Locals Shine in Rocky Open - Part 1 of Rocky Open Recap

Some excellent table tennis was on display at the annual Rockhampton Open Table Tennis Championships over the weekend and the city’s leading players figured prominently in the Chauvel Industrial Services open and ratings events as well the Bolsover Radiology age-events that covered ages from under-11 years through to over-75.

The premier men’s open singles went to local Rayden Smith, who was second seed, over the favourite and club-mate Matthew Pettett in a great five-set battle that the second seeded Smith won by a few points in the decider. The semi-finals were just as impressive when Smith beat the fourth seeded former local Jerrod Thomson, who now hails from the Moreton Bay Club, in a classic encounter and Pettett recovered from a leg injury during the match to upstage Bundaberg’s Brett Fourro on the other side of the draw. Fourro occupied the third seeded position but proved to be no match for Pettett even though the city’s reigning singles champion had to take an injury time-out after the second set.

In another triumph for the city’s club Ann-Louise Stewart took out the prestigious women’s open singles from a field that had a lot of players of similar standard. All entrants took part in round-robins in the early rounds and Stewart emerged from her section in the top position to take on Bundaberg’s top fancy in Lorraine Fourro who had earlier scored a very skinny win over Brisbane’s youngster Fernanda Yu over five long sets to qualify. In the final Stewart proved to be too good for Tasmania’s Irina Sakova who attended this tournament for the first time.

Finalists in the men’s singles, Pettett and Smith, combined to take out the men’s open doubles title over Jerrod Thomson (Moreton Bay) and Bundaberg’s John Fourro in a good final where the victors just covered the court in all aspects.

On her way to capping off a great tournament Stewart partnered fellow local Pam Clarke to win the women’s doubles over Lorraine Fourro (Bundy) and Rocky’s Monica Deeth, who also took part in many good clashes over the weekend including a near miss when pitted against Tasmaia’s Sakova in her major singles assignment. Pettett and Stewart confirmed favouritism in the mixed open doubles when they prevailed over the second seeded local pairing of Rayden Smith and Pam Clarke in a straight sets result.

The series of ratings events that are based on a computer-based performance system produced some very high-quality encounters and the events staged over the weekend meant that only Matthew Pettett did not qualify to enter due to his current rating.

In the top division Jerrod Thomson (Moreton Bay) excelled and produced a solid win over Brett Fourro (Bundaberg) in the final after some good victories in the earlier rounds that included a close win over Rayden Smith in the semis.                

Mackay’s Michael Ruhl emerged from a massive field in the second division to post a victory over Rocky’s Jakob Baker in an entertaining final. In the semis Ruhl beat his club-mate Trent Day while Baker prevailed over Glen McDonald, also from Rocky. Locals James O’Sullivan and Dave Hockings won the doubles comp in this category over Mackay’s emerging younger players in Yi Lin Jiang and Trent Day.   

The third section was another hotly contested event and promising Brisbane junior girl Fernanda Yu emerged the victor over a strong male dominated field to produce an impressive victory. In the final she outclassed Rocky’s Dave Milverton after cleaning up another local hopeful Oliver Wright in the semis. Milverton prevailed over club-mate Julien Wright in the other semi whilst the Wright brothers won the doubles event in this category over fellow locals Sajan Baral and Hilton Kane.

Sub-junior Dzidzor Gavua from the Moreton Bay Club did well in the junior events and also won the singles contest in fourth division over his older brother Yayra, who also appears to have a great future in the sport.