2003 U.S. Team Trials

Women

The big match this round was Lily Yip's win over Simone Yang. "My mom hasn't beaten her since at least 2000," Adam Hugh, Yip's son, said. Yip agreed, and said, "I was more comfortable, used my forehand more, and played like I was younger. I felt like I could move better." The interesting thing about this match was that none of the first five games were close - all were 11-6 or worse. Yang was the steady one, willing to rally as long as it took. Yip was the hit or miss player, and when her shots missed - in games 1 and 3 - she lost badly. When they hit - in games 2, 4 and 5 - she won easily. In game 6, some hit, some didn't - but from 8-all, they hit, and she won 11-8.

Chang Jun Gao gave a clinic on playing choppers against Virginia Sung, although the first game went 10-all.

The match between Moji Kuye and Priscilla Umel was essentially the Georgia Women's Championships - in fact, a Battle of Atlanta.The two play similar, with nice pips-out backhand countering and forehand smash. It went the distance, and to 4-4 in the seventh. Kuye scored three in a row, and held that lead to the end, winning the match -3,7,-5,7,7,-9,7 - all four of Kuye's winning scores were 11-7. (And while Kuye won, it was sort of a draw, since the two played to a 61-61 tie in points!) As she came off the table, Lily Yip told Kuye, "See, you are young again!"

And lastly, Whitney Ping, delayed by the weather in Denver, still had not arrived, and so defaulted to Tawny Banh.

Men

Matches of Note

The Lupulesku-Hazinski match was the match of the tournament - and we're only three (out of 11) rounds in! The had been practice partners for several months in Chicago, and so were used to each other's games. Many points started out with "Lupi" looping first, Hazinski counterlooping, and after a few counterloops, Lupi would often be off the table fishing balls back with topspin. Hazinski would rip ball after ball until one of them would miss, or the two of them would just rip loops back and forth until one missed. Normally, few can both stop Lupi's opening attack and then get past his defense, but Hazinski was able to do so in this match. The counterlooping points were possibly the best ever between two U.S. citizens.

The two split the first two games. It sometimes seems as if no matter how hard and how well angled Hazinski loops, Lupi is able to glide into position and spin it back. However, there's a limit to how many balls even he could return off the powerful Hazinski - who wins the third, 11-9. In the fourth, Lupi was up 9-7 and 10-9, but Hazinski ran off three to win. The USA's top junior player (for another month, since he turns 18 on April 20), was on the verge of knocking off the top seed. And he'd get closer still! In the fifth, after Lupi went up 7-5, Hazinski scored four in a row to lead 9-7 - only to lose four in a row. In the sixth, Hazinski leads 7-6, and then it's 8-all - but Lupi runs off three in a row.

Match to Lupulesku, -8,6,-9,-10,9,8,10, and the top-seeded Lupulesku has survived - but there will be repeats of this match, with the result unknown.

Late addition: The following day, the umpire for the match, Grady Gordon, told me that there was a point halfway through the seventh game where Hazinski had mis-hit the ball on the table, and Lupulesku had missed. Gordon had awarded the point to Hazinski, with no protest from Lupulesku, but Hazinski walked over to Gordon, and told him it was a double-hit, and so it became Lupulesku's point. That was the game where Hazinski had four match points, so this probably decided the match.

"I wasn't focused well enough going into the match," Lupulesku said afterward. "I've never had so much trouble with him in practice. The backhand loop at 6-10 was a lucky shot. But when it hit, I knew that if I could just get to 8-10, I could win."

Eric Owens had great trouble of his own this round, losing the first two games to fellow Texan Darko Rop, back after a long absence from tournaments. The lefty Rop kept spinning ball after ball at Owens, who would either be locked up on the backhand, or get caught trying to counterloop. He won the next two, but the fifth game was 9-9 - but Owens got a net to lead 10-9, and Rop popped up a ball the next rally. Owens won the sixth easily, and the match, -8,-8,8,3,9,6. "I wasn't mentally ready those first two games," Owens said.

Ashu Jain had his chances with Khoa Nguyen, and the match was closer than the 4-1 score indicates. Down 2-1 in games, Jain led the fourth 10-8, but with a net at 10-9, Nguyen came back and won 13-11. The fifth was all Nguyen, who won the match, 7,3,-6,11,4.

Shashin Shodhan staged a tactical comeback from down match point against the lefty De Tran. The two split the first four games. In the fifth, it was 9-all, but De made two nice shots to win 11-9. In the sixth, Tran led 10-8 match point. Tran looped Shodhan's serve into the net, 10-9. Then the two had a great exchange, with Shodhan using a new tactic: all-out attack to Tran's wide forehand. He won the point, lost the next (so down 10-11 match point again), but won the next two to lead 12-11 ... then 13-12 ... and got an edge to win it! (A tactical edge, however ... to Tran's wide forehand.) In the seventh, Shashin led 8-5, then it was 8-all, then 11-8 Shodhan, who wins 11,-8,6,-6,-9,12,8.

Current Standings
Note - the three default matches with Whitney Ping are not included since they will not be counted in the final standings.
Men			Women
1-3	Ilija Lupulesku	3-0	1-2	Chang Jun Gao	3-0
	David Zhuang	3-0		Jasna Reed	3-0
	Khoa Nguyen	3-0	3-4	Lily Yip	2-0
4-7	Eric Owens	2-1		Tawny Banh	2-0
	Mark Hazinski	2-1	5-6	Virginia Sung	2-1
	Shashin Shodhan	2-1		Judy Hugh	2-1
	Adam Hugh	2-1	7-8	Amanda Dubina	1-2
8	Ashu Jain	1-2		Moji Kuye	1-2
9-12	Brian Pace	0-3	9	Simone Yang	0-2
	Jiachen Wang	0-3	10-11	Jackie Lee	0-3
	De Tran	0-3		Priscilla Umel	0-3
	Darko Rop	0-3

2003 USA Table Tennis World and Pan Am Trials

Final Twelve - Round Three

Women

Men

Matches of Note

Current Standings

Men

Women