Meet freshman Michael Wong, the pingpong prodigy. The week before Winter Break, Wong wasn’t at school cramming for exams. Instead, he was in Virginia Beach, Va., competing in the 2011 U.S. Nationals Table Tennis Event.

The event plays host to over 800 table tennis players from all over the nation. Players of all skill levels are welcome to compete, but the tournament featured a small group of exceptional players. This group included Wong.

Table tennis players are rated according to a scale that starts at zero. Beginners usually have a rating of 200 to 1000, and the average is 1400. Players above 2000 are considered Masters, and there are only 200 in the United States. Michael is one of them, with a rating of 2100.

“I have been playing for a while but still have so much to learn,” he said.

When he was 12, Wong discovered table tennis while vacationing in Watuka, Mexico. Wong stumbled upon a lopsided pingpong table and played for hours each night against guests of the hotel. When he came home, he enrolled in lessons at the Sacramento Club, and quit basketball and tennis to devote his time to his newfound sport.

“After all of those hours I spent practicing locally, I realized it was time to take my game to another level,” he said.

After three years of practice at the Sacramento Club, Wong developed a higher rating than his instructor, who was rated at 2000.

So on weekends, Michael started taking group and private lessons at the World Champions Table Tennis Academy (WCTTA) in San Jose. The academy features instructors including Li Zhen Shi and Zhang Li, four-time world champions of the Olympic Table Tennis Event.

“Playing at WCTTA has really prepared me for competitions like the U.S. Nationals because I’m playing against the very best,” he said.

And his performance at the U.S. Nationals reflected all of that practice. For the first four days of the tournament, Wong swept his competition 3-0 in all sets. He advanced from each level of the competition by beating each member of his Red Robin group, which consisted of three other players. However, the competition intensified on the fifth day.

In the quarterfinals of the tournament, after advancing from his Red Robin group, Wong faced a 42-year-old who had been playing for over 20 years.

Wong lost the first two matches of the set, 11-5 and 11-8, respectively. Despite a strong effort in the third match, winning 12-10, he fell short in the fourth, and lost the set 1-3.

Despite his loss in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Nationals, Wong recently won the bronze medal in the U.S. Opens Doubles Competition, which took place in Milwaukee, Wis.

Wong will travel to Berkeley to compete in the 2012 Western Open from February 18-19.