Day One: Wednesday, July 1, 2009
(Updates
throughout the day)
By Larry Hodges
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Over 50 Men's Doubles
(David Sakai) The final was a battle of a balanced righty/lefty team of Dave Sakai (about 2250 and just-crowned Over 60 Champion) and Dell Sweeris (formerly well over 2250 before switching to a rigorous twice a year practice schedule) and a rather unbalanced team of Cheng Yinghua (2641, two-time U.S. Open Men's Singles and Doubles Champion) and Julian Waters (1968). Julian held his own - he can hit shots as well as his opponents (though not his partner) when he's in position. The difficulty Dave & Dell faced was that every shot they played was either off of Cheng's shot, or into Cheng.
(Wang Chen and Cheng Yinghua) The Dave & Dell team won the first 11-8, but were 2641-waxed the next two, 11-3, 11-6. Down 4-6 in the fourth, they played great the rest of the way, leading 9-7 and winning 11-9. In the fifth, at 2-2, D&D apparently won a point when a ball went long and the umpire gave them the point, but Dell said it nicked the edge. It might have cost them. They hung in for much of the game, making it to 6-7, and then it was 6-10. At 7-10, they had the point of the match, where everyone pulled off at least one show-stopping shot - and amazingly, the one who finally missed was Cheng. But who needs a 2641 player? It was Julian who ripped in the final loop kill as Cheng & Julian won the title, -8,3,6,-9,8. "We probably overplayed a bit because of Cheng," said Dell. "We needed to forget about Cheng and just play our games." |
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Women Over 60
(Bella Livishin) California's Bella Livshin won Over 60 Women over Mahin Roufeh of Texas, 9,-11,9,7. "Her style cannot be copied," Bella said of Mahin, who plays with long pips on the backhand, short pips on the forehand. "She scoops balls off the table with the backhand, and smashes the forehand pretty well." Bella's been doing a lot of of coaching all over LA. "I started playing in 1964, and reached my peak in four years, and so went into coaching." |
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Men Over 60
In the first, Richard led 10-9, then it was 11-10, 12-11, and 13-12 before Dave wins, 14-12. In the second, it's all Richard to 9-4. Then it's 10-6, 10-9, and finally 11-9 for Richard. In the third, it's all Dave 11-5. Dave continues the onslaught, never making mistakes, and soon leads 10-0 in the fourth. "Against almost anyone else, I'd give a point, but he's too strong, he can come back in a game to eleven," Dave said. A long, great point later, and Dave has won the match and the National Over 60 Men's Singles title, 12,-9,5,0. "I've only lost to him once in 18 years," Dave said, "but every time is a struggle. I'm playing really well right now, practicing in Las Vegas with Barney Reed and others. After the Meiklejohn Open, I've got my rating back to 2250 for the first time in nine years." In the semifinals, Richard defeated Bill Ukapatayasakul, -7,10,3,9, while Dave defeated his over 50 doubles partner, Dell Sweeris, 7,9,9. |
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Over 70 Doubles
(Tim Boggan) |
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Over 75 Not content with second place in Over 70 Doubles, Jack Howard took Over 75 over Bill Neely, winning the middle game easily and squeaking out the other two, 12,6,13. |
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Hardbat Doubles Loc and Scott made it four Hardbat Doubles Championships in a row - two Opens and two Nationals - as Loc Ngo/Scott Gordon defeated Larry Hodges/Bruce Liu, 11,15. "We've played together many times," said Loc. "Scott plays control, and lets me and the point."
(Scott Gordon, Loc Ngo, Bruce Liu, Larry Hodges) "Loc is perfect to play with," said Scott of his 2399-rated partner. "He's left-handed, moves well, makes his shots, and is very tolerant of playing with a scrub. I'm afraid he'll find out I'm 1900 and drop me as his partner." Scott is, of course, being modest, as he's actually 1951 and has been as high as 2025. "They have pretty good serves, play consistent in rallies, and end the point when they get the chance," said Larry. "However," and the rest of what this sore loser said cannot be repeated. J |
The
final was a contrast in styles, with both players playing outside their
comfort zones. Dave Sakai is basically a blocker with a very strong backhand
exchange. Against Richard Hicks, a chopper with long pips on the backhand,
blocking is a particularly valuable shot. Or is it? Richard likes to pick
hit, but against Dave, it's almost pointless since he can block them all
back. So most rallies started out with backhand to backhand pushing. Then
Dave would step around and forehand loop to Richard's wide, wide backhand,
often catching him off guard. If Richard chopped it back, Dave would push,
and start over. This put Richard in an uncomfortable position as he not only
couldn't pick hit effectively, but he faced an opponent who wouldn't attack
over and over, allowing him to back up and play steady defense. 
"We
were so excited about winning the second game," said Tim Boggan,
"that we lost 22 of the next 25 points." And so the team of Richard
Hicks/Jerry Marcum defeated Boggan/Jack Howard at 6,-4,3,0. What does one do
when you are down match point 10-0? Call a time out, of course, but in this
case, it didn't help. 