JOOLA USA

The World Junior Championships was a exquisite experience. Even though i injured my left knee in the beginning of the tournament, I still manage to play through all the events.

One weeks before the junior trials, and i get injured, perfect timing. After the day that i got injured, i tried everything to help it heal. putting on medicine and putting iceon it to stop the swelling. The next couple of days, I managed to play out all the events. Even though I lost all my matches, I had an unforgettable experience. I have seen the best juniors in the world play, and it has helped me improve my game. This has helped me succeed in nationals the following week.

December 20th, I was still deciding if I should go to nationals. A lot has happened to me in the week before nationals. But in the end, I decided to go. The first day of nationals for was Dec. 20th 2007, I went to the playing hall in the mid afternoon. I practiced for about 30 min. then I had to take a break. My left knee was hurting too much. Then, around 6ish, my leg was feeling better, so i practiced wit Jim Du (My sparring partner/coach for nationals) for 1-2 hours. After that, I called it a day and went back to the hotel. Friday, the moment of truth, am i going to make the junior national team this year? The final Round Robin was like at 5ish pm. I started out playing the lowest player in my round robin. Even though my knee was hurting... I still managed to play... After that match, I felt like no body in the tournament can beat me. To make a long story short... I finish 1st in my group, and was undefeated with a record of 5-0. After My last match that day, (my last match was against Dan Seemiller jr.) once I sat down and removed my leg brace... I felt the pain, it felt like a million needles stabbing my left knee.

Day 2, and the last day of the tournament, I had to play the crossovers for the junior event. I had to play Peter Li. He was a tough opponent, He was up 2-1 in game scores, and in the fourth game, he was up 4-0, But i managed to come back and win that game. then the deciding game of the match... i was down 3-0 in the 5th game. but in the end I managed to win and go to the Finals.

Finals of the Junior trials... I was leading in the first 2 games, but didnt take the opportunity that was given to me... so now i am down 2-0... Even though my left knee was injured and i am in a lot of pain, i managed to win the next 2 games. now the game score is 2-2, now for the final game... it was a close match, i was up 7-6 and justen called time out. then in the end, he had a little more luck than me, so he won the junior event...

But now that i think about it, if my knee wasn't injured, I would have won juniors easily. I guess life just hates me. Nothing ever goes smoothly for me.

I would like to thank Joola, my sponsor for supporting me this year, and supplying me with the superb equipment, Jim Du, he has helped me out alot this year by practicing with me, and coaching me at nationals, My coach Grace Lin for supporting me all these years, and i would also like to thank every one that supported me all these years, without you guys, I would not be this good.

The match of 2007 US Nationals Mens Final between Illija Lupulesku & Mark Hazinski can bee seen at http://www.TableTennisNetwork.com.

I was helping as a flag holder during the opening ceremony of the wrold championship at Stanford. It was really fun to see so many players come from all over the world. They played with different styles, strokes and tactics. I hope I can be part of the team soon!

Since my children started playing competitively, I hardly get the chance to participate in tournaments, specially the US Open or the Nationals.  As a parent and also a photographer at tournaments, it is definitely a hardship on my part to even play in one event.  I reluctantly accepted to play U3200 doubles with Alan Tanti, a 9 year old from Grace Lin's San Gabriel Valley TTC.

Playing doubles is fun and over the years I have had the chance to play doubles with a few aspiring juniors from SGVTTC; Alicia Wei, Jasmine Nguyen and now Alan Tanti.  What is different in this instance - Alan likes to back off from the table like myself which I feel might present a problem.  Over the last few weeks, we practiced a few times at the club and did very poorly even against lower rated doubles teams.  Finally, the week prior to the Nationals, I made Alan stay close to the table.  We finally made progress and was able to beat a few stronger teams at the club.

Alan and I had a first round bye, and had to play 5 rounds to get to the finals.  Through these 5 rounds, we played two teams that used 100% inverted, the other three teams had combinations of inverted and long pips rubber.  Our game plan was simple.  Against inverted, I would slow loop to open and Alan had to either counter or smash the ball back.  Playing the teams with combination rubber sheets, our tactic was simply to serve fast long underspin or no spin and attack the return.

We glided through 3 rounds without much difficulty.  Our first test came in the Semifinals where we faced Odo Wang and Ryan Allen, a local Las Vegas team.  Both used inverted in their forehand and long pips in their backhand.  We were up 2-1 in games and 6-2 in the 4th game.  Alan lost his groove after missing one easy smash.  We eventually lost 13-11 in the 4th.  We played poorly at the start of the 5th trailing 5-1 when we changed sides.  We caught up to 5-5 and was very close.  Then we found ourselves behind 8-10 in the 5th with me serving.  We got to deuce and fortunately scored the next two points to win 12-10.

Our first match started at 9:45 in the morning, it was almost 7:30 PM, the finals was to start in a few minutes.  I was familiar with our opponent.  Months before Jasmine Nguyen and myself played them in the finals of U3200 in Walnut Creek, where we lost 3-1.  Stanley and Claire are very experienced doubles team using long pips strategically to their advantage.  We went up 2-0 in games and was coasting 4-1 in the 3rd then we lost our focus and lost the 3rd game 11-5!  I felt we could pull this off and the serving combination for the 4th game favoured our team.  I would be serving to Claire who would use the long pips to return.  I constantly served fast, long side underspin balls and Alan would smash for winners.  While we won the 4th game 12-10, we were ahead by 4 points for most of the game until the end.

Playing doubles takes a lot of team work.  I was able to show my young partner never give up, dont show any frustrations and keep focused even when the situation does not look good.

Gerry

 

Hey everybody. I hope you guys are enjoying your winter break and are training hard. I have training hard with Yand ShiGang and DiDi. By the way, in the U.S Nationals, I lost to Erick Shanah..... I was leading 2 games to 0 but I couldn't hang on. I almost 2 2200hundred players both 3-2 I lost. Oh well. Lesson learned. I made it in the quarterfinals of the under 13 and I lost to Anand Engineer 3-1. I made it also in the quarterfinals in the under 1900 RR but I lost to this freakin hardbat. Oh Well...............................................                      Posted by: Ethan J.

hi, i hope everyone is enjoying their christmas vacation (or for those of you who dont celebrate christmas) / winter break. For nationals, this year was my last year in trying out for Cadets... although i didnt make it i got 6th place and learned what i needed to work on more. both the womens and mens QF, SF, and F were very exciting to watch. as i watch the younger kids play, i was amazed at howgood they were. well.. i have nothing more to say...   Keep enjoying your winter break/ christmas vacation everyone!

 

Hi joolausa ,

I just came back from the U.S nationals.  In the ten and under I got third. I lost to Charlie Dang. He is left handed and very fast.I lost to him because I looped it to his backhand too much. Thats all, bye Ethan Chua.

I am trying to get better at ping pong. This year I have set my goal to become a 2000 player soon. I want to win more events next year. Watching the World Junior Championship inspires me a lot and gets me energized.

Hi! I'm not going to Las Vagas but I'm gonna hit it next year! I really enjoy training at Palo Alto. My favorite stroke in ping pong is my loop. Wow, I really love ping pong!

 

I helped in the world junior championship last week with the opening ceremony! It was an eye opening evnt to see so many top players competing against each other.

Hello,

I am really glad my dad took me to Baltimore. I  played  good and had a rating jump of 341 points.  I hope I can do good in the Nationals too.

 David Gong