September 4-5, 2004

Congratulations are also in order for Misha Kazantsev, winner of both the U-22 and U-18 Boys, over Auria Malek and Trevor Runyan, respectively. Kudos as well to Jackie Lee, Women's Singles Champ, who weathered a seesaw 7 game battle with Heather Wang to take the title.

When the Quarterfinals began in Open Singles, there was only one previous STIGA NA Tour Champ in the field of 8 players, US Olympian Khoa Nyguen, who captured the Western Open at Fort Mason several years ago. Three Canadians reached this level and five Americans, three from California and two from New York.

Here's what happened.

Quarterfinals:

Misha Kazantsev vs. Pradeeban Peter-Paul.

Pradeeban has been a consistent entrant over the years on the STIGA tour, and while often close, has never laid claim to the ‘Top Slot'. His game is all fast-twitch and very muscular, often serving long and deep to begin points as full-blast mano-a-mano at the table contests of reflexes. If he is forced from the table, he goes soft, and is as likely to lob as to counterloop. Misha is a rising American junior who is rapidly learning to balance that forehand that attracted so much early attention with equally potent backhand play. Here, serve return became critical, and as the match progressed, Misha had trouble dictating the point. Praddy was often set up for the kill, and in four straight games, took it. 11-4, 14-12, 11-0, 11-6

Barney Reed vs. Paul David

Both of these players had something to prove at the tournament, as Paul wanted to consolidate that wonderful performance at the Easterns, and Barney wanted to erase the memory of failing to reach the Quarters at the Murad. When Paul David took the first two games, he had established complete control. A distraught Barney raised his voice to the heavens, "What is WRONG?" but Paul could just as easily have asked that in the fifth game when Barney mishit a lob which landed short on Paul's FH side, and then bounded wickedly away as Paul set up in his BH corner for a smash. That point proved crucial to the game, which Barney took, along with the last. Afterward, Paul said, "I forgot what was working and started to play his forehand." Barney advanced, 3-11, 9-11, 11-7,11-8,11-9,11-7

Tahl Leibovitz vs. Xavier Therien

Therien is undemonstrative and poised, while Tahl is all fire and passion. Every game was close, although the match quickly was decided. Tahl earned a yellow card from Umpire Saul Weinstein with a tentative table kick after dropping the first game at deuce. Tahl stormed back from a 10-4 deficit to force a deuce that he lost in game 3. The acerbic New Yorker showed that his recent wedding had not mellowed his sense of humor or his sense of mischief. "I'm crippled! What's your excuse?" Tahl offered as his analysis of the match. Truth was, to this observer, that a couple unforced errors could have swayed several of the games. Xavier calmly leaves Tahl in his wake, 12-10,11-8,12-10,6-11,11-6

Khoa Nyguen vs. Homayoun Kamkar-Parsi

Just back from Athens, it would be natural for Khoa to experience some sort of let-down. Fans of the lanky Californian hoped that was his ‘close call' against the elderly longpipped blocker, Peter Chen, back in the Qualifying group. Kamkar-Parsi was a ‘new player' to me, making his first appearance on the STIGA Tour.

Homayoun has a build, stocky, short-armed, that we all are familiar with from club play, what I call a ‘short-armed looper'. No big, extravagant strokes here! All compact motions and quickness, Kamkar-Parsi also struck me as ‘tactically advanced'. I believe that he knew, or quickly realized, that Khoa's textbook strokes and devastating Forehand attack is based on rhythm, and then did whatever he could to disrupt that rhythm. Throughout the match, Khoa would have difficulty getting his feet set, and whenever he began to shape for a stroke, Kamkar-Parsi was sure to find the most awkward angle to present, adjusting his blocks and backhand flips to the most inconvenient spots. One point stands out in my memory as epitomizing the problem Khoa was confronting. From his backhand corner, Khoa attacks Homayoun dead center. He counters with a backhand Loop, which, as it bounces, takes an I-Kid-You-Not eight inch sideways break! Khoa's backhand answer is a last moment adjustment, leaning to his left. Homayoun shapes the same shot, and now Khoa moves to anticipate the sidespin break, but there is none. Now he is leaning to his right as he backhands into Kamkar-Parsi again. He adjusts himself by moving back to his left, into the backhand corner, and is passed outright at the Canadian takes the ball right at the bounce and flicks it cleaning down the forehand corner as Khoa moves away from that spot. Nasty! In five hotly contested games, Khoa cannot establish the movement and rhythm that makes his ‘A' game so devastating. In the final game, clawing back from four points down, everything slows, with Kamkar-Parsi holding serve until the instant Khoa's concentration breaks. Despite repeated protests to the umpiring crew, Khoa can't get a call, and Kamkar-Parsi shrugs, seemingly oblivious to any problem. But (bounce the ball/palm the ball/bounce the ball) he's in no hurry to start the points, either. And when the ball is finally put into play, it's a nasty short topspin number that Khoa flips a good two feet off the table. In response to my question after the match, Khoa, picking up Quarterfinal money, said "Heck, yes! It's annoying!" It looked it. Kamkar-Parsi moves to the Semi-Finals, 12-10, 6-11,11-9,11-8,11-7.

It really pays to keep your head and your wits about you, and these two players, whom I presume have frequently encountered each other in Canadian play, give us a good one! Xavier keeps his focus very well, and is not afraid to use the Timeout to regain it when he needs it. The points are his whenever he can bring his longer reach and wider angles into play, making the smaller man cover more ground and cut a slow retreating corner-to-corner path. The interior play tends to favor Kamkar-Parsi, who is trying to lock up his opponent with elbow-tight returns and varying pace. But Xavier stays on task and reaches his first STIGA NA Tour final, by scores of 12-10,11-6,10-12,2-11,11-4,11-5

Barney Reed vs. Pradeeban Peter-Paul

Praddy smells blood in the water, and ends every point as quickly as he can. This is no-nonsense efficiency and frankly, the best I've ever seen him play. Recently Peter-Paul took the Canadian Men's National title. Barney can get no traction, find no chink in the armor, and seems resigned at the end to a quick exit as Peter-Paul asserts himself 11-5,11-8,11-7,11-6

Championship Match

Xavier Therien vs. Pradeeban Peter-Paul

This matchup assured a number of things. The Western Open would produce a new Champion, someone who had never before won a STIGA NA tour event. We also felt assured that we'd get a good match, a competitive match, and a worthy Champion. We got all three!

Therien broke to the good early, taking the first two games of the Final by identical scores of 11-9. When Peter-Paul scooped the next three games 8,9,8, it was Therien's chance to show some ‘heart', which he did, 11-7. The crowd was thick and intense as they went for a deciding seventh frame in the contest. Xavier seemed the more aggressive to me at this point, and Praddy seemed to have ‘gone soft' allowing Xavier to take the risks, make the smashes and attempt the clean winners. From down 8-4 in the seventh game, Therien did what comes as no surprise any longer; he came back with four straight of his own. I overheard a spectator remark "Neither of these guys has any quit! They both deserve to win!" I found it impossible to disagree. Again Peter-Paul gave crowd and began lobbing back Xavier's smashes. This is a tactic Pradeeban likes, and he was pleased by the expanded size of the courts from the Quarterfinals on. Xavier belts on that Pradeeban barely gets to, leaving him way out of position, and with the table open...NET! Therien buries the ball off a weak lob. Peter-Paul took both the following points to notch a seven game victory, $2,000 and the title "2004 Western Open Champion".

This was an outstanding tournament, with many great and memorable moments. Kudos to Tournament President Wendy Troy, Tournament Director Richard Lee and Tournament Referee Dr. Azmy Ibrihim. Azmy's Army of Umpires, Mike Boot, Yelena Karstedt, Saul Weinstein, Kenny Tiem and Ben Wong were much appreciated. Table Tennis Pioneers, staunch sponsor for the Tour was the vendor for the weekend, which seemed less Labor than love.

Open Singles: Pradeeban Peter-Paul d. Xavier Therien ; -9,-9,8,9,8,-7,8

Women's Singles: Jackie Lee d. Heather Hua Wang; -9,6,-7,8,6,-9,5

Under 22 Men's: Misha Kazantsev d. Auria Malek; 8,-7,9,8

U-18 Boy's: Misha Kazantsev d. Trevor Runyan; 8,-9,8,7,-6,7

U-18 Girl's: Alicia Wei 1st, Colleen Lee, 2nd

U-16 Boys: Trevor Runyan d. Mark Wei; 7,4,7

U-16 Girls:Colleen Lee d. Stephanie Chow; 1,10,9

U-13 Boys: Lien Sang d. David Chow; 5,9,6

U-13 Girls: Alicia Wei d. Serena Bahn; 2,8,2,3

U-10 Boys: Anand Engineer d. Kanon Lee; 3,-9,7,9

U-10 Girls: Lily Zhang 1st, Vivian Sun, 2nd

Over 40: Yong Ren d. Bunny Lee; -9,4,7,0

Over 50: David Sakai d. Peter Chen: -3.17,-11,10,9,-6,9

Over 60: Dong Guang-Kui d. Li Shan-Chuan; -8,12,-6,6,2

U-2500: Ludovic Gombos d. Auria Malek; 11,-5,8,12,13

U-2375: Ahn Tuan Nyguen d. Steve Nyguen; 7,7,7

U-2250: Peter Chen d. Trevor Runyan; 8,-11,7,9

U-2125: Bunny Lee d. Anthony Liu; 6,2,4

U-2000: Sean C. Lee d. David Samuelson; -4,8,-7,10,8

U-1850: Sanjeev Tenneti d. Tarun Vasudeva; 8,-8,11,9,7

U-1700: Colleen Lee d. Robert, Wolf; 10,-5,8,8

U-1550: Gary Fang d. Channing Chan; -7,5,-10,6,10,9

U-1400: Calvin Au d. Dan Vu; 7,12,-10,5

U-1250: Melody Wang d. Brian Louie; 9,7,12

U-1100: Melody Wang d. Daniel Mar; 14,-6,7,-8,8

U-950: Daniel Mar d. Brian Louie; 11,-10,-9,3,-12,8,8

U-800/Unrated: Dongwook Kim d. Melody Wang; 6,5,2

U-4200 Doubles: Lim Soon Chian/Felicia Ong d. Voltaire Benedicto/Sean C. Lee; 0,5,7

U-3200 Doubles: Barney Reed/Bryan Gee d. Paul David/Brendan McFadden; -9,7,-7,7,9