Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
For Deepak Gupta, playing ping-pong is something of living out a childhood dream for him.<\/p>\n
Later this month, he\u2019ll be taking that dream to the next level, as he makes his tournament debut at the USA Table Tennis\u2019 Pennsylvania Open in Phoenixville<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never met two people who play the same \u2026 they have a unique style of playing, and every player has strengths and weaknesses, the way they spin the ball, the way they serve,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to playing against more people whom I\u2019ve never met, so that\u2019ll be challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n Gupta, 52, will be among the 40 to 50 players from the region competing in one or more of six events during the June 27 tournament, at Phoenixville Recreation Center.<\/p>\n Ping-pong players will compete in women\u2019s singles, juniors, over 40, the open, or skill-capped events. On the line: cash prizes, trophies, and national ratings points.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the fourth time the Phoenixville Table Tennis Club, established in 2009, is holding a USA Table Tennis tournament, and their second Pennsylvania Open. <\/p>\n \u201cWe do have a lot of lower-level players participating in those events, and one, it gives them the opportunity to win trophy and money, but two, it gives them the opportunity to continue to compete \u2026 and get better in their games,\u201d said Nick Flor, organizer and one of the founders of the Phoenixville club. \u201cSay you come across your archnemesis that you play at the club in the tournament. \u2026 It\u2019s going to give you that drive to learn to beat them, to learn to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n Gupta will be playing in the \u201cunder 1200\u2033 event, for beginner to intermediate players whose \u201crating\u201d is below 1200. A rating represents their skill level, and determines where a player is seeded in an event. Low-level players would be rated around 900 or 1000, while high level players approach 3000, Flor said. As players win matches and tournaments, up goes their rating. The tournament will have several events split by rating level. <\/p>\n Players will also be competing for \u201cranking\u201d points as part of USA Table Tennis\u2019s system. Depending on how many tournaments players win, they earn points. Top point earners are considered for the Olympics<\/a>, or the sport\u2019s World Cup<\/a>. <\/p>\n But aside from rankings, players are drawn to the community the sport has given them. <\/p>\n Serving up community<\/p>\n Gupta loved the game passionately as a child but it faded into the background after high school. Some 30 years later, he started playing against a couple of friends in the basement. He found out about the Phoenixville club, which meets twice a week at the recreation center and hosts a smattering of smaller tournaments, competitions, and support for new players. But it wasn\u2019t enough; he ended up opening his own club in Exton<\/a>, called Exton Table Tennis. <\/p>\n The club is run by friends, for friends, he said. Before he started playing table tennis a few years ago, he had few of them. He met other parents in school groups, but those social interactions were limited to talking about their kids. <\/p>\n \u201cOnce I started playing table with some of the other dads, we started getting to know each other more as individuals and more as friends,\u201d he said, \u201cand then taking that spirit and then expanding it to a community.\u201d<\/p>\n Flor, 53, caught the bug in high school, when he\u2019d play with his friends in the senior lounge. They started playing before and after school. They were \u201cterrible,\u201d Flor recalls. But they kept playing, deciding to enter a tournament. They got crushed and had the experience he\u2019s seen in many players: the shock and awe at the level of gameplay, of technique, and skill it takes. The group began going to a club in Pottstown, getting tutelage from an older gentleman, and eventually opened their own club, he said. <\/p>\n He\u2019s seen the sport change over time, fluctuating in popularity. They see surges around the Olympics, and during the colder months. Marty Supreme drummed up some excitement among players, but didn\u2019t seem to inspire a new generation. (Forrest Gump has probably done more for the sport, he noted.)<\/p>\n A game for all<\/p>\n Flor\u2019s love of ping-pong has seeped into his marriage, as he slowly turned his wife, Janel Flor, into a convert. Now the two are evenly matched. <\/p>\n It\u2019s been a journey for Janel, whose first experience was in the place that makes or breaks anyone\u2019s love of sport: gym class. It put her off table tennis for years. She was supportive of her husband, but felt it was \u201ckind of a dumb sport.\u201d But, ever persistent, he coaxed her into a lesson. About a month later, she felt it sink in and sent the ball exactly where she wanted it to go. She was hooked. <\/p>\n She was not very competitive until she was able to beat Nick. \u201cOnce I could do that,\u201d she said, \u201cI was like, you know what, I actually really like this game.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been her goal to get more women into the game, and to have fun doing it. <\/p>\n \u201cMy goal is always to help build confidence and help get them playing, so that they\u2019re not overthinking everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Janel, 50, will compete in the women\u2019s event in the upcoming tournament, against roughly six others. She has gotten over some of the initial fears of tournament play, but said she still gets butterflies when she steps up to the table. <\/p>\n Despite those butterflies, it\u2019s often an encouraging, but still competitive, game, she said. <\/p>\n For Gupta, it\u2019s a game where people of all ages, genders, and abilities can thrive. The clubs welcome kids, whom they have watched level up over time. <\/p>\n \u201cTable tennis is one game where it evens everything out. It doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have skills, you can become really good, that\u2019s one thing that I really love about this game. \u2026 I think now I\u2019m finally trying to live my childhood dream, and I hope other kids can enjoy the same passion that I had as a child.\u201d<\/p>\n This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer\u2019s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com\/donate<\/a>. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org\/supporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min For Deepak Gupta, playing ping-pong is something of living out a childhood dream…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,97849],"class_list":["post-225324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-phoenixville-table-tennis-pennsylvania-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}