Table tennis (aka “ping-pong”) is becoming increasingly popular in North America. Recently, Susan Sarandon’s table tennis club, which welcomes a number of famous guests and looks like a nightclub with ping-pong tables, was featured on CBS Sunday Morning. Even Sidney Crosby and other members of Canada’s hockey team have admitted to be being avid table tennis players.
Despite budding North American interest in the sport, table tennis has yet to rise to Varsity-sport stature. However, the University of Toronto Table Tennis Club (UTTTC) still boasts some of U of T’s best athletes, including Hong Kong native Fred Chiu.
Chiu was born in Hong Kong but came to Canada with his parents and two older sisters at age four. His family returned to Hong Kong when he was eight and it was then that his father introduced him to table tennis.
“My father wasn’t a competitive player but he really [loved] the sport, so he forced me and my two sisters to play,” said Chiu. “He recognized that you need to start young and train frequently so he got me a personal coach. But I wouldn’t listen to my coach, so after a year, he decided to stop teaching me.”
Chiu continued to play table tennis with his father and his father’s friends and when he got to high school he joined the table tennis team.
In Hong Kong, table tennis is a national sport, so playing on the high school team was very competitive. Only the three best players would represent Chiu’s school at each tournament and Chiu was always one of the top three.
“Parents are really competitive for their kids. They’ll often come watch tournaments and cheer their kids on. There was always a lot of noise in the gym. My dad didn’t come to tournaments because he had to work, but he would call every 30 minutes to see how I was doing.”
After graduating from high school, Chiu came to U of T. He is now a second-year chemistry specialist. Upon arriving here, he immediately joined UTTTC.
UTTTC has scheduled practices three times a week in the Benson Activity Room at the AC. Their practices are open to all AC members. The club also has two tables located on the AC squash courts and these are always available for drop-in practice or can be booked in advance.
In addition to open practices, UTTTC also has three competitive teams.
“Most of the time we send the [competitive] men’s A team to compete because it is the strongest team. However, sometimes the men’s B team and the women’s team compete as well.”
UTTTC has no coaches, so the players simply call each other up when they want to practice. Chiu usually practices seven days a week, two hours a day with any of the other top players in the club, many of whom are international students.
UTTTC president Mary Chen remarked that “Fred is a favourable partner to practice with; most of [the club’s] players aren’t even close to his level, but people will almost line up to practice with him. This is not only because he is a great player, but also because he is a very kind [person].”
This year the men’s A team and women’s team qualified for the Nationals, but neither will be able to attend because the tournament is from April 9 to 11—right in the middle of the exam period.
The club also hosts its own two tournaments each year—the fall tournament in late November and the winter tournament in late March. Chiu won the fall tournament and placed third in the winter tournament this past weekend.
“What makes Fred a unique player is that he is ambitious, but he has great playing etiquette. He always remains calm during [a match] and plays his best,” said Chen.
Chiu is also on UTTTC’s executive board. He helps organize tournaments and is, according to Chen, “very attentive, responsible, and helpful,” while also contributing valuable advice.
“We are just really glad to have Fred in our club and team. With his passion towards table tennis he always [creates] a positive atmosphere whenever he is present.”
A native of Sochi, Russia, Daria Zakharchenko started playing tennis at age 12 after being a gymnast for eight years.
“I was practicing with the national gymnastics team. When I was 12, they wanted me to move to Moscow in order to train more, but I didn’t like it there,” said Zakharchenko. “The girls never went to school—they trained during the day and travelled to competitions on the weekends. My mom said that since I didn’t want to [move forward], I should quit, so I did.”
Zakharchenko then discovered her passion for tennis, which is extremely popular in Russia and especially in Sochi. “People enjoy going to play tennis in Sochi because they can play outdoors all year round; it’s always warm and it never snows!”
Without any pressure from her parents, she immediately sought out Russia’s best coach, Yuri Yudkin, who was also the first coach of international tennis champion Maria Sharapova.
“He’s an amazing coach; everyone goes to him to improve their technique. When your technique is not right from the beginning, you cannot improve. That’s why it is so important to start with a great coach.”
Zakharchenko began playing two hours a day, five days a week and started playing tournaments when she was 13. After losing badly at her first tournament, she started working harder, training even on Sundays when most athletes take a break. She also played five hours a day, six days a week in the summer.
Zakharchenko soon found herself ranked in the top 50 of all junior women’s players in Russia, an excellent ranking considering that unlike most junior players, she was not home schooled.
“A lot of girls in Russia are home schooled so they get a lot of opportunities to play tournaments.” By playing in many tournaments, players accumulate points for rankings. “It’s crazy how people are training in Russia. [Many] think they will become professionals, but it doesn’t happen that often.”
Zakharchenko balanced academics and tennis, attending Boston University in 2007 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in management. At BU, training was strict: timed miles, specified workout routines, and scheduled practices were all mandatory. “If a practice was scheduled during the day and I had class, I had to skip class and attend practice.”
She decided to leave Boston and come to U of T in 2008, enrolling in U of T Scarborough’s Management Co-op program. “At Boston, everyone would participate so much because it was worth 20 per cent of the grade, but here everyone is quiet, so I had to stop asking so many questions in class. I like U of T better, though. The management program is ranked higher than Boston’s and it is more challenging.
According to Zakharchenko, Boston’s rigorous tennis program is in complete contrast to U of T’s. Unlike Boston tennis players, Toronto athletes need to find their own courts to play on because St. George campus doesn’t have any. Luckily, Zakharchenko, who is U of T’s number-one ranked women’s tennis player, is able to practice at UTSC’s tennis courts with the second-best player on the team, Roxana Soica, because they both study at the Scarborough campus.
Otherwise, Zakharchenko has never practiced with the other team members. Instead, whenever she has to play doubles at a tournament, she is assigned a partner the day of the tournament and they must play together without having trained as a doubles team beforehand.
“I’m not a very good doubles player. It’s very hard for me not to yell at my partner. Tennis is a very emotional sport. I always want to win, so I’m disappointed when I lose a point. But I’m getting better.”
This year, U of T’s women’s tennis team received the OUA bronze medal. Zakharchenko was also the only women’s player on the team to be named an OUA All-Star this year, her second year in a row.
Despite the bronze medal and the OUA All-Star award, Zakharchenko is disappointed that there are no levels higher than the OUA—no National tournaments to attend. “It’s very upsetting that tennis isn’t so popular in Canada. I think we need more publicity. We need more fans and supporters.
“Shilin is one of the greatest success stories in OUA history,” said Wayne King, head coach of the Varsity Blues badminton team.
When Shilin Cheung first joined the girl’s badminton team seven years ago, she had never played competitive badminton before. An avid soccer player, she hoped to make the Varsity soccer team upon arriving at U of T from Hong Kong for her undergrad. After missing the soccer tryouts, she waited a year before deciding to tryout for the badminton team. Since then, Cheung has improved tremendously. She’s captained the team for two years in a row, and this year alone was named OUA Player of the Year, an OUA All-Star winning the Ontario Badminton Association B in both singles and doubles.
Cheung was born in Hong Kong but came to Vancouver at age six. At 11, she returned to Hong Kong with her parents and two younger sisters. An all-round athlete, Cheung played soccer, basketball, volleyball, and tennis, and was even sponsored to play tennis competitively in Hong Kong.
After travelling incessantly for tennis tournaments, Cheung wanted to focus on academics and quit playing tennis around age 16, achieving straight A’s in her final two years of high school. She then decided to come to U of T, specializing in chemistry.
The Varsity badminton team trains six or seven days a week, two hours a day. Practices begin with warm-up and then the team works together on drills and game situations.
“Sometimes it’s frustrating because not everyone is turned on at the same time. Sometimes we’re busy and less focused on badminton, but Coach taught us that whenever we enter the gym, we need to leave everything else at the door and just focus on badminton,” said Cheung. “Everyone tries to do that, but sometimes it’s challenging.”
As team captain, Cheung realizes that she needs to keep her team motivated, focused, and on-track.
“There’s no point playing a Varsity sport if you aren’t going to be committed. You might as well go play intramurals or get private lessons. So whenever my teammates are lazy or talkative, I’ll just go right up and tell them to give me 10 laps outside.”
Although doing laps would be a grind for most, Cheung finds physical activity fun and relaxing. Badminton is a way for her to take a break from rigorous lab work. Now a fourth-year Chemistry PhD student under the supervision of Professor Michael Thomson, Cheung can usually be found working on biosensors in a lab in the Medical Sciences Building, but she still finds time to spare for workouts and badminton practices.
“If everyone around me practices two hours a day, I have to practice more than that in order to be better than them.”
This year Cheung won the Ontario B singles and doubles events. Originally she wanted to do well in the A Championships, but this year is crucial for her PhD work. She must write two major exams and attend a seminar and a conference in order to write and defend her thesis next year.
However, next season she plans on working toward the Ontario A’s and hopes to play in the Nationals.
Regardless of the accolades that she’s garnered, Cheung thinks that badminton is about enjoying the sport and playing her best.
“It’s never been about getting the awards. I just always try to play my own [game]. Whatever comes will come.”
Adrian Pond is the only U of T men’s All-Star from this year’s squash team, and he is the team’s best player.
Pond started playing squash at the Glendon Athletic Club in Toronto when he was 10 years old. By age 13, he was consistently playing three times a week and started playing tournaments. Pond won many regional tournaments as a junior and also played provincially and nationally, typically placing fifth to 10th.
At age 16, he stopped playing squash for a year. “I had a lot going on at the time,” said Pond. “I was also playing baseball, soccer, and basketball.”
At 17, Pond returned to the sport, then joined the Varsity Blues men’s squash team upon arriving at U of T.
Under the guidance of new head coach David Cooper, Pond practices three times a week: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
“By Thursday, I thought that I’d be so [tired], but it actually works quite well. It’s great having Friday to Monday off so that I can focus on squash [from Tuesday to Thursday] and then on other things for the other four days.”
Practices begin with 20 minutes of sprints up and down the courts. The players then practice drills such as the boast-drive, where “the person at the front hits the ball to the back of the court, while the person at the back hits a shot off the side wall to the front of the court” and the length drill, where “players rotate hitting shots to the back of the court.” After practicing drills the athletes pair up to play some games.
“What’s actually quite good about the team is that we’re all around the same level. I’m the best player, but the worst player on the team could still give me a match.”
According to Coach Cooper, Pond is “one of the most respected and dedicated players at training and has helped develop his fellow teammates when they scrimmage together.”
“Adrian performed admirably this year and led the team,” said Cooper.
The team competes at tournaments in November, December, and January. After team competition finished in late January, Pond placed 12th in the Black Knight Canadian University and Colleges Championships, winning his first few matches and then getting bumped down to the consolation round.
The competitive squash year for universities has come to an end and Adrian was recently named an OUA second team All-Star award. He is also a U of T Bronze T-holder award winner for completing three years as a Varsity Blues athlete.
Coach Cooper remarked that another highlight of the year was when former world number-one professional squash player Jonathan Powers stopped by the courts to share his expertise and the court with Pond and teammates.
As for future goals, Pond would like to win another OUA All-Star. “This year my goal was to get an All-Star and I did. I got a second-round All-Star, so I guess my next goal would be to get a first-round All-Star.”
The team will continue to practice throughout the summer, hoping to improve on this year’s performance. “We’re always trying to make the playoffs. We’ve missed it for the past three years, so that will be our goal for next year.”
