2003 California Open

Saturday, 19 April 2003

Fremont, CA April 19-20, 2003 247 players competed on 29 tables in 30 events at the City Beach Fremont facility in this first stop in the 2003 Stiga North American Tour, run by North American Table Tennis (NATT). The facility is somewhat unique, with 42,000 square feet devoted to such activities as rock climbing (their specialty), badminton, volleyball, basketball, bocce ball, "hyper bowling," and of course, table tennis. The playing area was well lit, with grippy Taraflex flooring that looks and feels like wood. With the large turnout, the tables had to be closer together than some would have liked, but that's the price we pay as the sport grows. The best part of all, however, was the food. Tired of living on hot dogs at tournaments? The Pineapple Bar and Grill was about 50 feet from the playing area, and I personally attest they make the best pizza I've ever had. Table Tennis Pioneers had an equipment booth at the tournament - but the truck, with 34 boxes of equipment, never showed up! The boxes with table tennis clothing and shoes had been sent separately, and so that's all they could sell during the tournament. City Beach Fremont recently started a table tennis program, with Dennis Davis as the Table Tennis Director and the resident Head coach. Right now the Junior Team Training is only on Thursdays, but starting in June the program expands to five times a week during the summer. The City Beach Table Tennis Club is currently open seven days a week for its members.  Davis, who used to be a full-time coach, is now a recruiter for technical companies - but is toying with returning to the game full-time. "But I have a family to support," he says, "and wouldn't do it as a coach, but as both an organizer and coach." Fan continues his onslaught, defeating Michelle Do (2212), 6,1,7,5. The top 12 seeds in the Open were seeded into four groups of four. The fourth player in each group was determined by an Open Preliminary stage, which was run single elimination until the semifinals, with the four semifinalists - Kevin Au, Young Ren, Michelle Do and Steve Nguyen - advancing to the final 16. The top two finishers in each group would advance to the quarterfinals of the Open. From the quarters on, matches would be a mind-numbing best of nine to 11. Fan continues his onslaught, defeating Angela Sun (2358), 5,5,5,5. In Group One, as already noted, Fan won his three matches easily over Lu Guo Hui, Michelle Do and Angela Sun. Coming in second was lefty looper Lu Guo Hui, with a -9,9,5,5,-8,9 win over Sun, and a 4,-8,8,6,7 win over Do. Do would upset Sun for third, -5,8,8,11,6, but would not advance. In Group Two, there were no surprises, as top seed Khoa Nguyen (2595) won all three matches, with only Young Ren (2299) getting a game off of him. Second-seeded Khaled Zeine (2433, whose last name was Zeinelabedin before he shortened it) came in second, defeating Young Ren 6,9,13,7, and presumably defeating Avishy Schmidt (2313) 4-2 - but the original draw sheets have scores showing a 5-1 win for Khaled. Ren upset Schmidt for third, 4,5,9,11. In Group Three, things got a bit wild. Top-seeded Ashu Jain (2591) came from behind to defeat the third seed, USA's top 14-year-old, Misha Kazantsev (2340), in a long seven-gamer, 3,-5,-9,-5,8,1,6. Misha turned around and defeated the second seed, Sean O'Neill (2442), 9,11,-9,9,9. Sean had earlier defeated Misha in the semifinals of Under 2500, in a match where Sean had been using experimental serves and missed some at the start, but which later worked when Misha started missing them. This time, Sean twice led at the end and lost. He said poor shot selection at the end of those games cost him, as did missing his own serve twice.  "Playing Misha for me is like playing Scott Butler back when I was 12. He has a good opening that often forces me to leave the table too quickly and play one more defensive shot than I would like ... just like when I played Scott back in the ‘80s, the key for me [against Misha] is a solid, short and spinny serve and then a strong opening." For those not historically enlightened, Sean and Scott (Jim Butler's older brother) were big rivals as junior players in the 1980s. Sean put aside the Misha loss and turned it on in his next match, defeating Jain, 7,7,4,12. Going into the match, he knew he had to win 4-0 or 4-1 to advance.  He won 4-0, he said, by using solid placement, attacking Ashu's middle, and setting the offensive tone each rally without playing too risky of an attack. In the tie-breaking procedure, with only results among the three tied players, all were 1-1 in matches. In games, Misha was 7-5; Sean was 5-4; Ashu was 4-7; so Misha came in first, Sean second, and Ashu was out. Coming in fourth was Kevin Au, who didn't win any matches, but won two games from Sean, and one from Ashu. Said Misha of his match with Sean, "I attacked his serve, or dropped it short and attacked the next ball, which usually went long. I played very aggressively, and the shots kept hitting." Misha, who normally practices 4-5 times a week, is only practicing about 3 times a week right now as it's baseball season, and he's a shortstop - but also plays pitcher, second and first. (He says he's a good fielder with a good batting average.) His regular practice partners are Coach Masaaki Tajima, and Kevin Phung, Wallace Liu and Hiro Hikawa. Said Coach Masaaki, "He usually gets enough practice time, considering baseball and school, but his training situation isn't great - he needs to play better players." On Misha's game and practice, he said, "His forehand is very strong, and he has good anticipation. He has improved his receive, and needs to keep working on his backhand. Mostly, he needs to work on keeping his focus - he can blow leads of 8-1 or 9-2." In Group Four, the top seed, Michael Hyatt (2534) won easily, helped in part by the second seed, Wang Chen (2513) not showing up. Michael defeated Shashin Shodhan (2340) at 8,6,9,7, and Steve Nguyen (2306, no relation to Khoa) at 3,3,9,9. In the battle for the second spot, Steve won easily over Shashin, 3,7,7,9. The one-sidedness was somewhat of a surprise as Shashin had defeated Steve in the semifinals of Under 2500, -2,-8,6,6,7,-5,6. Said Steve, "After Shashin lost to Michael, he seemed tired and demoralized against me." Quarterfinals Fan continues his onslaught in the quarterfinals, defeating Khaled Zeine (2433), 8,6,7,8,3. The other three quarterfinals were also relatively one-sided, as Misha defeated Steve Nguyen (who would win Under 4200 Doubles with still another unrelated Nguyen, this time Dinh), -9,7,5,5,7,6; Michael Hyatt defeated Sean O'Neill, 5,5,-8,7,4,10; and Khoa Nguyen defeated Lu Guo Hui, 6,8,7,-4,5,-9,4. Lu plays almost the same way Khoa does, but is left-handed - sort of a mirror image of him, with both looping from both wings, as well as hitting backhand winners. Said Misha of his match with Steve and making the semifinals, "When I'm on, I'm on, and everything goes in. It's all in the head. My recent trip to Sweden was helpful. Right afterwards, I played horrible for three weeks, but now I'm playing well." When's the last time a 14-year-old ever made the semifinals of the Open in a 4-star tournament? Said Michael of his match with Sean, "Sean pushed my serve, rarely flipped, and most of his pushes went long, so I was able to Loop. So I was able to attack all-out. He was even pushing my short topspin serves." For those not in the know, you can push a topspin serve, more of a chop block, where you chop down at contact to keep the ball low, but this shot usually goes long. Sean almost pulled off a great comeback in this match, coming back from down quadruple match point, 6-10 in the sixth, to get to deuce - but Michael won the next two points when Sean served and whiffed a loop, and Michael serve and ripped a winning loop. Sean said, "I played too aggressive the first two games, and then settled down and controlled the short game - I have a much stronger short game, but he was winning all the loose points. The other problem was I wasn't moving in and out quick enough - I would get a mini-meatball and then biff it in the net or off the end." Semifinals Fan continues his onslaught in the semifinals, defeating Misha Kazantsev (2340), 5,5,3,6,9. "Anything I do, he countered immediately," said Misha of this match. Misha did well, especially in the last two games, scoring more than (spoiler alert!) Fan would give up in the final. The other semifinal was the match of the tournament, as Khoa Nguyen and Michael Hyatt played an 11-9 in the ninth counterlooping match. Both are two-winged loopers, but with somewhat different games. Khoa is possibly the smoothest player in the U.S., and everything he does looks effortless. (Of course, the amount of hours it took to achieve this "effortlessness" was far from effortless.)  He can loop from both wings with ease and great power (especially on the forehand), and his backhand hitting and countering is among the best in the U.S.  Michael is pure athlete, with a bigger swing on both wings, and who tends to roam around the court more, counterlooping from farther back. He has a huge backhand loop, and goes for more risky loops - and that seemed what kept him in the match, as he seemed to be able to loop a winner whenever it was needed. Like O'Neill, Khoa often tried to push Michael's short topspin serves short, and they went long or high and were ripped.  Michael tends to favor a backhand serve, while Khoa mostly uses a forehand pendulum serve. The match started with Khoa dominating and winning the first two games easily at 6 and 2. However, at 6-10 in the first, Michael had hit a barrier in his backswing when counterlooping, and apparently hurt his hand while missing the shot. In irritation, he picked up the barrier and threw it into the audience - and was yellow-carded. He then took an injury time-out to ice the hand. The time-out apparently worked, as he went up 5-0 in the third, winning 11-7. But Khoa went up 6-0 in the fourth and won 11-2 to go up 3-1 in games. Over the next three games, Michael played out of his mind, ripping both forehand and backhand loops from all over the court, and winning most of the points when it was close. In game five, up 10-7, Michael kept bouncing the ball before his serve, and the umpire warned him to stop stalling. He continued to bounce the ball, despite a second warning, and was then assessed a penalty point, so the score was now 10-8. But he won the next point, and the next game 11-7, and won four in a row in the seventh from up 7-6, and now led 4-3 in the match. At 8-8 in the eighth, someone called out, "Michael's playing out of his mind!" Khoa immediately won the next three points to force a match-deciding game nine. At 1-1 in the ninth, Michael, out of position, switches hands and misses a lefty loop off of a push. He ties it at 4-4, but Khoa soon leads 7-5. Michael calls a time-out. When he returns, Michael serves, and Khoa pushes the serve back short - and Michael catches the ball, saying it was a let serve. The umpire and Khoa both say otherwise. The stands seem split on it, but few were close enough to really see it. Michael argues vehemently with the umpire, but to no avail - the score is now 8-5 Khoa. Michael at first refuses to continue play, and decides to default - and offers his hand to Khoa. But Khoa won't take his hand, and tells him to continue. Michael returns to his side of the table, and decides to play it out. But three points later, he's down 5-10 match point. Then 6-10. 7-10. 8-10. 9-10. Khoa calls a timeout. Then, anticlimactically, Khoa serve and loops, Michael misses the counterloop - with someone yelling right as he went for the shot, probably distracting him - and the match is over, with hometown favorite Khoa winning, 6,2,-7,2,-8,-7,-6,8,9. Michael walks two courts away, and stand for a moment, hands on hips, totally disgusted. Finally, he returns and shakes Khoa's and the umpires' hands. Final Fan finishes his onslaught in the final, defeating Khoa Nguyen (2595), 3,5,4,4,6. What do you say of a final where the winner outscores the loser 55-22, giving up 4.4 points a game? Khoa said, "Fan keeps attacking, and his first attack is so strong...."  Throughout the match, the $1000-richer Fan seemed able to attack from both wings at will, while Khoa often seemed frozen - losing more on serve & receive then on Fan's two-winged loops. Fan ended up winning all six of his matches in straight games, with a game record of 27-0. His six opponents, with an average rating of 2380 (and all but one over 2340), averaged 5.1 points a game against him. Yet, the surprising thing is that Fan, who no longer practices regularly, has no one anywhere near his level to practice with, and who coaches about 20 hours a week (with 13 kids in his junior program) is no longer as strong as he used to be - as he himself freely admits. But then, neither is Khoa, who works full-time about 5-10 miles away from the playing site, in charge of web-based applications for Lead Applications. Women's Singles Things got rather out of whack when top-seeded Wang Chen (2513) didn't show. The problem was that there were three groups, with the winner of each group advancing to the semifinals. Since that would mean only three players, the winner of Wang's group had a bye in the semifinals - and so was in the Final. With Wang out, the second seed in Group One, Allison Seibel (1972), with a 6,4,3 win over Thuytien Goodwin (1844), advanced with this one win ... into the Final! The problem was that Allison was seeded sixth in the event - and while she made the final by winning her only match over an 1844 player, the other four seeds - rated 2358, 2244, 2222 and 2212 - had to battle it out just to make the semifinals, with four players in each of the other two groups. "I think it's great!" Allison said, jokingly, as she sat around waiting to see whom she'd play in the final. In Group Two, Angela Sun (2358) battled it out with Michelle Do, barely pulling it out 3-2, 11,-8,-8,5,8, to advance to the semifinals. Donna Sakai (1749) came in third, while Fumi Christensen (1176) came in fourth. Michelle would go on to win Under 22 Women over Allison. In Group Three, Jackie Lee (2222) upset Moseley Kibibi Ione (2244), 9,9,-9,8, to advance. Coming in third was Carmencita Alexandrescu (1490), while Dominique Flexer (1342) came in fourth. In the semifinals, Angela Sun defeated Jackie Lee, 6,-6,4,9,-5,8. Jackie was having trouble with her foot, which she had hurt a few days before, and was icing it at the playing site. On Saturday night, she finally had to default out of Under 2375, and later defaulted her Sunday events. But she won Under 18 Girls' Singles before defaulting out. In the final, in her fifth match, Angela won the first game against Allison, playing her second match. Allison won the second, but it was all Sunny from there on, 8,-7,5,7,4. Other Events Sean O'Neill (whose regular practice partner, John Williamson, is around 1500) won the Under 2500's over Shashin Shodhan, 7,-10,4,10,7, reversing his loss to Shashin at the recent USA Team Trials (where Sean had had three match points before losing). Sean said, "I attacked every ball possible with both backhand and forehand drives. It got to the point where he had no confidence in his short serve, and I was ripping with ease. When he did get a chance to open up, I counter-attacked down the line for a winner. The constant pressure was what was lacking in Atlanta, as when I got a lead there I got a bit passive." But Shashin was not to be denied in Under 2375, where in the final he defeated Misha Kazantsev (who would make the semifinals of the Open and Under 2500, and win Under 22 Men's Singles and Under 18 Boys' Singles), -7,11,-6,10,5,4. "Misha dominated the first four games," Shashin said. "We split the first four, but I had to come back to win both games at deuce - he was up 6-1 in the second, and 10-8 in the fourth. I had been pushing long to his backhand. I started flipping to his forehand and coming back to his backhand, or dropping his serve short, and was able to stop his attack this way." Players winning at least one event and making the final of another:     *Misha Kazantsev: Under 22 Men's Singles Champion, Under 18 Boys' Singles Champion, Under 2375 Runner-up, Open Singles Semifinalist and Under 2500 Semifinalist.     *Sean C. Lee: Under 13 Boys' Singles Champion, Under 1550 Champion, and Under 1700 Semifinalist.     *Alicia Wei: Under 13 Girls' Singles Champion, Under 16 Girls' Singles Runner-up, Under 3200 Doubles Runner-up.     *Anthon Plake: Under 10 Boys' Singles Champion, Under 1400 Runner-up, Under 1250 Semifinalist.     *John Leach: Under 16 Boys' Singles Champion, Under 22 Men's Runner-up.     *Shashin Shodhan: Under 2375 Champion, Under 2500 Runner-up.     *Voltaire Benedicto: Under 2250 Champion, Under 4200 Doubles Runner-up.     *Wayne Lo: Under 2000 Champion, Under 4200 Doubles Runner-up. Thanks goes to City Beach Fremont, Stiga, and to the tournament staff (disclosure: I was one!) for another well-run event. NATT will be returning to Fremont for another 4-star tournament, the Western Open, Aug. 30-31, 2003. Open Singles - Final: Fan Yi Yong d. Khoa Nguyen, 3,5,4,4,6; SF: Fan d. Misha Kazantsev, 5,5,3,6,9; K.Nguyen d. Michael Hyatt, 6,2,-7,2,-8,-7,-6,8,9; QF: Fan d. Khaled Zeine, 8,6,7,8,3; Kazantsev d. Steve Nguyen, -9,7,5,5,7,6; Hyatt d. Sean O'Neill, 5,5,-8,7,4,10; K.Nguyen d. Lu Guo Hui, 6,8,7,-4,5,-9,4. Women's Singles - Final: Angela Sun d. Allison Seibel, 8,-7,5,7,4; SF: Sun d. Jackie Lee, 6,-6,4,9,-5,8; Seibel - bye. Over 40 - Final: Ramin Samari d. Rudy Miranda, 8,-7,6,-5,10,9; SF: Samari d. David Sakai, 7,3,7,6; Miranda d. Dong Guang-Kui, -8,10,1,8. Over 50 - Final: Steve Varela d. David Sakai, -9,7,9,-7,5,-2,7; SF: Varela d. Ted Chen, 6,-8,5,2,6; Sakai d. Patrick Chao, 10,4,9,6. Over 60 - Final: Dong Guang-Kui d. Mao Toon Siong, 9,9,5,10.            Under 22 Men's Singles: 1st Misha Kazantsev; 2nd John Leach. Under 18 Boys' Singles: 1st Misha Kazantsev; 2nd John Leach. Under 16 Boys' Singles: John Leach d. Kevin Phung, 5,8,9,6. Under 13 Boys' Singles: Sean C. Lee d. Edward Luong, 7,-7,3,-10,5,9. Under 10 Boys' Singles: 1st Anthon Plake; 2nd Shin Ikuno. Under 22 Women's Singles: 1st Michelle Do; 2nd Allison Seibel. Under 18 Girls Singles: 1st Jackie Lee; 2nd Minh Nguyen. Under 16 Girls' Singles: 1st Katie Poon; 2nd Alicia Wei. Under 13 Girls' Singles: Alicia Wei d. Collen Lee, 8,6,9,7. Under 10 Girls' Singles: 1st Ariel Hsing; 2nd Crysalyn Plake. U2500 - Final: Sean O'Neill d. Shashin Shodhan, 7,-10,4,10,7; SF: O'Neill d. Misha Kazantsev, -4,4,-10,10,7,5; Shodhan d. Steve Nguyen, -2,-8,6,6,7,-5,6; QF: O'Neill d. Kevin Au, 6,2,10,10; Kazantsev d. Lu Guo Hui, -7,6,4,-9,9; Nguyen d. Angela Sun, 6,-4,7,8; Shodhan d. Khaled Zeine, 3,-4,2,9. U2375 - Final: Shashin Shodhan d. Misha Kazantsev, -7,11,-6,10,5,4; SF: Shodhan d. Avishy Schmidt, 12,-4,9,-7,-7,3,3; Kazantsev d. Shuja Jafar-Ali, 8,-2,8,7,9. U2250 - Final: Voltaire Benedicto d. Shuja Jafar-Ali, 3,-11,-8,8,8,3; SF: Benedicto d. Bunny Lee, -7,9,4,10,6; Jafar-Ali d. Wade Sun, -10,5,5,12. U2125 - Final: Wallace Liu d. David Sakai, 8,-10,-6,7,-7,13,4; SF: Liu d. Dennis Ong, 6,-8,-9,5,6,-8,5; Sakai d. Nelson Yu,9,-6,9,-8,5,-7,5. U2000 - Final: Wayne Lo d. Toon Mao, 4,5,-9,-5,7,-7,9; SF: Lo d. Yochai Konig, 3,8,6,11; Mao  d. Kock Loe, 9,-11,10,-8,6,7. U1850 - Final: Tom Ruan d. Tin Quach, -7,4,8,9,-10,-10,10; SF: Ruan d. Aroni Banerjee, 9,4,10,-7,9; Quach d. Eric Chang, 9,-7,-8,-10,3,11,7. U1700 - Final: David Samuelson d. Michael Liu, 6,-7,-11,7,-8,12,4; SF: Samuelson d. Aroni Banerjee, 6,-7,-11,7,-8,12,4; Liu d. Sean C. Lee, 10,6,12,4. U1550 - Final: Sean C. Lee d. Howard Lambert, -9,-4,5,4,13,12; SF: Lee d. Charley Wang, 6,-9,8,9,-5,5; Lambert d. Bob Mahler, 10,-9,10,-7,7,5. U1400 - Final: Munkhbileg Enebish d. Anthon Plake, 5,4,9,11; SF: Enebish d. Chunfeng Pei, 8,7,9,7; Plake d. Charley Wang, 10,-6,6,4. U1250 - Final: Raymond Yip d. Helen Ku, 10,-9,3,5,11; SF: Yip d. Haijun Feng, 7,7,6,-11,6; Ku d. Anthon Plake, -8,5,-7,-6,8,8,6. U1100 - Final: David Ko d. Scott Lenker.5,10,3,-8,9; SF: Ko d. J.W. Jones, -4,5,11,-8,6; Lenker d. Shin Ikuno, 11,4,-6,2,5. U950 - Final: Scott Roberts d. James Ma, -6,9,8,7,-9,-10,9; Ma d. Ho Kwan Leung, 7,-5,-7,-4,6,4,10. U800/Novice - Final: Timothy Chan d. Russell Richardson, 9,8,11,-7,10; SF: Chan d. Shin Ikuno, -12,8,8,-12,2,-9,7; Richardson d. Celia Choy, 2,1,6,3. U4200 Doubles - Final: Steve Nguyen/Dinh Nguyen d. Voltaire Benedicto/Wayne Lo, 6,8,-11,-5,1. U3200 Doubles - Final: Phil Mark/Gan Wah Lee d. Mark Wei/Alicia Wei, 8,-9,11,9.

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 05 January 2005 )

 

< Prev		Next >