Tahl Leibovitz and Irina Rus crowned 2023 USATT North Carolina State Champions

From August 9th to 11th, Table Tennis Dreams hosted the 2024 North Carolina State Championships along with the U.S. Performance Center and Charlotte TT Club. Players from all over the state competed across 20 age and rating events at UNC Charlotte Belk Gymnasium, taking home over $4000 in prize money. As part of the USA Table Tennis state championships series, the results of the tournament contributed to the new USATT Rankings and individual USATT Ratings.

Tahl Leibovitz dominated the Men's Singles event, breezing through the finals match against defending champion Rachid El Boubou with a 3:0 win. Clinching the coveted title, he took home a generous prize and confidence for the upcoming Paris Paralympics.

The Women's Singles finals featured two unexpected, unrated visitors from Romania. Irina Rus and Ana Barbu — who earlier won the Women's Doubles event together, fought hard against each other to determine the champion, with Rus emerging victorious in a 3:1 win.

Logan Watson excelled in doubles, securing both the Men's Doubles title with Vlad Farcas and the Mixed Doubles title with Ana Barbu.

Additionally, the Lee brothers showcased an outstanding performance across Junior and Rating events, with Jinhao securing the U19 Boys' Singles championship title and his younger brother Jintao following closely at second place. Jinhao was also first place in U2200, and Jintao won the U13 Boys' Singles event.

In the senior age events,  Jeremy Sneeden and Tom Xue, won the Over 40 and Over 50 men’s categories respectively.

Overall, the 2024 USATT North Carolina State Championships was a huge success, bringing together many top players from the area (and abroad) and promoting the Olympic sport. All of the revenue from the tournament was donated by Table Tennis Dreams to the Autism Society of North Carolina to give back to the community.

Table Tennis Dreams, founded by National Team Member Rachel Wang in June 2023, is a 501(c)(3) organization with the mission to grow the table tennis community and support young aspiring players financially and through training programs.

Under the leadership of Wang and Vice President Jinhao Lee, TTD consists of top juniors in the country who are committed to providing free coaching during weekly group lessons all over the country, already helping over 300 young athletes. The VP Volunteers -- under our Director of Development Zelin Ye -- include Sally Moyland in California, Hannah Song in the Texas, Lucy Chen in New York, and Kayla Goodwin in Florida, and the TTD team is still working to expand its impact on the table tennis community.

Table Tennis Dreams has currently raised over $10,000 through the NC State Championships and weekly CITTA Cash Tournament revenues, GoFundMe, fundraisers with the Chinese American Friendship Association, and other donations.

These funds have been used to sponsor 6 teams at the 2023 Joola Global Teams Championships, the 2024 Southeast Regionals, the USA Girls' Team for the 2024 World High School Games, equipment for over 20 kids in Ghana, along with many other players and events.

Looking forward, Table Tennis Dreams plans to promote table tennis even more, starting with its collaboration with TheHoldernessFamily in their viral quest to explore all Olympic sports. The TTD team hopes to share their love for table tennis with everyone and help make more athletes' dreams come true.