Macy Block Open

Pittsburgh, PA • August 18-19, 2001

By Larry Hodges

Somehow, in what may be the last major USA tournament with games to 21 points, many of us expected the final to be between Mike Obeyode and Mark Hazinski. They were the top seeds at 2588 and 2575, and Mark had recently been in the mid-2600s. In contrast, 5-time U.S. Men’s Singles Champion Dan Seemiller was less thought of as "Player" Dan Seemiller; he was now "Coach" Dan Seemiller, Mark Hazinski’s coach and coach of the U.S. National Team. He was also running the tournament! With his rating down to 2488, he’d be happy to make the semifinals, right?

Barney J. Reed is usually in the 2550 range, but with a recent string of not-so-good tournaments (the let-down that happens after the Worlds), he’d seen his rating drop to 2453. So he too would be happy to make the semifinals, right?

"Whenever I saw him looping, I’d drop the ball short, and he had trouble with that," Dan said of his 19, 19, 17 win over Mike in the semis.

There was even less to be said of Barney’s 3-1 win over Mark in the other semifinal, other than that the usually expressionless Mark showed some real irritation at his play. Like Barney, he had had a series of poor tournaments since the Worlds, and perhaps he too was suffering from post-Worlds letdown. It was a pure shot-making contest between a pair of two-winged loopers, ripping the ball back and forth.

The all-lefty final was decided in the first game, in fact possibly by one point. Leading 16-15, Barney got stuck off the table, and did a "funny lob," i.e. threw the ball up with sidespin, with a fast side-to-side motion with his racket to disguise the spin – the type of thing that works with 1800 players. It’s doubtful if Dan has ever missed against this shot in his career – but he misses the easy smash! Barney leads 17-15, then 20-17. Dan pulls to 20-19. Then Barney serves a topspin ball, and Dan loops off.

"I knew it’s topspin!" Dan yells.

"I knew he knew it was coming – he’s my coach!" Barney exclaims.

From there on, it was all Barney and his two-winged looping game as he coasted to a 19, 12, 12 win. (See Interview with Barney in this issue.)

Although entries were a bit down this year, the tournament was once again run very well, with the Seemiller clan and Chip Coulter (he’s really a Seemiller anyway, isn’t he?) once again putting together a fine event.

Curiosity #1: Only one of these double-winners/finalists (Kevin Ma) were among the "Big Ratings Gainers" at the Macy Block – in fact, only 4 of the 16 "Big Rating Gainers" made the final of an event.

Curiosity #2: While Dave Williams was gaining 92 points, father C.J. Williams was losing 92 points (1309 to 1217). All in the family? The family that wins together loses together? For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction? Equilibrium?

Eight players won or were in the finals of two or more events

• Abass Ekun (Under 2500 and Open Doubles, Over 40 Finalist)

• Mark Hazinski (Under 22 and Under 18, Open Doubles Finalist)

• Dan Seemiller (Over 40 Champion, Open Singles & Doubles Finalist)

• David Lau (Under 2125 and Over 50)

• Khaleel Asgarali (Under 2000 and Under 16)

• Julian Waters (Under 1875 and Under 2500 Doubles

• Kevin Ma (Under 13 Champion, Under 1350 Finalist)

• Andy Seto (Under 3500 Doubles, Under 1675 Finalist)

Big Rating Gainers at the Macy Block!

Name	Starting Rating	Ending Rating	Gain	Finals
Wally Narcum	1298	1593	295
John Scarnato	815	1058	243	2nd U1000
Richard Moss	1032	1216	184
Sorin Petroj	1961	2139	178
Rong Xu	1289	1467	178
Alex Pan	934	1076	142	1st U1000
Malcolm McDonald	851	991	140
Kevin Ma	1144	1283	139	1st Under 13, 2nd U1350
Dale Klobusnik	1251	1364	113
Chin Shiek	1306	1414	108	1st U1350
Doug Ott	914	1018	104
Roger Abbott	1686	1791	95
Dave Williams	1646	1738	92

Open Singles – Final: Barney J. Reed d. Dan Seemiller, 19,12,12; SF: Reed d. Mark Hazinski, 3-1; Seemiller d. Mike Oyebode, 19,19,17; QF: Reed d. Abass Ekun, 3-1; Dan Seemiller d. Vijay Madhaven, 3-0; Hazinski d. Lee McCool, 3-1; Oyebode d. Randy Seemiller, 3-0; QF: Reed d. Abass Ekun, 3-1; D. Seemiller d. Vijay Madhaven, 3-0; Hazinski d. Lee McCool, 3-1; Oyebode d. Randy Seemiller, 3-0.

Open Doubles: Abass Ekun/Mike Oyobode d. Mark Hazinski/Dan Seemiller, -16,18,24.

U2500: Abass Ekun d. Randy Seemiller, 14,16.

U2375: Vijay Madhavan d. Rich Burnside, n.s.

U2250: Mark Nordby d. Nazruddin Asgarali, 15,18.

U2125: David Lau d. Ed Watts, 12,-13,26.

U2000: Khaleel Asgarali d. Jim Aronson, 18,-22,16.

U1875: Julian Waters d. Peter Caesar, 15,13.

U1750: Fadi Kaddoura d. Scott Rogers, 20,7.

U1675: Saibal Chakraborty d. Andy Seto, 2-0.

U1500: Bob Cox d. Haifeng Zhang, 16,12.

U1350: Chin Shiek d. Kevin Ma, 2-1.

U1200: Ron Howard d. Jennifer Mast, 2-0.