2000 USA Table Tennis Nationals 
Friday, December 15

Las Vegas, Nevada
December 13-17, 2000
By Larry Hodges

Right: Sergy Gutkin smacks in a forehand during action on Friday at the USA Nationals. Photo copyright 2000 by kausphoto.com

Day Three: Friday, December 15, 2000

16ths: All of the top seeds won their matches easily. There were three five-gamers: Lee McCool over Dave Sakai, -15,9,10,-15,20; Brian Masters over Thor Truelson, 11,12,-19,-20,9 – a match that took so much out of Masters and his various injuries that he defaulted the next round to Todd Sweeris; and Nison Aronov’s –17,15,6,-19,19 win over 13-year-old Han Xiao, with Aronov lobbing Han down the last point – lobbing seven smashes back before Han missed. The only upset in the round was 2099-rated Samson Dubina’s win over Todd Petersen (2358).

8ths: The higher rated player won all eight matches here, with none going five. Brian Pace had a scare before defeating Nison Aronov at –19, 10, 8, 19. The main match of interest here was fourth-seeded Eric Owens’ battle with chopper Derek May. In the first game, May led 14-5, but Owens battled back to serve down 17-20. Two serve and loop kills later, it was 19-20. But Eric served and loop-killed the ball off the edge of his racket to lose the first game. In the second game, May led 16-12 … and Owens promptly won nine in a row, 21-16. From there on, Owens dominated with his serve and loop kill follow to win the match, -19,16,16,5.

Men’s quarterfinal matches will be at 12:30 and 1:30 PM on Saturday, with defending champion Cheng Yinghua playing Sean O’Neill; Barney J. Reed vs. Eric Owens; Khoa Nguyen vs. Brian Pace; and Todd Sweeris vs. David Zhuang.

The event is down to the final four, with tomorrow’s semifinals (10:30 and 11:30 AM) between Jun Gao Chang and Virginia Sung, and Lily Yip vs. Tawny Banh. (The final is at 6:00 PM.) The interesting thing about the event so far – the higher rated player has won every match, with the lower rated player winning only three games. (All matches are best of five.) The only really contested match in the quarterfinals was Lily Yip’s 19,-19,16,20 win over Michelle Do.

The top-seeded team of David Zhuang and Todd Sweeris cruised to victory in this event for the second year in a row without losing a game or giving up more than 17 points in a game. In the final, they defeated the second-seeded team of Eric Owens and Barney J. Reed at 17 & 17. In the semifinals, Owens/Reed had defeated 42-year-old Cheng Yinghua and 13-year-old Han Xiao at 15 & 16 – both games were close until the end, but Owens/Reed won all the points at the end. In the round before, they had defeated another age-lopsided team – the father and son team of Barry Dattel and Adam Hugh, but not without a scare – 11,-19,15.

For the fifth year in a row, Jun Gao Chang won this event, for the second year in a row with Michelle Do. However, this was probably her toughest one. In the final, Tawny Banh and Simone Yang won the first at 12, and led 20-19 championship point in the second. But Chang/Do came back to win, -12,20,15.

The top two seeded teams – Cheng Yinghua/Jun Gao Chang and Todd Sweeris/Tawny Banh – will meet in the final on Saturday at 9:45 AM. There hasn’t been a close match in the event. Here are the scores for the quarterfinals and semifinals: 14, 13, 6, 14, 6, 6, 11, 11, 12, 7, 8, 12. Cheng and Chang had won the event in 1996 and 1997; Chang had won it in 1998 and 1999 with David Zhuang.

Jiri Hlava didn’t lose a game in winning this event. In the final, he stopped Hank McCoullum’s from extending his series of upsets, 10,18. Hank (2178), who was recently appointed to fill a vacant position on the USATT Board of Directors, had pulled upset wins over top-seeded Richard Hicks (2310) and fellow-board member George Brathwaite (2211). He’d also survived a -16, 21, 22 scare in the early rounds against Morris Jackson.

Last-minute entry Terrence Lee (who hadn’t been playing in quite some time) and David On couldn’t pull out the final, losing to Vincent Cheng/Ngai-Chi Chung, 17,-17,14.

Kent Haas (AZ) defeated Mark Ratner (MD) at 16 & 14. Haas had had a battle in the semifinals, defeating Alex Yadgarov at -8, 18, 18. But that didn’t compare to Yadgarov’s quarterfinal win over Vincent Tai: -19,19,19!

Dan Bryan (AZ) defeated Abraham Langseth (MN) in the turnabout final, -13,12,7. Bryan had had a rough ride to the final: in the semifinals, he’d defeated Alex Horvath at 11,-11,22. In the quarterfinals, Bryan defeated David De May at 13,-9,19. In previous rounds, he’d also pulled out two other 19 games. Living life on the edge?

Dylan Chang (CA) defeated Harish Chamarthi (MA) in the final, 16,18.

Calvin Lo (Left), Under 500 Champion, defeated John Springer in the final, 17,-13,16. Photo copyright 2000 by kausphoto.com

Below, L-R: new USATT Hall of Famers Attila Malek, Cheng Yinghua and Bob Green; Mark Mathews Lifetime Achievement Award winner Sol Schiff. Malek photo copyright 2000 by John Oros; Cheng, Green & Schiff photos copyright 2000 by kausphoto.com

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