2007 US NATIONALS MEN'S MATCHES by Tim Boggan

Men’s Singles Preliminary Play Men’s Singles saw all but the eight top seeds begin play in 32 preliminary round robins—30 consisting of three players, two of four. Of these 98 players, 66 were forthwith eliminated, while the 32 first-place finishers advanced to join the seeded eight, and along with 24 Byes formed an initial elimination draw of 64. Among the early prelim casualties was Lim Ming Chui who in the Under 2300’s (U.S. citizenship not required for Rating events) had managed to win a first-round 11-9-in-the-fifth match against (from time to time I’m going to sneak in some women’s play, o.k.?) Ms. Sayuri Ohno, here in the States from Japan to study English. Also eliminated was David Umel, Jr. who fell to Amaresh Sahu. Umel, however, did win the U-2300’s via close matches over 17-year-old Dan Seemiller, Jr., Courtney Roberts, and runner-up T.J. Beebe. Men’s Singles Early-Round Matches On the one side of the Men’s Draw, in his opening-round proper, Sahu, in losing 11-9 in the seventh to Joey Cochran, very nearly took out this18-year-old, the U-2400 winner, who’d been in Sweden three months training at the Sparvagens Club. Joey’d learned how de rigueur it is to re-loop off the bounce, and went on in the 16th’s to win an 8, -6, -5, 9, -12, 10, 9 thriller from Dr. De Tran. Cochran tried to keep the ball away from Tran’s spin-struck forehand, and was fortunate to survive from triple match point down in the sixth; then in the seventh was lucky to score on a finger-lob and a thumb loop, not your everyday practiced shots. De was sportingly complimentary in speaking of Cochran (“The guy has heart”). But he also had his own interests to pursue—said he was seeing too many patients a day, and, as the Olympic Trials were coming up, was gonna tell his Secretary, “Book light.” Cochran said he’d watched a video of his last match with Han Xiao (I presume his five-gamer with winner Xiao in the U-21’s), but, despite such help, best he could do in the Men’s eighth’s with Han was take one game (though he lost another from 7-1 up). Maybe Joey’ll go to Australia? A well-known Swedish coach wants to work with him there. Han, in advancing to meet Danny Seemiller in the quarter’s, also eliminated Tri Dinh who’d made his mark in the 2400’s by adroitly balancing a 10, -10, 10, -10, 10 win over youthful Justen Yao with another, -10, 12, -15, 5, 11 less symmetrical, less suspect-scored one, over youthful A. J. Brewer.

Seemiller stopped Auria Malek who’d not only knocked off Rudy Miranda but, more noticeably at least to Dan, Dan’s son, Dan, in the U-21’s, 11-9 in the 5th. Though Danny was very intense from the get-go, it was Malek, wearing an Alphapong.com t-shirt, and being coached by Iran’s Afshin Badiee, an ITTF Media Committee colleague of mine, who came out the aggressor, long-arm whacking balls, forcing Danny back, to take the first 11-8. But in the second game, Auria missed a big backhand in over the table that would nearly have evened the late-game play, and that seemed to precipitate a loss of psychic strength. When Danny’s short, spinny backhand serves began to prove effective, along with his grunts and (“Yeah! C’mon!”) self-exhortations, Malek’s forehands faltered. Seemiller had been bolstered by the news that Dan, Jr. had made the U.S. Junior Team, though piquantly when Danny returned to their hotel room not knowing the outcome of his son’s play and found him not up and wired but fast asleep, he thought, “No, he didn’t make it.”
Rocky Wang (his disposition affable, not at all “rocky”) dropped an 11-9-in-the-seventh nasty to Guo Hui Lu, who in getting to the finals of the U-2400’s had knocked off 1-2-3 opponents. First, rallying from two games down, he beat Sahu. Then, Diane Dongye Chen, Women’s 40 winner over 50’s Champ Charlene Xiaoying Liu (who, behind 2-0 and 8-2 in the fifth, rallied to beat Bella Livshin). Then, escaping again from 2-0 down, Lu defeated this year’s $1,000 Nate Wasserman Memorial Boys U-18 Scholarship Award winner John Leach. But continuing on in the Men’s, Lu had to face the inevitable—a loss to three-time U.S. Champion Ilija Lupulesku.
Joining Lupi in the quarter’s after being six-game tested by Shashin Shodhan was academic-minded Adam Hugh, the U-21 runner-up. Mom, Lily Yip (only a spectator here), had been busy fund-raising thousands of dollars for and facilitating the U.S. Team’s every coming need at the 2008 World’s.
On the other side of the Draw, Leach won his first-round Men’s match from Hardbat finalist Courtney Roberts, but then reached an 8, -9, -7, 8, 10, 10 dead-end with Sean Lonergan. Sean was impressed by Leach’s backhand loop…and—what the—an occasional thrown-in, surprise serve a la the Seemiller grip. Lonergan then was ousted by Shao Yu who advanced to the quarter’s against Mark Hazinski. Earlier Shao had eliminated Chance Friend (with a name like that he must be welcomed everywhere—which didn’t mean in the Under 2200’s he was able to beat the winner, Nathanial Curran).
Former U.S. World Team member Razvan Cretu bid adieu to last year’s U-2100 winner Tim Wang after Tim had locked up Loc Ngo. (In the 2400’s, before losing to Dinko Kranjac, Wang, buoyed by a 16-14 third game, got by Michael Henry in five, after Michael himself had won out in the fifth over Women’s Singles quarterfinalist Nan Li.) Defending and five-time U.S. Closed Champion David Zhuang repeated his last year’s win over Samson Dubina who was at least pleased he’d prevailed in six over Dr. Tuan Le. David then was ready to meet in the quarter’s fellow Hall of Famer Khoa Nguyen, 4-2 victor over Cretu in the eighth’s after Razvan had blasted back Khoa’s serve to win the stay-alive fifth game, 12-10.

Men’s Singles Quarter’s
None of the quarters was exciting: Lupi won 4-0, 11-6 on the average, over Adam. “Go to Lupi’s backhand,” someone said, “and he’s 2950. Go to his forehand and he’s 2650. But, regardless, he has a great table game and won’t give you a free ball.”
Han lost the second to Seemiller (up 7-3, down 11-7!), but otherwise it seemed he could spot Danny halfway home every game. Perhaps Han didn’t need Coach Larry Hodges’ tips on Seemiller’s vulnerable forehand, but as one observer put it, “Larry sure knows everything about that Seemiller grip.” Said another, “Larry’s got everybody’s game in his head.” Danny himself admitted that “Han had me tactically the whole way. I was making very poor serve returns, just couldn’t find his middle.” Never mind. Danny’s thankful. He’d hurt his knee at last year’s U.S. Closed, and after doing the wrong thing, constantly testing it by jogging, running, playing for eight months, he was told by doctors at the Pan-Am Games that there was a 95% chance he’d have to have surgery (a meniscus tear?). So, not wanting to hear that, Danny just totally rested the knee for three weeks, and then miraculously it no longer pained him.
Khoa, in the most contested of these matches, lost -8, -6, 10, -8, -9 to David. Zhuang’s’s flat ball makes Nguyen return a lot of shots into the net. Still, in that 12-10 finish Khoa flashed some great counters, and in the fifth from 9-all he had a chance…until David came through with a clutch serve and follow. “There’s so much variance to Zhuang’s serves,” said one onlooker. “I love to watch him—he mixes up play so well.”
In the remaining quarter’s, Mark blitzed 2006 Closed quarterfinalist Shao, though two of the games were 11-9 close.

Men’s Doubles
On one side of the Doubles Draw, Shao, partnered with Yang Liu (combined rating 4805), did win an 8-in-the-fifth Men’s Doubles match over Leach and Hardbat Champ Trevor Runyan (combined rating 4805) before succumbing docilely in the semi’s to Zhuang/Han Xiao. Earlier, in the first round, the Shao pair had been 1-1 with Danny Seemiller and his U.S. Cadet Team protégé A.J. Brewer when the Referees insisted the Seemiller team default, for parents were complaining that Brewer was due to play Cadet matches and they didn’t feel like waiting and wanted to default him from his important play there. So, for shame, the kid had a Hobson’s choice. Talk about Conflict Resolutions… and Irresolutions.
On the other side of the Draw, Sean Lonergan and Tournament Chair Richard Lee (his NATT staff, as usual, especially Mary Palmar, did a great job for me with the draw sheets, the more appreciated since for a few days I wasn’t feeling well) were quick to attack with lefty Lee excelling in returning serves and following up on Sean’s serves. They knocked off De Tran and Khoa Nguyen before feistily going down 12-10 in the 4th to the 2004/2005 Champions Lupulesku/Hazinski.
The final was a revenge match, for last year with the pairs tied 1-1 David and Han won a key 14-12 in the third game that gave them momentum to take the title from Lupi and Mark. This time the opening game went to deuce where first David erred, then Han. But in the second, Mark twice mis-served and gave an 11-9 game back. This little piece of carelessness might have been costly, for after Lupi and Mark had lost the third 11-9, the fourth seemed ready to slip from their hands. On missing a shot, Mark spun the racket up and back over his head and had to hurry to catch it. Now David and Han won their third successive point, led 9-8…but couldn’t close. In the fifth game, the score went to 6-all on a missed shot by Hazinski and he again tossed up his racket. It’s like we were witnessing a game of chance. Watch the fall….We did. David and Han lost five in a row, the match, and their Championship.

Men’s Singles Semi’s
In the Lupi-Han Singles semi, the first two games were tied at five-all, the third at four-all. But Lupi was able to break away in each. Han’s powerful forehands were turning into some powerful whiffs. He just couldn’t get a ball on the table. Lupi, off-balance for a moment in the third, quickly shifted back and was able to execute a normal loop. He stretched to return balls the average player/spectator didn’t think he could get to. The finishing fourth game, like the others, wasn’t close. Lupi, up 9-4 fished, Han missed.
In last year’s David-Mark semi, Mark won the opening game at 13, lost the closing game at 13, suggesting the match between the two was ever contestable. This year’s opening game had a much improved Mark with a quick pick-up counter leading 6-2…9-4…and finishing with a bravura down-the-line serve that, resounding confidence, aced David. There followed an exhilarating second-game beginning with Hazinski sending back lobs and Zhuang eventually winning the point on a deft drop. David, out in front, was roaring. Mark wasn’t intimidated—from 8-6 down, with fast-hands gutsy counters he moved to 10-8 up. But David stopped that run, deuced it. Mark on getting the ad again, failed to return serve. Deuce again. Then David failed to return serve. David served—and FAULT! Game to Hazinski. A spectator had said, “Zhuang’s never surprised—he has an answer for everything.” But not this time. The umpire insisted that: David hadn’t taken his left arm away. If one wanted to look for a turning point in the match, this would be it.
Said a spectator of the ump, “If he’d have done that to me, I’d have smoked the guy.” In the third, Zhuang opened with a 2-0 lead, but Mark’s forehand was devastating—he garnered four points in a row, was ever ready to counter. David felt something had gone loose. It turned out he was wearing something undercover—a shoulder-strap support brace of some kind. No, it didn’t holster a gun. But for sure he wished he had some point-proving threat. A late-game mishit gave Zhuang a 9-8 chance. But he couldn’t stop Hazinski from pummeling in forehands. Mark was up 3-0 and took a 3-0 lead in the fourth. Give David credit—he fought back. But at 5-all, Mark snap-backhanded in a beauty. Then two more forehands went in, followed by a backhand ace, and Mark soared to an 11-6 overwhelming finish.

Men’s Singles Final
Now, can Mark beat Lupi? So far I’ve never seen him play better. In their 2005 U.S. Closed final, Lupulesku won in straight games. This time it’s different. Mark, 8-5 down, is 10-8 up after a great lob and lambast point, and wins the first. Whereas Han faded the ball, Mark’s effectively hooking it. In the second, it’s 4-all, then Lupi, pushing some, even chopping, to Mark’s forehand, runs out the game! Coach Seemiller feels Mark’s popped something in his hip going to his wide forehand for a ball, senses he’s lost some quickness.
In the third, Lupi, whose serves are not being thrown “near vertically upwards” but demonstrably backwards, breaks away from 6-all to gain the ad point. Whereupon Mark’s rally falls 11-9 short. In the fourth, though Lupi’s facile, back-from-the-table touch doesn’t desert him, Mark gets balls through, and on evening up the games gets warm crowd support. In the fifth, Lupi, with deep returns and aggressive play, builds a 6-1…9-3 lead and it doesn’t matter now that he carelessly serves off. In the 6th, it’s 4-all but Mark’s body language doesn’t look good. At 6-all we hear Lupi’s “Come on!”—his first audible cry. It more encourages Mark to an 8-6 lead. Only then, Lupi aces him with an altitude-propelled forehand rocket. And though Mark calls “Time,” it doesn’t stop, but carries Lupi right on through to “YO!” his fourth National Championship.