[ drawsheet ]
[ men's open ]

Photos by Victor Zambrano. Click to enlarge.

QUALIFYING: Thursday Evening
Qualifying kicked off with few of the traveling pros encountering too much difficulty advancing past DC's locals. In the round of 32, 7 of the 8 matches were three-game victories by tour regulars.

Baltimore's Jamal Harris lost to former national champ Mike Guidry, Arlington's Pete Appel lost to Mike Dennison, the home club's pro Victor Zambrano lost to California's Chris Crowther, and tourney sponsor Stan Golob upset two players to face Josh Tucker. Local pro Dan Fowler had a more difficult matchup, facing down North Carolina's Brent Walters. DC's other "local" pro Dan Llacera faced down Norfolk's Brian Pierce, an upset qualifier over local kid phenom Travis Woodbury. Derek Robinson handled fellow travelling pro Rodrigo Urzua.

The match of the round, by far, (and the only one not to be a 3-game breeze) was North Carolina's Mitch Williams taking on Ohio's Shane Vanderson. These two regularly face off in big game situations, both being nationally ranked in the Open. They faced off in one of the later matches (reminiscent of Mitch's epic 11-9 5th game qualifying loss last year to Guidry). Mitch came out firing, blowing Shane away in the first two games. With game three even up at 7-all, Mitch played three loose points to quickly give Shane a 10-7 advantage and eventually the game.

Mitch jumped out to a 7-2 lead in game four, only to let a shaky serve and plenty of foot-faults let Shane get back into the match. He scored nine straight to take game four, 11-7. Mitch's confidence looked bad heading into a decisive fifth game. Mitch's demeanor on the court can only be described as "jesterly," making comments, being expressive and generally entertaining the crowd. Shane is a model of concentration, keeping an even keel no matter what the situation. A contrast of styles set off in game five.

Mitch looked calmer than he had in the end of game four, where five straight service errors eliminated any possibility of winning. He hit a couple of aces, took advantage of errors by Shane to jump to a 3-0 lead. He was up big when Vanderson came storming back. At 9-5 a huge call went against Shane ... a clear avoidable against Mitch gave him a critical hinder replay ... which he parleyed into three straight points for 9-9. Shane then flat-rolled a drive serve return (also questionable ... half the spectators said skip, half said phenomenal shot) and got a point for 10-9. At match point against, Mitch hit a backhand splat roll out from 39 feet; the crowd was amazed. 

Back and forth, Shane had at least three serves at match point with Mitch making one spectacular diving get after another. In one rally, Mitch dove towards one ball, then slipped getting up towards the next passing shot, and resorted to literally crawling the last three feet to retrieve the shot. Finally, Mitch had 10-10 and was out of imminent danger. He quickly got a point for 11-10, and then Shane hit an unbelievable service return off one of Mitch's missile drive serves ... just as the crowd was saying, "phew that's unreturnable" Shane pinches out a perfect backhand on a 160-mph serve. Back and forth some more, before another tough call went against Shane (a short serve that clearly looked good). Shane looked rattled, especially when Mitch served a ball in pretty much the same spot. Soon after, match point came and went, and Mitch had the 13-11 tiebreaker win: #24 Mitch Williams (NC) def. #18 Shane Vanderson (OH) 4,4,(9),(7),11

ROUND OF 16: Friday Afternoon
Just as I was commenting to a friend that the 16s rarely have any drama, the top seeds started falling left and right.

Fowler def. Mannino in four: Mannino, playing with a heavy heart after a death in the family earlier this week, loses early and gives Dan his second straight quarterfinals appearance. This is great news for Dan, who has slipped to #20 in the rankings after sitting out much of last season. As is normal, the reffing was controversial, and resulted in some pretty bad sportsmanship being displayed. Bad enough to warrant future actions?

Derek def. Ellis: Ellis's luck continues to haunt him, and his slide down the rankings continues. An injury to his back forced him out of his round of 16 match with Derek. I spoke with Ellis afterwards, and basically his retiring was a precaution, and that after extensive stretching his back feels fine. No long term damage.

Kane def. Mitch: Fans hoping for a rematch of last year's thrilling US Open matchup between these two hard-hitting leftys were left wanting, as Mitch, totally spent by his 13-11 nailbiter last night, couldn't keep up with the fresh Kane.

Rocky crushed Guidry 3,3,6. Rocky really looks great this tourney thus far.

Monchik, Swain both cruise to set up a great quarterfinal matchup. Huczek handles Tucker in three straight. Alvaro defeats Llacera in the toughest match of the round, taking a fifth game 11-4.

QUARTERFINALS
Derek upsets Kane 9,4,(4),8: Kane left everything up, and faced a tough court, with a sidewall glass on his backhand. Derek served very well and looked tough to beat. Reffing continues to be a sore point with players; with tour ref Thoerner absent (with his newborn, congrats Jason!), fill-in refs have taken much abuse.

Rocky spanks Fowler 1,9,2. Fowler left it all on court with Jason the night before, and looked flat against Rocky. Rocky continues to impress; the crowd thinks this may be his tourney w/ both the #1 and #2 seeds out.

Jack vs. Alvaro: Jack wins in three straight, not as close as scores suggested, 2-8-10.

Cliff vs. Sudsy: You can't ask for a better quarterfinal matchup than these two. A rematch of dozens of IRT finals over the years, including last year's US Open. Sudsy has dominated Cliff as of late, taking the last ELEVEN straight matchups in their career. Cliff hasn't beaten Sudsy since the New Orlean's event in 2000. That's hard to believe, but its true.

Cliff wins first when Suds doesn't like a call. At 9-9, Sudsy is visibly upset at a call that didn't go his way, punching the backwall glass in anger after dropping the game. Cliff rolls in the second second game, 11-2. At 2-0 in the third game down, Sudsy walked off the court, retiring due to "injury." Afterwards, the pros watching said that Cliff hasn't played this well in two years. Perhaps he's out to set straight an omission in his career: he's never won a pro stop at this club. Cliff breaks his drought against his rival going away.

SEMIFINALS
An interesting tourney thus far; just as last year, upsets have been the norm. We head into the semis with the 8,4,3,10 seeds playing.

Rocky vs. Cliff: Rocky never got into this game, not because of concentration or apathy, but because Cliff is playing even better than yesterday. Rocky absorbs a donut in the second game and can do little with Cliff's crisp serves. Cliff is just not missing anything, keeping the pressure on, getting his drive working, totally controlling the match. Wipeout 4,0,4. Afterwards, Rocky was pretty candid, basically saying he was never in the match and that he's never taken a beating like Cliff gave him.

Derek vs. Jack: A tale of turnaround. In the beginning Jack was uncharacteristically skipping a lot of balls, Derek playing very smooth (as always). Derek plays a very conservative game, working Jack's forehand ceiling ball, forcing lots of defensive shots. He earns a working man's 11-6 first game. In the second, a very tough avoidable goes against Jack late and Derek takes it 11-7. Soon though, Jack shows some impressive fortitude, calming down, altering his game slightly, and gets back into the match. He takes games three and four, 11-5 and 11-5, and then dominates a clearly spent Derek in the fifth 11-2.

FINALS
Jack vs. Cliff. Jack is one of the few players on tour who has a respectable record against Cliff ... Jack is actually 5-3 against Cliff going back to the 2000-1 season and is the only person besides Sudsy with a winning record against the legend. However, Cliff is playing out of his mind right now. Prediction: Cliff wipeout, just as with Rocky in the semis and Sudsy in the quarters.

As expected, Cliff comes out firing. Tough drive serves, lethal forehands. He looks pretty tough, as he has all tournament. Jack has an effective backhand return, so Cliff serves to his forehand along the side-wall glass. Cliff's putting everything down, Jack really has little chance for offense. Cliff takes the first two games, 11-7, 11-2. Per normal, there's reffing controversy with avoidables, encroachments, skips, and a grab bag of controversy throughout. In the third game Jack even tries drive serves to mix it up. A couple of calls go Jack's way, Cliff loses his focus and Jack takes it going way 11-2. Cliff looks like he's fading. In the fourth game, Cliff looks serious. He needs to end the bleeding. Jack gets visibly upset over a hinder call, and starts missing setups. Cliff can't take advantage, skips a few service returns and gives Jack the fourth game, 11-5.

Game five was a classic. Jack has the serve by virtue of total points and he's using a lob nick to Cliff's backhand, against the glass. Two minutes into the game, Jack's up 5-0 and Cliff is skipping lob service returns, or leaving them for easy kills. When Cliff does get a sideout, Jack's effective service return neutralizes Cliff's fading drive serve. He makes three great service returns to keep the pressure on. Soon its 8-0 and the crowd is more worried about a donut than a Cliff win. At 8-0 Cliff finally scores, and rallies a bit to 4-9. Cliff aces Jack in a critical time for 5-9, then Jack skips a setup for 6-9. Can Cliff come back? Cliff skips a setup, but then crushes his service return to get the serve back. A quick rally off an effective jam serve gets cliff to 8-9. Jack wins the service back, and then oddly calls timeout; he seriously needs to stop the Cliff freight train.

On the ensuing point, a phenomenal rally, with both players alternatively leaving passing shots up, then diving gets of kill attempts before Cliff buries a forehand to win the rally of the match. He uses his timeout to gear up for an end run. After the timeout though, Jack makes a phenomenal backhand splat service return, then makes a quick kill shot for 10-8. Is Cliff's rally for naught? Jack has a setup for the match but Cliff makes a great rekill. A bad Z serve later, Jack has the serve again, but again can't close. Jack makes a great forehand reverse pinch service return, but on the third match point Cliff makes a diving re-kill on Jack's clear forehand winner, an awesome shot. Cliff aces Jack for 9-10! Here we go. He tries a jam serve, leaves it up and Jack gets another shot at match point. This time though, an effective lob serve leads to a setup, and Jack buries the forehand kill for 11-9 and a great comeback win.

Final: #3 Huczek def. #4 Swain (7),(2),2,5,9

Open -- 1-8 seeds: Vanderson, Llacera, Tucker, Williams, Woodbury, Walters, Holland, Harris.

The round of 16 played out per seeds with two exceptions: touring pro Urzua beating Baltimorean Jamal Harris, and Virginia Beach native Rich Benderoth beating tour regular Brent Walters. The quarters played out according to seeds, leaving a 1-4 and 3-2 matchup in the semis.

Semis: Williams defeats Vanderson for a second time this weekend, and Tucker def. Llacera in two "testy" games. More reffing issues, though the crowd was entertained by Dan's theatrics on the court.

Final today: Williams def. Tucker walking away.