Major League Table Tennis Finds its Way to Westchester for a Weekend
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
The newest professional sports league made a stop in Westchester last weekend.
Major League Table Tennis (MLTT) scheduled the Westchester Table Tennis Center in Pleasantville as one of its venues last Friday through Sunday, with four of the league’s eight teams playing each other throughout the three-day stop.
For table tennis aficionados, the league is chock full of stars and former Olympians, including Britain’s Liam Pitchford, who’s currently ranked 10th in the world, who signed on to be part of the league. The MLTT is now in its second season.
League CEO Flint Lane, a former competitive player years ago, said he couldn’t figure out why there was never a professional table tennis league in the U.S. when they have been around for generations in Europe and Asia.
“I would say, yes, it’s more popular professionally but from a recreational perspective, it’s popular here,” Lane said. “We in America are unfamiliar with it as a professional sport. We’re a year-and-a-half in; the other leagues (abroad) have been around for decades. We hope that we build this up over time.
“We’re not going to be the NBA or the NFL, but there’s no reason we can’t be as popular as tennis or golf,” Lane continued. “It’s not like rugby or cricket, which most Americans don’t understand. Everybody kind of gets table tennis.”
The league is comprised of two four-team divisions. In the Eastern Division, there’s the Chicago Wind, the Princeton Revolution, the Carolina Gold Rush and the Florida Crocs. Out west, there’s the Bay Area Blasters, the Texas Smash, the Seattle Spinners and the Portland Paddlers.
The top two finishers in each division compete in the playoffs, which is dubbed Championship Weekend, Lane said.
Venues are secured as close as possible to the hosting team’s home base. Last weekend, while playing at the Westchester Table Tennis Center, Princeton was considered the home team and they were accompanied by Texas, Seattle and Florida. Princeton will play again at home later in the season at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., much closer to their home community.
Each team plays over a three-day weekend once a month from September through March, with the title decided in April.
When two teams face off, there are four singles matches playing with the same player playing all three games, one doubles match featuring the same two players for three games each, and a “Golden Game,” which features a rotation of five of a team’s eight players each playing four points.
The singles and doubles matches are played to 11 points while the Golden Game goes to 21 points. Teams receive three points for a win in each match expect for the Golden Game, which is worth six points.
Each team is required to have at least one woman competitor, with one of the singles matches featuring the women players, said Jordan Schlachter, the MLTT’s chief business officer.
For Schlachter, seeing professional table tennis played up close, there is no denying that the players are tremendous athletes, particularly the world-class players and Olympians.
“There’s nothing like seeing it (live) because you understand how good they really are,” Schlachter said. “They’re real athletes. It’s not cornhole. Nothing against people skilled at cornhole. I can’t do that well either.”
Of the 64 players, 25 of them have competed in the Olympics, including Florida’s Matilda Ekholm and Seattle’s Debora Vivarelli, who faced each other when Florida took on Seattle. Vivarelli, who’s from Italy, also plays in a professional league in Europe. She defeated Ekholm in their matchup last week.
Each weekend games are live-streamed on the MLTT YouTube channel. Lane is working on getting a television contract, which would be a major coup for the league.
Lane, who also serves as his league’s official scorer, said he never understood why someone did start this sooner in the U.S.s
“It’s an Olympic sport,” he said. “It’s incredibly popular globally. So we thought, why not us, so we’re here doing it for almost a year-and-a-half now. It’s great athlete, great format.”
For more information on Major League Table Tennis, visit www.mltt.com.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
