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Fort Lauderdale, Florida • July 3-7, 2002

 

Third Round Men's Singles, to Quarterfinals

By Larry Hodges

An interesting thing to watch this round was who was using hidden serves, and who was not. Since hidden serves become illegal on Sept. 1, some were using them right up to the last minute; others were preparing for the future. It seemed that the Chinese (except Liu Guoliang) were no longer using hidden serves, while the others were. Perhaps they were using this to test their players in the new serving era? Liu Guoliang, however, continued to use his hidden serves, probably the best in the world. U.S. Team Member and former Chinese Team Member Cheng Yinghua said, "Liu told me that this is his last few tournaments, that he is going to coach full-time after the new service rule." Liu was also hurt by the bigger 40mm ball, since his game is based on speed, and the larger ball slows play down slightly. China has already begun the transition, pairing Liu's regular doubles partner, Kong Linghua, with Ma Lin, and putting Liu with Guo Jinhao. One interesting question - if Liu does very well here and in the next few tournaments before "retiring," and qualifies for the ITTF Pro Tour Final, will he play there? 

The major upset this round was Sweden's Fredrik Hakansson (world #33 and the current Swedish National Men's Singles Champion) defeating China's Liu Guozheng (world #10), 4,6,-3,9,12. It was a battle of big bashers, with both going for shots, especially Liu. Hakansson had a knack for blocking back clean winners off some of Liu's off-the-bounce power loops, and ran away with the first two games. Up 3-1 in games, Hakansson went up 7-1 in the fifth, and the match was about over - until Liu Guozheng ran off five in a row, 7-6! "Liu is good at coming back," said U.S. Under 16 Champ Han Xiao, remembering Liu's spectacular comebacks in the team competition at the worlds versus Kim Taek Soo. Hakansson went up 9-7, but Liu came back again to 9-9. Hakansson had three match points, but couldn't convert until the score reached 12-all. That's when Liu serve and absolutely pulverised the return with a forehand loop from the backhand corner - and watched helplessly as Hakansson blocked back a clean winner to the wide forehand. Hakansson then serve and looped, and when Liu missed the counterloop, Sweden was in the quarterfinals. 

The most spectacular match was the counterloop spectacle between the tall, arm-whip looping Oh Sang Eun of Korea (world #14) versus the short, run-to-every-ball-and-loop Chuan Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei (world #17 and a semifinalist last year). Most spectators thought the extremely fast Chuan would win, and when he won the first two easily (4,6), it looked that way. From there on, the level kept rising, and soon the two were trading loops from both wings, including some spectacular backhand counterlooping. Chuan's speed finally paid off as he won, 4,6,-9,-6,10,6.

Liu Guoliang of China (world #9) had to struggle again, this time with Torben Wosik of Germany. Wosik is a lefty shakehand power-looper who seemingly couldn't return half of Liu's serves, popping them up or missing them silly-like over and over. And yet, after the first game, he basically battled dead even with Liu. At one point, I watched him miss nearly every one of Liu's serves one game - and still won the game. Liu went up 3-2, and led 10-7 match point in the sixth - and called time-out, perhaps to discuss with his coach what serve to use. He chose the wrong one, and Wosik pulled to 10-9. On the last point, Liu pulled off a spectacular smash, and Wosik lobbed three before surrendering the match, 4,-9,10,8,-11,9.

Thomas Keinath of Germany (world #94) continued on his roll, this time upsetting Leung Chu Yan of Hong Kong (world #56), who had upset China's Wang Hao to get this far. USA's Wally Green, who has been playing and coaching in Germany, was his coach for the match and tournament, and spurred on by Wally's exhuberance, Keinath (a steady two-winged looper with good serves) pulled it out (especially that second game), 5,14,-9,7,-5,5.  

Werner Schlager of Austria (world #7) had his counterlooping hands full with Korea's Lee Chul Seung (world #30). Schlager is a two-winged shakehand looper known for his spectacular backhand loop, while Lee is an inverted penhold power-looper. The two slugged it out for seven games, with Schlager shrugging off an 11-1 shellacking in the sixth to win it, -11,8,8,-7,4,-1,6.

The other three matches were quick 4-0 wins for Chinese players: Qin Zhijian (world #54, but giant-killer of Wang Liqin the round before) defeated Brazil's Hugo Hoyama (world #103), 8,6,4,3, using his short game to stop Hugo's lefty penhold attack; Kong Linghui (world #5) defeated Hong Kong's Cheung Yuk (world #26), 10,6,4,6, using a unique backhand serve with the tip up, and the racket moving right-to-left; and Ma Lin (world #2) defeated Austria's Karl Jindrak (world #171), 10,4,3,7.

For complete second-round results, and for the 8ths match-ups, see the men's singles draw. 

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