Freddie Gabriel Wins the Open!!

Animated Players

Atha Fong

Tuan Le

Michelle Do - Forehand and Backhand

David Rudesill -  Profile

Allison Seibel

David J. Roberts

Victor Wu

Don Utsumi

Roger Nguyen

Nelson Yu

Vincent Cheng

GS Unknown Player 8

Wendell Loadholt

Erwin Hom

Steve Nguyen

James Do

GS Unknown Player 13

Thomas Yeh

GS Unknown Player 15

Joe Ching

Ralph Harriman

Voltaire Trillo

Sidelines and Spectators

Table Tennis SpinCam™

Bump and Point @ the Desk

Referee: Bob Partridge - Snacking

Coach: Bill Lui Ph: 925-825-6816

Hackie Honda

Jim Ritz

Photographer: Joe Holman

Event Winners

Is 17 year old 2457 rated Freddie Gabriel back to table tennis for good?
 
Well, after switching to tennis since the Nationals and with only one week of practice, Freddie won the 26th Golden State Open by going undefeated to beat out North American Olympic team trial participant Shashin Shodhan (2488).  He also easily won the Under 18 over Olympic qualifier Michelle Do (2277).  It is the first time in 26 years that a junior developed from a total beginner has won our own tournament.  With the North American Tour's Golden Gate Open and the Pro Tour coming up it is safe to say that he will be training hard for at least a month.  We'll see after that.
 
A few tidbits about this two star tournament presented by the Concord TTC in the S. F. Bay Area:
 
Attendees include Newsgroup posters Scott Gordon, Bruce Liu, David Roberts, Robert Trudell, and myself.
 
Return of Erwin Hom who was one of the better junior players in the country in his teens.
 
175 total entries with:
 
26 unrated (new USATT memberships/permits), some were assigned ratings for seeding purposes based on knowledge of their playing levels
 
40 juniors (under 18) entered
 
23 entered in U-500RR
 
27 entered in U-800RR
 
29 entered in U-1100RR
 
12 entered in U-12 year old
 
Tournament Director Phil Schafer, Referee Bob Partridge, and the rest of the committee members did an exceptional job with so many entries and only 14 tables.  I am especially proud of the 25 of my current students from the 3 clubs that I coach (and quite a few former students), who participated and for the sportsmanship they displayed.
 
Bill Lui
Concord TTC, CA

Robert Trudell wrote:
 
>http://members.fortunecity.com/czx57l/Golden_State_Open.htm
>
>Check out the all new Table Tennis SpinCam and Bill Lui's new junior pick -
>Atha Fong.
>
Yes, Robert, Kyna Fong's 11 year old sister Atha is one of the most promising juniors I have ever coached.  At the same age she has better skills than Michelle Do and Jackie Lee who were also under my tutorage, but not the same level of concentration.  In the last tournament she played in she beat an 1800 and lost to a 990.  She and 10 year old Sergy Gutkin are the anchors of our current generation of about 25 juniors in the Concord Table Tennis Club.  For more tidbits about the tournament please see my thread on "Freddie Gabriel won Golden State Open"
 
Bill Lui
Concord TTC

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Any report of this tournament would be incomplete without mentioning its two most amazing stars:  James Therriault and Peter Chen.  In a field which included Freddie, Shashin, Tuan Le, Dave Roberts, Avishy Schmidt, Michelle Do, and several other 2200-2300 players, these two warriors made the final-4 round robin and entertained the crowd along the way. 
 
Peter Chen's presence is a particular treat for us west-coasters, and those of you who have never had the pleasure to see him play can only imagine what it is like -- he has a style that is all his own.  Peter is a quiet, friendly 60+ year-old penhold blocker for whom 90% of his shots are dropshots. To watch him warm up, one would assume he was about 1400.  For the most part, he doesn't move his feet.  But it doesn't matter whether you slam, chop, loopkill, slow loop, lob, or what... Peter will simply dropshot the ball to the most awkward spot conceivable.  Often his dropshots pop up, and it doesn't matter because he will simply block the impending kill.  Players who face him and don't know who he is, typically presume he will be an easy win, and don't realize they are in trouble until they are down 10-0.  It is a common and highly entertaining sight to watch his opponents transform from confidence to terror when they realize the nightmarish predicament they are in.
 
Peter's angles, touch, and placement are the best I have ever seen and that includes the elite players.  He can make *anyone*, win or lose, look about 1500.  He has a huge fan-base in the area.  Peter's rating is about 2100, but he has wins over astonishingly high-rated players (last year at this tournament he beat Philip Lim and Terrance Lee in succession).  It is quite a shock to see this gentle 65-yr old man beat 2300 players without ever hitting a ball, AND without ever backing off the table.
 
Peter arrived late and thus was defaulted from nearly every event but the Open.  He defeated Steven Nguyen and Tuan Le (who had just defeated Avishy Schmidt) to advance to the final round-robin of 4.  In the round robin, he lost to Freddie Gabriel (18,18) and Shashin Shodhan (21,15). Against Shashin, he had leads of 19-15 in the first and 11-3 in the second. In his final match, Peter defeated James Therriault, which I will describe later (below).
 
Terriault:  After losing to Steve Nguyen in his rating division (2150?), James' lobbing reached near perfection and he went on a tear, defeating David Roberts, Michelle Do, Avishy Schmidt, and Erwin Hom, securing a spot in the final-4 round robin of the open along the way.  Against Roberts, he made a point which brought a huge roar from the crowd, and which I must describe....
 
After a series of smashes from Roberts (James lobbing), a dropshot forced James to rush in.  The ball nearly hit the floor, but James got his paddle on it and lobbed it about 25 feet in the air, with heavy sidespin.  When the ball hit, it bounced way to Roberts deep forehand side (he's lefthanded), and very shallow.  Roberts had an open shot to smash *sideways* to James's extremely wide backhand.  Roberts hit the tar out of the ball, James crashed through the side barrier (it was an end table), and Seemiller-grip- killed the ball back for a winner.
 
James made the finals of 3 (4?) events, and single-handedly held up the tournament for several hours.  But I didn't hear any complaints from the crowd, as his games were SO entertaining.  His U2300 final with Homm went to deuce in the 3rd.  He played nonstop (no breaks) from about 2pm until about 10pm, and by the end of the day was unable to lift his Gatorade jug.

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