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Table tennis doubles team advance
By Tommy Perkins // USA Table Tennis // August 15, 2004
Gao/Banh advance; Reed/Ping eliminated in round 2 of doubles
Athens, Greece – Round 2 of women’s doubles brought joy and pain to the US team. Gao Jun (Gaithersburg, Md.) and partner Tawny Banh (San Gabriel, Calif.) swept their opponents from Venezuela in dominating fashion. However women's teammates Jasna Reed (Clinton Township, Mich.) and Whitney Ping (Beaverton, Ore.) ended up in the loss column and unfortunately are eliminated in the single elimination competition.
Gao Jun/Tawny Banh USA dominated the match and seemed to control the pace throughout. Tawny Banh who is now 2-0 with her victory yesterday in Women’s Singles is paired with Gao Jun, who is a silver medallist in Women’s Doubles for China. Gao says, “Being at the Olympics in Sydney for the U.S., I thought too much. I wanted to have fun. This time I have more pressure and I prepared to do a better job."
Whitney Ping/Jasna Reed USA didn’t seem to have the chemistry of their opponents. There never seemed to be much of a rhythm and the U.S. team fell 0-4. Reed’s advice to Whitney wasn’t much coming into the Games, “Whitney already knows that this is as big as it gets for table tennis,” says Reed. Whitney although saddened by the loss said, “I appreciate all the hometown support I received. It meant a lot and it was really motivating. We had a tough draw, the Singapore team had a really tough style of play.” As of now Whitney says that she will finish her last semester of high school and she is looking into universities with the likes of Stanford, UCLA, and Northwestern.
Lupulesku/Hazinski advance in men’s doubles round one
Ilija Lupulesku and Mark Hazinski were dominant in the first round of men's doubles, but will face a tough team from Chinese Taipei in the second round.
Lupulesku/Hazinski USA dominated the match against the confused Nigerian team. “Hazinski concerned me the first few points because he made three errors giving the Nigerian team a 3-0 lead in the first game”, says Coach Seemiller. “After that Lupi and Mark played almost perfect and they made a good Nigerian team look really weak”. “Mark played with good patience and Lupi always plays doubles good,” says Seemiller. Coach Seemiller added, “We forced them into poor play.”
UP NEXT: Peng-Lung Chiang/Chih-Yuan Chuan TPE
USA’s Banh falls to top-ranked New Zealander
Athens, Greece – Tawny Banh (San Gabriel, Calif.) of USA lost in round two of the women’s singles match. Banh seemed to keep a close score in each mach against the very aggressive opponent, but kept falling a little short. “Chunli is very experienced,” says women’s team coach Teodor Gheorghe. Gheorghe added, “Chunli plays in the Japanese Super Circuit with men.” Banh who is an aggressive player herself likes to play other aggressive players. “I needed to adjust in the beginning of the match to get even, but it was too late. She is 44th in the world, she is a very good player,” Banh added.
UP NEXT: Eliminated from Women’s Singles
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