02 Sep 2018

Silver medals in Class 6 in both the Men’s Singles and Men’s Team events at the 2018 China Para Open, which concluded in Beijing on Sunday 2nd September, it was for Ian Seidenfeld of the United States a most successful visit.

In the Men’s Singles event he was beaten in the final by Germany’s Thomas Rau, (11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8); later in the Men’s Team competition, partnering Israel’s Danny Bobrov, it was runners up spot behind China’s Huang Jiaxin and Chen Chao. Notably in each event, it was the top seed that ended progress.

by Yuru Cui

Ian Seidenfeld is 17 years old. He has been playing table tennis since the age of six, now a period of 11 years; in fact he has been playing for most of his life.

There are two reasons for him to become a professional table tennis athlete. On the one hand, his family has great influence on him. He began to play table tennis because of his father is also a table tennis player; his father is Mitchell Seidenfeld, crowned Class 8 World Champion in 1990 and Paralympic Games gold medallist in 1992.

At first his father just played with him occasionally but then Ian improved; his father was his teacher and became his coach. The more the young man practised, the better he became; his love and affection for table tennis became stronger. Other sports were tough for him to play at a high level; table tennis proved very suitable for him.

He has great interest and enthusiasm towards table tennis. He thinks table tennis is an interesting sport and has a lot of complexities, because there are so many different shots and spins; that is the fun part he likes very much. Table tennis for him is puzzle which can be solved.

2018 China Para Open: Full Results

Paralympics Para Table Tennis Ian Seidenfeld