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Fort Lauderdale, Florida • July 3-7, 2002

 

First Round Men's Singles

By Larry Hodges

China's Kong Linghui advanced to the next round. Photo by Diego Schaaf, copyright 2002

This round brought us to the final 32 men. 

Missing from the draw were Timo Boll, world #3, and Fan Yi Yong, U.S. #1, neither of whom showed (for unknown reasons). In the draw, but not showing, were the two Poland stars, Tomasz Krzeszewski and Lucjan Blaszczyk, ranked 27 and 31 in the world, respectively. Advancing in their places were Hugo Hoyama (BRA) and Thomas Keinath (GER).

There were two 7-game matches among the 32 matches played - but ten 6-gamers. 

In one 7-gamer, Japan's Arai Shu, an unranked player who had made it through the qualifier by defeating Norway's Geir Erlandsen (world #66), defeated Denmark's phenom, Michael Maze (world #57), in a seesaw match, 12,3,-4,-6,-9,7,2. Shu seems to be a new force to watch. He will play Hugo Hoyama of Brazil (world #103) in the next round, and if he makes it past that, he'll face Wang Liqin. 

In the other 7-gamer, China's Guo Jinhao (an unranked qualifier) upset Hong Kong's Li Ching (world #50), 10,-7,-6,3,-9,5,6.

The biggest upset of the day was probably Norway's Istvan Moldovan (world #150) over  Netherland's Trinko Keen (world #22).

In other matches:

USA's David Zhuang (world #122) defeated Luxembourg's Ciociu Trajan (world #143), -6,7,6,-11,7,12. Zhuang was the only USA player to advance, and will face Hong Kong's Cheung Yuk (world #26) in the next round.

World #1, men's singles world champion and top seed Wang Liqin of China, known as a slow starter, started out slowly, losing the first game to Germany's Bastian Steger, #85 in the world. Wang struggled throughout, and almost had to go the full seven games (if he hadn't pulled out the 14-12 fourth game) in winning -11,8,7,12,-9,6. 

Maze's teammate, Martin Monrad (world #90), almost took out Germany's Torben Wosik (world #41), losing -9,9,4,-10,7,9.

Brazil's Thiago Monteiro battled with Austria's Werner Schlager. Photo by Diego Schaaf, copyright 2002

Two Brazilian's played well. Cazuo Masumoto (the unranked qualifier who had defeated USA's Jim Butler to advance) upset Japan's Toshio Tasaki, world #40, -4,8,8,7,-12,9. Thiago Monteiro, also of Brazil - ranked just 179 in the world, but with a win over then #16 in the world Christophe Legout at the last World Championships - battled with Austria's Werner Schlager (world #7) before losing 6,9,-8,10,-6,5. 

Honk Kong's Leung Chu Yan (world #56) avoided a 7-game match by pulling the sixth, 17-15, against Germany's Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth (world #101), 7,-10,6,6,-8,15. 

Korea's Oh Sang Eun came from behind to advance. Photo by Diego Schaaf, copyright 2002

Korea's Oh Sang Eun, world #14, lost the first two games to Denmark's Finn Tugwell (world #96), but came back to win, -9,-8,8,8,9,7.

Of the six USA men in the round, only David Zhuang (see above) was left. The other five were:

For complete first-round results, see the men's singles draw. 

  Back to the 2002 U.S. Open Home Page

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