Ballers Unite for Ping Pong Match

The mood was tense. The players were focused. The balls were flying.

In the first rounds of the “Harvard Table Single Player Tournament,” held last Sunday night in the Malkin Athletic Center, table tennis players engaged in a heated battle of the ball. Competition brewed, with players ranging from Harvard College freshmen to a Winthrop House security guard.

“It’s fun and easy to learn,” says Katrina L. Welch ’11, one of many players to talk about the relaxing aspects of the pong. “The rules are simple—there isn’t much to learn to get in the game.”

But not all ping pongers were as willing to give up their street cred, defending the difficulty of their oft-belittled sport. “You have to be reactive and on your toes. It requires a lot more athleticism and skill than most players initially think,” says co-President of the Harvard Table Tennis Club Tim L. Kovachy ’09. Ping pong: not for the weak. Or the uncoordinated.

In the end, though, the competitors managed to keep their cool in the heat of the competition.

“Just play point by point,” Clifford Beltzer ’10 says. “Forget about the score and play your hardest every point.”

Spoken like a true athlete.