Ping-Pong.com - Your Number One Supplier-Best Prices Guaranteed

2001 Buckeye Open

Columbus, Ohio
March 17-18, 2001
By Larry Hodges

Open Finalists Ilija Lupulesku and Fan Yi Yong. 
Photos by John Oros, Copyright 2001.

Let’s jump right to the end. Fan Yi Yong, who had been up 19-17 in the
fifth in the Open Final before losing three in a row, serve and loops,
and Ilija Lupulesku misses a counterloop. 20-all.

Fan rips a forehand loop to Lupulesku’s backhand, who misses a backhand counterloop. 21-all.

Fan serve and rips a forehand loop winner. 22-all.

Lupulesku loops several in a row. Fan is blocking, but suddenly tries to counterloop off the bounce, misses. 23-all.

Lupulesku loops in the serve, Fan blocks off. 24-all.

Fan serve and quick pushes, Lupulesku backhand loops a clean ace down the line. 25-all.

After a vicious counterlooping rally, Fan is forced way off the table, fishes one back, but fishes the next off the end. 26-all.

Fan serve and loops, Lupulesku counterloops off. 27-all.

Lupulesku loops several, Fan blocks, Lupulesku misses a backhand loop. 28-all.

Lupulesku loops in the serve, Fan blocks off. 29-all.

Fan serve and nonchalantly backhand rip-loops an ace winner. 30-all … no, it’s 31-29! It’s over! Fan has won ($1000), -19,17,11,-17,29!

It was an epic match. Lupulesku ("Loopy," now living and coaching part time in Chicago), the Olympic Silver Medalist for Men’s Doubles in 1988 (with Zoran Primorac, both then of Yugoslavia), is known as one of the best off-the-table counter-spinners and fishers. Fan is known for his off-the-bounce loop kills, with one of the best backhand loop kills in the world. In this match, Lupulesku took the attack more often, forcing Fan to block. However, since Fan’s attacks were more penetrating, he won more often when he did attack. Overall, it was dead even right to 20-all in the fifth – and they still had 20 more points to play!

Fan and Lupulesku had a much easier time getting to the final than the final itself, with each winning their semifinal matches (against Sasa Drinic and Razvan Cretu, respectively) 3-0, including a number of exhibition points, especially between Lupulesku and Cretu, who played much of the third game as an exhibition.

New USA Team Members Mark Hazinski and Ashu Jain both lost hard-fought five-game battles in the quarterfinals. Cretu defeated Hazinski in a battle of power loopers, while Drinic defeated Jain in a match with longer, sometime exhibition-like points. Hazinski would later win Under 2500 over Jain, and the two would play again in the Under 22 Final Round Robin of three – where Han Xiao would upset Jain to come in second, while Hazinski won both his matches. Hazinski also won the Elite Over 2150 event over Vijay Madhaven, although few of the top players played in the event.

Lupulesku teamed up with fellow former Yugoslavian Sasa Drinic to win Open Doubles over Fan and Dan Seemiller.

234 players congregated on the 34 tables here, and many went home with trophies or some of the $5000 in prize money in 27 events. Some of the other standouts included:

• John Tannehill, rolling through the hardbat event without losing a game.

• Keith Evans, who upset Dan Seemiller to make the final of Over 40 (losing the final to Randy Seemiller), split the final of Under 2375 (with Idan Levi), and made the semifinals of Hardbat.

• Michael Reinhard, winning both Under 1350 and Under 1200.

• Goran Panic, who won both Under 2125 and Under 4200 Doubles (with Rick Seiler – who also made the final of the Over 225 pound event, won by Dennis Brown!).

• Nine-year-old Michael Mast, who won Under 12 over his sister Jennifer, and made the final of Under 1200.

And now, a message from Tournament Director Steve Slaback:

I love this sport. It is an odyssey through space and a tribute to the notion of diversity when 234 table tennis players, sportsmen all, can assemble together from 25 United States and Canadian states or provinces to compete at this tournament. I love this sport. Age, sex and size are independent variables to be used or not used as strategy requires. From nine-year-old Michael Mast to 89-year-young Eugene Bricker, from 2200+ Maria Kretschmer to 250-pounder Ross Brown, this sport has its place in our hearts, and their hearts were out at this Macy Block Buckeye Open. I believe nearly everybody, even the Butterfly representatives Chris and Greg, had a pretty good time. In addition to these differences, the final two Open players showed that representatives of this sport have their arms around the world, reaching from China and across from what was Yugoslavia to America. Thank you all for being table tennis players. That’s what it’s all about.

Open Singles – Final: Fan Yi Yong d. Ilija Lupulesku, -19,17,11,-17,29; SF: Fan d. Sasa Drinic, 3-0; Lupulesku d. Razvan Cretu, 3-0; QF: Fan d. Dan Seemiller, 10,11,11; Drinic d. Ashu Jain, 3-2; Cretu d. Mark Hazinski, -12,24,-16,17,15; Lupulesku d. Michael Hyatt, 18,-20,19,15; 8ths: Fan d. Richard Lee, 13,13,13; Seemiller d. Michael Liu, 16,11,14; Jain d. Ivan Levi, 13,18,-10,12; Drinic d. Samson Dubina, n.s.; Cretu d. Vijay Madhaven, 17,18,13; Hazinski d. Randy Seemiller, 15,10,10; Hyatt d. Han Xiao, -19,-15, 15,11,4; Lupulesku d. Keith Evans, 16,12,13.

Elite Over 2150: 1st Mark Hazinski; 2nd Vijay Madhaven.

Open Doubles – Final: Sasa Drinic/Ilija Lupulesku d. Fan Yi Yong/Dan Seemiller, n.s.; SF: Fan/Seemiller d. Razvan Cretu/Idan Levi, -10,11,11; Drinic/Lupulesku d. Keith Evans/Michael Liu, 11,18.

Hardbat – Final: John Tannehill d. Dan Seemiller, 15,7,15; SF: Tannehill d. Larry Hodges, 17,9; Seemiller d. Keith Evans, 17,14.

U1900 Hardbat: Al Fish d. John Curd, 14,12.

Over 40: 1st Randy Seemiller; 2nd Keith Evans.

Over 50: 1st Paul Lamse; 2nd Dave Sakai.

Under 22 Final RR: 1st Mark Hazinski; 2nd Han Xiao; 3rd Ashu Jain.

Under 14: 1st A.J. Carney; 2nd Gordon Cochran.

Under 12: 1st Michael Mast; 2nd Jennifer Mast.

U2500 – Final: Mark Hazinski d. Ashu Jain, n.s.; SF: Hazinski d. Idan Levi, 12,16; Jain d. Keith Evans, 18,4.

U2375 – Final: Idan Levi & Keith Evans split; SF: Levi d. Rich Burnside, 14,15; Evans d. Han Xiao, n.s.

U2250 – Final: Bob Cordell d. Mark Artman, -15,11,12; SF: Artman d. Goran Panic, 16,13; Cordell d. Dennis Fleming, -16,16,20.

U2125 – Final: Goran Panic d. El-Hallal Sleiman, 13,17; SF: Panic d. Aaron Avery, 15,14; Sleiman d. John Ramirez, 19,19.

U2000 – Final: Valeriy Ort d. Loc Sourinthone, 17,14; SF: Ort d. Julian Waters, 17,19; Sourinthone d. David Berenson, 18,17.

U1875: Andrew Cochran d. Eric Leventhal, 12,16.

U1750: Jeremiah Kolb d. Sungill Kim, -18,17,12.

U1625: Mitchell Foster d. T.B. St. Pierre, 15,-16,22.

U1500: James Hamilton d. Philip Lawrence, def.

U1350: Michael Reinhard d. Xinyu Huang, 2-1.

U1200: Michael Reinhard d. Michael Mast, 16,19.

U1000: Kirk Couch d. Gary Shelton, 2-1.

U800: William Todd d. C. Chin, 9,13.

U4200 Doubles: Goran Panic/Rick Seiler d. Ashu Jain/Sungill Kim, 6,12.

U3400 Doubles: John Riley/Alex Fuch d. Giancarlo Anselmo/John Curd, 13,8.

Heavyweight (Over 220 lbs): 1st Dennis Brown; 2nd Rick Seiler.