In the dog-eat-dog world of table tennis, an individual sport usually played without the support of a team, traveling to compete in international tournaments can be a lonely endeavor. Thus, it would generally be a welcome surprise to find a friendly, familiar face in a foreign country. These feelings would be somewhat complicated, however, if you encountered said friend across the table at a single-elimination tournament. Such was the case yesterday for Kanak Jha of the USA and Romania's Cristian Pletea. It was not the first time the two had crossed paths, nor crossed swords. Both played in the 2016 youth Olympics, where Jha claimed bronze. As of late, they have been training together in Europe. Their latest showdown was in the Czech Republic, where the city of Olomouc is playing host to the 2019 ITTF World Tour Czech Open. Kanak Jha was the lone American in the crowded draw of 168 women and 230 men. With only 16 seeded players in each competition, the abundance of aspiring qualifiers meant that the usual qualifying round-robin groups would be replaced by knockout brackets. Thus, from day one it is win or go home for every player in every match. It was in this unforgiving crucible that world #33 Jha and his pal Pletea, world #115, met on Tuesday, August 20. As these 19-year-olds squared off, it was Pletea who claimed the early advantage, winning the first two games. Jha stormed back to win the next three games and put his friend on notice. Apparently Pletea got the message, securing the equalizer in game six to set up a winner-take-all game seven. Although Jha led 9-7, Pletea came back to tie it at deuce and rode the momentum to a thrilling victory, (11-7, 11-9, 5-11, 9-11, 7-11, 11-6, 12-10). “We are very close friends and we sometimes practice against each other in Germany,” said Pletea after the epic match. “It was a pleasure for me to play against him... It was really hard — I was 7-9 down but I stayed calm and it helped me a lot.” While Jha is left to wonder what could have been, Pletea is on to the next round where he faces Japan's Koyo Kanamitsu. Pletea will be keen to avenge his frequent doubles partner Hunor Szocs, who fell by Kanamitsu's blade the previous round. After all, what are friends for?

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