There was plenty to cheer for in the ‘undercard', those events that make up the bulk of the tournament. Newcomer Eric Svoboda kept insisting that he was ‘about to lose', but instead won match after match to advance to the U-1700 final, where Herb Hodges finally made his prediction come true, but only by storming back from a 3-1 deficit to win in 7 games! Todd and Cheryl Friend once again brought their brood from Connecticut, and carried home trophies, Chance Friend coming first in the U-1400, second in the U-1550 and the ‘Birthday Girl' MacKenzie Friend finishing first in the Girl's Under-10. The big family news went to Mom, who not only captured her first trophy; she made it a Champion-size one in the Under 800.

Stalwart Larry Bavly found himself matched with the implacable Alden Fan in the U-2125 Final, but managed to overcome his club mate in six games. Julie Lisova was back, off from a layoff of nearly a year. "She recently ended a romance', her father explained, ‘and now all she wants to do is play table tennis again." Play she did! Making the semis of the U-1850 and winning the Ying-Lo Girls U-16 title over Victoria Akselrod. In fact, Julie was in nearly continuous play all day on Sunday.

Khaleel Asgarali was another perpetual motion machine, stomping to a six game win over Marcus Jackson in the U-2375 after falling behind 2-0. Less success for Khaleel when he qualified for the Open Singles Round Robin, where he came fourth in his group. "Do you know" he asked at one point, "that I have played five pips players in a row? Long pips, short pips...where are the topspinners?"

In the finals of the U-2500, to name one place. Ludovic Gombos (pronounce that ‘Gom-boash') and De Tran put on one of the better matches in recent memory. Gombos is a hell-for-leather competitor, a wired personality who seems to run on sheer nerve. Since his arrival on the US scene from France, his performances have steadily improved. De Tran, by contrast, is a sure and steady hand, centered and poised, determined, but not demonstrative. Straight out of the gate, Gombos was all pressure and brilliance. After taking the hard-fought first game 13-11, he made the most of the emotional surge and quickly (4, 8) had De Tran against the ropes. Tran obviously meant to leave nothing at the table as he dug in for a fourth game win, 11-4. Perhaps Gombos relaxed just a little as he sat on the three game lead. But De was not going to let him finish it off, and games five (7) and six (8) both fell in De Tran's pocket as the two lefties waged their war on Table 1. Of course it went deuce in the seventh! At that point, Gombos wasted De's huge comeback effort to stage a 12-10 victory.