2003 Stiga NA Teams Championships

Friday, 28 November 2003

Baltimore, MD Nov. 28-30, 2003 For six Thanksgiving Day weekends now, pilgrim players have come to Richard Lee's well-run Stiga North American Teams Championships, that Baltimore Convention Center colony of the table tennis like-minded, where all attend services with what you might call religious zeal. In a sense, these Inner Harbor arrivals all wear the same recognizable clothes—their comparative Team ratings (summed, for seeding purposes, according to the ratings of their Team's top 3 players). Careful placing of the most powerful of the 200 Teams (a record entry) allows experienced Tournament Director Fong Hsu to begin play—with almost 800 competitors spread out over 140 brand new (but, oh, so difficult to quickly put together) Stiga tables. Three (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) Stages of play, each following a different format, will lead us—our pilgrimage here—to a $6,000 Champion. On Friday the four top seeded teams are excused from play and await the winners of 16 Preliminary groups whose teams have been both seeded and placed: Group 1A-8050, Group 2A-8016,...Group 16A-7017; then, using a modified snake system that inverts back, Group 16B-7006, Group 15B-6877,...Group1B-6510). Thus, in Group 1 (composed of 13 A through M teams, almost all of whom have no chance to advance to the Championship play), the A team (rated 8050) is a huge favorite to advance, for it will play the 32nd (B-6510) and 33rd positioned (C-6494) teams, whereas the 16th rated team (A-7017) will play, snaking back, the 17th positioned (but best B) team (B-7006)—a toss-up tie. In modified round robin play, the superior A teams play only two ties (against the B and C teams), the B teams only three ties (against the A, C, and D teams). Each tie consists of best 5 out of 9 singles matches among the 3 players on a team. It's rare that any but an A or B team can come out of this Friday Preliminary play to the Second Stage of  (20-team) Championship play.  Advancing were 14 of the 16 Group A teams, 10 of whom won both their ties by the apparently uncontested scores of 5-0 or 5-1—oh, alright, so I include in this grouping the exceptional: Manhattan Club Impresario Jerry Wartski joining Atanda Musa (2573) and Li Yuxiang (2555) for some 5-2, all-confidence fun; no struggle to advance there. As we all know though, 5-0 scores sometimes don't reveal the depths of a two-team struggle. Case in point: the USA Junior Boys 1 vs. Penn State 1. Han Xiao defeated Richard Hicks, 18 in the 5th—Dick noting the loss in the record book he keeps of his annual play in this Championship. (Yep, he's been playing in the Team's since '59.) "You must be fit," I say to him. "Sometimes I think I am," he replies. "It varies from day to day." Misha Kazantsev (after losing the first two games at 10) defeated Srinivasan Ramanathan, 11-9 in the 5th. Adam Hugh also defeated lefthander Ramanathan 11-9 in the 5th, winning the 4th 15-13 (after being down 3 match points) to stay alive. Though gritty Adam was too often soft against Ramanathan, he was hard on himself—and LOUD, exhorting himself again and again to TRYYYY, to PLAYYY. What some people were saying about Adam's exhortations to self I'll not even try to slip by Editor Hodges. Quote of the week, though, comes to me from Danny Seemiller, Adam's and of course our U.S. National Team Coach, now with his new beard definitely a grizzled veteran, er, senior. What, acknowledging to me Adam's cries, does Danny say? "You really can't yell like that every point."..."Even in the end game?" I ask, remembering Danny's all-out highly exclamatory matches with my younger son Eric. To which he just smiles. In a 5-2 losing-effort, spin Doctor #1 Shuja Jafir-Ali (2279) upset (well, not too much—"Having fun, that's always #1 with me!") Ashu Jain (2451). Before he'd joined this Nison Aronov Brooklyn Club team, Jain had recently taken an 8-month hiatus from the Game—needed both to rest an injured Achilles tendon and oversee the family's furniture business. However, now that he's back, Ashu will later beat some Elite players. Shuja teammate Bogdan Kucharenko says that after he won the Junior National's, his Brighton Beach Long Island Club closed and he stopped playing for 5 years. But, like so many others, he couldn't resist returning. (Among the players here I once saw competing as kids were Ohioan Sandy Potiker, 1954 Canadian National Exhibition Boys Champ, and Mark Radom, 1962 U.S. Open Under 13 Champion.) Nison, who I saw return a ball from a prostrate position that his opponent whiffed, says his Club is very nice ("Everything like Eastern Europe") and invites all to participate in his 10-table Thursday-Night League and Jan. 10-11 Open tournament. In a striking instance of a C Group team challenging an A Group team, the New York TTC Ball Busters, though losing 5-2, badly roughed up the Asian Gang members. Six of the seven matches were decided in the 5th: Stephen Nguyen over Santos Shih 11-9 and Paul Hsiao 11-5; Tuan Le over Jungshan Chang 12-10 and Shih 11-5 (and also over Hsiao 11-9 in the 4th). Meanwhile, Hsiao 13-11 in the 5th and Chang 11-8 in the 5th burst Marta Massuda's chances. Not surprisingly, this (#16 last positioned A) Asian Gang team was 5-2 beat up by another—the (#17 first positioned B) U.S. Women's team...though Simone Yang, sometimes jumping with both feet in reaction to a just missed forehand, got the worst of it from Tuan Tran and Tuan Le (11-9 in the 5th). Lily Yip, up 2-1 and 5-0 on Le, gave up the 4th to him, but (proving she knows how to start 11-point games) did not relinquish her 7-1 lead in the 5th. A Team Senoda (Todd Sweeris, Brian Pace, Ricky Seemiller, Dave Sakai) had 5-3 trouble with B's Emerald Boys. Irish lads, were they? No. Suguru Araki who teaches at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai, Japan, recruited Shojiro Iwami, one of the students there, and, helped by Maasaki Tajima (he's U.S. Junior Misha Kazantsev's Coach), formed a team with Lim Ming Chui and Avishy Schmidt. Ming, whose wife intensely preferred teaching in Upper New England rather than Lower New Jersey where Ming's based, said, finally, Sayonara, and Ming said, "If the Japanese player wins 3, we beat this team." And maybe he knew what he was talking about, for, though rated only 2170, he begins by upsetting Pace (2456). Actually, both Ming and Brian appeared to have gained weight—Ming because his Club is closed on the weekends when, as he says, he still likes to eat; and Brian because, as reports have it, when in Rumania for a week recently, where he was beaten in practice matches by fast teenage girls, he could have a gourmet meal for three U.S. dollars. Sakai had his chances against Iwami, but lost in 5—though it was Shojiro who came off the table to Araki saying, "Very nervous. I was very nervous." That brought Sweeris up against Schmidt...and down 10-6. Which did not bode well for Senoda. But after Todd rallied to win that game, the loss might have demoralized Avi—though maybe just a little, for he told me from the beginning he was determined to remain upbeat. And, sure enough, it appeared that Avi was on his way—he won the 2nd, was up 9-7 in the 3rd, and 7-0 in the 4th. So he won after all? Nope—lost in 4. "I've no confidence," he said, shaking his head, but smiling, always smiling, right into the face of Fate. Nor was he feeling better when Brian won a key 5-game match against Shojiro. Beating Sakai helped—that made the tie 3-3. But then came the Senoda mop-up—Sweeris over Iwami, and Pace over Schmidt, again shaking his head and smiling, smiling at what might have been. The only A team other than the Asian Gang that failed to qualify was the Aucun Stress Canadian team of Marie-Christine Roussy, her brother Jean-Francois, and Anouar Saadi. Perhaps Marie-Christine (2465) chose to play the 9th position to give Saadi (2280) more play—but, if so, she badly underestimated the Guyana North opposition. Though her windshield-wiper grip be damned with faint praise—(Oh, said Danny Seemiller, if I had that girl for a month, even just a week, what I could do with her)—she won her two matches and would presumably win a third, but poor Saadi couldn't take so much as a game. That left it up to her brother to take two. But, oh, oh, in the match he has to have, up 2-1 against Guyana's Shawn Embleton, he gets tangled up, and, tumbling down, jams a barrier leg into his thigh. On losing this game he recovers well enough to find himself up 10-9 match point in the 5th. Only then, talk about aucun stress, meaning no stress, Jean-Francois serves, badly mishits the ball—and it's deuce. Then, returning serve, he slow-loops into the net. Now, match point down, he serves, gets a rather high ball, an easy one to Loop, and just tightens, seems almost to stop his stroke and again puts the ball into the net. After that, against early ‘90's Caribbean Champ Sydney Christophe, he's finished—and so...no more stress.   Round Robin Play There are, then, 20 teams theoretically in contention for the Championship. I say theoretically because it's pretty apparent to everyone that no more than half a dozen teams have even a slight chance to make the finals. Play is divided into four round robin divisions of 5 A-B-C-D-E teams each—with the 4 seeds heading the 1-A, 1-B, 1-C, 1-D divisions. From each round robin two teams will come out to play Single Elimination—in a quarter's, semi's, final. Division 1-A features the top-seeded team, Germany's Joola TT School Zugbrucke Grenzau. These players represent a unique combination Club/Hotel that, as graphic-design student Wally Green, who recently played in the Japan Open with Barney Reed, tells me, sports the finest, most appointed playing facility in Germany. Playing for this Zugbrucke team are: China's former World #1 Ma Wenge (now, in mid-Nov., 2003, World #30); Germany's World #81 Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth, current European Doubles Champ with Timo Boll; and Stefan Feth, semifinalist in the most recent German National's. Since they were 20-0, they'll retain their #1 seeding into quarter's play. Highlight of their Saturday play to me is not the 5-game match former World Senior Champion Li Yuxiang plays with Fejer-Konnerth, but the one he plays with 1988 Olympic Bronze Medalist Ma Wenge. Next year Li turns 50, and you'd have to look far and wide for a professional his age who has his energy, his desire to please an audience by inviting them into the action with smiles, patter, gestures, and, m'god, movement—playing exhibition jumping jack to straight-man Ma's lobs. He's a savvy, scintillating wonder. As Steve Berger said after playing him, "He has the best rhythms. He seems to wait a long time before he hits, then the ball is past you." An extra nod here to Jerry Wartski for supporting such exhilarating players, bringing them not just to New York but to the U.S. Flipped in with this Zugbrucke team were one of the #5 to #8 seeds, the USA Men who survived a major 5-4 threat from the Manhattan TT Club #2 team and a lesser 5-3 threat from Team Senoda. Manhattan's Cameron Scott (2298) with, no, not a fall, but a stumble, lost to both U.S. Olympian Khoa Nguyen (2578) and U.S. Team member Darko Rop (2556) who, prior to this tournament, had taken leave of his Houston Neuro-Muscular Therapy practice and gone to train with the Junior National Team in his Serbian home town, Belgrade. Against Darko, Li (2555), also a lefty, won a thrilling -10, 8, -8, 10, 10 swing match. After rallying from down 2-1 and 9-6 in the 4th, Li flashed in two superb counters in the 5th that brought him a 10-9 match point lead—whereupon he served into the net...but still won. Though Scott dropped a 3rd match to De Tran (2454), Li, a quarter century ago the Chinese National Champion, balanced with wins over Khoa and De who also lost to Musa. Which left Atanda (2573)—with the prospect of his 5-man team getting probably at best to the quarter's (and so splitting the $300 prize money)—perhaps not enough incentive to rise to the occasion. He lost to both Darko and Khoa.    Since Ricky Seemiller had a relatively low 2309 rating, Sakai's Senoda team depended heavily on Brian Pace and an out-of-practice Todd Sweeris to try to upset the U.S. Men. (Earlier, despite Captain Sakai's plea for Todd to focus, and Coach Andre Scott's injunctions to go to Musa's middle, then the corners, Todd had shakily lost that 12-10-in-the-5th match.) After Pace could do no more than split key matches—he beat Nguyen but lost to Rop—Todd fell to Khoa. Perhaps then, with a third and fatal Seemiller loss looming, Brian couldn't be stout-hearted enough to down De Tran. In the only other contested tie in the Division—with Pace sitting out, and Sweeris being upset by a stinging John Wetzler attack—Senoda avoided a poisonous loss with a too-close-for-comfort jump over the Snake Pit. Team-sponsor Sakai and Seemiller's wins over Rich Burnside made the difference. Maybe, after that long drawn-out 5th with Ricky, it wasn't only Li Yuxiang's serves Rich was lamenting he couldn't return? Why, you ask, was Pace sitting out? Because he seemed more than bewildered, was almost in a stupor after beating Musa, but losing to ("I haven't lost to a chopper since the 1980's") Steve Berger (2198). "I've never seen a sport like this," Brian said. "Within 24 hours, I beat Musa and Nguyen, and lose to Chui and Berger." In Division 1-B, Wartski's Manhattan TT Club #1 team was composed of Germany's World #77 Thomas Keinath; Hong Kong's World #50 Leung Chu Yan; China's World #48, Chen Zhibin; and the U.S.'s World Women's #30, Wang Chen, one of the 16 qualifiers for the upcoming World Pro Tour Final. Since they were 20-1, they'll retain their #2 seeding into quarter's play. Line to remember: as Wang Chen pens in, scratches out, pens in, scratches out, pens in her order of play preparatory to Manhattan's near massacre of the New Jersey Elite, Eyal Adini says cheerfully, drolly, "They're taking this much too seriously." Oh well, not to harp on the Elite losses, 47-year-old Dickie Fleisher did go 14-12 in the 4th with Leung. Destined also for the quarter's, as expected, was the Lip and Rip team of Terry Young, English National Doubles Champion; Ryan Jenkins, habitue of the Welsh Institute of Sport (he upset Keinath in Manhattan #1's one loss); U.S. former World Team member Razvan Cretu; and, joining the Rippers, the celebrated Lip of the team, Randy Cohen. Leading Division 1-C with a 20-4 record was the New York Athletic Club team of 4-time U.S. Singles Champion David Zhuang, U.S. Team member Barney Reed (yes, both do belong to the NYAC), and Lin Zhigang of the prestigious Elan Nevers Club in France (one of his teammates is former World Doubles Champion, Sweden's Peter Karlsson). Not a single tie in this Division went more than 5-2—with Barney, feeling jet-lag, dropping matches to top U.S. Juniors Han Xiao and Adam Hugh, and suffering a nasty 18, 9, -6, -5, -7 loss in the Canada #1 tie to Canadian Olympian and 2003 Stiga Canada Cup winner Peter-Paul Pradeeban. "Pradee's a completely offensive player," Sean O'Neill was telling me—"he's always setting up shots. Also, like David Zhuang, he never gets down on himself." Which perhaps accounts for much of his comeback here. David, meanwhile, was being pressed by Canada's ever serious Faazil Kassam, lefthanded North American Junior Singles and Doubles Champion. Yes, o.k., David's up 10-2 in the 4th, but he was down 2-1 in games. Then in the 5th he's up 6-2 and obviously dominant, is he? Not exactly—though a world-class counter gets him a loose ball winner. Faazil, down 7-6, 8-7, 9-8, keeps drawing close, then, down double match point, gets in a startling backhand. But again, down 10-9, he can't close. The match finally over, Zhuang, jubilant, embraces Kassam. Then, strikingly, I've never seen it happen before, Faazil resists, and as he continues to resist, David, still in an embrace, literally drags him half a dozen more steps. New Jersey's stand-up comedian Alan Fendrick retaliates, so to speak. He comes up to David's wife Joannie and eyes baby Cassidy. After Joannie quite pleasantly says, "Cassidy's a Gaelic name, it means clever," Alan bends over, puts his face into the kid's, and says, "You're sick of t.t. already, aren't you?" U.S. Junior Han (2501), though downing Reed, suffered a couple of minor upsets—one by New York's spirited Renata Peluchova who says she enjoys hitting forehands at Coach Liu's Club and coaching students at her 86th St. Club; and another by Texas Wesleyan University student Courtney Roberts who, up 2-0, almost defeated U.S. Junior Misha Kazantsev as well. Texas Wesleyan got a bad break when 2001 U.S. National Champion Eric Owens incapacitated himself from play. Was hurrying around in his dorm room, knowing he had to quickly get to the airport, and badly stubbed his toe. So, ohhh, when he got off the plane in Baltimore, damn, but he was hurtin.' Sure enough, when he took off his shoe and sock, the sight was not pleasant, and a doctor told him his toe was broken. So there he was, at courtside, dividing his 3.8 GPA attention between Morrison and Boyd's Organic Chemistry and the drubbing his teammates were getting. Alas, not exactly a collegiate rah-rah scene. Texas Wesleyan's avid mentor Christian Lillieroos called my attention to an oddity—how later his team would play the Nison team to a draw! Turns out that TW's scholastic ace David Wang was injured before the tie and had to forfeit when the time came for him to play each of his matches; it also turns out that Bogdan Kucherenko, after playing one match, could not continue. So with the tie 4-4, who was supposed to play whom? You guessed it. In Division D, there was no Defending Killerspin team—but leading the competition, 20-2, were a Chicago group of Robert Blackwell supporters, 2002 U.S. National Champion Ilija Lupulesku, Sasa Drinic, and Biljanic "Biba" Golic, who were teamed with 29-year-old Bangalore native, now Arizona-based Chetan Baboor (2676), a recent MBA graduate of the Thunderbird International Business School in Glendale just outside Phoenix. Only in this Division did a higher seeded team fail to advance to the quarter's. Canada #2 (7658) lost to both the U.S. Women (7006) and New York's Best (7587). Against the Canadian men and a 650-point spread, who'd think our women would have a chance? Lily maybe? Her smash opening, an 11-9-in-the-5th win over Guo Peng (2522), and follow-up comradely smile to teammates was more Charlie's Angels-like than quaintly, humbly angelic. Homayoun Kamkar-Parsi, however, though beset by an upper-body strain, was giving no quarter either to Simone Yang or Yip, and beat them in 5. But Tawny Banh, a bit chary off court of Xavier Therien's 170-point rating edge and not knowing he was having a lower back problem ("Our team almost didn't come," he said), wasn't intimidated on court. Match 12-10 in the 5th to Tawny. The tie continued—Banh over Guo; Therien over Yang, 11-8 in the 5th. The 7th and 8th matches then mirrored one another: in both our women were down 2-1; in both they came back to win. Which meant that Tawny, who'd gotten a tip or two from the ever-obliging LiYuxiang, had made a clean sweep of the Canadian men (average rating 2550). "You play better against guys, huh?" Lupulesku said to her. Tell him, Tawny, that you also beat Yugoslav National Team member Golic, now taking Intensive English classes at Texas Wesleyan. Against the Best ("Brashly named and potentially hazardous," Larry Hodges' Program warns), Canada #2, still with a chance for a 3-way play-off, had better not be the Worst. Therien engineered a win over the current Philippine Champion, Ernesto Ebuen III, who on the completion of this tournament would promptly be off to another—in Vietnam. Kamkar-Parsi followed with a backup Canadian victory—over David Fernandez. Maybe best not to feel too good? But then Shao Yu, on losing the first two games to Guo (doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him), came back to win in 5 and halt Canadian hopes of a needed rout. Indeed, when Fernandez, 12-10 in the 5th, arrested Therien's Canadian escape try, one began to see the handwriting on the enclosing walls. This tie too continued—Ebuen over Guo; Kamkar-Parsi over Shao Yu. But just as the U.S. Women had beaten the Canadians in the 7th and 8th matches, so too did the Best. With Canada #2 out of it, and the Best and the Women having soundly beaten the Guyanese guys, it now remained to see who would advance to the quarter's. Paralympian Gold Medal winner Tahl Leibovitz—not yet the best of the Best—gets our attention, not so much for his opening loss to Banh, but for losing himself against Yip. Simone had been applying an Ammeltz roller to Lily's right shoulder, but it was Tahl who said, "This place stinks." He does not like the way he's playing, blames it on the playing conditions, and makes his objections known to the table, net, and surrounds...until finally I publicly explode. "Sorry," he says, and means it. A sensible fellow, and usually great fun to watch. But though Tawny, Lily, and Simone try to be wonder women—Tawny falls 11-9 in the 4th to Shao, Yang to Fernandez 11-7 in the 5th, and, finally, Lily to Shao 12-10 in the 5th—it's the Best who make the quarter's. Here, the two top seeded teams are positioned in opposite halves of the Draw—Joola Zugbrucke, 8326, to the top; Manhattan #1, 8305, to the bottom. Then, the 3rd-seeded NYAC team (8108) is flipped and goes into a semi's position against Joola Zugbrucke, while the 4th-seeded Chicago team automatically goes into a semi's position against Manhattan #1. Finally, the 5th seeded Lip and Rip team that's played Manhattan #1 in the round robin and so can't go into its bottom half of the Draw is flipped into the top half against Joola Zugbrucke, and the 6th seeded Canada #1 team that's already played the NYAC team is flipped into the bottom half of the Draw against Chicago. That leaves two quarter's spots open, and as New York's Best has already played Chicago, now in the bottom half of the Draw, they automatically go to the top half against the NYAC team, and the USA Men that have already played Joola Zugbrucke automatically go in the remaining bottom-half spot against Manhattan. Simple, yes? Never mind, there's nothing at all confusing about three of the four quarter's ties. Against Joola Zugbricke, the Lip was, well, speechless—had put too many of Ma Wenge's serves into the net to offer excuses or explanations. But make a little noise for the Rip, please—especially for 25-year-old Ryan Jenkins who's been on the Welsh team since he was 14. Momentarily it was as if Ryan was back winning one of those English Grand Prixes, for, though he lost to Stephan Feth, he gave his team their one moment of glory when he beat Fejer-Konnerth, the #8 German on the current ITTF Rating list. A nod to Terry Young, too, for going 5 with Fejer-Konnerth and for taking a game from Ma who reportedly was playing with a new racket that had raised a blister on his hand. New York's Best couldn't win a match or even extend one of their New York Athletic Club opponents into the 5th—though both Shao (against Reed) and Ebuen (against Zhuang) went down 11-8 in the 4th. Also, for a I-have-a-chance, wild moment, Paul David was 10-10 with Zhuang. After David wins this game, he gets an intense full-minute talking to from Joannie. As he goes back to court, I ask her, "Does he listen?" Yes. "What do you tell him?" She looks at me as if I were crazy, then pauses, smiles and says, "I just tell him to get 11 points first." Paul, a professional coach who runs a Tuesday-night league at his N.Y. club, loses in straight games. He is disappointed. He and others feel the $300 prize money for the quarter's isn't at all commensurate with the minimum $440 entry fee they have to pay. The U.S. Men suffered even worse results, for Manhattan #1 blanked them in 4 of the 5 matches—and, in the other, Rop, who, like so many other players before serving, nervously bounces the ball from cupped hand to table maybe half a dozen times, was able to score just the one game from Leung. After his match with Thomas Keinath, De Tran comes off the table replaying some bad serves that he'd made from 9-9 in the 1st and 9-10 in the 3rd. "Well, what were you trying to do?" asks Coach Seemiller. Replies De, "I had no strategy in my head whatsoever."  The one closely contested tie was between Chicago and Canada #1. In the first set of three matches, Baboor over Kassam offsets Csaba (2673) over Drinic (2561). That leaves a match to be taken advantage of by Pradeeban or Lupulesku, one of the Killerspin winners from last year, who says he's here to warm-up for the upcoming U.S. Closed. Loupy's opening game win on a net augurs well for Chicago. His 6-0 lead in the 2nd does too. At deuce in the 3rd a shut out is possible? No, no shut out. No win in the 4th for Loupy either—he loses that one close too, 11-9. A fellow says, "Pradee doesn't have much power." Another says, "Loupy doesn't either." But the first says, "He has it when he needs it. He doesn't use it much." Whatever Loupy has—excellent placements come to mind—it's enough for him to win the 5th. The second set of three matches adds to Chicago's lead. For though Kassam downs Drinic, Baboor again offsets the loss—outsteadies Peter-Paul, 12-10 in the 4th. Chetan (anybody yet try to "Americanize" him, call him Chet?) may not have had much practice down there in Phoenix since his August Western Open final, but with this tournament giving him a cluster of playing opportunities, his two-wing game was again on the rise. Loupy and Csaba (who'd been down early in the 5th against Pelachova) aren't at their best—in fact, Bence on losing that first game, slaps his racket to the table and mutters a few choice not so sotto voce words. These are repeated in the second game when, up 9-6, he loses a good counter-counter point, fails to return serve and is down 10-9. But last April Csaba had been North American runner-up to Johnny Huang, and this summer he'd won that World Junior Circuit tournament in Edmonton, so Loupy can't be too surprised when Bence, rallying, up 12-11, cracks in a serve return. The third game is key—and at deuce Bence makes two errors. How the players' shoulders sloop when they miss, how discouraged they look. Csaba's not sobbin', but he can't come back. It's 4-2 for Chicago. In the third set of three matches—will there be three?—we find that inadvertently Loupy is scheduled, if need be, for the 9th match. Meanwhile, what is happening with Sasa? Against Peter-Paul, who seems to me for all his successes, to have too many wasted motions, Sasa is up 1-0 and 4-1 in the 2nd. At which point the loudspeaker blares out, "Four Deluxe Ping-Pong Maniacs to the desk, please." "That's bizarre," says a voice from the close-packed audience behind me. Well, there are other Championships to be won—the B and C Division players are playing for $300 too. Since the prize for the semi's is $900, Sasa tries hard to clinch the tie, but from 9-all he makes two pushing errors, and can't challenge again. 4-3 for Chicago. Against Csaba, Baboor is back mid-point from the table top-spinning easily. During the 8-all point in the 1st game, a paper comes floating off the umpire's table. It doesn't look like the ball though. Down 10-9, Chetan mounts an attack off Bence's serve and deuces it. But Csaba thrusts through a backhand to go ad up, then leans in over the table and smacks in a forehand. In the 2nd, Baboor, up 10-7, smoothly loops in the winner. In the 3rd, Chetan off to a bad 1-5 start, scores only 4 points, repeatedly whiffs the ball—which isn't exactly a confidence builder. In the 4th, Chetan's down 4-0, can't catch up. Csaba comes off court, gets a pat on the back from Canadian Coach Dejan Papic. Tie: 4-4. Loupy, about to play Kassam, warms up with Sasa. The umpire walks over, examines Loupy's racket, then examines Sasa's—it's o.k. too. Proceed. When play gets underway, Kassam's not doing much, while Lupulesku, after snapping in a low, hopping backhand, moves to topspin forehand after forehand and wins the 1st at 7. There's a rousing point early in the 2nd game when Loupy on the run seems to scrape off a piece of barrier-cloth trying to curl the ball in. It's 4-all. Hard topspins are exchanged with Faazil making acrobatic scoops from the floor. It's 9-all. Then two serves by Loupy, two point-winning follows. Followed by 4 more points, a Time Out, and 3 more points, making it 7-0...and Chicago is in the semi's. Semi's But not with Lupulesku—he has no stomach for it. Says he has to play from there to "turn" and feels the strain. Enough warm-up for Loupy—let the girl, Biba (2443), play against Manhattan #1. The new format for the semi's and final is best of five matches—with two players playing, if need be, two matches, and one player playing only the 3rd match. Games are now best of seven. The lean, attractive Ms. Golic's opponent is Chen Zhibin from China's Shandong Province who, tall and slender, fit at 41, is capable in finishing one of his long sweeping forehands of flamboyantly spinning not once but twice around on his follow through. He often smiles almost sheepishly—perhaps at participating in this tournament and with this team, for actually he plays with Ma Wenge on the Joola Zugbrucke Grenzau team, runner-up in the European Champions League to perennial Belgian winner Royal Villettte Charleroi. Shakehands Chen, a former Chinese National Champion, is of course a gentleman with Biba—scores: 7, 6, 3, and (from 5-1 down) 8. Next up...and quickly 7-0 down is Drinic against Hong Kong National Team member Leung Chu Yan. I'm sitting with former U.S. player Larry Goldfarb who's been away from the scene for 7 years or so. As we're watching Leung ("Cho!" Or was it "Chu!") and his 4, 7, 4, 5 win, Larry says, "The arm speed's so much faster now than what I remember." Back too, and playing after a stretch of years, was former U.S. Team member John Onifade. He switched rackets in a match, played a point or two, then was told he couldn't do that unless his first racket was deemed unplayable. John tore the rubber off his first racket, and said, "There, it's unplayable." He was defaulted. Baboor at least made an entertaining 6, -5, -11, 2, 4, -8, -4 match of it with Thomas Keinath. Watching the German play, I'm impressed by his bird-dog bent to play, his trudge to the ball, to the table, with never a pause regardless of score; and also his all-out wind-ups with seemingly an extra motion as he swings, reminding me of professional golfer Jim Furyk's loop—that is, the loop in his grooved swing. The other semi's—between Joola Zugbrucke and the N.Y. Athletic Club—is the more combative one. Though it doesn't start out that way. Any even slightly loose ball Reed puts up to Ma is a goner. But though Barney, who leaning back out of position on some of his shots, gets only 4 points that 1st game, and is down 9-4 in the 2nd, he rallies, to the crowd's delight, to 10-all. I'm amazed at some of Ma's bullet balls—such low trajectory, and coming so fast, I don't see how they cross the net. Barney fights well, has a couple of opportunities to take the game, but finally ends up 16-14 short after pushing a serve return into the net. Down 10-7 in the 3rd, he misses, makes a phantom drop-kick follow through—doesn't get the extra point. In the 4th, the spectators are buzzing—"He MADE that—from underneath the table? Ma MADE that shot!" one fellow says incredulously of a sidewinder that curved up and around the net and slid across the table without so much as a bobble. Zugbrucke 1. But now Lin, renowned as the 1994 Asian Cup Champion and/or Mr. Deng Yaping, husband of the famous World and Olympic Champion, as well as Guangdong Province friend to David Zhuang, opens with a 7-0 lead over Fejer-Konnerth. This, along with his 5, 5, 6, 6 results, should give you some idea of his very low, very fast, very precise forehand serves and his off-the-bounce backhand loops. Zugbrucke 1-NYAC 1. Zugbrucke's Feth, whom Alan Williams, helpful NATT Media/Marketing man at the mike, pronounced "Fate," favored a topspin backhand—which in fact he got to use more often than he wanted, for Zhuang so maneuvered him out of position that he had little chance on the run to his left but try mightily to hit the small diamond point table opening at David's forehand. Fate's hand in this tie? Stephan to win one game and lose the others 7, 5, 6, 7. Zubrucke1-NYAC 2. Earlier, a couple of spectators had amused themselves by positing an Over/Under "line" of 17 on one of Lin's best 3 out of 5 matches and making a small wager on the outcome. This time his opponent was hard-to-figure Ma Wenge. And harder to figure after he fast-hands wins three straight. For now, starting with his failure to return two serves, Ma loses the 4th at 8; then, blocking casually from side to side, draws to 7-8 in the 5th before Lin runs out the game. Ma then watches with little or no expression as Lin takes a 7-1 lead in the 6th, a 7-2 lead in the deciding 7th. Along the way to victory, Lin dumps a few balls into the net, and even before they get there he knows his return is short and, like a waiter fumbling with a sure-to-fall tray, he exaggerates with a shoulder-move forward, hands outstretched, as if, oops, to take back what he's done. Anyway, the NYAC bench sure likes what he's $2400 done, and Barney does his arm-and-leg-tangled best to hoist him high. Final "We're gonna beat ‘em," Manhattan's Wartski says to me as play starts. And when Reed finds Leung Chu Yan's serves hard to handle, and Leung, accelerating through time and again with his penhold forehand ("It's like a golf swing" somebody says) zings in Barney's returns, Manhattan 9, 5, 4, 6 is a 1/3 of the way home. Chen Zhibin against Lin Zhigang is Chen on ITTF Ranking paper. And off to a 4-0 lead in the 1st he's the favorite in this Baltimore Arena too. But then Lin catches Chin off guard with one of his ultra-fast, low-flying serves. Chen's far forehand seems vulnerable, so of course when he gets a chance Lin swats it there. He apparently has more chances in the 2nd game, for his 11-7 win ties up the match. In the 3rd from 5-all, it's anybody's game; at 9-all, Chen scores on a counter, wins 11-9. Then loses the 4th. Up and down this match is going. Which perhaps prompts...not a Boo from an Uncle Sam look-alike and his friends in the audience but a Wave. Call it a stretch. Back come the two leads in this now cast of hundreds—and Chen comes in on 10-8 cue to hit an opportune backhand. Lin's forehands are masterful—but they don't get him the win. Manhattan 2-NYAC 0. In Germany Keinath has as his fellow Gonnern club members Boll and Rosskopf, but, good as they are, they don't necessarily prepare him to play against Zhuang's Chinese rush-attack. Also, can Keinath expect a 40-year-old man to have such quick reactions? Thomas's first two serves David flips in for winners. Next time though, Thomas surprises David with a fast, deceptive serve which, amazingly, David stabs back, and the ball catches the table edge for a 2-point swing. Still, David is down 7-6; but then, with perfect anticipation, he whacks in Thomas's serve. Down 9-8, he whacks in another serve, only this time it's Keinath who's ready—he blocks back the would-be winner for an ace. Up 10-8, Thomas gets a net ball that spins back over the net to him. After David wins the 2nd game to tie the match, Keinath starts his mime show—measures a miss with his hands. With that wind-up stroke, he has just that much room for error. But he's a fighter, and he thinks—down 13-12 in the 3rd, with a deft drop return of serve he catches Zhuang unawares. However, a net-tick helps David to a 14-12 win. In the 4th, with Keinath leading 9-5, it appears that the match will be tied up. But David, with a great serve return, and a fast serve and follow of his own, pulls out the game with a 6-point surge. In the 5th, countering now some of Thomas's hardest hits, David takes the match—and lets out a sonic boom that wakes baby Cassidy. Fittingly, as he prepares to enter the USATT Hall of Fame in Vegas, he's undefeated here.  So now, against Leung, can Lin win? He looks, almost arrogantly, like he's supposed to. In the 1st, he has presence: up 10-9, he calmly spins in a well-placed backhand. In the 2nd, he goes up 4-0. Your team gonna do it, Wartski?...Ah, how quickly the fickle points fly by, change course. It's 6-all...and when Leung slices in a right to left winner he leads 8-6....Then, with a stretch-counter, and a smash that catches the back edge, he's evened the match. Now Leung is hot: in the 3rd, he's up 7-1, 9-3. Oh, but then he cools—to win 11-8. As I watch these top-team matches, I can't help but note a sameness in the play—everything off the bounce, topspin and counter-topspin, serve attack and serve-return attack—and I long for variety...chops, deep defense retrieves, lobs. But Lin at least very much likes the way play goes—he 6, 5, 6 ties the tie.    "C'mon, Barney!"—the crowd's with him in this $6,000 decider against the Manhattan team's Chen. "Show me something,"says Lin. I know what he means—and, uh, better not. Barney's play is moonish, inconstant. As it's apparent he has to work on his serve and serve-return technique, and the tie begins to unravel for the NYAC team, Lin says, "I close my eyes and dream." Results: Championships Division - Final: Manhattan d. New York Athletic Club, 3-2     * Leung Chu Yan (MAN) d. Barney J. Reed (NYAC), 9,5,4,6;     * Chen Zhibin (MAN) d. Lin Zhigang (NYAC), 8,-10,9,-7,8,7;     * David Zhuang (NYAC) d. Thomas Keinath (MAN), -8,7,12,9,7;     * Lin Zhigang (NYAC) d. Leung Chu Yan (MAN), 9,-9,-8,6,5,6;     * Chen Zhibin (MAN) d. Barney J. Reed (NYAC), 6,7,3,6. Semifinal #1: Manhattan d. Chicago, 3-0 (Chen Zhibin d. Bijana Golic, 7,6,3,8; Leung Chu Yan d. Sasa Drinic, 4,7,4,5; Thomas Keinath d. Chetan Baboor, -6,5,11,-9,-8,8,4); Semifinal #2: NYAC d. Joola Zubrucke, 3-1 (Ma Wenge (JZ) d. Barney J. Reed (NYAC), 4,14,7,7; Lin Zhigang (NYAC) d. Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth (JZ), 5,5,6,6; David Zhuang (NYAC) d. Stafan Feth (JZ), 7,-7,5,6,7; Lin Zhigang (NYAC) d. Ma Wenge (JZ), -9,-3,-12,8,7,3,7. Quarterfinal #1: Joola Zubrucke d. Lip & Rip, 5-1 (Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth (JZ) d. Terry Young (L&R), 6,6,-5,-3,7; Ma Wenge (JZ) d. Randy Cohen (L&R), 2,8,4; Stefan Feth (JZ) d. Ryan Jenkins (L&R), 5,8,-9,9; Ma Wenge (JZ) d. Terry Young (L&R), 5,10,-9,5; Ryan Jenkins (L&R) d. Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth (JZ), -10,10,6,5; Stefan Feth d. Randy Cohen (L&R), 9,12,6. Quarterfinal #2: NYAC d. New York's Best, 5-0 (Lin Zhigang d. Paul David, 6,7,7; Barney J. Reed d. Shao Yu, 7,2,5,-5,8; David Zhuang d. Ernesto Ebuen, 7,11,5,8; Lin Zhigang d. Shao Yu, 3,1,6; David Zhuang d. Paul David, 10,5,8). Quarterfinal #3: Manhattan d. USA Men, 5-0 (Leung Chu Yan d. Darko Rop, -9,4,7,7; Chen Zhibin d. Khoa Nguyen, 5,8,10; Thomas Keinath d. De Tran, 9,7,9; Leung Chu Yan d. Khoa Nguyen, 10,9,8; Thomas Keinath d. Darko Rop, 8,6,11). Quarterfinal #4: Chicago d. Canada, 5-4 (Chetan Baboor (CHI) d. Faazil Kassam (CAN), 9,8,5; Ilija Lupulesku (CHI) d. Pradeeban Peter-Paul (CAN), 9,6,-10,-9,6; Bence Csaba (CAN) d. Sasa Drinic (CHI) 5,7,-6,3; Chetan Baboor (CHI) d. Pradeeban Peter-Paul (CAN), -8,8,14,10; Faazil Kassam (CAN) d. Sasa Drinic (CHI), 7,9,-10,8; Ilija Lupulesku (CHI) d. Bence Csaba (CAN), 8,-11,10,7; Pradeeban Peter-Paul (CAN) d. Sasa Drinic (CHI), -8,9,9,7; Bence Csaba (CAN) d. Chetan Baboor (CHI), 10,-7,4,8; Ilija Lupulesku (CHI) d. Faazil Kassam (CAN), 7,9,2. Division 2: Asian Gang (Steve Nguyen, Tuan Dai Le, Tuan Anh Tran, Marta Massuda) Division 3: A.A. Superb-Chicago (Petra Sestakova, Philip Tam, Valeriy Ort, Henry Mak) Division 4: Minnesota (Sandeep Mahat, Joseph Podvin, Andrew Knips, Nathaniel Curran) Division 5: G.T. Top Shattaz (Usama Nausrudeen, Odingo Mitchell, Shaun Abrams, Jamael Abrams, Colin Ford) Division 6: Old Reliables (Donald Garlanger, Eric Eisley, Robert Saperstein, Stephen Good, Svetlana Panich) Division 7: Fighting Irish Volunteers (Soon Chian Lim, Mark Nordby, Gordon Cochran, Shelby Lane) Division 8: The Ruffians (Kevin Duesbury, Liden Thomas, Tommy Guy Castronovo, Edric Lewis, Carlton Sutton.) Division 9: Fighting Blades (Gary Gudzenko, David Zhou, Rondell Jordan, Evan Momios) Division 10: Howard University (Andrew Belinfanti-Knight, Ayomikun Adeloyo, David Terrelonge, Kevin Rembridge, Kurt Bembridge) Division 11: N.P. Veterans (Donald Duff, Michael Vieira, Paul Boodhoo, Akbar Ali) Division 12: The Collective (Khaled Khalafallah, Richard Shrout, Richard James, Donald Franklin)

 

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