2004 USA Olympic Singles Trials

Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania · Jan. 13-18, 2004

 

 

Men's and Women's Final Twelve

By Larry Hodges

Day Three - Saturday, Jan. 17

 

Women's Round Seven

It was a round for youth over the "establishment" as Michelle Do and Jackie Lee upset Jasna Reed and Lily Yip, respectively. Both matches featured non-stop bang-bang points, with little change of pace. Michelle said, "I had nothing to lose, so I just went for it." And go for it she did, regularly hitting Jasna's loops and matching her hit for hit. In the seventh, Jasna led 9-7, took a timeout, and then led 10-8 match point, Michelle serving. Within perhaps 60 seconds ... it was 12-10 Michelle with the big upset.

 

Jackie Lee and Lily Yip involved a controversy, which fortunately did not, in the end, affect the result. In the third (with the match 1-1), Jackie led 10-9. Jackie served, and Lily missed the serve. Both players left the table to talk to their respective coach - but the umpire waved them back - they hadn't heard him say, "fault" on Jackie's serve. She had been warned earlier for throwing the ball backward when serving, and the serve was called a fault for this. (If umpires don't call service faults, it's bad; if they do, it's bad; they can't win!) So the score became 10-all - and Lily went on to win the game, 13-11 (but not before Jackie had another ad at 11-10). Like Michelle-Jasna match, the points were all bang-bang, like a machine gun. It went right to the seventh, where Jackie led 5-2 at the switch, then 6-2, 6-5, then 7-7, 9-7, 11-8. 

 

Laura Leach and Wan Yee Cheung had a back-and-forth match, with two trading the first to games at 11 and 9. Laura, with her two-winged looping game, took control and won the next two. But Wan, with her pips-out penhold game - with a reverse penhold (with inverted) backhand attack, pulled out another close in in game five. But Laura shut the door in game six. 

 

Men's Round Seven

Khoa Nguyen battled pretty closely with Lupulesku, and there were some incredible points where Khoa was ripping over and over, with Lupi fishing them all back. Most of these rallies were Khoa ripping to Lupi's wide backhand - if you go to his forehand, he easily counterloops. Lupi always seems to win the close games, and that's what he did here. 

 

Eric Owens keeps his National Team hopes alive by coming back to defeat Darko Rop - but the last two games were 9. 

 

Mark Hazinski and David Zhuang continued to roll, over Adam Hugh and Brian Pace. 

 

Han Xiao continues his series of upsets, defeating Barney J. Reed, 4-2. It was the third time in a row Han has beaten Barney - his quick backhand loop over the table seems to give Barney great difficulty. 

 

The longest match was Tahl Leibovitz over Ashu Jain in the battle to get their first win. Tahl led 10-8 match point in the seventh, then Ashu was up 11-10 match point, but Tahl had the last match point - on an edge ball - and the last primal scream. Now that he had his first win, Tahl asked his coach, Sean O'Neill, what the opposite of "undefeated" was, since he had been moving in that direction. "Defeated?" O'Neill answered. (How about "unwinned"?)

 

Women's Round Eight

In the round before, Jasna Reed had been upset by Michelle Do, and Lily Yip by Jackie Lee. Now it was Tawny Banh's turn to face a challenge. Whitney Ping went up 3-2 - but if she'd won game four when she'd been up 10-9, things might be different. Tawny was able to win the last two games to withstand the challenge - and with her win over Lily Yip, is looking very strong to make at least the top three. "She surprised me with how steady she was," Tawny said of Whitney. 

 

Jasna withstood Jackie Lee's bid for another upset, winning both close games in winning 4-0. The other matches went as expected. 

 

Men's Round Eight

Lupulesku and Eric Owens had a great counterlooping duel. Lupulesku is the best counterlooper in the U.S. End of match. (Eric led 6-0 in the fourth game - but lost 11-8 as Lupi poured it on - but the last two games were close, 10 & 8.)

 

After Khoa Nguyen won the first three against Mark Hazinski, Mark faced the reality that if he lost 0-4, he'd probably finish last in any potential 3-way tie - and there's a good chance he, David and Khoa could end up that way. Mark fought back and won the next two, coming from behind to win the fifth. In the sixth, Khoa took an insurmountable 9-3 lead that Mark almost surmounted ... losing 11-9. Khoa's attack is so systematic it usually put Mark on the defensive, but Mark's two-winged power often evened things up. 

 

In this all-lefty match, Barney J. Reed seemed to dominate all seven games of his match with Darko Rop, yet Darko won 4-3. How is this possible? Darko "The Warrior" seemed to always be behind, but keeps fighting back. He runs down everything when off the table, and jab-blocks the ball all over the table when he's at the table. According to USA Men's coach Dan Seemiller, he also returned serves very well. Barney too often would take a lead and seem to coast on the strength of his counterlooping - while Darko would maneuver him around. A key game was game three, where Barney led 7-3, but lost the next seven points, and ended up losing 9-11, with a yellow card for smacking his racket against the table when he lost. (At 7-10, a ball bounced into the court as Barney ripped a winner, and the point did not count.) In the last game, Barney began to completely dominate play - but only after he was down 4-9. Like Mark's comeback this round, it fell just short as Darko won 11-9 in the seventh. Another key to Darko's victory were the four or five times each game he's suddenly play all-out backhand hitting, right off the bounce, catching Barney off guard, since Darko is usually a spinner a step off the table. 

 

David Zhuang and Adam Hugh played pretty much even for two games, and Adam had his chances in game four as well. Adam led 7-2 that game, but David tied it at 8-all. At 9-all, David got an edge to get a game point, and he ended up winning that game 12-10. Adam seemed comfortable on both wings with David, but David's one of those few players who can find winning angles even against a player who is in position - and he always seems to have a ball to kill when he needs a point. Adam played some incredible points, however, including the final point of game one, where David smashed over and over against Adam's topspin returns before finally missing. 

 

Han Xiao mostly coasted against Tahl Leibovitz. Tahl's best shot is his backhand loop, but that's Han's strength too, and he has more power. Also, when Tahl backs up and plays topspin defense, as he often does, Han's off-the-bounce, angled loops are hard to return. 

 

Ashu Jain was determined to climb "out of the cellar," and got his first win, over Brian Pace. 

 

Women's Round Nine

Whitney led 10-6 in the third against Gao Jun, but Gao won the next six in a row ... and 17 of the next 19. 

 

Jasna Reed has said that she considers Lily Yip one of her toughest matches, and she's lost to her several times. And here she was facing her in a match where the loser probably wouldn't be going to the North American Olympic Trials. At this point, with Gao seeded to the Olympics, there are two spots. Jasna has defeated Tawny Banh; Tawny has defeated Lily Yip; if Lily defeats Jasna, and all three lose to Gao, then assuming no more upsets, Tawny has 2 losses, and Jasna and Lily 3 (Jasna losing to Michelle Do, and Lily to Jackie Lee). So this is a must win for both players.  This time around, however, after losing the first game, Jasna dominated with her two-winged shakehand hitting/looping attack, and is especially effective in attacking all parts of the table. Jasna only gave up 19 points over the last four games - a 44-19 score. 

 

The other matches went mostly as expected, except that Judy Hugh gave Michelle Do a run for it, making it to 2-2 before losing in six. 

 

Current Standings

Through Round 9
Standings Record Still has to play
1. Gao Jun 9-0 Banh Bye
2. Tawny Banh  7-1 Gao Leach
3. Jasna Reed 7-2 Bye Cheung
4. Jackie Lee 5-3 Hugh Sung
5-6. Lily Yip 4-4 Cheung Hugh
5-6. Michelle Do 4-4 Sung Ping
7-8. Whitney Ping 3-5 Leach Do
7-8. Virginia Sung 3-5 Do Lee
9. Judy Hugh 2-6 Lee Yip
10. Laura Leach 1-7 Ping Banh
11. Wan Yee Cheung 0-8 Yip Reed

 

Analysis of Women's Trials

 

Since Gao pre-qualified, only two other women will go to the North American Olympic Trials. Tawny Banh and Jasna Reed have locked that up. The worst Tawny and Jasna can do is finish 7-3, and the best Jackie Lee can do is 7-3 (everyone else has at least four losses). Jackie lost to both head-to-head, so cannot finish ahead of them.  So from here on, they are trying out for the fourth spot on the World Team. And that's wide open. Jackie Lee, Lily Yip, Michelle Do, Whitney Ping and Virginia Sung could all get the last spot, but it's a complicated maze of possibilities. (The analysis assumes no one defaults.) 

 

Men's Round Nine

This is the wildest round yet. Every match was a novel in itself, yet I could only watch one at a time, eyes flitting back and forth. At one point, all four matches being played were at deuce or 9-9. There was one moment when the servers for all four matches were all on the same side, and all served at the same time. 

 

Ilija Lupulesku versus Mark Hazinski ... they met ... they counterlooped ... they both went fishing a few times ... they shook hands after the most spectacular match of the Trials. Mark led 10-9 in the first, lost 10-12.  Lupi led 10-8, 11-10 in the second, Mark won.  Lupi led 9-8 in the third, lost 9-11. And nearly every point is non-stop, eye-dropping counterlooping, except when one of them got in trouble, and then there'd be some fishing, and then back to business - counterlooping. Get the videotapes, a record for counterloops made might have been broken, at least a USA record. But it had to end sometime, and Lupi, while looking tired, never let up. Mark began playing a few points at the table - maybe a good idea at the time, but it didn't work. Lupi won games four and five, and led 9-8, 10-8 in the sixth - and won on an edge. 

 

David Zhuang versus Khoa Nguyen ... "Khoa's on fire!" said Mark Nordby (usually the coaching half of the "Mark's Brothers," starring Mark Hazinski). Khoa is on fire, and after fighting off one game point, wins game three in deuce to go up 2-1. Game four and five are similar, except that David has "walled up" - nothing gets past him. But in game six, it's all Khoa to 10-6 ... 10-7 ... 10-8 ... 10-9 ... 10-10 ...10-11 ... 11-11 ... 12-11 ... 12-12 ... 13-12 ... Khoa misses "easy" backhand rip ... 13-13 ... 13-14 ... 13-15!!! The last point was won by a spectacular block to the open table by David. David is racing around the court yelling in victory, Khoa looks absolutely sick. What he'd give to have that 13-12 shot again. 

 

Han Xiao is having the tournament of his life (on the verge of making the USA team), and is now facing Brian Pace - on paper, based on their play at these Trials, an "easy" match, but in reality, a very real spoiler threat. Han is 5-3; Brian is 1-7. But Brian and Han used to be practice partners, and Brian knows Han's game - and at key points, Han got nervous against Brian, and almost blew it. Han led 10-7 in the first, and 10-9, 11-10 in the second, and yet was down 0-2. That's when he finally caught fire, winning game three 11-1. But it's long from over. Brian goes up 10-6 in game five, Han deuces it, but Brian wins, 12-10, to go up 3-2. Han leads 9-4 in the sixth - and then it's 9-7, 10-7, 10-9 ... 11-9.  The seventh is all mostly Han, who wins with his two-winged looping and quickness, but not before they have the point of the match - an all-out forehand to forehand counterlooping duel at 10-6, which Han finally wins. 

 

While Han barely escapes his past practice partner in seven, Adam Hugh is having similar difficulties with fellow New Jersey player Ashu Jain. Yep, they go seven as well. Adam seemed in control most of the match, going up 3-1 (winning four in a row from down 7-9 in the third), but Ashu worked his way back into it. But the seventh is all Adam, who jumps out in front 5-1, 7-3, 11-3. 

 

Neither Darko Rop or Tahl Leibovitz are in contention any longer - but both are determined to win. Darko never gives up, and Tahl has steely-eyed Sean O'Neill coaching him, so he sure as heck better fight all the way. It's a great crowd-pleasing match as the tall Darko and much shorter Tahl take turns counterlooping and fishing as both race around the court returning each other's shots. The last two games ended in spectacular fashion. In game six, leading 3-2 in games, Tahl led 10-8, 11-10 and 12-11, but couldn't convert any of the four match points. At 12-11, Darko seemed to loop off - match over! - but it just nicked the edge, 12-all, soon to be 14-12 Darko. In game seven, it's Darko's turn to have match points - 10-7 and 11-10, but he too can't convert. Tahl has match point at 12-11, but Darko gets a net. Finally, at match point #10 (4 for Darko, 6 for Tahl), Darko loops off and Tahl has his second win - both deuce in the seventh. "Tahl is learning that he doesn't have to third-ball everything and end the point on the first shot. He learned a lot watching Lupulesku against Hazinski, where neither needed to go for a winner right away."

 

Current Standings

Through Round 9
Standings   Record Still has to play
1. Ilija Lupulesku 9-0 Reed Zhuang
2. David Zhuang 8-1 Hazinski Lupulesku
3. Khoa Nguyen 7-2 Jain Xiao
4-5. Mark Hazinski 6-3 Zhuang Jain
4-5. Han Xiao 6-3 Hugh Nguyen
6. Eric Owens 5-4 Leibovitz Pace
7. Adam Hugh 4-5 Xiao Rop
8. Barney J. Reed 3-6 Lupulesku Leibovitz
9-10. Darko Rop 2-7 Pace Hugh
9-10. Tahl Leibovitz 2-7 Owens Reed
11-12. Brian Pace 1-8 Rop Owens
11-12. Ashu Jain 1-8 Nguyen Hazinski

 

Analysis of Men's Trials

 

Lupulesku has clinched at least top three, and so will be going to the North American Olympic Trials. David Zhuang, Khoa Nguyen, Mark Hazinski and Han Xiao - and Eric Owens in a complicated scenario - are all in the running for the other two spots. (The analysis assumes no one defaults.) 

 

Since Lupi is not eligible for the World Team (since he's represented Yugoslavia within the last three years), the top four excluding him make the National team. (His matches do not count in figuring that, but if he goes undefeated, it won't affect anything.) 

 

For the National Team, only David has clinched a spot on the National team - David, who leads the pack at 8-1, could end up 8-3 (and with matches against Lupi and Hazinski, it's a good possibility). Khoa, Mark and Han could also finish at 8-3, so David's at least in the top four. To make the top four, it's going to take a record of at least 6-5, since even if they lose their last two matches, at least four players (excluding Lupi) will have that record or better. So the ones still in the hunt to make the team (besides David, who's on it) are Khoa Nguyen, Mark Hazinski, Han Xiao, Eric Owens and Adam Hugh. 

 

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