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

Day Four: Friday, July 6

By Larry Hodges

• Men's Singles

• Women's Singles

• North American Championships

Left-handed Trinko Keen has very fast reflexes, and seemed able to react to anything top-seeded Liu sent to him. In the first, Keen took an 18-14 lead. However, he then put Liu’s serve into the net three straight times! Whatever serves Liu had held back on and unleashed had done their job. Liu scored the three in a row as well (six in a row total), and led 20-18, finally winning 23-21. When Liu won the second one, another close one at 21-19, it pretty much ended Keen’s chances – and Liu killed him in the third.

Second-seeded Chiang could do no wrong, and poor Lee absolutely had no answers. That’s why penhold looping & jabbing Chiang is fifth in the world.

This was your usual, spectacular display by Saive, who roved the court lobbing, fishing, and racing around his backhand to loop forehands. Tasaki played with more discipline, stayed at the table, smashed efficiently, and generally had difficulty scoring against Saive’s acrobatic style. Saive is probably the most entertaining of players, and he uses more of the court than anybody. One worrisome note – Saive has been struggling with arm problems recently, but seemed all right here – so far.

This was the best match of the round. At the start, Huang was killing Schlager – basically killing everything Schlager could loop. Huang is a shakehander with pips on both sides (a rare style), but there seemed nothing Schlager could do. Huang won the first two games, and led 20-18 match point in the second. However – USA Coach Doru Gheorghe said, "Schlager is always coming back. Never count him out!" Schlager won four in a row to win. In the fourth, it is Huang’s turn to come back. Down 15-18, Huang scores four in a row – but once again, it is Schlager who comes back, winning the next three points to win – including the point at 19-20 where Huang smashed all out, and Schlager looped back a winner. So the match went into the fifth – and Huang takes an immediate 5-0 lead on Schlager’s serve, then 6-0. But Schlager ("Never count him out!") ties it at 11-all. Down 17-14, Schlager ties it at 17-all. Then he goes up 20-18 match point! But again, it is Huang’s turn to come back from this score, just as Schlager had in game three. Huang finally won, 23-21 in the fifth, in a match where the tide turned faster and more often then a ping pong ball.

Chuan, a close to the table two-winged looper (who looks no more than 16, and small for his age), won the first, and led 20-16 in the second. But Kreanga’s two-winged looping scored four in a row to reach deuce. Then Chuan served into the net! Soon, Kreanga seems to win, 25-23 – only Kreanga tells the umpire the ball hit the edge, and the point is Chuan’s (who didn’t seem to notice either). So much for nice guys – Chuan wins the game, 27-25, and after losing the third at deuce, easily wins the fourth.

• Jorg Rosskopf (GER) d. Ryo Yuzawa (JPN), 20,13,16
• Oh Sang Eun d. Timo Boll (GER), 14,16,-18,13
• Lucjan Blaszczyk (POL) d. Danny Heister (DEN), 17,-15,-15,14,17

Oh Sang Eun vs. Johnny Huang. Copyright 2001 by Evangelos Momios

Oh won the first, and led 20-18 in the second – but Huang deuced it, helped by Oh’s missed backhand smash at 20-19. (How many times have players blown 20-18 leads today already?) It took 58 points, but Huang finally pulled this game out, 30-28, and he dominated the rest of the way. In game four, Huang led 8-5 – and then scored the next 13 in a row to win 21-5!

Several years ago, the ITTF stopped using geographical separation in the draws, supposedly so Chinese players wouldn’t be spread out, and end up taking up all the final spots. (Much better to have them knock each other out, right?) So not only did Chuan have to play teammate Chang Yuan-Su in his first match, he had to play his other teammate – the Taipei #1 – Chiang in the quarterfinals. (These were the only three players from Taipei.) Against the world #5 player, Chuan should have little chance … right? But teammates get comfortable with each other, and using his backhand loop to pin Chiang down on his backhand, Chuan relentlessly looped his was to victory, taking out the tournaments second seed. In the third, Chiang had a 21-20 ad, but pushed Chuan’s serve into the net. In the fourth, Chuan was playing so well that even Chiang was smiling and shaking his head in disbelief.

The big point in the first game was at 23-all,when Liu looped, and stepped around his backhand to loop again – only Blaszczyk quick-blocked to the open forehand for an ace that Liu didn’t even try for. Blaszczyk follows with a ripping backhand loop to win that game. In the second, you can see the frustration in Liu as he falls behind 11-4 and 16-10. However, he gradually comes back, and pulls to 17-18. Then Blaszczyk is up 20-18 (how many times already today have players blown that lead? Here we go again!) Yes, Liu wins four in a row to win. The rest of the match is all Liu, as he dominates with his forehand loop from all over the court. Both of these players can loop over and over without moving off the table, but Liu seemed to be able to do so at will when he served.

Another entertaining performance from the counterlooping, fishing and lobbing Saive, with the shot-making Rosskopf as his comic relief. The key to the match was the third game, where Rosskopf led 19-16, with Saive serving. Saive scored all five to win the game.

USA’s Gao admitted before the match that she wasn’t very confident about this match, up against the world #19. It wasn’t the ranking that bothered her – she just knows how hard the Chinese team trains (she was one of their stars before moving to the U.S.), and so knows what she’s up against – and she no longer trains seriously. However, after losing the first two games pretty badly, Gao began to get back some of her former world #3 abilities. She makes it to 19-all (smashing Niu’s loop over and over) – and then, when Niu pops the ball up, Gao disastrously smashes into the net! However, she wins the next three points (smashing Niu’s loop at 20-20), and wins. In the fourth, Gao goes up 6-1, Niu ties it at 10-all, then Gao goes up 19-18, with Niu serving. Niu serve and loops three straight times, and wins 21-19.

Although Ryu, in the new rankings just out, had dropped from 8^th to 11^th, she was still well ahead of Svensson’s world #52 ranking. But Svensson, looping aggressively from both wings, won the first two against the forehand looping, backhand hitting Ryu. They are 17-all in the third, then 17-19; Svensson fishes Ryu down to get to 18-19, but loses at 18. Svensson stays with Ryu for much of the fourth as well, but Ryu pulls away at the end. In the fifth, there is a point at 8-10 where Svensson is back lobbing, counterloops suddenly, gets back into the point, and is forced to lob again before losing the point! Ryu gradually pulls away to win.

This was a battle of very tall and thin women – which seemed to describe a number of the members of the Chinese National Team, which seems to be a head taller than their teams of the past. Zhang, now ranked #2 in the world in new rankings just out, pulled out the close second game, and romped in the fourth.

Konishi is known for her vicious counterdriving – but against chopper Wang, she seemed barely able to score after the first game. Wang put on a chopping show with her nearly impregnable defense.

• Olga Nemes (GER) d. Csilla Batorfi (HUN), -15,11,19,7
• Aya Umemura (JPN) d. Jia Bei Bei (CHN), 20,-19,15,8
• Ni Xia Lian (LUX) d. Lee Eun Sil (KOR), 15,8,-11,16
• Fu Yu (CHN) d. Nishii Yuka (JPN), 12,18,-6,18

Who would have believed it! World #38 won the first two against World #2 Zhang! In the third, Zhang led 18-13 – but Nemes scored five straight (Zhang takes a timeout), and then goes up 20-19 match point. Zhang blocks six in a row, and finally deuces it – and wins, 22-20. Zhang takes complete control in the fourth … 21-7. However, Nemes takes the fifth, 21-18 – and the #1 seed is out!

After a slow start against the penhold flipping Luxembourger (who uses inverted and long pips, but favors the pips and dead blocks), Aya pulled out the second, and got stronger and stronger as the match went on. At the end, she was dominating.

In this all-Chinese match, Niu showed why she was world #19.

Ryu shows how to play choppers – but still has her hands full, unable to pull away in any game here.

For both men’s and women’s singles, three players advance from the preliminaries, to join two players seeded out (Johnny Huang and David Zhuang for the men, Chang Jun Gao and Chris Xu on the women’s side.)

Eric Owens (USA), USA junior star Mark Hazinski and Canada’s junior star Bence Csaba all finished 2-1 – but Csaba had beaten Hazinski 2-0, while getting a game from Eric, and so when it went to games to break the tie, he came in first, Mark second, Eric third. However, the top three all advanced (but with a better draw for coming in higher), with Canada’s Jean-Francois Roussy finishing 0-3.

Canada’s Pradeeban Peter-Paul had to work hard, but he managed to win all three matches. Barney J. Reed (USA), Brian Pace (USA), and Faazil Kassam (CAN) all finished 1-2 – and in the tie-breaker, Barney came in second, Faazil third, with Brian fourth, and so not advancing.

USA’s David Zhuang had little trouble with Canada’s Faazil Kassam, winning at 16,15,14. Canada’s Pradeeban Peter-Paul had even less trouble with USA’s Mark Hazinski, winning at 13,11,6. The big battle was Bence Csaba’s 15,-18,19,-16,12 win over USA’s Barney J. Reed. The fourth quarterfinal, between Canada’s Johnny Huang and USA’s Eric Owens, was rescheduled for Saturday morning, since Huang had ITTF Pro Tour matches. The semifinals will follow shortly afterwards.

The semifinals will be played Saturday morning, with the winner of Johnny Huang – Eric Owens facing Bence Csaba, and Pradeeban Peter-Paul facing David Zhuang.

USA’s Jasna Reed completely dominated the group, not losing a game. Coming in second was USA’s Virginia Sung, with a –15,14,19 win over teammate Simone Yang. Simone came in third, and so advanced, by defeating Canada’s Marie-Christine Roussy, 13,18, who did not advance.

Photos of Canada's Petra Cada copyright 2001 by Evangelos Momios

USA’s Tawny Banh was sick, and so defaulted out, and so the other three all advanced. Canada’s Petra Cada easily won her two matches, and Canada’s Wennin Chiu defeated USA’s Jackie Lee at 20,-13,14 to get the third spot.

Chang Jun Gao has no trouble with Jackie Lee, winning 16,13,7. Jasna Reed also has no difficulties, defeating Canada’s Wennin Chiu at 9,15,10. The other two matches here are much tougher: Virginia Sung barely chops down Petra Cada, -20,14,14,-19,19, while Simone Yang places the longest match of the event in defeating Chris Xu, -15,21,24,-13,13.

The semifinals will be played on Saturday morning, with Chang Jun Gao facing Virginia Sung, and Jasna Reed facing Simone Yang.

In a round robin of four teams playing for the title, USA’s David Zhuang/Eric Owens won all three – helped by the default of the Canadian #1 team, Johnny Huang/Pradeeban Peter-Paul, due to Huang’s being in the Pro Tour. The Canadian Junior Team, Bence Csaba/Faazil Kassam, defeated USA’s Barney J. Reed/Mark Hazinski.

North American Women’s Doubles will start and finish on Saturday.

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