T&T’s Sherdon Pierre had to settle for the third spot when the 2021 Under-2000 (Third Division) April Open Table Tennis Tournament at Princeton Pong in New Jersey, USA on Saturday.
With a spot in the final at stake, Pierre suffered his first loss on the day, falling to Allan Anzagira 9-11, 8-11, 9-11 in their semifinal.
Pierre had earlier defeated Brice Schiegel 7-11, 12-10, 11-8,11-4 in his quarterfinal contest.
The tournament was won by Aregbesola Nimotolai who topped Anzagira 4-11, 11-2, 5-11, 11-2, 11-9.
Nimotolai defeated Larry Bevly 11-6, 11-5, 11-7 in the quarterfinals and Danny Wan 13-11, 13-11, 11-7 in the last four.
Wang outplayed Vasili Smaliak 6-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-7 and Anzagira stopped Igor Gleyzer 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 in the two other quarterfinals.
When the competition served off earlier on Saturday, the 30-year-old Pierre, the president of the club, D’Abadie Youths topped in five-player round-robin series with an impressive 4-0 record after victories against Smaliak (3-0), Aria Shi (3-1), Justin Wang (3-1), and Bob Leming (3-0).
Last month, Pierre, defeated Wan 11-8, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7 in the best-of-five Westchester March 2021 Little Open Table Tennis Single Elimination Under-2000 (Third Division) Tournament title in Pleasantville, New York.
Pierre won his three round-robin group matches all by 3-0 margins to advance to the knockout draw.
And in the main draw, he was handed a round-of-32 before he outplayed Rosine Dongo 11-8, 14-12, 12-14, 11-4 in the round-of-16, followed by victories over Adeel Raijput in the quarterfinals 11-7, 11-9, 11-6, and Amir Khan, 9-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-5, 11-9 in the final-four match.
Wan reached the championship match beating Andrew Bui 11-2, 11-6, 11-2; Marco Makkar 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8 and Max Kogler, 11-6, 10-12, 12-10, 11-5.