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2001 U.S. Team Trials
Las Vegas, Nevada • December 18-23, 2001

Day Five: USA Nationals Men's & Women's Singles

By Larry Hodges

Men’s Singles Quarterfinals

Cheng Yinghua d. Nison Aronov, 5,5,2,-9,6,7

Nison might be the best lobber in the U.S., and he has a spectacular off-the-table topspin game. Nison often looked good. He just had trouble scoring these spectacular points. But he did pull out the fourth game.

Jim Butler d. Ashu Jain, -5,3,3,9,5,10

Ashu was having shoulder problems, and had defaulted his quarterfinal hardbat match to save himself for this match. He started out strong, winning the first easily, but after that he was too erratic, and Jim’s two-winged attack – forehand loop, backhand smash – was just too much. In the last game, down 8-10, Ashu made it to deuce, but Jim looped a winner, and Ashu whiffed a loop to end it.

Eric Owens d. Sean Lonergan, 10,-7,8,-5,7,7,10

Eric had a very difficult time here, just as he had in the Team Trials a few days before when he’d also had to battle to win (-7,11,6,8,-10,6). Sean often takes control of the serve & receive, and gets the first attack on. In the rallies, Sean’s backhand gives Eric trouble. But Eric’s forehand and footwork, and his much improved backhand, carry the day again. This time around, Eric took a 10-7 lead in the first, but had to win in deuce. Up 5-2 in the second, he loses 7-11. Down 3-6 in the third, he wins 11-8. (Yes, a topsy-turvy match!) After losing the fourth at 5, he’s behind 4-6 in the fifth, but scores six in a row and wins at 7. From 4-4 in the sixth, he wins at 7. Finally, with both players pulling off some major backhand block winners amongst a battle of forehand looping (Eric’s power, Sean’s steadiness), Eric pulls it out at 10.

David Zhuang d. Brian Pace, 2,5,11,7,7

It seemed like most of the games were close halfway, and then David would just turn it on. Brian faces to problems against David: First, David’s serve & receive are so good that they just take away Brian’s big forehand loop and footwork. Second, when Brian does get the big forehand, he’s not used to so many of them coming back. But Brian’s training in Europe in a league in Romania, and plans on staying their until he reaches 2700. His backhand seems to be improving, as is his receive, but need work to reach that level. His forehand and footwork remain the backbone of his game, already at the 2700 level. In game three, David led 10-8, but Brian pulled off two great shots to deuce it ... then, down 11-10, served into the net. The look of disgust on Brian's face might have melted his sponge.

Men’s Singles Semifinals

Cheng Yinghua d. Jim Butler, 7,-8,9,-8,-9,6,6,8

The match was as close as the scores indicate – this was not the dominant Cheng we knew from his arrival in 1988 to the late 1990s. He’s 43 years old, and it’s starting to show. Is he still nearly 2800, as his 2770 rating indicates? Possibly not. But he’s still “the one to beat,” and no one beats him without playing 2700 level. At his peak, Jim could play that level. Here, he was close, but not quite there yet. In the end, Cheng was able to take and hold leads, but you could see he wasn’t always comfortable, especially when Jim began hitting backhands. Jim, always a surprisingly good counterlooper, is winning most of those rallies as well.

After winning the first, Cheng led 8-6 in the second … and lost five in a row, through a combination of missed backhand loops and Jim’s backhand smash. But Cheng had his own streak of five, winning five in a row from down 5-3 in the second. Then Jim did another streak of five, from down 2-3 in the fourth. Jim led 9-6 in the fifth, lost three in a row, but pulled it out 11-9 to go up 3-2 in games. At this point, things did not look good for the aging Cheng. To this point, Cheng’s missing way too many backhand loops – a shot he used to almost never miss. He’s also playing too many points defensively, often not getting aggressive until near the end of the game and already behind.

But the next two games are all Cheng’s as he takes large early leads.

In the eighth, it looks like it’s going the full nine, as Jim leads 8-5. But here, when he really needs it, we see a bit of the Cheng of old as he takes control, and wins the last six in a row to win the match.

“Little by little, I’m coming back,” Jim said. “I need to be a little stronger, a little faster, in slightly better shape. I’ve only been playing again for six months, with Eric Owens and Roland Rittmaster. I’m a little slow. When I’m slow, I play a little soft.” He said his feet needed to be stronger and faster. “Without legs, you can’t do much against Cheng.”

Eric Owens d. David Zhuang, 8,7,-9,-9,11,-9,-3,9,6

Eric Owens had won the last two times they had played, winning 3-2 (games to 21) at the World Team Trials in February, and 4-3 (games to 11) in the U.S. Team Trials four days before. (David had beaten Eric at the 2000 Olympic Trials, the previous time they had played.) And for the third straight time, they went the distance … and for the third straight time, Eric pulled it out.

The crowd, for whatever reason, was decidedly pro-Eric. When Eric scored a point, they went crazy; when David scored, it was relatively quiet. Did this spur Eric on, or affect David? It's hard to say. At one point, David missed an easy shot, allowing Eric to tie the score - and the crowd had cheered very loudly. David looked up at them, smiled, and shook his head. At the crowd or at his missed shot? Unlike the Chinese David, Eric's a USA-born player, but he's been such a great champion that the crowd's treatment of him seemed rather unfair.

Eric played the match with two-winged looping ferocity. Whenever the ball was “loose,” he’d ripped a forehand. But “loose” is a loose term, and often he’d find “loose” balls where others would see an incoming winner. A lot of it is simple anticipation … and great confidence.

But you can’t beat the quick-blocking David without an excellent backhand, and Eric’s backhand seems to get better every year.

How close was the match? At one point, four straight games went to 9-all (games 3-6), with Eric winning three of them. David had his chances, especially in the fifth, where he led 10-9 before losing at 11. In the eighth, Eric went up 7-1 … and David, leading 4-3 and hoping to end it here, came back to 10-6, then 10-9! But Eric would have none of this – he flip killed David’s next serve for a winner to end it.

Between games, the crowd stomped their feet in rhythm so loudly you couldn't hear a neighbor speak.

In the ninth, David takes control, and goes up 4-1. And then a surprising thing happens. Until now, Eric’s been overpowering David when he scores. Eric starts to slow loop … and David misses! Up 4-3, David misses two smashes against these slow loops, and Eric’s up 5-4. Perhaps so used to the earlier power, David’s blocking begins to suffer, and his blocking becomes erratic. He misses another smash to fall behind 4-8. Then he makes a smash – but Eric counters it back for a clean winner! Eric’s now scored eight in a row, and leads 9-4. David scored the next two, but that was it. Eric won the last two points with slow loops, with David blocking one into the net, the other off the end. And Eric is in the final!

One streak was affected: Except for 1996, David had been in the Men’s Final every year starting in 1992 – 8 of the past 9 years. He’d been in the final four straight years, missed it once, then been in it the past four years. (He’d won it four times.) Will he begin a new streak next year?

Men’s Singles Final

Eric Owens d. Cheng Yinghua, 10,9,13,5,-4,5

The changing of the guard? It’s too soon to tell. There were no indications coming into this match that this would be Eric’s big breakthrough. After all, Cheng had beaten him in the team trials four days before at 6,7,6,2. He’d beaten him just as badly at the previous year’s Nationals, in the semifinals, at 11,10,15 (games to 21). He’d never lost to Eric, except for an injury plagued match at the North American Championships in 2000. So what was different?

Well, let’s face it. Cheng is 43, and not as fast as he once was. Having said that, the 43-year-old Cheng is still 2770, and if he’s not that level, he’s pretty close. It would take quite an effort from Eric to win – and that’s exactly what happened. Eric has now joined the select USA 2700 club. You put him, David and Cheng up against each other on any given day, and it's a toss-up.

Technically speaking, Eric may have the best forehand in the country. But from a top player’s perspective, that’s not enough. To Cheng, great forehands are a dime a dozen, and there are plenty of ways to stop a one-dimensional player. While Eric won many points with his big forehand, what he really won the match on was his backhand, his return of serve, and his blocking. Those are what gave his forehand a chance to get into play, and kept Cheng from scoring points that would normally have been Cheng’s.

Eric seems to have developed two backhand loops, and both are effective. He can do it over the table, spinning the ball quick, not giving the opponent time to react. And he can do it from off the table, controlling play from the backcourt until the opponent misses or he finds a chance to rip a forehand. Not surprisingly, this is almost the same way Cheng plays his backhand loops. It was almost as if Eric had developed a matching Cheng-like backhand (even blocking similarly), but a stronger forehand.

“Eric played unbelievable!” Cheng said afterwards. “I looped over and over, and he blocked everything back.”

Coaching Cheng between games (and in previous matches) is Tong Huang, Cheng's former coach from China, now living in California. Coaching Eric is Christian Lillieroos.

The match was closer than the 5-1 game scores show - but Eric won most of the key points. The first three games were 12-10, 11-9 and 15-13. Down 9-10 in the first, Cheng deuced it with a nice angled backhand block to Eric’s forehand, but lost it when Eric pulled off a spectacular backhand counterloop, and then Cheng missed a backhand loop of his own. Up 7-3 in the second, Cheng couldn’t hold off Eric’s attack, and Eric tied it up at 8-all. Cheng served and ripped a winner, but then missed a backhand loop and a flip, and Eric won, 11-9. In the third, Eric led 10-7, but Cheng charged back to deuce, and led 11-10, 12-11. At 12-all, Eric showed that he wasn’t just a forehand player – he backhand looped six in a row to win the point and lead 13-12. Cheng got a net to tie it 13-all, but Eric countered with an edge to lead 14-13. A nice short return of serve caught Cheng off guard, and Cheng lost the game by serving and pushing off … and Eric is up 3-0! And, when Eric rips at will in the fourth, and Cheng is erratic, he’s up 4-0!

Memories of David’s comeback against Razvan Cretu in the Team Trials a few days before come back. David lost the first three, then won four straight in that best of seven. But Cheng would have to win five straight here. And he starts in that direction, winning the fifth, 11-4.

But Eric’s not the Eric of four days before. At 2-2, he wins five in a row, and it’s essentially over. Or is it? Cheng switches to a backhand serve from the forehand side of the table for the rest of the game, and seems to give Eric some trouble. But twice he misses serve and backhand loops, and Eric continues to dominate on his own serve. The end comes quickly – at 9-5, Eric serve and loops, and Cheng blocks off; and 10-5, he serve and rips a winner, and the match is over. The King of USA Table Tennis has met defeat, and a new champion is born – the first U.S.-born player (in fact, the first player other than Cheng Yinghua or David Zhuang) to win since Jim Butler in 1993.

The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

[Note ... while this great match was going on, something a little less great was taking place. It was during the men's singles final that this writer's laptop computer was stolen from the USATT control desk, which delayed this report and other results by a few days. It was a bad men's singles final for Cheng and I. Since I couldn't get the result online, I told Eric we'd keep the result a secret, just among the thousand of us who were there. The photos on my computer were also gone, and so while I'll be getting a CD later from the photographer with the photos he'd taken - I have no fresh ones for this write-up.]

Women’s Singles Semifinals

Women's Singles Results

Chang Jun Gao d. Tawny Banh, 5,4,10,3,6

It was a pity that these two had to meet in the semifinals. They’d met in the final of Women’s Singles the past three years in a row. But this year, with Jasna Reed eligible for the first time, Tawny was third seed – and when they flipped the third and fourth seeds, she was stuck with Gao. It’s an argument against this system of flipping – wouldn’t it be fairer to simply have 1 play 4, 2 play 3? And set up the more obvious Tawny vs. Jasna match for the opportunity to play Gao in the final? (Or, in this case, Tawny and Michelle, since Michelle upset Jasna?) So we ended up with the two highest rated players in one semifinal. However, Gao has swept women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles for five straight years (and has already won women’s doubles and mixed doubles this year).There’s no stopping her – she’s just a level or two ahead of the competition. (It’s only been about four years since she was #3 in the world.) With her pips-out penhold steady blocking and pick-hitting, she simply isn’t seriously challenged – although Tawny gives her a battle in game three.

Virginia Sung d. Michelle Do, 6,7,3,10,-7,4

Michelle had played great in winning her quarterfinal match against Jasna, but playing a topspin player like her is very different than the chopping and pick-looping Virginia. Michelle doesn’t seem to have experience against choppers, and often doesn’t seem sure how to play this style. She gradually gets comfortable, and battles in games four and five (winning the latter at 7), but it’s too little too late. Like Eric in the men’s, we have a new finalist!

Women’s Singles Final

Chang Jun Gao d. Virginia Sung, 9,6,3,1,3

But finalist or not, there simply is no denying that Gao is simply too strong. While primarily a blocker against most players, Gao seems even better against choppers. Virginia starts off strong, and leads 9-6 in the first. But Gao scores 5 in a row to win. In the second, Virginia makes it to 5-5 – but Gao scores 5 in a row again, and wins at 6. In the third, Gao leads 6-3 – and wins the last 5 in a row. She follows that by scoring the first 10 in game four, 15 in a row! But Gao has a heart, and she intentionally smacks one in the net at 10-0 in the fourth, and wins 11-1. If she’d scored that point, it would have been a steady progression of scores: 9, 6, 3, 0! In the fifth, down 2-3, Gao scores 9 in a row! In all five games, Gao had had a streak of at least 5 in a row, and along the way had streaks of 15 and 9 in a row. She’s now completed her sixth straight sweep of the Nationals. In her four events – Women’s Singles & Doubles, Mixed Doubles and the Team Trials, she has a combined match record of 16-0, and a game record of 64-2, with Simone Yang in the Trials and Tawny Banh/Simone Yang in Women’s Doubles getting a game off her.