Suzi Battison wanted Jeet Chandra (SPINDEX: 2634) as far away from Enzo Angles (2763) as possible when deciding the Atlanta Blazers’ Golden Game lineup on Saturday.

Maybe he could do well against Mohamed Shouman (2655), she thought. Maybe he’d have a fighting chance against Chen Sun (2575). There were plenty of Gold Rush players that Battison considered having Chandra face. Just not Angles. Not after what the Gold Rush’s superstar did to him in Singles 4. Angles reached 11 points in their first two games against one another. Chandra only managed to score five points. In both games. Combined. Chandra did win the third game after a Golden Point, but by that point, Battison’s mind had been made up. Chandra could not face Angles again in the Golden Game.

Who would he play instead? Battison would prefer to have him face Shouman or Chen, but she opted to wait and see how the Golden Game lineup shook out before committing to anything. And as soon as Chandra and Angles walked off the court, the time to make up her mind started. Battison took Chandra’s place at center court, ready to decide the lineups for the Golden Game. 

Battison stood face-to-face with Carolina’s Alex Yang. The reigning Major League Table Tennis (MLTT) champion. The coach who won more Golden Games than any other team in Season 2. A man who knew how to foil the Golden Game plans of many opposing coaches. That includes Battison, the first-year head coach of a Blazers team that had only recently started to find its footing in the East Division. She didn’t have the luxury of making any mistakes here. These next 90 seconds could determine the outcome of the entire match, especially if she makes the wrong move.

Yang had the first pick, and he went with rookie Siu Hang Lam (2701). Battison countered with Season 3 No. 1 overall pick Yuya Oshima (2807), as part of her strategy to start strong in each Golden Game. She locked in Braxton Chang (2577) with her second pick, and Yang opted to take Kai Zhang (2621). That was fine. She wasn’t strongly considering having Chandra face him. Her ideal options for Chandra had yet to be chosen, and they’d stay that way after Yang’s third pick, which ended up being Angles. 

That’s when Battison heard someone’s voice from the Blazers bench shout, “Me! Me! Me!”

It was Chandra’s voice. The same Chandra that Angles outscored 22-5 in the first two games just one set ago. But also, the same Chandra that got the last laugh. He had the momentum after winning that third and final game. And he believed that he could carry that momentum into the Golden Game. Or at the very least, he yearned to scratch his competitive itch and face Angles again.

“I have to beat him because in the first two games, I played him for the first time, and I couldn’t understand his serves and everything,” Chandra said. “And then in the third [game], I figured out a way. So I knew in the Golden Game, I can score much more points than him.” 

Battison paused for a few seconds. Was it really a good idea to send Chandra back out there? She wasn’t sure. But she knew how well Chandra performs in the Golden Game (45-39, 53.6%). And she knew how competitive Chandra is. That’s one of the reasons why she took him from Texas in the Season 3 Expansion Draft. And becoming a Blazer has only added kindling to Chandra’s fire.

Battison heard someone’s voice from the Blazers bench shout, “Me! Me! Me!”

So if sending out Chandra against Angles was the wrong decision, she’d find out after the Golden Game.

“He’s the one who kept telling me, ‘I want to challenge him again,’ and ‘Believe in me, Coach,’” Battison said. “And I said, ‘Alright, if you say that, I’m going to throw you out there. It’s your time to perform.”

There were now two players Battison had to prepare for. None of whom she could pit Chandra against, as she’d planned. Instead, she went with Tom Feng (2657) for her fourth spot, which Yang responded to with Chen. That left Andrea Todorovic (2497) set to face Shouman, which may have been a perfect fit. Though the two had never played against one another before, they’re both about the same height. Her skillset, on paper, should fare much better against Shouman than the shorter, faster women she was used to facing.

But that was only in theory. Todorovic was still recovering from an ankle injury she suffered on Friday. Her mobility was limited because of that ankle, which she said felt stiff and uncomfortable before Saturday’s match. That’s a handicap that Shouman could very easily take advantage of.

“I can play, but it’s difficult for me to move a little bit,” Todorovic said on Sunday. “And to play with [Shouman], I haven’t played with him, so it was difficult to feel the rhythm.”

Oshima took the table against Siu with the one-point lead the Blazers earned before the Golden Game started. He couldn’t keep it; the two players left the table with the score tied at two points apiece. Chang couldn’t break away either, as he left his first stand against Zhang with a 4-4 tie. Chandra and Angles took the table once again. And if this matchup would end like the first two games of Singles 4, then this tied match could be a disaster for Atlanta.

Angles commanded the first point right from his serve. Chandra tried to keep up with all of the powerful shots flying his way, but an edge ball from the Season 1 MVP broke the tie in Carolina’s favor. Angles kept his intensity for the next two points, but Chandra appeared to slow down and focus on ending each point quickly. That mismatch in energy levels forced an out and a net ball from Angles, both of which drew an emphatic yell out of Chandra’s throat. Seven to five, Blazers lead.

“His energy level for the Golden Game, it’s insane,” Battison said. “The way he screams when he’s yelling, when he wins the point, I think that’s the best.”

Not for long. Chen took the next two points against Feng to tie the score right back up. Seven-all. But Feng stumped Sun twice in a row to give the Blazers another two-point lead. Shouman walked onto the court. Todorovic did the same, regardless of how painful it was to do so.

Shouman forced a quick net ball from Todorovic, who missed her chance to return a shot on the very next point. The Blazers’ two-point lead, again, was gone. Todorovic winced as she prepared her serve, which Shouman was able to tap ever so slightly in front of Todorovic’s side of the net. The Blazers now faced a deficit for the first time since Angles’s first point over Chandra. Battison called a timeout. Todorovic had one more serve before these two players rotated out, which she won. The score was tied again, 10-10. Todorovic walked off the court with a stern expression and a scream, unknown to the audience whether in celebration or pain.

Oshima and Siu walked back onto the court, both eager to take the lead for their teams. They left it at another stalemate, this time at 12-12. It would be Chang or Zhang’s responsibility to break that tie, which Zhang did twice before Chang knotted the score back up 13-13 and 14-14. Angles and Chang walked back up to the table in a tied scenario. An opportunity to break away in the most pivotal point of this match would come for either the first-ever draft pick in MLTT history or the Blazer he bested in Singles 4.

Angles once again had the first serve, and he delivered the same powerful, well-placed shots he stumped his opponent with before. But Chandra was ready this time, returning a shot with a backhand that sent Angles scurrying toward a ball that had long been scored. The Blazers were up by one … for now. An over-aggressive serve return from Chandra tied the score back up, and Angles’ return on Chandra’s subsequent serve was precise enough to force Chandra to hit the ball wild. The Gold Rush were now ahead 16-15, five points away from winning this whole match. Because of Chandra’s serve. That particular serve wasn’t working against Angles, so his immediate thought was to pivot into something different. And that’s what he prepared to do on his next serve … until a confident Angles challenged Chandra to serve in that same way again.

After those words, there was no longer any consideration of an optimal strategy for Chandra. All he could see at the other end of this table was Angles, the same man who had his number throughout most of this match. The same man he demanded Battison make him face in the Golden Game against her better judgment. The same man Chandra had just given up a very crucial lead to, and the same man who challenged him to use the same serve that just cost the Blazers that lead.

All he could think about now was tying the score with that exact serve.

Chandra tossed the ball into the air, and he served it the way Angles asked him to. Angles smacked a return that landed on Chandra’s right-side corner, which Chandra rushed toward. Right before the ball passed his extended arm, Chandra delivered a forehand that grazed the far end of Angles’ left side of the table. That ball was a little far for Angles, who stood with his feet planted at the opposite end of the table, but he swung his paddle anyway. He only managed to hit the air. The ball touched the ground. Chandra yelled “AGAIN!” before unleashing the two loudest screams of the entire match, with his eyes burning into the back of Angles’s head.

The score was tied once again, 16-16.

Feng and Sun came back to the table after Chandra’s match-tying point. After a few shots down the middle, Sun missed her target and hit the ball wide left. Feng roared as the Blazers went back up, 17-16. She made up for it with a sidespin serve that Feng returned wide right. Tied at 17. Sun returned Feng’s serve, but she hit her side of the net a few shots later. Another yell escaped from Feng’s lips as the Blazers took the lead yet again, 18-17. That was a better outcome for Sun than after Feng’s next serve, which she couldn’t return over the net. Feng and Sun left the table with the Blazers up, 19-17.

Todorovic and Shouman took the table again. Todorovic had one job: take two points before Shouman could score four. She just had to hop around on her stiff ankle, return shots from a player she hadn’t played before this Golden Game, in which she had already lost three points. That’s a lot of pressure, and she felt it early after Shouman attacked her return with a shot Todorovic couldn’t get to. The score was now 19-18, which became 19-19 after another net ball from Todorovic. Now, both players were two points from winning. One player had already scored five points in this Golden Game. The other only had one point to her name.

But Todorovic didn’t have to win her battle against Shouman. She was tasked with winning this war, and she just needed two points to do it. And those two points were all Todorovic wanted, even if it meant destroying her ankle in the process. 

“She did hurt her ankle yesterday,” Battison said after Saturday’s match. “But I have to give her a lot of credit, to not give up today and continually fight for our team.”

The wince came back on Todorovic’s face as she prepared her next serve. Neither team had a timeout, giving her ankle little to no reprieve in between points. She served the ball. Shouman returned it to her far right corner, right where Todorovic stood. In a split second, Todorovic smacked the ball onto the left end of Shouman’s table. The ball sailed onto the ground. Todorovic yelled twice as the entire stadium realized that she was one point away from winning this match. 

Todorovic took a deep breath as she dribbled the ball onto her side of the table. She picked the ball up and held it in her left hand, which shook ever so slightly. She tossed the ball up and served it over the net. Shouman’s return landed at the middle end of Todorovic’s side of the table, which she hit back to Shouman’s right. His next shot sailed over the table without hitting it. It landed on the floor. Todorovic walked off the court with her arms in the air and a shriek toward the Blazers bench.

And this time, everyone watching knew what caused her to scream.

“I’m just happy that I made it, that I brought this victory to my team,” Todorovic said. “[I’m] really so happy.”

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