae Lee's 5 set defeat of Nathan Xu. In the final Kelsey Amor beat Kevin in straight sets, after a 5 set battle with Carsten Ruhnke in the semis.

The womens B Grade singles final was another tense contest, with Shelly Neal beating Christine Young 11-9 in the final set.

Lyndon White and Gregg Davey took the mens doubles, while Christine Young and Helen Beumelburg won the womens event.

C Grade saw top seed, Jesse Wilson triumphing, beating TTNZ Most Improved Junior, Tom Henderson, in the final. Losing semi-finalist, Deepak Patel was partnered by Bryan McConnochie in winning the mens doubles.

Tom Henderson went one better in D Grade, beating top seed Jimmy Caunter in the final.

Jimmy did receive Gold from the D doubles, combining with fellow Waikato player, Yau Yang Low.