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Chicago, July 2, 2010
The stage is set for WH Trading's First Annual Ping Pong Tournament Final to be played on July 16th at its company headquarters at 125 S Wacker Drive. After months of elimination round play, the field has been pared to Andrew Wernick, a former tennis player from the east coast and Oludamilola "Dami" Amurawaiye, a former D-1 hockey player at Brown University from Toronto. The following is a brief recap of the rounds leading up to the final.
ELITE 8
In what might be considered an indication of the demise of old school, hard hitting, basement style ping pong, Bewick, JABR and RIG were all taken out by their younger opponents; they with the crazy spin serves and imported from China ping pong paddles. A sad day for the sport's traditionalists, but one we will graciously call evolution. Indeed, this was not 1980, was not contested in Lake Placid and there were no miracles on this day.
In the final, most anticipated match of this round, David Newman and Andrew Wernick played a nearly slow-motion match, each seemingly afraid to make a mistake. Paralyzed by some element of fear or intimidation, Newman abandoned the backhand smash strategy that got him to the round of 8 and conservatively played himself out of the touranment. Disappointing at best, but Dave just completed a weekend long physical, mental and emotional endurance test in Southern California; the sole purpose of which was improving his ping pong game for the 2011 tournament. "Kokoro ('unbeatable spirit' in Japanese) camps train athletes and warriors to be leaders and victors and that is what I intend to be next year" commented Newman after his defeat.
FINAL FOUR
Which left four players standing: Andrew Wernick vs Brent Stafford and the heavyweight (metaphorically speaking) matchup of Dami vs Richard Huang.
In the first match, "Staffy's" unorthodox serve proved no match for the Tennis playing-honed skills of Wernick who punched his ticket to the finals in straight sets.
In the latter, which was the first straight up, pick-em match of the tournament, Dami sent Richard packing in convincing fashion. Richard filed a protest after the match alleging the following:
- The new trading desk construction around the ping pong table ruined my concentration
- I was tired. I should not have played then; I knew I wasn't ready
- People kept talking during the match
- I was dizzy from writing some complicated code that day
However, the judges ruled that the match was fair and so Richard, like the Cubs for over 100 years, will have next year to look forward to.
FINAL MATCH PREVIEW
The Dami vs Wernick final has the odds setters in Vegas scratching their collective head. Without a lot of one on one history between the two, the Vegas experts charged with setting the early line are left to weigh the prospects of a D-1 hockey player from Canada against a long time tennis player from the East coast. A classic battle of general athleticism vs paddle-sport specific ability. The only certainty seems to be that the match will be intense. In an office environment like WH Trading's, the bragging rights associated with a sports title are virtually priceless.
Godspeed, Dami and Andrew. |