By Tim Boggan
In the top half of the Over 30 draw, 2004 30’s Champion and #1 seed Shao Yu reached the final with a 4-game semi’s win over 2003 U-2200 winner (now rated 2299) Sakda Timsuwan who’d eliminated N.J.’s similarly rated Patrick Mualem. In the quarter’s, Shao had stopped (though 14, 9, 9 not easily) current Jamaican Champion and former Association President Joe Dibbs, after Joe had been –9, 7, 10, 10 pressed by 350-point underdog Don Hayes.
In the bottom half, Danny Seemiller on his way to the final didn’t drop a game, and only allowed two in double figures—one to CA’s Robert Shahnazari and one to U.S. World Team member Darko Rop. Darko’s no longer into traveling, but, when he can, he combines his Houston neuromuscular therapy work with focusing in on an occasional tournament. Players attracting attention in this section were Alex Veronin who 10, -9, 6, -9, -10 almost did in 375-point favorite Scott Dalton, and 1834-rated Steve Anderson who, after upsetting Derrick Cone, forced 2298-rated Tri Dinh into the 5th. Six years ago, Avishy Schmidt beat Barry Dattel for the Over 40 title. When they met this time, in the 8th’s, Barry, before losing to Darko, beat Avi 9, 8, 12, sending him, it may be, not off to Nebraska but to Omaha—which, at the Vegas poker tables, he prefers to Texas Hold ’Em.
The final, aside from the 11-9 first game where Shao said he’d had some trouble with Seemiller’s serves, went—the way balls kept coming at Danny—quickly.
No point in following straight-game winners Cheng “Chen” Yinghua and Seemiller to the final—though I hasten to add Hank McCoullum, alone, did make a spirited –9, -10, -14 fight of it with Danny. Best early round matches in Chen’s half were Santos Shih’s 4, 10, -8, 9 win over Larry Thoman; and Don Hayes’ 5-game upset (from down 2-0) over Rudy Miranda, and then, though a losing one, Don’s gritty 13-11-in-the-4th match-up with De Tran. Dr. De, last year’s 30’s winner, followed with another win—an 11-9-in the-5th cardiac stopper to self and opponent, Dr. Tuan Le, the 2005 runner-up in the 40’s to Chen. De was up 8-4 in the 5th and hoping for an easy way home, only to see Tuan tie it up at 8-all—at which point, both of them said later, they were “scared.” At 9-all, Tuan flipped a ball off, and at 10-9 De flipped a ball on. “De’s the best Doctor,” said Tuan.
The big surprise in Seemiller’s half was Richard McAfee—particularly since he’d just been advised he was eligible for paralympic play (Class 8?) because of his bad knees. He walks, limps, with a cane, but don’t be deceived—he beat Yang Sung (who’d upset Loc Ngo), Dave Sakai, and Barry Dattel before losing to Danny. Big Mac’s switched to a Neubauer racket. “It slows the game down,” he says. “I can’t move, so I gotta do something to stay competitive.” Seemiller points out that since Vegas is 2,000 feet above sea level, the altitude makes the ball come faster, and the dry air of the desert surroundings makes for more friction, more spin—factors players have to adjust to. Playing against McAfee’s long pips you have to be careful, says Danny. “If you loop and Richard chops or blocks, the return is loaded. If you try to loop again, the ball will go straight down, so you have to push that return ball upwards.”
Another player being noticed was 1918-rated Steve Hochman who’s coached by Boris Shafir. A smart player who has a strong backhand and returns serves well, Steve upset Mas Hashimoto, rated 200 points higher; then he –9, 8, 8, -9, 8 knocked out 2225-rated Mike Leshinsky before going down to Danny. Meanwhile, George Braithwaite, behind 2-1 to Viktor Sidorov, decided, just in 11-9-in-the-5th time, he’d better stop his opening spin balls to Sidorov’s backhand and go to the forehand, because Viktor was successfully pushing down hard on the ball and causing George follow-up problems. The Chief also had to go 5 in his 8th’s match against Minnesota’s Dan Wiig—but this one he didn’t win. Dan, a lefty double-wing looper who spins the ball then rips it, hadn’t played for 10 years before coming back to his 2319 rating.
The final?…What 2, 0, 0 final? Danny’s back was bothering him, but he had to show up, start a match with Chen, for otherwise he wouldn’t get his runner-up $175 prize.
Early-round 5-game matches in this 51-entry modified 40’s event were: Al Kong (Finals Night Raffle winner of my six History volumes, courtesy of the Houston TTC), -5, -6, 8, 11, 9, over Glenn Caplin; top seed Harold Elson, 8, -8, 7, -10, 10, over Frank Zandpour; Alex Sumeri, 9, -10, -7, 10, 9, over Leszek Kasowski; and Anh Ngo, 14, -13, -9, 11, 6, over Dennis Lui. Of these only Elson reached the semi’s where he was beaten by runner-up Dave Edwards who apologized for his (“I run around like crazy”) “horrible technique.” Like many players, Dave objected to the $5 a day (Wed. through Fri.) being charged the audience made up mostly of players’ friends and relatives. Winner out of the pack was 1517-rated David Flores who in his 8th’s and quarter’s had to go 5 with, respectively, Yaltza Garcia and Ngo.
In early-round 40 Doubles, James Therriault/Loc Ngo downed Santos Shih/Coach Hui Yuan Liu, -3, 8, 10, 9; and Tuan Le/John Tran Thach beat Scott Preiss/Dave Rubin 10, 10, 4. But Scott had the distinction of having his son Austin get the largest front-page table tennis photo in the Sports section of the local Review-Journal I’ve ever seen—and a nice story on him to boot. Tuan and John then fell to Dattel and Lim Ming Chui, 13, -15, 17, -19, 21, in what has to be an official scoring error, for they weren’t playing hardbat. However, according to all participants, it was a close match. Word was that Ming kept his cool. Why? Because he was afraid his partner Barry might get upset! But how likely was that? The final saw Cheng/Sakai nip the Defending Champions Nison Aronov/De Tran when Sakai was more forceful, looped more, and Cheng finished well from 9-all in the 5th, both times going for the point with booming backhand loops.
The 10-player Women’s over 40’s, was divided into 3 round robins—with the 3 winners advancing. Results not in doubt were Diane Dongye Chen, a 500+-point favorite over Barbara Kaminsky, her playing arm sore from too much swing practice (at golf, not table tennis); and Simone Yang, a 400-point favorite over Donna Sakai. In the only contested bracket, Gina Doyle (rated 2048), last year’s 40’s runner-up to Lily Yip, defeated Charlene Xiaoying Liu (rated 2133). Gina, a short-pips penholder, was able to upset Charlene with some luck and by scoring again and again with backhand smashes, for which Charlene was just unprepared since her practice partner, her husband Changping, didn’t have such a weapon to flash/slash. Gina went on to put up some –9, -9, -5 semi’s resistance to Simone. In 2004, former U.S. Team member Yang easily won the 40’s from former Chinese Team member Chen, but this time just the reverse was true.
The Men’s 50’s was Seemiller’s event—he didn’t drop a game. In his quarter’s draw, there were two 200-point upsets: Freddie Haythorne over James Rautis in 5, and Simon Gendler, “6, 4, -8, -9, -7” coming from 2-0 down to eliminate John Monaco. Gendler then continued his advance by “–8, 14, 11, 6” ousting Dave Rubin. You find the computer scoring method—the winning scores often preceded by minus signs, but sometimes not—inconsistent, confusing? Me too. But I’ll continue to translate them out for you, hoping I won’t make a mistake.
While Seemiller was having his 6, 9, 13 most challenging match with 2003 Over 50’s winner Lim Ming Chui, Lon Dean, before going down docilely in the semi’s to Danny, was dominating his quarter’s. First, with his Neubauer half-block/half-chop play he beat Braithwaite in 5—George too late seeing that nothing ball serves worked better than spin serves, and noting that “the longer the rallies, the more severe Dean got.” Then Lon downed Mark Wedret in 4, after Mark’s long pips had played havoc with Ron Von Schimmelman’s game (“There wasn’t any friction on his ball—I just touched it and it went four feet off the table”).
In Coach Hui Yuan Liu’s half, Don Geeze gave Dan Green a 5-game upset scare, whereupon Dan in turn, though losing, at least hit Dick Hicks with an 11, -5, 11, 8 something to think about. Dick then went on to ever more danger. Against Duc Loi, he was down 2-1 and 9-4 and double match point, but pulled it out. Then, oh, oh, Hank McCoullum—his 50 Doubles partner—stopped him (knew all Dick’s tricks, did he?)
Defending 50’s Champion Jiri Hlava, who for 25 years has worked as a counselor in a hospital mental health ward, enjoys encouraging lower rated players to be more passionate about the game (“They get fired up, I get fired up,” he says). But there’ll be no 50’s win this year for Jiri—Bill Ryan’s very good table game, his long pips and short blocks denied him, 12-10 in the 4th. Bill then fell to Sakai, after Dave, winning all the close games (-5, 11, 13, -6, 10) had barely survived Seattle looper Sung Yang, just back from the Korean Open. In getting to the final against Seemiller, Coach Liu (2398) had some work to do—he went 9 in the 4th against Sakai, 9 in the 4th against McCoullum. “Liu’s serves were too good,” said Hank (2096), “otherwise I could control play.”
Seemiller/Sakai, giving up on the average only 5 points a game, obliterated the opposition. But runner-ups Hicks and McCollum were tested in triplicate. With their match tied 1-1 against Sinisa Borko Dragojlovic and Odo Wang who’s trying to build up table tennis locally (see his classy, multi-colored Vegas Club calling card—“The Best Table Game in Vegas…Open daily: 9am to 10pm”), they got the 12-10 momentum push in the 3rd they needed. Which brought them to John Harrington/Bill Kenig, whom they beat in 5—just as Harrington/Kenig had done earlier to last year’s runner-ups, Rautis and Meredith Elston. Finally, Dave and Danny took out the Defending Champs Hlava/Chui, also in 5.
There were four round robins in the Women’s 50’s. In Group 1, Charlene Liu, the #1 seed, had no trouble advancing. Ditto for Group 2’s Bella Livshin. In that bracket an energetic Tyra Parkins had a 5-game, 250-point upset win over Yvonne Kronlage who, though she didn’t know whether she could change her racket after the match had started, was quite certain that she was celebrating her 50th year in the Sport. In Group 3, 1821-rated Donna Sakai, with her friend “Bogi” offering encouragement, was able to get by a surprising Cheung Ting Ning (rated only 1455) who took her to 5, and by winning in 4, thanks to a pivotal 13-11 3rd game, from Suzanna Sanders (1757). At the end of August Donna had fractured her ankle and had to keep it 6 months in an air cast—but she was moving o.k. now. She had to be rock-steady though, for Sanders with her backhand pips was always trying to control the pace and placement of the ball. Suzanna also lost to penholder Cheung, but what did that matter—Bob’s latest biopsy report in his 4-year fight against cancer had brought them good news.
In Group 4, though not a match for advancement, Joyce Arpon and Marilyn Feinstein, Tybie Sommer’s daughter, played a crowd-pleaser, won by Joyce, 7, -17, 4, 9. Even better was the battle between the top seeds, Danuta Andrzejewski and Barbara Kaminsky, won by Barbara 9, -8, 10, -8, 9. Danuta, lean and fast-moving, was usually the aggressor, pushing until she could pick a forehand, which often didn’t take long because Kaminsky, when she wasn’t missing the occasional backhand flick, was backhand push-returning the ball high. “Danuta plays with a Neubauer racket,” said Barbara, “and her high ball looks easy to hit, but I’ve old-fashioned strokes.”
However, Barbara had arrived in Vegas the Thursday before play started on Wednesday, had gone several times to the local club, and her practiced reflexive hand speed was allowing her to block Danuta’s first-smacked ball back, though high. Then, in following, Danuta (“I didn’t cover the ball enough”), would often rush her shot, would come lunging in, swinging viciously, hitting the ball not in an arc but in a straight line over and off the table.
The 50 semi’s, Charlene over Barbara, and Bella over Donna, were uncontested. Bella, friendly-like before her final, was telling me she’d recently taken some kids to a U.S. Maccabean tournament and to while away time at the airport suggested they play cards. One kid says, “I play bridge.” Which allows Bella to say she knows the famous CA player/teacher Eddie Kantar and has in fact recently been playing some table tennis with him (he was once a good player and is in the Minnesota T.T. Hall of Fame). A kid’s mother overhears this talk and she too is a bridge player and knows Kantar. So Bella calls Eddie and, sure enough, it’s a slam-dunk—the woman gets to chat with him. Small world, huh?
In the last few years, at both the Open and Closed, Bella, who next year will be eligible for the 60’s, has carried on quite a rivalry with Charlene—with Bella winning early on, Charlene now defending her last year’s Closed win over Bella. But their last match in this year’s U.S. Open was marred by repeated umpire’s calls that resulted in Charlene defaulting. “This tournament,” said Charlene, “the umpire was fair and allowed me to do my job.” Which was to beat Bella in straight games.
Early-round 5-game matches in the 60’s: Fred Kistler over Lin Lam; Su Feng Liu, -10, 11, -4, 9, 9 over Joel Cipriano; Odo Wang over Richard Shrout, 8, 9, -9, -10, 9; and Martin Sundel, last year’s Over 40 Under 1600 winner, over Harold Elson. None of these players would reach the quarter’s, but Sundel (having picked up 400+ points in the last year) came very close, losing to Leung Che-Him, 12-10 in the 5th. Leung now lives in CA, but he used to seek out Braithwaite for matches at Robert Chen’s NYC Club. No doubt knowing The Chief’s game helped “Mr. Leung,” as George calls him, to close the 150-point rating gap between them. George needed all his accumulated knowledge of Leung’s game to beat him (“I had to open to his middle, force him to block, for otherwise he’s very good at angling the ball”). Up 2-1 and 16-15 in the 4th, George called “Time”—and then scored with a surprise backhand to Leung’s forehand that allowed him to move to an easier 4-game semi’s match with last year’s runner-up, Sweeris. Dell, in the meantime, had prevailed over 72-year-old Nick Mintsiveris, the 60’s winner way back in ’94. “I was surprised that a man of 61 could show such agility,” said Nickie. Dell too?
On the other side of the draw, Hicks, who for the last 9 years has been in the 60 finals, finally saw his streak broken by penholder Tay Chong Keng who tells me that after long ago seeing a friend use the “reverse backhand,” he began adopting it for fun, and actually used it in the 1987 U.S. Closed held at the Vegas Showboat. Later of course World Champion Liu Guoliang popularized it. After losing the 1st game at 10, Dick had 10-9 led in the 2nd and got a backhand loop in, but Tay returned it and went on to take the offense with his over-the-table shovel-shot pushes and placements that eventually allowed him to pick a backhand in for a 2nd 12-10 winner. In the 3rd, helped by a couple of lucky breaks, Tay led 10-9 after Dick had gotten in a risky backhand loop. Then Tay saw an opening and smacked in his forehand; Hicks countered with his backhand, but the ball hit the top of the net and went off. “I didn’t have the legs,” Dick said. Perhaps Tay was tired too, for he couldn’t take a game from Braithwaite who could see “Nittaku” on the ball and so felt comfortable soft spinning…spinning…spinning for his 8th over 60’s win since 1995.
Three exceptional 5-game matches in the 60 Doubles. In the quarter’s, Tay/H. Hoa Cung, 6, -9, 10, -8, 9 outlasted Ralph Stadelman/Odo Wang. Ralph, who in real life has much enjoyed teaching and tutoring 7th/8th-grade sections of Gifted and Talented children, said that the pair serving controlled the point, and that his opponents’ angle flicks didn’t give him a chance to use his forehand as he’d like. In the one semi’s, Tay and Cung were going down in 4 to Braithwaite and Dan Green who’s been getting lessons and workout drills every week with Coach Li Yuxiang. In the other, Hicks and Ron Von Schimmelman looked like they’d be beaten in 5 by Ragnar “Ray” Fahlstrom and Bill Ryan’s Neubauer racket and deceptive stroke movements. But down 10-7 triple match point, they just kept the ball in play and while Ron safely pushed back no-spin balls, Ray thought it best not to be aggressive. Result: Hicks/Von Schimmelman steadied out a 14-12 win. In the final, Dick and Ron again looked beaten, were down 2-1 and 10-8 in the 4th when Hicks, looping two point-winning backhands in, caught Green by surprise, after which he and Ron went on to win that game and the 5th.
In Women’s 60’s semi’s play, Andrzejewska defeated Defending Champion Kronlage who’d come out of her round robin with a win over Irina Hellwig who, if not happy with her game on losing to the “new” Gail Kendall, was very pleased at becoming the first U.S. woman umpire to be awarded a Blue Badge. In the other semi’s, Sanders’ steady backhand play won out over her impatient forehands to put the kibosh on Kaminsky who’d won the 1st Women’s 60’s in 2002.
The final between Danuta and Suzanna couldn’t have been closer, though it didn’t start off that way. Suzanna was up 1-0 and 8-3 in the 2nd when she began de-accelerating her forehand picks and lost 7 points in a row to go down 10-8. Then, though she recovered to deuce, she missed two key put away forehands until, finally, Danuta, timing her move just right, socked in a 16-14 winner. The 3rd and 4th games were split—with Suzanna positioned up at the table rolling off-the-bounce backhands and Danuta scrappily on the move. In the 5th, Danuta had triple match point, but made errors. As did Suzanna after deucing it. At 13-all, Sanders got her second end-game net, and another error by Danuta gave Suzanna the title.
Thirty-two years ago at our Oklahoma City National’s we had 2 entrants in the over 70’s. This year we had 39. Only one #1 seed in the 10-Group 70’s round robin failed to advance: Dean Johnson, at work in his free time compiling photo books of some of the U.S.’s greatest players, defeated Ralph Muramoto, then was eliminated by #2 seed Lyn Smith. Next to fall was 6th seed Wes Wolfe who was beaten 10, 9, 9 by 1968 and 1972 U.S. Open runner-up to D-J Lee, Jack Howard. “Maybe,” said Wes in losing those close games, “I was intimidated by Jack’s legacy.” Sammy Liang, the #3 seed, was ousted in straight games by #5 seed Dick Peregrine who usually plays Tues./Fri. nights at Milwaukee’s University of Wisconsin Club, though now in the winter he’s based at Laguna Woods, CA enjoying play at their beautiful private Club. That left #1 seed Ray Fahlstrom to advance over Mark Shapiro, 3-0—though the ex-Russian didn’t go quietly, not when at 14-all in the 3rd he served off. Imprecations galore. Also moving on with an 11-9 in the 4th win over Howard was the #4 seed long-pips player, Billy Neely of Knoxville, the current U.S. Open Over 70 Singles and Doubles Champion.
The one semi’s saw Peregrine have a remarkably easy time with former World Over 70 Doubles Champion Smith, who with his wife Sig-Britt took a little vacation from their usual two months of summer in Sweden to visit Budapest and Prague. The other saw Neely win over Fahlstrom 13-11 in the 4th. This after Billy, leading 9-1 in the 4th, lost 9 in a row! But not 10. The 13, 4, -8, 7 final went to Peregrine whose Neubauer Inferno fought fire with fire and devilishly kept Billy from attacking with his backhand.
Howard/Tim Boggan, supposedly 850-point underdogs, swept away Fahlstrom/Smith, then, with the help of a fortuitous edge ball, 10, 9, 10 upset Peregrine/Ivan Slade to reach the final. There they met Brathwaite/Mintsiveris who’d 6, 10, -12, 8 repulsed John Harrington/Rudy Hartmann’s stubborn attempt at a rally. Though George and Nick immediately opened a 10-0 lead, the 1, 10, 9 final results brought the match into better perspective.
This year’s inaugural Women’s Over 70 was won, as expected, by Kronlage who dropped only one game—her 1st with Francie Moore, rated 800+ points behind her! Best match had Harriet Brin, 7, -8, 6, 14, struggling to come 2nd over Jane Madras.
The 32-entry 75’s saw Rudy Hartman upset Arthur Chase, but that was o.k.
“Buster” was still thinking back to his Dec.9 11th wedding anniversary with Julie where they celebrated, exercised their vows together with renewed energy by removing tiles from their kitchen floor. In this event, Lyn Smith was a different player, more aggressive—he toppled Al Miller in 4, and, confronting Peregrine, stopped him in 4 too. Perhaps the most exciting match was Byng Forsberg’s –9, -11, 5, 9, 9 comeback against Hartman. So Forsberg lost in the semi’s to Slade (“So he’s patient and I’m not,” said Byng). The way Lyn started his –4, 8, 7, 8 final with Ivan, just standing there, not moving, he might have lost too. But whatever chances Ivan had, his backhand betrayed him in the closing moments of the 4th. “Lyn’s long pips sometimes confused me,” he said.
In the 80’s, Forsberg had another good win—11-9 in the 4th over Danny Kim. So Byng lost in the final to Slade. Does he care? Does Slade, who won the 80’s in 1997! Surely Ivan the Terrible’s happy to be elfishly prancing round the court. The big news in Lodi, CA, where Byng’s in the local Sports Hall of Fame for his various “iron man” activities, is still his secluded and consequently more talked about match with Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. And would you believe it? Not content to just pose with Arnold, he’s drawn Michael into the picture. Yep, NYC Mayor Bloomberg. They make quite a threesome.
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