In the other semifinal, Jeff Drew defeated Craig Campbell 4-1. I was playing my semifinal at the same time, so I can't really comment too much, but from what I heard Jeff was a little bit sharper and Craig couldn't quite get the pressure he wanted on Jeff through the match.
Final
In the final, Jeff continued his good form, defeating Giovanni 4-0. As the umpire of the match, I can comment from a firsthand perspective, and in essence Jeff shut Giovanni down by topspinning Gio's serves, and serving and thirdballing with heavy spin himself. Giovanni tried to bring his power to bear by attacking Jeff's heavy topspin openers hard, but couldn't get his timing right and missed too many attacks. It's probably pretty difficult for Gio to play a defender, and then come out and play a heavy topspin looper, but that's the way it goes. Gio needed to adjust his tactics against Jeff just like he did against me, but he stuck to the same strategy for all 4 games and paid the price.
So Jeff's back in the winner's circle, and he's served notice that he will still be a force to be reckoned with in our state scene this year. Giovanni also had a good win over me, but he'll need to be able to put at least two good wins together in a row if he is going to taking the winner's cheque home. If he can use his improved thinking on the table in every match he plays, he will certainly be capable of doing so. Our next big competition is the Grand Prix Round 3 on April 20, so we will have to see who can bring their best game to the table then.
