On to the singles portion of the tournament. After my challenge match win versus Dan (4-3) leading up to Houston and then defending my spot against Donovan (4-0) and Goran (4-3) , I had a great seed going into the singles tournament and I wanted to play well to prove that the spot was deserved….to quote Billy from the forums after I beat Dan (but before playing DLB or Goran):
“I think that Q is playing better vs. Dan, but I’m not sure if Q is performing better against the field. Q needs more tournament experience in order to forge nerves of steel that won’t falter under those stressful situations that only tournaments and challenge matches can provide. In the last three months leading up to the US Open, Q will have played in two major challenge matches and two major tournaments…the US Open could be a huge breakout tournament for him.”
I’m going to save a post solely addressed towards seeding practices and the spinoff structure of IAHC for later on….regardless of that, I was going in as a top 16 seed due to some top players who were not at Vegas. I’d get 2 rounds of byes from the bottom half of the field into the round of 64. My first match…against Pete Lippincott. My first nationals tournament the previous year I lost my first match and I was not going to do that this year. But as John Song found out in Vegas, you can’t take anyone lightly…even your first match because it could potentially be a player like Javier Pulido. I don’t recall too many details about this match except for one specific thing. There were two points where Pete just pulled his mallet off the table while the puck was in play and I had possession. It was the equivalent of spotting me points which in a national tournament, I would gladly take. Based on his finish, Pete played really well in this tournament, almost knocking out Phil Arnold at some point and I believe winning his spinoff…either way, I get by PL 4-1, 31-20 (he won game 3, 7-3).
My next set was against Mark Robbins. Mark almost dropped his first set to Doug Taylor, who played great against Mark and Mark seemed to be a little off in the early get go of that set but Mark rallied and won in 7 against Doug. I’ve played Mark twice now in a tournament setting. He’s gotten the best of me both times. We’ve played pickup games when he’s come to Illinois to practice and they are either close where I can win them or blowouts for Mark. This would be my first major test this tournament. Now, I knew I was going to have to play Mark…or at least saw it as a possibility leading into IAHC after examining the possible brackets when we were looking at what our draws would be back home. I watched a few of the videos of Dan’s match against Mark….mainly the ones where Dan played well and got a set in the match. Dan used a combination of cuts, right walls and “Bizzaro cuts” to get Mark….The “Bizarro cut” is what we call a shot that goes to the cross side but is shot with the cut motion….I was going to come out after Mark with the same game plan. Mark wins game 1 7-6 but sticking with the game plan, I am able to rally 7 to 5,4,4,6 for the 4-1 victory. The first time I’ve beaten Mark in a set ever….this is already a great accomplishment in the tournament and next up in the bracket is going to be Mr. Davis Lee Huynh….
…to be continued…
Recent Comments