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Osaka, Japan · April 23 - May 6, 2001
By Larry Hodges
Today was not a good day for the U.S. In fact, it was a pretty rotten day. Heck, let’s be honest. It was downright horrible. Don’t make me pin it down any more than that!
As
the day started, we had four men in the Men’s Qualifier. None made it out, and
only one won a match. We had two teams left in Mixed Doubles. (Three teams had
lost the day before.) Both lost. We
had two teams in Women’s Doubles. Both lost. We had two teams in Men’s
Doubles. Both lost. All the USA doubles teams – all nine of them – are out
of the tournament.
For
the day, our match record was 2-9, and our game record 6-19. Mark Hazinski won
his first qualifier match in three, but lost the second; Chang Gao Jun/Jasna
Reed won their first round Women's Doubles match, but then lost in three the next
round.
So
what’s left for Mighty USA? Fortunately for us, the main draw for Women’s
Singles doesn’t start until tomorrow, so the four players seeded out of the
qualifier (Chang Gao Jun, Jasna Reed, Tawny Banh and Virginia Sung) don’t
start play until tomorrow. The same goes for David Zhuang, the only U.S. player
seeded out of the qualifier.
9:00
AM
Barney
J. Reed (USA) vs. Tomas Pavelko (CZE)
Maybe
it was the early morningness that affected him, but Barney and the USA onlookers
were shaking their head – Barney was much better than this first-game 21-12
showing. Down 11-0 in the second, it was obvious that, at least this morning, he
wasn’t going to win against the world #181 Pavelko, as the 12 & 7 scores
showed.
9:30
AM
Eric
Owens (USA) vs. Adam Linder (HUN)
This
match was all about counterlooping, including some that were positively
Guozhengish and Kimish. In the first, Linder gradually pulled away the entire
game to win at 14. In the second, down 15-16, Eric scored the last six in a row.
In the third – well, the less said the better. 6-7, then 9-21 after a 14-3 run
by Linder. Match to Linder, 14,-16,9
9:30
AM
Mark
Hazinski (POR) vs. Ricardo Roberto (POR)
Finally,
a little happiness for our USA hearts as Mark Hazinski, the cover boy in the
May/June USA Table Tennis Magazine, defeats world #279 Ricardo Roberto of
Portugal, 16,-12,17.
10:00
AM
Ashu
Jain (USA) vs. Sergiy Nigeruk (UKR)
Ashu
had his changes. Serving at 13-12 in the first, he lost all five, and the next
point as well. The next game was all Nigeruk, 5-0, 12-5, 14-9, 17-11 (timeout by
Ashu), 21-12. Match to Nigeruk, 15,12.
2:30
PM
Mark
Hazinski (USA) vs. Traian Ciociu (LUX)
Ciociu
led most of the first game, with is biggest lead at 15-11, but Mark came back
and led 19-18. Ciociu then switched to a backhand serve – and Mark pushed the
first off the end; pushed the next one long and blocked off Ciociu’s loop, and
then backhand hit the next one off. In the second, Ciociu pretty much looped at
will from both sides while the normally two-winged looping Mark mostly blocked.
Match to Ciociu, 19,12. (Also frustrating was that if Mark had won against world
#249 Ciociu, he would have received a world ranking – you get one by beating
two world ranked players.
Women’s
Doubles
The
big hope here was Chang Gao Jun/Jasna Reed. However, they surprisingly lost in
the first round to Belarus, 17,-15,17. Tawny Banh/Simone Yang also lost first
round, to Croatia, 7,11.
Men’s
Doubles
Mixed
Doubles
Tomorrow