Thirty-six players walked into the CCTTA club on Denison Street in Markham on Sunday, October 4, 2026. Eight matches and just over four hours of table tennis later, one of them had not lost a single match all day. Jordan Grewal (2685) won the CCTTA Top 8 Open, finishing 8-0 and 21-3 in games. He saved his hardest test for last, coming from a game down to beat Suhaan Gulati (2457) 3-2 in a final that went the distance.
The top seed won the title, but plenty went off-script on the way there. A 1294-rated player reached the semifinals. A 720-rated player reached the quarter-finals. Three group-stage results came against rating gaps of more than 500 points. And the closest match of the day was settled on a single sudden-death point in the fifth game.
Format: Nine Groups, a 64-Slot Draw and Sudden Death at 10-10
The Open Singles event started with nine round-robin groups of four, every match played best of three. Nobody went home after the groups: all 36 players advanced into a 64-slot knockout bracket, with 28 byes going to the top seeds so the leading players started in the round of 32.
Knockout matches were best of five. To keep the day moving, the organizers used a sudden-death point at 10-10 in every round, from the groups through the semifinals. The final and the third-place match were the exceptions and went back to standard deuce, where you need to win by two. That rule ended up mattering: of the 18 games that reached 10-10 on the day, only one was played out past 11. That was the 13-11 second game of the final.
Want to run a format like this at your own club? The tournament bracket generator on Table Tennis Tube handles groups, byes and knockout seeding automatically.
Group Stage: Favourites Hold, but the Ratings Take a Beating
Most of the top seeds came through cleanly. Jordan Grewal (Group A), Fred Cantarelli (Group C) and Olivia Wang (Group D) all went 3-0 without dropping a game. Suhaan Gulati (Group B), Iraj Golmohammadi (Group F), Dawit Abel (Group G) and Alvin Sun (Group H) also went 3-0, each giving up just one game.
The rest of the group stage was far less predictable.
- Kurt De Souza (1009) won Group E. He lost the first game to Dariush Radman (1952), then won the next two 11-9, 11-9 for a 943-point upset, the biggest of the day. He also beat Shaun Chen (1378), finished 3-0 and topped a group in which he was only the third seed.
- Zhenyang Zhou (720) beat Tarun Tandon (1414) 2-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-9) and finished second in Group F behind Iraj Golmohammadi. It was the first sign of a run nobody saw coming.
- Wanwei Evan Huang (915) beat Eric Ma (1491) after losing the opening game, winning 7-11, 11-9, 11-8.
- Dawit Abel (1443) beat Charlie Zhang (1928) 11-8, 11-8 on his way to winning Group G.
- Emily Xin (1055) beat Lucas Chen (1351), winning both of her games on the sudden-death point (11-10, 4-11, 11-10).
- Alvin Sun (1459) beat Isaak Krut (1698) 11-3, 11-5 to take Group H.
- Diana Qiu (745) beat Prince Dimude (963) 11-7, 11-4.
Group I was the tightest of the nine. Emile Schaaf Kerwin and Eric Ma both finished 2-1, and the site standings list Emile Schaaf Kerwin first and Eric Ma second.
Group winners: A – Jordan Grewal · B – Suhaan Gulati · C – Fred Cantarelli · D – Olivia Wang · E – Kurt De Souza · F – Iraj Golmohammadi · G – Dawit Abel · H – Alvin Sun · I – Emile Schaaf Kerwin. The full tables are on the group standings page.
The Knockout Path: Five-Game Thrillers and Comebacks
The round of 64 produced one of the day's best stories. Terry Chen (362) beat Prince Dimude (963) 11-6, 11-9, 11-5, a 601-point upset, and earned a round-of-32 match against Suhaan Gulati. Suhaan won that 3-0, but Terry kept every game respectable at 7, 9 and 8.
The round of 32 was where things got dramatic. Five of its matches went to a fifth game:
- Zhenyang Zhou d. Mykola Shkil (1145) 3-2 (11-4, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-10). This was the closest match of the tournament. Zhou won the first game, fell 2-1 behind, forced a decider and then won it on the sudden-death point at 10-10.
- Zhen Yang Dai (856) d. Dawit Abel 3-2 from two games down. After losing the first two games 9-11, 9-11, Zhen Yang Dai won 11-9, 11-4, 11-4, beating the Group G winner by a 587-point rating gap.
- Colin Youtong Chen (1087) d. Emile Schaaf Kerwin (1516) 3-2, winning the deciding game 11-9.
- Dariush Radman d. Eric Ma 3-2. Radman went up two games, lost the next two, then closed it out 11-8.
- Tarun Tandon d. Edward Xin 3-2, also taking the decider 11-9.
Fred Cantarelli, the 3-0 winner of Group C, retired from his round-of-32 match with George Yu, who advanced.
The round of 16 thinned things out. Colin Youtong Chen beat Kurt De Souza 3-0, with all three games finishing 11-9. Zhenyang Zhou continued his run by beating George Yu 3-0. Sai Ma beat Zhen Yang Dai 3-0. Alvin Sun beat Tarun Tandon in four games. Olivia Wang beat Charlie Zhang 3-0. At the top of the draw, Jordan Grewal beat Isaak Krut 3-0 and Suhaan Gulati beat Dariush Radman 3-1.
In the quarter-finals, Jordan beat Colin Youtong Chen 11-8, 11-9, 11-7. Sai Ma ended Zhenyang Zhou's run 3-1. Olivia Wang beat Alvin Sun 3-1, and Suhaan beat Iraj Golmohammadi 3-1.
Semifinals and Bronze: Sai Ma's Run and Olivia Wang's Podium
Sai Ma was the surprise semifinalist. Rated 1294, he finished second in Group B, where he took a game from Suhaan Gulati and lost the decider only 10-11. In the knockout rounds he beat Shaun Chen (1378) 3-1, Zhen Yang Dai 3-0 and Zhenyang Zhou 3-1 to reach the final four.
Against Jordan Grewal, Sai Ma won the second game 11-6, the first game Jordan had dropped all day. Jordan won the match 11-3, 6-11, 11-3, 11-3.
The other semifinal was all Suhaan. He beat Olivia Wang (2002) 11-8, 11-8, 11-9 in a match that was closer than the 3-0 scoreline suggests.
Olivia bounced back in the third-place match, beating Sai Ma 11-7, 11-2, 11-5 to take bronze. She finished the day 7-1, and her only loss came against the eventual runner-up. Sai Ma finished fourth.
The Final, Game by Game: Grewal vs Gulati
The top two seeds met in the final. Jordan had dropped one game all day. Suhaan had dropped three. With standard deuce back for the final, neither player could rely on a single point at 10-10.
- Game 1 – Gulati 11-7. Suhaan started faster and took the opener, the first time all day that Jordan had trailed in a match.
- Game 2 – Grewal 13-11. This game decided the final. It went past 10-10, the only game all day to do so, and Jordan won it 13-11 to level the match at 1-1. Had he lost it, he would have been down 2-0.
- Game 3 – Grewal 11-3. Jordan dominated the third game and led 2-1.
- Game 4 – Gulati 11-6. Suhaan responded strongly and forced a fifth game, only the sixth five-game match of the day.
- Game 5 – Grewal 11-8. Jordan held on in the decider and won the title.
Final: Jordan Grewal d. Suhaan Gulati 3-2 (7-11, 13-11, 11-3, 6-11, 11-8).
Final Placings
| Place | Player | Rating | Group (finish) | Day record (matches / games) |
| 1 | Jordan Grewal | 2685 | A (1st) | 8-0 / 21-3 |
| 2 | Suhaan Gulati | 2457 | B (1st) | 7-1 / 20-6 |
| 3 | Olivia Wang | 2002 | D (1st) | 7-1 / 18-4 |
| 4 | Sai Ma | 1294 | B (2nd) | 5-3 / 15-11 |
| QF | Iraj Golmohammadi | 1948 | F (1st) | 5-1 / 13-5 |
| QF | Alvin Sun | 1459 | H (1st) | 5-1 / 13-5 |
| QF | Colin Youtong Chen | 1087 | C (3rd) | 3-3 / 8-9 |
| QF | Zhenyang Zhou | 720 | F (2nd) | 4-2 / 12-8 |
See every result on the winners page and the full knockout bracket.
Standout Performers and Breakout Players
- Jordan Grewal, the champion. He went 8-0 and 21-3 in games, and only Sai Ma and Suhaan Gulati took games off him. He also handled the pressure when it mattered most, winning the 13-11 game in the final.
- Zhenyang Zhou (720), the breakout story. He was the lowest-rated player in the quarter-finals. Along the way he beat Tarun Tandon (1414), won a sudden-death decider against Mykola Shkil and beat George Yu 3-0 before Sai Ma stopped him.
- Sai Ma (1294) reached the semifinals and finished fourth, taking a game off the eventual champion along the way.
- Kurt De Souza (1009) won a group he entered as the third seed and produced the biggest upset of the day against Dariush Radman.
- Colin Youtong Chen (1087) finished third in Group C, then beat Emile Schaaf Kerwin and Kurt De Souza to reach the quarter-finals. There he lost to Jordan 3-0, but pushed him to 11-9 in the second game.
- Zhen Yang Dai (856) produced the comeback of the day, winning from 0-2 down against Dawit Abel.
- Terry Chen (362), the lowest-rated winner of a knockout match, beat Prince Dimude in straight games.
CCTTA Top 8 Open by the Numbers
- 36 players, 9 groups, 64-slot knockout draw with 28 byes
- 90 matches (89 played, one retirement)
- 252 games and 4,568 points
- 6 five-game matches: five in the round of 32, plus the final
- 18 games reached 10-10; only one (the final's 13-11) went past 11
- 943: the largest rating gap overcome (Kurt De Souza over Dariush Radman)
- 21-3: Jordan Grewal's games record across eight wins
Curious what those numbers in brackets mean? Our guide to how TTCAN ratings work explains how Canadian table tennis ratings are calculated and why results like these move them.
What's Next
Every match from the CCTTA Top 8 Open is available on Table Tennis Tube, including scores for every game. You can browse the groups, the full match list, the player list and the bracket. Each player's page shows their match-by-match path through the day.
Thanks to CCTTA for hosting, and to all 36 players for a full day of competitive table tennis.
Running your own event? The CCTTA Top 8 Open used Table Tennis Tube for everything from the group draw to every score and the final bracket. Create your tournament for free. Players and spectators can follow along on one public link.
