Saipan finally beats Tinian in ping-pong

Saipan could finally boast that it has the best table tennis players in the Commonwealth after a six-man delegation from the Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association beat their counterparts from Tinian during the 7th CNMI Goodwill Table Tennis Tournament held at Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino over the weekend.

Playing at the elegant and spacious TDHC ballroom, MATTA players Su Yong Dong, Budhi Gurung, Chen Lin Ying, Con Pobre, and Steven Lim took 19 of 36 games from Tinian’s finest—Luke Lu, Charlie Cheng, Liang Wei Bin, Robin Lu, Bright Liu, and Alfred Yue—to bring home the goodwill championship cup for the first time in seven tries.

Lim, who serves as president and playing coach of the delegation, said he is happy that his players finally had gotten the monkey off their back and at the same time praised Tinian players for being gracious in defeat.

“It’s a relief, a boost to the players on this island. I guess success is a universal motivator. It is the result that made the previous six losses worth the hardship, although I believe we’re dedicated enough that it didn’t matter how many consecutive losses we would have, we’d keep trying, simply because the nature of the tournament is truly friendly, and the participants all get along very well,” he said.

Su went undefeated in six games to lead the Saipan juggernaut. Su then beat Tinian No. 1 Luke Lu surprisingly in straight sets. He defeated No. 2 Charlie Cheng and No. 3 Liang Wei Bin in four sets and swept Robin Lu, Bright Liu, and Alfred Yue.

Gurung was Saipan’s second-best player during the tournament after registering a 4-2 record. He beat Cheng in five hard-fought sets, Alfred Yue and Robin Lu in three sets and then clinched the championship for MATTA with an 11-3, 11-4, 11-9 victory over Liu.

Lim said if Gurung had lost the 36th and final game of the tournament, Saipan and Tinian would have finished tied with 18 won games each.

Chen, Saipan’s erstwhile No. 2 player, wound up with a 3-3 record in the competition, the same win-loss standing churned out by the island’s No. 4 and No. 5 players Mario Espeleta and Con Pobre.

Chen beat Yue, Liang, and Liu, but dropped his matches against the Lu brothers and Cheng. Espeleta and Pobre were revelations in the tournament with the latter shocking Robin Lu and beating Liu and Yue and the former upsetting Liang and Robin Lu and defeating Yue.

Lim was winless in six matches after being inactive for several months, but it hardly mattered as his teammates had his back the entire tournament.

Luke Lu was the best performer from Tinian after going 5-1, Cheng was 4-2 and took third place overall after nosing out Gurung in a tiebreaker. Liang (3-3), Robin Lu (2-4), Bright Liu (2-4), and Alfred Yue (1-5) make up the rest of the Tinian contingent.

After the formal round-robin goodwill tournament, an informal doubles event was held. Six players from each side formed three pairs with the tandem of Luke Lu and Cheng taking top honors.