As they say, he who laughs last, laughs best. (It has also been suggested that he who laughs last, thinks slowest, but that is a matter for another day.) In the southern German town of Biberach, the lion's share of laughs have emanated from Dauud Cheaib (pictured, left). Biberach is home of the Challenger Series, a table tennis tournament held six times every month. Cheaib, the world #470 from Lebanon, won five of the six titles in January and added another on February 12. Cheaib's dominance has been threatened as of late, however, by Jiri Martinko of Czech Republic (pictured, right). Entering today's contest, Martinko had won last two titles. The 21-year-old, ranked #326 in the world, had also won his last head-to-head meeting with Cheaib, 3-2. In yesterday's group stage, Martinko again bested Cheaib, part of a perfect 7-0 round robin which earned him top seeding in the semifinals. Cheaib finished second, losing only to Martinko. This earned him a matchup with third-place Qiu Liang of Germany, last week's finalist, in the other semi. Cheaib did his part to set up an epic final with his rival, ekeing out a 3-2 win over Qiu. The showdown with his up-and-coming rival was derailed by Germany's Dennis Klein, who finished fourth in the group stage but upset Martinko in the semis. After taking a moment to mourn the potential drama lost, Cheaib got back to business. He then made quick work of Klein in the final, 3-0, to regain the title. With the win, Cheaib reclaims the outright majority of Challenger Series titles in 2021, claiming his seventh out of the dozen heretofore on offer. While Dauud Cheaib gets the last, and therefore best, laugh today, he cannot be comforted by the emergence of a younger rival whom he cannot seem to beat. Like the rest of us, they will tend to these matters when they resume work on Monday.

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