By Larry Hodges
At the start of the "showcase" matches - men's semis and final, and women's final - the Star Spangled banner was played. About one line before the end, the tape or CD player broke down - and the crowd spontaneously sang the final line together.
The Men's and Women's singles matches below are in the order they were played.
Women's Singles - Semifinals
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| Jasna Reed Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003 |
Hong Zhao Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003 |
Jasna had little trouble with Hong's penhold flipping game. Hong, who uses inverted and short pips, would flip throughout the rally, while always looking for a chance to smash a forehand. But Jasna basically looped her down, ending many points with a flat smash. Jasna ran away with the first, and scored five in a row from 6-all in the second. In the third, Hong had her chance, leading 7-3, but Jasna tied it at 8-all and won 11-9. The fourth was all Jasna.
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| Tawny Banh Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003 |
Lily Yip Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003 |
Tawny's match with Lily was expected to be closer, but it too began to look like a route as Tawny went up 3-0 with progressively better scores. Tawny is one of the few shakehanders who can stay right up at the table against the jab-blocking and hitting pips-out penholder Lily. Tawny, who also uses pips on the backhand, hits the backhand right off the bounce, and usually loops the forehand at the top of the bounce.
Lily romped in the third, 11-4, and the possibility of a comeback was on the radar screen. The third went to 6-6; when Tawny scored the next two, Lily took a timeout. Up 10-7 match point, Tawny gets a net - but Lily returns it, the rally continues - and Lily gets an unreturnable net dribbler. Tawny serve and flipped off, 10-9. But Tawny's scream was only preceded by a fraction of a second by Lily's looping off.
Men's Singles - Semifinals
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| Adam Hugh Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003 |
Ilija Lupulesku Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003 |
Ilija is the best in the country at taking control of a point by looping, and Adam had no way of stopping him this match. Lupi's loops were either too strong or too steady, depending on how Lupi played them. His placement was an experience to watch as he'd put the ball always either to a wide corner or right at Adam's elbow - and he always seemed to find the place that would give the most trouble. Adam, 15, doesn't yet have the power to get through someone who can counterspin and fish like Lupi, and Lupi could serve & loop at will - but then he does that against just about anybody. Adam, of course, has already had a great tournament - beating Cheng Yinghua in the quarterfinals, winning Under 22 Men, coming in first in the Junior Boys' Team Trials, and making the final of Mixed Doubles. He said he prepared for the tournament mostly by playing lots of practice matches with his family (Barry Dattel, Lily Yip and Judy Hugh), and with Patrick Mualem. He lamented that he didn't have enough practice time as he'd like because of school.
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| Mark Hazinski Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003 |
David Zhuang Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003 |
Wow! Talk about the "changing of the guard" at this tournament. First, Han Xiao (on his 17th birthday) takes out #4 seed Barney J. Reed (25); then Adam Hugh (15) takes out #3 seed Cheng Yinghua (45); now Mark (18) doesn't just take out #2 seed David Zhuang (40), he wins easily, often seeming to loop winners at will from either wing - although in reality, half his loops were steady loops, the other half rips. "Mark's much better at covering the middle with his forehand than before," David would say afterwards - and it was obvious that despite his great blocking, David had no safe place to block to. In the first game, David led 6-4 - and lost six in a row. The second game was all Mark's from start to finish. In the third, Mark led almost the entire way by one to three points, and won it at 9 - helped by David serving off at 6-7, and serving off the end at 9-all. In the fourth, at 2-all, Zhuang misses an easy smash - and he'd only score one more point the rest of the way as Mark literally ripped winner after winner the rest of the way. "He played much better than before," David said. "He deserved to win." Mark has been training in Sweden at the Angby club for nearly three months - no wonder. He said he'd been practicing with players like Mikael Appelgren, and even practiced with Jan-Ove Waldner a few times.
Of his match with David, Mark said, "My serves worked well, and I was confident against his serve. My shots also felt very good, so I was basically able to overpower him."
Exhibition and Awards
Marty
Reisman. Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003
Eric Owens and Marty Reisman gave an exhibition using a 44mm Nittaku ball after the Men's semifinals. (In Japan, the 44mm ball is very commonly used, and there are many 44mm leagues.) It was well-done and entertaining, with Eric spending much of the match lobbing, and Marty ad-libbing for the crowd. When Marty hit a ball well off the end to lose 11-6, Eric insisted it hit the edge, so the score reverted to 10-7 - and Marty deuced it before Eric won with a backhand counterkill, 12-10. At various times before and after the exhibition, exhibition balls were hit into the audience, with some of them coded as "winners" so that whoever caught it won a prize. Interestingly, not only was the ball different, but a special net was put on the table, one that was about .7 inches taller than a normal net, but the one used in Japan in 44mm leagues.
Umpire
Sheri Pittman. Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003
Also during this and other breaks, a number of people were honored. The U.S. Pan Am Women's Team and the U.S. Junior Team were honored for their medal-winning performances at the Pan Ams and at the Canadian Junior Open. USATT Executive Director and Women's Coach Doru Gheorghe was given the President's Award by USATT President Sheri Pittman for his success in coaching Gao Jun at the Worlds and the U.S. Women's team at the Pan Ams, and for his work on the USATT Strategic Plan. And Allen Barth was given the Dr. Michael J. Scott award for excellence in umpiring.
Women's Singles - Final
Jasna Reed d. Tawny Banh, 9,4,5,-11,4
Jasna
Reed. Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003
In recent years, Jasna's usually been #2 on the U.S. team (behind Gao Jun), with Tawny #3. However, Tawny had won twice against Jasna this year, at the U.S. Team Trials and at the Pan Am Games, so many thought the match would be dead even - except that it was obvious in previous rounds that Jasna was playing much, much better than before. It turns out she's been playing in Germany for several months, and so getting the match practice she rarely gets regularly in the U.S. "Thank you, Gao!" Jasna said of Gao's absence from the tournament due to a contract to play in a Chinese League. (Gao would also get to play in the Women's World Cup during the Nationals, and would beat reigning world champion and world #2 Wang Nan and world #8 Tamara Boros in reaching the quarterfinals. Boros is the one she had lost to in the quarterfinals of the last Worlds, 4-3. Gao would lose in the quarterfinals to Mihaela Steff of Romania, world #15, and Wang Nan would recover from her loss to Gao in the preliminaries to win the World Cup.) Jasna did beat Gao once - back in 1991. "I'm actually more comfortable with Gao's style [steady pips-out penhold blocker] then Lily's [aggressive hitting/jab blocking pips-out penholder]," she said, thankful that Lily was on the other side of the draw, and so Tawny's problem.
But Jasna, and her much better play, became Tawny's problem. Tawny's strength is her close-to-the-table attack, both with her pips-out backhand hitting and her nearly off-the-bounce forehand looping. But Jasna seems comfortable against this, and over and over pulls off spectacular shots, including a number of incredible backhand kills off Tawny's best shots.
After reaching 9-all in the first, Tawny promptly went downhill, losing that game at 9, and the next two badly at 4 & 5. In the fourth, Tawny went up 7-3 - and then lost six in a row to 7-9, and in immediate danger of losing 4-0. But fighting off a match point at 10-11, she pulls this game out, 13-11. In the sixth, it's close at 5-4 for Jasna - but Tawny doesn't score another point. Throughout the match, Tawny has had strings where she was simply too erratic. However, even when Tawny's played well, Jasna has raised her game a notch, and seemed to match everything Tawny could throw at her in this match.
Men's Singles - Final
Ilija
Lupulesku. Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003
This match didn't really start until the third game as Lupi basically ran away with the first two 6 & 6, even going up 5-0 in the first. The match might have been an easy 4-0 for Lupi, who led 9-7 in the third and 7-4 in the fourth. But from up 9-7 he lost three in a row, and from up 7-4 he only scored one more point, losing the last five in row as Mark won the next two at 10 & 8 (helped by an edge at 10-all in the third). The two were having spectacular counterlooping rallies - Mark has a little more power, and tends to loop from closer to the table, while Lupi would loop from all over, sometimes wandering nearly to the barriers. Lupi can do something few others can do - loop the ball up in the air and challenge opponents to try to overpower him. Few can, but Mark was often able to. However, Mark's most consistent winners came when he was able to catch Lupi too close to the table to counterloop consistently off Mark's power shots. Unlike David's blocks, Lupi was scoring well with loops to the middle.
In the fifth, Mark went up 5-2 - and promptly lost six in a row to 5-8. However, in winning the last point here, Lupi accidentally tore both his thumb and racket against the edge of the table. His thumb was bleeding, and his racket had a two-inch gash, making it an illegal racket. At the same time, he was given an injury timeout to see if he could get the bleeding to stop, since he didn't want to wear a band-aid as it would affect his feel. So while the very large crowd tried to figure out what was going on, the umpire and Referee Azmy Ibrahim conferred. Meanwhile, Lupi brought out to rackets to the table, and Mark agreed to let him try both out before choosing which one to use. (Mark had spent most of the break lying down in a corner.) One of the racket was Jasna Reed's, the very one she'd use to win the Women's title a short time before - and that was the one Lupi liked. It turned out that 20 years before, Jasna had had two racket special made, and one of those racket was the one she was still using, 20 years later - obviously, she doesn't take things out on her racket! But ten years before, when she had been married to Lupulesku (how many knew that? It was a very friendly parting when they divorced), he had tried out her racket, liked it, and so she'd given him her only spare. Later he'd stopped using it, and gave it to a local junior player. And so Jasna had gone ten years without a spare - and now, after giving away her only spare, he was "taking" the other one as well!
During all of this, Hazinski's coach, Mark Nordby, was getting increasingly aggravated at the delays and the bringing out of two rackets - and was yellow carded for his to-no-avail protests.
Finally, Lupi got the bleeding under control (he'd kept it wrapped in a towel during much of the injury time-out), and with Jasna's racket in hand, was now ready to continue. From 8-5, Lupi wins 11-8 to go up 3-2. In the sixth, it's 3-all - and Mark only scores one more point as Lupi looped up a storm, and Mark kept getting caught out of position. At 10-4, Lupi yells to the crowd, "C'mon!," and waves his arms for the crowd to get into it. The crowd, which had been overwhelmingly favoring Mark, applauded. "I went up 2-0, and nobody was cheering," Lupi said afterwards, clearly bothered by this, and said he thought it affected him somewhat when he blew leads in the next two games.
And so we ended up with Men's and Women's Singles Champions who won with the same racket; are both from Yugoslavia; are both 1988 Olympic medalists (Lupi a silver in men's doubles, Jasna a bronze in women's doubles), were previously married to each other; and were both coached in their matches by Sasa Drinic.
Lupi and Jasna haven't just won at the Nationals - they've dominated. Jasna swept Women's Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Lupi did one better, sweeping Men's Singles, Doubles and Mixed doubles - and adding Over 30 as well.
Hardbat Singles
For the third year in a row, Lily Yip won Hardbat Singles - and she didn't even drop a game. Only one player got more than 15 points. In the quarterfinals, the pips-out hitting/blocking Lily defeated Loc Ngo, 15,20,11; in the semifinals, Angela Sun, 15,15,10; and in the final, Alexis Perez, 15,15,13. (Alexis also didn't lose a game in the event, until he reached the final.) The final featured many long rallies, mostly countering, but Alexis would also drop back and chop sometimes. As usual, it was one of the most watched finals.
Over 30 Singles
For the second year in a row, Ilija Lupulesku romped through the Over 30 field - but at least this year he lost a game, in the final to #3 seed De Tran. The scores in his march to victory? 4,7,9,3,4,6,5,5,5,5,1,8,3,4,-11,3. #2 seed Todd Sweeris defaulted out; #4 seed Brian Pace lost in the quarterfinals to (we keep hearing this name!) Lily Yip, who went down in the semis to Lupi.
Boys' Primary School Singles (Under 13)
Shelby
Lane. Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003
"Now you have to give him coverage - he's won a national title!" So said Scott Lane, Shelby Lane's father, after Shelby took the event, 4,5,7 in the final over Lin Jeff Huang. It was a tough march to the final, however; in the quarterfinals, he'd barely eked out a 9,9,-6,-7,9 win over Marcus Jackson, and in the semifinals he'd had to go five again (and come from behind) against Sean C. Lee, 9,-8,-9,7,5.
Girls' Primary School Singles (Under 13)
Stephanie Shih continued her dominance of her age group. She'd won Under 14 Girls' Singles at both the Junior Olympics and Junior Nationals, and now she won here, over Colleen Lee, -11,7,10,7. Other than the final, she didn't give up a game.
Boys' Elementary School Singles (Under 10)
Peter
Li. Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003
Peter Li lost only one game in the event, in the semifinals to Austin Preiss (9,-10,5,4), and won the final over A.J. Brewer, 4,5,5.
Girls' Elementary School Singles (Under 10)
Ariel
Hsing. Photo by Gerry Chua, ©2003
Ariel Hsing also only lost one game in the event, to Serena Banh in the semifinals (9,6,-6,6), and won the final over Willa Tammy Gu, 10,3,8.
Other Results
Under 2100 - Final: Judy Hugh d. Sung Yang, 5,5,-7,-9,11; SF: Hugh d. Randall Ly, -8,7,5,-8,8; Yang d. Panno Dok, 10,12,10; QF: Hugh d. Nicholas Snider, -8,4,7,-10,9; Ly d. David Rudesill, 11,8,-8,4; Yang d. Barbara Wei, 7,14,-11,11; Dok d. Trieu Chieu, -6,12,8,-10,10.
Under 1900 - Final: Hong-Zhong Zhang d. Don James Alto, 5,11,6; SF: Zhang d. Ngai-Chi Chung, -3,-8,9,6,5; Alto d. Michael Mast, 5,4,4.
Under 1700 - Final: Matthew Lee d. Ilya Bushkanets, 7,6,4; SF: Lee d. Alex Voronin, 7,6,-6,8; Bushkanets d. David Yundt, 5,-8,-2,8,1.
Under 1600/Over 40: Final: Jose Bulatao d. Wes Wolfe, -6,4,-3,6,10; SF: Bulatao d. Bard Brenner, -10,-3,6,7,7; Wolfe d. Peter Ho, -6,-9,5,5,8.Under 1200 - Final: Joseph Wang d. Aaron Choi, -11,9,10,6; SF: Wang d. Xin Jiang, 8,-6,10,5; Choi d. Daniel Koscielski, 9,5,-5,6.
Under 1100 - Final: Jessica Yick d. Kristian Morell, 6,7,-10,10; SF: Yick d. Dave Sterner, -5,5,9,-8,9; Morell d. Ivan Yip, 7,-5,-7,8,7.
Under 1000 - Final: Joseph Wang d. Dave Sterner, 5,10,5; SF: Wang d. Ariel Hsing, 6,4,-9,7; Sterner d. Patrick Yuan, 7,8,-10,7.
Unrated - Final: Frank Correa d. George Brace, 7,-8,7,7; SF: Correa d. Vladimir Altman, 8,4,10; Brace d. Paul Ishimitsy, 9,5,-7,-4,6.
Wheelchair Singles - Final RR: 1st Andre Scott, 2-0 (d. Redman, 8,-9,9,4; d. Nir-Kistler, 2,8,4); 2nd Noga Nir-Kistler, 1-1 (d. Redman, 6,9,-8,9); 3rd Jon Redman, 0-2.
Standing Disabled - Final: Ashraf Mostafa Ali d. Mitch Seidenfeld, 4,-1,7,5; SF: Ali d. Norman Bass, def.; Seidenfeld d. Gene Chiu, 8,3,7.
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