First Time at the Worlds

By USA Team Member Ashu Jain

Since I started playing table tennis, one of my major goals was to compete at the highest level possible.  At first, this seemed a fantasy, but this year the dream came true.  At first, it seemed very unlikely and I was not even considering trying out; I then found out that the field would not be as competitive as in the past, and that I could try out for the U.S. National Team, to be held in mid-February in San Diego.  However, the Team Trials was right in the middle of my last semester at the University of Michigan, where I am majoring in Engineering Physics.  Going into the trials, I thought I had little chance, not being in practice and from concentrating on school instead.  However, with the unfortunate luck of Todd Sweeris dropping out due to a back injury, and winning two crucial matches, I succeeded with the improbable task of making the U.S. National Team. 

Once I made the team, I knew I needed to practice and train, just to be able to make a respectable appearance at the World Championships.  Therefore, I withdrew from my final semester in college (the finals were at the same time as the Worlds), because I knew it was either one or the other.  School, I could always return and finish, but this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to represent the U.S. and to meet and play against the best players in the world!  Therefore, I made the difficult decision to take a leave of absence from my senior year in college to prepare for the 46th World Championships.  I only had a couple of weeks, and I used them to train with Coach Danny Seemiller and Mark Hazinski, and even went to Canada for ten days to train with the Canadian National Team.

This was the first time I had formally trained ever, and it was clear that my game had improved. My strokes were smoother and my shots were more consistent.  However, only three weeks of training was not going to be a match for the 15 years others had put in!

We arrived in Osaka, Japan on Friday, April 20th.  From just making the team, I was not as enthused as expected.  My friends and family were in much higher spirits than I, but I knew that making the team alone means very little unless I would represent my country well.  This was no easy task, and once we arrived in Japan, I felt butterflies in my stomach thinking of the matches ahead.  However, I was not the only person with ambitions of “doing some damage.”  One could see the look of focus and concentration in all the other team members’ eyes.  Either that, or the fatigue and jet lag from the 16-hour time difference!

Osaka is a beautiful city.  Leaving the airport, which was built on a man-made island, we were able to see much of the city.  It’s amazing; all of the highways in the city were built above ground, and there were very few traffic jams even with the high volume of vehicles.  We stayed in nice hotels as well, but the rooms were quite small.  There were four hotels for the Worlds; we stayed at the Miyako Hotel, along with the Korean team and some other lower-ranked teams.  Each hotel had a frequent shuttle service to and from the venue site, which was less than a half hour away.  

The first sensation of being at the Worlds was when I sat next to Kim Taek Soo and Oh Sang Eun on the bus ride over to the venue.  I have seen the top players up close in the past but only as a fan and an admirer, never as a peer!  The Koreans looked at the American team, and gave a little acknowledging smile!  It was a strange feeling, to be at the same level (not really, of course) as the rest of the top athletes there.

Once we got to the venue, just our first look said that this was no ordinary tournament.  We were in a large dome-arena, and I can easily say that I have never seen the ball so clearly!  Every table was matted (even the practice tables) and we had bright blue tables with excellent white lighting.  The conditions were literally perfect; the tables were all wood even, so the bounce was pure and consistent, every time. 

We practiced for about two hours or so the first day, just to get a feeling of the environment.  We were all tired, however, and after a nice dinner, we all went back to the hotel and relaxed.  The first few nights everyone had a tough time adjusting to the 13-16 hour time difference; I woke up at 3am the first two nights and was unable to go back to a deep sleep.  However, this did not last too long, and we all quickly adjusted.

The Japanese people were extremely hospitable.  Everything that we needed was given to us promptly.  We each had daily meal tickets and credentials that allowed us into the appropriate sites and events.  Everything was done extremely efficiently and accurately and there were no complaints!  They also had ample volunteers and guides everywhere to answer any questions we had and immediately assisted us.

Our Team draw included playing Nigeria and Indonesia; Indonesia being the #1 team, and Nigeria the third in the 3-team round robin.  Nigeria was our first match, and they were hot, coming into the tournament as the Commonwealth champions just a week before.  Indonesia was also a tough team; however they did not send their number one player, Anton Suseno, which made them a little bit easier.  We played our top three players: David Zhuang, Eric Owens, and Mark Hazinski.  The Nigerians, however, were too strong and experienced and were able to take us down.  After losing to Nigeria, we knew we had to defeat Indonesia; otherwise, we may drop into the third division.  With this in mind, we did not let the earlier defeat bring us down; instead we scoped out Indonesia as they played Nigeria, and they looked pretty impressive.  They actually had Nigeria on the ropes in a few matches, but couldn’t hang on.  We knew the next day we would need to play our best, as Indonesia was tough.  In this tie, David and Eric stepped up their play and won tough matches.  Barney played well, but was not able to pull out the win; we came out 3-1 vs. Indonesia.

After coming in second, we competed for the 25th- 48th spots, where each win or loss would completely change our outcome.  This second division looked very tough though, with Denmark, Nigeria, Finland, and other tough teams in it.  But then again, this is the World Championships, and there are no easy matches out there!   Our next tie was against Finland, and we beat them 3-1, so we now moved into the 25th-40th bracket.  By this time, I was getting very excited, and could not wait till I got to play.  Watching other people play and getting involved in the match only inspired me to play more. 

Danny Seemiller finally gave me the green light and put Mark, Barney, and myself against a very strong, fast, and all-lefty Vietnamese team.  Mark and Barney both lost their matches in a good fight, but 2-0.  Both the players had excellent serves and great opening shots.  And the balls that we thought were impossible to get to, they got to; not only did they get to them, but they made excellent shots on them!  When I got up to play, the third player looked just the same as the first two; I guess the coach taught them all the same style of play.  This was my first match at the World Championships, and even though by now I had seen a few matches, I still did not know what to expect going into the match myself.  My opponent, Tuan Quynh Tran, on the other hand, knew exactly what he had to do; I could see it in his eyes!  I felt very nervous at first, but what was worse was that I did not have any rhythm.  I never felt comfortable or confident in my shots, and my opponent just kept on blowing shots by me.  The first game the only thing that kept me in the game was my serves; the guy must have missed about 10 serves in that game, but I still lost the game at 17.

Coming back to Coach Danny at the end of the game, he could easily see that I was perplexed out there and basically told me to relax and take my time, and just let the game flow.  I did this the second game, and won it.  However, the third was again his turn, ripping winners back and forth, and giving me great disguised serves.  Welcome to the World Championships!  He took a big 14-5 lead in the third, when we called a time out.  I came back into the match, thinking positively, and just started to put the shots on.  I started to come back, and the next score was 20-17, his serve.  At this time, I was very excited, and saw that I could make this comeback.  My teammates were also getting very energized, as I would often see them jump in excitement.  At 20-17, my opponent gave me a bad serve, one that came up high and short to my backhand.  I saw this opportunity, and got overexcited, rushing into the shot, and went for the winner on a flip.  The ball hit the top of the net and ended up going just an inch long. 

I was very disheartened about this match because I did not play to the best of my best ability.  At this level, with this opportunity, one has to put out his best, which I was not able to do.  At this time, the rest of the team lifted me up and appreciated the fight, which made me feel much better.  But I promised myself that next time I would do better.

We now had 2 ties left: Luxembourg and Brazil.  Luxembourg had a strong team, all lefties again, who were able to defeat our young team, 3-1.  Coach Danny decided to give us the chance to experience more matches, which would hopefully lead to something better in the future. 

After losing to Luxembourg came our final team match vs. Brazil, for the 39th or 40th position.  This one we wanted to win, so we put in our strongest player David.  Barney played second, and I played third.  Brazil’s #1 player, Hugo Hoyama, about a 2800-level lefty, and the others were also very tough competitors.  David won his first match vs. their #2, Thiago Monteiro, and Hoyama beat Barney.  Then came my match against Thiago Takayama. I won the first game close, and lost the second close.  In the third, again I started off slow, and was down 17-11 before calling a time-out.  This changed the momentum a bit, and I came back fired up and won 21-19!  This win put us in charge, thinking that Barney and David would have a good chance of winning their matches.  However, the Brazilians played too tough, and ended up beating us 3-2.

This was it for the team competition.  We finished 40th; last time we finished 36th, but this year we had a much younger team and Danny took out David in many of the later ties to give the rest of us a chance to play.  So comparatively, it was not that bad, although we had hoped to do a lot better.

During the team tournament, we heard some very disappointing news about the upcoming individual events. Usually there is a consolation round for the players that do not come out of the qualifiers (a majority of the players), and the qualifiers are 3 out of 5 in a round robin format.  Well this year, they made the qualifiers single elimination, 2 out of 3, and NO CONSOLATION round!  That meant that the first player you play is about 2600 level, second 2700, and the third about 2800, before even making it into the main draw; so presumably a player can play only one match, and that’s it!  Most players were irate at this decision.  But the individual event didn’t start for another few days, so we had time to prepare and scope out our opponents.  In the meantime, we had the chance to watch other team ties, and saw perhaps the greatest tie in the history of table tennis!  After the big upset of the Swedish men’s team by Belgium, everyone had expected China to win it all without any fight.  But no one ever thought Korea would have given them such a fight!  It started out with the new “Tiger” as I call him, Liu Guozheng.  He took out Oh Sang Eun pretty easily in the first match.  Kim Taek Soo played Kong a tough match, and pulled out an impressive win.  The third match was crucial, which went to Ma Lin of China.  At this time, most had given up hope on the Koreans, as Kong was heavily favored against Oh in the fourth (and the probable final) match.  However, very few people expected Oh to play as well as he did, and just go “hotsie.”  Now matter what Kong did, Oh had an answer, with a rip, right off the bounce.  During this match, the crowd started getting involved in the match, hoping that Oh would be able to take down the legend, as his teammate did earlier. 

Who knew it … Oh defeated Kong 2-0!  I certainly wanted Korea to win this tie; I love Oh and Kim’s games, and wanted to see someone else win for a change.  By the time Oh defeated Kong, the whole crowd was up on their feet, and I could feel the excitement.  (As a note, and to rub it in, Coach Danny left the building, thinking that there would be no competition once Ma won the third match ... boy did he miss out!)  By the time Kim stepped out on the court against Liu, the tie had changed, and now the match favored Korea – Kim, a very strong, experienced player, versus Liu Guozheng, a younger, less experienced player.  This match was so huge, especially since the winner of this semifinal match would be a heavy favorite versus Belgium in the final.  In the first game, Kim did as expected, and won.  In the second, he was up 9-3, when Liu called a time-out.  The next score was 12-12, and now you can start to see the pressure felt by each player in front of 4,000 fans going crazy, perhaps more so than the seventh game in an NBA final. It was electric, and beyond belief.  The second game went neck to neck, and Kim was up 20-18, but Liu held in tough, and fought through three match points to pull out the huge second game.  At this time, the only thing that would get us more excited would be a third game deuce.  At 19-16 Kim, serving, we thought it was going to end right there.  I mean, how can such a young player hold up to this type of pressure? (We could see the stress on the players’ faces, and literally see the hands shake before the point started!)  However once again, the young tiger fought back to make the third game deuce. 

The crowd was into the game as if they were playing themselves.  I remember Kim hitting an edge, and Eric said “SORRY!” thinking that it was he that was playing the point!  I was jumping up and down in the seats, because I could not take this excitement sitting down!  The whole crowd was going insane!  I remember one huge point at deuce, where Kim missed a counter-loop after a GREAT point; I thought he was going to put that shot for a winner but he missed.  I jumped up to see him make the shot, and as he missed, I came down … but not on my feet.  It was ok, I did not feel the pain. I was too much into the match. (Yes, this tie was THAT exciting!)   After another couple of match and championship points by Kim, that darn Tiger just kept on fighting back, and pulled out with the HUGE impressive win over Kim.

After the match, for the next few days, that team tie was the only thing on everyone’s minds.  Never has there been anything so exciting in table tennis (not that I can recall at least).  That evening, we saw the Korean team coming into the dinner room, and as they walked in, everyone stopped their conversations, and just kept their heads down.  We could not even start to imagine the pain they felt; even though they fought their hardest, this must have been a very painful loss.  We should have stood up and clapped for them, for putting on such a good fight, but at that time we didn’t know what to do.  The Koreans’ loss was felt by each and every one of the athletes at the World Championships!

After this match, anything else that we watched seemed boring.  This experience alone was worth going to the tournament.  But soon after, we regained our focus, and prepared for the singles event. I watched my opponent, Sergiy Nigeruk of the Ukraine, and he looked impressive; probably 2650 or 2700 level.  He was a strong looper from both sides, and seemed to have very good control of the ball.  When I played him, I was able to get through him with the big shots, but it was the small points that he always won, with simple strategic plays.  I played him close the first game, but he pulled out a few big shots himself, and continued playing very well the second game.  So that was all for me ... done for the tournament, having played only one match in the singles event.  We still had one full week left in Japan, so I wanted to make something out of it, and perhaps learn something.

My final record was 1-3, and I was rather disappointed that I did not make a better appearance at my first World Championships.  However, as a great team captain, David came up to me and congratulated me on my only win.  He told me how difficult it is to win, in such an environment, and it takes time to adjust and get used to, to be able to play your best.  That along with some other things that he said, lifted me up some, and that was a nice thing of him to do. 

So back to watching the players, one thing I noticed was the mental play of the players.  Everyone has full control of their shots, and rarely ever go for winners early in the point.  Especially when it is close, they will play a very safe and mature game.  Once they are in the point and loosen up, then the big shots come out.  But just about no one lost easy points.  The good players always put the first ball on the table, and control the point until they see the clear opportunity to put away the ball.  The pressure is on both players; so the more experienced  ones let the other lose the point, but knew when not to give the others the opportunity.  Also, you would never see the better players rush into their shots, and end up making a poor decision or missing as easy ball, as I did.

Mentally, each player was like a tiger, getting ready to hunt down his prey.  Nothing else was on the players’ minds other than how to win the next match, and giving one hundred percent on every point.  The difference between the others and myself was clear; when waiting to play my next match, I felt nervous, beset, and mainly just wanted to try to win, somehow.  Quite frankly, I did not know what to expect, and had no plan going into the match.  My opponents, however were zoned, like they were in another world; they were strategizing each point in the upcoming match.  Coming into the match they knew exactly what serves to use, which shots to use, and just demonstrated that they had a plan for every point in the match.  This was a sign of experience and maturity. 

Also, the physical fitness of these athletes was just incredible.  There were shots that players would hit, and no one would expect anyone to be able to touch the ball, but these players were able to cover the table so fast and make a counter-loop on just about everything.  They moved faster than my eyes could follow, and most of the time I was just left in awe observing their footwork, balance, and just overall quickness.

I always knew one had to be fit to be good at table tennis, but nothing to this degree!

The focus and ability to “step it up” is another thing I noticed in the top players.  Many times I saw a good player was down towards the end of a game, but they always seemed to pull out the win, with composure and confidence.  Instead of going for big shots, they made smart shots, placing the ball well, regulating the spin, and staying close to the table.   They are able to see when things weren’t going their way, and changed the game around very quickly.  It takes us almost a whole game to recognize the strategy and what to do, and what not to do.  It takes them less than five points to do the same!

The inexperienced players have a tendency to overplay the point, or let the excitement dictate the play. The good players treat each ball differently and always stay focused on playing each ball well and making sure it goes on.  Sometimes if I see a slow ball, I simply go for a winner, instead of going for a smarter set-up shot by spinning and placing the ball.  At the higher level, I saw that there is no such thing as a shot that can’t be returned.  Therefore it is imperative to place the ball and keep the ball on the table.  Also, in general the people that stay close to the table tend to win the points. 

The 2700 or even 2800 players’ shots aren’t more powerful or spinnier than most 2500 players, but they can put those shots on 9 out of 10 times, where they want to put it, and put the spin they want to put.  In my case, I can hit the ball as fast as anyone and make spectacular shots, but the consistency is low.  This is a losing game!

After the tournament, on Monday night, Mr. Jerry Wartski of New York took us all out to dinner.  He invited the whole U.S. team and contingent, and about 12 showed up.  It was a nice evening, and a toast to the World Championships. 

Once the tournament was over (in the playing sense) the rest of the time was spent watching matches and meeting players from other countries.  I made a lot of friends there, and got a chance to hang out with a lot of the famous players, which finally started to feel normal after a while!  I had a chance to talk to players from the Swedish, French, Romanian and German teams. It was just like living in a dream world.  Many of the top players knew me by my first name (which knocked me for a loop), and we went out to night clubs together, danced, and just had a great time.  It was truly a unique and wonderful experience.  I had the chance to chat with Badescu, Persson, Legout, Karlsson, Fetzner, Steff, Saive (just to mention a few), and as I mentioned earlier, it was different than in the past.  They treated me as a peer and we had some fascinating conversations!

At first I felt that it was a waste for the USATT to send five players to the tournament; all that money, and I played only four matches.  Also, if there were four players on the team, then each one would have played more, and perhaps been better overall for the team.  When USATT President Sheri Pittman asked me whether it was worth it to send the five players, I actually replied  “No!”  However, since I have been back, and especially from talking with my peers, I am beginning to realize just how much those four matches affected me.  It was the environment in which we were, and watching the top players up close for two weeks that really affected the way I now play.  Before when someone would loop, my first instinct was to block, and now, I would go for a counter-loop.  If someone served a ball a half inch long, I would push, instead of going for a spinny open-up.  There were many little changes to the way I now think and play, and in the long run I know they will help me a lot.  At first, it hurt my performance, since I am trying to change the way I play, but with enough practice I will start to make those shots. I have to take it one step at a time.  For the people that have not seen me play in a while, they will definitely see a difference in the style of play, which should soon start increasing my level. 

I did, however, gain tremendously from this experience; I met many wonderful people, learned a lot about table tennis, and to even a grander scale I learned a little bit about humanity and myself!  The Japanese were such honorable people, extremely polite, respectful, efficient, and just good-natured.  On the streets the vendors would leave their merchandise open in front of thousands of people, and no one would steal.  At nighttime, the cars in the front row of intersections would turn off their headlights so that they would not blind the pedestrians crossing!  The taxi drivers did not even accept tips when we tried to show a gesture of appreciation!

As the time approached to depart Japan, a feeling of nostalgia came over me.  But we were all pretty much ready to leave at this time, to return to a well-known environment and eat regular food and come back into the normal lifestyle.  The trip, however, was definitely a worthwhile experience.  Before I even left, I knew I would miss that place and all the people I met.  And finally the best outcome of this trip was the inspiration it gave me to continue to develop my table tennis game.  As graduation was approaching, I did not know where my table tennis career would go, but after this tournament, I know that I am going to continue table tennis and try to become a much better player.

To go to this tournament, I gave up a year’s worth of salary and job, withdrew from school with less than two months to graduate, and spent a lot of time preparing; and at first, I did not think it was worth it. As time goes on, and I think more about the experience I had and the people I met, I now look at it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  But this experience will not be left as only a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, I plan on being there again, and this time I know what to expect and what to do going into the best tournament in the World!

I want to especially thank Mr. Jerry Wartski, a man of true character, who supported the U.S. team and showed his enthusiasm.  I also want to thank the USATT, its officials and volunteers, who gave me a chance to experience this truly great event.  I want to thank Coach Danny Seemiller and my fellow Team members who not only shared my dream with me, but also inspired and supported me.  I finally wanted to thank Stiga and CancerQ, for supporting me, and a special thanks to all the people at the New Jersey Table Tennis Club (Westfield), which was a second home to me, and where I learned everything (the little) that I know.

Look out for me again, because this was not just a ONCE in a lifetime experience.