David McBeath’s doubles form helped his Texas Smash team to three wins out of three at the latest weekend of Major League Table Tennis (MLTT).

Playing in Bedford Park, Illinois, defending champions Smash made up for a poor first weekend of the series by beating Chicago, Princeton and Portland.

McBeath did not play any singles matches but partnered Hiromitsu Kasahara of Japan in all three matches – and the pair won every time. He also contributed 12 points across three Golden Games.

In the first match against Chicago Wind, Texas were 4-2 up going into the doubles and a 2-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-6) victory over Emmanuel Lebesson (FRA) & Tom Feng (USA) extended the advantage to 6-3. Texas went on to win 15-6, taking the Golden Game 21-15.

Saturday’s match against Princeton Revolution was a 13-8 win for Texas, who this time trailed 4-2 after the first two singles matches.

McBeath & Kasahara defeated Benedek Olah (FIN) & Jinxin Wang (USA) 2-1 (11-6, 6-11, 11-10) to reduce the deficit to 5-4. Texas trailed 8-7 going into the Golden Game, which they won 21-19.

There was an identical 13-8 victory in Sunday’s clash with Portland Paddlers, and again Texas were 4-2 down before the doubles victory. This time, McBeath & Kasahara beat Hampus Nordberg (SWE) & Nikhil Kumar (USA) 2-1 (10-11, 11-5, 11-8).

Texas again trailed 8-7 but won the Golden Game 21-17 to complete a highly successful weekend which moves them within a point of West Division leaders Portland.

Liam Pitchford’s Florida Crocs are in action in the next MLTT weekend on 1-3 November on home ground in Miami, when they take on Bay Area, Seattle and Carolina.