April 29 at the Worlds

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46^th World Table Tennis Championships

Osaka, Japan · April 23 - May 6, 2001

Sunday, April 29, 2001
Day Seven of the Worlds

By Larry Hodges

The two main events today were 1) the Men’s Team Final; and 2) the qualifier rounds beginning for singles and doubles. You can read about the Men’s Team Final in the feature write-up under news. The qualifier rounds for Women’s Singles and all three Doubles events (Men’s, Women’s and Mixed began today. (The Men’s Singles Qualifier begins tomorrow.) Both USA Women’s Doubles Teams – Chang Gao Jun/Jasna Reed and Tawny Banh/Simone Yang – pre-qualified and so didn’t play in the qualifier. Since players can only play doubles with players from their own country, and USA had five women on the team, one couldn’t play – and since Virginia Sung was the only chopper on the team, and choppers generally don’t play good doubles with attackers, Coach Doru sat her out of the doubles.

Women’s Singles

Four of the five women on the U.S. team pre-qualified by world ranking and so did not have to play in the qualifier. So Simone Yang was the only U.S. player to play singles today. To make it to the main draw and join the others she would have to win three matches in the single elimination qualifier.

Simone Yang (USA) d. Fanja Rakotonindrainy (MAD), 21-0, 21-0

It was an excellent performance – a perfect one in fact - against someone who obviously wasn’t quite all there. OK, so Madagascar’s Rakotonindrainy (try typing that fast) 100% wasn’t there – she didn’t show up and Simone received a walkover. (But the scoresheet does say 21-0, 21-0.)

Suttilux Rattanaprayoon (THA) d. Simone Yang (USA), 13,12

The two had played earlier in the Teams, with Rattanaprayoon winning at 13 & 18. Simone’s problem is that her loop against backspin is too soft, so when she does loop, her opponents attack. So she often mostly pushes and blocks, which gave Rattanaprayoon enough time to say her name three times between each shot before moving into position to loop. Since she generally didn’t say her name between shots, she had plenty of time to prepare for each shot.

So Simone is out of singles, but she’ll remember the experience of playing in this, her second Worlds, even if she doesn’t remember the names of her two opponents of today.

Men’s Doubles

To make it to the main draw, players would have to go through two rounds of men’s doubles. Because USA had five men, and players can only team up with players from the same country, Ashu Jain was not able to play in this event.

David Zhuang/Eric Owens (USA) d. Sandro Caenaro/Traian Ciociu (LUX), 17,16

David Zhuang and Eric Owens, the USA #1 men’s doubles team, started off well, avenging USA’s loss to Luxembourg in the team event. They seem a good combination – pips-out penholder David Zhuang is a very good control player who can set up Eric’s powerful forehand loop over and over while smashing in any loose balls.

Aleksei Smirnov/Sergei Andrianov (RUS) d. David Zhuang/Eric Owens (USA), 9,10

At first glance, it would seem that perhaps David and Eric aren’t such a good doubles team after all, since they lost pretty badly. But this was one of those matches where the opponents got so hot there wasn’t much you could do. “They got so hot it was incredible,” said Eric. “I’d flip to the middle and they’d rip it. I’d flip to the forehand and they’d rip it. I’d flip to the backhand and they’d rip it.” So USA’s #1 team was out…

Mark Hazinski/Barney J. Reed (USA) d. Giorgos Geroudis/Andreas Tziambos (CYP), 18,16

…but sometimes you have to rely on the other players, and here the U.S. #2 team took up the slack. Lefty Barney gives them the lefty/righty advantage (they are mostly out of each other’s way when attacking with their forehands). Both are strong two-winged loopers playing similar shots and similar strategies, so they are comfortable together.

Mark Hazinski/Barney J. Reed (USA) d. Joselito Almazan/Joseph Cruz (PHI), 12,16

The USA looping onslaught continued against the Philippines – and USA is now out of the qualifier and into the main draw! Perhaps it’s out of the pot and into the fire, but based on these two matches, it is USA that is on fire.

Mixed Doubles

To make it to the main draw, players would have to go through two rounds of men’s doubles. David Zhuang/Chang Gao Jun and Eric Owens/Jasna Reed pre-qualified and so didn’t play today.

Vallot Vainula/Tatjana Tshistjakova (EST) d. Ashu Jain/Simone Yang (USA), 18,19

It was pretty close, but since these two play such different games – Ashu the full-court shot-maker, Simone the close-to-the-table blocker, they probably would need to practice together a lot to get comfortable – not easy, since they live on opposite sides of the country.

Sandro Caenaro/Benedicte Meyer (LUX) d. Mark Hazinski/Tawny Banh (USA), -19,11,16

This was disappointing since these two looked like they might have gone a few more rounds. Both play looping games, although plays a one-winged looping game with pips on her aggressive hitting backhand, while Mark is a two-winged looper. They started out well, but couldn’t hold it. With more experience together, they may do well, but they live half a country apart.

Barney J. Reed/Virginia Sung (USA) d. Veaceslav Cravcenco/Irina Mititel (MDA), 17,11

The previous two mixed doubles matches were at 9:30 and 10:00 AM, and USA had lost both. Now it was 10:30; would it be three strikes and we’re out of the qualifier? No – perhaps having a lefty/right combo helped, but USA won this one soundly. Virginia’s a chopper, and usually choppers and loopers don’t play well together, but this time around USA was able to flaunt its superpower status against Moldova.

Phakpoom Sanguansin/Nanthana Komwong (THA) d. Barney J. Reed/Virginia Sung (USA), -7,19,17

In the teams, Komwong had defeated USA’s Jasna Reed, but lost to Chang Gao Jun (Thailand won the match, 3-2). After USA got off to a great start, they barely lost the second after leading nearly the entire time. In the third, USA was up 8-4 and 10-9 at the switch.

Tomorrow

Men's Singles - David Zhuang is seeded out of the Qualifier. Mark Hazinski, Eric Owens, Barney J. Reed and Ashu Jain all begin play in the Qualifier tomorrow.
Men's Doubles - David Zhuang/Eric Owens lost in the second round of the Qualifer, but Mark Hazinski/Barney J. Reed advanced into the main draw, and continue play tomorrow.
Women's Singles - Simone Yang lost in the Qualifier, Chang Gao June, Jasna Reed, Tawny Banh and Virginia Sung were all seeded out of the Qualifer and begin play in the main draw tomorrow.
Women's Doubles - Chang Gao Jun/Jasna Reed and Tawny Banh/Simone Yang both pre-qualifed, and begin play in the main draw tomorrow.
Mixed Doubles - David Zhuang/Chang Gao Jun and Eric Owens/Jasna Reed both pre-qualified and begin play in the main draw tomorrow. Mark Hazinski/Tawny Banh and Ashu Jain/Simone Yang both lost in the Qualifier, but Barney J. Reed/Virginia Sung advanced out of the qualifer and begin play in the main draw tomorrow.