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Fort Lauderdale, Florida • July 3-7, 2002

USA Players in the ITTF Pro Tour Preliminaries

By Larry Hodges

Men

Two USA men were advanced into the main draw, and didn't have to play in the preliminaries - David Zhuang and Eric Owens. The rest had to qualify by winning their preliminary group, usually of three players. USA players advancing into the main draw of 64 players to join Zhuang and Owens were the following:

Atanda Musa, 2-0 (d. Jorg Bitzigero GER 4-1, d. Kao Chien-Ting TPE 4-0)
Cheng Yinghua, 2-0 (d. Carlos Olea CHI 4-0, d. Lee Chi-Ching TPE 4-0)
Wang Fei, 2-0 (d. Trevor Farley BAR 4-0, d. Huang Chang-Hsuan TPE 4-0)
Han Xiao, 2-0 (d. Taniguchi Yoichi JPN 4-2, d. Faazil Kassam CAN 4-3, 12-10 in 7th)

Three other USA players had good showings, but did not advance. They were:

Jim Butler, 1-1 (d. Cheng Chi-Yuan TPE 4-1; lost to Cazuo Matsumoto BRA 4-2, 9,4,-6,6,-1,7)
Ashu Jain, 1-1 (d. Liu Sheng-Li TPE 4-1; lost to Marc Closset BEL 4-1)
Mark Hazinski, 0-1 (lost to Pradeeban Peter-Paul CAN -5,2,-9,6,5,-9,2)

Other USA men in the preliminaries but not winning any matches were Adam Hugh, Brian Pace, Jared Lynch and Alexis Perez. U.S. #1 ranked player Fan Yi Yong did not play for unknown reasons.

Tomorrow's pairings for USA men:

Atanda Musa (USA) vs. Wang Hao (CHN), world #16
Han Xiao (USA) vs. Danny Heister (NED), world #24
Cheng Yinghua (USA) vs. Lee Chul Seung (KOR), world #30
Wang Fei (USA) vs. Alexei Smirnov (RUS), world #47
David Zhuang (USA) vs. Trajan Ciociu (LUX), world #143
Eric Owens (USA) vs. Karl Jindrak (AUT), world #171

Women

Two USA women were advanced into the main draw, and didn't have to play in the preliminaries - Tawny Banh and Jasna Reed. The rest had to qualify by winning their preliminary group, usually of three players. USA players advancing into the main draw of 64 players to join Banh and Reed were the following:

Virginia Sung, 2-0 (d. Huang Yi-Hua TPE 4-1, d. Iizzwa Medino HON 4-0)
Simone Yang, 3-0 (d. Marie-Christine Roussy CAN 4-1, d. Sonia Ramirez ESA 4-0, d. Sara Aba El-Aziz EGY 4-0)
Jackie Lee, 1-1 (d. Angela Ruz CHI 4-0, lost to Sugita Sanae JPN 0-4). Lee advanced as a wild card.

Other USA women in the preliminaries but not winning any matches were Mimi Bosika, Sophia Dan Dan Yi, Katherine Wu, Whitney Ping, Laura Leach, Jane Chui and Elaine Kwok. U.S. #1 ranked player Chang Jun Gao did not play for unknown reasons.

Tomorrow's pairings for USA women: