2000 USA Table Tennis Nationals
Men's Singles Semifinals #2

Las Vegas, Nevada
Saturday, December 16, 2000
5:00 PM USA Pacific Time
By Larry Hodges

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David Zhuang vs. Khoa Nguyen

The two are warming up now. David is 3-times U.S. Men's Singles Champion, a member of the U.S. Olympic Team, the Pan Am Gold Medalist for Men's Singles and Teams, and has been in the final 7 of the last 8 years. Khoa is also a member of the U.S. Olympic Team, and was in the final of Men's Singles at the 1995 Nationals, where he lost to David.

Khoa is a shakehands looper; David a pips-out penholder.

Game One:  Khoa serves first. He goes up 5-0 with a series of looping. He is obviously the crowd favorite, since he is from neighboring California, while David is from New Jersey, 3000 miles away.

David's serve: Khoa is going after everything, and goes up 8-2. He's attacking David's serve at will. The crowd is really loud cheering him on, very quiet whenever David scores. Will this have an effect on the match?

Khoa's serve: David scores the first four on Khoa's serve to near silence; the crowd erupts when Khoa loops a winner, 9-6 Khoa.

David's serve: 9-9. The crowd does cheer David after a great rally at 9-7. David scores all five on his serve, 11-9 David.

Khoa's serve: 9-12. David has now scored 10 of the last 11 points. David misses an easy smash! 10-12. After the opening flurry of shot-making by Khoa, play has gotten relatively sloppy. 10-14, 11-14 David.

David's serve: Khoa loops serve off, then gets blocked out of position. 11-16. Khoa pushes the serve off twice in a row, 11-18. David tries a back-of-the-penhold racket backhand loop, misses, 12-18.

Khoa's serve: At 12-19, Khoa makes a nice backhand loop, but David effortlessly kills it, 12-20. At 13-20, Khoa loops a forehand, and David does a sort of nonchalant, off-balance forehand quick-hit winner. First game to David Zhuang, 21-13.

Commentary: After going up 8-2, Khoa is outscored 19-5. He's having trouble with David's serve, and seems uncomfortable in every rally - and so misses even easy shots. David's maneuvering him all over the table, and handling Khoa's serve with ease.

Game Two: David's serve: Khoa comes out like in game one, attacking relentlessly with his forehand, and goes up 4-1 on David's serve.

Khoa's serve: David makes two nice touch returns of Khoa's serve, and wins both, 3-4. Khoa takes a long break between points, obviously not happy. Next - a great rally! Khoa is looping over and over with his backhand, but David suddenly steps around and kills one. 4-4. Then 5-5.

David's serve: Khoa misses David's serve twice, 7-5 David. Then David catches Khoa off balance, and Khoa misses loop. Then a serve & smash, David leads 9-5. Khoa makes a nice down the line forehand loop kill to David's backhand, 9-6 David.

Khoa's serve: David hits in Khoa's first serve, 10-6 David. But two sloppy shots by David, and it's 10-8. David catches Khoa off guard with a soft touch block, and Khoa backhand loops off, 11-8. David tries to kill Khoa's loop, misses, 11-9.

David's serve: Khoa is tied up in knots during a point at 11-10, ends by popping a ball up, David kills, 12-10. Khoa is using a new serve return - forehand sidespin returning David's serve to David's backhand, and trying to follow with a loop kill. The receive seems effective, but Khoa is missing the following, since David is returning at wide angles. David goes up 14-10, then serves a down-the-line ace, 15-10 David.

The very pro-Khoa crowd is very quiet..

Khoa's serve: Khoa scores three in a row, the crowd is starting to get into it! But David catches him off guard twice in a row, and Khoa makes careless mistakes. 17-13 David.

David's serve: Khoa misses two serves to absolute silence. 19-13. Two careless errors by David - including another penhold backhand loop - and it's 19-15. But David blocks Khoa out of position, and Khoa misses a backhand loop, 20-15.

David's serve: Khoa backhand loops out of the rally off the end. Game two to David Zhuang, 21-15.

Commentary: The difference in the match is that Khoa is having trouble with David's serve, while David is having little trouble with Khoa's. Every point starts with David in command, and Khoa trying to find a shot to get back into it. But David rarely gives him an easy shot. When Khoa's close to the table, David blocks hard; if Khoa takes a step back, David blocks soft and dead.

Game Three: Khoa's serve: Khoa goes up 3-2.

David's serve: David serves a down-the-line ace, 3-3. Then 4-4. Khoa misses another serve, 5-4 David. Khoa blocks David out of position (usually it's David blocking, Khoa running balls down), 5-5.

Khoa's serve: Khoa is looping every chance he can, but misses too many. David goes up 8-6. David drops Khoa's serve shot, and attack's Khoa's push - but Khoa counterhits a backhand winner, 8-7 David.

David's serve: Khoa misses the first serve, then gets tied up on the backhand with David mixing up jab blocks and soft sidepin blocks unti Khoa goes off the end. 10-7 David. Khoa misses another backhand, 11-7 David. David does a wind-up penhold backhand smash, 12-7, then 13-7 on another Khoa miss.

Khoa's serve: David is completely dominating now, and the crowd is very quiet. David smashes, 14-7. Khoa hits in a backhand winner, 14-8, and the crowd erupts with applause (!). 14-8. David goes up 15-10.

David's serve: Khoa misses David's first serve, 16-10. He then loops into the net, 17-10. Then Khoa loops a net-ticker off, 18-10. David misses a wind-up backhand penhold kill, then misses a backhand, 18-12.

Khoa's serve: David misses an easy backhand, 18-13. Khoa loops, David blocks to Khoa's backhand, Khoa steps around but misses loop, 19-13. Then 20-13 Championship point. David misses a smash, 20-14. (Absolute silence from the crowd!). Khoa smacks in a down-the line backhand kill, and the crowd cheers!

David's serve: David blocks into the net, 20-16. Finally, during a rally, Khoa steps around, but David blocks a clean winner to Khoa's wide forehand to win the match, 21-13, 21-15, 21-16.

The final of Men's Singles will be between Cheng Yinghua and David Zhuang at 7:00 PM. On-line match coverage of that will take place at

mens_singles_final_reload.shtml

At 6:00 PM will be the Women's Singles final, between Jun Gao Chang and Tawny Banh. Online coverage will be at:

womens_singles_final_reload.shtml

The time now is 5:31 PM. Check back at 6:00 PM for the Women's Singles final! (All times are USA Pacific Time.)