By Larry Hodges
The first two rounds of Men's Singles were played on Thursday. The big upset of the day, in round two, was #5 seeded (2589 rated) Barney J. Reed's lost to De Tran (2411). Dr. De (yes, he's a medical doctor and a former USA team member) came from behind in this battle of lefties, -2,8,-4,-8,7,7,8.
There was a minor upset where Loc Ngo (2360) won over former USA junior star/Pan Am Team member Chi-Sun Chui (who's been living in Hong Kong for a number of years as a stock trader in the Hong Kong stock market), -12,2,-10,8,2,10. Freddie Gabriel (2492) had a struggle with Puerto Rican star Joseph Dibbs (2360), 7,-7,5,-8,10,8. USA Men's Coach Dan Seemiller was scheduled to play his student, A.J. Brewer. A.J., however, was in a busy schedule in the Cadet Team Trials (he'd make the team), and defaulted.
Men's Doubles was played to the semifinals. In the quarterfinal, there was one seeming "shocking" result, and one come-from-behind near upset. The apparent shocker was Samson Dubina/Tri Dinh (rated 2421 & 2298, average 2359.5) over the #2 seeded team of David Zhuang/Han Xiao (2673 and 2587, average 2630), by scores of 7,3,4! HOWEVER . . . it was later discovered the umpire had put the scores in backwards, and Zhuang/Xiao won by those scores. So . . . no shocker.
However, the #3 seeded team of Barney J. Reed (2589) & Freddie Gabriel (2492) made things interesting. They were down 0-2 to Nison Aronov (2467) and De Tran (2411) before winning, -6,-10,5,8,8.
Khoa Nguyen/John Tran Thach were scheduled to play Shao Yu/Liu Hui Yuan in the quarterfinals. However, Khoa had a scheduling conflict - the match was scheduled for 7:30 PM, which was at the same time as Khoa's Hall of Fame induction! Yes, Khoa, now 40 years old (minimum age for the Hall) is now a Hall of Famer, and the quarterfinal match will be played sometime on Friday. (Late addition: Shao Yu/Liu Hui Yuan upset Khao Nguyen/John Tran Thach, -6,5,10,6.)
The top four seeds in women's singles (Wang Chen 2605, Jasna Reed 2477, Tawny Banh 2425 and Nan Li 2399) were seeded to the quarterfinals. The rest played in frou preliminary groups, with the #1 finisher in each group advancing to the quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals, the match-ups are:
There were only five teams, which played to the final on Thursday. The only close one was Jackie Lee/Nan Li over Diane Chen/Gina Dole, -12,5,6,-6,6 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, top-seeded Wang Chen/Jasna Reed (#1 and #2 in singles) won over Jackie & Nan, 6,6,10, while #2 seeded Tawny Banh/Crystal Huang won over Whitney Ping/Simone Yang, 5,5,3. The final will be between Wang/Reed and Banh/Huang.
Mixed Doubles was played to the semifinals. There were two close matches. In the 8ths, Freddie Gabriel/Jackie Lee, rated 2492 and 2326, faced the father-daughter team of Lim Ming Chui (2240) and Jane Chui (2135). Jane has been absent from tournaments for quite some time, and was way out of practice, so the match shouldn't have been close ... right? The Chui's lost the first two, but won the next two close ones before going out in five, 5,7,-10,-9,4.
The other battle was the quarterfinal win by Mark Hazinski/Crystal Huang over Shao Yu/Stephanie Shih, another match that by the ratings (2623 and 2384, vs. 2527 and 2000 even) shouldn't have been close. So toss out those ratings, but the favorites did win, -9,7,9,-8,9.
In the semifinals, it will be Ilija Lupulesku/Wang Chen (top seeds in men's and women's singles) vs. Khoa Nguyen/Whitney Ping, and Tawny Banh/Barney J. Reed vs. Mark Hazinski/Crystal Huang.
The top four cadets (under age 15) were seeded out in both boys and girls, with the rest playing qualifiers on Wednesday to reach the Final Twelve. These were put in two groups of six, played out on Thursday, with the top two in each group making the team, with crossovers on Friday for positions 1-4.
Cadet Boys' Team Trials
Cadet Girls Team Trials
Going in, the trials looked wide open. Ariel Hsing, rated 2029, seemed assured a spot, but the next eight players ranged in rating from 1709 to 1824, and the next was also competitive at 1639.