The 2019 LA Open tournament served as the main attraction at the Ping Pong Fit International Festival, a celebration of all things table tennis. The free extravaganza at the Long Beach Convention Center not only featured world-class talent, including multiple Olympians, but also had interactive, fan-friendly games and a celebrity tournament. One such celeb was actor Jaleel White, best known for playing Steve Urkel on the TV show "Family Matters." Upon winning the celebrity bracket, he was humble in recognizing the level of talent at the event. "I didn't know what to expect out here today, so really I came out here to be deferential to the people on the other side of that drapery," said White, indicating the LA Open tournament. "They're amazing. I'm about to go check that out." True to White's word, the players in the 23 different tournament events did not fail to amaze. The women's singles final featured Ruini Li and Wenting Zha, who both made the trip down from Milpitas, California. Zha claimed the title, posting a dominant (11-7, 12-10, 11-5, 11-5) scoreline with her unrelenting high-pressure topspin attacks. The open doubles final was a contest between Tao Wenzhang and Bob Chen, both of California, against Lei Kou and Lei Shi of China. Tao and Chen could only string together enough winners for one game, as the Chinese duo loop-killed their way to a (12-10, 6-11, 11-7, 11-8) win. The open singles event maintained the abnormally high levels of amazement. Playing for the $10,000 first prize were Eugene Wang of Canada and Thiago Monteiro of Brazil. The 38-year-old Monteiro was the heavy favorite on paper, coming in ranked 66th in the world to Wang's 179th. At first, the 33-year old Wang seemed to fall victim to this line of thinking. After missing a few key putaways, he lost the first two games at deuce. The nimble Monteiro seemed to be in the perfect position for every ball. Wang's body language looked defeated after he fell behind 1-3 in games. It all turned in the fifth game, which Wang eked out at deuce. Suddenly, his power shots started to land, and he gained confidence with every winner. After tying it up in the sixth, the two warriors would leave it all on the floor in the deciding seventh game. With momentum on his side, Wang completed the comeback and upset with a dramatic (10-12, 11-13, 11-7, 4-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-7) scoreline. The audience was thoroughly entertained, and a good time was had by all. They couldn't let Urkel down, after all.

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