CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
1978: $1,200 Lehigh Open. $2,500 Pacific
Coast Open. $4,000 Eastern Open.
As if one were to watch a new star in the heavens, this first annual sanctioned $1,200 Lehigh Valley Open, played Feb. 18-19 at the Northampton County Area Community College in Bethlehem, PA, drew an astonishing 328 entries, 107 of whom were playing in their first sanctioned event.
Two years ago there was no Lehigh Valley Open—it had to be canceled because of lack of interest. But this year, thanks mainly to the persistence of overall coordinator Professor Dan Simon and his hard-working advance men, Dave Ferrey and Mike Mulicka, Jr., a staff of nearly 20 Community College table tennis members were lined up to help Dan, Dave, and Mike solicit then handle the tournament’s welcome but unexpectedly large number of entries.
There were so many things to do in preparation for a tournament of this magnitude. Dave and Mike worked hours just to paper the gym windows to try to prevent glare on the tables. Assistant Tournament Director Donna Fitting must have strained her eyes for days sewing all those fish-net barriers before repeatedly persevering over the weekend as a strong anchorwoman at the Control Desk even unto the wee hours of the morning. And Dan’s wife Patti had to make sure there was plenty of beer and snacks for after-hour players who wanted to sit around at the Simon house (I myself was fortunate to be a house-guest there) and talk about all the matches that had been played or, better still, were yet to be played.
Where did all these entries come from? Well, Bethlehem seems to be a magic place—centrally located for N.Y., N.J., and PA players. And the entry fees were quite modest. Also, Scott Boggan had recently given a successful coaching clinic (with maybe 40-50 participants) that, according to the sponsors, had helped spur interest in the Valley. Then when some of the best Eastern players decided to come, so did the Seemiller brothers—Danny, particularly, feeling he should support the Simons for their great turnout. And of course there was prize money to be won.
What had Danny been doing recently in between winning tournaments? Well, he and Ricky had been going round to the colleges, working a coaching clinic or exhibition by day and a basketball game by night. Once, he said, hamming it up he’d banked in beautifully (right over the net and down) a high lob way off the top of the scoreboard that went in Globetrotter-like and made the crowd go crazy-wild. “Half-time’s so perfect for table tennis,” said Seemiller, “players ought to be doing it all over the country.”
Except that barnstorming round the East and Mid-West this particular winter was occasionally hazardous. Coming home from a clinic in Chicago in late January, the Seemiller brothers got caught in a snowstorm, got stuck on a bridge, and, scared, had to dig their way out—with big trucks suddenly bearing down on them out of the white mists. Soon the snowstorm became a terrible blizzard and the Seemillers, by now having lost all zest for their customary fraternal sport, found themselves driving blind, unable to see even the hood of their own car in front of them. But miraculously they made the necessary two miles to a turnpike restaurant. “Look,” said Danny, “we can’t go on; we’ve got to wait till this blows over”—and 82 hours later (“washed our hair in the john, slept on the floor without any blankets”), they finally found the visibility they’d been hoping for. “What you live through,” said Danny, “you can’t believe sometimes.”
As for Danny’s victory in the Men’s in straight-game matches, what is there to say? Other than, with his ultra-destructive one-ball loop kill and all-around relentlessly aggressive play, he’s just so obviously a level higher than the next best players. But of course he works at it. As he told the Bethlehem Globe-Times reporter Jake Curtis who did a big story on him, he “plays about 30 tournaments a year, practices between two and four hours a day…lifts weights extensively (curls to build the wrists and other lifting for the legs), and runs about two and a half miles a day five times a week to build endurance.”
The most interesting match on Danny’s side of the draw saw an always out-of-practice Mike Stern just get by former U.S. Junior Champion Roger Sverdlik, 19 in the 5th. Motorcycle Mike’s big loop and effective backhand block proved just a little stronger than Roger’s customary steadiness, especially as it was often difficult not only for Roger but for anyone else playing defense against the background conditions here to see the ball well. When Stern lost a 19-14 lead in the 3rd to go 2-1 down, it looked good for Sverdlik. Looked even better for him when he went 16-11 up in the 4th. But then Mike played a super point, counter-killed one in from the barriers—and suddenly Roger was stopped and couldn’t regain his momentum.
On the other side of the draw, ex-Russian National Igor “Gary” Fraiman of Baltimore (rated a ridiculous 2016) has a very good “soft” game, with a strong backhand chop and a counter-looping forehand. He sputniked away Randy Seemiller, 20, 16, then spaced out Rutledge Barry in 4, before losing in the quarter’s to Mike Bush.
In the eighth’s, 16-year-old Scott Boggan, who’s now the hottest player in the East (3 tournaments, 3 finals) came back from being 2-1 down to knock out Dave Philip. Then, since Ricky Seemiller was admittedly drawn into the half opposite Danny (what an advantage to be Danny’s brother), Scott met him in the quarter’s. The first three games couldn’t have been closer, but Scott (-19, 20, 20) capitalizing on the fact that Ricky was using too much anti, took his shots when they were there to take, especially at game’s end, and then, aggressively top-spinning Ricky’s serves, kept the control he needed to win 16 in the 4th.
In the semi’s, Scott played another close match, downing his sometime practice partner Mike Bush in 5. When Mike got too far back with some temporizing topspin, Scott deceptively swatted or quick-angled the ball for winners to either side. In the final, though, like his brother Eric before him, he could offer little resistance to Danny’s overpowering game.
The Men’s Under 21’s—which was like another Open Singles event—saw Mike Lardon, who’s been milking his night-shift job for all it’s worth to get enough money to train in Sweden this spring, upset Ricky Seemiller, whose rating is precipitously going down, down, down—this despite the fact that he swears he’s been practicing more than ever. In the companion quarter’s, Bush beat Sverdlik in a match that, as the hour grew late and the spectators were fast disappearing, the two looked like they didn’t want to play. In the semi’s, Mike struggled against Mike—until Bush finally downed Lardon in decisive deuce games.
On the other side of the draw, Eric Boggan barely managed to repel Randy Seemiller’s rally, deuce in the 4th (“Why does he always play better against me than anyone else?” Boggan complained). Then Eric triumphed 20, 17 over brother Scott. Bush had been beating Eric, and up 20-17 triple match point in the 2nd it looked like he would beat him again. But Eric, at the river Styx, realized he wasn’t dead yet—that there were new records he could buy with that prize money—and so, turning up the volume of his game, psyched himself into staying alive. In the 3rd, Bush, for some reason still not going all out with his backhand loop, found himself down double match point. But then he deuced it—only to eventually lose and for a moment stand out there on court like a man lost in a snowstorm. Trudging off, as if he knew not where, he moaned out something about “losing to everybody.”
The Women’s was won by 13-year-old Pam Simon over, first, New Jersey Champ Edie Nitchie in straight games, then in the final over Evelyn Zakarin who back in the quarter’s had downed Anita Moralis, then #2 seed Dana (pronounced “Donna”) Gvildys. Thanks to some timely coaching by her father, Pam played a smart final against Evelyn who’d been getting some pretty good advice herself from husband Mort. With games 1-1, Evelyn, having a problem with Pam’s backhand Feint, again began pushing effectively to her opponent’s forehand. But Pam was ready for her—she ran around her forehand defensively, thus turning her ineffective forehand push-return into an effective backhand push-return. And now, when Evelyn popped the ball up, Pam got the forehand opening to score a winner.
The winner of the Women’s Under 21’s was 14-year-old Ai-wen Wu over Dana Gvildys. Ai-wen, like her sister Ai-ju, really loves the sport and practices every chance she gets. In fact, just before arriving at the tournament, she was in such a hurry to get there to practice that she persuaded her father Ray to drive a little faster, and then just a little faster, please, until—you guessed it—it cost him a speeding ticket.
But the cost, even the unexpected cost, in this game, as I’m sure Ray knows, has got to be worth it in the long run, especially when you have two kids who, weekend after weekend, year after year, in their dedication and enthusiasm help to make life fun.
Other Results: Open Doubles: Dan/Rick Seemiller over Bush/Eric Boggan. A’s: 17-year-old John Richards over the highly underrated (1766) 13-year-old Julian Millan in 5. Julian, who’s heavy for a table tennis player but who has smooth, natural strokes, didn’t even play in the Junior’s, just concentrated on the money events. A Doubles: Jeff Sabrowsky/Mark Schnorr over Gene Wonderlin/Tempos. B’s: Mike Walk over Mort Zakarin, 27-25 in the 3rd. B Doubles: Dave Caravella/Schnorr over Tony Khan/Mesko. C’s: Mike Walk over Caravella. C Doubles: Marakovits/Greg Crowley over Davis/Davis. D’s: Barney Reed over Paul Fuller. E’s: Marty Ness over Al Fischel. Novice: Fischel over Crowley. Senior’s: Tim Boggan over Ray Wu. Under 17: Richards over Marco Popovich. Under 15/Under 13: Mike Walk over Brad Lardon.
$2,500 Pacific Coast
Open
Don Gunn tells us (TTT, Mar.-Apr., 1978, cover +) that “floods and landslides were blocking roads so that many familiar faces were absent” from the $2,500 Pacific Coast Open, held Mar. 3-5 at San Diego. At the tournament site itself, “the roof occasionally leaked onto table seven, and PSA did land a plane every five minutes during the flight pattern directly overhead.” But everybody got a t-shirt with his/her name printed on the back, and from a still sizable entry there were some fine matches.
Results: Open Singles: Dan Seemiller ($500) over Ray Guillen ($300). Semi’s: Seemiller over Jim Lane; Guillen over Bush. 3rd Place: Lane ($200) over Bush, 17 in the 4th. Craig Manoogian had a good 5-gamer over Dean Doyle, and Lane, two days shy of his 16th birthday, after beating Brathwaite, downed Gil Park, 18 in the 4th. Before losing to Bush in 4, Franz-Josef Huermann cut down Dean Galardi, 3-zip. Open Doubles: Seemiller/Guillen over Bush/Brathwaite. Women’s: Insook Bhushan over Kasia Dawidowicz who’d eliminated Angelita Rosal Sistrunk. Besides an impenetrable defense, Insook shows that she “can put away a loose ball on either side with almost a disdainful flick of the wrist. These hits appear soft, but are just enough out of reach to be as deadly as a knife in the heart.” Women’s Doubles: Insook/Kasia over Sistrunk/Monica Rosal. Mixed Doubles: Danny/Insook over Ray/Kasia, 22-20 in the 4th.
Men’s AA’s: Huermann over Bill Ukapatayasakul. Men’s A’s: Dean Wong over Mike Carr. Women’s A’s: Kathy Chin over Cindy Cooper Feilen. Class A Doubles: Wong/Erwin Hom over Paul Groenig/Mark Adelman, 21, 21, -19, 13. B’s: Greg Plakos over Jim Lynum. B Doubles: Bill Guerin/John Harrington over Dieter/ Karl Huber, 16 in the 5th. C’s: Dennis Jewell over Steve DeFrance, 19 in the 3rd, then over Steve Ma in 5. C Doubles: Dieter Huber/Dan Wiig over Rich Livingston/Don Chamberlain. D’s: Andy Hutzel over Jose Garcia, Jr. who escaped William Yang, 23-21 in the 3rd. D Doubles: Garcia/David Nordahl over Randy Mullins/Scott Williamson, 19 in the 3rd, then over Greg Rosal/Tom Sistrunk. E’s: Mike Davis over Dennis Shapiro. Upper Consolation: Slobodan Nilolich over Frank Suran, 19 in the 5th. Lower Consolation: Chamberlain over Livingston.
Hard Rubber: Huermann over Bush. This was an “ideal pairing,” said Gunn. Mike “leaping and swooping, steam hissing from every pore, and phlegmatic Franz wearing a mask beneath a mask. In Las Vegas, when asked what he’d do if Reisman started clowning around in their match, Franz replied, “I would be even more stoical than usual.” In the semi’s, Bush met Guillen, and after losing the 1st game at 11, “Ray apparently made a game-winning point in the 2nd. But Bush protested that the ball was cracked, making the rally a let.” Here, then, is what Gunn thinks happened after that. “Ray picked up the ball and [thinking it was cracked?] crushed it before handing it to Richard Alden,* who then could not determine whether the ball had previously been cracked, and, if so, at what point in the play.”
Tournament Referee Art McCartney is called for. Art “may seem as formal as a king’s butler, but he is a certified USTTA umpire who knows his stuff and rules without fear or favor. His ruling that the rally was a let was unacceptable to Guillen [why?] who defaulted. He and Bush shook hands [or maybe they didn’t]…and after more palaver Ray indicated a desire to continue play. So Art had to use another ukase: namely, that defaults are not revocable after the game-ending formalities have been completed.”
Other Results: Under 21: Wong over Lane, def. Under 17: Lane over an underrated (2084) Quang Bui, 10, 17, -21, -11, 19, then over Hom, after Erwin had defeated Dean Doyle in 4. Under 17 Doubles: Bui/Doyle over Hom/Wong who’d survived Lane/Tony Koyama. Under 15: Wong over Julian Ong. Under 13: Wiig over Ong. Senior’s: Bernie Bukiet over Russ Thompson, def. Senior Doubles: Chamberlain/Livingston over Gene Wilson/Dieter Huber who’d advanced over Bill Cooper/Carmen Ricevuto. Esquire’s: Thompson over Fred Borges. Esquire Doubles winners: Wilson and Ricevuto who apparently has found some relief from his “tennis elbow.”
Wilson (TTT, May-June, 1977, 18) wrote a “Senior of the Month” article honoring San Diego Club member Ricevuto, especially for the “four gold medals” he won at the 1975 Senior Olympics in Los Angeles. (His firsts were in Senior Men’s Singles, where he defeated Julius Paal, and in Senior Men’s Doubles, Over 35 Doubles, and Over 50 Doubles.) Carmen is described as a conventional player, a good sport, but an uncommonly fierce competitor who plays with a special rubber imported from Japan. In real life he’s a shipping/receiving dispatcher, and last year celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary with his wife Ilona. Gene says Ilona “doesn’t attend many tournaments but is most tolerant with Carmen as to the time and money he spends on table tennis.” Just the kind of wife an aficionado needs, eh?
$4,000 Eastern Open
Let’s begin coverage of Maryland’s $4,000 Eastern Open (TTT, May-June, 1978, cover; 3) with co-Directors Dennis Masters and Yvonne Kronlage’s expression of Thanks to their tournament sponsors and helpers. Nittaku gets the first accolade for the $2,500 part of the prize money they put up, and Bowie Martin gets more than a nod for convincing Nittaku to be such a major part of the tournament. Now a cluster of those who made contributions: Fred Danner’s National Junior Table Tennis Foundation was helpful “in letting us use their bulk mailing rate”; AMF/Head donated warm-up suits to the Under 17 Boy/Girl Champions; the Columbia Mall McDonald’s provided the “Junior winners and runner-ups with free breakfast, french-fry coupons, and money to pay for half the cost of the Junior trophies”; and the City of Columbia contributed to “advertising and publicity” for the tournament.
Dennis and Yvonne particularly commend Jim Verta “who did a fantastic job on the desk”—and did it for three whole days since “several scheduled workers had emergencies arise at the last minute and were not able to work.” But Lou Budi and Mei Mei Ma “gave the desk workers a hand when it was needed most.” Regarding the banquet, we apologize—“we were just as disappointed as everyone else and have made our feelings known to the hotel.”
Some said we must have made “a great deal of money” on this tournament. Little did they know. “After paying the normal expenses of printing and mailing, the rest of the prize money, trophies, rent on the facility (which is a good one), janitorial services, salaries of the school workers who had to be present, and many other expenses,” we didn’t have much left. Don’t forget: “the USTTA gets 10% of the entry fees for sanctioning the tournament,” and also “gets $.35 per player per event for the International Team Fund (taken out before the sanction fee is calculated). For this the USTTA gives us nothing except the right to run the tournament.” We gave Neal Fox $100 to do the draws and paid his expenses, including a hotel room, to come to the tournament—we think he’s definitely worth the money, but we also think the USTTA ought to absorb this cost out of the sanction fee. Several of the checks given us bounced, and we had one stop payment. “We did come out a little ahead, but that money went to pay for part of the cost of the tables we purchased for the tournament.” Some of these tables we’ll use for future tournaments and for our Howard County Club, and some “we may still have to sell to meet all our expenses.”
Coverage of this Eastern’s continues with Shazzi Felstein on the Women’s events. Insook Bhushan is not a lock at this Open. Why not? Because Romania’s Maria Alexandru, a winner of three World Women’s Doubles titles (all with different partners), and a World Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles finalist, is playing here. Shazzi, who’d first seen Alexandru play at the 1968 European’s, describes the many-time Romanian Champion as “a classic defensive player with a good backhand pick and great concentration and determination at the table.” Here’s more of what Shazzi, making her debut as a Topics Interviewer, can tell us about our famous visitor:
Maria was sponsored to the U.S. “by the wheelchair organization called ‘The Rolling Romanians,’ the driving force of which is Stef Florescu,” a World Wheelchair Champion almost a quarter-century ago. His wife Caroline has been serving as “Alexandru’s traveling companion and interpreter” (though Maria, quite relaxed at this interview, speaks some English too). This is her first time in the U.S., and, since she’s going home soon, she’d have liked to have seen more of it. “But,” she tells Shazzi, “my sponsors keep saying their primary interest is to show Alexandru to your country, not your country to Alexandru.” Anyway, she hopes this visit is not her last.
She likes it that our tournaments “have so many different classes and events….Everyone, regardless of age or sex or ability can compete—that’s good.” However, she thinks these events “could be time-scheduled much better so that the players don’t have to sit around so long waiting for their matches.”
It seems ironic that Maria, who’s shown quite a temper in her long career, is put off by what she calls the “bad behavior” of some of our Juniors—“cursing, making faces, carrying on. They shouldn’t do that.” In offering more advice concerning our talented young players, she says: “You’ve got to give them a lot more training than they’re getting. Especially physical conditioning. You should try hard to send them to places like Sweden and Japan so they can reach a higher level of play.”
Maria says of her chief competitor here, Insook Bhushan, that she “has a particularly strong defense and is capable of a surprise attack. Also, as you know, she is very steady. In fact, I expect our match today to be expedite. Certainly I would like it to be.”
Well, to see if Maria gets her wish, I move now to Shazzi’s write-up of the Women’s play, and will let her start with the expected final:
“…[It] quickly went to expedite (little more than midway through the first game). Insook, up 17-14, looked to have the advantage—but Alexandru’s backhand attack proved superior to Insook’s forehand attack. Down 20-19, Insook served, then rolled and rolled, waiting for an opportunity to get the point-winning shot in. But the right opportunity never came and after Akexandru returned the ball 13 times she was awarded the point and the game.
The 2nd, too, was close. Bhushan was rolling more and hitting now from both sides, though still favoring her forehand. Alexandru was picking with her backhand, then following with a forehand kill when possible. From 17-all Insook missed two big forehands and Maria socked one in. Down 20-18 Bhushan got in a good forehand but Alexandru got it back and Insook pushed a drop into the net.
In the 3rd, Bhushan tried to hit in more forehands, but unfortunately for her too many of them went off.
So Alexandru won this their third encounter in the month that she’s been visiting here to take a 2-1 edge over Insook. After the final, Maria presented USTTA President Sol Schiff with a banner from the Romanian Table Tennis Federation and collected her $200 prize money.”
Other Women’s Singles matches worth noting: Hodiah Davidson, who learned her table tennis in Guyana, upset 8th-seed Genevieve Hayes. Louise Nieves, U.S. Team member to the ‘77 Maccabiah Games, surprised 6th-seed Barbara Kaminsky. Shazzi said that “Barbara, whose family had just moved to a new home, had been busy with other things and had been out of practice,” so you can bet Louise took advantage of that. “After they’d split close games, Barbara built up a 15-5 lead in the 3rd then unexpectedly failed to win it when Louise proved quite determined.” After which, Barbara “lost, if not some heart, the match-deciding 4th.” Debbie Payotelis, one of our best Juniors who’s a good exchanger, “dropped a close 20, 19, 14 match to former U.S. Team member Olga Soltesz.” Olga then fell in the semi’s to Alexandru. As for Kasia Dawidowicz, she was pressed to deuce in the 4th by Takako Trenholme. Then in her semi’s she couldn’t contest any more than Olga, for she looped off, hit off, and Insook picked through her.
In the 24-entry U-1800 Women’s A’s, Hayes was again upset—this time in straight games by penholder Cathy Howe. Genvieve offered no excuses for her loss, just said good-humoredly that her rating had been too high. In the semi’s, Carol Davidson (playing with Phantom?) defeated Nieves, and Donna Newell downed Nancy Newgarden.
In the final, “Donna, with a nice-looking all-around game, was pushing well, hitting off the push, and exchanging, blocking, or hitting Carol’s loop. Carol was looping, hitting, pushing, and going back and lobbing or chopping Donna’s hit.” After dropping the 1st, but then going up 2-1 rather easily, “Carol’s offense had suddenly begun to look really strong, and Donna had hit a lot of forehands off.” In the 4th, though, Donna was leading…until the end-game when she said later that she blew it.
Women’s Doubles went to Bhushan/Dawidowicz over Alexandru/Yvonne Kronlage; Mixed Doubles to Dan Seemiller/Bhushan over Mike Bush/Alexandru. Women’s Senior winner was Kronlage over Gladys Blaner who’d advanced to the final over Gloria Amoury, deuce in the 3rd. “Gloria, normally very calm, was quite ruffled after her match. Apparently, having your opponent tell you, as you go out to the table to play, that she hasn’t picked up a racket in 12 years and then have her beat you deuce in the 3d is pretty depressing.”
Women’s Consolation: Dana Gvildys over Ai-Wen Wu, 17, 20. Girls U-17: Dawidowicz over Payotelis. Girls U-17 Doubles: Dawidowicz/Payotelis over Gvildys/Ai-Wen Wu. Junior Mixed Doubles: Rutledge Barry/Dawidowicz over Scott Boggan/Jackie Heyman. Girls U-15: Ai-Wen Wu over Pam Simon, Girls U-13: Ai-ju Wu over Esperanza Vincent.
What exactly Danny Seemiller did to his opponents in the Men’s I leave to your and their imagination. Enough to say, perhaps, that he over-powered long-time Canadian rival Errol Caetano in the final, 12, 6, 5. (Oh, well, Jairie Resek, for one, expects there’s consolation waiting for Errol with #1 fan Diane whom he’ll marry Aug. 26.) Danny’s strength off serve was never more apparent than in this tournament. Clearly to try to push-return Seemiller’s serves is to invite his devastating one-ball loop kill.
“Nobody has any technique,” says Danny, sounding more and more like Miles. “Nobody—just me and D-J and Wuvanich. In this game if you get the offense you win. But how many players don’t even try to attack.”
In the semi’s, Seemiller played Eric Boggan—and this marked the 4th straight time in an Eastern tournament that Danny and Eric were drawn to play in the semi’s. The Rutgers New Jersey Open following this Eastern’s would make the 5th straight time. In other words, from October through May—virtually almost the whole tournament season in the East—Eric has been in Danny’s half of the draw. Now I don’t know what Eric’s sponsor thinks of this, but I know what I think—that it’s unfair. Part of the problem lies in the fact that Danny’s consistently better than the other players, and part of the problem lies in the often unstated policy of automatically separating Danny and brother Ricky in the draw. For 9 straight tournaments up to and including this Eastern’s—in all the tournaments that Danny and Ricky have played in this season—they have never been on the same side of the draw. I don’t think this is fair to the players or the players’ sponsors—for two reasons. First, Ricky’s favored position automatically forces another top player into Danny’s half. And, second, Danny is thus “protected” from playing his brother, that opponent who knows his game best and who perhaps has the best chance of beating him.
Actually, Neal Fox, who often makes the draws, is aware of the problem. He says (and Danny agrees with him) that it can be resolved if there’s a semifinal round robin—as in the Nissan or Louisiana Open. But not all tournament promoters want the semifinal round robin format (which sometimes doesn’t give the sense of a final) and they most certainly do want the Seemiller brothers, particularly Danny, to come to their tournaments. Indeed, they count on the prize money for both Danny and Ricky in singles and doubles as an enticement to get them there. So naturally it may not be to their promoter’s advantage to have Danny and Ricky meet in the quarter’s or semi’s of a tournament, for if apprised of such a draw, or even the possibility of it, they might not come.
Anyway, I raise the question here who is responsible for Eric playing Danny in the semi’s 5 straight times, and, worse, given the lack of acceptance of responsibility on the USTTA’s (Tournament Committee?) part, is he apt next season to play Danny in 5 more semi’s in a row while brother Ricky, who for months now has been below Eric in the ratings, continues to be separated from Danny?
Against Danny, Eric got off to a 13-9 lead in the 1st, then dropped a flurry of points to lose the opener, and afterwards seemed not to try. “Eric’s not so good at generating an offense,” says Danny. “He’s not dropping his legs and getting under the ball enough. And if you give him a very fast serve to forehand or backhand, he returns the ball with the anti and it’s often too high, a lollipop. Eric himself keeps talking about how he needs to loop off his opponent’s serve.
In the other semi’s, Caetano downed Ricky in 4 in a great crowd-pleaser that finally saw Errol’s extended flashes of long-limbed natural touch prevail over Ricky’s slightly more skip-rope predictable play.
On this side of the draw’s quarter’s matches, Rory Brassington who says he can’t get the ball to spin unless he does chin-ups, went out to spin against Danny—and did as well as, say, Jeff Steif. As for Eric, he had some trouble with Mojaverian’s perverse Parvisian spin, but, finding these slow tables to his liking, and moving well to hit forehands in, he went on to defeat George Brathwaite in 4. Earlier, “The Chief,” who was to play marvelously well among almost the same field in getting to the final at Rutgers, had his usual workout with Randy Seemiller. “Randy just hasn’t learned enough technique yet,” said Danny. “He still doesn’t understand, for instance, a very simple, basic thing—that if George serves short, he has to keep his return short.”
On the other side of the draw’s quarter’s, Scott Boggan almost sent Caetano into the 5th when, game-point up in the 4th, he had Errol angled off back at the barriers only to see—surprise—Errol come up with one of those long-armed, close-to-the-floor reaches of his, and, scarcely bending his knees, spin one back that seemed to sidespin bounce right through a startled Scott and his upright protesting racket.
In the companion quarter’s, Ricky beat Mike Bush in 4, and that or something prompted Mike to announce that he wasn’t going to touch a racket for at least a month—was just going to train at getting himself more physically fit. How to get better by not playing—the only thing that tops that is Derek Wall’s comment to Bush. “Mike,” says Derek naively, without innocence, “why don’t you ask your Association to give you enough money to go to Hungary to train?”
Charles Butler (who’d just gotten by Rutger’s A winner Benfield Munroe in 5) almost finished off Bush in the 8th’s. Maybe Mike was getting a little fat? Wasn’t getting to the ball?
The biggest upset of the tournament, though, was registered by Ali Oveissi who played extremely well in hitting through Derek Wall two straight. Maybe Bobbac? Doris? Ali himself in between shots put his new super Fellini camera to directorial use? Nothing like having a home movie to learn from. Ali’s son Bobbac, I might add, won the Under 9’s from Jaime Dixon.
In fact, let me jump in here with some other event winners, young and old: Boys U-11: Sean O’Neill over Doug Kilpatrick. Boys U-13: O’Neill over Brad Lardon. Boys U-15: Eric Boggan over Brian Masters. U-15 Doubles: Eric/Brad Lardon over Masters/Curt Kronlage.U-17: Eric over Mike Budi. Junior Consolation: Kilpatrick over Ai-wen Wu. Boys U-17 Doubles: Eric/Masters over Budi/Lowry. Esquire’s: Dick Stakes over Don Marston. Men’s Consolation: D. Lee over O’Neill. U-1650 Singles: Lou Salemme over Brad Lardon, 17 in the 5th. U-1850: Mike Walk over Bob Brickell.
Bill Sharpe may have recently retired from the Philadelphia police force, but at this tournament (“Think Phantom!...Think Phantom!”) he was anything but retiring. On the contrary, he retired others—beat both Wall and Brathwaite in very close matches to win the $100 1st Prize. Bill’s Phantom on his backhand and, more importantly, how he uses it, shows his chess player’s background. In fact, somebody said “his ball moves like a knight.” Not only is he pick-hitting that backhand hard, but when George pushed Bill’s Phantom back, up the ball would pop and Bill, anticipating well, would be on top of it to smack in his forehand.
Bill also won the A’s. (Won one match too many? “My new 2257 rating won’t keep me out of the A’s in the National’s, will it?”) In the final, Bill beat Jim Dixon who thought it was time to retire too—no, wait, he changed his mind,
“Why shouldn’t I play? I enjoy it.” Against Brassington Jim came back from being 2-0 down to win 19 in the 5th. Rory, who earlier in the Men’s had knocked out Sharpe, said he just had no killer-instinct against Jim.
Sharpe says he only trains hard for the “big ones.” That means 100 sit-ups, roll over, 50 push-ups, roll over…until he does 500 or 1,000 or more of each. No, he didn’t win the Youth event. Because of course they wouldn’t let him do his Olympian hop, step, and jump into that entry. Ricky Seemiller, who said he was not taking his racket back flat, trying to loop like Danny (did he want to, or not?), beat the whole “Butterfly Boys” Team. Rutledge lost a key opening game at 19; Eric, who earlier had been 10-4 down in the 3rd to Larry Goldfarb, won the 1st from Ricky but lost the 2nd at deuce and the 3rd that followed; and Scott with games 1-1 couldn’t hold a 16-14 lead in the 3rd. Ricky was down-the-line looping very well and following his serve so beautifully that he just kept putting more and more pressure on all his opponents.
Another Pittsburgh youth, Steve Lowry, who won this year’s USOTC MVP Junior Award, also had a very good showing. Besides winning the Under 2050 event from Jeff Steif, 19 in the 5th, he gave Roger Sverdlik a 15, -23, -19 scare.”**And why did Steve do so well? Because he’d been playing 3 times a week with the Seemillers. And, hey, wouldn’t that help you to be a winner too?
SELECTED NOTES
*A month after this Pacific Coast Open, Richard wrote me about a six-week summer vacation trip he, two of his sons, and Sally Levens were planning. On flying into N.Y.’s Kennedy Airport, they would assemble their bikes and, as it would then be about 6 p.m., they wanted to know if I knew a place where they might pitch their tents for the night before cycling on out Long Island and catching a ferry to Connecticut. I said, Sure, pitch your tents in our back yard.
Plans were made and early confirmed, too early because I’d forgotten they were coming. When they arrived, Sally and I weren’t home and I’d neglected to tell Eric, who’d received them, who they were and that they were anticipated. He was NOT cordial on seeing these strangers and told them to get off our property. Naturally they explained and it was o.k. When I returned home and saw them, and Eric told me what had happened I was embarrassed. Of course I asked them into our home. A drink? Something to eat? But they declined, though nicely. That made me feel more awkward and embarrassed. Early next morning, before I’d awakened, they’d left.
**Jairie Resek points out in her May-June Topics column that Roger not only has this new super-looking beard, but has “made it to the big time in exhibitions”—yep, to the “mecca of most sports, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN.”