The 1999 Southern Open ran smoothly and almost always on time. It was a long weekend for tournament director Robert Mayer and staff – but a great one for the record 162 participants on 24 tables at the Houston Table Tennis Center.

Fan Yi Yong reached the final of the Open with little challenge – winning by scores of (8,9,11), (10,10,11), (12,7,6) and (9,12,12) in his march to the final. (All Open matches were best of five.) In the final, who did he meet?

Cheng Yinghua had entered the tournament, but he’d passed the U.S. citizenship test a few weeks earlier, and his swearing-in ceremony was scheduled for 9:30 AM on Saturday – in Baltimore, 1500 miles away. He couldn’t change it, and so withdrew. Jim Butler was at the tournament – but as a spectator. He’s retired – see feature on him this issue. Darko Rop also was at the tournament, but also as a spectator – he too is retired. Eric Owens? Nope, he was doing exhibitions in Wisconsin, after recently returning from training in China. David Zhuang? A good guess – but he was taken out in the semifinals, 3-0, by Open Finalist Todd Sweeris.

It wasn’t exactly a romp for Todd, however. Down 19-17 in the first, Todd ran off four straight on his serve to win at 19. In the second, Todd again wins at 19. Todd is playing very patiently, never pressing, giving David a steady stream of pips-out backhand drives, just hard enough to keep David pinned down. Eventually, one of them would step around and play forehand, or one would go down the line – but Todd’s forehand loop and steady pips-out backhand drives were wearing away at David’s pips-out penhold blocking/hitting game, and David seemed vulnerable this match on the forehand side.

In the third, Todd runs up an 11-0 lead, and the match is over … right? That’s what several on the sideline said. But David keeps chipping away, and ties it up at 16-all! (At 11-14, USATT Coaching Chairman Mark Nordby said, "Now it’s a match – and I’m nervous for Todd!) But Todd is not to be denied – at 17-all, he runs off four straight to win the match, 19, 19, 17.

The betting on the final was not about who would win – but would Todd win a game? Alas, he could not, but he battled all the way, something no one else did with Fan. Fan is an incredible athlete, who can loop kill from both wings off nearly any ball. Some of his backhand loop kills have to be seen to be believed. But it takes time to wind up for such shots. So Todd makes sure to return Fan’s serves very short, bringing Fan in over the table. Fan would either flip or push, and then Todd would jump on the ball, quick-hitting it to all parts of the table, not giving Fan time to do anything. The strategy made Fan uncomfortable, and Todd led much of the first game. Fan finally tied it at 15-all, and then took control of the points with his loop, winning the final 21-17. The second game continued this way, with Fan often uncomfortable at the start of the rally, but making up for it by the third shot of the rally, often pulling off unbelievable backhand loop kills. (The diving backhand loop kill at 19-14 has to be seen to be believed….) Fan wins the second at 14.

But Todd, who is playing about as well as he can, begins to play even better, going on a forehand looping binge at the start of the third that had Fan staring in disbelief. Over and over Todd looped in Fan’s serve, often going over the table to loop balls that seemed too short to loop. "No one in my life has ever looped my short serve like that," Fan said afterward. However, at 10-4 Todd, reality returns, and Fan ties it up at 11-all. Soon Fan leads 18-17 (with Todd so intent on being quick over the table that at one point he yells to himself after a miss, "Gotta let it bounce!"). Like in game two, Fan finished with a flourish of loop kills, winning the game, match and championship at 17, 14, 18.

David Zhuang got his revenge on Todd the next day in the Allstar Men’s Final, winning easily at 14 & 7, with David playing much better than before, and Todd much worse. Down 17-3 in the second, heavy-legged Todd (swatting backhands everywhere but on the table) was not able to pull off a "Zhuang" and nearly come back, and even the exhibition points they played at the end weren’t up to par.

Possibly the story of the tournament was the return to major competitions of Khoa Nguyen (now the Western Representative on the Board of Directors), who had not played any major tournaments or trained much at all since just missing making the Olympic team in 1996. Khoa defeated Razvan Cretu, Viktor Subonj and Brian Pace in making the semifinals of both the Open and Men’s Allstars. ("Khoa’s serve is really simple," said Subonj. "It’s always short no-spin or backspin. But there’s nothing you can do with it.") Against David in the Allstar semifinals, Khoa and his two-winged looping game won the first at 13. In the second, David leads 13-6 – but Khoa scores 9 in a row to lead 15-13! But then David scores 8 in a row to win 21-15! It’s a crazy game. In the third, David leads 16-14 – and he scores four in a row and soon wins, 21-16.

Mahin Roufeh upset Roxanna Subonj to win the Allstar Women’s event (helped by a default from Blanca Alejo, who had to leave for a job interview).

Hong Chuong won three events – Under 1800, Under 1650 and Handicap Singles. Hector Bennett was in four finals – winning U4500 Doubles with partner Hoan Nguyen, splitting the Under 2250 final with Hoan, and coming in second in Under 2450 and Hardbat Singles (to Idan Levi and Taju Oshodi, respectively). Two junior players did well: 16-year-old Robert Andersson of Rosswell, Georgia won Under 18 singles and made the final of Under 1950, while Houston’s own 14-year-old Howard Lamb (who didn’t enter Under 18), using his very strong backhand loop over and over, won the Under 2100 event over Thuy Tran. Thuy got his first place trophy by teaming up with Hieu Ngo to win Under 3600 Doubles.

Open Singles – Final: Fan Yi Yong d. Todd Sweeris, 17,14,18; SF: Fan d. Khoa Nguyen, 9,12,12; Sweeris d. David Zhuang, 19,19,17; QF: Fan d. Abass Ekun, 12,7,6; Nguyen d. Razvan Cretu, 10,12,20; Sweeris d. Randy Cohen, 16,9,20; Zhuang d. Michael Hyatt, 19,17,16; 8ths: Fan d. Eyal Adini, 10,10,11; Ekun d. Sean Lonergan, 14,19,-19,19; Nguyen d. Viktor Subonj, 14,13,-15,17; Cretu d. Xiaobin Tao, 12,16,13; Sweeris d. Taju Oshodi, 14,16,-10,19; Cohen d. Shao Yu, 17,-19,15,-17,16; Hyatt d. Brian Pace, 18,12,15; Zhuang d. Avishy Schmidt, 9,9,16.

Allstar Men – Final: David Zhuang d. Todd Sweeris, 14,7; SF: Zhuang d. Razvan Cretu, 10,15; Sweeris d. Viktor Subonj, 14,19; QF: Zhuang d. Khoa Nguyen, -13,15,16; Cretu d. Shao Yu, 14,-19,11; Subonj d. Michael Hyatt, 18,-19,14; Sweeris d. Abass Ekun, 16,15.

Allstar Women: 1^st Mahin Roufeh; 2^nd Roxanna Subonj; 3^rd Blanca Alejo; 4^th Kimberly Byles.

U2450 – Final: Idan Levi d. Hector Bennett, 21,7; SF: Levi d. Taju Oshodi, 12,16; Bennett d. Aaron Struth, 15,-20,19; QF: Oshodi d. Hoan Nguyen, -15,22,13; Levi d. Cary Bodden, 17,16; Struth d. Eyal Adini, 12,-22,16; Bennett d. Avishy Schmidt, 18,16.

U2250 – Final: Hector Bennett & Hoan Nguyen split prize; SF: Bennett d. Origene Nyanguile, 18,19; Nguyen d. Larry Hodges, 20,-15,17.

U2100 - Final: Howard Lamb d. Thuy Tran, -11,14,12; SF: Lamb d. Rafael Flores, 20,11; Thuy d. George Fang, 13,-20,16.

U1950: Thanh Le d. Robert Andersson, -20,19,15.

U1800: Hong Chuong d. Aaron Aboagye, 16,11.

U1650: Hong Chuong d. John Truong, 10,9.

U1450: Anton Steblev d. John Quillin, 13,14.

U1250: Wilfred Oliphant d. Elias Rizk, 14,-15,18.

Novice Singles: Bik-Yin Lai d. Arturo Villareal, 13,17.

Hardbat: Taju Oshodi d. Hector Bennett, 19,19.

Hardbat U1800: 1^st Simon Edlund; 2^nd John Stovall.

Over 50: Amir Hormozi d. Jalil Roufeh, 13,16.

Under 18: 1^st Robert Andersson; 2^nd Daniel Yu.

U4500 Doubles: Bennett/Nguyen d. Levi/Smith, 19,19.

U3600 Doubles: Ngo/Tran d. Harley/Simpson, -19,25,10.

U2700 Doubles: Raunikar/Edwards d. Shope/McDougal, 18,-13,9.

Handicap: Hong Chuong d. Steve Claflin, 51-22.