Volunteer Call-Out – 2025 North Island Open Championships 🏓
📅 11–13 July 2025 | 📍 Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua
Mark your calendars for the 2025 New World Wellington Open on 19 & 20 July 2025.
For the 10th consecutive year, this event’s main sponsor is New World Wellington City, 279
Wakefield Street, Wellington City (near Te Papa).
Full Results or just the winners/runners-up:
At: Empire Table Tennis Stadium, Marine Parade, Petone
Entries close Monday 28 April 11.59pm via Tournament Planner
Details below.
Also coming up:
* TTNZ Women & Girls Tournament May 10-11
* Marlborough Open Champs ’25 May 3-4
Saturday March 25 9am @ Jubliee Extension, Springvale Stadium, Whanganui. For players 40 years and over (As at 31st Dec 2025), for all details and entry:
Saturday 8:45 AM: Over 30 or Over 50 or Over 70 (enter only one)
Saturday 1:00 PM: Over 40 or Over 60 (enter only one)
A great time in Nelson for the 2024 TTNZ Nationals Teams tournament with Wellington bronze in the Senior Teams Open Men B (Mohsen Kafi, Yau Yang Low, Yufeng Wang) – fending off Otago 4-1 to claim that placing. Plus the Wellington U15 Girls finished third as well (Jayathi Jaiganesh, Ruby Wei-Solt, Zoe Mildenhall) for the bronze! Thanks to TTNZ and also Nelson for hosting this event.
Yufeng had especially notable success also in the individuals with Silver in the B Grade Mens Singles. Yufeng partnered with Ashkay Aneesh (Manawatu) to win another silver in the B Grade Mens Doubles and (joint) bronze in the U19 Boys Doubles.
Thanks also to Saxton Lodge in Stoke where the teams and managers stayed for the duration of the event – it sounds like this was a great setup for us – thumbs up from us.
Women’s Open Doubles winners Amy Xiyan Su & Ye (Fiona) Zhai with runners-up Philippa Morris & Anh Nguyen 
Men’s Open Doubles runner-up Matthew Ball with winners Akshay Aneesh & Yufeng Wang 
Mixed Doubles runners-up Fiona Zhai/Yang Low with winners Heath Murdoch & Sabine Westenra 
Open Men’s Singles final Matthew Ball vs John Cordue (winner) 
Open Men’s Singles final Matthew Ball vs John Cordue (winner) 
Open Men’s Singles final Matthew Ball vs John Cordue (winner) 
Open Women’s Singles winner Fiona Zhai with runner-up Karen Looi 
Men’s Open Singles winner John Cordue with Tournament Manager Kevin Haines 
Open Singles winner Neil Yeats with runner-up Swapneel Dias 
Men’s Open Singles runner-up Matthew Ball 
Mixed Open Doubles winners Heath Murdoch & Sabine Westenra
Timetable
Saturday
8.45 am Open Singles Round Robin
11.00 am Open Doubles Rounds (Men’s, Women’s & Mixed)
12.45 pm Open Singles post section
1.15 pm Combined C & D Doubles
2.45 pm D Grade Singles
3.15 pm C Grade Singles
Sunday
8.30 am Under 13, Under 19 (is singles only), Over 30, Over 50 (is singles
only)
10.45 am Over 30 Combined Doubles
1.00 pm Under 15 (Singles only), Over 40, Over 60 (singles only)
3.00 pm Over 40 Combined Doubles
Light refreshments and drinks will be available for purchase on both days.
This event’s main sponsor is New World Wellington City, 279 Wakefield Street, Wellington
City (near Te Papa).
Please enter via Table Tennis New Zealand. Entries must be accompanied by fees paid to Table Tennis Wellington account 03-0558-0038972-00 (put ref name and ‘Wgtn Open’).
Fees
Open Singles: $20
Open Men’s, Women’s, Mixed Doubles: $10 per player
Grade Singles: $15
Age Group Singles: $15 each
Grade and Age Group Doubles: $7 per player
WHEN: Sunday 16 June 2024
WHERE: Empire Table Tennis Club Hall, Marine Parade, Petone
MANAGER: Kevin Haines
TIMES:
Under 11 & Under 15: 9.00 am
Under 13 & Under 17: 1.00 pm
FEE: $10 or $15 if entering two age groups (at different start times only)
ENTER BY: Saturday 15 June, noon
All details here… be in to win! To enter watch here.
The 2024 Wellington Veterans Open took place on 16 March and was enhanced by the best turn out of players for many years. Joining the locals were seven players from other Associations and they added to the occasion with their presence and play.
In the morning, the Over 50 and Over 70 events were held and got things off well before the Over 40 and Over 60 events provided much of interest in the afternoon. Of particular note was the Over 40 Singles which saw chaos in the round robin phase with a number of matches going against the seedings making for a slightly unusual look to the post section phase. There were also some excellent doubles during the day which featured close finishes and made for good watching.
Generally, there were events which saw many competitive matches, demonstrating that we had a number of players of a similar good standard, ensuring an anything but boring day’s table tennis. Congratulations to the winners and also to all the others who participated in a good day. Thanks also to Maggie Dyer who put in her usual high quality day.
| Winner/s | Runner/s Up | |
| Over 40 Singles | Daniel Rosner | Darrell Brown |
| Over 50 Singles | Depak Patel | Harry Chen |
| Over 60 Singles | Zhidong Yu | Harry Chen |
| Over 70 Singles | Tony Rutledge | David Scott |
| Over 40 Doubles | Daniel Rosner & Sabine Westenra | Ben Collins & Swapneel Dias |
| Over 50 Doubles | Ian Talbot & Lindsay Ward | Heath Murdoch & Depak Patel |
| Over 60 Doubles | Ian Talbot & Zhidong Yu | Tony Rutledge & Martin Young |
| Over 70 Doubles | Kerry McGeehan & David Scott | Averil Roberts & Tony Rutledge |
The first Summer Competition designed for individuals rather than teams has finished after an interesting five weeks. With the match format each week being based on accumulated points from previous weeks, it provided players with different challenges to move up the table from week to week.
The final week saw Manish Ahlawat extend his almost unassailable lead and finish comfortably ahead of his nearest challenger, Yang Low. There was an interesting tussle for the bronze medal with up to half a dozen possibilities, dependent on the various wins and margins on the night. Even after most had left, two or three were in with a chance. In the end, it was Jacob Hawker who with several very good wins, outshone the competition to finish ahead of Depak Patel and Darrell Brown.
Thanks to all those who participated, particularly those who lasted the distance. I hope you enjoyed the format.
-Kevin
We have some tournaments coming up too:
- TTNZ Regional Qualifier 2 on the weekend of 9 & 10 March (entry but see below).
- The 2024 Wellington Veterans tournament on Saturday 16 March (entry).
- The 2024 Wellington Autumn Open on the weekend of 4 & 5 May.
Also note the TTNZ Vets in Taupo (29/3-1/4), for entry in a team ping us directly (for individual events enter here). See here for all the details on the TTNZ vets event.
More generally, for events across NZ check out the TTNZ Calendar.
The TTNZ Qualifier event is part of a series of tournaments set up by TTNZ to provide high level competition for current and prospective New Zealand representative candidates. It is designed to assist with selections for New Zealand teams and training squads for players eligible to represent New Zealand.
As a result, there are criteria which apply to players entering this tournament. Please read through the Prospectus below which goes through the criteria and which also has the in depth details of the tournament itself. If you have any queries about the criteria, please contact TTNZ. I am happy to handle queries about the tournament structure.
Entries for these tournaments are via the Tournament Planner website only. The March tournaments are already available for entries. The details around timetables and other conditions can be found on the website.
This annual Veterans event hosted by the Manawatu Veterans Table Tennis Club will be held on Saturday September 30. It is open to anyone over the age of 40 (as of Dec 31, 2023). It will be held at Barber Hall Waldergrave Street, Palmerston North. Enter (by Sep 27) per the form below.
Two of our junior Wellington girls travelled to Christchurch on King’s Birthday Weekend to play in the 2023 Canterbury Open Table Tennis Tournament.
Ruby Wei-Solt got a bronze in the under 13 Girls Singles and Ruby and Samantha Xu also got bronze in the under 13 Girls Doubles! Congratulations also to Paul Solt for third-equal in the O50 Mens Doubles (with Abhay Joshi).
**RESULTS**
* Men’s Singles Timothy Choi bt. Matthew Ball 11-4, 11-2, 7-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-9
* Women’s Singles Lisa Gear bt. Sai Shruthi Murali 12-10, 4-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-3
* Men’s Doubles Matthew Ball & Max Henderson bt. Kelsey Amor & Andrew Palmer 11-7, 11-2, 11-4
* Women’s Doubles (round-robin) Tracey Hsia & Sai Shruthi Murali, runner-up: Gemma Buzzard & Maia Cavanagh
* Under 19 Boys Singles Timothy Choi bt. Payas Jajal 11-7, 11-8, 11-8
* Under 19 Girls Singles (round-robin) Jocelyn Lam, runner-up: Mei Mun Teh
* Under 13 Boys Singles Oscar Du bt. Lucas Yang 11-6, 10-12, 12-10, 11-9
* Under 13 Girls Singles (round-robin) Tracey Hsia, runner-up: Grace Looi
* Under 15 Boys Singles Payas Jajal bt. Ethan Yin 11-8, 11-5, 11-9
* Under 15 Girls Singles Jocelyn Lam bt. Lisa Gear 8-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6
* Over 40 Men’s Singles Depak Patel bt. Daniel Rosner 11-9, 11-3, 7-11, 11-9
Per-event result-summaries here
Below is all the info the upcoming Wellington Vets tournament!
ENTRY: TTNZ Tournament Planner
Venue: Empire Table Tennis Stadium, Marine Parade, Petone
Saturday March 18
8:45 AM Over 50 or Over 70 (enter one of, not both)
1:00 PM Over 40 or Over 60 (enter one of, not both)
Report at least 15 minutes before the above time.
Each age group has singles and doubles events. Doubles pairings can be MM, FF, or MF.
Singles events cost $15 each. Doubles $5 per player per event.
Entries close 11.59pm Tuesday March 14 via TTNZ Tournament Planner or direct as in the conditions document below.
Pay on the day or direct payment to “Table Tennis Wellington” at Westpac 03-0558-0038972-00 (if using direct payment, please reference “TTW Vets” and your name).
Congratulations to Yufeng Wang from all of us, he was selected by TTNZ to represent New Zealand (announcement) at the 2022 ITTF-Oceania Youth Championships! This event will be held in Melbourne Sep 5-10, be sure to give him a pat on the back next time you see him.
Recently, the first of the Junior Development Tournaments for 2022 was held at the Empire Stadium. Numbers were reasonable and the standard of all players who entered was good. There were some very interesting matches played and all players would have benefited from their matches and the experience of playing in a tournament.
The winners and runners up were as follows:
| Winner | Runner Up | |
| Under 13 Boys Singles | Savion Polyblank | Ben Kimber |
| Under 13 Girls Singles | Zoe Mildenhall | Brooke Martin |
| Under 13 Doubles | Ben Kimber & Savion Polyblank | Joel Bennett & Ashwyn Thakur |
| Under 15 Singles | Archit Nanda | Dallas Martin |
| Under 15 Doubles | Aadi Madhavan & Archit Nanda | Jacob Andrews & Alex Thorn |
| Under 17 Boys Singles | Archit Nanda | Ryley Chin |
| Under 17 Girls Singles | Holly Robins | Li-Yin Lin |
| Under 17 Boys Plate | Dallas Martin | Jacob Andrews |
| Under 17 Doubles | Aadi Madhavan & Archit Nanda | Ryley Chin & Kieran Robinson |
Thanks to all the participating players, their family supporters plus Rob Chung, Maggie Dyer and Paul Solt for their assistance. Special thanks go to Bruce Northover for the preparation of some high class certificates which were much appreciated by the recipients.
Matthew Ball (top seed) gold in the open men’s singles 
James Harter (second seed) silver in the open men’s singles 
Open women’s doubles winners Ye Zhai & Lisa Yue 
Open women’s doubles runners-up: Erin Huang & Mei Mun Teh 
Open women’s singles: Ye Zhai (gold) & Sunny Low (silver) 
Open women’s doubles: Erin Huang & Mei Mun Teh (silver); and Ye Zhai & Lisa Yue (gold) 
O30 combined doubles final (won by Matt Ball/Callum Rusbridge, foreground) 
Paul Solt presenting best junior umpire award to Archit Nanda 
Paul Solt with Zoe Mildenhall, U13 girl’s doubles (with Ruby Wei-Solt) 
U15 girl’s singles Shuhan Cao (Silver) & Heidi Liao (gold) 
U13 girl’s singles Shuhan Cao (gold) & Zoe Mildenhall (silver) 
U13 boy’s singles Jarom Erueti (silver) & Lucas Yang (gold) 
U13 boy’s doubles winners Savion Polyblank & Ben Kimber 
U13 boys group pic 
Lucas in full concentration 
Vets group play on Sunday 
A comedy troupe stopped by 
Matthew Ball gold in the over 30s (David Buckrell got silver)
Check out the TTNZ photo album
Thanks to all who attended and congratulations to all including all the new titleholders listed below (see here for full result details)
Continue reading “New World 2022 Wellington Open July 30-31”
Update: the list of all winners & placings are below or click here, congratulations!
For more detail, the individual matches
For full details head over to Tournament Planner.
Table Tennis Wellington 