$75,000 U.S. Open 
& ITTF Pro Tour
Fort Lauderdale, Florida • July 5-9, 2000

Day One: Wednesday, July 5 Report 
By Larry Hodges

How do you run a tournament with hordes of players from 26 countries? Well, to start with, you get 100 staff members ... allow to simmer for many months ... add 81 tables & nets, and over 1000 barriers ... add the horde of players ... and pray!

But things are running on time so far, with few problems. The ITTF Pro Tour event event is being run as a completely separate tournament, with 16 tables dedicated to them in a separate playing area.

ITTF Pro Tour

The top-seeded players have all been seeded into the main draw of the ITTF Pro Tour, and don't start play until tomorrow (Thursday). This included four USA players: Cheng Yinghua and David Zhuang on the men's side, and Gao Jun and Amy Feng on the women's side. 50 men and 29 women competed in the qualifier to get into the main draw. USA who qualified were Todd Sweeris on the men's side, and Tawny Banh, Xiu-Zhen Lin and Jasna Reed on the women's side.

One worrisome note for USA: David Zhuang has a wrist injury, a possible fracture. He saw a doctor today; it is unknown if he will be able to play or not. Fortunately, he prequalified in both singles and doubles (with Todd Sweeris), and so didn't have to play today. He spent the day rooting for his USA teammates while wearing a wrist brace.

Men's Singles Qualifier

On the men's side, there were 13 round robin groups (most with four players, two with three), with the top finisher in each group to advance to the main draw. In addition, since there were four other openings in the main draw, there was a drawing among the 13 players who finished second, with four of them randomly selected to advance to the main draw - the so-called "lucky losers." None of the USA men were selected, although Canada's Kurt Liu was selected.

The top-seeded player came in first in 11 of the 13 groups. Sebastien Jover of France upset Jens Lundquist of Sweden to win group four; Raman Subramaniam of Finland upset Eric Varin of France to win group nine. USA's Todd Sweeris, top-seeded in group 13, faced Karl Jindrak of Austria in the match to see who would advance. This was a battle between the 168th (Todd) and 169th ranked players in the world. However, Jindrak was thought of as something of a ringer. At the last World Championships, Jindrak and Werner Schlager were up 20-17 triple match point in the fifth in the quarterfinals of men's doubles against China's top-seeded team of Liu Guoliang & Kong Linghui - but lost. Here, however, Todd kept him constantly off balance with his varied receives, and dominated on his serve. Match to Todd, 12 & 18.

The other USA men didn't so so well. There were 12 USA men in the qualifier. Other than Sweeris, none finished higher than second, and none advanced. Coming in second were Shao Yu, Eric Owens and Khoa Nguyen. 

Shao Yu lost out in a three-way tie with Adrian Crisan of Romania (who advanced) and David Fernandez of Puerto Rico (but actually living in New York City, along with Shao Yu!).  Shao defeated Crisan at 18 & 13, but lost to Fernandez at 11 & 20. Crisan defeated Fernandez at 10 & 19. It went to points: Crisan, 73-71; Fernandez, 72-73; and Shao, 73-74! For perspective, if in the Crisan-Shao match a single point scored by Crisan was scored by Shao instead, Crisan would drop to 72-72, while Shao would be 74-73, and Shao would be advancing instead of Crisan! Similarly, if a single point in the Crisan-Fernandez were transferred from Crisan to Fernandez, it would Fernandez (73-72) advancing over Crisan (72-72)!

Eric Owens, after winning the first, lost to Kiho Shinnosuke of Japan, -19, 10, 17. In the third, Owens led 9-1, but couldn't hold it.  Khoa Nguyen, after winning his first two matches in walkovers when his opponents didn't show, lost his only match to Armand Phung of France, 14 & 15.

There were bright spots, however. Eleven of the twelve USA men won at least one match, with none of these eleven coming in last in their group - despite the fact that USA men were seeded last in five of the groups. The one player without a win - Barney J. Reed - actually could have won his group. There were only three players in his group. He lost to Se Hyuk Joo of Korea deuce in the third; he lost to Pablo Tabachnik of Argentina after winning the first, and getting to deuce in the second.

Women's Singles Qualifier

On the women's side, there were eight round robin groups (most with four players, three with three), with the top two finishers in each group (unlike the men, where only once advanced) advancing to the main draw. In addition, since there were two other openings in the main draw, there was a drawing among the eight players who finished second, with two of them randomly selected to advance to the main draw - the so-called "lucky losers." None of the USA women were selected, although Canada's Wenxiao Wang was selected.

In contrast to the men's qualifier, the top seeds won only three of the eight round robin groups, although only one (Petra Dermastija of Slovakia) didn't come in the top two and advance. USA women did very well here.

Both USA's Xiu-Zhen Lin, seeded fourth in her group, and Tawny Banh, seeded second in her group, didn't lose a game in finishing first. USA's Jasna Reed also advanced, coming in second in her group.

The other USA women didn't fare as well. Out of the other USA women - Jessica Shen, Michelle Do, Jackie Lee and Nan Li - only Jessica would win a match, defeating Fabiola Ramos of Venezuela, 17 & 16.

Doubles Qualifier

The doubles qualifierfor both men and women was a simple single elimination draw, played out to the quarterfinals, with the eight quarterfinal teams advancing to the main draw. USA's Todd Sweeris & David Zhuang and Gao Jun/Michelle Do prequalified, and so didn't have to go through the qualifier. Two USA teams made it through the qualifier and into the main draw: Cheng Yinghua & Khoa Nguyen on the men's side, Jasna Reed & Tawny Banh on the women's side. In addition, USA's Brian Pace teamed up with Muneaki Mitamura of Japan and advanced into the main draw - defeating USA's top two juniors, Sunny Li & Keith Alban to advance.

U.S. Open Events

Over 70 Doubles was the first final of the tournament.  Facing each other from across the table were four players who have played each other an uncounted number of times, in every permutation, over the years: Marty Reisman & Tim Boggan versus Grady Gordon & Leon Ruderman. This is the over 70 cream of the crop from the U.S. - with Boggan & Ruderman fresh off of winning the silver medal (and oh so close to a gold) at the recent World Veterans Championships in Men's Over 70 Doubles. Now facing each other from opposite sides of the table - with all four at one time either the national champion or top ranked player in their age group (with Reisman the current #1) - the four did battle. It should have a deuce-in-the-third, but it wasn't. Grady Gordon & Leon Ruderman win, 15, -15, 15.

The next final was Over 50 Women - and when top seed Barbara Kaminsky raced into the final without losing a game - or giving up more than 10 points in a game - who did she face? Why, little sister Donna Sakai, who had pulled out an -18, 15, 18 win in the semifinals against second-seed Danuta Andrzejewska to make the final a sister-sister battle. The fact that the Williams sisters - Venus & Serena - would be playing each other the following day in the semifinals at Wimbleton was not lost on observers. So, Williams-like, the two did battle. Afterwards, Donna said, "Barbara had to sit for a long time, and was cold." Match to Donna, 20 & 17.

The three ratings doubles events came next. In Under 4200 Doubles, it was Floridians Alex Aponte & Diana Casas  pulling out a -18, 16, 18 win over Marvin Leff & Bohdan Dawidowicz. In Under 3700 Doubles, it was New Yorkers Howard Korman & Evan Momios over Carlos Sing & Lynwood Smith, -11, 18, 15. In Under 3200 Doubles, it was Coloradans father & son David & Brian Taylor who showed that they (like Barbara & Donna above) also like to keep it in the family - even through their combined rating (David: 1889; Brian: 668 - yeah, right!) was 643 points under the cutoff.. It wasn't easy.  Father David's forehand black sponge was declared illegal for being too shiny and reflective. David didn't have time to put together another racket, and so used his "spare" blade - one that was much faster than his normal racket, and with little warm-up, one that he felt he could barely control. "Brian pulled us through," David said. Did we say it wasn't easy? The Taylors won over Wally Green & Jim Williams, -20, 16, 21.

The next final, and the only rating singles event to finish today, was Under 1175. 13-year-old David Landry - who was surrounded by photographers after the match - won relatively easily over Ted Yeung, at 9 & 14. But the young are pretty quick, and Landry - the Alabama junior champion - disappeared before our cub reporter (me) could catch up with him. Will he be the youngest rating event winner? (And who will be the oldest?) Time will tell. And there are 15 more rating events to go!

How do you cover an event when you are in the final? Let's give it a try. In Hardbat Doubles, the second-seeded - and by far most experienced - team of Marty Reisman & Steve Berger were upset by Ashu Jain & John Jarema in a come-from-behind -16, 15, 16, with the Jain/Jarema team running it out at the end. In the final, they met the top-seeded and defending champions Ty Hoff and someone else, who had had a narrow 19-in-the-third semifinal victory over Lim Ming Chui & Barry Dattel. In the final, Hoff (the defending singles champion from both the Nationals and U.S. Open) and someone else hit & smashed all-out in winning at 18 & 13, and successfully defending their title. Ty energetically leaped for joy; someone else slumped to the floor, exhausted but happy, wondering if his legs would ever operate properly again.

Paralympic Events

This year's U.S.Open/ITTF Pro Tour has 76 events, including 21 Paralympic events. Many people think the "Para" in "Paralympics" has something to do with "Paraplegic." However, this is just a coincidence. As Paralympics Technical Director Christian Lillieroos explained, "para" means "other" in Latin - which past generations might have known, but which recent generations, not trained in Latin (the root for most English words), would not know. How embarrassing that someone from Sweden knows more of our language then we do! But "Paralympics" really means "Other Olympics." And of these "Other Olympics," or at least Paralympic events, four were completed today, with the top three awarded gold, silver or bronze medals.

In a truly international Men's Wheelchair Singles (Class 1-5) final, Neil Robinson of England defeated Kam Shing Kwong of Hong Kong in the final, -9, 14, 10. USA stars Andre Scott and Mike Dempsey were out relatively early - Scott in the second round (32nds) to Yen Hung Lin of Taipei, and Dempsey in the quarterfinals to eventual finalist Kam Shing Kwong. In the battle for the bronze medal, Lin Yen Hung won out, 14, -19, 20 over Chang Shen Chou, also of Taipei.

Women's Wheelchair Singles (Class 1-5) was also international. In the quarterfinals, there was one USA player, one from Hong Kong, and two each from England, Mexico and Slovakia. The USA player was Terese Terranova, but she lost in the quarterfinals to top-seeded Cristina Hoffman of Mexico. In the final, it was Siu Ling Chan of Hong Kong (who had defeated USA #1 and second seed Jennifer Johnson in the 8ths) over Hoffman, 20, 15,15. In the playoff for the bronze, Alena Kanova defeated fellow Slovakian Maria Pillarova, 17 & 13.

Men's Standing Disabled (Class 6-10) was the most international of all - with zero USA players in the final 16. In the all-Taipei final, Chih Shan Hsu defeated Ming Fu Hu, 14, -17, 6. In the playoff for the bronze, Ting Sung Hou of Taipei completed the Taiwan sweep, defeating Jose Luis Vivanco of Mexico, 18, -20, 12.

There were four teams entered in Women's Wheelchair Teams (Class 1-3).  This included a joint German/Belgium team that came in first in a three-way tie with England and Ireland. Coming in fourth at 0-3 ... was USA. Next time!

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