Teetering on the brink of doom, the team needed a miracle. A young hero heard the call. Last night was the eighth weekly installment of the "Thursday Night Live: T2 Challenge" virtual tournament series. Two of the world's leading table tennis equipment manufacturers, Butterfly and Nittaku, sponsored teams to go head-to-head each week. Beginning in New York's Westchester Table Tennis Center, the tournament made a stop at the Houston International Table Tennis Academy before settling into its current residency at the India Community Center (ICC) in Milpitas, California. Playing in the novel "T2" format, games are sudden death to 11 points while a 24-minute limit inches ever closer like the titular timekeeper in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum." Once the clock expires, play shifts into the ludicrous speed known as "FAST5," wherein each game is sudden death to --you guessed it-- five points. In an effort to promote parity, the loser of each week's match chooses one virtual teammate from the following week's predetermined matchup. Last week, Team Nittaku's Adita Godhwani was dealt an L by US Olympian Lily Zhang, pushing Team Butterfly's advantage to 5-2 in a race to 6. Godhwani then chose fellow up-and-coming ICC player Ved Sheth, as his teammate. Team Nittaku's slim hopes for survival fell on the 14-year-old Sheth's ability to get past 16-year-old Joanna Sung, who, like so many of America's top young players, is also an ICC product. On paper, it could hardly have been any closer. Sung has a USATT rating of 2305, a scant two points higher than Sheth. Sung has 48 sanctioned USATT tournaments under her belt, one less than her junior adversary. Sung has competed in 230 league events, compared to Sheth's 250. You get the idea. The first game reflected this parity. At 10-all, there is no deuce in T2 rules. After a game that saw the score tied more often than not, one single point would determine the winner. At double game point, Sheth served, hoping to catch Sung off guard, as he had earlier in the game, with a fast topspin serve to her backhand. The older, wiser Sung would not be fooled again, however, as she was ready with a step-around forehand to Sheth's backhand corner for a winner. Keeping in the spirit of parity, Sheth then evened up the match with a convincing 11-6 win. Barring highly unlikely circumstances, someone had to win game three. It was Sheth who seized the 2-1 lead with another 11-6 win. In game four, the universe in the form of Joanna Sung had a chance to restore the cosmic balance. As it turned out, however, there are few forces in the universe that can oppose Ved Sheth when he is hot. With a relentless barrage of attacks down the line to Sung's forehand, Sheth notched his third straight 11-6 win for a commanding 3-1 lead. With the parity ruined, Sheth obviated FAST5 with another fast win, 11-7 in the fifth for the match. Commentator and USATT Hall of Famer Sean O'Neill saw strategic similarities between Ved Sheth and another ICC alum, US Olympian Kanak Jha. Noting that Sheth also employs a "Very systematic, great forehand counterattack, we've seen Kanak do that, not only in the US Nationals but also internationally when he's playing for Germany, the ability to take those weaker openings and turn them into offensive opportunities," noted O'Neill. "Ved is playing super at this moment." The promising play of these two talented teens is very good news for the future of the US National Team. For the present, however, Ved Sheth is great news for Team Nittaku.

More at USATT