Some excellent matches were witnessed at the annual Rockhampton Open Table Tennis
Championships staged at the Leichhardt Park playing centre on Campbell Street over the
weekend. Players from clubs from across the state converged on the Beef-City, and whilst
entry numbers were not as strong as last year’s excellent effort the standard of play at this
year’s event across all sections was quite impressive.
The Chauvel Industrial Services open events lived up to expectations and the highlight
was when two locals faced off for the spoils in the premier men’s open singles with top
seed Matthew Pettett taking on second favourite Rayden Smith after some solid
encounters by most participants in the draw. Not only did Rocky players make the final,
the semis also featured young locals when recent state youth representative Nick Green
emerged from some tough matches in the round-robin stage to be upstaged by Pettett and
vastly improved junior Judd Carr really impressed to make the top four and despite
playing his shots in the semis Smith ended his impressive run.
The play-off for the gold medal was a classic as is the case when Pettett and Smith
usually take to the court. They started in the club’s junior coaching ranks as youngsters
not all that far apart and have virtually progressed through both the local and state
systems pretty much together and due to this they were regular practice partners for many
years and know each other’s games extremely well. In this outing the humid weather
probably suited Smith more than his opponent who relies heavily on fast top spin plays
with exceptional reflex actions. Pettett consistently hit the ball very hard during this final
and Smith’s returns were exceptionally consistent and accurate and his ability to create
winners off a flat-hit to finish long rallies proved to be quite telling in a clash that he won
11-6, 13-11, 8-11, 3-11, 12-10, 11-9.
The women’s singles saw Gold Coast’s Jeraine Sebastian prevail over an impressive
field. Clare Owen of the Brisbane Association was runner-up while locals Monica Deeth
and Erica Nolan both bowed out of the competition after failing to upstage the visitors.
Through the round-robin competition both Deeth and Nolan failed to unseat either of the
frontrunners despite some valiant efforts.
Smith and Pettett combined well to win the men’s doubles over Nick Green and James
O’Sullivan after both pairs eliminated some reliable competition through the draw.
Monica Deeth teamed with the women’s champion Sebastian to prevail in the women’s
doubles event with Owen and Bundaberg’s Lorraine Fourro as runners-up. The open
mixed doubles final saw Pettett and Owen combine and win the event in an incredible
come-from-behind effort over Smith and Pam Clarke 9-11, 11-5, 7-11, 11-8, 12-10.
The Bolsover Radiology ratings events that were spread across four divisions based on
individual players performances at tournaments were hotly contested. Smith qualified for
the higher category and came up with an impressive victory in the final over Mackay’s
Goncalo Gageiro in a close result. In the semis Smith won over Bundy’s Kane Chantarat
in straight sets while Gageiro narrowly defeated Gregory Mowle, who travelled from
Canberra to represent the ACT Association, 8-11, 13-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-7 in a match
that featured plenty of great rallies.