$17,000 2006 U.S. Open Team Table Tennis Championships
Canada Dominates
Reno, NV • March 3-5, 2006
By Larry Hodges
Tournament Report by U.S. Open Teams President Richard Lee
Wilson Zhang of Canada 2008. Photo by Kingston Gee ©2006
The U.S. Open Teams started out as the Inter-cities in the 1930s. It was held in Detroit almost continuously from 1961 to 1997 (going elsewhere only in 1962, 1964 and 1973-74). In 1998 they moved to Baltimore, and became the North American Teams. So why not revive them as the U.S. Open Teams, and put it on the west coast, where it’s never been held? And so it was arranged in Reno, Nevada, right on the California border.
Let’s thank USA Table Tennis and sponsors Butterfly, Nittaku and TMS International for bringing it about! Let’s also thank North American Table Tennis (Richard Lee, Fong Hsu, Wendy Troy, Chris Troy, Tom Nguyen and Alan Williams), who ran the event flawlessly on time, except when previous rounds held things up – such as the marathon Division One semifinals. Also a big thank you to the 25 referees and umpires who attended, including Referee Azmy Ibrahim, Deputy Referee Marc Richard, and Chief Umpire Wendell Dillon. USATT President Sheri Pittman, Treasurer Tong Lee and Executive Director Doru Gheorghe also attended the tournament, spending most of it attending every imaginable meeting.
Media coverage was very good, with articles almost every day in the sports section of the Reno Journal Gazette, and news coverage from three television stations. It seemed to work as a lot of spectator passes were sold to spectators, according to Tournament President Richard Lee.
Not that it was all perfect. At an altitude of 4500 feet (compared to 2200 feet for the USA Nationals in Las Vegas and 6000 feet for Colorado Springs, site of USATT Headquarters and various table tennis events), the ball traveled a little differently than some expected. The thinner air meant the ball traveled a little faster and deeper; spin died down more slowly; and the ball arced less than normal.
“They should never play a major tournament again at high altitude,” said USA Junior Boys’ Team member Misha Kazantsev. Misha said he never felt comfortable playing in the thin air, and twice he blew big leads. Misha wasn’t alone in this. Players seemed split between those who felt they adjusted (often control-type players) and those who did not.
Bence
Csaba of Canada 2008. Photo by Kingston Gee ©2006
A bigger problem was the lack of entries. In Detroit and Baltimore, the Teams normally had nearly 200 entries. In Reno there were only 48. (That came out to just over $350 in prize money per team.) This was a disappointment as it was thought that there would be a lot more California entries, with Reno about 200 miles from San Francisco. Some players were at the Arnold Fitness Classic (scheduled before the dates of the U.S. Open Teams were set), including most of the top USA players, sent there by sponsor Killerspin.
“The lack of entries is probably because there are so many tournaments in California, and they just had the Western Open,” said USA Junior Boys’ Coach Masaaki Tajima. “It’s also about costs. These four star events are expensive. We had the Baltimore Teams in November, the Nationals in December, the Sacramento Winter Open (not as expensive) and the Western Open in Berkeley in February. There are a lot of players in California but if you’re looking for them to support all these events, that is asking a lot when you also add the cost of travel.” Despite the low turnout, plans are already being made to run the event again next year, perhaps in California.
The tournament used 36 tables, with another four for practice. Twelve were individually barriered, the rest were partially barriered. There was lots and lots of room for players, with 16 feet between tables. Eight of the courts had the red flooring, the rest were concrete (which some complained was too slippery).
Faazil
Kassam of Canada 2008. Photo by Kingston Gee ©2006
It was a bit disappointing that the USA Men’s Team wasn’t here to take on the Canadians and others. The top seven finishers at the USA Nationals were not present. Ilija Lupulesku, Mark Hazinski, Adam Hugh and Barney J. Reed were all at the Arnold Fitness Classic. Cheng Yinghua was home coaching. Han Xiao was busy with school. And Darko Rop didn’t attend either. David Zhuang, who (partially due to injuries) finished 8th at the Nationals was the highest men’s finisher present.
The life of a USA Team member ... Jackie Lee, a junior architecture major at University of California at Berkeley, had a mid-term exam for her “Classics” class. She finished the five-page written exam (on Roman Civilization) here at the Teams. As she had pre-arranged, she had Sean O’Neill take digital photos of each page, and emailed them to her professor. (Due to a slow Internet connection, the professor couldn’t receive them, and Sean later had to fax them from his laptop.)
Best team names: “Bwahahahaha,” “The Cinnamon Toast Coco Puffs,” “Four Biological Brothers” (who obviously weren’t), “Funkie Junkies,” and “Jennifer Durst” (see later note). I’m sure “Amor Reno” (the senior team winner) means something creative, so I’ll give them honorable mention.
The format used was the one adopted by the ITTF for use in the team event at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (where teams will replace doubles for the first time). Each team will play three players, who will be designated as ABC or XYZ. One player on each team will play two singles matches; the other two players will play one singles and one doubles match (together). The best of five format is as follows:
| A | vs. | X |
| B | vs. | Y |
| (A or B) with C (doubles) | vs. | (X or Y) with Z (doubles) |
| C | vs. | X or Y (whoever didn’t play doubles) |
| A or B (whoever didn’t play doubles) | vs. | Z |
Teams do not set the doubles team until after the first two matches are played. As soon as those two are played, the team captain has to decide the doubles team, with the third player (the one who hasn’t played yet) paired with one of the two who played in the first two singles matches.
One special rule was put in for this event. To give players more matches, all team ties were played out (i.e. they didn’t end at 3-0 or 3-1) except in Division One starting on Saturday.
The advantages of the system are best given by the ITTF’s guidelines in creating the format: “A best of five format was wanted where there would be doubles, with three players playing on each side, with no player playing more than two of the matches.”
Players seemed somewhat split on whether they liked the new format, but most seemed to either like it, or (as they got used to it) adjusted to it. Many thought it was difficult to understand initially, and that there was too much randomness built into it since who played who in singles was decided by the playing order set by each team, which was done not knowing the other team’s playing order.
“Overall players were pleased with the new Olympic Teams format,” said Alan Williams, the Marketing Director for North American Table Tennis. “They expressed a willingness to play it again.”
So what did some of the top players, coaches and officials think of the new format? Alan asked around, and got these responses.
Gao
Jun of NYAC Newgy Women. Photo by Kingston Gee ©2006
Gao Jun, U.S. #1 Woman: “It’s good, but it’s seems a little complicated to me. Yesterday I made a mistake and it cost my team a tie. I thought the other coach would play their #3 player in fourth match singles, but he played in fifth singles and that created a mismatch. This format gives hard choices for coaches. It is harder to ‘hide’ a weak player on your roster. If you are all strong, no problem.”
Sean O’Neill, USA Cadet Boys’ Coach: “I’m learning with each fixture. I think it adds excitement and is better than other three-player formats ITTF has previously tried. I’ve learned that an advantage can be gained if you can anticipate the other coach’s decision. ABC vs. XYZ choices are important, whether you want to try to win 3-1 by mismatching on the singles or play for a 3-2 win. Also, I think this format rewards depth on a team, rather than just being Singles Version Two.”
Bence Csaba, Canada 2008 USOTC Champions: “It’s all right; it’s nice and short and allows us to get on with our lives. I don’t like sitting around between matches and this format keeps play brisk. Doubles is cool, but the second position is hardest to play. Second singles versus first singles determines the whole tie. If that match is a surprise result, then the tie is all over.”
Azmy Ibrahim, International Referee and the tournament referee: “I think umpires have to be fastidious in their record-keeping with this format. Ensuring the order of play is best done from the start of the match, in order to prevent error.”
Friday morning greeted players with several inches of snow, and a number of junior players had the expected snowball fights before competition began at noon.
The format started off with teams in preliminary groups on Friday to decide whether they’d be in Division One or Two. The top four teams were seeded out, while the other 44 were put in ten round robins of 4-5 teams. The top two teams in each group (20 teams) joined the four teams seeded out in Division One. The other 24 teams were put in Division Two.
On Saturday, teams in both divisions were in groups of six. The top two in each group advanced to the quarterfinals of their division on Sunday, with the rest in follow-up round robins on Sunday to decide placement.
The “upset” of the tournament (and quite a comeback!) took place on Friday when Erick Shahnazari (age 9, rated 1075) and Ethan Chua (age 8, rated 1070), fearlessly smashing at wide angles, upset Dave Sakai (2213) and Ron VonSchmimmelmann (1983) in doubles, -3,-4,8,6,6. However, the seniors swept the singles.
Tactical match of the tournament: I watched Loc Ngo (2321) against Canada’s Chris Xu (2262), a chopper, and it was a lesson on playing choppers. There are more than one way to do this, but I’m guessing few who watched (and there was a crowd watching this crowd-pleasing attacker versus chopper match) saw what Loc was doing. He would push heavy once or twice, then he’d throw a no-spin push at her (contacting the ball near the handle with less grazing motion), and immediately get ready to attack the next ball. Against the no-spin, Chris had trouble keeping the ball down, and so Loc jumped on it over and over with powerful loops. If Chris chopped the first one back low, Loc would just push and start over.
There were two matches of interest on Saturday among the top seeds.
NYAC Men vs. Chengdu
Both of these teams would be advancing to the quarterfinals, so they were just playing for seeding. The loser would be seeded to face the powerful Canada 2008 team in the semifinals. More importantly, this was our first look at the Chengdu team against a truly strong team.
NYAC Men features three powerhouse players, including former Chinese team member Jiang ... no, not THAT Jiang! Jiang Weizhong, 37, from Shanghai, was a member of the Chinese National Team in 1990 and is currently playing for the Burgos team in the Spanish League. His estimated rating of 2750 “is very accurate,” according to teammate Chetan Baboor. “Chet,” 31, rated 2626, is a former Indian Champion now living in New Jersey who made the final of Men’s Singles at the Asian Cup in 1997 and the semifinals in 2000, and the semifinals of the Asia Top 12 in 1999. The third player is USA’s very own four-time men’s champion David Zhuang, 42, rated 2691. Zhuang and Jiang are vintage pips-out penholders while Baboor is a two-winged looper.
Playing for Chengdu are penhold looper Xi Guo, 18; and shakehanders Chao Huang Bang, 18, and Yang Zhang, 20. Xi has been in the U.S. for the past three months working with the Palo Alto junior players in the San Francisco bay area, and there is speculation that perhaps he can be convinced to stay. He’s on a six month visa.
Except for the first match, every match here was a close battle. In match #1, Jiang shows that that 2750 really is accurate, defeating Yang Zhang at 4,6,5.
In match #2, Xi seems to have things under control against Chet. Xi is up 2-1 in games, and up 10-3 match point. That’s seven match points. At 10-7 he calls a timeout. At 10-all, he can only shake his head at where all those match points went, and why so many of his serves went long (thin air?) allowing Chet to loop. Xi has another match point at 11-10, but still cannot convert. Chet has three ads (12-11, 13-12, 14-13). Chet misses a forehand rip from his backhand corner at 14-all, and then loops Xi’s serve off as Xi can finally breath easy with his 5,-9,8,14 victory.
In the doubles, Chengdu (Xi and Chao) win the first two, but nothing’s easy for them this team match as Jiang/Zhuang win the next two, the fourth at deuce. Chengdu wins the doubles, 5,11,-5,-10,6.
Chet, perhaps still on a roll from his near comeback earlier, wins the first two against Chao, loses the third, gets clobbered in the fourth (11-1!) and loses the match, -9,-7,7,1,8.
So it all comes down to match #5, Zhuang versus Yang. Considering Yang’s difficulties against fellow pips-out penholder Jiang, Zhuang should be a favorite. David goes up 10-8 in the first, Yang gets an edge, but David wins 11-9. Then it’s all Yang for two games as he can do no wrong, winning at 6 & 4 (leading 6-0 in the third). David seems lost, unable to find a way to stop the onslaught of forehand putaway loops. His own forehand hitting seems off (and in fact seems off this entire tournament). Then, down 6-7 in the fourth, David scores four in a row to lead 10-7 ... and then it’s 10-all! But David wins the next two, the last on a nice drop shot followed by a flip to an open table. Things are tied up 2-2 as we go to the last game.
David takes a 3-0 lead, seems on a roll. Then Yang takes a timeout. When he returns, he scores five in a row, 3-5. Then David scores two in a row, 5-5. Then Yang scores four in a row, 5-9. The two seem determined to alternate scoring runs – and there’s one more scoring run left as David, from the depths, scores six in a row to win the match! (The last one was on a down-the-line serve that catches Yang stepping around, forcing a weak return that David smashes.) It’s 9,-6,-4,10,9 for David as he runs screaming into the arms of his teammates. Such dramatic victories come rarely and are to be savored.
The Threesome vs. Butterfly Girls
Of the matches to advance to the quarters, this was the only tightly contested one.
The team match starts off with a big upset as the Butterfly Girls’ Sara Fu (rated 2391) upsets Freddie Gabriel (2530), -6,7,5,-3,10. In match #2, Peter Zajac (2374) wins the first two against Whitney Ping (2342), but Whitney wins the next two. Peter goes up 5-0 in the fifth, but cannot hold it as Whitney ties it at 9-all. Peter goes up 10-9 match point, but Whitney gets a net dribbler to reach deuce. Peter wins the next point, and then gets his own net dribbler to win the match, 9,7,-4,-8,10. In the doubles, Gabriel/Jackie Lee struggle before winning against Ping/Heather Wang, 8,8,-9,10 to give the Threesome a twosome to onesome lead.
Up next is U.S. Collegiate Women’s Champion and U.S. Team Member Jackie Lee against Sara Fu. It goes to 9-all in the fifth. Sara wins a nice rally to go up 10-9, and then (it must be contagious) wins on a net dribbler. So it’s into the fifth match – but this time it’s rather a mismatch as the 2530-rated Gabriel wins easily against the 2147-rated Wang, 7,4,2.
(Note – starting here, all singles matches are best of seven.)
Canada 2008 d. California J Leaguers, 3-0
Canada 2008 reminds this writer of Canada’s former strength during its run with Johnny Huang in singles, Joe Ng/Horatio Pintea in doubles (reaching the quarters of the Worlds in 1991). Now it’s Wilson Zhang in singles, Bence Csaba/Faazil Kassam in doubles. In both cases, it gave Canada a powerful 1-2-3 punch, with pretty strong 4-5 jabs as well! Canada cruised past the California “J” (for Japanese) Leaguers as Zhang defeated Takayuku Abe, 2,5,4,4; Csaba defeated Tatsuya Honda, -10,8,5,8,7; and Csaba/Kassam defeated Honda/Saori Mihara, 3,7,9,3.
Canada 2006 d. NYAC Newgy Women, 3-1
Pradeeban
Peter-Paul and Qiang Shen of Canada 2006. Photos by Kingston Gee ©2006
With Gao Jun (world #7 woman, long-time USA #1, rated 2651) as their anchor and a threat to take two matches against almost any team, the NYAC Newgy Women knew they had a chance. But they decided to pull a tactical switch, putting Gao in the doubles in the hopes that they’d win that match (along with Gao’s lone single match) and get better match-ups in the singles. At first it seemed to have paid off, as it allowed them to play Gao against Canada 2006’s #1, Pradeeban Peter-Paul, rated 2640. If Gao could win that match, it not only gave the women a win, it took away an expected win for the Canadians. However, there’s a complication – Gao’s got a fever and her voice is hoarse. She’s pretty sick.
And yet win it she did, -7,7,6,3,6, showing the mental strength that has fueled her long career. “Peter-Paul likes players to play hard at him and outlast them,” said USA Women’s Coach Doru Gheorghe. “Gao plays soft, and he doesn’t like that.” It would be Gao’s last singles match; she would finish undefeated in singles. (She would later “lose” two practice matches against a smiling Justin Yao, a member of the USA Cadet Boys’ Team, rated 2227 – but she was spotting 7-8 points per game!)
Pierre-luc
Hinse of Canada 2006. Photo by Kingston Gee ©2006
Next up is Tawny Banh (2455) against Canada’s Qiang Shen (2589). Tawny wins game one, but despite ferocious rallies, cannot pull out the match as Shen wins, -8,7,8,4,8.
The women’s strategy starts to fall apart when Gao Jun/Crystal Huang (2473) begin to falter in doubles against Shen/Pierre-luc Hinse (2539) as they lose the first two games badly. Gao is a conventional pips-out penholder with an emphasis on blocking and pick hitting. Crystal is a more “modern” penholder, with an inverted reverse penhold backhand (i.e. uses the back of her penhold racket for backhands). The two women pull even, winning the next two with great hitting and blocking. The Canadians win the next two and the match, 7,3,-7,-7,9,7.
Next up is Tawny again, against Hinse. This one was a seesaw battle with more ferocious rallies (have you ever seen a match involving Tawny that wasn’t?), with Hinse winning the match, 10,-8,9,6,-10,6.
NYAC Men d. The Threesome, 3-0
Against The Threesome, two of the matches are quick 4-0’s as Jiang defeats Freddie Gabriel, 8,7,5,2 and in match #3, Zhuang/Baboor defeat Gabriel/lefty Peter Zajac, 9,4,7,7. In match #2 David is having unexpected difficulties with Jackie Lee. “I can’t treat her like a little girl anymore!” David exclaims at one point. The match goes 2-2, and at 8-all in the sixth is on the verge of going seven before David wins three straight points and the match, 5,9,-7,-5,6,8.
Chengdu d. Jennifer Durst, 3-1
Who’s Jennifer Durst? Why, that’s Dr. De Tran’s wife! Lefty De (2463, former USA team member) had an inspired start against Chengdu’s Yang Zhang, losing the first 15-13 but romping in the next two before Yang came back, 13,-6,-2,8,7,10. When the Jennifer’s team’s Shao Yu (2507) did romp against Xi Guo in match #2, 13,7,-3,5,6, things got rather serious for the Chengdu team, who might have been down 0-2. In doubles, Chengdu (Xi Guo/Chao Huang Bang) were romping, winning the first two games against De/Paul David (2459) at 2 and 4. But things weren’t over yet as the Jennifers won the next two games, and were at deuce in the fifth before Chengdu pulled it out in six, 2,4,-8,-9,10,6. In match #4, Chengdu ended it with a bang as Bang defeated Shao Yu, 4,3,4,-9,5.
Canada 2008 d. Chengdu, 3-0
Canada 2008 continues to play like a buzzsaw. In match #1, Bence Csaba easily wins against Yang Zhang, 10,6,-8,4,4. In match #2, against Xi Guo, Wilson Zhang wins the first 11-0 (Xi kept looping “winners” to Wilson’s forehand, and Wilson kept looping them back as “winners”). Wilson leads 10-9 in the second before faltering. He wins the next three easily, scoring six in a row from 5-all in the fourth as he wins the match, 0,-12,5,5,7. The doubles is also mostly one-sided, with a similar second game blip before Csaba/Kassam win, 4,-14,7,9,8.
Canada 2006 d. NYAC Men, 3-2
Canada’s Peter-Paul’s only loss so far has been to Gao Jun, and his problems with pips-out penholders continue as NYAC’s Jiang completely dominates match #1, 7,7,7,5.
Next up is Canada’s junior phenom Qiang Shen (16, rated 2589) against the more experienced David Zhuang. Shen plays very steady throughout the match, systematically picking out balls to loop away, rarely giving David a chance to force errors. David’s still having trouble with his smash and he misses a number as he loses the first two games. David wins game three, and leads 7-3 in the fourth. He loses four in a row (7-all), then goes up 10-7 in winning 11-8. Shen wins game five and goes up 10-8 match point in game six. He serves and rips – off! Then misses a backhand, and David’s done another comeback, 10-all. Or has he? David blocks off, and this time Shen’s serve & rip hits as the Canadian junior wins, 9,7,-8,-8,8,10, and things are tied up at 1-1.
NYAC Men has been varying their doubles team nearly every match, trying to find the right combo. This time they send out Jiang/Baboor against Canada’s Shen/Hinse. It goes the distance, with Canada winning, 7,-8,-9,3,10,-8,8.
David keeps things alive by defeating 18-year-old Hinse, -8,8,10,8,7 (down 9-10 in the third game). So it’ll be decided in the fifth match, between Peter-Paul (“Pradi”) and Chet.
Pradi starts out completely dominating, winning the first three with ease. The Chet who was once ranked in the top 70 in the world as a full-time player is now just a part-time player, while Pradi trains full-time at the Canadian Training Center.
But a little of the Chet of old comes back as he wins game four, 11-9. In game six, it’s all Pradi who leads 7-2. Then the Chet of old scores six in a row and soon leads 10-8 and 11-10 as he wins 13-11. In game six, the score is 4-3 for Pradi when the Canadian gets two net winners in a row. Chet can only shake his head, but Pradi, now leading 6-3, runs it out as he wins the match to advance Canada 2008 into the all-Canadian final, 8,7,3,-9,-11,6.
This semifinal took nearly three and a half hours to complete, a bit more than the two hours scheduled, postponing the final nearly an hour.
Canada 2008 d. Canada 2006, 3-1
The final is anticlimactic. It’s just another practice session back at the Canadian Training Center, right? Says Faazil Kassam, “It’s not like playing at the training center – much more pressure!” He’s referring to the prize money, since the winning team will get $7000, the runner-ups $3000. (The semifinalist teams got $1200, the quarterfinalists $600.)
The most interesting match was the first one, where Bence almost ran away with it over Pradi. After Pradi won the first at 3, Bence won the next three at 7,9,2. (When Pradi takes a timeout in game four, Bence’s teammates have to motion for him to come over: “I didn’t know it was a timeout for me also!” he says, perhaps half seriously.) Then it was Pradi’s turn, winning game five at 5, and leading 8-2 in the sixth. Then it was 10-8, down game point at 10-11, finally 13-11 for Pradi. In the seventh, Pradi was behind 4-7 but scores seven in a row (!) to win the match, 3,-7,-9,-2,5,11,7. So Canada 2006 took a temporary 1-0 lead over Canada 2008.
However, Canada 2008 now played their “Big Three” back to back to back. Wilson Zhang played matches #2 and #4, winning at 6,4,5,2 and 6,5,8,4 over Hinse and Shen. In the doubles, it was Csaba/Kassam over Hinse/Shen. Csaba/Kassam won the first three (with the highlight Csaba’s running into the umpire table during a point in game two, and then, yes, jokingly kissing it?) and had two match points in game five before winning in six, 11,8,1,-8,-13,6. So Canada 2008 defeats teammates Canada 2006 to win the 2006 U.S. Open Team Championships.
I discussed Canadian table tennis with Faazil Kassam, a member of the winning team here. He told me their team is required to train at their National Training Center. And here is where Canada Table Tennis has a major advantage over USA Table Tennis. The Canadian government funds their national training center. All six members of the winning Canada 2008 and Canada 2006 Men’s Teams, as well as the Canada 2008 Women’s Team (Mo Zhang, Judy Long and Sara Yuen), train there full time, along with others such as Xavier Therien, Guo Peng and Homayoun Kamkar-Parsi. Also training there full-time is USA’s Samson Dubina. Canada also doesn’t have strict trials as we do in the U.S., with younger players chosen to compete on teams for experience rather than older ones who may be better but with less future potential.
U.S. Junior Boys’ Team member Misha Kazantsev, 17, had his tribulations this tournament. Sometimes things go from bad to worse to … worser? The USA Junior Boys’ team played “Butterfly Girls.” Down 1-2 in games to Sara Fu, Misha went up 9-3 in the fourth, only to lose 8 straight points and the match, 5,-5,8,9. Later, against “Jennifer Durst,” Misha would win the first two games against Shao Yu, and go up 5-0 in the third. Shao took a time-out, and when he returned he won that game and the match, -8,-8,8,5,7.
And then Misha’s racket disappeared – only to reappear and be found by Misha’s Coach, Masaaki Tajima, in someone else’s bag.
But yes, things got “worser” from there. Against “Butterfly Boys” on Saturday, Misha and Coach Tajima believed Jamaican Joseph Dibbs had coached teammate and countryman Nigel Webb during a match against Misha’s teammate Trevor Runyan, yelling “reverse” at a key point to signal him to use a reverse pendulum serve. After the match, Misha confronted Dibbs on this, and claimed that Dibbs said, “I can do anything I want when there is no umpire.” Misha wrote the words down on the back of the score sheet. Dibbs later denied both coaching during the match and the quote Misha attributed to him.
As fate would have it, these two played next. Misha asked for an umpire (a smart decision, if you believe your opponent had said the above), and umpire Grady Gordon entered the scene. Dibbs won the first game 11-5. It was at 8-all in the second that the fireworks went off. Dibbs served. Misha raised his hand to signal “net ball” and patted the ball back. Dibbs ripped a winner. Umpire Gordon said he didn’t see the net ball, and Dibbs said he didn’t see it either. So Gordon awarded the point to Dibbs, 9-8.
This was too much for Misha. He would later say that he believed that the umpire made an honest mistake, but that Dibbs was cheating. He threw his racket, kicked over the barriers and threw at least one, and cursed at Dibbs with profane language. He then stormed out of the playing area, still cursing at Dibbs. After Misha left, Dibbs told the umpire he’d agree to play a let if Misha returned and the match continued, but at this point that was rather unlikely.
The acting referee at the time was Deputy Referee Marc Richard of Canada. He now entered the scene, and after a short consultation with the umpire, defaulted Misha from the match. However, he decided to allow Misha to play his next match, telling him, “If you say one more word, you will be out.” Misha teamed with John Leach in the doubles, but lost to Dibbs and Yahao Zhang. This ended the team match, with Butterfly Boys winning 3-0.
During the doubles match Misha was very quiet, but immediately afterwards he confronted Dibbs again. The two went at it again, and according to Referee Richard, Misha used abusive language, and so Misha was defaulted out of the tournament.
This left the U.S. Junior Boys’ Team with only two players. For the rest of the tournament, they would start every team match essentially down 0-2.
Misha said that during their singles match that Dibbs had been “smart-mouthing” him, which had bothered him. That, and the incident over whether Dibbs had coached Webb during a match and what Misha claimed Dibbs said afterwards, was what set him off when he believed Dibbs was cheating. He admitted that blowing big leads in two matches, and his missing racket, had also probably affected him.
Of course, none of this excuses his actions, as he fully admitted later on.
As noted above, USA Junior Boys, coached by Masaaki Tajima, lost Misha Kazantsev early on. However, Trevor Runyan and John Leach battled on, starting every tie down 0-2. On Saturday, in their group of six, they finished in a three-way tie for third with a record of 2-3. In the tie-breaking procedure, they were 3-4 in games (with the 0-3 loss to Butterfly Boys costly) and so finished fifth in the group. On Sunday, playing in the 17-20 playoffs, they won all three team matches to finish 17th in Division One.
USA Junior Girls (Judy Hugh, Barbara Wei, Atha Fong, Stephanie Shih) underwent major trials and tribulations this tournament, and ending up winning Division Two ... although they weren’t too thrilled with it since they were seeded for the first division, and were easily the best in Division Two.
The problems started on Friday, when Junior Girls’ Coach Lily Yip and daughter Judy Hugh (#1 on team) arrived late and missed all the matches that day. Also stranded was Scott Preiss, who was the #1 player on the “Triple A’s.” We’ll let Lily describe their trials and tribulations:
“We were supposed to arrive in Reno at 11:30 PM on Thursday night, but that flight got delayed two hours and we didn’t get in to San Francisco until 2:00 AM. The next morning (Friday) we were scheduled to take the first morning flight out at 8:40 AM, but that flight got cancelled because of maintenance problems. The rest of the morning and afternoon flights were booked since everyone from the 8:40 flight was rushing to find an open seat. So after missing the 10:30 AM standby flight, Scott Preiss and I decided to drive to Reno since the next for sure flight wouldn’t be until 7:30 PM Saturday night. We left a little after noon and didn’t arrive in Reno until 7:15 PM that night. The Junior Girl’s Team was halfway through their last team tie of the day when we arrived.”
She added, “I needed an emergency bathroom stop, but there weren't any trees on our side of the road so I had to run across the highway! I have never seen so much snow in my life. Luckily we had Scott Preiss, a 3000 level chauffeur. Thank you, Scott!”
So Lily and Judy finally arrived, taking about twice the normal time to drive from San Francisco to Reno due to the snow – but the damage had long been done. Playing without Judy (rated 2354), they were upset 4-1 by Reno and so knocked into the second division with a 2-2 record. (In the last rather meaningless match, a dispirited Atha Fong won the first two against David Rubin before losing -9,-9,10,12,9.) On Saturday and Sunday, they would play eight team matches, romping through the division with a combined 39-1 match record as they finished first in Division Two, 25th overall. They were the only team seeded to make Division One that didn’t.
USA Cadet Girls (Olena Sowers, Ariel Hsing and Amy Huang), coached by Emilia Gheorghe, went 1-2 on Friday (losing two ties 0-5, winning the other 4-1), and so went into Division Two, as seeded. On Saturday, seeded second in their group, they went 3-2 with a rather traumatic loss to “The Hardbat Team” made up of, yes, three hardbatters (i.e. no sponge), Scott Gordon, Lorin Benedict and Andrew Hutzel. This knocked the USA Cadet Girls out of contention for winning the division, putting them into the playoffs for 9-12. On Sunday they went 2-1 to finish 10th in Division Two, 34th overall.
USA Cadet Boys (Amaresh Sahu, Justen Yao, A.J. Brewer and Joseph Wang) went 2-1 (winning two ties 5-0, losing the other 0-5) on Friday, and so went into Division One, as seeded. On Saturday, seeded 5th in their group of six, they went 0-5, losing a close 2-3 match to Senoda, putting them in the playoffs for 21-24. On Sunday they went 3-0 to finish 21st in Division One.
Said Coach Sean O’Neill, “I was very pleased with their preparation before each team match. They were always on time, glued up, and ready to play. Since we had four players in Reno someone was going to have to sit out each round. Although I tried to balance it out, no one ever complained. Instead the boys were always attentive and cheering for each other after each good shot or smart decision.”
He added, “From watching the top cadets in the world at the 2005 & 2006 Safir International Tournament in Sweden it is very apparent to me that we are lagging in physical fitness and our ability to make strong topspins on our forehand side. While our players are happy to slow loop pushes over the net, our competition is driving them with tremendous spin and speed. Our footwork is also a step too slow and often our opponent’s choose our team’s shot instead of us dictating play. More off the table training, footwork and multi-balls drills will be required for us to catch up with our peers.”
$600 each went to the highest finishing:
· Women’s Team (NYAC Newgy Women – Gao Jun, Tawny Banh, Crystal Huang);
· Senior (over 40) Team (Amor Reno – Billy Fu, Josef Badrena, Felipe Campbell, Ivan Rubio);
· Junior Girls’ Team (USA Junior Girls – Judy Hugh, Barbara Wei, Atha Fong, Stephanie Shih);
· Junior Boys’ Team (USA Junior Boys (Trevor Runyan, John Leach); Misha Kazantsev was also on this team, but was disqualified (see section in article) and so forfeited his $200 share.
Division One
Final
Canada 2008 d. Canada 2006, 3-1
· Pradeeban Peter-Paul (CAN06) d. Bence Csaba (CAN08), 3,-7,-9,-2,5,11,7
· Wilson Zhang (CAN08) d. Pierre-luc Hinse (CAN06), 6,4,5,2
· Bence Csaba/Faazil Kassam (CAN08) d. Pierre-luc Hinse/Qiang Shen (CAN06), 11,8,1,-8,-13,6
· Wilson Zhang (CAN08) d. Qiang Shen (CAN06), 6,5,8,4
Semifinals
Canada 2008 d. Chengdu, 3-0
· Bence Csaba (CAN08) d. Yang Zhang (CD), 10,6,-8,4,4
· Wilson Zhang (CAN08) d. Xi Guo (CD), 0,-12,5,5,7
· Bence Csaba/Faazil Kassam (CAN08) d. Chao Huang Bang/Xi Guo (CD), 4,-14,7,9,8
Canada 2006 d. NYAC Men, 3-2
· Jiang Weizhong (NYAC) d. Pradeeban Peter-Paul (CAN06), 7,7,7,5
· Qiang Shen (CAN06) d. David Zhuang (NYAC), 9,7,-8,-8,8,10
· Pierre-luc Hinse/Qiang Shen (CAN06) d. Jiang Weizhong/Chetan Baboor (NYAC), 7,-8,-9,3,10,-8,8
· David Zhuang (NYAC) d. Pierre-luc Hinse (CAN06), -8,8,10,8,7
· Pradeeban Peter-Paul (CAN06) d. Chetan Baboor (NYAC), 8,7,3,-9,-11,6
Quarterfinals
Canada 2008 d. California J Leaguers, 3-0
· Wilson Zhang (CAN08) d. Takayuki Abe (CJL), 2,5,4,4
· Bence Csaba (CAN08) d. Tatsuya Honda (CJL), -10,8,5,8,7
· Bence Csaba/Faazil Kassam (CAN08) d. Tatsuya Honda/Saori Mihara (CJL), 3,7,9,3
Canada 2006 d. NYAC Newgy Women, 3-1
· Gao Jun (NYAC) d. Pradeeban Peter-Paul (CAN06), -7,7,6,3,6
· Qiang Shen (CAN06) d. Tawny Banh (NYAC), -8,7,8,4,8
· Qiang Shen/Pierre-luc Hinse (CAN06) d. Gao Jun/Crystal Huang (NYAC), 7,3,-7,-7,9,7
· Pierre-luc Hinse (CAN06) d. Tawny Banh (NYAC), 10,-8,9,6,-10,6
NYAC Men d. The Threesome, 3-0
· Jiang Weizhong (NYAC) d. Freddie Gabriel (TT), 8,7,5,2
· David Zhuang (NYAC) d. Jackie Lee (TT), 5,9,-7,-5,6,8
· David Zhuang/Chetan Baboor (NYAC) d. Freddie Gabriel/Peter Zajac (TT), 9,4,7,7
Chengdu d. Jennifer Durst, 3-1
· Yang Zhang (CD) d. De Tran (JD), 13,-6,-2,8,7,10
· Shao Yu (JD) d. Xi Guo (CD), 13,7,-3,5,6
· Xi Guo/Chao Huang Bang (CD) d. De Tran/Paul David (JD), 2,4,-8,-9,10,6
· Chao Huang Bang (CD) d. Shao Yu (JD), 4,3,4,-9,5
Division Two: 1st USA Junior Girls (Judy Hugh, Barbara Wei, Atha Fong, Stephanie Shih); 2nd Four Musketeers (Mark Johnson, Barry Or, Michael Liu, Gary Fang).
Highest Finishing Women’s Team: NYAC Newgy Women (Gao Jun, Tawny Banh, Crystal Huang).
Highest Finishing Senior Team: Amor Reno (Billy Fu, Josef Badrena, Felipe Campbell, Ivan Rubio).
Highest Finishing Junior Boys’ Team: USA Junior Boys (Trevor Runyan, John Leach; Misha Kazantsev disqualified).
Highest Finishing Junior Girls’ Team: USA Junior Girls (Judy Hugh, Barbara Wei, Atha Fong, Stephanie Shih).
| |
| USA Table Tennis - Serving the Table Tennis Community |
| |