(by Steve Hopkins)

Sharon Alguetti finished first in the 2022 US National Team Trials Men’s Singles event and Amy Wang won the Women’s Singles event.  There is a changing of the guards occurring at the top of American table tennis with the next generation of players pushing forward.

Entering the Trials, Jishan Liang was the top seed (2705), Nikhil Kumar was second (2688), and Sharon Alguetti was third (2685).  All three did finish in the Top Four, but it was Sharon who finished first.  In group play (State 2 after the qualifiers), Sharon Alguetti and Kai Zhang each finished 7-0 in their groups, and Kumar and Liang each finished second in the groups at 6-1. The Top 8 players then advanced to a single group for State 3.  Sharon again finished 7-0, easily securing the top spot.  Second place went to Jishan Liang who lost to Sharon and to Kai Zhang.  That left three players tied with 4-3 scores: Nikhil Kumar, Gal Alguetti, and Kai Zhang.  The Final four is Sharon Alguetti, Jishan Liang, Kumar Nikhil, and Gal Alguetti.

In Women’s Singles, Amy Wang entered as the top seed, and she finished first tied with the best record (13-1).  The second player with the 13-1 record was Sarah Jalli.  Jalli finished the round robin Second State 7-0  and then was a part of a three way tie for (with 6-1) at the top of the Final Stage.  Amy Wang, Sarah Jalli, and Rachel Sung finished in that order – each finishing the third stage with one loss (Amy lost to Rachel, Rachel lost to Sarah, and Sarah lost to Amy).   Fourth place went to Sally Moyland who finished 4-3.

The other results of the Trials included Nandan Naresh leading U19 Boys Stage 2, Sally Moyland leading U19 Girls Stage 2, Daniel Tran winning U15 Boys, Sally Moyland winning U15 Girls, Winston Wu winning U13 Boys, Aria Shi winning U13 Girls, Kyler Chen winning U11 Boys, Abigail Yu winning U11 Girls.  Full Trials Results can be found at Omnipong.

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