Two evenly matched opponents met in the final of the October "Little Open" tournament at the Westchester Table Tennis Center (WTTC) in Pleasantville, New York. Adar Alguetti, 20, is a familiar face at WTTC. Along with his younger brothers, Sharon and Gal, the Alguettis are perennial contenders for, and frequent winners of, the monthly WTTC open tournaments. Ernesto (Jon) Ebuen, 40, is a six-time Phillipine national champion. Back in the Philippines, Ebuen founded the Philippine Table Tennis Academy, a non-profit dedicated to increasing accessibility to table tennis for Philippine children. Since moving to New York, Ebuen has been busy as the co-founder of both the New York City Table Tennis Academy and a startup club called PINGPOD. Ebuen says his favorite serve is the "hook serve," a tricky side-topspin forehand serve that looks like underspin. On paper, it was a wash, or something close to it. A sponge bath, perhaps. Alguetti enjoyed a slight edge in USATT ratings points at 2577 to Ebuen's 2529. While Alguetti had cruised largely unchallenged to the finals, Ebuen was forced to pull out every trick in the bag to escape a 0-2 deficit in the semis to former Israeli national junior team member Mishel Levinski. The first game of the finals was all Alguetti, getting his big forehand loop going early for an 11-6 win. He began to have trouble with Ebuen's service in game two, however, as the elder tied it up with an 11-7 win. All tied up at one apiece, the pivotal third game went to the always aggressive Alguetti, 11-7. His "shoot first, ask questions later" approach cost him in the fourth, as his unforced errors began to pile up. Once again, Ebuen knotted the match with an 11-7 score. In the deciding fifth game, Alguetti set out to continue his pattern of dominating the odd-numbered games. He was well on his way, leading 4-1, when Ebuen caught an edge ball. Although it was only one point, the psychological difference between 5-1 and 4-2 is huge for both players. While Ebuen was buoyed by his good fortune, Alguetti's concentration seemed to be broken by the fateful bounce. With a befuddling variety of similar-seeming serves, Ebuen clawed his way back to 6-all. Alguetti, frustrated, stuck to his philosophy of aggression, attacking the third ball with huge forehand loops. At 9-all, Ebuen held the serve. Anticipating Alguetti's plan of attack, Ebuen attacked first with his favorite hook serve, placed aggressively to the backhand corner. Alguetti, who was committed to a forehand loop wherever the serve might have gone, could not step around quickly enough to get a bead on the ball. With match point on his racket, Ebuen knew better than to try the same trick again. After Ebuen served short underspin to the middle, Alguetti backhand flicked the ball to Ebuen's wide forehand. In the blink of an eye, the 40-year-old Ebuen teleported to the perfect spot to fire a forehand loop right back to Alguetti's backhand, still in its follow-through. Game, set and match to Ebuen, (6-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9). Ernesto "Jon" Ebuen's two-decade advantage in experience was the difference in an otherwise even match. While a fierce competitor like Adar Alguetti surely takes any loss hard, he is at the same time picking up the skills, strategies and good, old fashioned tricks he will need to stay on top when he is the elder statesman.

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