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

Day Four - Saturday, Dec. 21

Men's and Women's Singles

By Larry Hodges

Women's Semifinals

Chang Gao Jun vs. Lily Yip

Could Lily give Gao a run for it? Gao is going for her seventh straight women's singles title - and let's face it, everyone pretty much expects her to win. While the two pips-out penholders superficially play alike, they actually are very different styles. Lily is the more conventional pips-out penholder, with a very fast, quick backhand and all-out forehand smash. She forces the attack constantly, pressing her opponents into mistakes, and ending the points quickly. Gao, on the other hand, is more of a steady blocker who picks her shots. She plays longer rallies, and rarely forces the shot. Formerly ranked as high as #3 in the world, she is the huge favorite.

Lily keeps the first two games pretty close, losing both 11-7. (Down 7-8, Lily miss-tosses a high-toss serve, and has to go lunging almost to the umpire's chair to run the ball down, but misses the serve.) Lily goes up 6-2 in the third, and leads 7-5 before Gao ties it at 9-all. Lily leads 10-9, 11-10, and wins 12-10, to the cheers of the crowd, many of them rooting for the underdog. But from there on, it's all Gao. Final scores are 7,7,-10,4,1.

Jasna Reed vs. Tawny Banh

The perfect match-up of the all-around European shakehand inverted style of Jasna, and the all-out attack Chinese shakehand style of Tawny Banh, with her pips-out backhand hitting and close-to-the-table forehand looping. Jasna seemed to have trouble with Tawny's pace at first, and Tawny won the first, 11-7. From there on, Jasna mostly dominated - except that, up 10-6 in the second, Tawny scored 6 in a row! But from down 0-2 in games, Jasna won the last four relatively easily. Tawny had her chance in the fifth game at 8-all, but Jasna won three in a row. Final scores were -7,-10,7,4,8,4.

The final between Chang Jun Gao and Jasna Reed will be played at 7:30 PM on Saturday night.

Men's Quarterfinals

Ilija Lupulesku vs. Han Xiao

In the first two games, Lupulesku won easily. The next two games, he often seemed to soft, ready to back up and spin too softly, and Han was able to stay in both games most of the way. But the lefty "Loopy" was just too strong, winning at 3,5,7,7.

Cheng Yinghua vs. Jim Butler

"That's going to be close," said U.S. Men's Coach Dan Seemiller of this match - and he was right. Jim is obviously back at 100% after taking several years off before starting his comeback a couple of years ago. He's been practicing regularly with Eric Owens, and he often seemed to be dominating the match. But Cheng ... is Cheng, as someone said, and there's no counting him out, no matter how many backhand smashes Jim pulled out. Both players were very good all-around players, but both have extremely good backhands. However, they play their backhands completely different. Cheng is steady, never seems to miss, and he can either counter or loop. Given the chance, he'll backhand loop most opponents off the table. Jim has one of the most spectacular backhand kills in the world - yes, the world - and he landed them over and over, forcing Cheng to play more into his forehand.

In the first - and in what would quite possibly be the key "event" of the match - Jim led 9-4 and 10-9, only to lose 12-10. He would win the next two games, and so could have been up 3-0 in the best of seven. (Cheng led 7-5 in the third before losing six in a row, so he could have been up 2-1.) Cheng's steadiness and sudden forehand loop kills matched up with Jim's backhand kill, serves and all-around play, and Cheng pulled out the fourth, 11-9, from down 8-9. In the fifth, Cheng fell behind 2-5, then scored 7 in a row to go up 9-5 and then 10-8 - and barely pulled it out, 11-9. The sixth was almost a replay - this time, down 2-4, Cheng scored 4 in a row, then led 9-6, 9-8 ... 11-8. Match to a very tired, 44-year-old Cheng, 10,-9,-7,9,9,8. How close was the match? Cheng out-scored Jim by a total of 3 points: 61-58.

David Zhuang vs. Khoa Nguyen

The crowd was mostly for Khoa, from nearby California, and when he won a point - usually in spectacular fashion - they erupted. However, Khoa doesn't train as much as he used to, and David does - and so David controlled most of the points, even if it often meant blocking back an onslaught of Khoa's best shots. David's change of pace seemed to keep Khoa off balance. Khoa won the third, and had one last-gasp chance in the fifth, down 3-1 in games. Down 9-7, he caught David out of position, and David half-lobbed the ball back - but somehow Khoa got caught, and rather than kill it, he ended up blocking it into the net. Match to David, 7,7,-7,4,7.

Eric Owens vs. Todd Sweeris

Defending Champion Eric Owens had the benefit of practicing with Jim Butler, but the added pressure of college. Todd, on the other hand, had taken a year off, and had only started his comeback two months before. It would be a match-up of Eric's very physical looping game vs. Todd's quickness; Eric's foot speed and all-out forehand looping power vs. Todd's closer-to-the-table forehand loop and pips-out hitting backhand.

Most of the match was in the first two games. Todd led 7-3 and 9-5 in the first, but after four game points, lost 16-14. Todd led 7-0 in the second, and barely held off Eric's comeback (8-7) in winning 11-7. The next three games were most Eric as he looped and counterlooped his way in winning the match 14,-7,3,5,7. "I'm tired!" Eric said afterwards. "It's not easy being a pre-med student!"

Semifinals

The semifinal match-ups, which will be played one at a time starting at 5:00 PM, are: