Dear USATT Members,
Welcome to the 2004 USA Nationals!
For the second year in a row – plus two U.S. Opens – we’ve hired North American Table Tennis to run the Nationals, as they’ve done an excellent job. We still oversee these tournaments – but we bring in the professionals to run them!
With 61 events to choose from, nearly all of the top USA players, and lots of display booths, you should have a great time playing, spectating and shopping. And, of course, there might be a few other things to do in your free time here in Las Vegas!
Besides the obvious spectator’s events – men’s and women’s singles & doubles – there are a number of other "feature" events. There are age events from under 10 to over 80; hardbat events; wheelchair and standing disabled events; and the USA junior (under 18) & cadet (under 16) team trials. Many of the feature matches will be in the arena on Saturday night, starting around 5:00 PM.
During the feature matches, there will be a raffle, with prizes given out to winners. The prizes were donated by Newgy, Paddle Palace and Table Tennis Pioneers.
You are invited to sign up for the Hall of Fame Banquet on Thursday night (Dec. 16) at the Stratosphere Hotel. Info on this is elsewhere in this program. This year’s inductees are players David Sakai, Norbert Van de Walle and Lily Yip. Rufford Harrison is getting the Mark Matthews’ Lifetime Achievement Award. The always colorful Tim Boggan will be Master of Ceremonies.
David Zhuang, Cheng Yinghua, Ilija Lupulesku and Eric Owens have won the last ten men’s singles titles at the USA Nationals, winning 4, 3, 2 and 1 of them, respectively. All four are back, and all four are hungry. Gao Jun had her string of seven straight women’s singles & doubles titles broken last year when she was unable to attend – and last year’s singles champion, Jasna Reed, isn’t about to give up her title easily. Both are back, and both are hungry. See the listing of USA National Champions elsewhere in this program.
This year’s men’s and women’s singles events are also the team trials for the 2005 USA National Team – so competition will be even fiercer than usual.
A special thanks goes to all the staff and officials who are volunteering their time for this event. See the staff listing in this program and take the time to thank them!
The tournament wouldn’t be possible without our sponsors: USATT sponsors Martin-Kilpatrick, Paddle Palace and Table Tennis Pioneers, and USA Nationals sponsors Butterfly, Nittaku and the Las Vegas Convention Center. They have stepped forward for us year after year!
We will both be around throughout much of the tournament, so feel free to see us if you have any questions or just want to talk. Feel free to step forward!
Sincerely,
Sheri Pittman, USATT
President
Doru Gheorghe, USATT Executive Director
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