
Bay Area’s Lily Zhang (SPINDEX: 2659) has been named Player of the Week for Week 2 of Major League Table Tennis’s (MLTT’s) fourth season, the league announced on Tuesday.
Chicago’s Robert Gardos (2856) also received a nomination for Week 2 Player of the Week.
Zhang won seven of her nine Singles games during Week 2 against Chicago’s Mo Zhang (2557), Portland’s Yerin Kim (2507) and New York’s Mendy Wang (2375). She also contributed 12 points in her three Golden Games, tying her with Chicago’s Sean Zhang (2660) and Bay Area teammates Taehyun Kim (2750) and Jinbao Ma (2786) for the second-most of the week.
Zhang boasts a Singles percentage of 77.8% (7-2) and a Golden percentage of 63.2% (12-7), leading all women in both categories as of this article’s publication. She has a power rating of 795.5 as of this article’s publication, the second-highest of any player in the league.
This is Zhang’s first Player of the Week award of Season 4, and it’s her first win since the league began recognizing one player with the award. Her last nod came during Week 6 of Season 3, when she won Women’s Player of the Week alongside teammate Elsayed Lashin (2734).
Just one week after earning that award last season, Zhang became the first woman to ever top MLTT’s power rankings list. She finished Season 3 as the league’s No. 7 player and runner-up for Women’s MVP.
Zhang’s performance helped the Bay Area Blasters become the first team to finish a weekend without losing a single match this season. The Blasters, who ended Season 3 as the West Division’s last-place team, currently lead MLTT with a 3-0 record and 48 points.
Zhang and the Blasters will play their next set of matches during Week 7 at Table Tennis America (TTA) in Fremont, Calif. They will face the Princeton Revolution on Dec. 4, the New York Slice on Dec. 5 and the Texas Smash on Dec. 6, all in front of their home crowd at 7:30 p.m. PT.