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My John Schneider Memorial Open Blog PDF Print E-mail
Written by Khoa Nguyen   
Monday, 23 April 2007

John Schneider Memorial Open 3-24 to 3-25

I entered 3 events at the John Schneider Memorial Open. I knew John for a long time. We won the National Collegiate Doubles title in the late 1980. Over the years, we would see each other in tournaments. John will be missed.


Tuan Le (aka Dr. Le) drove to Burbank high school early Saturday morning. My 1st event was Open Singles. The playing hall was in the gym with about 12 tables. The 2nd gym had another 10 tables. I was seeded into the main draw and didn't have to play in the qualifying round. Wilson Zhang was the #1 seed, Eric Owens #2, I was 3rd and Ben Johnson was 4th.

In my round-robin group were Sang Lee from Canada, Michael Hyatt and John Tran. I've never seen or play against Sang. The last time I played against Michael was in 2000. It was a very close match. I squeaked by with a win deuce in the 5th. Michael has beaten me in a few league matches in the Bay Area. But I knew he hasn't been playing for a while. I haven't seen him in any local tournaments. John was my Doubles partner at the last US Nationals. I beat John in the 1st match and played Sang next. Sang was surprisingly very fast. He had a good forehand 3rd ball attack. He plays a typical pen-holder style with a weak backhand. It was a see saw match with many lead changes. I was lucky to win at deuce in the 7th.

I don't think my game is where it should be. I was looking for a job for the last 4 weeks. I wasn't able to keep a regular workout and training schedule. A few days before this tournament, I accepted a full-time position at Abbyy USA in Fremont. It's very exciting to start a new job but it means a lot of work in the beginning. My next opponent was Michael. I won 3 games to 1. The top 2 players advance of the group and plays in the qtr-final.

In the qtr-final round, I was scheduled to play against Misha. Unfortunately, we didn't play the match because Misha hurt his wrist the night before. In the semi-final, I play against Ben. Ben and I split our matches a few weeks ago in another tournament. I started out strong by easily winning the 1st game. But I would go on to lose the next 2 games. Then I came back to win the next 2 to go up 3 games to 2 lead. Ben has a good backhand and my strategy was to stay away from his backhand. I lost deuce in the 7th. Ben went on to win in the final against Eric.

I was paired with Hai Nguyen in the Under 4200 Doubles. We won 1st place. I also won the Over 40 Singles. It was a long tournament.

I still have a long way to go to get back to playing at a 2700 level. It means I need to keep a consistent and regular training schedule. I need to stick to my original plan as much as possible.
 
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