1999 US World & Pan Am Team Trials
Razvan Cretu comes up just short of making the team
This year's team trials in Flint, MI was a two fold event as both the US World and Pan Am Teams were selected. The format was a huge 13 person round robin for the men and an 8 person round robin for the women.
The Competitors & USATT Ratings
|
|
|
David Zhuang 2705 |
Gao Jun 2624 |
Todd Sweeris 2618 |
Tawny Banh 2452 |
Barney Reed Jr. 2582 |
Amy Feng 2436 |
Razvan Cretu 2538 |
Virginia Sung 2280 |
Eric Owens 2512 |
Lily Yip 2270 |
Sean Lonergan 2485 |
 Mimi
Bosika 2210 |
Shashin Shodhan 2466 |
Michele Do 2149 |
Brian Pace 2462 |
 Jackie
Lee 2021 |
Randy Cohen 2440 |
|
Keith Alban 2431 |
Bob Fox Team Manager |
 Ashu
Jain 2429 |
Dan Seemiller Men's Coach |
 Freddie
Gabriel 2410 |
Teo Gheorghe Women's Coach |
 T.J.
Beebe 2401 |
Bob Alshouse Team Leader |
Over the four days of competition there was intense battle and a few surprises.
One of the first was the play of 9th seed Randy Cohen. Randy, while a junior, stayed near the top of the game. As he matured into a young man, he slipped noticeably from the top of the pack. 1999 changed all that. Now living in Sweden, Randy has gotten used to high level play and has 'grooved' his service. On the first day he knocked off both Barney Reed Jr. and Eric Owens! Only Brian Pace was able to power through him.
This put Randy in an excellent position and dealt serious blows to the
hopes of his victims. The top 4 men and women make the team. On the men's
side, it was assumed that National Champion David Zhuang would be one and
on the women's Gao
Jun, also the current National Champion was pretty much a given. As
a matter of fact, Gao would sail through the trials without even losing
a game! David had a much tougher time on the men's side. Ultimately though,
he would come out undefeated, though battered.
That left only 3 spots up for grabs on each team. Fortunately for those
men competing, Cheng Yinghua and Jack Huang chose not to try out. Though
both over 40, they would have proved formidable obstacles to the others.
Additionally, Jim Butler #1 on our Olympic Team, is taking 6 months off
from competition to recuperate. So there was a mad scramble to grab the
remaining spots. It was just the opposite for the women as Amy Feng, after
giving birth to her first baby, was back to try to climb back to the top
in the US.
With a loss to Cohen, Eric 
(who has been training in China and Sweden since the National Championships)
and Barney (who is training full time at the Michigan facility) had real
problems. This meant Eric had to upset at least two of those above him
and beat all of those below him to make the team. Barney, seeded higher,
was in an even more difficult situation for in addition to the stress of
the trials, he was sick as a dog with a severe case of the flu.
Todd Sweeris figured to be in the best position to grab the number two spot. He had just upset Butler at the Closed and has consistent winning history in US Team trials. He also has a tradition of beating both Eric and Barney. While it may sound as if no one else had a chance, this was far from the truth!
The players were so close to each other in level, that anyone had a realistic shot at the team, with the possible exception of T.J., who is still a year or so away from peak form. After all. Keith Alban had just won the Men's U-22 at the Nationals! A potential sleeper was Shashin. He too, had been training in China at Shanghai University. There were surprises on the women's side as well.
First, Lily Yip upset Virginia Sung, and then herself was upset by 16 year old Michelle Do! You can read Lily's own account. These were the only unexpected results on the women's side. It did however, lead to a 3 way tie for the 4th spot on the team! #1 went to Gao, #2 to Tawny, #3 to Amy, (who withstood 4 match points against Michelle!) and #4 was between Virginia, Lily and Michelle.
It
came down to points! The last match between Michelle and Virginia was a
dog fight. If Michelle could win a game, she never has, she was on
the team. However, if Virginia could keep her from scoring 35 total
points against her (best of 5) she made the team. Lily could only sit and
wait. As a matter of fact, she flew home knowing she was out before they
played. Michelle put everything into the first two games coming close in
the second at 18 all.
When she lost that one. it took all of the starch out of her. Virginia crushed her, (intentionally) in the last game. Every point mattered to her. at 20 to 5, Michelle finally showed fire and there was a long, long rally with wonderful defense and powerful attacks. As Michelle won the point, you could see in Virginia's face that she knew she had just lost all chance of making the team on that one rally. Michelle knew in not winning a game, she was not on the team. But, as it turned out, she was wrong, she had only to win 2 or 3 more points in the match, and she would have been. She will never make this mistake again. Still, by scoring that last point, she placed 5th, this means that while not making the teams outright, she still has a chance to represent us as a 5th! So, Lily, who was sure she was out, ends up sliding into the 4th spot on the very slimmest of margins!
There was much still in doubt on the men's side. Eric made the first statements beating Razvan to hand him his first loss, then he revenged his deuce in the 5th, 1/4 final loss at the Closed to Barney in a convincing straight game shut-out. Barney meanwhile, dealt Razvan his second defeat and then made up for losing to Eric by beating Todd 3-0! this meant that Eric and Todd had 1 loss and Barney and Razvan had 2 each.
In the lower half of the draw, everyone was beating each other piling up the losses so as to make it near impossible for them to make the team. Keith Alban and Brian Pace still had real chances though and played like it. First Brian knocked off Reed in a major upset. "Give me two weeks with the guy and he'd be on this team for sure!" said Men's Coach Dan Seemiller watching Brian play. This meant that at the moment only Pace had beaten Cohen and he also had knocked off the #3 seed.
The wheels started to come off for Randy though when Sean Lonergan and
then Razvan dealt him losses. In the mean time, Keith Alban derailed
Brian's hopes by in turn upsetting him. Next Eric handed him another then
Todd, and a 3-2 loss to Razvan snuffed out his fire. Todd essentially eliminated
Lonergan
in a great match and said he wished it was on the last day.
Now it came down to Todd, Eric, Barney, Razvan, with Randy a long shot. Only 3 spots open for these 5 guys. Eric put an exclamation point on his tournament by defeating Todd in a crucial 5 game match. Counting David as a loss for everyone (Eric took his first ever game from him), Owens now had two losses and only the bottom of the field to play. Todd now had two losses and still had to play Razvan who had 3 and Reed who had 4.
Both Razvan and Barney had to win. Barney pulled no punches. He played his best match of the RR in dealing Todd a 3-0 loss. It came down to Razvan and Todd. both now with 3 losses. Barney in beating both of them was in. Todd was in shape, and Razvan wasn't. Cretu, who lives in New Orleans, has no top level practice partners. the best he can find is around the 2000 level. Todd on the other hand, plays at the Maryland TTC and faces 2600 level players every day. It showed in this match.
The Men's team was now complete. #1 David Zhuang (who survived a 5 game marathon with former pupil Ashu Jain), #2 Eric Owens, #3 Todd Sweeris, and #4 Barney Reed Jr. There was more though as Shashin still had to play Eric. He had been playing brilliantly all week and taken many games from the top players, just falling short of taking the matches. Eric DID NOT want to face him.
His trepidation was justified. Shodhan let it all hang out and it took a masterful comeback from Eric to win the 5 gamer on the last day of the event. It was at this moment you could tell he had crossed to the next level of international play. He was ready for England, and the Worlds Championships. Unfortunately with the Worlds in Belgrade, he would not get the chance unless they were moved.
There were some wonderful quotes from the event. My favorite was
from Tawny Banh
in her early 20s who said, "I'm just getting so old!", and meant it.
You could see her running to Kenny Owens for needed therapy treatments
on her sore arm muscles. 
Kenny was a godsend at this event as it was quite grueling and many players
relied on him. David noted that the young players had gotten much better
and it has become very difficult for him to beat them now.
All in all, it was a terrific event in which to participate and a wonderful precursor to the Pro Tour the next week. This despite the constant snow every day with as much as 1 and 1/2 feet of accumulation in Flint! Not discussed are several excellent players that participated such as: Freddie Gabriel, Mimi Bosika, T.J. Beebe, Ashu Jain, and Jackie Lee, but, you may see them in action in pictures linked to their names in the player roster at the top of the page.
