By Larry Hodges
It was a day of flu and fire ants (which invaded table 78 for a time). Tournament Director Fong Hsu came down with the flu, but continued to work on. Mark Hazinski, top seed in Under 22 Men and #5 seed in Men's Singles, also came down with flu. So did U.S. #1 10-year-old Peter Li, who spent the day in bed in hopes of continuing the next day. I'm sure there were others - anyone reading the news knows about the flu epidemic running the country.
With the return to Hall C4, the floors - while still not perfect, being concrete - were far better than the year before. The tables were basically individually barriered, with one barrier on each side of each player (jutting out from the row of barriers behind the player) to stop balls, and another in the middle to stop balls that roll off the net.
Over 40 Men: It was a 3,5,5,5,5,6,2,3,4,7,3,8,6,-9,1,4 romp for easily-top-seed Cheng Yinghua. OK, second-seeded De Tran did get a game off him in the final - but see the last two game scores in the 6,-9,1,4 match. With Men's Singles coming up, the question about Cheng, now 45 years old, was this: Would an "Old" Cheng show up, or the "Old" Cheng? So far, it was the "Old" Cheng, circa 1980s and 90s.
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| Over 40 Champion Cheng Yinghua Photo by Gerry Chua ©2003 |
Over 40 Runner-up De Tran Photo by Gerry Chua ©2003 |
Over 40 Women: In the all-Chinese Final Four, it was Lily Yip 5,9,7 over Simone Yang in one semifinal, and Hong Zhao (playing in her first Nationals as a new USA citizen) 3,3,4 over Wan Yee Cheung in the other semifinal. In the final, it was all Lily, 6,6,4.
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| Over 40 Women's Champion Lily Yip Photo by Gerry Chua ©2003 |
Over 60 Doubles: Howard Grossman and Richard Hicks successfully chopped and pick hit their way to defending their title from last year ... and the year before ... and the year before. It was their four straight Over 60 Doubles title at the Nationals. They were never really challenged, never giving up more than 7 in a game except for one lost game in the final (-9,7,3,3) in the final against George Brathwaite and Graham Gear.
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George Brathwaite demonstrates the forehand loop. Photos by Gerry Chua ©2003 |
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Under 22 Men: Mark Hazinski had to drop out due to the flu, leaving things wide open for others. The next to fall was second-seeded Han Xiao, who couldn't hold a 5-2 fifth game lead in losing to Auria Malek, 7,-13,-9,11,9. Third and fourth seeds Adam Hugh and Misha Kazantsev mostly romped in the final ... whereupon Adam continued to romp, winning 8,5,2 against Misha, who'd upset him at the U.S. Open.
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Under 22 Men's Champion |
Under 22 Men's Runner-up |
Under 22 Women: The first big upset came in the quarters, when Jennifer Mast, rated only 1676, upset #3 seeded Judy Hugh, rated 2028, 6,-7,-11,9,8. However, Jennifer went down in the semifinals to top-seeded Michelle Do (2209), 10,6,9. On the other half, Wendy Eav - co-seeded #3 since she too was rated 2028, lost to second-seeded Laura Xiao (2083). In the final, major upset #2 took place, as Laura came out on top, 9,-2,-9,7,7.
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Under 22 Women's Champion |
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Giant-Killer Jennifer Mast demonstrates a kill. Photos by Gerry Chua ©2003 |
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Over 40 Hardbat Singles: With leads of 19-6 and 19-8 in the first two games (leading to 21-9, 21-13 wins, since hardbat games are to 21), the eventual winner seemed to be coasting. In the third, he led 19-16 - and then was down 19-20 to Ray Mack, who had upset Steve Berger in the semifinals for the second year in a row. However, the eventual winner managed to hang on with a few snap kills and key chops, and won the final at 9,13,22. Yay, me!!!
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| Over 40 Hardbat Champion Larry Hodges Photo by Gerry Chua ©2003 |
Hardbat Doubles Champions: Active Steve Berger, "Spectator" Larry Hodges. Photo by Gerry Chua ©2003 |
Hardbat Doubles: Steve Berger and his partner won this event for the third straight year, defeating Ashu Jain and John Jarema in the final, 18,13. It was an interesting match-up of Steve's chopping & pick-hitting, his partner's forehand (yay, me!), Ashu's athleticism, and John's backhand. Interestingly, most didn't think either of these teams would win - the dark horse entry was Cheng Yinghua - yes, THAT Cheng Yinghua, partnered with Julian Waters. While some were wondering what Cheng was doing in this event (it's trophies only!), Rudy Miranda and Bernard Savitz were doing something about it, taking them out in the quarterfinals, -13,17,18.
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Under 4200 Doubles Champions |
Under 4200 Doubles: Larry Bavly and Judy Hugh of New Jersey struggled in the early rounds, winning in five in the first two rounds. In fact, in the round of 32, they were down 2-0 to Scott Preiss and David Edwards before winning at -11,-4,11,7,2. In the next round, they went up 2-0, and had to go five - 11-9 in the fifth, in fact! - to win against Allison Seibel and Angela Sun, 8,8,-5,-9,9. Then they started getting in gear, winning 3-1 in the quarterfinals, then 3-0 in the semifinals and in the final, where they won 9,9,5 against Masuru Hashimoto and John Schneider.
Under 3700 Doubles: Another New Jersey team, Alden Fan and Matthew Lee, struck again, winning the final over Daniel Sie and Thomas Veatch, 8,-7,9,2. (What do they do in New Jersey, actually practice doubles?) Their close call was in the semifinals, where they barely won at -6,9,7,-9,10 over Christian Solomon and Alex Voronin.
Under 3200 Doubles: You can't do much better than come in top seed, and win four straight 3-0 matches in winning the event! That's what Kenneth Tananan and Ken Trinh did. In the final, they defeated David Gringaus and Mike Mostovetsky, 9,10,6.
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Ethan Chua (above) demonstrates the forehand serve; big sister Marielle demonstrates the backhand. Photos by Gerry Chua ©2003 | |
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