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2003
U.S. Open
By Larry Hodges
Adam
Hugh is interviewed by NBC-6 (Southern Florida station). Air time will be
announced later. Seven reporters and photographers from TV and newspapers were
on hand on Wednesday. Photo
by Gerry Chua ©2003.
Results from all ten completed events on Wednesday are online.
Jens Lundqvist, who had custom-made rackets stolen at the Brazil Open, went back to Sweden in an attempt to get a replacement, but it was not to be. He is still planning on returning, but it'll mostly be for vacation purposes. He has withdrawn from Men's Singles (and presumably Men's Doubles). As a result of this, the Men's Singles draw will be redrawn at 10:30 AM Thursday morning. Only the top eight seeds will be moved, including the new #8 seed, Jim Butler.
Mr.
America, also known as Jim McQueen, observes the action at the U.S. Open. Photo
by Gerry Chua ©2003.
The women's singles draw also had been redone, due to the withdrawal of Japan's An Konishi, the #2 seed. This moves USA's Wang Chen to the #2 position. Wang, currently ranked #39 in the world, was #4 in the world a few years ago when playing for China. Japan's Aya Umemura is the #1 seed. Only the top eight seeds were moved in the draw. (This left one spot in the draw where a previously seeded player with a bye is now a double-bye.)
At the 2002 Nationals, the tournament committee had made the decision to cancel Mixed Doubles, an event that had been held at every Nationals since the first USA Nationals in 1976. Recognizing that it was a mistake, the event was rescheduled - to take place here, at the 2003 U.S. Open, for USA citizens only (just as at the Nationals). Better late than never! Unfortunately, there were only two entries, since many of the top USA players were not present, especially on the men's side. So the two finalist were Sean O'Neill/Jackie Lee vs. Samson Dubina/Laura Leach. O'Neill/Lee won rather easily, 7,8,5, adding to O'Neill's already large horde of USA national titles, and adding another to U.S. #1 Under 18 Girl Jackie Lee's projected numbers.
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Junior stars in Wednesday's action, clockwise from
top left: |
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Tim Boggan/Frank Dwelly and Larry Hodges/Steve Berger both had doubles titles to defend. Boggan/Dwelly successfully defended their Over 70 Doubles title, 6,10,-7,7 over Grady Gordon/Dick Evans. However, Hodges/Berger were not so successful, as they went down in the Hardbat Doubles final to Ashu Jain/John Jarema, -12,17,15. (All hardbat events were games to 21.)
Grady Gordon didn't win Over 70 Doubles, but he did win Over 75 over Frank Dwelly, 7,6,6. Dwelly had won the year before over Gordon.
This was the first year with Over 60 Women's Singles at the Open, and the inaugural winner was Barbara Kaminsky, in a long 8,-8,-10,4,7 battle over Suzanna Sanders.
Richard Hicks won Over 60 Men's Singles over Kwing Yiu Lau, 7,-8,6,9. Probably the BIG match was the semifinal rematch between Hicks and George Brathwaite. Last year, Brathwaite had defeated Hicks in the final. This time, Hicks won their semifinal match, but it was a doozy - 9,9,-6,-8,12!
Under
2000 Hardbat Champion Homer Brown and runner-up James Rautis. Photo by Larry
Hodges ©2003.
The Under 2000 Hardbat had the wildest finish. Homer Brown won the first game, and led 20-19 match point in the second against James Rautis, but couldn't convert. In the third, he led 19-14 and 20-16. At 20-18, he smacked a pop-up off. At 20-19, James got a net, Homer had to lob it back - but two medium-high lobs later, and James got caught jammed at the table and smacked a backhand into the net. Match to the foot-shuffling Homer Brown, attending his 35th consecutive U.S. Open, 18,-20,19.
"This was the first time in my life I've ever gotten more nets than my opponent!" exclaimed Homer.
"He always thinks his opponent gets more nets than he does!" responded James. The two had verbal byplay throughout their final's match.
All three rating doubles events were completed today. The most interesting one was the Waltz brothers of Illinois, Jim & Mat, winning Under 3700 Doubles for the second year in a row. It was an "All in the Family" final, as they defeated the father-son team of David & Brian Taylor of Colorado in the final, -5,7,-8,6,8. Winning Under 4200 Doubles was Yin Wang/Thomas Haynes over Samson Dubina/Josh Kuhn, 10,3,6. Winning Under 3200 Doubles was Evan Ng/Stephanie Shih over the brother/sister team of Mark & Alicia Wei, 8,-10,-9,11,9.
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