2000 US Open Table Tennis Championships

Azmy Ibrahim and Shonie Aki direct the US Open Table Tennis Championship tournaments

81 TABLE VENUE FLOOR PLAN
July 5-9, 2000
Broward County Convention Center
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida USA
5 Concurrent Tournaments: $75,000 Total Prize Money

China Does Things All Wang, and That's Just Right!

RESULTS

Waldner wins a point against Schlager (500k mpeg)
Koji Matsushita wins a point chopping (430k mpeg)

Today's News: Sunday, July 9.  Today was the final day of the US Open.  It wrapped up with youth age division matches.  The final matches of the day were exciting Under 14 men's matches between Puerto Rico's Santiago Coste and two consecutive Taiwanese challengers, Sheng-Yen Lin and Wei-Chiang Li.  A nice crowd stayed to witness the last match (which finished around 3:45pm).  As everyone filed out, it was with feelings of a job well done.  4900 matches over the course of 5 days and multiple tournaments went almost without a hitch.  Everyone said it was the best play they had ever seen and many proclaimed it the best US tournament ever on all counts.

Saturday, July 8.  Final day of the ITTF Pro Tour.  As fantastic as the Pro Tour matches were yesterday, they were that anti-climatic today, except for the men's finals.  World #1, Wang Nan proved dominant in both women's singles and grabbed second in doubles, while World #2, Wang Liqin captured the silver in doubles and seized the men's singles crown.  Wang Tao, who chose not to enter the Pro Tour, crushed all comers in the US Open - Over 30 division.  U.S.. Olympian, Tom Miller was chosen to umpire the men's finals.  From ball selection to the presentation of the first place check, Liqin was a true professional.  He earned the title with a gutsy 5 game win over last years winner Chiamg Peng Lung.  A full house witnessed a gallent battle of two great players.  Either would have made a great champion, but Wang was right today!

Friday July 7. YES!!!  They all came, and they all played brilliantly.  Unbelievable matches, extrordinary talent, and stunning upsets marked the day.  Defending champion Chiang Peng Lung decided to prove that he did not just win against a weak field, he really deserved it.  First by eliminating the '98 champion, Saive and then by bringing down the World #1, Kong Linghui!  Next, Werner Schlager decided to play "giant killer".  He brought down the obvious crowd favorite, J-O Waldner in a 5 game, 19 in the 5th, masterpiece that brought the crowd to its feet in ovation.  Of course that just set up a match up with Vladimir Samsonov.  Schlager figured, what the heck, and had an even more spectacular match!  Duece in the fifth as he was falling down flat on his back he hits the match winning shot.  You bet the crowd was on its feet again!  The dark horse from yesterday, Hakensson, barely slid by another upset winner (Iseki) in 5 tough games.  At the same time, Koji Matsushita had to take on the World #5, Liu Guozheng.  Liu had his way with another chopper, Syed, yesterday.  Koji decided he would have nothing of that and dropped him 15 in the 5th.  You getting the idea that this is great play yet?  Unfortunately for Koji, he met Hakensson and even 5 games could not take the defender to the semis.  Only Wang Liqin upheld China's honor here, absolutely destroying Huang from Canada.  In fact, it was so one sided, Wang left the court and went immediately to practice as he did not even get a warm-up from the match!  Kim Taek Soo took out Ma Lin, of course it was 5 games.  Another 5 games and Liqin eliminated him in turn.  You can guess that the women's matches were just as awesome, but THAT is for another story. :-)

Thursday, July 6.  The Pro Tour was in full swing today.  All the top players were at their best showcasing incredible talent.  Upsets were the buzz word as Peter Karlsson, Jorgen Parsson, Zoran Primoracand Liu Guiliang all bowed out in early matches.  Waldner, Kong, Samsonov, Saive, and Liu Guozheng on the other hand, moved through easily.  All of the Americans were also eliminated today, with Gao Jun being the last to fall in a duece in the 5th heartbreaker to Romania's Steff. Wang Nan, Li Ju, Ryu Ji Hye and Chen Jing stepped into the next round with minimun effort.   Koji Matsushita was responsible for Primo's demise.  He chopped him down in 4 games.  While Mathew Syed played brilliantly, he was no match for China's Guozheng. Hakensson was the end of Persson as the two Swedes went to 19 in the 5th.  Japan's Seiko Iseki stunned the reigning World and Olympic Champion, Liu Guoliang.  What will tomorrow bring?

Wednesday, July 5: Qualifying for the Pro Tour began today.  World #237 Eric Owens was up 9-1 in the third on World #111 Shinnosuke Kiho, but fell short on his finish as Kiho moves on. Magnus Molin World #95 was hardly tested in his round robin and also advances.  On the women's side, Tawny Banh World #130 upset World #66 Viktoria Pavlovich to also advance.  Jasna Reed likewise moved out of her RR group to the next round.  World #118, Jens Lunquist and Sebastian Jover, World #210 were locked in a three game marathon as this is being written (Sebastian won) with the winner moving to the next round.  World #54 Kazuko Naito breezed through her round to advance.  Play also started in earnest on the US Open and US Open Paralympic events.  Results will be posted when available.

(It takes more than 100 people to run this!)
Tournament Staff:
Tournament Chairman - Y. C. Lee, IR
Tournament Evaluation Director - Jimmy McClure, USOC Delegate

  ITTF assignments:
ITTF Technical Delegate & Tournament Director - Azmy Ibrahim
ITTF Competition Manager - Zlatko Cordas
 Tournament Referee - Bill Walk, IR
Deputy Referee - Wendell Dillon, IR
 Deputy Referee - Nobuyuki Shirakawa, IR (Japan)
 Operations Director - Norm Chouinard
184 Entries

  U.S Open assignments:
 Tournament Director - Shonie Aki
 Tournament Referee - Terry Canup, NR
 Deputy Referee - Allen Barth, NR
 Operations Director - Wayne Johnson
796 Entries

ITTC Paralympic Assignments:
ITTC Technical Delegate - Christian Lilliroos
Paralympic Referee - Aly Salam, IR
Operations Director - Sharon Frant Brooks
152 Entries

  Common Resources for all 5 Tournaments
 Chief Umpire - Dick Evans, IU
 Assistant Chief Umpire - Larry Kesler, IU
 Computer Operations Director - Marilyn Miller
 Conflict Resolution Manager - Olga Feingold

Domestic Umpires
Peter Chamberlain, IU - OK
Valeri Elnatanov, IU - OH
Joseph Helfand, IU - MI
John Jarema, IU - NJ
Ruben Kairy, IU - CA
Paul Kovac, IU - MD
Cindy Marcum, IU - IN
Tom Miller, IU - CA
Bob Partridge, IU - CA
Paul Vancura, IU - OK
Chris Williams, IU - OH
   Zhao Ming Yang, IU - NY
Joseph Yick, IU - CA
Grady Gordon, NU  - TX
Joseph Lee, NU - MD
Roman Tinyszin, NU - CT
Irina Borisova, RU - CA
Stanley Kahan, RU - CA
Yelena Karchtedt, RU - CA
E. Allen Watson, RU - MT

Foreign Umpires (all IU)
Dominique Cougnaud - France
Wilfried Schumacher - Germany
Mr. Andrea Abascia - Italy
Mr.Van der Hammen-Netherlands
Mrs. Katja Brand - Switzerland
Mrs. Rigoberto Marina-Curacao
Oscar van der Biest - Curacao
Mr. Ranjit Malik - India
Chandra Madhosingh-Canada
Len Lukey-Ott  - Canada
Mr. Dai Tianyun - China
Ron Eglin - England

Volunteer Foreign Umpires from Japan (all IU)
Mr.   Araki, Kiyoshi
Mrs.  Higashijima, Masae
Mrs.  Ishikawa, Junko
Mrs.  Masui, Chizuko
Mr.    Nagae, Hideo
Mrs.  Oe, Yasuko
Mr.    Sano, Toshio
Mrs.  Susaki, Katsuko
Mrs.  Shibata, Keiko
Mr.  Wakana, Masaichi
Mrs.  Araki, Yoko

Volunteer Domestic Umpires
Dan Wang, CU
Sean O'Neill, CU
Larry Hodges, CU
Malcolm Anderson, IU

Facilities Manager
Dwayne Zint

USATT Working Tournament Staff
Ben Nisbet - Executive Director
Margaret Smith - USATT Operations Director
Vicki Ulrich - Media & Public Relations
Megan Kulenburg
Heather Sellars
Chris Laskey
Kathy EngelStabler

Control Desk Staff
Marilyn Miller - Computer Operations
Olga Feingold Kahan - Shift Leader
Mark Ritter - Shift Leader
Jimmy Wilson - Player Liason
Carl Belnavis
Benedicte Cambon
Juan Escobeda
Brenda Finklestein
Steve Gibson
Ann Kesler
Herbert Lau
Sarah McAfee
John Miller
Bob Sanders
Suzanna Sanders
Inga Viktorova
Mark White
Jan Wilderman
Alan Williams
Erin Williams
Shirley Zint

USATT Olympic Team Leader
Bob Fox

Outdoor ping-pong was all the rage in the days prior to the Open.

Ft. Lauderdale is a meca for boating enthusiasts.  Some of the nicest ones tie up here.

Setup for the ITTF events:
Top 16 are directly seeded and have byes into the second round.  The next 16 are seeded and will face 16 qualifying winners from the ITTF Tour Qualification Tournament.  Those that do not make it through qualifiying will go into the ITTF Tour Consolation Tournament.

MEN's ITTF Entries (Unofficial)

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