2001 USA Table Tennis 
National Team Trials
San Diego, California
February 7-11, 2001

Day Two: Thursday, February 8

The men played four rounds today, while the women played three.

The day had two names: Mark Hazinski and injuries. Hazinski went 4-0 with four upsets (David Zhuang was the only other player at 4-0, while on the women's side, Chang Jun Gao, Jasna Reed and Tawny Banh were all 3-0); and player after player came down with injuries. At the end of the day, the major injury list was as follows:

• Todd Sweeris, wrenched back from looping, unlikely to continue.
• Chang Gao Jun, injured shoulder from car accident from day before, and unable to do much more than block. She said she could win against the weaker players this way, but may not be able to compete against the stronger players this way.
• Whitney Ping: sprained ankle while playing, had to default her last two matches.
• Virginia Sung, wrenched back from looping, having great difficulty playing and not certain whether she will be able to continue.
• Allison Seibel, bruised ribs from car accident the day before.
• Lily Yip, sore shoulder from playing.

Several others are also hurting in various ways, but mostly from straight exhaustion or minor muscles strains. The trainers are being worked nonstop.

Five of the six matches were pretty straightforward. The interesting match was Brian Pace vs. 15-year-old (but 6'3") Mark Hazinski, the six and seventh seeds.

Pace won the first two games at 18 & 19, and led 18-15 in the third game.. Hazinski pulled out that game at 19, and the fourth at 15. In the fifth, Hazinski was up 15-10 and serving – and lost all five! He then lost the first two on Pace’s serve – seven in a row. Hazinski’s coach, Mark Nordby, called a timeout. After the timeout, Pace scored his eighth in a row to go up 18-15 - just as in game four. But then Hazinski answered by scoring the next five in a row, to lead 20-18 match point! Pace got an edge ball, 20-19. Pace next backhand flipped Hazinski’s serve, catching him out of position – but the flip was just off! Match to Hazinski, -18,-19,19,15,19.

In other matches, David Zhuang d. Lee McCool, 11,9,6; Eric Owens d. Ashu Jain, 19,8,18; Todd Sweeris d. Loc Ngo, 8,14,9; Barney J. Reed d. Tahl Leibovitz 11,15,-20,12; and Shashin Shodhan d. Nison Aronov, 18,17,14.

For the second straight round, the match of interest was Hazinski’s, this time upsetting Barney J. Reed in another 5-game thriller, deuce in the fifth. In the fifth game, down 3-6, Reed won seven in a row to lead 10-6. He soon led 13-7 – then Hazinski won six in a row to tie it at 13-all. They traded points to 19-all. Reed served fast & deep to Hazinski’s backhand, and Hazinski is caught off guard, looping off. Up match point, Reed serves slightly long, and this time Hazinski loops it, Reed blocks, and Hazinski loops a winner, deuce. Hazinski then serve & loops a ball that seems to go into the net – and Reed raises his fist and begins to yell "Choe!". But the ball has so much topspin it shoots upwards to the top of the net, rises above the net, drops back on top of it, and goes over! Point to Hazinski, who goes up match point, 21-20. The players walk around the court for moment, then Reed gets set to serve, and serves – into the net! Hazinski wins, -19,18,18,-13,20.

Another five-gamer that could make a difference later on was sixth seed Brian Pace’s five-gamer over fifth seed Shashin Shodhan, -23,17,16,-13,16. Another five-gamer was Loc Ngo over Lee McCool, 18,-19,-14,14,14.

In other matches, David Zhuang d. Ashu Jain, 15,10,15; Eric Owens d. Tahl Leibovitz, 15,9,-16,12; and Todd Sweeris d. Nison Aronov, 11,13,-18,9.

Once again five of the six matches are pretty straightforward – and the unstraightforward match is again Mark Hazinski pulling off still another upset, his biggest of all. This time he defeats second-seeded Eric Owens, 21,8,19. Owens led the first, 20-18 and 21-20, and (after losing the second 21-8 from down 16-4) led the third 13-7 and 17-14. Serving from down 17-18, Owens served off. At 18-20 match point, Owens serve and rips a winner, 19-20. Then he serve and rips another forehand loop. Hazinski blocks it to his wide backhand, Eric goes way, way around, and loops another forehand from way over on the backhand side – but Hazinski punch-kills a clean backhand to the wide forehand that Owens doesn’t even attempt to go for. Match to Hazinski, 20,8,19.

In other matches, David Zhuang d. Loc Ngo, 13,17,17; Todd Sweeris d. Brian Pace, 9,11,11; Barney J. Reed d. Shashin Shodhan, 13,-12,9,7; Nison Aronov d. Lee McCool, 20,21,16; and Ashu Jain d Tahl Leibovitz, 10,19,7.

Two matches were of interest. The continuing Hazinski saga continued, with another "upset" – this time over Ashu Jain (rated 2428 to Hazinski’s 2427), 19,21,10. The Gods were smiling on Hazinski – down 20-21 in the second, he won two in a row on net balls..

Of far more impact was second-seeded Todd Sweeris’ injury against fourth-seeded Barney J. Reed. At 12-all in the third (they split the first two), Todd looped a ball from the wide forehand down the line - winning the point – but wrenching his lower-left back in the process. He took an injury time-out (ten minutes), and had a trainer work on it during that time, but still wasn’t really able to continue. When he returned, he played several points blocking, but it was obvious he couldn’t play at all. In a round robin, you get two points for a win, one for a loss, and zero for a default. So if Todd defaulted, he would get zero – which is essentially like losing two matches. Rather than do that, and wanting to keep his options open for the next day in case he was able to continue, he played out the match, but lost each point as quickly as possible. When serving, he’d usually just toss the ball up five times and catch it each time – and lose all five – while returning all servers into the net. (One exception – he popped one back in the fourth game that so surprised Reed that he missed it, giving Sweeris one point that game!) Match to Reed, 17,-16,14,1. Afterwards, Sweeris said he probably wouldn’t be able to continue, but would see how his back was in the morning. He made arrangements to meet with a trainer early on Friday morning.

In other matches, David Zhuang d. Tahl Leibovitz, 14,16,8; Eric Owens d. Shashin Shodhan, 14,14,8; Brian Pace d. Lee McCool, -19,11,15,12; and Nison Aronov d. Loc Ngo, 9,-17,15,12.

Two players are now undefeated at 4-0: David Zhuang and Mark Hazinski. At 3-1 are Todd Sweeris, Eric Owens and Barney J. Reed. At 2-2 are Brian Pace and Nison Aronov. At 1-3 are Ashu Jain, Shashin Shodhan and Loc Ngo. At 0-4 are Tahl Leibovitz and Lee McCool.

The match of interest this round was Lily Yip vs. Simone Yang. The higher rated Yip (2367) won the first, 21-19, but Yang (2289) won the next three. Match to Yang, -19,14,18,18. In the other five matches, the higher rated player won 3-0. Jun Gao Chang d. Allison Seibel, 10,7,14; Jasna Reed d. Whitney Ping, 10,6,11; Tawny Banh d. Jackie Lee, 12,12,12; and Virginia Sung d. Michelle Do, 16,20,11.

Whitney Ping sprained her ankle while practicing and had to default to Chang Jun Gao – a welcome reprieve for Gao, who was having shoulder problems.

The best match here was pips-out penholder Lily Yip’s 15,-17,17,21 battle with chopper Virginia Sung. In the fourth game, Yip led 17-11 – and lost eight in a row! The two are playing long, patient rallies, with Lily rolling or driving ball after ball, rarely smashing, and Virginia playing almost purely defensive. Yip goes up 20-19 match point, but Sung chops a net dribbler which Yip pushes into the net. Sun goes up 21-20, but Yip wins the next three.

In other matches, Jasna Reed d. Michelle Do, 18,-19,13,14; Tawny Banh d. Simone Yang, 15,-19,16,11; and Jackie Lee d. Allison Seibel, 8,13,10.

Tawny Banh and Virginia Sung battled for two games, splitting the two. In the second, Banh led 8-0, but Sung came back to win at 19. Then, mimicking almost exactly what Todd Sweeris had done just a few minutes before, she looped a winner from her wide forehand down the line, and wrenched her back in exactly the same spot! She continued the match, but obviously she was no longer able to play effectively. She is iffy about whether she will be able to continue. Match to Banh, 20-19,8,11.

Another big match was Lily Yip against Jasna Reed. Reed was shell-shocked the first game, but recovered to win the next three, -7,18,12,17.

In other matches, Chang Jun Gao d. Jackie Lee, 4,13,7; Simone Yang d. Allison Seibel, 16,11,9; and Michelle Do d. Whitney Ping, def.

Three players are at 3-0: Chang Jun Gao, Jasna Reed and Tawny Banh. Simone Yang is 2-1. At 1-2 are Virginia Sung, Lily Yip, Michelle Do and Jackie Lee. At 0-3 are Allision Seibel and Whitney Ping (who defaulted two due to ankle injury, and is likely out of the tournament).

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