|
|
|
|
Atlanta, GA • March 17-22, 2003
By Larry Hodges
It's
All in the Family for this family: Adam Hugh, Barry Dattel, Lily Yip and Judy
Hugh. All but Barry are in the Trials, but as Barry - who has been competitive
in past Team Trials - is quick to point out, "I didn't try out this time." (Note they are the
same family, despite the different last names.) Photo by Larry Hodges ©2003.
Virginia
Sung chopping against Judy Hugh. Photo by Michael Wetzel ©2003.
None of the first-round matches in the Women's were contested, with the winner winning all five matches played 4-0, without a single game even reaching 9 or deuce, and only one reaching even 8. The story of the morning was 16-year-old Whitney Ping's flight problems. Due to weather problems, Denver airport had closed down, and so she had not arrived yet - she was supposed to have been coming in the night before. So she was defaulted in her match against Simone Yang. (Whitney is from Oregon, but had flown to Denver on her way to Atlanta.)
The problem was that in the Competition Rules for the tournament in the Athlete and Officials Guide, it stated, "For round robins, if any player defaults a match, including withdrawal due to injury, none of his/her matches will count." This meant that even if she were to arrive for the next round, she was out of the Trials.
Jasna Reed put together a petition from the players asking the officials to reconsider this rule, and all 11 women signed it. The tournament committee met, and ruled that Whitney would be allowed to play her matches when she arrived, but only for rating - her results would not count toward the Trials, and she would be ineligible to make the team. Whitney, who was recently the #1 junior in the country and finished #1 at the recent USA Junior Trials, was seeded eighth here.
Other problems with the default rule were pointed out, and hopefully it can be looked at again for future Trials. In the current rule, any of the possibly 10-12 players in the Trials who cannot make the team in the final round may decide to default for various reasons, taking his/her results out of the competition, and possibly changing the U.S. Team as a result. An injured player would be under great pressure to complete his matches, or his played results would be taken out and not count, again possibly changing the team results. A player who is late for one match and defaulted would be taken out of the Trials, and his results also removed. This means that during coverage of these Trials, at any time the standings may change as a result of a player defaulting, and his/her results taken out.
A solution might be to adopt the ITTF rules. I'm told (but have not yet verified) that the ITTF rule is roughly that if a player plays half his/her matches, the matches count; if he/she plays less, then they matches don't count. This takes away the possibility of players out of the running for the team defaulting in the final round and changing the makeup of the Team as a result.
Ironically, Tawny Banh, the second seed, was almost in the same situation. She had a flight through Denver as well, but was late for the flight, and so was switched to a flight going through San Francisco - otherwise, she too would most likely be out of the competition.
The
Mark's - Hazinski and Coach Nordby - were happy when Hazinski pulled out his
match with Adam Hugh. Photo by Larry Hodges ©2003.
The best match here was, by far, the Hazinski-Hugh match, a battle of the two highest rated juniors in the country. It was a match-up of Adam's all-around attack and ball control, versus Hazinski's powerful two-winged looping game. Hugh, "Choing!" every point he won, won the first three games. In the third game, Hazinski led 8-6, and the two played the point of the match, with Hugh lobbing a series of balls from the barriers until Hazinski missed - and Hugh scored the last five in a row this game to win 11-8 and go up 3-0. In the fourth, Hazinski dominated, winning 11-4. In the next three games, Hugh mostly led halfway, but each time Hazinski pulled off a run:
After the match, Hazinski said, "For the first half of the match, I was too tentative, keeping the ball in play. I finally started to swing more."
Brian
Pace demonstrates that it doesn't take four years or more of medical school to
get an MD: Just move to Maryland! Photo by Larry Hodges ©2003.
Another match of interest was Jain's win over Pace. Pace won the first 11-7, and seemed to lead much of the next three games - but Jain pulled all three out, 11-9, 12-10, 12-10, and the fourth easily at 3.
Eric Owens had a series of close games with Shashin Shodhan, and like Jain with Pace, only pulled away in the last game. "He played really well," Owens said. "His backhand was giving me trouble." Added Owens' coach, Christian Lillieroos, "Shashin played in the Qualifier, and that really warmed him up."
Khoa also had problems with De Tran. The two were former practice partners before De Tran moved to New York, where he is an MD. The match was full of spectacular counterlooping rallies, but ultimately Nguyen had too much power.
Of other interest was Ilija Lupulesku's win over Darko Rop - not because it was close, but because the two had been teammates on the Yugoslavian team in the 1980s.
2003 USA Team Trials Home Page
| |
| USA Table Tennis - Serving the Table Tennis Community |
| |
