The USA Table Tennis Pennsylvania Open is coming to Phoenixville this month, with rankings and cash prizes — and community — up for grabs
The tournament will see 40 to 50 players across skill levels compete in six events on June 27. "I’m finally trying to live my childhood dream," one competitor said.
For Deepak Gupta, playing ping-pong is something of living out a childhood dream for him.
Later this month, he’ll be taking that dream to the next level, as he makes his tournament debut at the USA Table Tennis’ Pennsylvania Open in Phoenixville.
“I’ve never met two people who play the same … they have a unique style of playing, and every player has strengths and weaknesses, the way they spin the ball, the way they serve,” he said. “I’m looking forward to playing against more people whom I’ve never met, so that’ll be challenging.”
Gupta, 52, will be among the 40 to 50 players from the region competing in one or more of six events during the June 27 tournament, at Phoenixville Recreation Center.
Ping-pong players will compete in women’s singles, juniors, over 40, the open, or skill-capped events. On the line: cash prizes, trophies, and national ratings points.
It’s the fourth time the Phoenixville Table Tennis Club, established in 2009, is holding a USA Table Tennis tournament, and their second Pennsylvania Open.
“We do have a lot of lower-level players participating in those events, and one, it gives them the opportunity to win trophy and money, but two, it gives them the opportunity to continue to compete … and get better in their games,” said Nick Flor, organizer and one of the founders of the Phoenixville club. “Say you come across your archnemesis that you play at the club in the tournament. … It’s going to give you that drive to learn to beat them, to learn to get better.”
Gupta will be playing in the “under 1200″ event, for beginner to intermediate players whose “rating” is below 1200. A rating represents their skill level, and determines where a player is seeded in an event. Low-level players would be rated around 900 or 1000, while high level players approach 3000, Flor said. As players win matches and tournaments, up goes their rating. The tournament will have several events split by rating level.
Players will also be competing for “ranking” points as part of USA Table Tennis’s system. Depending on how many tournaments players win, they earn points. Top point earners are considered for the Olympics, or the sport’s World Cup.
But aside from rankings, players are drawn to the community the sport has given them.
Serving up community
Gupta loved the game passionately as a child but it faded into the background after high school. Some 30 years later, he started playing against a couple of friends in the basement. He found out about the Phoenixville club, which meets twice a week at the recreation center and hosts a smattering of smaller tournaments, competitions, and support for new players. But it wasn’t enough; he ended up opening his own club in Exton, called Exton Table Tennis.
The club is run by friends, for friends, he said. Before he started playing table tennis a few years ago, he had few of them. He met other parents in school groups, but those social interactions were limited to talking about their kids.
“Once I started playing table with some of the other dads, we started getting to know each other more as individuals and more as friends,” he said, “and then taking that spirit and then expanding it to a community.”
Flor, 53, caught the bug in high school, when he’d play with his friends in the senior lounge. They started playing before and after school. They were “terrible,” Flor recalls. But they kept playing, deciding to enter a tournament. They got crushed and had the experience he’s seen in many players: the shock and awe at the level of gameplay, of technique, and skill it takes. The group began going to a club in Pottstown, getting tutelage from an older gentleman, and eventually opened their own club, he said.
He’s seen the sport change over time, fluctuating in popularity. They see surges around the Olympics, and during the colder months. Marty Supreme drummed up some excitement among players, but didn’t seem to inspire a new generation. (Forrest Gump has probably done more for the sport, he noted.)
A game for all
Flor’s love of ping-pong has seeped into his marriage, as he slowly turned his wife, Janel Flor, into a convert. Now the two are evenly matched.
It’s been a journey for Janel, whose first experience was in the place that makes or breaks anyone’s love of sport: gym class. It put her off table tennis for years. She was supportive of her husband, but felt it was “kind of a dumb sport.” But, ever persistent, he coaxed her into a lesson. About a month later, she felt it sink in and sent the ball exactly where she wanted it to go. She was hooked.
She was not very competitive until she was able to beat Nick. “Once I could do that,” she said, “I was like, you know what, I actually really like this game.”
It’s been her goal to get more women into the game, and to have fun doing it.
“My goal is always to help build confidence and help get them playing, so that they’re not overthinking everything,” she said.
Janel, 50, will compete in the women’s event in the upcoming tournament, against roughly six others. She has gotten over some of the initial fears of tournament play, but said she still gets butterflies when she steps up to the table.
Despite those butterflies, it’s often an encouraging, but still competitive, game, she said.
For Gupta, it’s a game where people of all ages, genders, and abilities can thrive. The clubs welcome kids, whom they have watched level up over time.
“Table tennis is one game where it evens everything out. It doesn’t matter,” he said. “If you have skills, you can become really good, that’s one thing that I really love about this game. … I think now I’m finally trying to live my childhood dream, and I hope other kids can enjoy the same passion that I had as a child.”
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