2003 Eastern Open

Robo-Pong the Table Tennis

Robot @ Newgy.com

2003 Eastern Open on the Stiga North American Tour

August 9-10, 2003 · Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ

By Alan Williams

In the weeks before the tournament, the buzz was about Barney J. Reed. Having served a two-year suspension from USATT competition, Barney would make his first East Coast appearance at this event, the third stop on the 2003 STIGA North American Tour. Some claimed that he was rusty from his long layoff; others opined that he had lifted his game through rigorous training. He would square off against a highly competitive field in Open Singles and by the end of the weekend, fans hoped to have the answers.

One item that was never in doubt was the continued efficiency of NATT tournament operations. Despite having stepped in to run the U.S. Open only the previous month, the staff was confident and well rested. NATT has left behind any of the jitters that used to be involved in rolling a tournament off a truck and back out the door within 48 hours, and the players have come to rely on accurate draws and schedules without a second thought. It’s a testament to them that no one even remarks on the accomplishment any more. With a crew of seven people, TD Fong Hsu, President Richard Lee and Operations Director Wendy Troy once again ran a stellar event.

Table Tennis Pioneers booth was open and ready for business, Ref Terry Bell had reviewed the draws, and play began promptly on Saturday morning. The weekend brought several notable upsets, including Thomas Haynes’ elimination of Samson Dubina in the Men’s Under 22 after trailing 2 games to 0. Dubina was somewhat “upset-minded” himself when he removed John Wetzler from the Under 2375 field and then took the entire event with a victory over Barry Dattel, 7,9,-6,9 and 8. Wetzler came second to Atanda Musa in the Over 40 category, and by scores of -9, 8, 9,9,9 it was far from the last “close shave” in which Musa would be involved.

Kodimala Ramakrishna quickly gave the lie to his newly attained sub-1600 rating by finishing second in Under 2125. His deuce in the sixth loss to Vladimir Iodkovskiy affirmed what the desk heard all day ... “That guy is no 1550 player.” No surprise that Eric Finkelstein can play. He may have to sharpen his carpentry skills, however, as he will need a new shelf in his room for the trophies he carted away as Under 16 Champion, Under 18 Champion, Under 22 Runner-up to Han Xiao and second in Under 2250. Likewise, Yin Wang was looking for a breakthrough performance, and was one busy player, winning the Under 2250 and then qualifying in Open Singles to join the elite Round Robin Group on Saturday night.

With his rating rolled back to his pre-suspension number, Barney entered the Under 2500 event, and won his first NATT event in two years, prevailing over Canada’s Xavier Therien, 8,11,8 and 8. These two would meet again in the Open Singles Semifinals.

Open Singles

In the unique NATT format, the top 12 rated players are seeded into four Round Robin groups, completed to a field of 16 by adding four players who advance through qualifiers. With only two players advancing from each group to the Sunday Quarterfinals and the lion’s share of $3,000 in Open Singles money, this is a heavy concentration of talented, determined play.

Group One: Wang Chen, Tahl Leibovitz, Barney Reed, Yin Wang

No major upsets occurred in this group, if you acknowledge that the rating-adjusted Reed had to be favored over Tahl, leaving the interest focused on Barney’s head-to-head confrontation with Wang Chen. With Barney protesting that Wang hit “too many nets” and the claim that she was spinning her serve out of her hand, Barney was out-quicked by Wang’s powerful backhand play, and finishes second in the group, 9,8,-10,4,8. Chen is looking very sharp and unflappable as nothing in Reed’s “bag of tricks” derails her.

Group Two: Atanda Musa, Sean O’Neill, Ernesto Ebuen, Barry Dattel

Barry makes the most of his Qualifier position, nicking Sean for a game, Musa for two, and losing to Ebuen in two consecutive deuce games after tieing the match at two games apiece. But the story here is Ernesto. Ebuen had played one tournament on the 2001 Tour as a Filipino national, going 6-1, with his only loss to Mike Oyebode. Today, he lists NY as his home address. Playing with fire and bravado, he crushes Musa in a major upset, 4 games to 1, outscoring him 11-1 in the second game. Similarly, he goes to war with O’Neill, prevailing 4-2, the last two games at deuce. Sean believes he has won the fifth game when he says a serve came off Ernesto’s shirt, but no umpire, no relief, and Ebuen wins the replayed point. Musa recovers to beat O’Neill and joins Ebuen as a Quarterfinalist.

Group Three: Shao Yu, Han Xiao, Slava Gotlib, Renata Peluchova

Shao Yu trails Han 3 games to 2, but 8 and 5, lands the last two to win their match. Going through the chopper Gotlib in straight games and 4-1 over Renata, Shao justifies his #1 seeding. Han also defeats Slava in four straight, but the qualifier Peluchova derails him 11-2 in the seventh game. With a default win over Gotlib, Renata advances, one of the few qualifiers to ever move on to the Quarterfinals.

Group Four: De Tran, Xavier Therien, Paul David, John Wetzler

Wetzler is a die-hard, losing 17-15 in the fifth to Therien, and succumbing 4-1 to De Tran as well. But that is as nothing to Paul David’s tough losses. Trailing Xavier 3-0, Paul wins the next three games 9,12,9, only to have that match escape him, 11-5 in the seventh. If that is hard to swallow, imagine his emotions when he leads De Tran 3-1 only to see the last three games fall to Tran, 6,9,4! Small wonder then that he defaults to Wetzler as Therien and Tran advance.

Quarterfinals

Tournament Director Fong Hsu grins in wide-eyed anticipation as the eight remaining competitors begin the best of nine game contests leading to the Title. “This is supposed to be an athletic contest” he remarks, “so best of nine should be a fair test.” With a $950 difference between losing a Quarter and winning the Final, no one is going to lay back, that’s for certain.

Xavier Therien vs. Renata Peluchova

Renata has first game jitters against the big, young Canadian, but quickly rights herself and leads 2 games to 1. Xavier, who had struggled returning serves earlier in the tournament against O’Neill, digs in and takes four games in a row to end the only quarter that goes less than eight games, 5,-5,-5, 8,8,6,8. In the end, he had too much power for the lefty to handle.

Shao Yu vs. Atanda Musa

Shao starts a little flat, and quickly loses the first 7 points against a player he knows well. Dropping the first game, Shao takes a 2-1 lead, but drops the fourth at deuce to even the match. Now both players are “in the groove,” and the house rocks as they trade furious counters and lightning exchanges, with Shao chasing down shots from corner to corner. Tied at four apiece, Musa misses a FH in the ninth, but rights himself to take a 13-12 lead in the third deuce game of the match. It gets no more exciting than this! Shao now calls a Time Out, which Musa spends smiling in his own court. But it’s Shao Yu who comes up big today, avoiding the match point and winning 16-14 in the ninth, -4,7,9,-10,5,-10,7,-9,14.

Wang Chen vs. De Tran

It becomes obvious that the left-handed Tran has a well-planned strategy for this match against the tournament’s top seed. Quickly he leads 2 games to 0, and he is using his FH, not as a crosscourt shot, but instead loops down the line, forcing weaker returns. Wang is shaking her head in dismay, but refuses to be derailed. Adjusting, she drops a little deeper, a little quicker during the points, lashing backhanded winners to run off three in a row. While Tran evens the match at 3 all, Wang has her momentum back and triumphs 5 to 3; -5,-6,9,8,3,-5,5,4. “I wanted to stay out of her backhand,” Tran says afterward. “Bad things happen when I go there!”

Barney Reed vs. Ernesto Ebuen

Every player has a self-perception, a way they think of themselves, and Barney seems to be most comfortable when he is fighting uphill. If events are conspiring against him, if the score favors his opponent, Reed seems to thrive on this circumstance. It’s no surprise that he falls behind the match-ready Ebuen then, but down 2-0 there are murmurs in the crowd that this is playing with fire. It’s a fist-shaking Barney who launches a furious assault to move out by progressively wider margins, and he absolutely smokes Ernesto in the sixth game, 11-2, for a 4-2 lead. But inexplicably, Barney opens the door for Ernesto by retreating to a lobbing game, and a series of bad shot decisions. Ebuen marches right through the opening, 11-5. This kid just will not self-destruct. In fact, after a strategic timeout in the eighth, he evens the score at four all. But in the ninth game, Barney returns to form and hits FH winners seemingly at will, inside out, down the line, off the serve. With scores of -5,-7,7,9,7,2,-5,-9,6, Barney has posed more questions than he has answered.

Semifinals

Wang Chen vs. Shao Yu

After his exciting victory over Musa, Shao Yu looked to move past the rangy Wang Chen to reach the Final. It took a 13-11 win in the second game to bring him even. Shao attempted to exploit Wang’s side-to-side movement and to force her to transition as often as possible, for when she is planted and ready for that backhand, she generates exceptional speed and wide angles. It was evident, however, that the nine-game format was taking its toll on Shao. After dropping games at 6 and 2, he fought to deuce in the fifth game, only to fall short, 13-11. Dropping the first five points of the sixth game, he called a time-out, but there was simply no gas left in the tank. Wang Chen advanced in good form, 7,-11,6,2,11,1.

Barney Reed vs. Xavier Therien

Once again Barney fell behind early, dropping the first two games at deuce! The well-drilled, curly-headed Canadian could equal Reed’s power and several times caught him flatly with slap-handed blocks of Barney’s lefty loop. With Reed trailing 2 games to 1, 9-10 in the fourth, Barney served and cleanly third-balled to reach deuce and, eventually, level the match. Again Reed goes in the hole, dropping the fifth game 11-5, Xavier showing no problems with any aspect of Reed’s game, winning the first five points. But Barney storms back and unleashes 10 minutes of spectacular play, to forge ahead 4 games to 3. But there’s no shaking loose of Xavier, who comes up big from 9 all and evens the match. Showing skill and determination from both the attacking and defending positions, Xavier is visibly wilting now, winded. Once again, the big points all seem to be in Barney’s pocket as he advances, 5-4 by scores of -14,-12,5,10,-5,5,6,-10,7.

Final:

Wang Chen vs. Barney Reed

Surrounded on three sides by spectators, this is a rematch of the previous evening’s Round Robin. Following his pattern, it’s to no one’s great surprise that Barney drops the first game ... but 11-2? In the second game, Barney trails 7-8 when he serves a ball that nicks the table edge and the Umpire’s fist flies up. Wang Chen protests that the ball nicked the net first, and after some discussion, the umpires agree and the call becomes “Let.” But Wang Chen can’t seem to shake the belief that the score is now incorrectly counted. From 8 all, Barney pulls a deuce victory to even the match. He did not drop another game. In the third Barney again prevails, lashing loops flying between the two competitors, 15-13. Now trailing 2-1, Wang Chen breaks out fast in the fourth, determined to even the score. She leads at 6-2 ... 8-5 ... and holds serve at 10-8, but unbelievably, Reed wins the next four points. Barney continues to crawl around inside Wang Chen’s head in the fifth game ... lobbing balls that she nets, even drop-shotting her FH loop with an incredible over-the-table pull-down block.

There’s no quit in Wang, even trailing 4 games to 1, however. With Barney leading 7-4 she hits two clean winners, but the third edge ball of the game gives Barney an 8-6 lead. Wang fights off two Championship points, but Barney powers a FH straight through her backhand to take the Title, -2,10,13,10,8,8.

After the match, a dejected Wang Chen says that she allowed the disputed point to stay in her head for too long, and that Barney played with more power and confidence than he had on Saturday.

So, how good is Barney Reed? At this tournament, constantly fighting from deficits, coming up big when his back was against the wall, the answer has to be good enough when it mattered, good enough.

Open Singles – Final: Barney J. Reed d. Wang Chen, -2,10,13,10,8,8; SF: Reed d. Xavier Therien, -14,-12,5,10,-5,5,6,-10,7; Wang d. Shao Yu, 7,-11,6,2,11,1; QF: Reed d. Ernesto Ebuen, -5,-7,7,9,7,2,-5,-9,6; Wang d. De Tran, -5,-6,9,8,3,-5,5,4; Therien d. Renata Peluchova, 5,-5,-5, 8,8,6,8; Shao d. Atanda Musa, -4,7,9,-10,5,-10,7,-9,14.

Women’s Singles: Wang Chen d. Renata Peluchova, 4-1.

Men’s Under 22: Han Xiao d. Eric Finkelstein, 4-0.

Women’s Under 22: 1^st Elaine Kwok, 2^nd Katherine Wu.

Over 40: Atanda Musa d. John Wetzler 4-1.

Over 50: Lim Ming Chui d. Dave Sakai, 4-3.

Over 60: Gary Gudzenko d. Mike Kuklakis 4-2.

Under 18 Boys: Eric Finkelstein d. Antwain Davis, 4-2.

Under 18 Girls: 1^st Karen Ma, 2^nd Rita Wu.

Under 16 Boys: Eric Finkelstein d. Oleg Trofimov, 4-0.

Under 16 Girls: 1^st Karen Ma, 2^nd Rita Wu.