Robo-Pong the Table Tennis Robot @ Newgy.com

Stiga North American Teams Championships

 

Baltimore, MD · Nov. 26-28, 2004

By Tim Boggan

[Results at end; See USA Junior/Cadet Team pictures at end.]

O.K., it’s turkey-tales-and-feathers-in-whose-cap?-time. 

NATT President Richard Lee and Tournament Director Fong Hsu had gathered round their sponsors—Escalade Sports, Gerflor’s Taraflex Sports flooring, Mitch Rothfleish’s Pioneers, Dave Sakai’s Senoda and their Under Armour wearing apparel, State Mortgage—and, blessed with 144 Stiga Expert tables, primed for the optimum, the roughly 200 teams Registrar Wendy Troy had been keeping track of prepared themselves for a 3-day Thanksgiving Feast….

So how’d it go? Who won the top $6,000 prize? Pumpkin-pie patience, please, I’ll get to that…in due course. First, know there were 5 seeded-out teams—China, LDBJ, Sichuan 1, Canada, and Computalink Systems London—who didn’t have to play in the Friday preliminaries. As for the others, that soup-or-salad of hundreds of diverse players, just one team from each of 16 start-off groups would advance to Saturday’s Stage 2 round robin play. However, so carefully placed via a snake system of ratings were these teams that only in Preliminary Groups 14 and 16, where the rating spread between the two top teams was minimal, were there upsets.

Championship Chinese Team

Photos by Gerry Chua ©2004
Wang Jianjun Zhao Peng Zheng Changgong

Oh, oh, The Comebackers—Freddie Gabriel, Peter Zajac (both former U.S. High School Champs who’d been away from the tournament scene for a while), and Avishy Schmidt (had Avi ever been away?)—fought gamely but, behind 1-4, couldn’t quite come back. (They did, however, go on to win the $500 B’s.) The Baltimore Brawlers—John Wetzler, Nigeria’s Larry Abass, and Nazrudden and Khaleel Asgarali—mauled quite a bit themselves, finally knocked out these Californians in the 9th. Local hero #1 was Wetzler with his 3 wins—especially big ones over Gabriel, 12-10 in the 4th, and, in the last match, with two vicious 3rd-ballers from 9-all in the 5th, over Zajac, after Peter had rallied to contest from two games down. Local hero #2 was 17-year-old Khaleel who stopped Zajac and Schmidt.

The other upset saw Atlanta 2 Fast 2 Famous—Xin Peng, Kim Bong Geun, Chu Bin Hai, and Preston Chin—5-3 defeat the TTA of the Philippines (TATAP) team—Napoleon Reyes, Tacky Santelices (back after laying off for 12 years), Gary Sebastian, and Earl Alto. The losers were hampered because their #1, Peter Miraflor (2439), was reportedly sick with the flu and didn’t come to Baltimore, and also because after Reyes upset Xin Peng he got leg cramps against Kim and couldn’t continue. Atlanta’s win was a great team effort. First, Peng, after losing 9, 9 games to Alto, delighted in pip-pounding away enough of Earl’s lobs to produce a smashing 13-11-in-the-5th turnaround. Then the former South Korean Junior Team member Bong staved off Tacky in 5. And finally, in the 8th match, Florida’s Bin 12-10 in the 5th barely prevailed over the 16-year-old San Diego star, Alto.

Saturday play began to get to the meat of the matter, divided the 21 title-contending teams into three 5-team round robins and one 6-team round robin, out of which the two top teams in each Division would advance to a single elimination quarter’s. (Ordinarily at this stage there would be only 20 teams, but the strong Los Mexicanos, a late but desired entry, came in to take the place of the heretofore strongest Preliminary team, London, thus allowing London to become an unusual 5th seed exempted from Friday play. The entry of the 6th team into the one round robin will cause a disruption in the table scheduling and force some matches to be played later than anticipated.

Division 1A saw China, with its ruling triumvirate of past/present National Team members, retain its #1 position by eliminating, 5-0, all comers. Also advancing was Jennifer Durst (Jen durst, dare…what? strange name for a team)—Li Yuxiang, De Tran, and (when their expected #1, Atanda Musa, decided not to show) Cameron Scott, and Steve Berger. Oh, alright, an explanation: there is a real-life Jennifer Durst; she’s dared to be De’s fiancée, and so in a sense, in spirit, she led the team, led De anyway. Against Senoda—Todd Sweeris, Brian Pace, Dave Sakai, and Randy Seemiller—the agelessly energetic and ebullient former Chinese National Champion Li, now coaching at the Port Washington, Long Island Club, took all 3. Tran, with Randy’s brother Ricky, having suffered arm and wrist injuries, able only to watch, added the two clinching matches—beat Seemiller and also Pace in a see-saw match in which De was up 2-0, then down in the 3rd and 4th, then up 5-2 in the 5th, then, down match point 10-7, before dursting, bursting forth to win 12-10.

The Coral Springs team (CSCCA) placed 3rd. Their roster: the Marty Prager-coached Keith Alban (recent U.S. Intercollegiate runner-up to Eric Owens), Ben Johnson (some years ago, before finding a life, a promising Junior player in England), and Samson Dubina, his 2376 rating allowing him to go 5 against the still formidable Coach Li (but, in another tie, netting him, in his concerned father/coach’s bonding notebook, only 4, 3, 1 against a too fast, too adept at serving Chinese). Alban blitzed Senoda, finishing Sweeris in the 5th, while his teammate Johnson, with his bloody-quick off-the-bounce backhand returns did in both Seemiller and Pace. Also, Alban and Johnson, after their team’s 0-2 start, came back to dark-alley jump the Asian Gang (Le Tuan, Tran Tuan, Sam Smith, and Steve Nguyen), beat them up badly in 5 of the next 6 matches.

In Division 1B, the L(in)D(avid)B(arney)J(uan) team—David Zhuang, Barney J. Reed, and the 27-year-old San Diego-based Peruvian National Champion Juan Carlos Acosta—suffered its first loss when David and Barney’s expected teammate who’d helped them to a runner-up finish last year, China’s Lin Zhigang, Asian Cup winner a decade ago and more recently husband of multi-time World Champion Deng Yaping, reportedly couldn’t get a visa. Last year he was playing league matches in France, this year he was in Beijing—it made a difference.

This depreciated DBJ team in their opening tie of the tournament had managed to 5-3 shakily get the better of the Bajan Crew—that’s the Barbados team of Trevor and Kevin Farley, Mark-Anthony Dowell, and Carlton Sealy (the 1971/’73 Caribbean Champion and the 2003 U.S. Open Over 40 runner-up to Danny Seemiller who he still thinks-to-seething should have been defaulted for being late for their final). The Farley brothers were no joke. Both beat Acosta. Trevor, past Caribbean Champion and runner-up to the 2004 Champion Dexter St. Louis, held strong against Reed, 12-10 in the 5th. And Kevin, pummeling away, had Barney down 2-0 and was threatening to take the tie into the 9th. Then, however, Barney began a rally, and, with the Bajans often up from their bench yelling encouragement (“Boost yourself up, mahn!”) and Barney, Sr. echoing their advice (“Pick yourself up Barney, don’t throw yourself down”), recovered for a 12-10 end-game reverse.

DBJ then had an easy time with Nison’s Brooklyn TTC 1 team—Nison Aronov (earlier he’d had an exciting 13-11-in-the-5th win over 2545-rated Han Xiao), Slava Gotlib, Benny Kuchero (alias one-time Moscow Junior Champ Bogdan Kucherenko), and Renata Peluchova (ever ready to play, root, and raise her cell phone). However, after the late afternoon play, with one tie remaining against Mexico, DBJ was in trouble, for they’d lost 3-5 to the USATT Junior Boys—Adam Hugh, Han Xiao, and Misha Kazantsev. Adam won all 3, Han the necessary 2 more. USATT Hall of Famer Zhuang had to be heart-hurtin’ on losing two key matches—the 1st after being 2-1 up on Adam, the 2nd on going down 9-11 in the 4th to Han—literally going down, for in the waning moments of the match Zhuang had back problems, was on the court floor receiving an injury time out. Reed, who’d been training for two months in Taiwan, rallied to beat Misha in 5, and did his bit with a win over Han. But Acosta couldn’t help.

Runner-up Computalink Systems London Team

Photos by Gerry Chua ©2004
Terry Young Ryan Jenkins Gergley Urban

It wasn’t clear at this point though who was going to advance, for the U.S. Junior team had earlier been beaten 5-2 by Mexico—Yoan Jin Kang (their Chinese Coach), Guillermo Munoz (the perennial National Champion and veteran Internationalist), Carlos Chiu (the Mexican #3), and ex-Romanian, ex-French leaguer Ludovic Gombos (a pick-up addition to the Mexicanos). Actually, with Munoz (after losing the 4th at 13-15) beating Han in 5, and Adam walking off by himself mumbling, “Every time I get an opening I miss. Every time,” the Junior’s were hard-pressed to score at all.

Han did win out over Yoan, 11-9 in the 4th, and Misha over Munoz, 12-10 in the 4th (after being down 6-9) and 13-11 in the 5th. At 10-all in the 5th, Misha, having listened to Coach Mark Nordby’s advice to be aggressive, daringly cross-court scored his first flip of a Munoz short serve, then went all-out for the match, only to see Munoz fast-hands block the ball back deucedly quick. Not to be denied though after Guillermo had looped into the net, Misha served and followed with a spectacular down-the-line winner.

The Juniors then, having mastered elementary arithmetic, presumably considered the possibility of a 3-way tie decided by games won/lost, in which case they were 7-8 and had to hope that Los Mexicanos would defeat DBJ, or else lose to them 1-5 (for even a 2-5 loss would give the Mexicans a 7-7 and DBJ an 8-7 total). The Juniors, as it happened, didn’t have another match to play; still, with their position undetermined, wouldn’t they hang around to see the evening outcome?

Uh, no…perhaps because they were tired? hungry? just wanted to get out of the hall? (This scheduled 7:00 p.m. match wouldn’t start until 8:30.) Or perhaps because they figured the Mexican team they’d had so much trouble with would surely beat the DBJ team, especially with David Zhuang’s back bothering him? In fact, though David was penned in to play the second, sixth, and ninth match against Mexico, he really, with the National’s coming up, didn’t want to play unless he absolutely had to. So, sure enough, after Munoz had beaten Acosta 11-8 in the 5th in the opening match, David scratched against the Chinese Yoan. So one possibility for the Juniors to advance had vanished—with a 2-0 lead, the Mexicans would not lose 1-5. However, since the injured David would scratch out, and Acosta had already lost his first match, it only remained for Juan Carlos or Barney to lose another and the Juniors would get valuable match competition on the morrow.

Third up was Reed and from the point of view of the Juniors he wasn’t cooperating—he defeated Ludovic in a –9, 10, 10, 7 close match. But then Yoan scored the 3rd-win clincher over Acosta in 5. Tie over? No one says so—which is perhaps a tacit admission that David’s scratches can only be counted as they come up. Play continues and, though Barney stops Munoz 8 in the 5th, it doesn’t matt—What! Zhuang now wants to play? Risk aggravating his lower back injury with one, maybe two more matches? Oh, if only the whole tie could be stopped now, Mexico had its 3 wins, let DBJ have its 5 wins and wouldn’t everyone be happy. Not everyone: Mexico would be 8-7; DBJ 8-8; U.S. Juniors 7-8.

Referee Walk says David tells him he’d thought his team had no chance of winning. (So much for his assessment of the Mexicans? Of Acosta and Reed? Of his abacus training?) But now, with Barney’s two wins, he does see there’s a way, and is willing to punish himself. However, here Chance, in the person of Walk, steps in to oblige Fate, and won’t honor David’s spontaneous desire to play—not because David wouldn’t be legally allowed to play (a late arriver, for example, could have his first match scratched yet play in turn his next one) but because he’s not ready (part of him doesn’t want to play? he has to make sure his back’s wrapped up?) and Yoan and Barney are on court about to start the 7th match. There is by this time though another table open—were David and Ludovic to have played on that…the tie might be 3-3 tied? And/or David in the hospital? 

The tie now stands Los Mexicanos 4—DBJ 2. Viva, amigos! Even if the Mexicanos were to lose the next three matches, their tie-breaking game score would be 9-7 assuring them of 1st place, and, incidentally, assuring DBJ at 8-9 of stealthily creeping into youths’ sweet dreams turned nightmares. Oh! Chinese Coach Yoan after losing a tight 15-13 1st game to Barney is injured! Walk says he’s sitting on the court floor for some minutes. Nope, he can’t go on. Tie score 4-3.

Now it’s the outside addition to the Mexicans, Ludovico. He protests that David’s already scratched out of the 9th match, so the tie is over, why should he have to play? However, he dutifully does—is up 2-1 and at 10-all in the 4th but loses to Acosta. Tie score 4-4. Go on, David, maybe it’s gonna hurt, but though you’re not at your best, put on a good show—perhaps that’s what he’s saying to self? He’s hesitant, again isn’t immediately ready to play, doesn’t want to play. And Munoz, David’s opponent, the longtime experienced international, what’s he saying to self? Out loud he’s complaining that he doesn’t want to play, that he thinks something’s not right here, that David shouldn’t be allowed to scratch twice, then play. Walk has an uneasy time trying to get them both to the table—finally says, David, I’ll give you one more minute.

Semifinalist Canadian Team

Photos by Gerry Chua ©2004
Pradeeban Peter-Paul Xavier Therien Faazil Kassam

Munoz has been doing some stretching, is out there on court but hasn’t even tied his shoelaces. He’d begun play 14 hours earlier, had just endured two 5-game matches, and has to be tired. Doubtless he wants to conserve his energy, be as ready as he can be for the money matches tomorrow. Eventually “Play” starts. Walk, in later describing the match, says Munoz clearly doesn’t want to engage, deliberately plunks balls into the net. Ah, were the U.S. Juniors present to forgive him, for he knows not what he does? Zhuang a foot-planted 11—Munoz 4. This is worse than silly. Guillermo says, I quit. David’s hurt, I don’t want to play hard. (Concern for a fellow competitor almost demands such courtesy? But what about the three Junior competitors? Don’t they deserve respect too?) Walk, after conferring with NATT President Richard Lee, replies, If you quit, Munoz, you and your team won’t get the prize money. (The minimum for participating in the quarter’s tomorrow is $500.) Guillermo of course continues, but, insisting that this match isn’t fair, dumps the 2nd game—this time he gets all of 2 points.  

What is Walk to do? Default Munoz? That’s O.K. with Guillermo. He’s used to losing to Zhuang, a healthy Zhuang. Throw the Mexican team out of the tournament? Would that be fair to Munoz’s teammates? Throw just Munez out? Or cut off proportionally Munoz’s share of the prize money? What to do when the players won’t obey the Referee? Walk again says Play! NATT President Richard Lee, watching the inaction, is VERY upset. Surely Munoz, a professional, owes it to the Spirit of Sport to try, and David likewise to insist he try—though David will later say, it’s regrettable, he has a duty to self-preservation, to win, to procure a livelihood. In the 3rd game, the “play” picks up—Munoz gets 7.

Clearly this debacle gets people to talking, particularly since it’s clear from Walk and others who witnessed it sometime after 11 p.m. that Zhuang before going on to court had been talking to the Mexicans and their Chinese Coach. It does not appear that they were merely exchanging pleasantries. And not only is the look bad, but Sean O’Neill, writing on the about.com table tennis forum, had this to say:

“…When questioned by one of the www.ping-pong.com helpers (Vicente Sanchez) in Spanish, Mexican Munoz said the reason he didn’t try against David was they had an ‘agreement.’”

“Vicente was very upset that players [sic] from his country would decide not to give 100% effort when playing an international match in a foreign country. They were speechless when Vicente demanded to know what the ‘agreement’ was.” 

On Sunday I spoke briefly with the Mexicans, and Munoz insisted that the only line of thought he’d held to was that out of principle he declined to play against Zhuang, for Zhuang was doing that which was illegal—scratching twice then playing. He’d made no “deal” with David, he said, hardly knew him, and reiterated that he would never dump a match.

But of course that’s what he obviously did. Would it have been better if he’d pretended to play seriously?….“The Sport needs a major reform,” said Richard Lee.

The #1 advancer in Division 1C was the Leibovitz Team whose roster includes: Tahl Leibovitz (who, either for his Bronze Medal accomplishment at the 2004 Paralympics, or for recently completing the New York City Marathon in, I believe, a record 42 hours, was publicly awarded a Lifetime membership in the USATT by President Sheri Pittman), Paul David (player/coach habitué at Robert Chen’s N.Y. Chinatown Club), Dave Fernandez (a no-nonsense Long Island City cop), and 19-year-old Matthew Khan (the #2 Guyanian behind Sydney Christophe).

Semifinalist Texas Wesleyan Team

Photos by Gerry Chua ©2004
Eric Owens Dinko Kranjac Kfir Silberman Courtney Roberts

The Leibovitzians opened at 9:00 a.m. with a 5-0 win against a Quebec team called D.J. and the Yoshis—Player/Coaches D(avid) J(acques) and Remi Tremblay, and Nintendo watcher Simon Boutet. To Tremblay I award my own Challenger Medal for his up-2-0 fight against Leibovitz that put smiles on many of the surrounding faces, for Tahl’s wake-up fussin’ and cussin’ was thought an absolute delight until of course Referee Walk hurried over to make sure the table and barriers weren’t ruined. 

Play their best in this Division the #2 seeded Sichuan 1 team did, but with substitutions needed from the get-go, their expected strength was severely diminished, and they lost three 4-5 ties. Liu Hao remained their only listed player; taking the place of two others were Liu Jianming and Liu Jin (originally on China’s roster), and, talk about a confusing liuliu of a start, out to the court for their 1st-tie play against D.J. and the Yoshis came Coach Liu Ping who, though his team won 5-3, lost to both Tremblay and Boutet.

You might have expected the Leibovitz Team’s 5-4 win over Sichuan to be quite dramatic, but it wasn’t—six of the matches were 3-0 and three were 3-1. Texas Wesleyan University—Coach Christian Lillieroos, Eric Owens, Kfir Silberman, Dinko Kranjac (yes, the Chinese names were hard to pronounce, but Kfir, Kranjac, these were two more to give mellifluous Media announcer Alan Williams pause), body-builder Courtney Roberts (bench presses 350 lbs., squats 500), and a slimmed down Andre Scott—also 5-4 did away with the Sichuans. Owens, though losing to Liu Hao, went to extremes, coupling a 5, 1, 1 opening with a closing 11-9 in the 5th win. Dinko downed the relatively weak Jianming. And Roberts took two—including a gutsy swing match against Liu Hao, 12-10 in the 4th, 11-7 in the 5th. 

But Wesleyan could only come 2nd on losing 4-5 to Tahl’s team. Owens swept away all opposition, and former Croatian Junior Team member Dinko did more than dink with Fernandez who was taking advantage of his vacation time to make, as he said, a cameo appearance. However, the Tahl team rallied, won 4 of the last 5 matches: Fernandez over Roberts 11-8 in the 5th, Paul David over Dinko and Courtney, and Tahl (everyone see his photo on the cover of the latest USATT magazine?) with an 11-9 in the 4th, (“GO, Poster boy!”)12-10 in the 5th, 1st-place decider.

Yip’s Sport finished 3rd in this Division. Adding to Sichuan’s 4-5 woes were Lily Yip, Barry Dattel, and Eyal Adini. Dickie Fleisher, to his team’s amazement, played only in the Friday Pre-lims, then hurried off to attend his High School’s 30th Reunion. Liu Hao was able to beat Yip in 5, but not Adini who, down 2-1, eked out an 11-9 5th, and not Dattel, for Barry, after dropping the 1st two games, finished 8, 10, 7. Dattel, at 46 still going strong Saturday evening, not only subdued the Yoshis but also set a long-playing record for his team this weekend by finally flattening that Canadian D. J. 20-18 in the 5th.

Wesleyan advanced by downing Yip’s Sport 5-3 (Dattel won 2 more in that tie). But though the Yip team also lost 2-5 to the advancing Leibovitz team, Lily was pleased to have beaten Fernandez (“Still animal,” she said smiling); moreover, had two of these matches been reversed—Khan over Dattel, and Paul David over Adini, both 11-9 in the 5th—the final standings might well have been affected. 

In the 6-team 1D Division, Canada—Pradeeban Peter-Paul, Faazil Kassam, and Xavier Therien—more or less breezed through 4 ties to reach their climactic Saturday night match with Computalink Systems London—Ryan Jenkins, Terry Young, Gergley Urban, and Clive Carthy. This team was sponsored by Michael Levene who’d enjoyed playing many a session with these blokes at two London clubs—London Progress and Batts. Although Michael’s since relocated to Atlanta, he returned to England on vacation and decided to bring this team to the States. Jenkins, the 6-time Welsh Champion, and Young, the 2004 English Closed runner-up to Alan Cooke, played here last year. Urban, formerly #20 in Hungary, now #10 in England where at South Bank University he’s getting a Masters in International Business, was asked if he were any relation to the 1975 World Doubles Champion Gabor Gergely. “Gergley’s my first name,” he said. “But when I was 11-12-13-years-old, I was coached by Gergely.”

I’ll come back to that Canada vs. London Saturday night tie shortly. Meanwhile, this London team had some 5-3 trouble with New York TTC 1—Shao Yu, Kazuyuki Yokoyama, Edward Ko, and Liu Hui Yuan and his 19-year-old son Yang (a Manhattan College student known as “Andy”). Shao had a nice win over Jenkins, and both Shao and Ko were too strong for the 45-year-old player/coach Carthy.

New York was able to hold 3rd place through three contested matches. Off the bat, they had to get by Puerto Rico—Hector Barrios, Juan Revelles, and Abner Colon—which they were 5-4 able to do thanks primarily to Shao’s down 2-0 comeback against Revelles, and Coach Liu’s 5-game wins over Colon and Berrios. Then though they were manhandled by the Brawlers, they beat them 5-4 too. The father/son combination of former Trinidad-Tobago Team member Nazruddin “Oscar” Asgarali and his son Khaleel, a current T-T Team member, almost won the day (“so unusual,” someone said, “to see father and son have such a good relationship”)—for not only did Khaleel beat Ko and then young Liu 11-8 in the 5th, but Papa Oscar also stopped both of them in 5. However, when 2300 John Wetzler, who’d got them into this Championship Division, couldn’t win a match, Baltimore succumbed to Shao.

Nor without Wetzler could Baltimore top Atlanta, for the fiftyish Peng, reportedly once China’s #3 with “a game like Chuang Tse-tung’s,” went undefeated; while contributing the one needed win apiece were Chu and the U.S. #1 Under 14 Boy, Preston Chin (for whom in large part, that he might face extended competition, the team was formed?). Atlanta could win only the one tie though—they fell 3-5 to both New York and Puerto Rico. University of Mississippi student Kim twice won two matches, but Preston, losing to Ko 8 in the 5th, and Peng to Revelles after being up 2-0, couldn’t take advantage of what tie-turning opportunities they had.

Vying to retain its seeded semifinal position in Sunday’s Single Elimination Draw, Canada got off to an excellent start when ’99 Pan-Am Bronze Medalist Xavier Therien, after being battered 5 and 2 by London’s Urban, took the 3rd at 9 then 11/7, 11/7 continued his winning role. Pradeeban then posted a 4-game win over Terry Young, and Canada looked in charge. But not for long—the Canadians would in fact be beaten 5-4. Xavier couldn’t win another game, and Pradee lost two killing 5-gamers to Urban and Jenkins. Ontario’s Faazil Kassam came through with two helpful winners, but couldn’t contest with Jenkins.

This brings us to Sunday’s lopsided quarter’s play.   

In the upper half of the Draw, top seeded China—Zhao Peng (righty shakehands), Zheng Changgong (lefty shakehands), and Wang Jianjun (righty penholder)—eliminated DBJ 5-1. Against Zheng, our 4-time U.S. Champion Zhuang (who’d maybe taken a celebrex pill or two?) lost the 1st game 13-15 but persevered to win in 5. Thereafter, however, China’s opposition scored only 0’s.

The companion quarter’s saw Canada 5-0 blitz the Leibovitz team—Xavier Therein’s 5-game match with Paul David being the only sign of struggle.

In the lower half of the Draw, Jennifer Durst shed a tear or two, for De Tran lost in 5 to Terry Young, and only Li Yuxiang’s’s win over Urban prevented a London shutout. But dry you eyes, Jennifer—your guys won the $500 in the Team Over 40 competition. Also be generous—give a congratulatory kiss to Coach Li too. His students have included some of the world’s best players, as well as the lesser lights on Long Island who revere him, say he’s always so enthusiastic, and, in trying to improve their games, often comes up with fun drills. They’re also proud that the 2004 Olympic Champion Ryu Seung Min, after winning, called Li and asked him to come to Korea and coach him some more.

Wesleyan University’s 5-2 victory over Mexico provided by far the most interesting quarter’s, for though 3rd-year Bio/Chem major Eric Owens took all 3, he didn’t have an easy time of it. Down 2-1 to Carlos Chiu, he came back to win 8 in the 5th. Then, from 10-all in the 4th, helped by a hurtling serve to the forehand, he finished Ludovico who, married to a flight attendant, wasn’t getting any good practice in Seattle (what with Fan coaching so much), and so he and his wife were looking for a base elsewhere. And finally against Munoz, Eric again found the right chemistry within for a 5-game win.

Sharing the spotlight in this tie was Kfir Silberman, just arrived at Wesleyan. He played for the Israeli Team at the 2003 Paris World’s where he met and talked with Owens and USATT Executive Director Doru Gheorghe. He’d finished three years in Israeli Special Services, and was in great shape (“Runs more than he plays table tennis,” said Coach Lillieroos). Showing no fear, Kfir, down 4-8 in the 5th against Munoz, came back to an 11-9 YAHHHH! clenched-fist/arm-thrust, passion-filled genuflection toward his teammates.

With the semi’s, the format changed. The ties were now just best of 5 matches, with games best of 7. The China-Canada tie opened with Zhao Peng playing Pradeeban Peter-Paul. As Larry Hodges’ Program tells us, and here he has the research help of John Schneider, Zhao must have been under contract to a very good German Bundesliga Club for he played doubles with Jorg Rosskopf, formerly one of the world’s premier players. At 6-all in the 1st, Zhao, set to serve, waits for the announcer to stop calling teams to the control desk. (He doesn’t want his concentration broken? Or is just being polite?) The announcer doesn’t stop, so Zhao serves…goes up 10-6. “The Chinese block with topspin. Hear the difference in sound when they block?” Hodges says to me, as China wins the 1st of what will be 4 straight games. I don’t. Though Pradee sometimes has pop-up problems returning Zhao’s serves, he gets to 10 one game, and the spectators repeatedly applaud their curling counter-tops and consecutive lobs.

Next up, Wang Jiajun, Top 40 in the world three years ago, vs. Xavier Therien, Top 500 now. Perhaps a bit intimidated, though appearing unflappable, the Quebec star mis-serves 3 times in the 1st game. In the 2nd, he gets a 5-1 spot. It’s not enough. Up 10-8, Wang playfully, make that disdainfully, retreats back for his one chop of the match. Up 10-9, he serves and bullets in a follow. In the 3rd, Wang’s up 7-1, then, go figure, for he exudes confidence, he’s at deuce, deuce, deuce, and deuce until Xavier x’s himself out by serving into the net. In the 4th, well you get the idea.

Here comes the lefty 2003 Asian Youth Singles Champion Zheng Changgong to play the lefty 2003 North American Under 18 Champion Faazil Kassam. In both the 1st and 2nd games the Canadian leads 10-6. Not bad, eh? Especially since he wins one. Sound cynical, do I, about his chances? In the 3rd, Kassam’s down 3-8. Am I supposed to tell you that he’ll win this game? Yep. And what a great end-game backhand slash to that diamond-point corner he made. But then Zheng with 3-0 leads in the 4th and 5th games can’t be caught, and in the 6th his 10-5 counter-loop can’t be returned. China advances to the final.

To meet Texas Wesleyan or London? Watching just the first match who could be in doubt? Twenty-year-old Dinko Kranjac is a student, hadn’t played seriously for two years during the changeover to the 40 mm ball, while Ryan Jenkins is a professional playing in the Swiss and English leagues. Computalink to their four games and the Dinkodata reads 5, 1, 5, 3.

Perhaps Eric Owens will do better? His English opponent is 25-year-old Terry Young who does construction work when not busy in 2nd Division Bundesliga play in Germany. Though at 9-8 in the 1st Eric nets a serve return, he balances with a backhand winner to go up game point. But then he whiffs a would-be counter, pushes a serve return off (someone said Young had “sneaky” serves), and loses 10-12. The 2nd game is crucial: Eric wins it 16-14. Then takes a 5-1 lead in the 3rd. Though Terry’s dropped sweat keeps the assistant umpire at the cloth-ready, the Englishman hasn’t cracked. For the 3rd game in a row he’s at 9-10. But when he doesn’t win this game, he tumbles—loses the first 6 points in the 4th. In the 5th Young has a chance: down 8-9, he has a high ball to swat; when it doesn’t go in, he spirals his racket high in the air, tries to catch it behind him…but of course can’t put it or the game in his hip pocket. Tie: 1-1.

Silberman’s match with Urban is a must-win for Wesleyan. And when in the 4th the Israeli comes out of some great counter-counter points to finish on bended knee with fist and yell stretched to his bench, his 3-1 lead looks to make him a winner. But though Kfir gets the early jump on the Hungarian in both the 5th and 6th games, he can’t take either. He plays better from behind, is less apt to be faulted on serve? Down 1-4 in the deciding 7th, Silberman rises to 9-6. But then perhaps he tries to serve “safe,” isn’t thinking aggressively enough—and Urban smacks in the return. Two more for Gergley. And almost a 3rd, but though Kfir’s put a ball up too high, is forced away from the table, he yet manages to scramble back to save the point. So, o.k., now for the knockout. Urban serves, and Silberman mightily socks the ball…right into Urban’s face. The punch, as it were, does not have its desired effect—and in the deuce play that follows Urban wins 13-11.

Now Owens must beat Jenkins for Wesleyan to stay alive. But Eric’s 3-10 start suggests the 3-games-down hole he’ll find himself in. However, in the 4th, match point down, he survives. Scoring with a serve and follow, and a beautiful backhand placement, he moves into the 5th. There, down 6-9, he aces the Welshman with an unexpected fast serve. But after a whiff, Eric can only get a brief scent of victory, for, after calling “Time,” Jenkins ends it. One, Kathy Wong, all-friendly-like, confides with a twinkle to Eric that she’d bet a dollar he’d lose. “You bet against me!” he says with a shake-of-the-head grin. “I wanted to bet ten,” she said.

Coach Lillieroos was pleased with the Wesleyan performance. “To be originally seeded 12th and finish tied for 3rd, that’s pretty good,” he said. “Also, we’re the only ‘true’ team entered—we do everything together.” Including now, I guess, watch the Chinese win.

Before the Final, USATT President Sheri Pittman publicly congratulated Tahl Leibovitz for winning a bronze medal at the Paralympics, and announced that the board had voted to award U.S. Olympic and Paralympic medalists lifetime USATT memberships. Photo by Gerry Chua ©2004.

Against Young, Wang’s off to an 8-1 lead and, never mind the fabled Chinese serves, Terry’s having trouble with his own—is faulted, mis-serves. In the 2nd game, he does better, is down 2-7. Then he rallies a bit until he whiffs and smiles at Wang…finally mis-serves to end the game. In the 3rd, the Chinese is all-out swinging away and to Terry’s credit he’s repeatedly there to off-the-bounce bound balls back, ace Wang down the open forehand line. Only one mis-serve this game, and, after a failed serve return, again to his credit, he does a very adroit juggling act with ball and shoe. When he loses this game at deuce, he’s last-gasp finished? Au contraire. In the 4th, scoring on world-class shots, he’s 10-3 positively humiliating Wang, inducing him, as he strokes and starts to round the table, to just literally give up the last point. In the 5th, Terry’s at deuce again, but mis-hits one last ball. Wang comes off court to go high-fiveing down his bench line—I count 10 people, including a couple of women, getting slapped.

Now it’s Zhao Peng vs. Jenkins, and up 4-1 in the 1st Zhao makes a Chinese Super League shot that brings down the house, which, not incidentally, has a decidedly Asian heritage look. From 15 feet back of the table, he sees Ryan’s vicious forehand hurtling at him and makes an off-balance, blasting backhand counter that completely passes an astonished Jenkins. Soon it’s 10-3. In the 2nd, while Ryan’s up 3-0, down 4-9, the audience is treated to Zhao’s less spectacular but nonetheless relentlessly effective backhand barrage. Zhao wins the 3rd 11-4.

Says a spectator nearby, “Zhao plays so consistently at such a high level, you marvel at how his anticipation can be so good, and his reflexes so fast.” But no sooner do I hear that than Jenkins himself shows some world-class play, and actually wins the 4th and 5th games. What is happening? Nothing conclusively good for London—Zhao’s A-game is back, and he closes out the match 11-5.

As Zheng Changgong is into his closing 10, 3, 6, 6 $6,000 match with Urban, two late arrivals come in. “The Chinese are over here,” says one. “They’re the best.” “Oh, yeah,” says the other, looking out to the court. “I think I saw this one on TV.”

USA Junior & Cadet Teams, Sponsored by Stiga
 Photos by Gerry Chua ©2004

Click on pictures below to see larger version!
USA Junior Boys’ Team
Misha Kazantsev, Han Xiao,
Adam Hugh, Coach Mark Nordby		 USA Junior Girls’ Team
Whitney Ping, Barbara Wei,
Coach Masaaki Tajima, Sophia Yi
USA Cadet Boys’ Team
John Leach, Coach Zhang Ping,
Mark Wei, Jeff Lin Huang		 USA Cadet Girls’ Team
Judy Hugh, Coach Lily Yip,
Rita Wu, Sarah Zheng

Results:

Division One

Final: China d. Computalink Systems London, 3-0

Semifinals

China d. Canada, 3-0

Computalink Systems London d. Texas Wesleyan University, 3-1

Quarterfinals

China d. LDBJ, 5-1

Computalink Systems London d. Jennifer Durst, 5-1

Canada d. Team Leibovitz, 5-0

Texas Wesleyan University d. Los Mexicanos, 5-2

Division Two: Comebackers (Freddie Gabriel, Yong Ren, Peter Zajac, Avishy Schmidt) d. Too Hot to Handle (Pan Lin, Parviz Mojaverian, Wang Yin, Laura Xiao), 5-0.

Division Three: MALEV Budapest (Daniel Schaffer, Soma Fekete, Lajos Papp) d. Twenty Something (Chandramouli Shankaron, Nicholas Snider, Thomas Yost), 5-1.

Division Four:  Falafel Team (Fadi Kaddoura, Zvi Manor, Alan Alva, Mark Berg) d. New York TTC Carpe Victoriam (Paul Hsiao, Santos Shih, Jungshan Chang, Stephanie Shih), 5-2.

Division Five: G.T. Top Shattaz (Odingo Mitchell, Usama Nausrudeen, Colin Forde, Shaun Abrams) d. Wolverine TTC Blue (Edward Lee, Alexander Chien, Jia Jian Lee, Ken Trinh, Giancarlo Anselmo), 5-2.

Division Six: French Lomein Team (David Fang, Junghoon Kim, Jonathan Chu, Philippe Dassonval, Jung-Pu Lin) d. MASS Monsters of Frami (Alex Likerman, Ram Rangan, Rajeev Sharma), 5-3.

Division Seven: Mexico Boys (Jorge Navarro, Monicia Miramontes, Guillermo Guerrero, Sergio Palazuelos, Rodolfo Garza) d. Eriecuse (Harry Hawk, Samuel Steiner, Miklos Balogh, Michael Halliday), 5-2.

Division Eight: Brownsville Strikers C (Peter Caesar, Brian Williams, Brian Cort, Hugh Barton, Terrence Blackman) d. JVD Challengers (Jack Huang, Devin Zhang, Janiel Li, Vincent Ning), 5-1.

Division Nine: New York TTC 4 (Zhang Yu, George Chao, Anthony Yau, James Ng, Hsiu-Shih Hsu) d. Newgy Guyz (Roger Dickson, Ricardo Abril, Randy Burnett, Alex Lehocky), 5-4.

Division Ten: Howard University (Ayomikun Adeleye, David Terrelonge, Babasola Adeleye, Gerik Whittington, Randolph Codlin) d. Los Boricuas (Miguel Rodriguez Caraballo, Carelyn Cordero, Manuel Adorno Caraballo), 5-4.

Division Eleven: No Final Played; Finalists were New York TTC 8 (Whei Mei Hsu, Anna Chang, Alison Wu, Chung Tak Cheung) and Spin Forever (Hui-Lung Liu, John Chang, Kim Chan, Anthony Tchai, Chien-Chih Shen).

Division Twelve RR: 1st Penn State 2 (Vinnie Stout, Thong Tom Nguyen, Adam MacNeill, Will Humber, Eduard Shub), 9-0; 2nd Hopkins TT Daio (Frank Lee, Shin-Wei (David) Chiou, Wei Lin, David Helmer, Chong Tao), 6-3.

Division Thirteen RR: 1st NYTTC 9 (Michael Hui, Kuo-Ming Wu, Carina Tso, Ke Hang Zhang), 8-0; 2nd Cute Little Loopers (Leona Madison, Amy Xiao, Lily Zhen), 5-3.

 

 

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