JOOLA USA

Gerry Chua

The tournament was held at the Reseda High School. Two gyms about 500 feet apart were used. The control and registration desk was in the main gym. On Saturday, there were quite a few complaints on late starts, with some events delayed for 2 hours. The two separated gyms was not a problem in itself, it was the lack of communication between the two gyms. Anytime a problem arose in the smaller gym, one had to walk over to the main to resolve the issues. A simple solution to this problem was to have a staff member permanently man the smaller gym and with a walkie talkie communicate to the control desk of issues and availability of tables. Needless to say, the control desk was overwhelmed by complaints of late starts, unable to find players in the RR group, lack of umpires and players who served illegally.

To the credit of the neophyte organizers, they were able to calm those that were irritated for one reason or another. Several JOOLA sponsored players participated: Khoa Nguyen, Natalie Sun, Erick Shahnazari and Ethan Chua.

In the U2500, Natalie Sun surprised Diane Chen (2200+) with a 2-1 lead. Diane, a former penholder who played for the Heliongjiang provincial team, had difficulty with the constant attacks of Natalie. Eventually, Diane's patience and steadiness got her over the hump with a close 3-2 win over Natalie. The other "buzz" on Saturday morning was DJ Alto's match with De Tran in the QF of the U2500. Don reverted back to using inverted on his forehand but it was his quick backhand hits and blocks that gave De Tran problems. Match to Don with a 3-1 win.

Spectators started to gather in the late afternoon as the four Open RR groups was about to commence. The groups were as follows:

#1 Wilson Zhang, Misha Kasantsev, Zheng Jiaqi, Jason Hoang

#2 Eric Owens, Barney Reed, Jeff Huang, Tuan Le

#3 De Tran, Ben Johnson, Lu Guo Hui (Coffee), DJ Alto

#4 Khoa Nguyen, Lee Sang Mook, John Thach Tran, Michael Hyatt

Wilson came out of his group with little opposition. Jiaqi, a penholder originally from Beijing was extremely frustrated playing against Misha. Misha is the second qualifier from group 1.

Upsets are bound to happen. The first match in group #2 was just that. Eric having just won the Berkeley Open a month prior and coming placing 2^nd in the recent Pan Am trials played flat. It reminded me how Misha beat Eric easily in Berkeley in the Open RR. Eric played uninspired and could not move. Jeff Huang wins 3-0. With this incredible win, Jeff faces Barney. Somehow, Barney knows how to play lefties. Earlier in the day, Barney dismantles Jeff 3-1 in the QF of U2500. In this match, Jeff comes out fighting, game was close but in the end Barney triumphs with a 3-2 win. With Dr. Tuan Le losing to all three, the final game was crucial. In order for Eric to advance, he would have to win 3-0 over Barney. Barney fights hard but succumbs to Eric 3-0, and Eric gets out of his RR in 2 ^nd place.

Who advances to group is determined by the last match between Coffee and DJ. Coffee, Ben and De Tran are all 1-1 against each other. Ben and De both won against DJ. If Coffee wins, he takes first and Ben comes in second. As it turns out, Coffee lost to DJ thus De Tran and Ben come out of the RR, first and second respectively.

The highlight of this group was the match between Khoa and Lee Sang Mook. Lee, a Korean from British Columbia is a traditional penholder that plays similar to the great Kim Taek Soo. The games are close and featured looping and counter looping rallies. Footwork and quickness were accurate descriptions of Lee's game. His quick attacks did not frustrate Khoa. It all came down to game 7 with Khoa barely winning at deuce. Michael Hyatt put up a good fight in all his matches, however his style of backing up seem outdated.

The quarter finals were set for Sunday which was to begin at 1:30: Wilson vs. Lee; Jeff vs. Ben; Misha vs. Khoa and De Tran vs. Eric.

In the U12 event, Erick Shahnazari got to the semifinals where he met Erica Wu. Erica uses medium pips on her backhand. Erick plays tough but is unable to overcome Erica's backhand in a 0-3 loss. Ethan Chua also got to the semifinals. His next match was against 1888 rated John James Alto, youngest of the Alto boys from San Diego. Ethan puts up a fight, takes a game off John. John J. Alto prevails with a 3-1 win. On paper, the final between Erica and John, would give John the advantage being a lefty. Like Erick in the SF, John is unable to find the right combination to overcome the medium pips. Erica wins 3-1.

With most events played on Saturday and less events on Sunday, it was off to a good start. There were several doubles events and they were loaded with entries. The U18 final was played at 11:30. It was between DJ Alto and Jeff Huang. Don could not seem to get in rhythm with his forehand. The match was over in less than 15 minutes. Jeff takes it 3-0.

As it got closer to 1:30, the spectators began staking their spots. Wilson vs. Lee was on table 1. Lee has very powerful forehand loops and his shots catapults so fast sometimes Wilson has dif-faculty getting to them. As good as his footwork, having to play mostly forehands has a distinct disadvantage specially having to play a steady opponent like Wilson. Lee was able to get a few shots past Wilson, but for most part, Wilson was able to neutralize this by serving short and capitalizing on Lee's all forehand game by blocking wide to the forehand. Lee showed moments of great play but his game became very predictable. While the game scores seemed close, it was always Lee playing catch up. One game, Lee came close and eventually took one from Wilson. In the end, match to Wilson 4-1.

Table 2 had Jeff Huang vs. Ben Johnson. Several spectators wondered if this tournament would be the coming out of Jeff and making it to the big dance. Several weeks before Jeff won the Open Singles in an unsanctioned tournament where he placed first in the final RR composed of Khoa, Ben, Barney and Misha. Jeff's only lost was to Ben. Jeff came out pumped, winning the first game at deuce. Ben was calm and methodically worked his game to frustrate Jeff. It is hard to characterize Ben's style. He likes to serve and return short. He seldom backs up from the table. His backhand is lethal, lethal in the sense of being able to open with well placed spiny shots to set up the put away shot. Initially, Jeff tried to counter loop these shots with no success. Jeff started to block instead, albeit block soft which gave Ben the opening he was looking for. Ben wins 4-1, frustrating Jeff throughout the match.

Khoa vs. Misha was on table 3. Khoa had an easy win as Misha did not show up. De Tran and Eric was on table 4. Unfortunately for them, this table was the furthest from most of the spectators and few got to watch the whole match. De Tran was able to keep up with Eric for the first 4 games at 2-2. De Tran had a chance to go ahead on game 5 but lost at deuce. Game 6 was all Eric winning 11-7, match to Eric 4-2.

The U10 RR was played on 5 while the Open quarterfinals were being played. Ethan Chua was the top seed among 5 entrants. The other four players were all unrated. Ethan won the U10 event but this was almost derailed by Jonathan Ou from San Luis Obispo. It took Ethan a 5 ^th game with his myriad of serves to prevail.

The open semifinals were set. How long would it take Wilson to finish Eric off on his way to the final. Eric proved most of us wrong. From the beginning, Eric was aggressive. He would open initially when given the chance. He also went after each shot and strategically returning them to where Wilson couldn't counter attack. Wilson was pinned wide to his backhand stepping around hitting forehands. Eric would return wide to Wilson's wide forehand for easy winners. It was incredible to see long rallies and surprisingly Eric won 75-80% of the time. While Wilson took game 4, game 5 showed a side of Wilson that so few of us had ever witnessed. He had the bewildered look in him. Whatever he did, Eric had a answer for it. Due to the aggressive game Eric employed, Wilson was forced to back up more than he would like giving Eric even wider angles to capitalize. Crowd show their appreciation as Eric spanks Wilson.

Ben vs. Khoa: This is the 3^rd meeting in two weeks. In the team competition of the Vietnamese Chinese Friendship Association's TT tournament, Ben had won over Khoa 3-0. Khoa got his revenge the next day in the Open singles final RR. In a see saw match, it was tied at 2 games a piece, Khoa prevails in game 5 13-11. Ben comes back strong to win the 6 ^th game. He even hits an around the net shot that barely bounced on Khoa's side of the table for a winner. Game 7 is very close and Ben takes a 10-9 lead only to lose the next point when Khoa returns softly and the ball dribbles barely over the net and hit's the edge. Ben could only watch as the score is now at deuce. The next two points go to Ben. He used his classic backhand flick to misdirect the shots to Khoa's forehand for winners.

The US and Vietnamese National Anthems were played before the finals. Steve Kunimoto was asked to say a few words about John. Steve was John's long time doubles partner. They were the dominant U3700 doubles team in Southern California. After Steve, it was Laurie Jacob's turn. Laure is John's sister. It was very touching.

For the finals, we have two Killerspin sponsored players going at it. Eric has 100 rating points advantage over Ben. This is why the game is played. As with Ben's previous victims, his M.O. is quite eerily similar. Open with backhand and attack from there. What is surprising was Eric did not bother to change his service patterns, continually serving to the middle or backhand which was favorable to Ben. Eric was not in sync. Ben's style of play prevented Eric from utilizing the tactics he used against Wilson. Ben's strategic ball placement grounded Eric. Ben wins 4-0 and $2000 first prize.