Name Simon Gerada | ||
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Ballarat table tennis open 2014 ms sf simon gerada vs jesse bricknell
Simon Gerada is a right-handed Australian/Maltese Table Tennis Player. His father, Joe Gerada was born in Malta and emigrated to Australia in the 1980s. Simon Gerada was born and brought up in Melbourne, Australia and began playing at the age of 9 after he witnessed his father win a shopping centre tournament. He represented Victoria in national junior tournaments.
Contents
- Ballarat table tennis open 2014 ms sf simon gerada vs jesse bricknell
- Simon gerada best rallies
- 2001 Commonwealth and World Table Tennis Championships controversy
- References
Simon gerada best rallies
2001 Commonwealth and World Table Tennis Championships controversy
Gerada represented Australia in the Sydney Olympics as a 19-year-old.
After having played in Europe subsequently to the Sydney Olympics, Gerada had returned to Australia by 12 January 2001.
In January 2001, Gerada returned to Australia. On the same day, he got a phone call asking him to go to a training session. The Australian team was training for the World Championships and it was in Gerada's Table Tennis Australia contract that he must attend this session. However, after two hours he walked out citing that he "could not cope". This compromised his Commonwealth Games position and despite calls from the Victorian Institute of Sport that he should be allowed to represent Australia, the authorities did not back down. Gerada accepted the offer from his father to play for Malta instead.
In response to this Simon said "I'd been playing the sport for six years professionally, hard at it. And where had (Australia) been for the past five years, when were (they) feeding me? I was eating toast before my last league match because I was struggling with money," he said. "But at the age of 19 I came home and said I need a break … and they weren't there for me, the officials."
Gerada has had a excellent rivalry with teammate of Australia William Henzel. Their best match was famously when they played in the 2009 Victoria open final. The match is famous for Simon Gerada consistently saying cozza! (c'mon) in after winning crucial rallies. The final went down to the wire with both players equal at 3 games all (3-3) an controversial moment happened with Henzel leading, 10–9. The ball slipped over onto Geradas side and appeared to hit the side of the table however the umpire declared that the ball hit the inside of the table and thus declared the match to William Henzel. This led to Simon screaming at the umpire, saying ''I cant cope''.
In Melbourne in 2006, he teamed up with his elder brother Wayne, representing Malta in the table tennis doubles.
In 2010, he returned to representing Australia in New Delhi, where, among the four categories he enlisted in, he teamed with Justin Han in the men's doubles and pushed Sharath Kamal Achanta and Subhajit Saha of India before losing in full five games at the round of 16.