The Westchester Table Tennis Center December 2018 Open saw a near-record number of players converging from all corners of the globe. The Open Singles final saw veteran Zhiwen He take on millennial challenger Yunhao (Kaden) Xu. Zhiwen He was born in China in 1962. This was during Mao Zedong's so-called "Great Leap Forward," the disastrous attempt at forced infrastructure reform. At the same time, penholder Zhuang Zedong (no relation-- "Zedong" is the given name, not the family name) was dominating global table tennis. Zhiwen He adopted Zhuang's penhold style, although with the left hand, winning bronze in doubles at the 1985 World Championships. He then emigrated to Spain, which he has called home ever since. At the turn of the millennium, he still ranked among the world's top 50 players. This is about when Yunhao (Kaden) Xu enters the story. Born in China in 1999, Xu picked up a paddle at age six, a righty two-winged looper favoring the forehand. In 2012, he was China's Under 14 champion, a feat tantamount to winning the world Under-14 championship. In 2016 Xu was invited to serve as a professional training partner at the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center in Dunellen, New Jersey. Since then, he has become a fixture on the East Coast table tennis scene, winning numerous tournaments. All of this set the stage for an epic showdown at the Westchester Table Tennis Center December 2018 Open. In the semifinals, Kai Zhang went the distance but Kaden Xu prevailed (11-2, 11-6, 9-11, 11-13, 11-6). On the other side of the draw, Zhiwen He accounted for Jian Li in straight sets, (11-9, 11-9, 11-8). So the finals saw 56-year-old Zhiwen He face 19-year-old Kaden Xu, each a quintessential representative of the dominant style of his era. In the end, Xu's powerful loop attacks overcame He's traditional block-and-smash style, (16-14, 12-10, 11-13, 11-7). While youthful energy and modern tactics may have overpowered experience and cunning this time, this tournament was yet another reminder that you can never count the old timers out.

More at USATT