| |
2002
U.S. Nationals
By Larry Hodges
Women's Doubles
Jasna
Reed loops a backhand while partner Chang Gao Jun watches. The two won Women's
Doubles for the second straight year. Photo by Diego Schaaf/alphatabletennis.com,
©2002.
Chang Gao Jun and Jasna Reed easily won Women's Doubles for the second year in a row, defeating Tawny Banh/Simone Yang in the final for the second year in a row, 11,-7,4,7. The scores were similar to last year's scores (7,6,-12,9) - in fact, this year Chang/Reed scored exactly 55.6% of the points, while last year it was an even 56.0%! So the difference between Champions and Finalists is often just a few percentage points.
This was the seventh straight year that Chang has won Women's Doubles! She won in 1996-97 with Amy Feng; in 1998 with Virginia Sung; with 1999-2000 with Michelle Do; and 2001-2002 with Reed. Reed, of course, is no slouch at doubles - she won the bronze medal for Women's Doubles at the 1988 Olympics. Chang won the silver medal for Women's Doubles at the 1992 Olympics. That makes for a pretty strong team!
Men's Doubles
With Han Xiao turning 16 the day before, winn Men's Doubles would be a nice birthday present - especially since they had had to come back from down 2-0 in the semifinals to win deuce in the fifth on his birthday! (No lead is safe.) Mark Hazinski is himself 17, so it is a battle of the two top USA juniors. (But Han has Cheng, who, even at age 44, is over 2700.) The most striking things about the match were the way Cheng controlled points, and the way Hazinski would pull out seemingly impossible winning counterloops to keep his team in the match.) Han and Cheng Yinghua won the first two games in the final against Hazinski and Ashu Jain. Down 7-8 in the third, they win three straight and have two match points, 10-8. Hazinski rips a counterloop for a winner, and Ashu scoops a net dribbler back on the table and Han whiffs the loop, and it's 10-10. Two powerful loops later, and the first two match points are blown. (No lead is safe.) In the second, Hazinski/Jain go up 9-4, but (no lead is safe), lose six in a row and it's 10-9 match point for Han & Cheng. Then 11-10. Then 12-11. (No lead is safe.) But somehow Hazinski/Jain keep pulling them out, and after fighting off three more match points (no lead is safe), they win the fourth, 14-12! In the fifth, Hazinski/Jain go up 7-6 - but Cheng/Xiao score four in a row, and it's match point #6 - three of them, in fact, 10-7. Hazinski/Jain call a timeout (no lead is safe?), but when they return, Cheng rips the first ball for a winner, and the match is over - 5,10,-10,-12,7. Happy Birthday, Han!
| |
| USA Table Tennis - Serving the Table Tennis Community |
| |