By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

The 2024 Eau Claire NCTTA Championships promise to unleash the firepower from all athletes. One highly anticipated event is Men’s Doubles.

What makes doubles so exciting? I turned to none other than doubles enthusiast and NCTTA VP Joe Wells for his take.

“Doubles is such an enjoyable format,” Wells remarked.

“Unlike the many other racket/paddle sports, having each participant have to play the shot places a tough dynamic that requires strategy, supreme footwork, and constant communication between points. During my collegiate years I was fortunate enough to team up with a lanky lefty [he’s referring to me, folks!]. Many people feel that a lefty right team is an optimal position on the table. He and I had great success, and that set-up in dexterity played a big role in it.”

The top-seeded pair for this year’s Championship Men’s Doubles event are the Alguetti brothers Sharon and Gal from Indiana University. They already have the 2022 title under their belt and definitely have Wells’ aforementioned doubles qualities to go the distance again.

However, they will face some steep competition from predominantly Texas Wesleyan University (four pairs are in the top 10!) and California schools. Additionally, No. 3 seeds University of Chicago pair Chenxi Sui and Kenny Jiang are dark horses, as no one heard of Sui, a 2600 rated PhD student, until now.

VP Joe Wells is looking forward to the Men’s Doubles event, and so should you! Catch all the action starting Friday 4/12 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin!

(Photo by Yukong Zhang)

About 2024 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships
The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Visit Eau Claire CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. PongSpace, Joola, the US Coast Guard, Visit Eau Claire and Bluestone Designs sponsor the event.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 12th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2024/video.html

About NCTTA
The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org