Zhuang Likely Packing Bags for Vancouver
Posted by Mike Mazzeo on 13 Jan 2008 at 11:50 am | in: Drexel, Sports, Table Tennis
David Zhuang Photo By: Evan Rosen/The Triangle
With just two matches to go David Zhuang is in the driver’s seat in the standings.
Zhuang (8-1) remained in first place after defeating Tahl Leibovitz (0-9) in straight games (11-6) (11-8) (11-9) (11-4).
Zhang is the only player with just one loss.
Han Xiao (7-2) and Yinghua Cheng (7-2) and are right on Zhuang’s heels.
Xiao bested Khoa Nguyen (5-4) in six games (6-11) (11-5) (12-10) (9-11) (11-3) (11-8), while Cheng won via forfeit over Philadelphia favorite Razvan Cretu.
Cretu, who had a great run in the qualifying single elimination tournament to make the round-robin field of 12, unfortunately had to bow out due to apparent leg problems.
Eric Owens (6-3) beat Yu Shao (6-3) in straight games (11-7) (11-5) (11-7) (11-5) to stay just two games behind.
Mark Hazinski also is 6-3.
Hazinski won in six games against Sean Lonergan (10-12) (11-6) (12-10) (10-12) (11-8) (11-5) in a match that provided perhaps the most exciting point of the tournament.
Trailing 10-5 in the sixth game Lonergan used several defensive lobs to counteract numerous Hazinski slams, and when Hazinski’s final slam went out the crowd erupted with applause.
Concluding the 10:00 A.M. matches was a battle between young guns Adam Hugh and John Leach.
Hugh (3-6) defeated Leach (1-8) in seven games (9-11) (11-6) (7-11) (11-5) (11-5) (9-11) (11-5).
“It wasn’t my best performance,†Hugh said.
