2016-03-17Staff Report 2 Windhoek This year’s Liebherr Masters Cup, hosted by the Namibian Table Tennis Association (NTTA) last Saturday, was a huge success. The overall standard of play met the high expectations and the games between Namibia’s top-eight ranked senior players had hundreds of people in Windhoek’s Wernhil Shopping Centre in awe throughout the day. Most people stopped on their way through the mall to catch a glimpse of the senior and junior players in action. Liebherr Namibia was the official sponsor and for the 5th consecutive year the NTTA Masters Cup was a winner. “With Namibia’s top-eight players battling it out to win the cup, this tournament is always a test of sportsmanship and technique as the space is small and there is also the added hype from the crowd in the Wernhil Shopping Centre,” NTTA president Ramon Hansen said. The Masters Cup is a promotional event, aiming at generating an interest in the sport. The NTTA included a number of exhibition games to showcase table tennis and there was massive interest and awareness-raising especially among prospective junior players. The NTTA-registered junior talent thus had the opportunity to display their skills in front of a huge crowd at the shopping centre. Exhibition matches included junior boys and ladies’ acts as well as a number of skill-specific acts. As per NTTA rules and regulations, the eight best placed senior players of the previous season went head to head to determine the Masters Cup champion for 2016. The games were played in a three-game must win system, the winner being determined by the highest number of games won. Rudi Saunderson, the current Namibian national singles champion, managed to outclass his rivals with top earnings of 16 out of a possible 21 points. Saunderson had a difficult start, losing to Heiko Fleidl in only his third match. However, his consistency paid off as he then kept an unbeaten string, winning seven of his eight matches on the day and in the process earning the most points, a mere one point more than the defending champion Heiko Fleidl. Second place went to Fleidl (SKW TT Club) and the current number one ranked player managed 15 points, one point more than 3rd placed SKW club teammate Reinolt Schurz who was closely followed by Wayne Green (SKW TT Club) in 4th place. Other participants were Derrick Rooza from Walvis Bay, Fabian Fait (Hochland Acers), Roger Beukes (Eliminators) and the number one ranked junior Ronaldo Vogel. Anyone interested in taking up table tennis may contact the NTTA as soon as possible. This can be done via their website, http://namtta.leaguerepublic.com/, via email info.ntta@gmail.com or Facebook. The next tournament is the season opener scheduled to take place on April 2 in Windhoek. All tourney dates are available on the NTTA website/Facebook page. 2016-03-17Staff Report 2
