By Diego Schaaf (From Sept/Oct 1999 USA Table Tennis Magazine)

Michelle Do
Michelle Do sits down after her first match in the World Championships. She takes a towel and wipes a few beads of sweat from the brow. The soft spoken 16-year-old has a satisfied look on her face. She just scored a resounding victory over Catherine Davies of Wales, 10 & 13.

During the match, Michelle displayed no jitters. She just ripped through her unsuspecting victim as though she were playing in a local tournament: confident and fearless.

Michelle says that she was a little nervous during warm-up, hoping she might win a game or even match at her first appearance in this prestigious event. But when she stepped to the table she felt comfortable.

The young Californian, born in Milpitas on June 5, 1983, has been playing for six or seven years already. Her brother and her dad got her started, and when her brother's coach saw her playing he decided to begin coaching her, too.

In preparation for the World Championships Michelle practiced every day. She counts some of the top Northern California players among her hitting partners, but also enjoys practicing with other local juniors. China's legendary Deng Yaping is her favorite player although her style is completely different from Michelle's.

Her next match is against a chopper, Katrin Meyerhofer of Germany. Our junior is a little anxious because she lacks practice against that style. And indeed, although she puts up a great fight in the first game, losing it 25-23, her lack of experience in international play costs her the necessary patience to last out the young German chopper, and she loses the second game 21-15.

So Michelle goes home from a first World's with a respectable 1:1 record. Her composure at the table bodes well for Michelle's future. She will be back many times - she's got the right stuff.

Photo by John Oros Copyright 1999

Keith Alban
In his first match of his first World Championship, 15-year-old Keith Alban had to play Mika Rasanen of Finland, a strong 2650 level looper. He knew it would be an uphill battle, and he lost 16 & 12. But he is a realist. His goal was to go out there and do the best he could - and gather as much experience as possible for the future.

When Keith started playing table tennis just before he turned nine, he didn't know of the existence of a world championship. Later, when he first heard about it, he never thought he would get to play in it, let alone at the tender age of 15. So when he heard that he would be traveling to Eindhoven he was excited and happy.

Keith was born just outside of New York City on December 10, 1983, but his family moved to Parkland, FL early in his life. After first getting exposed to table tennis at a summer camp he and some of his friends went to a local table tennis club. He got hooked on the sport, and luckily his parents supported his switch from soccer to table tennis.

Therese Terranova and Marty Prager were his early coaches, the ones who led him to his first successes. Keith now lives in Sweden and has been practicing at Angby for the last year and a half, getting his education via correspondence school. There, he practices two to four hours a day. When he is in the U.S. he cannot practice that much because of a lack of practice partners.

Waldner and Wang Tao are his favorite players. Keith knows he's not expected to perform at their level yet. He is quite relaxed before his next match - he has nothing to lose. Izak Abramov from Israel, who would later defeat Austria's Qian Qianli, beats him at 10 & 7, but then Keith wins his match against Madagascar's Nicolas Razafimamonjy 14 & 19, and so can bring home of victory from his first appearance in his chosen sport's prime event. He'll be back.