CHINESE WIN 1998 NORTH AMERICAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
by Tim Boggan

This Nov. 27-29 Thanksgiving weekend in our little corner of the table tennis world, Chinese youth dominated the men's and women's events. Surprised then if I say it was an historic occasion? But it was, for 1998 brought a new name, a new locale, to our ever-popular Team play....

...These Championships began back in 1932 as an annual Chicago vs. (Westchester) New York American Ping-Pong Association match for the "Parker [Brothers] Cup." Then in 1934, the APPA's last hurrah, this two-team National Intercity Tournament expanded into a seven team round robin (called the Intercities).

Under the USTTA's eagle-clawed aegis, this seven-team format, due to round-robin space and time limitations, remained the same for more than a decade--though during the 1942-45 War years the tournament wasn't held, and the "William R. Stewart Trophy" (that had been offered since 1935 in the name of the USTTA's first President) was either lost or retired. Players in this Hard Bat era continued to play in local qualifiers to earn a position on "their" City team (composed it may be of players from around the State), and Cities sharing a common geographic region vied against one another in preliminary play in order to qualify for one of the seven tournament berths.

In 1949, the tournament expanded again--into a more accomodating double round-robin format. It also changed its name--to the National Team Championships (NTCs). In the '50's, Cities gave way to State names, and Canada sent teams.

By 1966, the tournament had become the U. S. Open Team Championships (USOTCs), and the following year a record 38 teams competed.

The tournament then settled into its accustomed place at Detroit's mammoth Cobo Hall, where (with the exception of 1973 and '74--a break in continuity I'm not happy to say I, as USTTA President, was much responsible for), it was a fixture from 1965 through 1997, or for 30 of the next 32 years, 23 years consecutively, during which time, in the 1990's, it climaxed into a 190+ team event played over more than 130 tables....

...But then suddenly these 1998 Championships--now called the "North American Teams"--with the support of USATT President Jim McQueen, his Board of Directors, and fellow Boos Brothers, and with the USATT-approved instigatory help of Larry Hodges, are being played not at Cobo Hall but at the Baltimore Convention Center?

And Donna Sakai is the Tournament Director? And 20-year-old Richard Lee is the Tournament President? Where are those longtime relentlessly hard workers Bob Allshouse and David Marcus? Perhaps still playing what they'd considered necessary mind-games with union-minded Cobo Hall officials that'd resulted in an unprecedented Allshouse/Marcus cancellation of the event, while--who'd a thought it?--700 players now mingled among Baltimore's brightly-lit Inner Harbor shops and restaurants so convenient to the Hyatt Regency tournament hotel and the next-door Convention Center venue.

And talk about what's new in '98, there at his computer recess, hour after hour, sat software designer Matt Beebe programming into his "Table Tennis Gazette"...exactly what? All the up-to-the-minute 3-day, 122-table results? And being encouraged--not to say driven--by hundreds of "hits" from inquisitive t.t. followers tuned in from, well, everywhere "out there." Bravo, Matt. A "live" broadcast, with pictures of the competing players--it had to be a promotional first.

The Tournament Referee is...? Nope, not Bill Walk or Detlev von Nottbeck, but Dick Evans, more visible now perhaps as he's about to be inducted into the USATT Hall of Fame. Oh, but his many needed umpires, where, aside from Zhaoming Yang, Joe Lee, and Greg Brendon were they? Pretty amazing for a tournament of this magnitude to have to on-the-spot conscript 1973 U.S. World Team Captain Bob Kaminsky away from cheering for his wife Barbara and her Fountain of Youth team.

The Great Cobo Hall Facilitator Bob Beatty? Nowhere to be seen. Another Bob--Bob Petty--brought the Escalade red court-mats all the way from Indiana, and Richard McAfee & Crew laid out the Championship courts and row upon row of Bowie Martin's Butterfly tables that would give bounce to his balls. Donic's Guenther Schroeder and his daughter Janine, especially Janine, were also conspicuously absent. Gone, too, except for Diane and Sarah McAfee (abetted at the Control Desk here in Baltimore by, among others, Cathy Lonergan and Alan Willliams), were workers so helpful to me in the past--Meimei Ma, Chris Kalagher, and Terri Weaver.

Still, though the tournament site, the tournament personnel, had changed, I was on familiar ground with the singles system of play that would decide the Men's (and in abbreviated fashion the Women's) winner. The top 8 seeded teams would wait out the results of Friday's preliminary Pool play that would advance 16 more teams into four round robins of six--Groups A, B, C, D. The top two finishers in each of these Saturday-completed round robins would then be drawn into single elimination play, beginning with the quarter's on Sunday morning. For the semi's and final, the best 5 out of 9 round-robin matches would be replaced by the best 3 out of 5 (A vs. X, B vs. Y, C vs. Z, A vs. Y, B vs. X).

So precise were the placings of the 16 #1-positioned teams in the preliminaries that there wasn't a single upset--though Capt. Yuri Nazarov's four-player "The Four Nicators" team came within at least a whisker of losing--having just 5-4 barely gotten by David Yao's "Mighty Tigers." What created more of a stir, though, was the complaint lodged by someone over this winning team's offending name--a not so disguised mid-16th century derivation from the Latin "fornix" (meaning "arch, vault, basement, brothel"). The "Four Nixers" might have been subtly better, for then (you Freud-in-hand following this, Tahl?) the pun play would have included the Germanic water spirit (male: "Nix"; female: "Nixie") that draws victims into its underwater home. The team name "The Four Nixers" (not to go to such lengths as "The Fornix-ers"--shh, aka "The Brothel-ers") wouldn't have been nixed by anyone, for, apparently, it would have amounted to nix, nada, nothing...other than just a team out to do another in. Anyway, let's vault on.

Admittedly, in the interests of brevity, I've abandoned some colorful teams, or at least teams with colorful names. The "Boo's Brothers," their new interest in cuisine, come to mind. With Roast Entrecote, Sous Chef Alan Fendrick recommended Bone Marrow and Bordelaise Sauce for flavoring, and an accompanying bottle of Chateau Faugeres (St. Emilion), 1995. And of course who could dare forget the "Hammer of Thor"? Helmeted spokesman John Vos at first thundered at me that "in the beginning the Angel of the Lord came down and men were Thor afraid," but by Sunday he was confiding in a whisper that "as play proceeded he and his hammered teammates were Thor all over." And, o.k., o.k., to give a few more teams a little wanted attention, prolong this shameful exhibitionism for just a moment more, allow me inter alios to cite teams that might have made an interesting round-robin group of their own: "Enjoy," "Boy Toys," "Spice Boys," "Victoria's Five Secrets," "Bring It On," and "Viagra Pills." My favorite player from this year's photo album? Gus Kennedy in mortarboard graduation cap and 3D-looking glasses with tinsel-tinted rims. My favorite-name entry? "Venezuela"--because the seemingly innocuous name reminds me of a player on this team who was really whacky, used 12 different rackets against a single opponent, changing every five serves.

So now, having done my duty and dispensed with roughly 150 teams, I come to the remaining 24 still theoretically in contention for the $6,000 first prize.

In Group A, Defending Champion Hungary, minus 1996/'97 mainstay Fan Yiyong who I'd heard had been suspended from the Hungarian Association for breaking his Club contract, was scheduled to begin 6-team round-robin play Friday night against the seeded "Jet Lag" team of Brian Masters, Brian Pace, and Todd Sweeris who with other U.S. Team members had just finished playing in the Swedish Open at Sundsvall. But the tie never took place. Sweeris was willing to fly into Baltimore, but Masters, with a troubling back, on finding out he was on a ("That's-too-much-play") three-man team, decided to withdraw. So, though "Jet Lag" continued to retain its round robin position in the Group, circling, circling, always 0-5 circling on Beebe's screen as if on automatic pilot, Pace, left alone, just in time bailed out to become an "East Coast Allstar."

The Hungarian Malev Sports Club players would then go on to blank all their opponents but one. Perhaps Robert Pagonyi's earring, its little white ball of an inset dangling from his left eyebrow, partly obscured his vision. Or perhaps, though spectators couldn't believe their eyes on first seeing Pagonyi's laser-beam backhand flash by, his Sichuan opponent, Xue Luo, a tall young woman, quick and powerful, wasn't at all intimidated, just outplayed him.

Xue's Sichuan Women's Team I had very little 5-1 trouble with New Jersey and Mexico (who fielded 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 teams here in Baltimore), but, as expected, had a fierce fight with the East Coast Allstars to see who'd be the second team to advance out of this Group into the 8-team quarter's.

Uh, given Sean Lonergan's lack of incentive this tie, why didn't the Allstars play Carlos Ko? I mean, Carlos went to South Korea to train and they conscripted him into the Army! Stationed him at the 38th Parallel. So then or now he had to be ready for anything. Meanwhile, "I hate playing women," said Sean, first up against teenager Yuanyuan Li, formerly and perhaps still a China Youth Team member. Why Sean has this reservation is not, as he says, "entirely printable." But "the pace, the speed of play, is completely different." Zip--2-0, China.

Lei Huang, I was told, was once China #5. A teenager still, I believe--but an old one. Facing her was Allstar John Onifade, back to playing with anti since on these red court-mats the ball doesn't come "out." He lost the 1st at 19, but rallied to win in 3. Tie 1-1.

Then Xue over Brian Pace and Onifade over Yuanyuan, both in straight games. Tie 2-2.

"It's just no fun playing a woman"--prize money aside, that was a point Sean made. Actually he made quite a few points--in the second game, not the first or the third. 3-2 China.

The 6th match here had to be one of the most exciting in the tournament. After pulling out the 2nd game at deuce, Pace was 1-1 with Lei. A penholder, she usually served with her inverted, then flipped her pips. "Bounce your legs when she gives you the high toss," Sean advised Brian. "Don't freeze." Both agreed that beginning play in the 3rd was crucial. "If I can stay in there through her first two shots, when she's at her best," Brian said, "I can outplay her ball for ball."

On then into the deciding 3rd. "Off her short pips, the ball wiggles?" asks Sean. "How is that possible?" The Chinese coach sitting nearby certainly doesn't answer the question--he's busy snapping directions to Lei and looking pissed at the way the match is going. Brian is looping away, sometimes snapping his arm so fast that he's mishitting balls ceilingward. "So much muscle," sighs Sean. But Brian's also fist-clenched doubled over in a follow through as ball after ball goes zinging in for him....

Onifade, meanwhile, is in the process of finishing off Xue to tie the tie at 3-3.

...Brian, playing spectacularly, looping in low balls, goes match point up, and has the serve. Lookin' good, huh? But then the once China #5 plays like the future #5, coolly smacks in a point-winning serve return. Deuce. Now Lei with the serve hesitates, throws it high, the ball comes out "hot," and Brian quickly loses the point. Then he serves and, committed, bangs in a low-ball follow. Deuce. Lei hesitates, serves her high toss, follows, misses. Brian serves, ball's in fast play, and Lei super-blocks down the line into Brian's open forehand. Deuce. Lei serves, Brian loops in for his 3rd match point. Then badly mishits. Deuce. Lei serves--a net.

Now Pace risks breaking his concentration by complaining aloud that the Chinese Coach is coaching. Lei gives Brian a sidespin serve which he mishits. But then she blocks his serve into the net. Deuce. Brian has a big ball to put away--doesn't. But Lei wastes her 3rd ad. Deuce. Now Brian's lucky--the net helps him, he goes ad up. But Lei scores with another perfect down the line block. Deuce. Errors by each follow. Deuce.

The final score will be officially recorded as 26-24--incorrect but appropriate in that for Brian the ending is abruptly, and, I might add, woefully cut short. At 27-all, Lei serves and Brian whiffs the return. Then match point down, he serves into the net.

What can one say to him?

"Shake it off," says Sean. "You play the chopper."

It's not this 8th match at first that Sean and John are thinking about--it's the 9th, for Sean must play Lei, and though she often makes shots many a man would like to make, she is a woman. "You're gonna win," reassures John. "Yeah?" responds Sean with a little smile. "Well, I gotta go listen to some soothing music--something classical."

But, against Yuanyuan, Brian, who, though shaken by his loss to Lei is still thought a favorite to muscle his way to a win, can't seem to read the pips, and has obviously lost his energy. Belatedly, down 1-0 and 19-16 in the 2nd, he finds the strength to get to 19-all--but his last swing is to bang the ball out of the court in frustration over losing. Sichuan Women I advance, 5-3...like no other women. Hence a $1200 tie for them, and, yes, I've been told, any prize money the Chinese players win here they keep.

In the only other contested tie in this Group, Mexico defeated New Jersey 5-3. Guillermo Munoz took 3, but, after Ayal Edini started N.J. off right with a deuce -in-the-3rd win over Olmo Zavala, and Ashu Jain came through twice (nice win for Ashu, too, over China's Lei), much depended on the Claudia Oben-Luis Valdes match. Claudia, playing with a men's team, in a "Men's" Division, is surely another of those women Lonergan hates to play. For one thing she's good--good enough to have played for Lubeck with German International Olga Nemes in the 1st Division of the Bundesliga, and still good enough now to occasionally commute from her Galaxis Satellite job in N.J. back to 2nd Division play in Germany where in her home area she stars for the MTV Todstedt Club. In this tie she lost a marathon deuce-in-the 3rd swing match to Valdes.

In Group B, the tournament's #2-seed, the #1 Men's Team from Sichuan (in your local Chinese restaurant the shredded beef's still Szechuan), made 5-0 mincemeat of their opponents. Sichuan, Cheng Yinghua's home province, has roughly 40% the population of the entire United States, and, as "Chen" was formerly Head Coach there, it's not hard to understand how their two Men's teams, their two Women's teams, the 12 youthful players in all picked to come here, are quite good, and how, armed with four coaches and with encouragement from Chen, they were ready to play and also to do some serious sight-seeing in Washington and New York. It used to be that such a table tennis group from China would be government sponsored. But today, as I'm told the shirts on their back advertise, they're playing for Mr. Yang Wei Lun's Jing Yu Real Estate Co.

The opening Friday night tie between New York I and the Canadian Women was crucial in determining who might be the second team in this Group to advance.

Chris Ngo, 29-year-old veteran and currently Canada's #2 player behind 1985 World Singles runner-up Li Geng Pintea, did well to beat Shao Yu and Barry Dattel, and to extend Dave Fernandez to 18 in the 3rd. Canadian National Coach Mariann Domonkos said that Ngo was trying to add more blocking and hitting to her somewhat too defensive game. Such a changed mind-set, Chris felt, would help her to better create little opportunities she might exploit. Mariann also said that perhaps some of Chris's success here might be attributed to the lower stress level she feels in playing against men (and the higher stress level they feel in playing against her?).

Czech-born Petra Cada, runner-up to Geng in the 1998 Canadian National's, just came back from playing in a European Women's Super League, and at 19 has the potential to improve if she can play more aggressively. She beat Dattel, but lost to Fernandez and, in the decisive 9th match, to Shao Yu.

Actually, the N.Y. team would have advanced with ease, have won 5-2, as it did its other ties, had 17-year-old Wang Wenxiao not -18, 18, 20 rallied to win her match against Dattel. Though "rallied" might have been the more appropriate word for Barry who was 17-8 down in the 3rd. Wang comes from the north of China, and has been in Canada less than two years. It takes three years to become a Canadian citizen, and you must be one to have any hope of winning a Men's or Women's National title. However, as only a one-year Junior residency is required, Wang is already the Canadian Junior Women's Champ.

Also playing an important Friday evening tie were Come-Vincent Bernier's Quebec Allstars vs. Alex Tam's NYTTC I.

Although Bernier, married now and with a University degree, is more a coach than a player, it was his three wins, particularly his 20, -19, 18 squeaker over Queens Club Coach Hui Yuan Liu that initially kept Quebec's hopes alive.

Coach Liu (Did you know? World and Olympic Champion Deng Yaping was once his student) fought back by 24, -16, 15 downing 18-year-old Jean-Philippe Gagnon, last year's Canadian Junior Men's Champ (who I saw, on missing some missile-like shot, lift up the table and gave it a good talking to), and also by defeating 20-year-old Xavier Therien who, after a year honing his game in France, is back now in Canada, an Ottawa University student.

But Ji-en Liu, a "non-professional" Canton addition to the Tam team, couldn't win a match. And Tam himself, after starting with a grueling -18, 18, 15 win over a Gagnon who hoped to overwhelm him, couldn't quite muster at the right time the quick, short blasts he needed to beat Therien whose father quite possibly hadn't been born when Tam, now in his mid-50's, was learning how to play in Canton. Alex, who quit playing for 12 years, and who still smokes, says that now after five points he begins to puff--so, was it any surprise he lost that -30, -19 match to young Therien? Perhaps.

Tam's background is legendary and was first made public in the States in an article by USTTA Historian Leah Neuberger after he'd arrived here from Hong Kong in 1972 and had won the Houston Invitational from such strong U.S. players as D-J Lee, Joong Gil Park, Lim Ming Chui, Jack Howard, Dick Miles, Dell Sweeris, Peter Pradit, and John Tannehill.

At the 1961 Peking World's, 18-year-old Tan Cho-lin (as Tam was then called) astounded everyone by reaching the quarter's of the Singles, defeating in the very first round the #2 seed, Zoltan Berczik, later to be Coach of the '79 World Champion Hungarian Team that included Jonyer, Klampar, and Gergely. Although Alex was ranked World #14 (at the same time D-J Lee was ranked #26), he didn't play for China at the 1963 or '65 World's. In fact, in the late '60's, he escaped from China "with his wife by swimming to Hong Kong, where he had to change his name and became Chan Cheuk Nim." He then played for Hong Kong in the 1971 Commonwealth Games at Singapore. Following that, China stipulated to Koji Goto, organizer of the '71 World's, that Tan Cho-lin not be permitted to play for Hong Kong in those Nagoya Championships.

Here in Baltimore Tam was also absent--by choice, I'm sure--from his team's 9:30 Saturday morning tie against the Barbados Stars. His place was taken by Che Him Leung, also from Canton, who contributed a win over Kibibi Moseley, the current Caribbean Women's Champion who's now on a Barbados government scholarship at the University of California at Berkeley. Lefty penholder Hui Yuan Liu added two victories, and would have produced the clincher had it not been for 27-year-old Robert Roberts, the '97 Caribbean Men's Champ, who, with a gutsy 24-22 win in the 3rd, forced Ji-en Liu to play the 8th match against Mosley. Kibibi--the name is Swahili for "Little Lady"--spent last season in Beijing learning how to better utilize the game she already has. "Each stroke you play you have to anticipate the most likely ball to follow," she says--"it makes all the difference." Liu, who'd beaten young Shawn Bellamy in 3, barely struggled by the "Little Lady," 19 in the 3rd.

Although the Canadian Women had lost that opening 5-4 tie to New York 1, they fought on with a succession of victories--5-2 over Quebec, 5-3 over Barbados, and 5-4 over the Tam team--hoping that N.Y. 1 might somehow falter. In the last tie of the evening, Tam was still in there swinging. He opened for his team against Petra Cada and -19, 19, 7 prevailed. Coach Domonkos said that Alex uses the seemingly same forehand motion to produce varied effects, and that when Petra couldn't read the spin he was right there ready to finish the point. At one point, said Mariann, after smashing at least 10 balls at Petra, which with her long reach she kept returning, Alex looked totally exhausted. "He was panting, and I thought he was finished," said Mariann. "But he took some point breaks, and in a bit was back smashing again." Imagine then, in the shape he's apparently in, how with such instinctive fervor he continued to contest his last two matches--his -9, -19 loss to Wang Wenxiao, his -17, 12, -18 loss to Ngo--either of which had he won would have propelled his team to...a rather meaningless 4th instead of 5th-place finish.

Group C

In Group C, the #3-seeded Canadian Men didn't lose a match, so again the action had to center on the fight for 2nd place? Well, as it would turn out, not too much of a fight.

Off the bat Friday night there was an exciting 5-4 tie between the second-string Sichuan Women and the USATT Power Junior Men. After Sunny Li had opened with a 13, 22 win over Yi Cao, the USATT Juniors were more and more pleased that he hadn't dropped that deuce game, for, after losing 8 straight, they were down 4-1.

Then 14-year-old Keith Alban with an easy win over Ke Zen began to make more a tie of it. Keith had again been in Sweden playing for Nisse Sandberg's Angby Club and staying with the Morin family. His 17-0 record in the 3rd Division bodes well for his team's rise into the 2nd. And just in case you're wondering if he gets enough competition over there, in the annual Angby International tournament, the U-15's drew 76 entries, the U-17's 96. In the U-15's Keith is #5 in Sweden.

T. J. Beebe brought the tie to 4-3, showing true grit with a -19, 22, 15 rally over Hua Chen. The Beebe family had hoped that the 1996 Olympic Games would provide some impetus for table tennis in Atlanta. But, aside from the arrival of a Bulgarian Coach, who's been of some help, T.J. just hasn't the day-to-day competition he at 16 needs. It's precisely at this age that in comparison to juniors world-wide ours often have an arrested development. (Incidentally, the $200 College prize here went to New York University, a 10th Division team.)

At the moment though, there seems to be no stopping USATT Junior Power. Sunny's plugged in, wins two straight. And Keith, playing the 9th match, has just come back to win the 2nd game at 12. The momentum's with him. But, up 17-13 in the 3rd, Keith falls victim if not to the yips, the pips, suddenly loses 8 of the next 9 points--and (shades of his pet hamster "Homey") it's backyard burial time.

These Juniors, however, will later win the $400 prize in a play-off with their West Coast counterparts--proving (what?)...that Power's more effective than Speed?

The Sichuan Women have no chance against the 6th-seeded Senoda team favored to advance--though Danny Seemiller, up 19-10 in the 3rd against, as one knowledgeable observer put it, "one of these titleless players" is hard-pressed, after so many serve-return uncertainties, to escape at deuce. Whether you're 14 or 44, table tennis is a streaky game.

So, sad to say, forget the Intellicom team (sorry Enoch, Parviz), the Penn State team (sorry Hank, Ron), at least they got through the Prelims to play better players, but only the Juniors have a slim chance against these Senoda Seniors (Abass Ekun, "Jack" Huang, Dave Sakai, Danny, and, yes, a reappearing Ricky Seemiller, now 40 and about to be inducted into the USATT Hall of Fame). $400--that's what Senoda will have already earned for finishing higher than the only other Senior contender, the Tam team. So now Danny drops a match to Beebe, and Abass, serving short to the forehand, gets the better of not-so-sunny Li, then loses to Alban. So? These players are counting rating points, or dollars? 5-2--a satisfactory advance.

In Group D, the 4th and 5th seeds--namely, "Maryland" (Cheng Yinghua, the New Orleans University student Razvan Cretu, and Houston-based Victor Subonj) and the #2 Sichuan Men's team--have nearly identical round-robin records, all 5-0s, except for their own last-round Saturday night inverted scores. So of course both teams will advance. The tie, however, is important, for, as the #1 seed Hungary will be at the top of the quarter's draw and the #2 seed Sichuan I will be at the bottom, that leaves the #3 seed Canada and the winner of this #4 vs. # 5 seed tie to be flipped into the semi's positions, while the loser faces the possibility of being flipped directly against either of the two top seeds.

As expected, "Chen" wins his three handily, but though he outclasses these young Chinese players, Razvan and Victor are anything but confident, for New Orleans and Houston are scarcely places where they've been able to prepare for their test under fire.

In the opener, Ting Sun, estimated rating 2600, wins -19, 15, 19 from Cretu what well may be the determining match of the tie. "Of course I've had no practice at that level," says Razvan. "But even without practice I try to raise my level by doing drills at the table for 3 hours, weight training, and running. But even though I do footwork drills, it's not the same as actually playing, playing with great motivation, and I still move too slow. Then out there at the table when I miss easy balls it's very frustrating. Consistency is very important, I can't stress that enough.

Next up for Cretu (World #230) is one, Meng Sun, who's just beaten Subonj in 3. Razvan gets to 19...both games. Not enough. "When the score is close," he says, "these players know how to put the ball on the table. At the moment I don't."

Then--fantastic, thinks Cretu, Victor, out of practice as he is, downs Feng Ge, 19 and 11. And--even more fantastic, he dares to hope, Victor wins another 19 first game and...can he beat Ting Sun? No.

So the outcome depends on Cretu and Feng Ge...and, down 1-0, Cretu again gets to 19, but no further. "I have the tools to destroy these players," he says--that word "destroy" emphasizing the intensity he must feel on losing. "I just don't have the consistency, and so don't have the confidence I need." Sichuan II, then, to take over Maryland's 4th-seeded place in the Draw.

The castrated "Nicators" (that's the team name now on my official round robin sheets) can only whimper out a won match in a tie now and then, and so finish dead last. The other three teams, however, are all 2-3--with the USATT Speed Junior Men falling to Guyana 3-5 but beating Saigon Tel Aviv 5-3, after which it's STA over Guyana 5-3.

This USATT Junior Team (Freddie Gabriel, Peter Zajek, and Terrence Lee), like the one in Group C, were all part of a 13-junior show of force that co-Team leaders Barney Reed, Sr. and Concord Club Coach Bill Lui, with sponsorship help from ASTI, took to Helsingboro in the south of Sweden in October to play in one of the six Swedish Grand Prix tournaments for Juniors. (Very young U.S. players on this trip more than held their own--Jackie Lee won the 46-entry Girls 13 and Under, and Danny Seemiller-coached Mark Hazinski, rated 1709, surprised everyone by coming second in the Boys 13 and Under, losing a deuce-in-the-3rd final.)

Against Guyana, aggressive Peter Zajek opened with an excellent win over Paul David who'd recently lost a grueling 5-setter to Sean Lonergan in a tournament at Westfield and had taken a game from Cheng Yinghua in the Potomac Open. But Idi Lewis, who plays at the Champions Club in N.Y. with Dave Fernandez and is hoping for a college scholarship, preferably in the N.Y./Connecticut area, hung -19, 20, 15 tough against Freddie Gabriel, generally considered the strongest mentally of the West Coast Juniors. Freddie, who though I remember him looking round for a sheet of black rubber, proved he could get his head together in rallying to win after being down 1-0 and 15-10 in the 2nd against David, and later in coming back to win the 2nd and 3rd games from 2-time Caribbean Champ Sydney Christophe. ("Sydney, at 34, is a 17-time Guyana Champion--another George Brathwaite," said Roger Persaud, who counts on such things to faithfully promote his fellow Guyanese players.) With Lewis and a now cramp-free David able to beat 15-year-old Terrence Lee, Guyana as of Friday night remained undefeated.

In Saturday afternoon play, against the Saigon Tel Aviv team, the Juniors rebounded with Freddie Gabriel, who's left high school and is now on a Home Study program, showing why he's an adept at returning serves. Also, I might mention that Lee (no one ever calls him "Terry," just Terrence?) was leading Tuan Le 20-19 in the 3rd when Le had to decide how to return serve. "Fortis fortuna adiuvat" ("Fortune aids the brave"), said Terence. So Le went for it, but yanked his loop long. As it turned out, this was a big swing.

Avi Schmidt (and perhaps a teammate or two as well) may have gotten a little pumped up for Saturday evening play against Guyana when that afternoon the USATT Power Junior Women (Kyna Fong, Michelle Do, and Min Hee Kwang), after upsetting the Scarborough Kings I team, unaccountably didn't realize they had a four o'clock tie, and were defaulted to Mexico C. Avi argued strenuously, but to no avail, for their reinstatement, for, after coming all the way from the West Coast, instead of going up a Division, they'd fall back one, play weaker players, and lose the $400 prize to their friendly rivals, the USATT Speed Junior Women's Team (Jackie Lee, Jessica Shen, and Vivian Lee).

On Saturday evening, Saigon Tel Aviv 5-3 balanced. With Le downing both Christophe and Andy Anderson, a Guyanese stepping in, tip-toeing in, you might say, from Toronto, and Loc Ngo scoring over Lewis and Anderson, and Schmidt contributing a win against Lewis, the three teams--the U.S. Juniors, the Guyanese, and Saigon Tel Aviv--all finished in a 3rd-4th-5th place tie with 1-1 (8-8) records. So maybe more than one person checked on the points won and lost, since I've the feeling that many of the hundreds of ties being played (and perhaps even some I'm reporting on here) were inaccurately recorded. (Of course leave it to Larry Hodges to tell me there were anomalies: it is on record that Andy Li went undefeated in the B Division, while his team didn't win a tie.)

You can talk strategy all you want, but--said Dave Sakai, who wasn't playing much these Team's, "strategy's just a lot of evacuation...er, evaluation--you gotta be able to execute." And, for Senoda's one win here, Abass, in a match between, as Danny said, "such equally matched players," did execute--did accomplish what he set out to do, beat Zoltan Batorfi, the only member of this Hungarian team to play in the '96 Atlanta Olympics. Though Abass had to do it the hard way, -19, 24, 20. Five years ago when Samsonov won the European Juniors, Batorfi finished 4th. He seems to me to have taken a cue from the now European Men's Champion in that his hands come up as if hanging drapes in front of his opponent, then drop down. He begins with the ball resting in the middle of his stiffly outstretched palm, and in parallel fashion places, precisely adjacent to it, his outstretched racket, flat as his extended hand. Then he throws the ball in a mild high-toss upward and a bit back, and when it comes down he pivots into it, rearing slightly backwards, and flops the hand that's held the ball, palm-out, into his back. But, so? Did Abass care? Does anybody?

Puerto Rican International Dave Fernandez, who's a Computer Science major at New York City's Bernard Baruch College and works for American Airlines, says at the moment he's "a part-time ping-pong player." But he still made a contribution in rallying from down 1-0 and 19-17 to beat Sichuan II's Feng Ge and give New York (also playing the spectator-pleasing defender, Hofstra University student Kazuyuki Yokoyama, and steady attacker Shao Yu, who'd had lefty shakehander Ting Sun down 19-16 in the 3rd before losing) their only win.

Later, in a best of 5 (A-X, B-Y, C-Z, A-Y, B-X) play-off with the other losing quarterfinalist in the top half of the Draw, Senoda, for a chance for the $800 5th-place prize, Fernandez, in a match that hasn't an umpire, is involved in a controversy with Danny Seemiller. After Abass has beaten Dave, and "Jack" Barry Dattel ("How, when Jack plays and coaches for hours every day, can his banded arm ever get better?" someone says), and after Shao Yu has bested both Danny and Abass in 3, the tie is tied 2-2 and Dave and Danny are in the 3rd game, with the score 9-6 for Dave. At this point, either Dave's ball hits the edge or is deflected off the net. Both players and their teammates have their say, their thoughts--and the decision is made to play the point over. As it happens, this let's-stop-and-discuss-it-civilly delay changes the momentum of play, and, instead of making the turn 10-6 up, Dave loses the next 5 points and is down 11-9. From there Seemiller extends his lead to 18-14. But then, playing fearlessly, Fernandez catches him at 18-all. It is, however, Danny's serve and now he twice follows with winners, and Dave can't recover. A sour 3rd-game ending even to the winning team, who'll go on to finish 6th ($500).

Prior to #3-seed Canada's being flipped into the Draw, a spokesman player, or perhaps Canadian Men's Coach Nikolai Novikov (well known for years, along with his now Baltimore-based compatriot, Boris Shafir, in Soviet and, indeed, international table tennis circles), argued that, since the #2 seed Sichuan I team's ratings were estimated (average 2700) and that Canada's were real (average 2693), Canada should be seeded #2 and so be drawn into the opposite half of the Draw from Defending Champion Hungary--an apparently just-thought-of argument that was dismissed as it would have been for the #4 seeded team that might also have raised it at the start of the tournament. However, as it happened, Canada was pleased--they drew the Chinese half. But of course first they had to play Cheng Yinghua and his Maryland teammates.

Poor Razvan--he not only got 8, 10 killed in the opener by current Canadian Champion, 25-year-old penholder Hai Tao Geng, brother of 1987 World Mixed Doubles Champion "Li" Geng, but next time up he lost a very frustrating 29-27, 21-16 match to Geng's brother-in-law, Horatio "Hory" Pintea.

But Victor Subonj, who like Cretu learned his table tennis in Romania and who has a Bucharest Bachelor's Degree in Phys. Ed., then came through with a straight-game win over Hory, who, as Fate would have it, years ago daringly defected from the Romanian Team while playing in Greece. Strange, is it, how the three of them end up playing together here?

Victor, however, can't win the 3rd from Peter-Paul Pradeeban, a Sri Lankan, who, after spending four years in table tennis limbo in, of all places, Germany, at 16 came to Canada. Peter, with his hoop earring, has something of a pirate look--but a movie pirate, groomed, handsome, smiles, teeth. Although I'd heard him described as "a street-fighter"--meaning he's never been much into practice, drills, and exercises, and so, having formed for himself an unusual variety of shots, is awkward to play--it's really Subonj, who played in a league not only in Rumania but in Yugoslavia, who can seem tempestuous and, as one observer put it, "obnoxious." But, hey, who wants all their role models to be perfect gentlemen?

Meanwhile, both Victor and Razvan are happy to note, their "Chen" has again won three matches. Now it's Razvan's turn again--against Pradeeban, who, street fighter indeed, seems to have taken a bite out of his own racket. Of course everybody notices it, so what better way to advertise Tibhar? Aerodynamically speaking, the bumblebee can't fly? Try this racket--it'll fly, give you a buzz....What's that? Razvan won!

So Maryland's in the semi's, and Canada...will finish an eventual 5th.

Regarding the Sichuan Men's I Team, likely nothing definitive could be learned from watching them play their Sichuan feminine counterparts. I remember looking over to see, I believe, Junji Chen, 1996 World Cadet Champ, smiling, laughing, enjoying (was he?) the joke (was it?) of two deuce games with his deadly serious opponent, Lei Huang, then pounding out a 12-1 lead in the 3rd. Of course though a little diplomacy might have been called for here, this was not exactly a "Friendship First, Competition Second" tie, and so the men won 5-0. All the available bucks to the advancing Sichuan I women (while Canada and Sichuan II played a "Friendly" $0 tie for second place).

Although the Hungarians win this semi's tie, 3-0, the fast-hands second-string Sichuan men, countering in loops that so many players in the States would just watch pass them by, made a match of it with, first, Batorfi (he's World # 109, his sister, Csilla, 1986 European Champ, is World #23), then Varga (World #120).

Up 1-0 and 20-19 in the 2nd against Meng Sun, Batorfi fails to loop in Meng's serve, but then, ad up again, sends the Chinese crashing out of the court, where he ends up holding up a barrier for balance rather than run over it.

The ITTF Sept., '98 World Rankings show Varga, current Hungarian Closed finalist, as being quite inactive, and, though he himself has been touted as having very good serves (he twists his racket so as to seem to hit some of them almost edgewise), he sure was weak at returning Ting Sun's serves that first game. But he had no trouble thereafter, and Ting, as if acknowledging that, down 20-13 in the 3rd, he'd lost all firepower, served into the net.

Current Hungarian Closed Champ, Robert Pagonyi (World #286), up 1-0 and 10-1 in the 2nd against Feng Ge, looked very impressive--not only with his upsweep blinding backhands but his off-the-bounce, put away forehands. Before the match was over though, he wasn't quite so sure of himself and, with his lead momentarily cut to 16-10, was vocally admitting as much.

Junji Chen, Cheng Yinghua's lead-off opponent, is the #3 Junior in China and as such is being given special attention here and elsewhere by Coach Xiao Zhan, former China #2, and once Jessica Shen's coach. The wiry Junji, spindly-looking though he may be, whirls into his serve like a discus-thrower, and the ball unpredictably comes out short or long. Both he and our Chen are capable of catching one another off guard with down-the-line serves, rocketed-back blocks, and perfectly anticipated counters. Junji's Sichuan squat jumps might be called "body English."

They're into the 3rd, and Junji, caught out of position, swats on the run a flailing backhand that, though it does not come anywhere near its hoped-for miraculous mark, shows he's not intimidated by Chen's banged-in balls or baleful stare. Up 17-13, our Undefending U.S. Closed Champion is not at his best, and the Sichuan youth scores 6 in a row. Then, at 20-19 Junji, as Coach Xiao signals, Chen swings, misses. A loss, needless to say, that Razvan and Victor will have great difficulty trying to recover from.

Both Jia Chen and Routing Ye are members of China's Youth Team--which means, like all the players brought here from Cheng Yinghua's home province, they're from 14-18 years old, though presumably these two are moving out of their mid-teens into their late ones.

As these Chinese approach their beginning prime years, they move very quickly and hit powerful passing shots. Razvan, however, is holding his own in the 1st until, like Chen in that 1st-match end game, he doesn't project himself as a winner. Up 19-17, trying to return Jia's serves short to the forehand, he pops up the ball so helplessly as to appear a 2000-rated player--loses four unplayed points in a row.

It's much to Cretu's credit then that in the 2nd game he continues to play with sweaty determination. In fact, at 10-all he wants to change his shirt--only the umpire won't let him. This time, though, from 18-all, the end game is his as he closes with an overpowering backhand blast.

But then in the 3rd, from 10-7 up, Razvan quickly loses 12 of the next 15 points--bringing forcefully to mind the lack of consistency in his game he'd spoken of earlier. Sichuan 2--Maryland 0.

Could Subonj rout Routing Ye? Doubtful. Could he, down 13-7, scramble his way back to a 1st-game win? At 19-all...maybe. But he looped Ye's serve long--that serve that repeatedly started with the ball brought up from under the table ("He can't do that--that's not legal," said one observer)--then lost the game on an irretrievable net. Down 17-13 in the 2nd, Victor fails to return three straight serves, and the match and tie are soon over. Losing semifinalists Sichuan II and Maryland will not play off for 3rd ($1,500) and 4th ($1,200), but, as the difference in prizes amounts to only $50 a man, will split the cash.

Final: Hungary vs. Sichuan I

First match: Junji vs. Batorfi. The Chinese is angry? Before play starts he keeps banging the ball hard against a court barrier like one of my grandparents might have paddled a rug on a clothes line. ...Ah, the glue on his racket might still be a little wet?

Serve and follow--that's so important for both. Usually if the server's 3rd ball goes in, the point's over. But a great 4th ball counter by Junji brings out Coach Xiao's Notebook--though perhaps it's a sudden thought as to how Junji's gotten himself into this 15-12 down position that interests him. As the gap narrows and Batorfi goes 18-17 up, the bearded Hungarian Coach, Laszlo Varga--that's right, he's Zoltan's father--takes to scribbling in his Notebook. Batorfi serves, once, twice--what I continue to think of as his Samsonov Variation--and Junji pops up the first, whiffs the second. But then Batorfi misses a hanger...and, up 20-19, socks in what seems a routine winner--only to be startled to see Junji's backhand counter bound by and to hear the spectators' roar of surprise and approval at seeing a shot they hadn't seen from young Junji before. Deuce. This game is quickly Batorfi's though, and when Junji goes back to his bench Coach Xiao is minutely ready with expressive words and gestures.

Then, as play continues, lest Junji miss a point or two, Xiao very visibly coaches him. At 11-all, Junji's winning loop does not go in, and he throws out both hands at the Coach--as if to say, "Damn, you tell me how that missed! Unbelievable!" But a great forehand counter o-o-o-ooh's the spin-minded crowd--15-13, Junji. As the players move toward another deuce game--19-all...20-all...21-all--both continue to attack. Finally Batorfi wins, and, raising his arms in victory and snarling at Junji, chants, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Hungary, 1--Sichuan I, 0.

Walking out to the court to play Routing Ye, Varga pats down his paddle. Glue's o.k.? As play begins, there's so much motion to his serve it's hard to quickly track what spin's on the ball or where it's going. But again he's weak on returning serve--the more so perhaps because Ye's got short pips on the forehand and flips. Once on the attack and grunting in shots though, Varga looks like a winner. But a net at the important 13-11 point increases Ye's lead, and when Varga whiffs a ball, twice fails to return serve, and misses a loop, he begins talking not only to himself but to his bench. It's therapeutic. From 19-14 down he brings it to deuce, then loops a winner into Ye's middle, and another that just ticks the net as it gives him the game, 22-20.

But down 7-4 in the 2nd, Varga pushes Ye's serve into the net, pops up the next one, and this time can't get those 5 points back.

The 3rd game is a combination of whiffs and mishits and great counter points. Though Varga's not a defender, he stretch-retrieves balls you don't think he can get to, then often balances himself back into attack position. Up 14-11, he can break the young Chinese? No. And not when, down 15-14, Ye serves off. It's Varga, up 18-15, who lapses, loses five in a row. "Every time Ye loops with the pips," someone observes, "he wins the point." But, having twice had the ad, Ye is lucky not to lose this huge swing match right here, for Varga gets the ad and the ball to end it all, but it doesn't go in. 21-all.

Now from both players there's a succession of errors...until at 24-all a climactic counter point builds, explodes in favor of the Chinese. Then, immediately, an anti-climax--Ye whiffs....Finally, at 26-all, petulant Chance says "Enough," and a ticked net throws off Varga's timing. Then, ad down, he impatiently picks a bad ball, and ($6,000 for 1st, $2400 for 2nd) Hungary is looking $1200 a man the worse. "Wow," says a guy looking round at the moving spectators, "after that nerve-wracking match, a hundred people must be hurrying to the bathroom." Hungary, 1--Sichuan, 1.

Now, at lull time, without fear of interrupting at the wrong moment, the umpire warns both coaches to do their coaching somewhere else. Then it's Pagonyi, minus his eye-stopping earring, vs. young Jia Chen who, down 8-3, is shaking--shaking his head and frowning. But Pagonyi, too, has a few critical thoughts, and comforts himself by vocalizing harsh words to self and bench whenever...11-9...15-9...16-13...19-13 his lead is cut. Meanwhile, after watching the Hungarian's outrageous backhand continue to go in, the fellow next to me says, "If he ever loses his grip on the follow-through, and that racket goes flying, at least five spectators will be taken to the hospital."

Lose his grip, or at least loosen it, in a sense, Pagonyi does--for, as his shot-making cry "OOSE!" becomes rarer, and, as tightening, he begins to lose something, he gets only 13 the 2nd game. Pagonyi 1, Chen 1.

No sooner does the 3rd game get underway than there's a dispute ("No! No! No!" says Hungarian Coach Vargas) over a ruling by Umpire Zhaoming Yang, a U.S. International Umpire (now Coach at New York City's Champions Club). Yang, it's fair to say, has impeccable Who's Who credentials, including a 20-year stint as Deputy Referee Director for the People's Republic of China.

Perhaps this little controversy upsets Pagonyi while igniting Jia, for the Chinese, crackling in winners, is quickly up 7-1. Down 16-11, Pagonyi whiffs a return and pretends to pluck his eyes out. Down 19-13, he's still colorful, and when at 19-15 he rockets in his signature backhand the crowd loves it. Since Jia can only simply watch it go by, one wit watching speculates if it'll opposite-field clear the barrier-fence before it lands. Everyone likes to watch a slugger. But sluggers do not necessarily win MVPs, and--Sichuan, 2--Hungary, 1--it's up to Batorfi, with or without Coach Varga's help, to bring out the old "Huj, huj, hajra--Majyarosag," as Barna's supporters when he was here in the States used to enchant.

Where, by the way, as Batorfi and Ye come out to the court, is Coach Varga? Off talking to Referee Evans, asking not for Bob Kaminsky on this side of the table to be replaced ("Batorfi's serve," Bob had said, "is the most legal I've ever seen"), but, on the other side, Zhaoming Yang. "Sorry," says Evans, "these two umpires are what I've got." And all seems balanced...until 17-all when Batorfi misses what should have been a winner...and, 21-18, Ye, fist-up, goes back to Coach Xiao in gratitude for gulps of Gatorade.

How dead even, in the 2nd game, too, the two players seem to be. Then, from 11-all, Batorfi, yelling encouragement to self, goes 14-11 up. But now it's Ye's serve, and the serve furthers his attack, and once either of these players are on the attack there's no let-up. Even Umpire Kaminsky isn't safe: he's almost dislodged from his chair--and that takes some doing. On they play into another deuce nail-biter...and this time with all at stake the Hungarian wins. Ye 1--Batorfi 1.

Now, however, for Hungary there's no balance. Not only is Batorfi off to a horrible start, is down 7-1, but several points later there's a disputed point on Yang's side of the table and when Kaminsky rightly defers the call to him, he rules for the Chinese. From that point on, the Hungarians are understandably down, though Batorfi, for one, not subdued. When Ye, up 14-6 and sensing victory, has taken after every winning point to triumphantly shouting something that sounds to American ears like "Charlie," Batorfi, on scoring a point, feistily mocks him with a "Charlie" of his own. The crowd loves it. And Ye, encouraged, keeps roaring it, and soon the audience too, all the way 21-13 home.

USATT President McQueen then pleads for the departing spectators to stay for the short Awards Ceremony, and thanks one and all for making the tournament a success. The unhappy Hungarians are rounded up and sportingly pose for a group picture. The Chinese, too, are finally given their awards--though after some delay. For, as in other international tournaments, they've their own photographers to satisfy. And why shouldn't marketable celebrity and decades-old custom merge en masse? Caught by the cameras, accomplishments ought to be shared, enjoyed. Hence a glimpse of History: the Sichuan team players and coaches, and Yang--that's not the umpire but the sponsor--who in a momentary wave of delight has swathed himself in unfurled 5-star, red China banners.