$75,000
U.S. Open & ITTF Pro Tour
Fort Lauderdale, Florida • July 5-9, 2000
$75,000
U.S. Open Day Three: Friday, July 7 Report
By Larry Hodges
Pro Tour Men's Singles
To many, today was Black Friday as seed after seed fell. When the ping pong balls cleared, a draw that started out with the top 14 players in the world ended with a final four made up of seeds number 2, 6, 11 and 26! (World rankings #2, 6, 11 and 41!) In the 8ths, four of the eight matches were upsets; in the quarterfinals, three of the four matches were upsets. A lot of the damage was being done by Austria's Werner Schlager (world #11), Japan's Koji Matsushita (#26) and Sweden's Fredrick Hakansson (world #41).
As the day began, with the draw down to the final 16, the main casualties from the day before were Liu Guoliang (loser to Seiko Iseki), Zoran Primorac (loser to Koji Matsushita), Jorgen Persson (loser to Fredrick Hakansson) and Peter Karlsson (loser to Evgueni Chtchetinine), world #4, 8, 9 and 13, respectively. What happened to the rest of the top 14 players in the world?
Men's Round of 16 - a Bloodbath!
World #1 China's Kong Linghui defeated teammate Sen Yan (#24), -18, 15, 12, 16.
World #2 China's Wang Liqin defeated Canada's Johnny Huang (#26), 9, 14, 11.
World #3 Belarus' Vladimir Samsonov defeated teammate Evgueni Chtchetinine (the chopper with the unpronounceable name, world #60), 9, 10, 11.
Upset => World #5 China's Ma Lin lost to Korea's Kim Taek Soo, (#12), at 17, -16, 14, -18, 14.
World #6 Taiwan's Chiang Peng-Lung defeated Belgium's Jean-Michel Saive (#14), 16, -18, 17, 8.
Upset => World #7 Sweden's Jan-Ove Waldner lost to Austria's Werner Schlager, (#11), -13, 19, 16, -20, 19. At the time, this seemed a major upset - but Schlager would soon show otherwise. (It wouldn't even be his closest match of the day.) In the fourth game, Schlager was up 20-18 match point, but Waldner won four in a row. In the fifth, Schlager led 18-13, but Waldner scored five in a row to tie it up at 18 before Schlager pulled it out at 19.
Upset => World #10 China's Liu Guozheng, world #10, lost to Japan's Koji Matsushita (#26), -15, 8, 18, -10, 15.
Upset => World #30 Japan's Seiko Iseki lost to Sweden's Fredrik Hakansson (#41), -18, 20, -17, 17, 13.
Men's Quarterfinals - the Bloodbath Intensifies!
Upset => World #1 China's Kong Linghui lost to Taiwan's Peng-Lung Chiang (#6), 11, -15, 11, 18. This match showed that penholder Chiang's rise over the past year to his #6 status was no fluke. He, along with Kim Taek Soo, simply have more power than anyone else, and when they get hold of the ball, it's gone. Chiang often aced Kong with loops to Kong's middle. Down 14-15 in the fourth, Kong served short to Chiang's forehand. Chiang pulled off what can only be described as an inside-out sidespin-flip kill! The ball started out going down the line to Kong's backhand, and despite going as fast as any kill, broke sideways so that it went into the side barrier almost before Kong could react!
World #2 China's Wang Liqin defeated Korea's Kim Taek Soo (#12), -19, 14, -17, 14, 15. This match, between two powerful loopers (Wang a shakehander, Kim a penholder), often turned into an all-out full-powered counterlooping duel from the barriers, with many of the loops threatening to force the opponent outside the court.
Upset => World #3 Belarus's Vladimir Samsonov lost to Austria's Werner Schlager (#11), -15, -12, 17, 15, 20. This may have been the match of the tournament, with Schlager seemingly able to run down and loop any ball aggressively, and Samsonov seemingly able to return any ball, using a variety of methods - counterlooping, fishing, countering, lobbing, chopping, whatever worked. Samsonov - world #1 until just recently - won the first two games relatively easily. He led 9-2 in both the third and fourth games - and both times, that was when Schlager began his comeback! In the third, with Samsonov up 9-2, Schlager took a one-minute break (you are allowed one per match). After returning, he tied it up, 10-all! He then gradually pulled away, winning 21-17. In the fourth, down 9-2, Schlager scored four in a row (9-6), then tied it up at 11-all. Samsonov then went up 13-11 - then lost six in a row, and lost that game, 21-15. In the fifth, it was Samsonov's turn to come back. Schlager was up 17-12, and serving up 19-16 - but four points later, he was serving from down match point, 19-20! As he served, a ball from the Hakansson-Matsushita match in the next court nearly came into the court, and USA Men's Coach Dan Seemiller was certain it distracted Samsonov as he weakly looped the serve into the net - deuce! But Samsonov came through at deuce with a serve and forehand rip - only to see Schlager pull off an incredible off-the-bounce counterloop that Samsonov could only watch go by! Schlager then serve & looped a winner to end it. Let's see, in this match, Schlager beats Samsonov, deuce in the fifth; in the round before, he beat Waldner, 19 in the fifth. Not a bad day!
Upset => World #26 Japan's Koji Matsushita lost to Sweden's Fredrik Hakansson (#41), -19, 18, 9, -15, 12. The powerful Hakansson is thought by many to be the heir to Waldner's throne in Sweden - but he looks more like Persson, tall, blond and powerful. He'd already beaten Persson here, and now showed that he could play chop better than his teammate, Peter Karlsson. Serving up 19-18 in the first, he lost, but he won the second at 18. In the third, he could do little wrong - 9-0, 21-9. After a careless fourth game, he could do little wrong in the fifth as well - 5-0, 14-6, 16-11 (where Hakansson took a one-minute break), 21-12.
In the semifinals on Saturday, Chiang will play Schlager; Hakansson will play Wang Liqin.
Pro Tour Women's Singles
There wasn't quite as much to say about women's singles - mostly because the top four women in the world came, and the top four women in the world are in the semifinals on Saturday.
World #1 China's Wang Nan only lost one game on her way to the semifinal, defeating Germany's Jing Tian-Zoerner (world #10) in the quarterfinals, 20, 12, -18, 17.
World #2 China's Ju Li Also lost only one game on the way to the semifinal, to Japan's An Konishi (world #22) in the 8ths, 12, -13, 14, 19.
World #3 Taiwan's Chen Jing had a tougher time, defeating Korea's Moo Kyo Kim (world #23) in the 8ths , -17, 17, 18, 19, and then having a titanic struggle with another Korean, Ji Hye Ryu (world #7) before winning, 19, -15, 20, -17, 10.
World #4 China's Jin Sun also lost only one game on the way to semifinals, but that was on the day before - to Korea's Eun Sil Lee (world #34). Today, she didn't lose a game, defeating Romania's Mihaela Steff in the 8ths at 17, 18, 6, and Luxembourg's Xia Lian Ni in the quarters at 16, 10, 10.
Steff brought much disappointment to the U.S. by defeating U.S. #1 Jun Gao Chang (world #25, but previously world #3), 20, -18, 17, -16, 20....
Pro Tour Doubles
In Men's Doubles, the top two seeded teams, both from China, mostly waltzed their way into the final - but each team had one heart-stopping moment where they almost lost. Before top-seeded team of Wang Liqin and Yan Sen had their waltz in the quarterfinals and semifinals, they almost were tripped up in the 8ths by Japan's Seiko Iseki and Toshio Tasaki (world #30 and 33), barely advancing with a -17, 10, 20 win. The #2 seeded team of Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang had their moment of truth in the quarterfinals against Sweden's Jan-Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson, which would have made for a far more interesting final. Waldner/Persson won the first 21-19, and were at 21-all in the second - I was told they had one match point - before losing, -19, 21, 14.
In Women's Doubles, there were few close matches. One of them was USA's Jasna Reed (1988 Olympic bronze medallist for women's doubles) and Tawny Banh, who lost to Japan's An Konishi and Rie Tsujimoto, 17, -15, 21, in the round of 32. From the round of 16 on, there weren't any close matches - there were several three-gamers, but the third was never close. The #1 seeded team, Li Ju and Wang Nan of China (world #1 & 2) were upset in the quarterfinals by Singapore's Jia Wei Li and Jing Jun Hong (world #18 & 32), 14, -14, 15. Singapore then lost to Taiwan's Chen Jing & Jing Xu, 16 & 18. The final will be between the Taiwan team and the second seeded Chinese team of Sun Jin and Ying Yang.
Other than some of the Pro Tour matches, the most watched event, as it usually is, is Hardbat Singles, where players cannot use sponge rackets. Ty Hoff once again won the event. He has now won two straight U.S. Opens and two straight U.S. Nationals. He's had to battle match after match during this stretch, yet he always pulls it out. This year, he had a five-gamer in the quarterfinals (down 2-1 in games to this writer, he won the next two....), and another in the semifinals, against Alexis Perez, a relative newcomer to the hardbat game, but with a 2404 USATT rating. Ty led 19-13 and 20-18 in the fifth - but he then "manufactured" a close match, letting Perez get to deuce. But Ty pulled it out, -15, 17, 24, -10, 20. In the final, he defeated long-time rival Lily Yip, 18, 20, 9. Lily had defeated Brian Masters in the other semifinal, -11, 20, 21, 3 (!) to avenge her loss to him at the Nationals.
In Under 2000 Hardbat, Wally Green struggled in the semifinals with Scott Kressner - -15, 19, 18 - before winning the final over Hardbat Committee Chair Scott Gordon, 13 & 19. Scott had defeated Robert Burke in the other semifinals, 10 & 17.
China's Zebin Zhang didn't lose a game in winning Under 18 Boys' Singles. In the final, he beat U.S. #1 Under 16 player (#3 Under 18) Mark Hazinksi at 19 & 7. Where were the top two ranked U.S. juniors? Sunny Li and Keith Alban (recently in and out of retirement) were both in the ITTF Pro Tour, and players were not allowed to compete in U.S. Open events if they were in the Pro Tour, for scheduling reasons.
Over 40 Women's came down to a showdown between the top two seeds, Hong Zhao (rated 2230) and U.S. Over 40 Women's Champion Liu Xiaoying (2013). Hong had no trouble, winning at 7 & 12.
Many-time Champion Louis Radzeli won Over 75 Singles over Fred Borges at 11 & 11.
Two of the U.S.'s top two youth stars battled it out in the Under 2600 final, with Ashu Jain - whose last name is sometimes spelled this way, sometimes Ashoo - defeating Mark Hazinksi at 10 & 19.
Tuan Le, finding the competition in Under 2300 much easier than in Over 30 Singles (where he'd faced China's Wang Tao in the semifinals!) won four three-game matches on his way to winning the event over Lee McCool, -19, 18, 17. The closest? 19-in-the-third over 12-year-old Adam Hugh (rated around 2200) in the round of 16.
Abner Colon won Under 2000 over Daryl Strachan, 9, -17, 12, with a tough -17, 19, 16 win over the second seed, the steady Steve Federico.
Justin Thomas won Under 1350 over Michael Leissering, -18, 13, 14. Except for the final, neither finalist gave up more than 17 points in a game.
In the Paralympic events, five different countries won the five different team events finished today - but USA wasn't one of them. Austria defeated Mexico in Men's Wheelchair Teams (Class 1-2), 3-0. England defeated Austria in Men's Wheelchair Teams (Class 3), 3-1. Taiwan defeated Germany in Men's Wheelchair Teams (Class 4-5), 3-0. Mexico defeated Slovakia in Women's Wheelchair Teams (Class 4-5). And Slovakia defeated Taiwan in Men's Standing Disabled Teams (Class 6-10), 3-1.
The top three finishers in Men's Intellectually Disabled Singles were Yasuo Takikawa, Makoto Higuchi and Shingo Tsuchihashi. The top three finishers in Women's Intellectually Disabled Singles were Harumi Kimura, Hitomi Tomon, Hisako Chiba and Itoh Maki.
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