1998 International Table Tennis Festival
Texas Wesleyan University - June 21-28, 1998

By Sean O'Neill

Over one hundred and fifty players from a dozen countries descended upon Texas Wesleyan University to compete for over $7500 in cash and prizes in the 7th Annual 1998 Stiga Texas Open and International Table Tennis Committee (ITTC) sanctioned International Disabled Team Championships. These two stellar events followed a five-day Elite Training Camp to help produce a world-class week of table tennis in Fort Worth the week prior to the U.S. Open.

Junior stars T. J. Beebe, Freddie Gabriel, Terrence Lee, Francis Chen and Stacy Schoenberg all got a taste of international training as National Men's Coach, Christian Lillieroos and former U.S. Team Member Sean O'Neill ran the teenagers through intense three-hour morning and evening practice sessions. Drills and exercises were adapted from the recently-completed National Training Camp at the Oakbrook Training Center, in Davison, Michigan.

America's most recent addition, #1 rated Fan Yiyong was on hand as the camp's featured practice partner. Yiyong provided all campers a rare opportunity to deal with one of the most ferocious backhand loops in the sport in both game and drill practice. Enthusiastic Texans David Livings, Donna Chen, and the father-son team of Jon and Tony Tooley ably kept up and improved their own serves, footwork, and stroke technique with this high level group.

The camp also enjoyed the presence of numerous daily additions including the 1996 U.S. Paralympic Gold/Bronze medalists, Jennifer Johnson and Pam Fontaine, former Israeli Junior Team Member, Idan Levi, and hard looping Samuel Smith and James Rautis.

Multiple waves of foreign teams and participants were met at the airport courtesy of Texas Wesleyan's John Singleton and Bob Cornett (Venue Director) and then handed to Rong Lillieroos and Donna Chen for tournament processing and check-in on Friday afternoon. Each player received an international-style player packet that included an outstanding color program with pre-printed draws and individual time scheduling.

All-star announcer, Robert "Bad Moon" Riza got the competition started as he called out the first Under 2100 Rating Round Robin group at 5 p.m. promptly. Players headed out to earn the right to be placed into single elimination categories (A-E). This event, in addition to the other single-elimination age, rating and open-classes events, gave players a guarantee for match play and a chance to win some of the most exquisite glass engraved trophies.

Saturday morning featured the strong Men's Teams (Classes 1-5) of France, Venezuela, Mexico and United States in the ITTC sanctioned International Disabled Team Championships. Top seed Team France came out on top, but not before Californian Jim Hall provided stiff competition for the eventual Open Singles Champ, Christophe Durand, going the full distance in their singles match. Atlanta's James Williams scored a notable upset in the U.S.'s losing effort to runner-up Mexico beating World #26 Mario Pazaran in a close three game match. New York's Elliot Schloss added value to Team USA with his doubles play.

The Women's Team (Classes 1-5) final between Mexico and the U.S. went to our neighbors to the south. The U.S.'s and world-ranked #7 Jennifer Johnson had to enlist former 1984 U.S. Team Member, now turned Paralympic basketball star, Pam Fontaine to compete in this inaugural team event on Texan soil. Pam made an heroic effort to prepare herself in three short weeks, but still couldn't withstand the strength of the Mexican Team lead by Christina Hoffman (world-ranked #4).

The Men's Standing Division (Classes 6-10) featured a final round robin between world-ranked #6 and 1996 Paralympic Team Gold Medallist, Olivier Chateigner of France, and America's Josh Bartel and Alford "Smitty" Smith. Olivier proved too tough for the host country's players, who fought for the silver with Smitty taking the honors.

The Women's Open (Classes 1-5) turned into a real trifecta! A final three-way tie ensued with U.S.'s Jennifer Johnson, Mexico's Christina Hoffman and Slovakia's 18 year old rising star, Alena Kanova. The first announcement over the loud speaker declared Jennifer had come in first place on points. However, the victory was short-lived as the scores were re-checked (some errors on the match sheet) which negated her down one step to second place after the award ceremony.

U.S. Paralympic Captain and ITTF International Umpire, Chris Lehman wasn't quite comfortable knowing Jennifer scored fewer points than her opponents. He redid the calculations a final time (catching another error) and then had the personal honor of fully demoting the 1996 Paralympic Gold Medalist down the final podium step to 3rd!

In the main event, the top seeds (Fan Yiyong, Jim Butler and Razvan Cretu) all made their way to the Open Singles semi-finals without much difficulty. However, third seeded Eric Owens needed a big first game comeback before prevailing in four close games over Junior Champ Keith Alban to join the final four. Thirty minutes later, Owens didn't seem to have enough fire-power as Fan coasted by him with a convincing 3-0 victory. Butler and Cretu provided their normal brand of fireworks with Jim taking control and dominating the fourth at eleven.

In an all-ASTI final, Jim started tentatively and fell quickly behind two games to zero as Fan controlled the short game with his well-placed serve and serve return. Fan's forehand and backhand weapons found their mark as Butler played constant catch-up and was forced to take risky openings to get back in the game. Game three proved to be more of Jim's liking as he built a 20-16 lead and looked ready to battle back in the match. Five points later, down match point and playing defense 10 feet off the table was no place for the three-time U.S. Champion, but somehow Jim managed to return one more than Fan expected to re-deuce the game. Two well-executed backhands later and game four was finally in Jim's pocket.

For the first time in the match, Fan looked vulnerable as the two players traded body blows back and forth during the first half of the game. Jim's serves finally began to take effect and his lethal backhand began to find the corners. At 15-all both players appeared ready for action, but with two easy games under his belt, Fan had the definite advantage. At 18-17, Fan unleashed one of his devastating backhand loop kills only to have Butler punch it down the line for a clear winner. With the score knotted up again, anything seemed possible. But Fan earned a major break as his forehand loop caught the far corner for an unreturnable edge. The wind briskly dissipated from Jim's sails as Fan proceeded to take two of the final three points anti-climactically and the 1998 Stiga Texas Open title.

A big round of thanks goes out to all the fine volunteers of this international event. The tournament committee of Rong Lillieroos, Janet Pawlowski and Denny Cornett proved invaluable with behind the scenes help and guidance. John Potochnik and Dr. Wilson Bryan made everyone's job much easier with unyielding hands-on support and wisdom. And most of all to Larry Gajderowicz of Escalade Sports for providing the Stiga equipment and sponsoring this annual event.

1998 STIGA Texas Open
Table Tennis Tournament
at Texas Wesleyan University

Sunday Results

Open Singles

1st - Fan Yiyong - OR, USA

2nd - Jim Butler - TX, USA

3rd - Razvan Cretu - LA, USA

3rd - Eric Owens - TX, USA

Women's Singles

1st - Alejandro Rojas - Columbia

2nd - Diana Casas - Columbia

Under 18 Singles

1st - Keith Alban - FL, USA

2nd - Freddie Gabriel - CA, USA

Under 14 Singles

1st - Howard Lamb - TX, USA

2nd - Niv Regev - TX, USA

Over 40 Singles

1st - Sam Zheng - TX, USA

2nd - Barney D. Reed - TN, USA

Over 50 Singles

1st - Thomas Wintrich - NM, USA

2nd - Richard Puls - TX, USA

RANKING EVENTS

Under 2450 Singles

1st - Xavier Therien - Quebec, CAN

2nd - Jean-Philippe Gagnon - Quebec

Under 2250 Singles

1st - Paul Diaz - Columbia

2nd - Diego Ramirez - Columbia

Under 2050 Singles

1st - Pei Pei Zheng - Richardson, TX

2nd - Sam Zheng - Richardson, TX

Under 1800 Singles

1st - Stacy Schoenberg - Warwick, NY

2nd - Stan Stoodley - Wichita, KS

Under 1550 Singles

1st - Charles Fun - Garland, TX

2nd - Hieu Ngo - Austin, TX

Under 1300 Singles

1st - Howard Lamb - Sugarland, TX

2nd - Charles Fun - Garland, TX

Under 1050 Singles

1st - Gary Tutle - Cleburne, TX

2nd - Jon Tooley - Arlington, TX

Under 4900 Doubles

1st -Jean-Phillipe Gagnon - Quebec & Xavier Therien - Quebec, CAN

2nd - John Beaumont - New Orleans, LA & Razvan Cretu - New Orleans, LA

Under 4300 Doubles

1st - Ross Brown - Athens, GA & T. J. Beebe - Atlanta, GA

2nd -James Rautis - Arlington, TX & Scott Ryan - Euless, TX

Under 3700 Doubles

1st -Lady Ruano - Columbia & Girlesa Salazar - Columbia

2nd -Tom Fun - Garland, TX & Charles Fun - Garland, TX

Under 3100 Doubles

1st -Jeng-Yih Guu - Garland, TX & Keh Pann - Richardson, TX

2nd -David Demay - Fairchild, WA & Hieu Ngo - Austin, TX