2000 USA Table Tennis Nationals
Women's Singles Final

Las Vegas, Nevada
Saturday, December 16, 2000
6:00 PM USA Pacific Time
By Larry Hodges

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Jun Gao Chang vs. Tawny Banh

These two are both pictured at Nat2000Fri.shtml

Gao Jun has won women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles four years in a row. This year she has already won women's doubles and mixed doubles, and so this is the final stop for her to do the sweep for the fifth year in a row. Tawny Banh is in the final for the third year in a row, losing to Gao the previous two years in the final. Both are on the U.S. Olympic Team.

The players are now warming up. We're about to begin.

Gao is a pips-out penholder, and a former member of the Chinese national team. She won a silver medal at the 1992 Olympics for women's doubles. She was the 1993 World Champion in Women's Doubles and Teams. She was ranked #3 in the world when she moved to the U.S. about five years ago.

Tawny is a shakehand forehand looper with a pips-out hitting backhand.

Game One: Gao is serving first. She goes up 3-2.

Tawny's serve: The rallies are mostly fast exchanges, but Gao is more consistent. 5-2 Gao. Then 6-4.

Tawny hits most of her shots much harder than Gao. Gao is very steady, very quick, but doesn't hit the ball hard. She makes few mistakes, and likes to block dead balls all over the table, then pick-hit forehands.

Gao's serve: Gao goes up 8-7.

Tawny's serve: Tawny is attacking relentlessly with her pips-out backhand, and so staying with the favored Gao. 10-9 Gao. Gao quick-blocks to Tawny's forehand, 11-9 Gao.

Gao's serve: A vicious rally, with Tawny hitting a series of backhands, then ending it with a step-around forehand kill. 11-10. Another Tawny backhand kill, 11-11. Gao blocks off, and Tawny goes up, 11-12. Gao misses a smash, 11-13 Tawny. Since Tawny is from neighboring California, while Gaois from Maryland 3000 miles away, the crowd is very much for Tawny. Gao misses another smash, 14-11 Tawny.

Tawny's serve: Tawny attacking relentlessly, Gao finally blocks off twice, 16-11 Tawny. Then 17-11. Gao moves Tawny around the next two points, and scores twice. 17-13 Tawny.

Gao's serve: Gao blocks off the side, 18-13. Tawny pushes Gao's serve off, 18-14. Gao is using her high-high (to the ceiling) serve. After a fast exchange, Gao hits a winner, 15-18, Tawny still up. Tawny pushes Gao's short-toss serve into the net, 16-18. Gao blocks off, 16-19, Tawny.

Tawny's serve: Tawny loops twice, Gao hits off, 16-20. Tawny hits three hard backhands, Gao blocks into the net. First game to Tawny Banh, 21-16. Do we have an upset in the making? The crowd is cheering for Tawny very loudly.

Commentary: Tawny is hitting her flat backhand very hard and very consistently all over the table, and Gao - who likes to block loops - is having trouble blocking them back with any pace. So her blocks are coming out too weak, and Tawny is hitting them over and over until Gao misses.

Game Two: Tawny's serve: On the very first point, Gao shows a change. She hits a series of hard backhands to Tawny's backhand, and this time Gao's the aggressor. She wins the first four points. On the fourth point, Gao wins on a net ball, and a spectator yells out a very loud cuss word. However, the umpires do not notice or react. Tawny scores the next point with  backhand kill, 4-1 Gao.

Gao's serve: Tawny comes right back and scores the first three on Gao's serve, 4-4. But Gao catches her with a nice backhand block, and then pick-hits a forehand to go up 6-4.

Tawny's serve: At 5-6, Tawny gets a net to tie it up, 6-6. But she misses a loop, 6-7 Gao. Then 7-7. Tawny smacks a series of backhands, but Gao catches her with a sudden counter to Tawny's wide forehand for a clean winner. 8-7 Gao.

Gao's serve: Gao hits in a forehand winner, 9-7 Gao. Tawny hits her backhand to Gao's forehand three times in a row, Gao misses the third, 9-8. Gao does a super-high toss serve - into the net! 9-9. Then Gao serve and smashes off the end, 9-10. Tawny's taken the lead again! But Gao does a quick backhand block to Tawny's wide backhand, followed by a forehand kill, 10-10.

Tawny's serve: A hard exchange, Tawny hits a forehand off. Someone in the crowd yells, "OOOHH!" very loudly. 10-11, 10-12. A very hard backhand exchange, then Tawny loops into the net. 10-13. Another hard exchange, ended by a Gao kill. 10-13, 10-15.

Commentary: Gao is playing much more aggressively, but not ripping shots - placing aggressive shots until Tawny misses.

Gao's serve: 16-10. Tawny pops a serve up, Gao kills, 17-10 Gao has scored 8 in a row! But she blocks off, 17-11. Tawny hits her forehand into the net, then hits a backhand net-ticker that goes off. 19-11 Gao.

Tawny's serve: Tawny scores the first, 19-12. But Gao smashes, 20-12, and wins, 21-14.

Commentary: The change in the match came about by who was the aggressor. In the first game, Tawny was always on the attack, while Gao just blocked steady - and Tawny overpowered her. In the second, Gao is blocking far faster, and finding balls to forehand smash.

Game Three: Gao's serve: Gao goes up 4-0 by all-out hitting. Then they have a great point with Tawny off the table looping and countering backhands, and Gao hitting all over the table. Gao finally misses, 4-1.

Tawny's serve: Gao goes up 5-1, then misses Tawny's serve, 5-2 Gao. Gao creams a forehand against Tawny's push, the hardest ball she's hit so far - even her best smashes are almost control shots. Gao goes up 8-2.

Gao's serve: Gao is serving all super-high toss serves now. She wins the first, 9-2, then misses a smash, 9-3. Tawny loops, Gao does a deceptive inside out forehand hit to Tawny's backhand, 10-3. Tawny gets an edge, 10-4. Gao plays a very aggressive point, ending with a forehand kill, 11-4 Gao.

Commentary: Every since Gao began to play aggressively, Tawny hasn't been able to maintain her backhand attack, and instead is mostly playing neutral exchanges until Gao finds a ball to put away or block Tawny out of position.

Tawny's serve: Gaois dominating, and goes up 15-5. She's mixing in both hard jab blocks and soft touch blocks, catching Tawny off guard.

Gao's serve.15-6, 19-6 - Tawny's letting up, and Gao's still going all-out.

Tawny's serve: 21-7 Gao. She now leads 2-1 in games in this best of five match.

Game Four: Tawny's serve: On the first point, Gao plays a great point, blocks Tawny out of position, jabs several shots that Tawny weakly returns - then Gao misses an easy pop-up! 1-0 Tawny, with the crowd cheering loudly for Tawny's hussle. Tawny goes up 3-1, then 3-2 when Gao blocks a winner to Tawny's wide forehand.

Commentary: You can tell that Tawny is now determined to be the aggressor - she's moving very, very fast, and going for shots. But after one or two shots each rally, Gao gets her out of position.

Gao's serve: Gao goes up 5-3, then Gao misses a smash, 5-4. Tawny loops two, misses a third, 6-4 Gao.

Tawny's serve: At 7-4 Gao, they play a great point, with Gao hitting all-out, Tawny getting them back until Gao finally crushes one. 8-4 Gao. Then 9-5. Gao misses a smash, 9-6.

Gao's serve: She goes up 10-6. Tawny calls a one-minute time-out.

After the time-out, Tawny pushes Gao's serve into the net, 10-6. Tawny hits her backhand long, 11-6. Then Tawny tries a tricky wide-angle push, but misses, 12-6. Then 14-6.

Tawny's serve: 15-6 Gao. Gao misses a forehand, 15-7. Tawny creams a backhand, but Gao blocks it wide to Tawny's forehand. Tawny runs it down, they play a great point, but Tawny finally misses. 16-7. Tawny makes a great forehand, 16-8, and the crowd erupts in cheers. Gao is up 16-9.

Gao's serve: 17-10. Tawny steps way around to loop, Gao blocks off, 17-11 Gao. Tawny loops Gao's serve on the net and edge, but Gao scoops it up, and the rally continues - with Tawny missing a loop. 18-11, then 19-11 Gao.

Tawny's serve: Tawny hasn't given up, and plays a great point, 12-19. She goes for more shots the next point, but Gao blocks her out of position, Tawny misses, 12-20. Gao misses a forehand, 13-20. Then Gao plays an obvious exhibition lobbing point, with Tawny finally smashing a winner, 20-14. Then 20-15.

Gao's serve: At 20-16, Tawny hits her forehand long, and Gao is the U.S. Women's Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles Champion for the fifth straight year: -16, 14, 7, 16.

Coverage of the Men's singles final will begin at 7:00 PM, at

mens_singles_final_reload.shtml

This match will be between Cheng Yinghua and David Zhuang.