$92,000 U.S. Open 
& ITTF Pro Tour
Fort Lauderdale, Florida • July 3-8, 2001

Day Five: Saturday, July 7

By Larry Hodges

Complete Results for the ITTF Pro Tour

U.S. Men's Coach Dan Seemiller (L) in the TV booth. Copyright 2001 by Larry Hodges

Liu Guozheng has a reputation of being a slow starter, but a fast finisher. In this match, he was true to form – he got creamed by a red-hot Saive in the first game (where he was down 16-5), but from there on, it was mostly all Liu. Saive took a 15-9, the 16-12 lead in the third, but Liu scored seven in a row to take the lead, with Saive missing his serve three times in a row from 16-all (looping one into the net, the next two off). Up 19-18, Liu mis-hit and popped a serve up in the air – but Saive missed a loop kill that would have tied it. Liu won that game at 18. Saive, who had been having arm problems recently, grabbed his arm a number of times in the fourth, and it was obvious he was having problems with it, although it didn’t seem to affect him much until late in the match.

This would be an interesting contrast of styles: Johnny’s pips-out on both sides shakehands grip, with an all-out close to the table hitting style, against Chuan’s acrobatic two-winged close-to-the-table looping style.

Let’s look at Johnny’s "march" to the final:

• Defeats Robert Gardos, -15,18,14,-17,22 (wins on a net ball)
• Defeats Werner Schlager, 11,14,-20,-19,21 (down 20-18 in fifth)
• Defeats Oh Sang Eun, -16,28,16,5 (down 20-18 in second)
• Defeats Chuan Chi-Yuan, -15,-19,17,12,12 (down 13-7 in third)

He’s like an escape artist, isn’t he?

Once again, Johnny "escaped," this time after losing the first two games. Chuan led all of the first game, and 7-3 in the second. Johnny tied it at 11-all, and led 14-12 – but Chuan scored five in a row. Finally, Chuan is serving up 20-19 – and snaps a backhand serve down the line to Johnny’s vacant forehand, since he’s already stepped around his backhand corner to attack the serve with his forehand! Ace! And second game (and a 2-0 game lead) to Chuan.

Now it gets even worse for Johnny. Down 9-5 in the third, Johnny takes a timeout, but it doesn’t seem to help. He falls behind 7-13. Chuan, a small but acrobatic 19-year-old (who looks even younger) is able to play at Johnny’s relentless pace.. He’s making powerful backhand loops even off of Johnny’s best backhand hits, and seems relentless in his attack. He’s just come off beating world #4 Chiang Peng-Lung, and he’s up 2-0 and 13-7 on Johnny.

So Johnny scores six in a row, and it’s 13-all.

Down 13-15, Johnny scores five in a row again, 18-15. A few points later, and Johnny has survived, 21-17 – but he's still down 2-1 in games.

At 2-2 in the fourth, after a great rally of Johnny smashing Chuan’s loops, and Chuan looping them right back, Chuan’s misses a shot. He then asks Johnny if the ball hit his shirt during the rally. In answer, Johnny walks over to the scoreboard and flips the score to give Chuan the point, 3-2 Chuan. However, it would be the last lead Chuan would have this match as Johnny ran away with these last two games, both at 12. Chuan seemed to get more erratic as the match went on – or was he getting tired from all the acrobatic play? There wasn’t much for Chuan’s fans to cheer for in the rest of this match, except perhaps for the spectacular catch by a cameraman of a ball Chuan mishit off his racket edge and out of the court.

Most thought Liu would win this easily – he is ranked #4 in the world, to Johnny’s 38^th. However, Johnny has been ranked in the top 20, and his all-out hitting style, when on, gives nearly everyone trouble. Liu’s spectacular two-winged looping game – similar to Chuan’s, but more powerful – seems invincible to all but the best.

The points were sensational, but can’t be adequately described in print. However, none of the first four games were particularly close. There were times when either player became so hot there was nothing the other player could do except wait for him to cool down, or match him in hotness.

In the fifth, Huang takes an 11-7 lead, and Liu takes a time-out. The transition was immediate – Liu scores 9 of the next 12 points, and leads 16-13. At 18-15, Liu wins a point on a net, 19-15. Johnny then hammers three backhand kills to score one point, 19-16, and is serving at the end.

He’ll remember the next point for some time. He launches a tricky serve that Liu pops up – but Huang, with one of the best smashes in the game, misses! So instead of 19-17, it’s 20-16 match point. You can see the utter disgust in Johnny’s face. As if to make up for it, Johnny gets a net ball to win the next point (20-17), but Liu loops in Johnny’s next serve to win the point, game, match and the Men’s Singles crown.

World #39 Olga Nemes has been the sensation of the women’s singles so far, with wins over top-seeded and world #2 Zhang Yining, and world #21 Csilla Batorfi. Now she’s up against world #90 Aya Umemura – at least, in the ratings on hand. One week before, Aya had won women’s singles at the Brazilian Open, so you can junk that #90 ranking. She’s a very powerful two-winged looper – she basically plays a "man’s" power game, with feet wide, and threatening to loop winners from both wings off anything. In contrast, Olga loops her forehand, but hits her backhand – and the result was that Olga spent most of the match blocking while Aya tied her up with one loop after another. Aya won the first two relatively easily. Olga ran away with the third when Aya’s loops became erratic, and Olga’s hard-hitting backhand kept going through Aya. In the fourth, Olga continues to press the backhand hitting attack, and leads 14-11. But at 15-13, Aya scores four in a row. Olga calls a timeout, but it doesn’t help. Aya wins and advances to the final.

This match-up was similar to the Umemura-Nemes match-up, in that Ryu plays somewhat like Olga (looping forehand, hitting backhand), while Niu plays somewhat like Aya (looping from both sides). In both matches, the player with controlling backhand loop controlled play and won. In this case, Niu, laughingly ranked #21 in the world to Ryu’s #9, dominated from start to finish. In the third game, she led 9-0 and 16-1.

Here we have two players ranked #21 and #90 in the world in an ITTF Pro Tour Final! However, the #21 really should be somewhere in the top five or better, while the #90 probably should in the top twenty or better. However, in this match, there was no contest. Niu so controlled play that it was as if no match was being played, they were just rallying until Niu looped a winner or Aya missed. In the third game, Niu led 11-0 and 19-1, and won at 2.

The Polish/Greek team of Lucjan Blaszczyk/Kalinikos Kreanga, besides having the most interesting names here, also has pulled off the biggest win, taking out the top-seeded team from Austria, Werner Schlager/Karl Jindrak. However, most thought of the Taiwan team as the team to beat. That proved to be the case, as Chiang Peng-Lung/Chang Yuan-Su won at 16 & 14.

More interesting is a comparison of the two teams:

• Taiwan had two right-handed penholders; Poland/Greece two right-handed shakehanders
• The two Taiwan players towered over the much smaller Europeans, going against stereotypes.

L-R: Azmy Ibriham, Tong Lee, Women's Doubles Champions Niu Jianfeng & Bai Yang. Copyright 2001 by Larry Hodges

It wasn’t a match, it was an execution, and was over so fast that fans had to wait half an hour for the next big match. The women played fast, and China’s Niu Jianfeng and Bai Yang completely dominated over Korea’s Lee Eun Sil/Ryu Ji Hye. China had an advantage, since Bai was left-handed, giving them a lefty/right combination. However, the real advantage the Chinese had was the play of Niu, who an hour after this match would win the Women’s Singles title.

Winning the North American Championships is more than just a title – the winner represent North America at the World Cup – and even the last-place finisher there gets several thousand dollars. So it’s a hotly contested title.

The event was held up over and over by Johnny Huang, who was round by round advancing to the ITTF Pro Tour Men’s Singles Final. His quarterfinal match with Eric Owens, scheduled for Friday night, had to be rescheduled for Saturday morning.

Three of the matches were pretty straightforward. Only Canadian junior star Bence Csaba’s five-gamer over USA Team Member Barney J. Reed was a battle. It wasn’t a good quarterfinals for USA.

• Johnny Huang (CAN) d. Eric Owens (USA)
• Bence Csaba (CAN) d. Barney J. Reed (USA)
• Pradeeban Peter-Paul (CAN) d. Mark Hazinski (USA)
• David Zhuang (USA) d. Faazil Kassam (CAN), 16,15,14

As expected, Johnny Huang (in a very delayed match) had no trouble with Csaba, winning at 10,12,18. It was also expected that David Zhuang would win relatively easily against Peter-Paul. It was not to be – the Canadian was able to rally everything David threw at him, and ended up winning, -12,18,-14,18,12.

The long-delayed final got underway at 8PM on Friday night, after most players and fans had already left. It was not expected that Peter-Paul could put up much of a fight against Johnny, but after his win over Zhuang, anything was possible, especially since Johnny, like Zhuang, uses short pips. In the first game, Peter-Paul does take a 19-18 lead. However, from there on, it’s all Johnny, 19,8,14.

Men’s doubles was dominated by David Zhuang/Eric Owens (USA), but helped in part by the default out of the event of Canada’s #1 team, Johnny Huang/Pradeeban Peter-Paul (presumably due to Johnny’s many ITTF Pro Tour matches). Zhuang/Owens came in first, defeating the Canadian junior team of Bence Csaba/Faazil Kassam at 20 & 10. Csaba/Kassam defeated Barney J. Reed/Mark Hazinski (USA) for second place.

As expected, USA’s Chang Jun Gao completely dominated the event, winning all three of her matches 3-0, with no one getting more than 17 in a game. She defeated teammate and doubles partner Jasna Reed in the final, 7,16,17, teammate Virginia Sung in the semifinals, 11,12,18, and probable future teammate Jackie Lee (#1 U.S. Under 16 Girl) in the quarterfinals, 16,13,7. On the other side, Jasna had a surprising semifinals struggle with teammate Simone Yang, going five games before winning, -19,14,-15,7,12. While Canada had dominated men’s singles, USA dominated women’s singles, with all four semifinalists on the U.S. team. (Missing was USA #3 Tawny Banh, who had defaulted the day before in the preliminaries due to illness.)

North American Women's Doubles Champions Chang Jun Gao and Jasna Reed. Copyright 2001 by Larry Hodges

As expected, USA’s Chang Jun Gao/Jasna Reed dominated, winning all three matches easily. The other three teams finished in a three-way tie:

• Tawny Banh/Virginia Sun (USA) defeated Chris Xu/Petra Cada (CAN), 17,-19,18
• Chris Xu/Petra Cada (CAN) defeated Marie-Christine Roussy/Wennin Chiu (CAN), 7,15
• Marie-Christine Roussy/Wennin Chiu (CAN) defeated Tawny Banh/Virginia Sung (USA), 12,-15,13

In the tie-breaker, which went to games, Xu/Cada came in second, Banh/Sung third.

Here are today’s results (more complete results are at the U.S. Open Results Page):

• Hardbat Singles: Lily Yip d. Alexis Perez, 11,15,18. (This writer was the only one to get a game off of Lily, in the quarterfinals! Lily has been in at least six major hardbat finals, but this was her first win.
• Over 40 Men’s Singles: Atanda Musa d. Hui Yuan Liu, 13,20. Musa would also win Under 2600.
• Over 40 Women’s Singles: Barbara Kaminsky d. Mahin Roufeh, -19,18,17. Barbara had won Over 50 Women’s Singles the day before, giving her a sweep of the two events.
• Over 40 Doubles: Hui Yuan Liu/Dave Sakai d. Barry Dattel/Dickie Fleisher, 5,-19,4.
• Over 50 Singles: George Brathwaite d. David Sakai, def. George would seep the Over 50 events, and won Over 60 the day before.
• Over 50 Doubles: George Brathwaite/Dave Sakai d. Richard Hicks/Nick Mintsiveris, 11,11.
• Over 60 Doubles: Richard Hicks/Nick Mintsiveris d. Bohdan Dawidowicz/Marvin Leff, 22,-16,15.
• Over 70 Singles: Tim Boggan d. Grady Gordon, 17,-20,16. Tim was up 20-15 match point in the second, but Grady scored seven in a row. But Tim managed to win the third.
• Over 80 Singles: Louis Radzeli d. Arthur B. Chase, -17,10,15.
• Under 22 Men’s Singles: Jose Miquel Ramirez d. Ashu Jain, -19,12,17.
• Under 18 Boy’s Singles: Bence Csaba d. Faazil Kassam, -20,10,20. An all-Canadian Junior Final.
• Under 18 Boys’ Doubles: Rommel Farley/Dyson Benskin d. Adam Hugh/Yin Wang, 20,22.
• Under 16 Doubles: Howard Lamb/Yin Wang d. Waltz/Waltz, 12,14. I couldn’t find out which Waltz’s these were. Anyone know?
• Under 14 Boys’ Singles: Adam Hugh d. Daniel Toadjer, -18,10,25.
• Under 14 Girls’ Singles: Karen Ma d. Judy Hugh, -15,18,17. A rather large upset, as Karen’s rating is 1561, to Judy’s 1815.
• Under 14 Doubles: Daniel Toadjer/Lorencio Lupulesku d. Atha Fong/Judy Hugh, 9,13. Team Yugoslavia wins! Toadjer would also make the Under 14 Boys’ Singles final – losing 27-25 in the third!
• Under 2600: Atanda Musa d. Sasa Drinic, 19,-19,19. Musa would also win Over 40 Men’s Singles.
• Under 2100: Ka Chun Tse d. Daryl Strachan, 13,12. Ka was a strange case. He had played one tournament before this one, and played only three matches, the best one rated 1488. He came out rated 1602. However, he is at least a 2300 player. He completely dominated the field. He was nice enough to default out of the lower rating events, where he would have butchered the field.
• Under 2100 Women: Whitney Ping d. Emily Ping, def. All in the family.
• Under 1900: Alphanso Murray d. Thomas Haynes, 18,-18,16.
• Under 1800/Over 40: Lon Dean d. Mark Kobernick, 22,13.

Under 1800/Over 40 Champion Lon Dean. Copyright 2001 by Ben Guenther. 

• Under 1650: Hector Berrios d. Hugh Lu, 17,17.
• Under 1350: Jerica Marrero d. Andrew Lin, -19,18,9.
• Under 1000: Evan Ng d. Preston Chin, 19,10.
• Men’s Wheelchair Class 1-2: Michael Lo Russo d. Barry Butler, 10,9.
• Men’s Wheelchair Class 4-5: Andre Scott d. Mike Dempsey, 23,28.
• Men’s Standing Disabled Class 6-7: Norman Bass d. Wayne Lo, 27,16.

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