Day Three: Friday, July 3, 2009
(Updates
throughout the day)
By Larry Hodges
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Women's Singles - Quarterfinals Gao Jun (USA) d. Mai Gei Jie (CA), 6,-9,8,4,3 According to USA Women's Coach Doru Gheorghe, the main thing was for Gao to play her game. Mai was a tricky lefty with a very high and tricky high-toss serve. According to Doru, she spun the ball out of her hand when she tossed it, but since it didn't give Gao much trouble, they didn't contest it. With her usual assortment of varied blocks and pick hitting, pips-out penholder Gao won the first easily, 11-6. Down 7-10 in the second, she scored two in a row before losing 9-11. The fourth game was decisive, with Gao leading the whole way by about two points. Up 9-7, Gao practically blocked Mai into the next country, yet she somehow stayed in the point until Gao missed a block. Gao looked amazed, but quickly scored the next two points.
(Mai Gei Jie) Mai led 3-1 in the fourth, but it was all Gao from there on as she scored the next next nine in a row. Up 7-3, Gao played a spectacular "fishing" point, returning shot after shot from about eight feet back until Mai missed. The very next point Gao was five feet back again as Mai smashed, and Gao "invented" a sidespin jab block from off the table that broke away from Mai to her wide forehand for an ace. Up 10-2 in the fifth, Gao had scored 20 of the last 23 points. She split the next two points, and was into the semifinals. Other Matches - I missed these due to the USATT
Coaching Seminar (Writeup on that coming up soon)
(Zhang Mo) Tanja Hain-Hofman (GER) d. Zhang Mo (CAN), -5,6,9,7,8 According to Coach Brian Pace, Tanja had problems looping against Zhang's pips-out forehand, so after the first game, won basically by going backhand to backhand the rest of the way.
(Daniela Dodean) Daniela Dodean (ROM) d. Zheng Jiaqi (USA),
6,1,-10,-7,-6,6,10 By the scores, I missed a doozy. USA's Zheng (rated 2577), a pips-out penholder with a reverse penhold backhand, almost took out world #33 Dodean. If I get a chance, I will talk to the players about this match. Elisabeth Samara (ROM) d. Amelie Solja (GER), 8,8,6,3 World #36 Samara advances over world #129 Solja.
(Michael Hsing, Amelie Solja, and Ariel Hsing) Next Round - Semifinals (Saturday at 5:00 and 5:30
PM Pacific Time, Final at 7:15 PM) Gao Jun (USA) vs. Elisabeth Samara (ROM) Tanja Hain-Hofman (GER) vs. Daniela Dodean (ROM) |
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Men's Singles - Quarterfinals Wang Zhen (CAN) d. Chen Weixing (AUT), 9,9,6,7 Even though it was four straight, this was perhaps the match of the tournament so far. Canadian #1 Wang put on a demonstration on how to overpower chop, while Chen, unable to attack as much as he wanted, showed just how well he could chop. And then, there was the service faults controversy.
(Wang Zeng) Early on, one of the umpires faulted Chen for starting his serve with the ball over the table. Down 0-2 in games and 2-5 in the third, the other umpire faulted Chen again, and this time Chen basically went ballistic. After a heated exchange, Chen threw his racket across the table onto Chen's side, and of course was yellow-carded. Referee Bill Walk "discussed the matter" with Chen, but not to Chen's satisfaction. Over and over he pointed at two ITTF umpire evaluators, arguing that the only reason the umpires were faulting him was to impress them. Wang won the game easily, with Chen periodically gesturing angrily at the umpires.
Down 0-5 in the fourth, Chen was faulted again, by the second umpire. The crowd booed loudly as Chen showed his unhappiness. And then a strange thing happened - a match seemingly broke out when seemingly the match was over. An inspired Chen won five in a row to 5-6, then 7-8. Then he got sloppy. After a serve and rip into the net made it 7-10, with the crowd watching in silent anticipation, Chen served into the net to end it. "I will never come to another tournament in the U.S. if the umpires are like that," Chen declared. It's unfortunate the top seed and defending champion would exit on such a negative note. Who was right? Were the serves illegal? From my vantage point in the stands, I couldn't tell. Perhaps someone with video can check this. It was reminiscent of the 13 and Under Boys' Final, where the runner-up was faulted about seven times. Andrei Filimon (ROM) d. Joerg Rosskopf (GER),
-9,-10,-9,7,10,9,10 This was a counterlooping dream, as the two went at it forehand to forehand, with a seasoning of backhand loops and smashes. How could Rosskopf lose from up 3-0?
(Joerg Rosskopf) One of the rules of table tennis is the best points always come at key points. After winning the first 11-9, Rosskopf led 10-9 and then 11-10 in the second. Then came the best point of the match, perhaps the tournament (though there were a few nasty loop to chop ones in the Wang-Chen quarterfinal match). It was a long, ferocious forehand to forehand counterlooping dual, with an incredible Rosskopf backhand counterloop thrown in halfway through. Rosskopf won the point and game. In the third, Rosskopf led in a 9-3 rout - and then it was 9-all! But Rosskopf won the next two. And now the German's fortunes turned. After losing game four 7-11, Rosskopf led 9-7 in the fifth. Then it was 9-10, 10-12. In game six, Rosskopf pulled off an incredible forehand smash of Filimon's loop, and soon led 7-5. Then it was 7-9, 8-9, 8-10. Filimon served and ripped a backhand loop - off! Then served and ripped another backhand loop - on! And so it was all tied up and into the seventh. Once again Rosskopf took a lead, 5-2. Filimon quickly tied it, 5-5. Then 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9. Rosskopf serve and loops, Filimon backhand kills, and is up match point. Rosskopf wins a counterlooping point. Then Filimon pulls a serve on Rosskopf, which the many-time German champion and former world doubles champion and Olympic Men's Singles Bronze Medalist pushes way up in the air, about five feet off the end - not something you see a player like Rosskopf do very often! Filimon finishes the match by ripping a backhand loop, a fitting way to end a match against the player most notorious for his own backhand loop kills. "That's table tennis," Rosskopf said afterwards. "I had leads, but they come and go fast. Fortunately, it's not a huge tournament, so it's not too bad." Meaning he'd rather do it here than at the Olympics, Worlds, or European Championships. Other Matches: Thomas Keinath (SLK) d. Constantin Cioti (ROM), 5,5,-9,-4,5,9 Adrian Crison (ROM) d. Zhang Weijian (CA), 12,4,7,2 Next Round - Semifinals (Saturday at 6:00 and 6:30
PM, Final at 8:00 PM) Wang Zhen (CAN) vs. Thomas Keinath (SLK) Andrei Filimon (ROM) vs. Adrian Crison (ROM) |
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Over 40 Men's Singles Sweden's Thomas Bennborn defeated Mexico's Guillermo Munoz in the final, -6,7,6,7. The "big" match of the event was Bennborn holding off California's Tuan Le's comeback in the semifinals, 5,7,-7,-6,9. New Jersey's Barry Dattel was in the other semifinals, losing to Munoz at 10,3,8. Over 40 Doubles This was the ultimate in lopsided teams as Maryland's Cheng Yinghua (2641) and California's Liu Xuan (1969) took on Germans Joerg Rosskopf (2746) and Andreas Hain (2136) in the final. It was these teams' fate on this date to score lots of eights as USA won, 8,-8,-8,8,8. Over 50 Women In the zillionth match between these two long-time rivals, Maryland's Charlene Liu won the Over 50 Women's Singles final over Californa's Bella Livshin (who'd already won Over 60 women), 12,8,-5,6. Over 60 Doubles Dave Sakai and Dell Sweeris lost a close in the Over 50 Doubles final, but the Dave & Dell show took Over 60 Doubles in another close one over Richard Hicks and Bill Ukapatayasakul. Dave Sakai and Richard Hicks have now won enough hardware to satisfy the most greedy of dragons. Dave's now the Over 60 Singles & Doubles champion, along with second in Over 50 Doubles, while Richard's the Over 65 Singles and Over 70 Singles & Doubles Champion, and runner-up in Over 60 and Over 60 Doubles. Under 21 Men The Internationalized Under 21 Men was California versus Korea and India, with Korea winning out as Lee Dong Hee (KOR) defeated Zhang Weijian (CA) in the final, 4,6,-8,9,7. In the semifinals, Lee defeated Jeff Lin Huang (CA), 8,11,5,7, while Zhang defeated India's Sourav Saha, 9,7,7,10 Under 21 Women USA went down in the semifinals, with India's Monika Batra taking out California's Ariel Hsing, 6,9,8,8, while Germany's Amelie Solja defeated New York's Wang XinYue in a match where the scores tell the story: 7,7,-8,-10,11,2. In the final, Germany prevailed as Solja defeated Batra in a tight battle, -9,6,11,-8,13,9. Under 18 Girls Natalie Sun (CA), rated only 2141, upset Li Tao (VA), rated 2371, in a five-game battle in the final, -9,9,6,-10,8. Natalie had knocked off Sumanna Krishnan of India in the semifinals in an even closer battle (-12,5,13,-7,9), while Li defeated Ariel Hsing (CA), 5,8,8. Li took out another Indian in the quarterfinals, Varshali Prashade, at 5,9,-5,5. Under 11 Boys Top-seeded Allen Wang (NJ) lost only one game along the way to the final, to Kanak Jha (the 9 & Under Boys' Champion) in the semifinals, 2,-9,3,5. Second-seeded Jonathan Ou had a tougher time, almost having to go five in his quarter match against fellow Texan Brandon Chow (5,14,-6,6), and then going the whole way in winning his semifinal against Ethan Chua (CA), 6,-3,5,-11,6. In the final, Jonathan won the first, then Allen pulled out the second and the last two in winning the championship, -10,9,7,7. Under 11 Girls Second-seeded Emmy Cheng (CA) coasted to the final without losing a game, winning his quarters 4,7,9 over Sonjay Henry (MO) and semis 1,7,7 over Anushka Oak (TX). Top-seeded Diane Jiang (CA) had a tougher time, winning her quarters 8,7,-6,8 over Natasha Carr-Harris (FL) and semis 10,-7,9,11 over Laura Huang (TX). In the final, Emmy finally lost her first games - three of them - as Diane won, 7,11,9. |
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Women's Singles - Eighths Gao Jun (MD) d. Jackie Lee (CA), 8,3,4,4 Nobody does more while seemingly doing little than Gao Jun. Said Coach Tawny Banh, who spent years as a player chasing Gao, "Gao constantly changes spins and placement - dead blocks, chop blocks, sidespin blocks, punch blocks, short, long. Plus she adjusts to changes in tactics very quickly." And so Gao moved into the quarterfinals with her win over former U.S. Teammate Jackie Lee. When I asked Gao about her training, she said, "I don't train. I stay home and watch TV." When I asked her future plans, she said, "I go home and watch TV." Hmmm....
(Jackie Lee) Daniela Dodean (ROM) d. Wang XinYue (NY),
-12,13,7,4,-5,11 Both are conventional righty shakehand loopers, but while Dodean will back up and loop, Wang tends to stay right up at the table, looping off the bounce every chance, both forehand and backhand, blocking when forced to. A great match, but Dodean was a bit more consistent and efficient with her attacks.
(Greg Cox of Butterfly and Daniela Dodean)
(Wang XinYue) Zheng Jiaqi (CA) d. Li Tao (VA), 6,4,3,8 The match wasn't close, but it was an interesting match between a pips-out penholder with a reverse penhold backhand (Zheng), and a conventional penhold looper with a conventional penhold backhand (Li). While the latter was excellent for blocking, Zheng's reverse backhand allowed a better attack. Yet, since both players were mostly all-out forehand attackers with excellent footwork, you had to watch a few points before one would play backhand.
(Jiaqi Zheng) Other matches: Mai Gei Jie (CA) d. Kim Kyung Ha (GA), -11,5,3,10,8 Amelie Solja (GER) d. Marina Shumakova (KZT), 7,4,4,3 Elisabeth Samara (ROM) d. Lee Soo Yeon (CA), 2,4,7,8 Tanja Hain-Hofmann (GER) d. Dora Kurimay (CA), 5,-9,8,3,3 Mo Zhang (CAN) d. Wu Yue (NY), 10,-5,6,8,2 Next Round - Quarterfinals (tonight at 6:45 and 7:30
PM Pacific Time) Gao Jun (MD) vs. Mai Gei Jie (CA) Amelie Solja (GER) vs. Elisabeth Samara (ROM) Tanja Hain-Hofmann (GER) vs. Mo Zhang (CAN) Zheng Jiaqi (CA) vs. Daniela Dodean (ROM) |
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Boys' 13 and Under Singles Jonathan Ou (FL) didn't lose a game until the final, winning by scores of 9,8,7,7,6,10,10,4,8,7,6,5,3,6,-7,5. These are not Gao Junish scores, but show great consistency in winning game after game. In the semifinals, Jonathan defeated Arjun Desai (CA), 7,6,5, while Andrew Chen (TX) defeated Allen Wang (NJ), -7,10,8,9. Unfortunately, the final was somewhat marred by service fault problems. The umpire said he faulted Andrew at least 5-10 times for serving with the ball over the table. This did not lead to a friendly interaction with Andrew or his father. Match to Jonathan, 3,6,-7,5. Said Jonathan, "I thought he would beat me backhand to backhand, but I won on that instead." Jonathan's dad said that Jonathan had been faulted a couple years ago for cupping his hand when serving, and they spent much time working to make sure that did not happen again.
(Jonathan Ou) |
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Men's Singles - Eighths
(Chen Weixing) Chen Weixing (AUT) d. Peter Franz (GER), 4,8,13,11 It was four straight, but after the quick first game, it was all shot-making - Chen (world #23) chopping and suddenly attacking, Franz ripping ball after ball, trying to keep Chen on the defense. Franz led 11-10 in the fourth, but lost the last three to the top seed and defending champion. Write this down: if you push to Chen, you will watch the next ball go past you. Corollary: if you loop to Chen's forehand, you will watch the next ball go past you.
(Adrian Crisan) Adrian Crisan (ROM) d. Stefan Feth (CA), -7,7,11,-7,2,8 This was probably the best match of the round. For four games, Stefan Feth battled even up with world #32 Adrian Crisan. Stefan doesn't have as much practice time as he did back in his years on the German Team as he's been coaching running coaching clinics with the "World Champion Coaching Team" of Li Zhenshi (two-time World Men's Doubles Champion, several-times Team Champion), Zhang Li (former World Women's Doubles Champion, several-times Team Champion), and their daughter Nan Li (former USA Team Member). Crisan ran away with game five, and seemingly ran away with game six, leading 9-2. Then it was 9-7, 10-8, before Feth finally got caught on the wide forehand and misses a running loop. Other matches: Wang Zhen (CAN) d. Xavier Therien (CAN), -7,5,-6,6,10,4 Constantin Cioti (ROM) d. Damien Provost (FRA), 5,-5,10,-9,2,4 Thomas Keinath (SLK) d. Son Gyung Bog (KOR), 6,9,12,-5,1 Joerg Rosskopf (GER) d. Guillermo Munoz (MEX), 6,7,3,8 Andrei Filimon (ROM) d. Kim Sang Soo (KOR), 5,10,7,8 Zhang Weijian (CA) d. Sakda Timsuwan (WA), 5,9,6,3 Next Round (tonight at 4:30 and 5:15 PM) Chen Weixing (AUT) vs. Wang Zhen (CAN) Constantin Cioti (ROM) vs. Thomas Keinath (SLK) Joerg Rosskopf (GER) vs. Andrei Filimon (ROM) Adrian Crisan (ROM) vs. Zhang Weijian (CA) |
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