2004 USA Olympic Doubles Trials

Day Two: Saturday, March 20, 2004

By Larry Hodges

Complete Results

Day Two Photo Gallery

Women's Trials - Day Two

The women, since they only had five teams, would only have two rounds today - and two teams would have byes in one round, so it was a short day for them. Most of the women's matches throughout the Trials tended to be somewhat lopsided. Of the ten matches played, none went seven, one went six, three went five, and the other six were 4-0. There was only one upset - Lily Yip/Judy Hugh over Michelle Do/Jackie Lee the day before. 

In the first round, Jasna Reed/Whitney Ping won against Michelle Do/Jackie Lee (8,-10,7,7,3) to go to 3-0, while Tawny Banh/Simone Yang, after some early drama, won against Lily Yip/Judy Hugh (-8,7,13,3,7). At this point, the top two teams were set, with Reed/Ping and Banh/Yang to play off for first place. Tawny and Simone had an early flight, and with agreement from Reed/Ping, played their match early. (Referee Larry Kesler, who was at lunch at the time during a scheduled break, wasn't happy about this, since the match was played without a referee present.) Reed/Ping won, 7,10,12,9.

At this point, Yip/Hugh were 1-2, while Lee/Do were 1-3, with a bye in the final round. Even if Yip/Hugh lost and finished at 1-3, they'd win out against Lee/Do since they won head-to-head. That's what a number of people seemed to think - except that the 0-3 team of Katherine Wu/Barbara Wei, if they were to win against Yip/Hugh in the final round, would also be 1-3. However, since Yip/Hugh had won 4-0 against Do/Lee (who had also beaten Wu/Wei 4-0), the only way Yip/Hugh would not finished third is if they lost 0-4. In this case, all three teams would be 1-3 in matches, and 4-4 in games - and it would go to point! So all they had to do was win one game against Wu/Wei.

Match, and third place to Yip/Hugh, 6 (they're on!),5,7,5.

Men's Trials - Day Two

In the last match on Friday, Khoa Nguyen/De Tran, who were looking more and more like they would get the third spot, were upset by Sean O'Neill/Tahl Leibovitz - throwing things open. And throw things open it did - in fact, it opened a gaping hole for Sean & Tahl, who grabbed it, and just barely pulled themselves through - but it went right to 11-9 in the seventh before they pulled it out.

Early on, the top two seeds clinched their spots as Ilija Lupulesku/Mark Hazinski and David Zhuang/Eric Owens marched to 5-0 records before facing each other in the final round. However, both had bumpy starts today in their 10AM matches. Lupulesku/Hazinski were down 1-2 before defeating Nguyen/Tran at -8,3,-12,3,7,2 - but they looked pretty comfortable in the last three games. Zhuang/Owens had a battle with O'Neill/Leibovitz before winning at -7,8,8,4,-9,8. With these wins, both teams were 4-0.

Han Xiao/Adam Hugh, USA's top two junior players (aged 17 & 16) played the two most exciting matches of the day - a pair of seven-gamers, the only two of the Trials (men's or women's, out of a total of 31 matches played). The first was in the first round today, against Reed/Cretu. Reed/Cretu went up 3-1 in games. Leading 8-4 in the fourth, Barney was at the barriers trying to lob and slipped over a barrier's support - and injured his thumb when he jammed it against the ground. In retaliation, he kicked the offending barrier - and was promptly yellow-carded. "The barrier tripped me - it was a personal foul!" Barney responded. "Aren't you going to yellow card it?" They won that game, but lost the fifth.

In the sixth, needing just one more game to win, they led 7-3 - and lost  the next six in a row, 7-9. The scores then bounced back and forth: down 9-10 game point, then up 11-10 match point; down 12-11 game point, then up 13-12 match point when Han served into the net. Down 14-13, Barney does a sort of diving counterloop that hits the net and goes over, 14-all. But Adam loops a backhand winner, and Han a forehand winner, and it's on to the seventh. But the seventh is no contest - Xiao/Hugh go up 5-0, 8-1, 11-4, and win the match, -11,7,-6,-7,3,14,4.

This results of the first round led to an interesting scenario for the final two rounds. IF the following were to happen in the last two rounds...

• Dubina/Snider d. Nguyen/Tran
• Dubina/Snider d. O'Neill/Leibovitz
• Zhuang/Owens d. Nguyen/Tran
• O'Neill/Leibovitz d. Xiao/Hugh
• Lupulesku/Hazinski d. Reed/Cretu

...then there would be a 5-way tie for the third spot, all at 2-4! In this scenario, the top two teams (Lupulesku/Hazinski and Zhuang/Owens) would come in first and second in any order. The other five teams - Reed/Cretu, Nguyen/Tran, Xiao/Hugh, O'Neill/Leibovtz and Dubina/Snider - would all be 2-4!

However, after concluding that the only way his team could finish in the top three was by a relatively unlike series of upsets, Barney Reed decided it wasn't worth further injuring his thumb - and so his team defaulted out. This actually fulfilled one of the criteria listed above! However, due to the match point system of tie-breaking (2 points for a win, 1 for a loss, 0 for a default), even though Reed/Cretu could be tied in record, they would not be tied in the standings. But the possibility of five teams at 2-4 was a touch closer to reality!

In the next round, Zhuang/Owens did defeat Nguyen/Tran, romping at 4,3,9,7, moving us another notch closer to the 5-way tie scenario. However, O'Neill/Leibovitz burst the bubble by winning against Dubina/Snider, 9,7,-9,4,6. But the possibility was fun while it lasted!

At this point, Lupulesku/Hazinski and Zhuang/Owens were both 5-0, and would play for first and second in the final round, a relatively meaningless match since all that mattered was finishing in the top three. Zhuang/Owens would win, -4,4,12,8,4. This left us with the battle for the third spot. The final two matches were Nguyen/Tran vs. Dubina/Snider, and Xiao/Hugh vs. O'Neill/Leibovitz. If Dubina/Snider were to upset Nguyen/Tran, then the winner of the other match would get the third spot. And they gave it a good run - winning the first, and making it to 9-10 in the third, before losing at -7,5,9,4,4. "I'm happy with the way I played," Nick Snider said. He and Samson Dubina didn't win any matches, but they gave a few teams a run for it - only Lupulesku/Hazinski were able to beat them 4-0.

Now Nguyen/Tran (3-3) could only watch as their fate would be decided by the Xiao/Hugh vs. O'Neill/Leibovitz match. If Xiao/Hugh won, they would finish at 3-3, tied with Nguyen/Tran - but since Nguyen/Tran won head-to-head, Xiao/Hugh would come in fourth, first alternate. So the two junior players could not finished third. If O'Neill/Leibovitz won, then they would finish 3-3, and would win head-to-head against Nguyen/Tran.

It was a wild match, with the point of the day in the first game with O'Neill/Leibovitz leading, a fantastic counterlooping point won by the more experienced duo, aged 36 and 28, respectively, to their opponent's combined age of 33. The teams split the first four games, and then the elders were behind 6-9 in the fourth - then 9-all. But in winning the previous point, Tahl had hurt his back, a pinched nerve he'd been having difficulty with. After a short injury timeout, they came back to the table - and played one point, won by the juniors. There was another injury timeout as Sean worked on Tahl's back for over five minutes. Finally, the four got back to the table - and O'Neill/Leibovitz went up 11-10. At 11-all, Sean looped a net ball - but Han counterlooped a net to go up 12-11. Finally, Han absolutely pulverized a backhand loop to win the game, 14-12, and go up 3-2.

Xiao/Hugh went up 5-2 in the sixth, and appeared on their way to winning - but only scored two more points that game. Tactically, the two teams are similar in some ways, with each team having a "control" player and a "finishing" player: Tahl and Adam are control, Sean and Han the finishers. The points are marked by great counterlooping points. Tahl often changes the pace with soft loops and dead blocks, while Sean goes from steady to putaway mode depending on the shot. Han and Adam mostly attack more straightforward, with Adam's attack conventional loops from both wings and some backhand hits (and great ball control), while Han goes for more shots, with many highlight backhand loop kills. All four have excellent short games, and most rallies start with several short pushes before one finds a ball to attack.

In the seventh, Xiao/Hugh again led early, but up 3-1, Han misses a pair of relatively "easy" loop kills (one forehand, one backhand) - later, he'd still be irritated at himself for these two misses. They'd still go up 6-4 (could have been 8-2!). Then it's 6-6, and Xiao/Hugh's coach (Barry Dattel, Adam's step-father) called a timeout. But this time it doesn't work, as they lose the first three points when they return to the table. At 8-9, Tahl pushes a no-spin ball - and Han rips it off, 8-10. Adam then pushes, but Sean loops it off. So it's now 9-10 in the seventh. Sean serves, and after several short pushes, Tahl pushes shorts, slightly high - and a lunging Han flips it off - and the match, and the Team Trials is over as Sean O'Neill/Tahl Leibovitz have claimed the third spot, 4,-7,7,-9,12,7,9.

Sean and Tahl were interviewed on TV (there was huge press coverage here, both TV and newspaper). Sean said  that, tactically, Tahl's the "opener" while he was the "closer." Tahl added that they both covered for each other's weaknesses. The two had been training together in New York for 11 days prior to the Trials. Their main focus, Sean said, was to get Tahl ready for the Paralympics in Athens this fall. (Tahl has bone spurs, and plays in the standing disabled division; Sean is his coach.)

Later, I'd give Tahl a ride to the bus station - and it'd take him several minutes to get out of the car due to his back problem.