2002 U.S. Nationals
Las Vegas, Nevada • December 18-21, 2002

Day Two - Thurday, Dec. 19

By Larry Hodges

Men's Singles

The first round of Men's Singles was completed (in addition to one round of qualifier matches to get into the main draw. Top-seeded Ilija Lupulesku's match with Thor Truelson was postponed to Friday, due to schedule conflicts. In the other 31 matches, the higher-rated player won 29. The main upset of the round was 18-year-old 2247-rated Jared Lynch's -12,7,-9,6,5 upset of Tahl Leibovitz, rated 2499. (However, Tahl would have his own upset later on, in Men's Doubles.) The other upset was 2165-rated Russell Hamilton's come-from-behind win over David Roberts (2317), -9,-8,4,4,4. One very close match was Rudy Miranda (2302) over Randally Ly (2107), -8,7,-10,3,9. The men are now down to the Final 32.

Men's Doubles

The top-seeded team of Eric Owens and Jim Butler, seeded into the quarterfinals, had their journey cut short when they were upset in a long, come-from-behind match (-12,-7,9,3,6) by Tahl Leibovitz and Nison Aronov, the sixth seeds. The comeback was punctuated by some rather incredible flip kills by Tahl, and some "Isn't the point over yet?" lob returns by Nison. However, Leibovitz/Aronov's journey ended the next round when they lost to the fourth seeds, Mark Hazinski/Ashu Jain, who reached the final. (Scores not yet available.)

On the other half of the draw, 44-year-old Cheng Yinghua and student Han Xiao - who turned 16 today - were seeded second, and cruised into the semifinals against the team of David Zhuang and Sean O'Neill - whose combined rating was 13 points lower than Cheng/Xiao. Cheng has won Men's Doubles at the Nationals twice - with Todd Sweeris in 1996 and with Jack Huang in 1997. But Zhuang has won it six times, including the last three years (with Eric Owens last year, with Sweeris for two years in a row before that). O'Neill has won it five times, including twice with Zhuang - back in 1992-1993. So when "11-time Men's Doubles Champions" (combined) Zhuang/O'Neill win the first two games (both at deuce) against the "2-time Champions" (combined) Cheng/Xiao, the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of the more "experienced" team. But the match goes to Cheng/Xiao, -10,-12,7,7,10, who will meet Hazinski/Jain in the final on Friday.

Women's Singles

There were no "upsets" in the first round of the main draw as the higher-rated player won every match that was played. However, for unknown reasons, there were three "upsets" by virtue of defaults: Wendy Eav (1767) over Jane Chui (2135); Melissa Vazquez (1568) over Laura Leach (1940); and Moji Kuye (1822) over Laura Xiao (2005). The women are down to the Final 16.

Women's Doubles

In one semifinal match, the easily-top-seeded team of Chang Gao Jun/Jasna Reed won 6,7,9 over Lily Yip and daughter Judy Hugh. The other semifinals, Whitney Ping/Jackie Lee vs. Tawny Banh/Simone Yang, will be played on Friday.

Over 40 Men and Under 22 Men

See previous story on Cheng Yinghua's and Mark Hazinski's dominance of these events.

Under 22 Women

Whitney Ping was the 9,10,-6,6 Champion over Jackie Lee. However, the real stories in this event came earlier. Third seed Michelle Do (2215) lost in the quarterfinals to Laura Leach (1940), despite a near comeback by Do. The scores tell the story: 10,11,-4,-3,9. However, Ping (2239) defeated Leach in the semifinals, 8,7,8. On the other side, Katherine Wu, seeded fourth, was on her way to upsetting top-seeded Jackie Lee (2245), winning the first two games, and leading 10-8 match point in the fourth, before Lee painstakingly worked her way back into this match of all-out bang-bang counter-hitting, -4,-9,7,10,9.

Over 50 Women

Second-seeded Mahin Roufeh (1913) upset defending champion and top-seeded Charlene Liu (1987) in the final, 6,9,-13,9.