Road to the Finals – Fall 11 Autumn Classic

On Sunday, November 27th, 8 survivors were left to fight it out to obtain one of the final positions, but only two persevered.  Two rose above the masses to play in front of the lights.  In front of the crowd.  For the Crystal Trophy.  For the title of Champion.  Would these two finalists turn out to be familiar faces, competitors who have been there before, or would fate send a fresh contender to meet his or her destiny on the hallowed wooden ground that lines Olive Rehearsal Hall?

You will see that destination for yourself.  This is the tale of the journey.

Match 1:  unseeded Jeff Myers v. 20 Hanbyul “OneStar” Jang

Jeff Myers was a late add on, taking the place of the highly rated prospect 4th seed Emil Khudyev.  Due to travel delays, Khudyev was unable to make the tournament so instead of forfeit, the unseeded Myers stepped in to take his place against the 20th seed Hanbyul “OneStar” Jang.  As these two warmed up, it looked as though Jang might easily wrap this match up, as her game was cleaner and appeared more in control.  As the match started, however, it became evident that Myers was just fine-tuning his hits.  Once the game was on, Myers showcased his fluidity and charged out to an 8-4 lead.  Although OneStar made a rally to tie the set 8-8, her momentum was spent and Myers fired off 3 straight points to take set one.  The second set saw some nice rallies, but two problems plagued the 20th seed:  she continually hit it long and she was stuffed on her backhand side, particularly with hits close to her body.  Myers exploited the weakness and took sets two and three easily to advance.

Match 2:  7 Ilia Ulianitsky v. 15 Eugene Lifschitz

This match started fast, grabbed hold, and never let up.  7th seed Ilia Ulianitsky is one of the new class of CTTA competitors, one of the several who have made drastic improvements to his game and threaten to make a deep run every single tournament.  What sets Ulianitsky a apart from many others who’ve made bold steps is his deadly backhand.  Not only can he kill you with a tough, topspin forehand, but he can murder you with a quick snap backhand.  Very impressive and fun to watch.  He faced off against 15 seed Eugene Lifschitz and after Ulianitsky dominated in set 1 11-3, Lifschitz showed off some speed of his own in the second set.  Lifschitz has some nice power moves, but Ulianitsky easily handled everything thrown at him with some stellar returns.  Ulianitsky rolled through sets 2 and 3 11-5 in each case to make it to the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinal match 1:  unseeded Jeff Myers v. 7 Ilia Ulianitsky

The winners of the evening’s first two matches met up in match 3.  After seeing a more power opponent like Lifschitz, Ulianitsky seemed a bit thrown off by Myers’ slower tempo.  Perhaps slightly off balance, Ulianitsky barely held on through the opening points with a narrow 5-4 lead.  He found the missing rhythm, however, as he adapted to Myers’ defensive schemes and took 6 of the next 7 points to take set 1 with a score of 11-5.  Set 2 was the Ilia show, as he demonstrated near perfect play and took it 11-2.  Set three was much more competitive, as never-say-die Myers hung around the entire time, but simply couldn’t make up a two to three point deficit the entire time and finally fell 7-11.   With that, Ulianitsky, the most improved player in the CTTA, made his first-ever trip to the semifinals and would meet the winner of the next match.

Quarterfinal match 2:  1 Christopher Zack v. 10 Timmy Yu

With still only one set loss and without a match loss in his career, Grand Champion Christopher Zack continued his quest for his third straight championship to tie former champ Jeremy Berry.  Standing in his way was the rather unassuming 10th seed, Timmy Yu.  The first set began with Zack seemingly off his game.  Unable to find the table with some of his slams and having a tough time with Yu’s penhold spins, the grand champ found himself in an early 4-7 hole.  Battling back, he came within one to make it 8-9, but Yu hung on to win set one 8-11.

They moved on to set 2…wait, what?  What did you say a second ago?  Zack lost the first set?  Perhaps we shouldn’t go out of our minds quite yet, but how could Zack lose?  This is a guy who is 8-0 against three-time champion Jeremy Berry and 32-1 overall entering this match.  Do you remember his only loss?  He dropped a single little solitary set last spring against another former champ, Jimmy Kang.  So this was only his second loss in tournament play, and the question was, how?  Several factors occurred to this sportswriter as he watched this match unfold.  First, Yu was a CTTA rookie, and it’s oftentimes difficult to rank the new class causing a strong player to receive a higher seed than he probably should.  As a result, Zack was probably not expecting to meet such a strong opponent in the quarterfinals.  Secondly, as a rookie, Yu wasn’t as intimidated by Zack as some of the other players.  Sure, he must have heard about Zack’s dominance, but without seeing and experiencing that dominance, it’s easier to walk into a match with a clearer head.  Whatever the reason, Yu won set 1.  Big deal, right?  Would he be able to close?  This means two more sets against the champ.  A fluke set is one thing, but three?  We’ll see.  As if to make a statement, Zack answered big in set 2, pounding the 10th seed and securing an 11-4 win.  That’s more like it–Zack destroying yet another opponent.  Been there, done that.  Everyone let out a nervous breath and a little laugh of relief.  For a moment, all seemed right in the world.  As we would see, however, that moment would be very brief indeed.

When most mortals would have crumbled under the pressure, Yu met it and embraced the struggle.  Not flinching after a 4-11 set 2 thrashing, Yu led out 5-2 in set 3.  With the help of those freaky deaky serves, Zack evened the score 6-6, but lost the next two points, both his serves.  So there we sat, Yu ahead 8-6 with the serve.  Very pivotal moment.  Zack was able to get the advantage in the next 5 points, taking 3 of them, but that still left him behind 9-10.  As was a theme in this entire match, Yu somehow rose above in the key moments and this was one of them.  He found a way to force a Zack error to take set 3 and secure a 2-1 match lead.

Carrying on with the momentum from set 3, Yu absolutely stormed out in set 4 with a 6-2 lead.  Just when he was five little points away from the greatest upset in the history of the CTTA…he seemed to falter.  Zack made the next point making it 6-3, and right after Yu served it into the net, bringing the champ within 2.  Zack serves, wins, bringing the score to 6-5.  Again, when all-out collapse would have claimed almost any other competitor in the CTTA, Yu somehow brought it together and took the next three points in a row, making it 9-5.  Again, Zack made a charge.  Here is how the ending of this set broke down:  9-5, 9-6, 9-7, 9-8, 10-8, 10-9, ….

11-9 Yu!  And with that, a previously unknown tournament rookie 10th seed took down the biggest, baddest Grand Champion in CTTA history!

Semifinal Match 1:  7 Ilia Ulianitsky v. 10 Timmy Yu

10th seed Timmy Yu looked to continue his incredible run and entered this match against 7th seed Ilia Ulianitsky with pure momentum.  The match began fairly evenly, 3-3, with both playing fast and neither letting up.  Yu had a few problems with Ulianitsky’s serves early on, but after the 3-3 stalemate, Yu went on a monster run, winning 8 of the last 9 to earn the first set 11-4.  Set 2 began similarly with a 5-5 tie, and this time neither could keep the advantage.  Filled with low and quick rallies, they battled until a 10-10 deuce.  Like we saw with Zack, though, Yu found a way to pull it out and after going up 11-10, took the final point on a killer rally to secure a 12-10 win.  Again, they came out hard and fast and equaled each other the entire way in the third set.  Ulianitsky, not ready to say goodbye, inched ahead at the end and stole the set 11-8.  Ulianitsky held the momentum in set 4, leading 5-1, but Yu bounced back and eventually tied it up 6-6.  Pulling ahead, Yu outlasted Ulianitsky to win the set and match 11-8.  With that, Timmy Yu enters the finals and earns the right to compete on Championship Thursday in his first ever tournament!

Semifinal Match 2:  2 Jeremy Berry v. 6 Kevin Lin

The final match of the evening would decide who would meet Timmy Yu under the lights come Thursday.  Second seed Jeremy Berry faced off against sixth seed Kevin Lin for that right.  The style of play was markedly different than the previous one, where the former was quick, low, and full of aggressive spins, this one was full of long hits, long rallies, with Berry pushing Lin continually back off the table, hammering him with topspin slams.  Even though he was repeatedly the aggressor, Berry found himself in an early hole and was unable to climb out, eventually falling 9-11.  We earlier saw our first seed go down, would our number two seed lose as well?  Set 2 was more of the same, yet Berry was able to win a few more of the points here and there and took it 11-7.  In set 3, Berry seriously found his rhythm, and looked sharp, fast, and able to return anything.  He ran up an 8-4 lead and hammered home the set 11-6.

Following this set, CTTA president Robert Lipsett stood up and announced, “after this final game, if there is anyone who could help clean up–”  at this he was interrupted by his brother Steve Lipsett, in town for the holiday weekend, who said, “how do you know this is the final game?”  Momentary silence.  With a slight nod of agreement, the president sat down.

The match resumed, and after winning the first 3 points of set 4, Berry stumbled slightly as Lin won the next 2 to make it 2-3.  On the next point, Berry won it, but a serving error forced a replay.  Lin won the replay and instead of it being 4-2 Berry, it was tied 3-3.  This was a big moment, and the set followed this trend until the end.  Seeing ties at 4-4, 7-7, 8-8, Berry finally had enough and pounded out three straight points to win the set and match 11-8.

Finalists:  2 Jeremy Berry v. 10 Timmy Yu

So the finals are set.  On one side of the table is tournament newbie Timmy Yu and on the other, returning to the spotlight for the 7th straight time is the most tried and tested CTTA veteran of all time Jeremy Berry.  Yu looks to break into Championship Table Tennis at the Colburn School and win the whole thing his first time out, while Berry aims to reclaim the championship after losing in his last two straight finals appearances.  Both have something to prove.  Both are hungry.  The only question is, who wants it more?

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