$23,000 Meiklejohn North American Seniors Open

            By Tim Boggan

            This was a special 20th Anniversary year for the June 4-7 Bill and Louise Meiklejohn North American Seniors tournament. Hence the celebratory idea was not only to reward the players with more prize money—a record $23,000 as opposed to the $18,000 listed in the earlier-printed entry blank—but also to recognize the perennial Tournament Committee as being worthy of induction as a unit into the California Hall of Fame. Thus you could see in the Program homage being given to Chair Olga Feingold Kahan, Tournament Director Ray Kunze, Treasurer Walt Wehrlie, Secretary Stan Kahan, and Committee members (many of whom were past Presidents of the Laguna Woods Village T.T. Club) Harry Bloom, Herb Gilbert, Len Hauer, Craig Krum, Julius Margolis, Jack Lopez, and Alma Beckerman. But CATTA President Y.C. Lee and National Seniors T.T. Tournament Association Chair Olga Kahan had what officially was being referred to as a (China/Russia?) “miscommunication,” so this induction never took place. As a result, those disappointed were not merely saying, “Oh, well,” but wondered what accommodation would be forthcoming.
            Honored in the Program, too, were the usual long-serving volunteers—Artie Rosenstein, current Club President; Marilyn Miller at the Control Desk, and her husband Tom in the Umpire/Referee’s Chair, Craig Krum, Computer Programmer, and his co-worker Mas Hashimoto; Margo Hamman, Registrar, and Robert Ferguson, Table Setter. Many honorees were listed in the CA Hall of Fame Banquet Program—some 60 inductees in all. Though I think there must have been some “miscommunication” there too—for unaccountably absent were U.S. Hall of Famer Ray Guillen, “Ping-Pong Diplomacy” hero Glenn Cowan, and everybody’s favorite “bad boy” Paul Raphel.
            There were, however, two worthies inducted into the CA Hall this year—Stan Fields and Nick Mintsiveris. Stan, now deceased, was introduced to us by legendary CA Club owner and former U.S. World Team Captain Si Wasserman. Accepting for Stan was not, as planned, his son Bobby who was in a hospital recovering from an injury, but members of Bobby’s family. We then got such a profile of Mintsiveris, not deceased, from former USATT President Terry Timmons that Nick was left speechless.

Trophy Winners (14 events)
            In the final of the Over 90’s, Ivan Slade downed his more mature opponent, Harry Bloom, the Tournament Chair for the 1989 National Senior Tournament in Laguna Hills at which he’d proudly announced $3,800 in cash prizes. Harry’s a phenomenon at 96; still plays table tennis three—or was it two, or four times—a week. Though Slade’s wife, looking at his arm where he’d raked it losing his balance reaching for a tea-bag, didn’t want him to risk a fall participating in tournaments, Ivan, 92, says he’ll play until he goes belly up. Yep, he’s got a mind of his own, and a game to match. He won the 85’s over Leo Egel. And in the 16-entry 80’s, touting his practice recently in St. Louis with another ageless wonder, George Hendry, he again found his touch to outsteady Dick Peregrine, 11-9 in the fourth. Dick said the long pips racket he used to use gave him “free” points, but the anti he’s got now doesn’t.
            Peregrine would take his turn at a win, though, for he paired with Lenny Hauer to come out on top in the 70 Doubles via two five-game matches—over Gene Szulczyk/Kin Chiu Yung, then in the final over John Opperman/Hsing Kiang. Lenny, famous for having shed 170 infamous pounds, said, “Yeah, I’m keeping the weight off—but it isn’t easy. I like to eat!”
            Slade continued his winning ways in the 75’s, outlasting, 11, 7, -8, 10 in the semi’s, budding novelist Suresh Kanekar who’d escaped Peregrine. In the other semi’s, Alan Miller defeated Walt Witkowski after Walt, placing the ball well, had scored a big upset over Neil Smyth. Alan, we learn, had been on the move. For seven months or so he was caring for his brother in country isolation in England (poor fellow broke his pelvis), then he went with his wife to Alaska for a cool 10 days of staring at glaciers and icebergs. The final saw Miller scoring not with his usual wind-up forehands but with sweeping backhands to best Slade, 14-12 in the fourth.
            Alan of course has always been a mite quirky—uses this elongated racket that won’t fit in a glue-testing machine. But that’s o.k. He advocates a more up-to-date method of testing—with a spoon. Uh-huh. You swallow a teaspoonful of the glue you’re about to use, and if you don’t die within half an hour, you can use it on your racket.
            Smyth, who’s on the move too—he and wife Jan are about to enjoy an upscale retirement community in National City, CA—paired with Hiep Hoa Cung to take the 75 Doubles. They won in five in the semi’s over Witkowski and Byng Forsberg, a pal now of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. And in the final they downed, again in five, Miller and Marv Karno, former UCLA professor as well as a longtime medical doctor.
            In the Women’s over 70’s (prize money in the Men’s 70’s but not in the Women’s), top seed Joyce Arpon took the title in a neutralizing battle of the pips, -10, 8, 11, -7, 9, over Harriet Quon. Actually, Harriet had been plenty extended before that final. In her round robin she’d survived five-game matches with fellow Long Beach veteran Millie Drake and unseeded Helen Chen who’d won a 13-11-in-the-fourth fight over Harriet Brin (gamely playing with a mending broken wrist she’d suffered in a fall). Then in the semi’s, Quon had another five-gamer—with Kiang Hsing who’d upset Marge Starr. Also, in the U-2300 Doubles, Harriet teamed with Tom Clissold to win three matches and reach the final before losing to Wen Chor Chang/Kim Leung (3, 2, 0 winners in a quarter’s match).
            Quon wasn’t quite done, or done in, with her opening day’s play. In the Women’s 60’s (prize money in the Men’s 60’s but not in the Women’s), she advanced out of a round robin of four to lose a semi’s match to Grace Yau who’d upset Arpon in her round robin. Winner over Yau was Tingning Cheung.
            All this work for Harriet on Thursday, so no wonder she just couldn’t bring herself to play in her 1200 round robin at 9 a.m. on Friday. Her absence, leveling the playing field in her round robin, allowed Mary Nauman to advance. (In the 70’s, Mary had deuce-in-the-fourth extended winner Arpon. This after Mary’s husband Mike, warming her up, had aggravated an earlier rotator-cuff injury and so was put out of action.) Attila Malek said that Mary (rated 911), though not technically strong as yet, had such good strokes that he could play an exhibition with her.
            Winner in the 35-entry U-1200’s was Mike Schmidt, ex-third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies—or, no, sorry, wrong Mike. Only you gotta say this Schmidt was an All-Star too, at least in this event. On coming out of his round robin with an upset over James Berry, he beat (the 1100 “sleeper” winner over Pat Nugent) Yude Chan, 13-11 in the fifth after being down 2-0; beat Peter Bessey, 13-11 in the fifth after being down 2-0; and in the final beat Rich Turek in the fifth after being down 2-1. Iron Mike.
            In the 1450’s, there were 10 pre-lim round robins and in every one there were close matches. Ken Dewhirst took down Cuong Chi Lam. Lefty Ken Sandberg, winner of the U-2800 Doubles with Roger Keely and his sporty fedora over Jack Janes/Viktor Troppmann, won out over Florida’s Jim Weisbecker. Jude Balazy knocked off Fred Cericola. Derrick Stockhausen stopped Keely. And Buddy Caples, five-game runner-up in the 1300’s to Dennis Ramos, upset George Barsegian, and just got by Karno, 12-10 in the fifth. Caples, I might add, was able to reach the 1300 final largely because of a 12-10-in-the-fifth win over Janes, while Ramos got there after being down 2-1 to Burt Bialik.
            In the one 1450 semi’s, Stan Frisbee winged just enough 14-12-in-the-fifth points to escape Kai Fung. In the other, Kanekar -6, 13, 13, -8, 9 barely held on against Yude Chan, then, though down 2-0 and at 10-all in the third, rallied, with the help of his Barna-like backhand flick, to advance over Barsegian. In the final, Frisbee was 11-9 in the fourth too strong for Suresh who, after receiving his doctorate in Psychology from the University of Iowa, went back to India and taught at the University of Bombay before immigrating to the U.S. in 1994 at age 60. Now 76, he still teaches—at Alliant International University in San Diego.

Cash Winners (19 events)
In the Men’s 70’s, though Szulczyk straight away picked up this (-3, -2, 5, 6, 4) hand against Cung, it wasn’t good enough to allow him to beat Chong Keng Tay. And though Norm Bass downed Ralph Guillery 11-9 in the fifth, he wasn’t able to stop Nick Minsiveris from reaching the final. Norm, not incidentally, is still as lawyer-firm as ever in pursuing his “age discrimination” case for being left off the U.S. Paralympic Team to Beijing. Nor could Nick, stricken with laryngitis, make his 10, -6, -6, -4 weak resistance heard to any avail against Tay ($100) whom he’d beaten in last year’s final.
            In the top half of the Men’s Over 60 draw, Bass and Mintsiveris advanced as far as the quarter’s. Norm knocked out Man Yu in five, then upset George “The Chief” Braithwaite in straight games before losing to Parviz Mojaverian. “I needed to be very patient against Norm who’s got a good backhand pick,” said George. “To beat him I had to wait him out—and I didn’t wait.” Nick eliminated former Iranian #1Alireza Hejazi, 11-8 in the fifth, but then went down in five himself to Bill Ukapatayasakul who’d gone two 15-13 games with Tay. Bill, conscious that he’d been up 2-0 on Nick, said he sometimes shows “too much mercy” and has to work on being more of a “killer.”
            In the bottom half quarter’s, Defending Champion Duc Loi 7, 12, -12, 7 finished off a stubborn Che-Him Leung; and Dave Sakai ended Alex Salcido’s hopes. Dave said he hadn’t played Alex in 45 years, but remembered that 1964 U.S. Open match with him because it was his first big win—Alex had come to that Open as the U.S. Junior Champion and was seeded 12th in the Men’s. Alas, I had to show Alex a mortifying mistake I’d made in my most recent History volume. There was his photo alright—but with the identifying caption, “Ed Ball.” “That’s gonna stay that way forever?” he wailed. “With luck,” I said.
            After his semi’s win over Bill U, Mojaverian still hadn’t lost a game, but Sakai had an 8, 8, -6, 11 battle with Loi, small in stature but big in heart. This close match wasn’t surprising, though, because Duc had beaten Dave 3-0 last year. The final finally saw Parviz lose a game, but he was never in danger of losing his $300 first prize.
            In the Men’s Over 50’s, Jian Zhuang had “The Chief” 2-1 and at 12-all in the fourth but couldn’t close. And Salcido, sidelined for about four months with tendonitis, was up 11-3, 11-4 on Malek, but dropped the next three, the fourth at 12-10. Attila then fell to Sakai who reached the final with four successive three-game wins, most notably over Mojaverian (“He blocked me to death,” said Parviz, though hearing him talk I could tell he was still very much alive). Earlier, Mojaverian had stopped Stanley Tang, as well as Hank McCoullum, 11-9 in the fourth. “What can I say about you this match?” I asked Hank. “He fought hard” was the wry response. “Sounds like an epitaph,” I replied. “To me, too,” he said. In parallel straight-game fashion, Seemiller matched Sakai, except for the one game he dropped to N.Y. Coach Hui Yuan Liu (and that when after being down 8-2 he got seven in a row). For playing in this event Danny earned $500, Dave $250.
            As expected, Defending Champion Bella Livshin won the $500 first prize for Women Over 50 by defeating North Carolina’s Fan Ling ($250) in the final. (Later, in the 1900’s, Fan would beat Bella, for which she’d win $0.) Fan played table tennis in China—but only until she was 10. Then three, four years ago, her doctor (who was Chinese?) said, “Take 10,000 steps a day,” and so she came back to play the game she’d known as a child. Her friend Simon Brain—and t.t. is the #1 “brain sport,” right?—thinks with good coaching she could become the U.S. Women’s Champ.
            The entry blank had advertised $75 for both third and fourth place in the Women’s 50’s—but there were only three round robins, out of which came also Hui Xianyu, who then finished third with a loss to Fan. It was decided that for the remaining $75 pay-off there’d be a fourth-place playoff between the second-place finishers in the round robins—and in this Julian Tsung prevailed over higher-rated challengers Sui Ning Zhu, and Huiping Fuschino.
            Of course the Women’s Over 40 was won by Gao Jun ($700). Second place ($300) went to Gina Dole when Diane Dongye Chen ($100), not feeling well, forfeited the semi’s to her. Fourth place, as in the 50’s, was decided by a play-off—with Livshin picking up another $100 over Tsung and Fan. Coach Bella said she’d stunned her Santa Monica students by giving them (gasp) Homework! They were to go to the ITTF web site and watch and write down the names of the Yokohama World Championship winners.
            Gao couldn’t win the Draw Doubles with Mary Nauman, or the 4200 Doubles with Gail Kendall, or the 4800 Doubles with Xuan Liu, but give her credit for being a wonderful sport. “Twentieth in the world, and she’s playing in these rating events—amazing,” said one onlooker.
            The Draw Doubles drew 38 teams, and, wow, in what other sport could a Vern Boyce (985) play with an Atanda Musa, or a Harold Lemaster (1072) play with a Danny Seemiller—and get paid as if they were professionals? Winners ($500) were John Thach Tran/Machiko Hughey (John’s third Draw Doubles win in a row) over Loc Ngo/Walt Witkowski ($250) who’d been down two match points to Seemiller/Lemaster ($100).
             The 3600 Doubles went to J. Tran/C. Pham (3431) over T. Phan/T. Phan. Confused? J. Tran was not the J. Tran (John Thach) of Draw Doubles but Joe Tran (1992), and C. Pham was—who knows?—not Kevin Pham (1288) or Tung Pham (1849), the only two Phams in the Players Roster. T. Phan/T. Phan was not a one-man cloned team but Tung Phan (not Pham) and Tri Phan.
            John Thach Tran, though good in singles, seemed to play better with a partner. You remember he got married last year and since then his pregnant wife has joined him in the States, giving him added incentive. He paired with Tim Nguyen for a well-earned 4200 Doubles win. They beat successively Maling Tin Htut/Dinh Nguyen, -7, -11, 13, 13, 5 (a huge $250 swing); beat Musa/Howard Vu (from down 2-0); and in the final beat Joe (from Santa Ana) Tran and Thanh (from Fountain Valley) Tran (from down 2-1 and at 10-all in the fourth). Joe and Thanh ($150) worked hard for their runner-up spot—they scored gritty wins over Rudy Miranda/Xuan Liu (14-12 in the fifth); over George Seicean/Zhuang (15-13 in the fifth); and over Braithwaite/Kamal Farah (after being down 2-1). In other tight matches it was Braithwaite/Farah over Christopher Hoang/Tung Phan, and Musa/Vu over Quoc Bao Nguyen (2202) and Ky Nguyen (his 1948 listed rating turned surreally into 1984).
            Gao Jun and Xiankun Yang shared the $600 first prize in the 4500 Doubles. In the semi’s they beat fun lobber James Therriault and combo-pips player William Lin, 8, -9, 9, -10, 9. Then in an almost identically scored final—with Gao smacking in her opponents’ serves—they beat last year’s Champions Seemiller and Tom Wintrich. In other tense matches, Braithwaite/John Wetzler prevailed in five over Dr. Tuan Le/Ky Nguyen; and Ernest Virgo/Hank McCoullum stopped John Thach Tran/Douglass Younan, 12-10 in the fifth.
            In the 4800 Doubles, Braithwaite teamed with Musa to five-game eliminate Wetzler and Loc Ngo who after a relaxing win in the Hard Bat event shook hands with runner-up Robert Shahnazari, then, on his way to returning the score sheet to the Control Desk, walked along the aisle slappin’ high fives with well-wishers. Earlier, spectators had clogged a side aisle to see Gao and an emotional Xuan Liu lose two deuce games to Wetzler/Loc. “Ah,” said John, “if we could only loop like Gao flat hits.” For reaching this 4800 Doubles final, Au and Dr. De Tran socking in clean backhand winners against John Thach Tran/Tuan Le earned $250 apiece. The winners, Brathwaite/Musa, $400 apiece.
            In the 1600’s, Tri Phan upset the #1 seed Allan Ferrenberg, and Vu had a notable 12-10-in-the-fifth win over Ben Wong. But it was Marty Plost, coming from down 2-0 against Vu, then beating Justin Bookey in the final, who took the $150 title.
            There were a bevy of close matches in the 52-entry 1800’s. In the top half: Plost, 11-9 in the fifth, over Andy Lee. Wilfredo Escobar, 15-13 in the fifth, over Wong. Escobar again, in five, over Allen Silberman. And Theo Burris over Escobar in five, then over John Long in the semi’s. In the bottom half: Slade, 12-10 in the fourth, 16-14 in the fifth over Ray Landis. Tom Lambert, (from down 2-0) 11-9 in the fifth, over Richard Yip. Lefty Andy Phan over Chris Portillo in five. Leszek Kasowski, 13-11 in the fifth, over Phan. Jorge Puchulutequi over John Harrington, (from down 2-0) 11-9 in the fifth. In the other semi’s, it was Kuok Leong over Jorge P. Then Leong in the $150 final over Burris in straight games.
            The 1900’s saw Thanh Tran in his first match defeat Wintrich, 14-12 in the fifth, and in his last match (up 2-0) lose to Tung Phan ($150), 11-9 in the fifth.
            In the 40-entry U-2050’s Seicean, before falling to Bill U., did well to win two five-game matches—from David Davong and Kuok Leong. Kuok had advanced in five over an exasperated Lenny Hauer. Of course Lenny’s racket was chiefly the problem and when, heatedly chastised, it wouldn’t break on being flung to the floor a couple of times, Lenny tore the rubber off and ripped it to shreds. Tony Rodriguez did even better than Seicean: from down 2-0, he beat Bernie Savitz 12-10 in the fourth, 12-10 in the fifth. Then again down 2-0, he beat Htut, 11-9 in the fifth. Then, down once more 2-0, Tony started another rally—against Bill U, but couldn’t take more than a game. Bill, though he got by last year’s U-1800 winner Heang Duong in five, lost the $150 first-prize final to Zhuang—said he was weak on returning serve. This time next year Bill’ll have to miss the Meiklejohn ‘cause (“I don’t care what it costs”) he’s going to play in the World Veterans Championships in Mongolia.
            In the top half of the 2300’s, best early matches were Salcido, -8, 14, 7, 9 over ages-ago Canton, China Champion Che-Him Leung; Miranda over Ajayi Ohore in five; and Ernest Virgo over both Zhuang and Phong Nguyen. Ernie, a former Jamaican National who, with his shakehands grip, uses two fingers on the forehand side, one finger on the backhand side, then went on to play the #1 seed Avishy Schmidt in the quarter’s. I got to their match late, at a game break, and asked Virgo how the match stood. “Two-Two,” he said. After they played for a few points, a discussion ensued. Why? Because Avi, retracing the side of the table each had served on, assured Ernie they were in the fourth game and that he, Avi, was leading Two-One. Both later agreed the match went no further than the fourth. Meanwhile, bandana-capped Miranda had reached the semi’s, but couldn’t stop Schmidt.
            In the bottom half, Mojaverian was surprised and disheartened to lose “MY 2300 event!”11-9 in the fifth, to Mark Brader (the tallest player at the tournament and to most a total stranger) rated 120-some points below him. The 46-year-old Brader, it turned out, was quite a bit better than Parviz thought. He’d been a second-tier Junior in New Zealand, and all these years later, after working in Denmark for a time, is now a scientist in bio-chemistry based in San Diego. In his quarter’s match he was 9-all in the fifth with the higher-rated Diane Dongye Chen before she finally got him with a high-toss serve he returned into the net.
            In the companion quarter’s, #2 seed James Therriault got the better of Joey Kuok, 10, 10, -9, 13. It looked like Kuok would be able to pick the right ball to smack through Therriault, but James is tricky to play—mixes defensive spins with lobs (one stayed in play by going over, or through, the chandelier above the table), and if Joey too carefully steers back a lob, James can jump-smash that in for a winner. In the fourth, as James, down game point, is back lobbing, a ball comes over from an unbarriered adjacent court and Musa going after it comes perilously close to Therriault. But James, only semi-distracted, doesn’t call Let. He continues lobbing, and wins the point. This coupled with the closing point makes the match difference. In the closer, James, again lobbing, is back knocking down a barrier in anticipation of returning a Kuok smash—only Joey misses to allow James to advance to the semi’s and Chen.
            Diane’s abandoned her recent shakehands play and, remembering how well she played as a penhold Provincial star in China, says, “I get tired of playing shakehands. Besides, playing penholder gives me more control.” Therriault on his lobs often uses a long-stroke, arm-curling follow through that takes the place of body-english as he watches and wishes the ball on high to curve into the table. Best he can do against a patient Diane, whom he’d lost to in the 2400’s, is two 12-10 games.
            The $500 first-prize final goes to Diane over Avi whose 6-2 lead in the fifth quickly evaporates as Diane scores with a series of forehands. Avi says, alluding to his early lead, “The ball was in my paddle and I missed.”
            John Wetzler, making his first appearance at the Meiklejohn, won the $750 first-prize U-2400’s. His only difficult match was his five-game semi’s against Tuan Le in which whoever would get ahead would win the game. John’s serves were effective, but those weren’t his only weapon. “I never saw anything like that forehand of Wetzler’s,” said Tuan. “Such a high risk shot, but it keeps going in.” In the final, John, with Mojaverian in his corner, beat Loc Ngo in straight games. Though Loc said, “I haven’t trained. My body’s not ready—my left knee is bothering me”—he’d advanced to claim his $400 second-prize with relative ease.
            There were, however, notable round robin wins where the favorites didn’t advance. Q.B. Nguyen upset the #3 seed Hui Yuan Liu who complained of a tight muscle in his playing arm. Miranda ousted the #5 seed John Thach Tran. Said Rudy, “I prepared for him. Warmed up every half hour, was able to move very well—played counter-points well, and could loop four or five balls in, then score with a backhand.” Phong Nguyen took over the #6 seed spot from Au, then later outlasted Mojaverian in five. The energetic Li Qifan upset the 8th seed Schmidt, and subsequently earned $200 for a win over Nguyen  
            Virgo did a pumped-up step and vocal accompaniment on knocking out 10th seed Ramin Samari. Ernie, now 50, plans to open a six-table club in Hartford, CT. Said he’d become very interested in coaching, especially since his nine-year-old daughter had started to play. Before being eliminated by Wetzler, Virgo went on to earn $100 with an upset win over Malek, whom I heard was bothered by an ingrown toenail. Attila says the overall Head Coach of a Table Tennis Academy (in charge of other coaches) could conceivably be VERY well paid, “make $1,000-$2,000 an hour [sic]. He reiterates that the USTTA has no satisfactory Junior Program. Take a child of six, he says, what specific steps in what measured program must the USATT follow to make him/her a possible world champion? Without accountability for such measurement, you can’t manage the program. Shape up—and the U.S. could be the capital of the Table Tennis World.
            In the 31-entry Senior Elites (rating has to be 2000 or better), Virgo upset 6th seed Tuan Le in round robin play; and Duc Loi advanced over both the higher-rated Au and Shahnazari. One match that might have ended in an upset, but didn’t, saw John Thach Tran reach the first-round proper with a fifth-game 2800, one-ball annihilation of Mojaverian. Another centered on Avishy Schmidt in his self-sponsored Alameda T.T. Center playing shirt vs. Attila Malek in his self-sponsored Power Pong Academy playing shirt. Avi’s down 1-0 and at 11-all in the second when he groans (“What a bad serve!”) and loses that game too. Then he gets off to a discouraging start in the third (“Soooo bad! I can’t play!”). But Attila’s not the U.S. Champion he was 30 years ago—and suddenly it’s he who can’t play. He whiffs balls, mis-serves… until he’s down 6-2 in the fifth. But then he begins to rally, and Avi loses concentration, serves off, drops his racket, and can’t pick up his game—is down triple match point. Now, however, Attila’s loop doesn’t go in, 10-8, and when he pushes Avi’s serve into the net, 10-9, he loudly berates himself, “Don’t be careful!” But Avi can’t get the tie-point he needs—says later, “I waited too long on the forehands, so hit them long.”
            Virgo continues his great tournament play, gets by Attila in five, wins the first from Musa—but then is finished. Loi gives what he has to give against Wetzler, -5, -10, 10, 2, but then can give no more. Tran receives a default win over Loc Ngo whom he’d been practicing with for two days prior to the tournament, then extends Seemiller into the fifth. Danny’s excited about the $100,000 Bud Light Hard Bat tournament coming up in Vegas—not only because he’s qualified for it (4600 such bar tournaments were held, he said), but because he hopes Hard Bat catches on. It’s much easier to teach and keep students with that surface rather than with the combination rackets that demand kids pass a rubber test. No, he himself isn’t using a hard bat yet, and didn’t even play in the Hard Bat event here because he was afraid he might incur an injury like the torn muscle he suffered last year that affected him in his 11-9-in-the-seventh Open loss to Khoa Nguyen.
            Next up for Seemiller was his $500 semi’s with Musa—and though Danny was up 2-0 and at 8-5, 10-all in the third, and up 2-1, 8-5, and at 12-all in the fourth, and, m’god, up 6-1 in the fifth only to lose 11-7, he couldn’t produce a clincher. Instead he came up with a sore arm from looping so much. “Strange,” said Danny, “when Musa seemed to try, he missed; and when he seemed not to try, and I was on the cusp of victory, he played perfectly, didn’t miss a ball.” After that match, Danny said he didn’t sleep very well.            Back in New York you can find Musa (after his morning job) at Robert Chen’s popular Chinatown Club six afternoons and evenings a week coaching and playing a little. His son has one more year of college left, and after that Atanda may go back to Nigeria to be their National Coach. As for now who would play him in the $1,000 final? Could there be any doubt? It was Gao Jun over Wetzler, 5, 8, 3; over Khoa Nguyen (think he’d trained for this tournament?), 2, 8, 8; and over Musa (after Gao had lost the first), 3, 3, 7. “How does she play so well?” someone said. “She doesn’t work hard enough.”
            The Meiklejohn’s climactic event of the 33 offered is the $8,100 Open (no minimum rating—46 entries). Odd, though, there’s only one five-game match—with the winner earning $500 for getting to the quarter’s, the loser $0. Before losing to Khoa Nguyen in the quarter’s, John Thach Tran exacts revenge for his U-2400 loss to Miranda, after Rudy, at 1-1, wins what might be thought a pivotal third game, 16-14. This, however, turns out to be more of a last gasp prior to a -3. -7 finish. Another $500 quarter’s winner is Coach Hui Yuan Liu whose default win over Loc Ngo allows him to default in turn to Gao Jun but then stick around to coach her. Dr. Tuan Le is also $500 richer for his 11-9 in the fourth win over Malek, as is Dr. De Tran for his straight-game win over James Therriault. De flew here only for Sunday play and had to be back in New York at work Monday morning.
            Against Musa in the quarter’s, it sure seems Tran’s in a rush. He’s up 1-0 and 10-9 game point when he loops his serve return long—10-all. Then he forces Atanda back, gets another ad, only to see Musa serve a saving edge—11-all. Then he has Musa chopping and again has game point, but pushes Atanda’s serve into the net—12-all. Now, enough chances, De misses a backhand, and again fails to return serve. Match all even.
            The third is 7-all close—but Tran doesn’t help himself by serving off, and loses that game 11-8. In the fourth, De’s up 8-1! Better he used some of those points in the second or third game. Or, wait, check that, he needs all those points this game—and more. At 8-5 Tran calls Time! But can Musa be stopped? Now it’s he who’s coming on in a rush. De’s lead is cut to 8-7, but he’s helped by a ticked net—9-7. Then, with Atanda attacking and De missing, Musa finishes his 10-1 run.
            It’s not a good time for an interview—De sees me coming, says, “He won,” and keeps walking. Musa is sitting down, someone’s massaging his leg. He has such a bad cramp he’s going to take his $1000 and default his semi’s to Seemiller who’s beaten Le in straight games.
            First and only semi’s—a best four out of seven between Nguyen and Gao who’d allowed Khoa only 18 points in their Senior Elite match. In the first, Guo’s down 5-4, then very unexpectedly serves off and loses six in a row, including another mis-serve to end the game. In the second, up 5-4, Gao mis-serves again. Is there an explanation? She’s just come from China. Playing those friendly doubles matches has been a distraction. But Khoa’s not hitting in as he did that first game. From 7-all, both make errors. But at 10-all Guo counters in a winner, and ties up the match. In the third, Khoa’s off to a 4-1 start, but now that forehand here, that forehand there Khoa was winning with is being returned and he’s not always ready. From 4-all, Khoa scores with a clean backhand, and when Guo mis-serves again, he’s up 7-4. But then Guo begins to play as we know she can. She smacks in a forehand winner, gets a backhand thrust in, goes up 9-8. Nguyen balances—loops in a winner, then, after Gao goes up game-point with a serve and follow, Khoa backhands in her next serve. The game can go either way. Guo gets an irretrievable net, and Khoa pushes her high-toss into the net.
            Challenge over. In the fourth and fifth games, Khoa’s failure to return serve after serve is more and more weighing heavily on him—he’s down 10-3 in the fourth, 10-4 in the fifth. Later, Khoa wasn’t brooding about his loss—just said, “I wish I could have played better for the spectators.”
            Before meeting Gao in the final ($2500 for first, $1600 for second), Danny says he remembers playing her years ago and losing to her rather close. It was a strategic match then and will be now. He says he has a plan to play her and a back-up plan. But, he says, she’s smart and may be able to counter his strategy. Turns out it’s an uncontested four-game final—Seemiller, down 9-4; down 7-3; down 10-2; down 10-1 (followed by Danny’s call for “Time!” that brings uproarious laughter).
            Danny said he regretted using new rubber rather than his customary Sriver, but as the underdog felt he had to risk it. However, no matter what he’d use, how counteract Gao’s marvelous placements that gave her control of point after point? Earlier Seemiller had said, “Gao has all kinds of “traps” against everybody—but of course they don’t see them, don’t know what’s going on.” Danny included?