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December 17, 2008 |
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Eric Owens: The Doctor of Pong? By Larry Hodges
Table tennis, however, is not his focus these days. Eric's halfway through his second year as a medical student. He's actually double-majoring in a six-year program for his medical degree and a master's in biochemical science at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine.
"The last 18 months has been mostly coursework," Eric said. "The good news is that from now until May it's mostly labwork and my master's thesis, where I can set my schedule. So I'll be able to practice table tennis a lot more."
Want to know about Eric's thesis? Brace yourself: "Leukotactinin Induces Migration and Proliferation of Fibroblast-like Synovial Cells Through Mitogen Activities Protein Kinases." Say that at your local participating McDonalds, and you get a free Big Mac. (This would be over Eric's protest; he's a vegetarian.)
It's been a long ride for Eric, from his junior days in Texas and at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, years of training in Houston and elsewhere, and many years on the U.S. Team, where he won gold and bronze at the Pan Am Games in 1999 and 2007, respectively. Now, as a full-time medical student, can he win another big one? Dr. De Train, a medical doctor from New York, made the USA National Team a few years ago. Can Eric up this and win the big one again, Men's Singles?
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Under 22 Men By Larry Hodges
(The winner of the U22 Men event. Photo courtesy of Gerry Chua)
Joseph Cochran's route to the final seemed "blocked" by top-seeded Adam Hugh (2500, NJ). However, Joseph upset the Princeton student in the semifinals in a five-game battle, -11,8,9,-5,5.
Yahao Zhang had a very different route to the final - a very tiring one, with three straight five-game matches. After a first-round bye, he defeated Trevor Runyan, -4,5,8,-8,6. In the next round, the quarterfinals, he defeated Grant Li, 3,-5,2,-8,7. In the semifinals, he staged a comeback from 0-2 to defeat Amaresh Sahu, -8,-3,10,5,7.
In the final, Joseph Cochran gave a clinic on serves. Not just one serve; it seemed he had an endless supply of serve variations to throw at Yahao Zhang. Short, medium and long, sidespins either way from similar motions, no-spin, they wore Yahao dow. Joseph is a two-winged attacker with a lot of variation in his play. Often his backhand loops ended the point quickly; in longer points, he was equally comfortable looping or blocking on both sides. Yahao plays a more vintage all-out forehand looping game. Both are inverted shakehanders.
Joseph romped in the first, 11-3, and led 8-7 in the second. Yahao ran off three in a row to go up 10-8, Joseph's serve. Showtime! Yahao looped the first serve into the net, and pushed the next (short) serve also into the net. Joseph won the next point on Yahao's serve, and served another service winner to win the game, 12-10. In the third, up 7-6, Joseph ran it out to win the match, 3,10,6.
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Rating Doubles Events By Larry Hodges
(Yijun Feng and Austin Preiss – U4200 Doubles winner. Photo courtesy of Gerry Chua) There are four rating doubles events here at the Nationals: Under 4200, Under 3700, Under 3200, and Under 2700. to qualify for these events, the players combined USATT rating must be under the cutoff.
Most of the "excitement" may have been in Under 2700 Doubles. In the semifinals, Daniel Tran/Theodore Tran came back from down 0-2 to upset second-seeded David Edwards/Arthur Chan, -5,-9,11,5,6. In the final, they faced Alan Ehrlich/Chace Luna . . . and a pair of problematic rackets. Ehrlich's racket was warped and declared illegal by the umpire. When he produced a backup racket, it too was found to be warped and declared illegal - and so Tran/Tran won by default over Ehrlich/Luna.
In Under 3200 Doubles, Ryan Hoarfrost and Tom Nguyen - the latter running back and forth from his desk duties - upset the top-seeded team of Billy Fu and Carlos Ortegon in the quarterfinals, 6,8,8. In the final, they defeated Kambiz Khatounabadi and David Flores in the final, 4,4,7.
In Under 3700 Doubles, John James Alto and Jerry Harris came back to defeat Jim Tarkowski and Bernard Savitz, -8,5,4,4.
In Under 4200 Doubles, Austin Preiss and Yijun Feng overcame a 8,7,-12,-6,6 semifinal battle with Brian Bartley and Stephen Clyde. In the final, they defeated junior stars Ethan Jin and Grant Li, 4,10,2.
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Under 22 Women By Larry Hodges
(Areil Hsing was receiving Lily Zhang's serve. Photo courtesy of Bruce H. Liu)
Ariel said, "Most important thing was to calm down when I got angry." The key times for this were after losing game two, and 6-8 in the fourth, on the verge of going five. Ariel's dad and coach, Michael Hsing, called a timeout. Afterwards, Ariel ran off four straight points (with Lily's coach for this match, Han Xiao, calling a timeout at 9-8).
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Over 40 Men By Larry Hodges
(Niraj Oak – the O40 runner-up. Photo courtesy of Gerry Chua)
"He blocked me all over the court, but I hung in there," Dan said. "His block is very steady, but his attack can be shaky."
Of more historical interest, guess who was coaching Dan for this match? None other than brother Rick Seemiller, a U.S. team member in the late '70 and much of the '80s, and many-time U.S. Men's Doubles Champion with Dan. I asked them when was the last time Ricky had coached Dan, and they believed the last time was at the 1986 USA Nationals in Pittsburgh. The two are playing Men's and Over 40 Doubles together, so this will be something to see. (Rick's only playing doubles.)
Of the final, Rick said of Niraj, "A lot of Indian players are like that, with a good table game, can block forever, moving you side to side." Dan said having Ricky coach him was great, since he knows his game so well.
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Cadet Trials - Preliminaries By Larry Hodges
(Deng Anne, Lily Zhang, , Judy Yang, and Sylvan Guo. Photo courtesy of Bruce H. Liu)
The top four seeds in the Cadet Boys' and Cadet Girls' Team Trials were seeded out of the preliminaries: Justin Nguyen, Grant Li, Michael Landers and Alexander Yao for the boys, Anne Deng, Ariel Hsing, Lily Zhang and Erica Wang for the girls. Eight other cadet boys and cadet girls qualified through the preliminaries to make the Final Twelve in each event, to be played out on Thursday. They will be placed in two groups of six, with the top two from each group playing crossovers for placement on the USA National Cadet Team.
Cadet Boys' Trials Second-seeded Charles Deng and third-seeded Brian Chen both made it to the Cadet Boys' Final Twelve. Charles had a tough start, losing the first game 11-6 to Jonathan Ou after leading 4-0, but won the match at -6,4,7,8. However, Andrew Chen (2130), top seed in the qualifier, was upset in the first round by Daniel Tang (1732), 5,-8,9,9. Tang, in turn, was upset by Luke Yamasaki (1859), 3,-8,6,-6,6, who made the Final Twelve. Fourth-seeded Austin Preiss (2026) was upset by ten-year-old all-out looper Ethan (how many different serves doe he have?) Chua (1945), 6,9,-6,-6,7.
Final Twelve: Group One: Justin Nguyen (2231, CA), Alexander Yao (2204, MO), Charles Deng (2039, TX), Ethan Chua (1945, CA), Chendra Lu (1931, TX), and Luke Yamasaki (1859, OR). Group Two: Grant Li (2227, MA), Michael Landers (2211, NY), Brian Chen (2031, CA), Anand Engineer (1998, CA), Kerry Xiao (1919, MO), and Tong Tong Geng (1910, MD).
Cadet Girls' Trials The top four seeds in the preliminaries all advanced to the Final Twelve - each had a bye, since there were only twelve in the preliminaries. The other eight players battled it out for the other four positions. Charleen Hsieh (1672) upset Nina Zhen (1859) in the mostly tightly contested match, 6,9,-6,-9,3. In other matches, Judy Yang defeated Isabel Chu, 5,6,6; Ellen Hwang defeated Chelsea Elston, 9,7,10; and Jasmine Nguyen defeated Diane Jiang, 9,8,5.
Final Twelve: Group One: Anne Deng (2334, TX), Lily Zhang (2230, CA), Natalie Sun (2022, CA), Prachi Jha (1847, CA), Judy Yang (1806, TX), and Charleen Hsieh (1672, CA). Group Two: Ariel Hsing (2316, CA), Erica Wu (2164, CA), Shirly Ho (1933, TX), Annie Guo (1909, NY), Ellen Hwang (1802, CA), and Jasmine Nguyen (1793, CA).
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Over 40 Hardbat By Larry Hodges The first of 60 events to complete was the Over 40 Hardbat Singles, where rackets have no sponge, only pimpled rubber. It gives you a flavor of table tennis past - or does it? Many-time hardbat champions Ty Hoff and Loc Ngo battled it out a barrage of all-topspin attacks. No chopping, unlike hardbat matches from the vintage hardbat era, but it wasn't anything like modern "serve and rip" table tennis. The rallies were often 5-10 shots long, with playing heavy topspin forehands (yes, you can do that in hardbat), and steady backhands. Ty was a full-time hardbatter for about a decade, but is now focusing on sponge. Loc, who is also normally a sponge player, plays the same steady lefty topspin with sponge or hardbat. In this battle of steady topspin attacks, Loc wore Ty down, 21-13, 21-11. (Hardbat matches are to 21, like in the "good old days.")
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USATT Town Hall Meeting By Larry Hodges (Christian Lillieroos gave a speech during the USATT Assembly. Photo courtesy of Michael Wetzel)
One hundred and five years ago today, the Wright brothers soared to new heights with the first powered flight. Seventy-five years ago, USA Table Tennis was founded. During the hardbat era, it soared to great heights. In recent years, it has not. However, with the new board and reorganization, hopes are high. Can USATT begin a new era, and reach the heights of the Wright brothers? Time will tell.
Peter Scudner, the new chair of the USATT board, and Mike Cavinaugh, USATT Executive Director, both spoke about USATT and its status. In between, they played a USOC inspirational tape of Olympic athletes. Board member Christian Lillieroos gave a presentation on the new USATT committee structure, of which you'll no doubt be reading more in USATT Magazine or web page. All committee chairs who were present were given certificates of appreciation, with others to be mailed out. Player Rep Han Xiao spoke on the USATT High Performance Plan. They played another USOC tape of Olympic athletes, and then we got to the "meat" of the meeting: the Q&A session.
There were a number of questions raised on a number of topics: the Junior Committee and its responsibilities; developing junior training programs; schools programs; whether USATT is developing athletes or relying on immigrant players; the ratings pages in the magazine; officials; and numerous other topics.
It is with great hope that the new board moves toward developing our sport. Those of you with suggestions or who would like to help out, contact USATT. It's our USATT; be a part of it!
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A
look at the top four seeds in Men's Singles is a nostalgic look to our past. Ilija
Lupulesku, David Zhuang, Cheng Yinghua . . .and Eric Owens. Eric, the last
U.S.-born player to win Men's Singles at the Nationals (in 2001) and the only
one to do it since Jim Butler in 1993, is now 33 years old. Among the senior
stars that take up the top players in the Men's, he's been the "youth
movement" for about fifteen years. 
The
final was a vintage battle of contrasting styles of up-and-coming junior
stars. But first, Joseph Cochran (2424, IN) and Yahao Zhang (2410, CO) had to
fight their way through a very strong draw. 
In
what could be the Under 22 Women's Final for the next nine years (!),
just-turned-13-year-old Ariel Hsing (2316, CA) defeated 12-year-old Lily
Zhang (2229, CA), 5,-10,7,9. The two play very similar all-out inverted
shakehand attack styles. Arial has a bit more power and hits more flat
winners. Lily spins a bit more. Both have very nice opening loops against
backspin, both forehand and backhand, with Ariel often hitting in winners
with her backhand. Both have excellent variation in serves and placement, and
both have mastered "tweeny" serves, where the second bounce of the
serve, given the chance, is right around the baseline, so receiver has to
decide if it's long enough to loop or not. The rallies were, shall we say,
vicious! 
In
the semifinals, third-seeded Lily had upset top-seeded Anne Deng (2334, TX),
8,6,9. On the other half of the draw, fourth-seeded Alison Wu (2118, MA) was
upset by Isabella Chen (1851, NY), who came back from down 0-2 to win at
-11,-6,8,9,9. In the semifinals, Isabella won the first and almost won the
second before losing to Ariel, -9,10,6,6. 
Top-seeded
Dan Seemiller pretty much romped though the draw, winning his matches, in
order, at 6,8,3,6,5,8,6,3,2,4,14,7,5,6,7. The only "challenge" he
faced was the 16-14 second-game win over Sakda Timsuwan in the semifinals. In
the final, Niraj Oak relentlessly blocked him side to side, but Dan's
forehand loop from the wide forehand was very strong and consistent as Dan
won a 5,6,7. 
USATT
had its second annual Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday night, Dec. 16, 7:30-9:30
PM. In attendance were eight of the nine USATT board members, the entire
USATT office staff, and 85 interested USATT members. This was a substantial
increase over the inaugural meeting last year, where 35 members attended. The
snack buffet was a nice touch. (Note - I didn't take notes during the
meeting, so apologies for the lack of detail.)