By Tim Boggan
National Everything Champion Ilija (EEL-yuh) Lupulesku successfully defended his U.S. Over 30’s title by defeating U.S. Team member De Tran in the final, 3, 4, -11, 3. How’d he do it? De—win the one game Lupulesku lost in the event. At 9-all, The Champ misserved. At 10-all De got a net. Down 12-11, Loupy erred returning serve. De had beaten Loc Ngo in the semi’s, and gonna-be-Tokyo-based Chi-sun Chui twice [sic] in the quarter’s (a disputed point occurred in the last game of their first match, and, hey, no hard feelings among friends, after De had won that match, they said they needed the practice and so played another). De could whip some backhands by, could counter some forehands with Loupy. But, as Coach Mark Nordby said, “Once Loupy’s back in the distance, it’s pretty much over for everyone in the building”—De usually just couldn’t get through, while Loupy could steadily send the ball a-hoppin’. Five-game matches: Panno Dok over Barry Dattel; U-2100 runner-up Sung Yang over U-2400 runner-up Shuja Jafar-Ali; Loc Ngo (down 4-0, 8-3 in the 5th) over John Wetzler’s end-of-the-5th errant forehands; and Lily Yip (down 2-1 and at 10-all in the 4th) over Tuan Le. Lily, who’d go on to beat Brian Pace in 5 before losing to Loupy, thrust side-to-side backhands into U-2400 winner Le as, loose and athletic, she proved ever ready to whack in off-the-bounce forehands. “Against the men,” she said, “you gotta play like a man.”
Cheng Yinghua wasn’t defaulting in the 40’s this year, so De Tran had to settle for 2nd again—advancing over, but losing games to, Aleksandr Mikhlin, steady Larry Bavly (who’d upset Dave Sakai), and John Wetzler (whose eccentric, run-around whaps and whomps took some getting used to—best to go first to his forehand, said De). Jiri Hlava (“I was a little bit lucky”) knocked off George Brathwaite in 5, then –6, 7, -12, -9 fell to too-slip-prone Barry Dattel. Best match: Hank McCoullum –6, 11, -7, 12, 16 over Loc Ngo (after Loc, up 10-8 in the 5th, had 5 match points). Hank said he had to 3rd-ball, 5th-ball attack early, otherwise Loc would control play from both wings. The Opening-Match Prize? I’ll award that to Tom Veatch for his –4, 5, -5, 14, 7 rally over Chia Wu.
U-1600 Over 40’s went to Jose Bulatao who finished by winning four straight 5-game matches, the last, deuce in the 5th, after being down match point to U-1600 winner Wes Wolfe.
Lily Yip, Almost Everything Champion, won the Women’s Over 40’s, but against the women she also seemed to play like a man—not dropping a game either to Simone Yang in the semi’s or Hong Zhao in the final. Still smilingly youthful and indefatiguably quick, she quipped, “The older I am, the better I am.” Simone, concerned about expenses (she’s the 5th but unfunded member of the current U.S. World Team), would have preferred the old way of seeding, which would have pitted the closely rated 2nd and 3rd seeds—Zhao (2266) vs. Simone (2242)—in the one semi’s, and the vastly separated 1st and 4th seeds—Lily (2356) vs. Mahin Roufeh (1962) in the other. Zhao, with a 300-point edge over Mahin (who was upset by Wan Yee Cheung, Under 1900 winner over Rita Wu), was all but assured of 2nd place money without a fight, while Simone had to play Lily. That didn’t seem right—sometimes Chance should not reign supreme and the Draw should judiciously be “fixed.”
Deja-vu Doubles: De Tran/Barry Dattel again beat Cheng Yingua/Dave Sakai in 4 in the final. So weak was the semi’s competition that the two nameless losers were held to a 6-game total of 20 points, I say total. With this win Barry avoided what might have been an awful ribbing from the other high achievers in his family. Earlier, Wetzler/John Schneider, down 2-0, almost came back, only to drop a feisty 5-gamer to David Rubin and Scott Preiss. Scott, in case you didn’t know, plans to take his wife and kids to China for four months, let promising Adam and Austin not exactly be Shanghaied, but be more a willing part of the t.t. scene there.
Lim Ming Chui took the 50’s over George Brathwaite, giving up 22 points in the first two games, but only 8 in the last two. Slowing down his play, Ming said his successful strategy was to serve short, then topspin to The Chief’s abs. In preparation for this tournament, George practiced 6 days a week, jogged regularly, stretched, did his customary push-ups and sit-ups. His usual thing. Chui had been in an 11-9 in the 5th struggle with Dick Hicks in the semi’s. Ming’s soft roll that set up his smashes was effective—had Dick looking for some new rubber ‘cause he wasn’t getting enough heavy chop on the ball, especially back from the table. But Ming didn’t like Dick’s long pips coming into his backhand, said he was never comfortable moving over to sock those balls. In the other semi’s, Brathwaite settled accounts with Hlavi who, with his punch-block backhand and spin-it-in forehand, had eliminated Defending Champion Changping Duan. Jiri’s aim was to attack Brathwaite immediately, for he said if George gets position it’s difficult to wrest control from him.
Dave Sakai managed to oust Oakland’s penhold blocker/hitter Guang-Kui Dong in 5. Dong had quit playing back in 1965, but in 2000 came to the U.S. and promptly looked up his old Canton teammate Alex Tam, then decided, what the hell, if Alex could still smoke in balls, so could he. Dave then went down in a 5-game fight to ex-Hong Kong Provincial penhold-attacker Che-Him Leung. In three come-from-behind matches, John Dichiaro took out Norm Bass, Trieu Chieu stopped Massoud Dehdashti, and Ron VonSchimmelman had a weighty win over Steve Ma. Bob Mandel prevailed over Hank McCoullum 15-13 in the 5th. And a stringy-haired Uncle Sam peacenik, a mocker from a bygone era, seemed to disgust Nick Mintsiveris—either that, or one of Nick’s self-denigrating boo-boos, allowed him all of 1 point in the 5th.
Bella Livshin (1895) upset Charlene Liu (2038) to win the Women’s 50’s. This match involved backhand-to-backhand pushing, each player waiting for a ball to attack. Charlene, who won only the 1st game, said she was strongest against counterdrivers, and as Bella didn’t favor topspin, the match-up didn’t favor her. “I love table tennis so much,” says Bella. When she first came to America, she knew no English, but the very first day after her arrival she found a table tennis club. Intensive English lessons helped her acclimate and enabled her to be successful at the coaching work she so enjoys.
As #4 seed Wan Yee Cheung would be the first to admit, she had no patent on advancing out of her round robin to the semi’s. Donna Sakai beat her by blocking and countering. Both Donna and her sister Barbara Kaminsky seemed somewhat at a loss either as to what sort of racket they were using (“I thought I used medium pips,” said Barbara. “I use long pips?” “Yes,” said David, “you’re a junk player, Barbara”) or what to do with that racket (“Maybe you should glue me, David,” said his wife Donna). Wan Yee profusely apologized for playing badly. “I’m ashamed,” she said. “I wish I could have given you a better match.” “That’s o.k.,” said Donna.
For eventual 50 Doubles winners Brathwaite/Sakai, the psychic sky was a misty, darkening twilight when in the semi’s, up 2-1, against David Edwards/Roger Kuseski, they lost the 4th at 12-10. Then the blackening storm came on, but, from 11-all in the 5th, they found the semi’s way station just in time. A respite from the battering, then onward. Only, m’god, how they were pelted about those 1st two games by lefty/righty Defending Champs Chui and Hlava. Then, as someone said, George saw the light, made David use his forehand (at 10-all in the 4th, Dave forcefully looped one in) and eventually they were 9, 11, 3 in the clear.
So who’s the Defending Champion in the 60’s? And who’s again the Champion? Brathwaite, of course. And who’s again the runner-up? Hicks, of course. The Chief was chiefly challenged, first, in three close games, by VonSchimmelman, then by Dong, 8 in the 4th in the semi’s. The ex-Cantonese had ding-dong-tolled-the-bell at 16-14 in the 5th for San Diego’s Mark Adelman whose sale of Motor Homes keeps him busy weekends and, alas, away from tournaments. Then, against Mintsiveris, Dong had won again in 5 when Nickie said he searched all over for his “zone,” but, not finding it, couldn’t get his bleepin’ forehand in. Hicks had –6, -7, 4, 5, 4 semi-problems with Chong Keng Tay. Dick looked to spin the nothing balls the aggressive penholder was shoving at him, but couldn’t get them in until he’d made “adjustments.”Gutsy early-round matches saw John Harrington, down 2-0, put out Marty Theil’s fire, Tom Klutho edge Allen Silberman, 9 in the 5th, and Howie Grossman down Jalil Roufeh, also 9 in the 5th. Howie’s knock-out 4 and-1/2-year-old daughter Jennifer is being urged to model in China, the more so, says Howie, because she’s Amerasian.
Final matches in the Women’s Over 60’s were straight-gamers—with Defending Champion Barbara Kaminsky in one semi’s besting Suzanna Sanders (her gritty husband Bob’s been able to end his chemo treatments), and Danuta Andrzejewska in the other semi’s upsetting Puihar Chanso. “Table tennis is my life,” says Danuta—“I couldn’t play for 7 months after my car accident, and I was very frustrated.” How happy she was to be back could be seen when, swatting in forehands that 2nd game against Barbara, she rallied from 9-5 down to tie it up, only to have her momentum stopped. “Barbara’s forehand was unbelievable,” Danuta said afterwards. To one observer, Barbara seemed less tense—perhaps because husband Bob stayed home and Barbara found former World Mixed Doubles Champion Tybie Thall Sommer a soothing coach.
Deja-Vu-Vu as again Defending Champions ruled the day. “Same time next year?” said Grossman to Hicks after they’d won their—what?—7th straight Championship. Their victims this year were the ubiquitous Brathwaite, paired with Graham Gear, now a U.S. citizen after moving from England to Toronto and then—no surprise that in real life Graham works in Home Improvement?—to Vegas. Best match was Brathwaite/Gear’s 5-game semi’s win over Adelman/Ray Fahlstrom—which spared Ray further anguish over that streak of losing finals he masochistically delights in compiling. Olga, Stan Kahan, curled up there together in your Senior Corner, take note: Ray cites England and Germany as countries where Senior players also have a 65 division, and requests same for U.S.—though of course that might mean another Championship for The Chief, if anybody could believe he’d be eligible.
Last year, Marty Reisman defeated Grady Gordon for the ‘70’s Championship, but this year Grady, now 77, after being pressed by Tom Klutho, got the better of Marty in a very close semi’s match. At 12-all in the key 3rd, Marty missed a backhand flick (“Look at this garbage!”), then was helpless as Grady maneuvered a forehand opening and socked in a winner. After losing the deciding 4th at 9, Marty spoke of a Sport where the equipment changes threatened to rip down icons, and where in counterpoint someone had just caught on tape the line, “If you live long enough, you get to beat the best.”
Migrating, as it were, from his University of Wisconsin base in Milwaukee, where he plays three times a week, was the 74-year-old 4-game runner-up to Grady, Dick Peregrine. He upset, first, me, 13-11 in the 4th (after, ohhh, I’d been down 10-6 match point), then George Hendry in 5. Dick and George played a similarly “safe” game, pushing backhands at one another, grinding out the points, for, as Dick said, “Unlike Grady, George can’t hurt you with his offense.” In this stamina battle, the 83-year-old Hendry was at a disadvantage, particularly after leading 10-8 in the pivotal 3rd only to lose four in a row—a turnaround, it turned out, he could not afford.
Perennial champions, Frank Dwelly and I, retained our title, but our toughest match was not in the final with an off-form Gordon/Hendry, who’d eliminated a not-much-into-it Reisman partnered with a very-into-it Neil Smyth, but in the semi’s with Peregrine/Slade. Up 1-0 and at 9-all in the 2nd, I hit in a low-ball, then made a good block-get that gave us a 2-0 lead. In the 4th, I was extremely lucky—returned two high balls, both of which curved to catch the edge, a 4-point swing.
One early upset here: agedly cherubic, er, make that Falstaffian, Ivan Slade, forever cutting the ball backhand and forehand, prevailed over Danny Kim, -13, 13, 8, -10, 2. Then against Dr. Gordon, who was sporting a snazzy lumbo sacral binder—that is, a belt to stabilize his unstable back—Ivan had tied up the 1-1 match at 12-all in the 3rd, and was threatening Grady with that which would really tighten him. But Grady got untied and advanced to the final. There he met Hendry, who’d rallied from being 2-0 down to Dwelly. Savvy George, up close to the table, put very ball to Grady’s backhand. But his up 1-0 and 9-5 lead in the 2nd didn’t last long. Grady broke free of the backhand exchange of blocks and pushes to persistently edge over and risk forehand winners. Several of these went in, and Grady, down 10-8, had flurried to an 11-10 lead. At which point, George, with perfect anticipation, blocked back crosscourt what would have been Grady’s follow-through game winner. Then George got help from a ticked net, and Grady missed a hanger. Hands on hips, Gordon just stood there, knowing, what turned out to be all too true, he’d likely lost his chance.
This time against Hendry, Dwelly, who’d knocked out Slade, wasn’t two games up, but two games down. Though the action wasn’t fast and furious, Frank—who
thought 5-ply bats ought to be done away with in favor of just 3-ply, to slow the Game down—found a way, though losing, to force George into the 5th. As for 2003 U.S. 75 and 80 Champion Hendry, was he slowing down? Well, he was almost a retired accountant. Wouldn’t give up his last two accounts—“Had ‘em for 50 years,” he said. “The people depend on me. Not gonna give ‘em up now.” He might just as well have been talking about table tennis—about his many fans, and how they’re depending on him, too, to continue vying for those two Veterans’ titles that keep awaiting him year after year.
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