2000 North American Olympic Trials
   Rochester, NY • April 6-8, 2000

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Day One: Thursday, April 6
By Larry Hodges

The original 16 men and 16 women in the North American Olympic Trials were reduced to 8 men and 8 women today. The 8 men are, from USA: Cheng Yinghua, David Zhuang, Todd Sweeris and Eric Owens; from Canada, Hao Tao Geng, Pradeeban Peter-Paul, Kurt Liu and Horatio Pintea. The eight women are, from USA: Jasna Reed, Tawny Banh, Lily Yip and Virginia Sung; from Canada, Chris Xu, Marie-Christine Roussy, Petra Cada and Wen Xiao Wang.

The major casualty of the day was USA’s Khoa Nguyen. He was partially a victim of circumstance. Khoa basically retired in 1997 for two years, and no longer holds a world ranking. Since seeding is done by world ranking first, association rating second, and five other USA men have world rankings, he was seeded sixth out of the eight USA men. As a result, he was in a group with USA #3 Todd Sweeris and Canada’s #2, Pradeeban Peter-Paul. Based on his undefeated performance at the U.S. Olympic Qualifier held recently (where players qualified for the this Trials), he was considered by many a favorite not only in that group, but to make the top two or three. However, after losing three straight close games to Sweeris in his opening match, and then losing 3-1 to Peter-Paul, he was out. In both 1992 and 1996, Khoa had missed making the Olympic team by one match and one spot – losing to Sweeris 3-0 in the final match of the 1996 Trials for the final spot. At the time of that match, he had never even lost a game to Sweeris.

The major upset of the day was Canada’s 15-year-old Bence Csaba (Canada #7) over Canadian #1 seed, Hao Tao Geng, in the first round. Csaba led 2-1 in games and 18-12 in the fourth, but Geng scored nine in a row to win force a fifth game. However, Csaba won the fifth, 21-15.

On the women’s side, there were few upsets. The most notable match was between U.S. #1 rated player Jasna Reed and Canadian #1 seed Chris Xu. Reed was in the same situation as Khoa – she had moved to the U.S. (from Yugoslavia) several years ago, and only recently became eligible to represent the U.S. in international play. Although Jasna was a top international player (with a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics for women’s Doubles), she, like Khoa no longer had a world ranking, and so was seeded 5th among USA women, despite hold the highest USA rating. Jasna, however, is known for her strong backhand – but not for her play against defensive players. Down 2-0 in games to Xu, a defensive chopper, Jasna won the next two games to force a fifth game. At the end of the fourth game, the expedite rule was called because the game had lasted over 15 minutes. So the fifth game was played under the expedite rule, with players alternating serves, and the receiver winning the point if she returned 13 shots. Xu won the fifth, 21-14.

There was a somewhat dramatic end on the men’s side. Going into the last round, in group four, Eric Owens was 2-0; Hao Tao Geng was 1-1; Bence Csaba was 1-1; Sean Lonergan was 0-2. In the final round, if Owens beats Geng, and Lonergan beats Csaba 3-0, Lonergan and Owens would advance. If Owens beats Geng, and Csaba gets a game off of Lonergan, then Csaba would advance with Owens. If Geng beats Owens, then Geng would advance with Owens. When Lonergan lost the first game against Csaba (slamming down his racket as his Olympic hopes ended), it all came down to the Owens-Geng match, which last well after all other matches were done, not finishing until nearly 11:00 PM. They split the first two games. In the third, Owens 20-18, but lost four straight. In the fourth, Owens led 15-10, but lost 7 in a row to 15-18, and lost 16-21. So Owens advanced, but with a loss (despite coming in first in his group out of the three-way tie), while Geng – who’d started off with the shaky loss to Csaba – ended up advancing in second, but with a win. 

Each of the players in the final eight already played one other player from the preliminary group, since preliminary matches carry over. Each player will play three matches on Friday and three matches on Saturday. Undefeated men are Cheng Yinghua, David Zhuang, Todd Sweeris and Hao Tao Geng. Undefeated women are Chris Xu, Tawny Banh, Lily Yip and Virginia Sung.

Three men and three women will make the Olympic team at these trials, plus three players who pre-qualified: USA’s Gao Jun, the U.S. #1 woman; and Canada’s top man, Johnny Huang, and top woman, Lijuan Geng. A country is limited to a total of three players, so if one country with a pre-qualifier were to sweep the top three spots in these trials, only the top two would join the pre-qualifier, while the other country would get the other spot.