October 23-24, 1999
The $7500 Southern Open!

US #1 Fan Yi Yong wins 99 Southern Open

The weekend saw almost all of the top players in the US at the Southern Open in Houston at the HTTC.  Unfortunately, not all played!  What they missed was some of the best table tennis the US has to offer.  Fan Yiyang was dominant.  But the competition to reach Fan was intense.

Todd Sweeris played his best TT of 1999 and some of the best he has ever played in knocking off David Zhuang in the Open semis 3-0.  He was also the only one to push Fan to a real match. Todd was able to use his anticipation and strong backhand  to stay competitive.  Fan, however, remains unbeaten by an American player.  No one even took a game from him.

The roster of players (and spectators) read like a who's who of USATT.  With the notable absences of Cheng Yinghua (last year's defending champion) and Houston's own Eric Owens (giving an exhibition in Wisconsin), the list is impressive. Fan Yi Yong, David Zhuang, Todd Sweeris, Jim Butler, Shao Yu, Darko Rop, Viktor Subonj, Khoa Nguyen, Brian Pace, Sean Lonergan, Michael Hyatt, Randy Cohen, Razvan Cretu, Abass Ekun, Taju Oshodi, Hector Bennett, Grady Gordon, Larry Hodges, Howard Lamb, Idan Levi, Richard Lee, and Niraj Oak topped the list.

This Southern Open was different from previous ones in that there basically was no women's event.  Although there were 4 entrants, a couple matches were played and a winner technically awarded, the event itself was just window dressing.  When the "winner" really only plays 1 match, and an 8 year old who gets beaten at 1 & 2 wins $100 4th place, you cannot really say there was an event.  Considering the contests between Olympians Gao Jun, Amy Feng, Lilly Yip and Tawney Banh in the past years, the less said about this disappointment, the better.

Khoa, who represented the US at several worlds in the 80's and early 90's, has been out of competition for several years, becoming instead a USATT politician & Vice President.  It did not look that way at the Southern Open!  First he upset the #5 seed Viktor Subonj in 4 games, then he destroyed US #12 Cretu 3-0 in the 1/4s.  A bad match strategy ended his run in the semis against Fan when he put everything into Yi Yong's backhand.  On Sunday, he pushed Zhuang to the max in falling just short in the Allstar semis, again upsetting players on the way.  Nguyen looks like a tough competitor for the upcoming Olympic trials!

The turn-out for the tournament was all that the organizers hoped it would be.  165 competitors and only 3 no show defaults!  The players had obviously been training for this event as well as the busy Fall schedule. Until the additional bleachers were brought in, the aisles were packed with spectators.  The crowd was even good on Sunday for the All-Star quarters on.  Time scheduling that Robert Mayer painstakingly crafted worked flawlessly.  The assistance of Dee and Rod on the control desk aided enormously in the tournaments smooth operation.  Many of the round robins were overbooked, but competitors understood and kept play continuous.  It was the cooperation of all, that resulted in the final success.  The substantial spectator turn-out was also very gratifying.  Coverage by the newspaper and a promotional story on the local CBS affiliate, helped get the word out.   Two additional sets of bleachers were brought in for the semis and finals to accommodate those wishing to watch.

Thanks must also go out to Ross Brown, Jamey Hall, Buddy Melamed, Roberto Byles, and Grady Gordon for their assistance in umpiring these big matches.  The crowd truly appreciated their work.  Also thanks to the HTTC staff.

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