Kanak Jha and Hong Lin Secure 2024 US Nationals Men’s and Women’s Singles Titles
by USA Table Tennis
2024 U.S. National Men's Singles Champion Kanak Jha captures gold in Huntsville, AL. July 6, 2024.
[Huntsville, AL July 6, 2024] — Kanak Jha and Hong Lin emerged as the champions in the Men’s and Women’s Singles categories at the 2024 US National Table Tennis Championships. The event, the largest table tennis competition ever held in Alabama, brought together over 600 participants and close to 500 spectators at the Van Braun Center in Huntsville over 5 days of intense matches.
Kanak Jha: The King has returned and claimed his 5th title. Kanak Jha, traveling back to the U.S. from Germany, entered the competition as the overwhelming favorite and demonstrated his true resilience and professionalism through the tough competition. Fighting jetlag but enjoying the warm welcome back in the U.S., the top seed drew a crowd whenever he played. In his quarterfinal match against Darryl Tsao, Kanak found himself down 0-3 in a best of 7 match. The feature court filled with spectators, who were treated to a demonstration of resilience and mental strength as Kanak leveled the match at 3-3 and then 9-9 in the seventh before securing the win 11-9 in the seventh. After shaking hands, Kanak dropped to his knees – indicating the how challenging the match was for him, both physically and mentally. From that point on, Kanak soared in the semi-final and final, smoothly winning 4-0 and 4-1 against Sid Naresh and Jinxin Wang respectively. Kanak's victory marks another milestone in his illustrious career, solidifying his position as one of the top table tennis players ever in the United States.
Hong Lin: In the Women’s Singles event, second seeded Hong Lin overcame favorite and Paris 2024 bound Amy Wang in a tense final 4-1. Hong plays with a unique traditional Chinese style: Penhold with pips on the forehand and reverse Penhold backhand with inverted. She has found a rekindling of her love for competition through her past season with Major League Table Tennis (MLTT). In her first Nationals, Hong Lin was able to take the women’s singles title, and said that “it would be a night she’d remember for the rest of her life.” After the competition, she returns to her “day job” of coaching the next generation of table tennis stars from North Carolina.
The 2024 US Nationals were a testament to the growing popularity and competitive spirit of table tennis in the United States. The event brought in the most local spectators of any U.S. Nationals in recent memory and exposed a new geography to the great sport of table tennis.