Top two players from each group advanced to the 1/2 finals.
| Group A | Waldner | Primorac | Matsushita | Xu |
| Waldner | --- | 1:2 | 2:1 | 2:0 |
| Primorac | 2:1 | --- | 2:0 | 2:0 |
| Matsushita | 1:2 | 0:2 | --- | 2:0 |
| Xu | 0:2 | 0:2 | 0:2 | --- |
| - - - | ||||
| Group B | Kong | Kim | Persson | Sweeris |
| Kong | --- | 2:0 | 1:2 | 2:0 |
| Kim | 0:2 | --- | 1:2 | 2:0 |
| Persson | 2:1 | 2:1 | --- | 2:0 |
| Sweeris | 0:2 | 0:2 | 0:2 | --- |
Waldner - Xu : 21-11, 21-9
Kong - Sweeris : 21-10, 21-11
Primorac - Matsushita : 21-9, 21-14
Kim - Persson : 15-21, 21-17, 17-21
Waldner - Matsushita : 21-18, 11-21, 21-14
Kong - Persson : 21-18, 13-21, 19-21
Primorac - Xu : 21-12, 21-16
Kim - Sweeris : 22-20, 21-16
Waldner - Primorac : 11-21, 21-13, 14-21
Persson - Sweeris : 21-8, 21-16
Matsushita - Xu : 21-12, 21-10
Kong - Kim : 22-20, 21-17
Sunday, January 7, 1997
Semifinals:
Primorac - Kong : 3-2
21-17, 20-22, 21-11, 14-21, 21-14
Persson - Waldner : 3-1
21-16, 27-25, 17-21, 21-18
Final:
Primorac - Persson : 3-1
21-23, 21-19, 21-14, 21-15
At 15-15 in the 4th game and Persson serving, many were hoping to see a
fifth deciding game. But Zoran raised his level to even higher level and
demonstrated one of the best serve returns I have seen in the game.
Primorac becomes the first player to win Gilbert Cup twice in a row! A
minute later he sprays the first few rows with champaigne (he is
definitely getting better at it ;) ).
"I am Swede, but now I am finished", said Persson after two grueling
matches on Sunday.
Waldner - Xu : 21-11, 21-9
Waldner toyed with Xu, especially after it was obvious that Xu lacked the power to hit through Waldner's lobbing game. JO was often content just to go back and lob until Xu missed.
Kong - Sweeris : 21-10, 21-11
Todd was also outclassed by Kong, but he at least made Kong play. Todd has a hard flip and a strong loop, so Kong had to play real points. When Kong started messing around, Todd scored points in a hurry, but when Kong was serious, it was no contest.
One thing I noticed was that Todd's backswing for his loop created problems during fast play. He swings his hand down and back and then it comes up in sort of an arc. This takes extra time and he seemed to be behind during quick counterlooping or against quick blocking. What made this clear was the contrast with Kong who has very clean strokes and makes it look easy.
Primorac - Matsushita : 21-9, 21-14
Primorac simply overpowered Matsushita, the chopper. Any little mistake by Matsushita and Zoran blew it away. Zoran hits much harder than it looks like on the tapes. It makes you realize how far away the U.S. is when the #23 player in the world is this easily outclassed.
Kim - Persson : 15-21, 21-17, 17-21
I don't remember a lot about this match except that Persson played like a former world champion, with the emphasis on "world champion", not "former". Persson's service return game was remarkable, particularly in the round robin. He flipped cleverly and aggressively. Persson made just a handful of weak returns in 3 matches. Kim played reasonabley well and it is shocking to see in person, just how fast he is.
Waldner - Matsushita : 21-18, 11-21, 21-14
Matsushita had played the hard-hitting Primorac just before and Waldner couldn't hit through him. JO hit lots of wide, bending loops to the forehand with good effect, but when he had pulled Matsushita wider to the forehand, he couldn't hit the backhand corner to take advantage of it. I think he missed every loop or smash to the backhand in the second game and Matsushita parked over by the forehand. In the 3rd game Waldner started hitting all his shots again and the match was over.
Kong - Persson : 21-18, 13-21, 19-21
Kong appeared to be in a daze for much of the match. He missed a lot of easy shots in the second game, but Persson was playing too well. His service returns were strong, consistent and well-placed. Also, Persson hit several of his trademark backhand smashes. Everyone was astonished by how hard it is.
Primorac - Xu : 21-12, 21-16
Zoran took it easy on him. Once again, Huazhang appears to be skilled, but just doesn't have the power to stay on the table with the top players.
Kim - Sweeris : 22-20, 21-16
Kim and Kong had both lost to Persson already, so their match would decide who advanced as the second player. Kim was clearly taking it easy, trying to conserve energy for that later match. He almost cut it too close in the first game when Todd played some strong points late in the game. Todd's play was very exciting for the crowd. When Kim made a mistake, Todd would usually win the point with a strong and sudden shot.
Waldner - Primorac : 11-21, 21-13, 14-21
This game was a don't-care because both players were sure to advance and, unlike last year's format, A or B seeding didn't matter much. None of the games were close so the spectators got to see some fun exhibition points.
Persson - Sweeris : 21-8, 21-16
Todd played a decent second game and made Persson play honest points, but this is out of his league.
Matsushita - Xu : 21-12, 21-10
If Waldner couldn't hit through Matsushita, Xu wasn't going to. Unfortunately, Huazhang doesn't have the other weapons that JO could use to win anyway.
Kong - Kim : 22-20, 21-17
See Chung's comments
SEMI-FINALS
Primorac - Kong : 21-17, 20-22, 21-11, 14-21, 21-14
The first game and for much of the second game, Zoran looked too strong, but Kong played better late in the second game and pulled out a deuce game. Primorac was unreal in the third game. It seemed like every point was an unbelievably hard counter kill. In the fourth game, Primorac lost confidence in his backhand and he hit some really ugly shots and was clearly trying to step around to the forehand more to compensate.
Kong just kept on coming and took the game easy, but at the end of the game Kong allowed some long rallies where he didn't force the point and even though he won the points, I felt this allowed Primorac to start getting his confidence back. There was more of the same at the beginning of the fifth game and you could see Primorac's confidence start to surge. By the end of the game (and match) Zoran was destroying every ball forehand and backhand.
Persson - Waldner: 21-16, 27-25, 17-21, 21-18
For me, this was the most exciting match of the tournament. When practice partners play, they often play long points even when things get fast because they don't get surprised much and can counter a ball someone else would miss outright. Also, there aren't as many quick and easy points on serve because they aren't fooled by serves they have seen so often. This match made the point perfectly; quick, intense play with counterloops off counterloops off counter-smashes .....
Persson's defense was incredible. Waldner likes to put some extra hook on his wide loops that often draws a weak return, if the defender can reach it. Persson was there in plenty of time to make a consistent, strategic return, and he won a lot of these points with his ability to counterattack from lobbing distance with either his forehand or backhand. On the other hand, Persson hits soooo hard that it was difficult for even Waldner to stay in the point on defense, but he tried.
On the last point of the second game Waldner popped up a sitter for Persson, who knew that if he put it away, he won the game, so Persson came in to crush the ball. Waldner was at the barrier and knew that it wasn't enough, so he hopped backwards over the barrier! Persson nailed the ball and JO chopped it back well to a surprised Persson and hopped back over the barrier. Persson hit a strong low loop and Waldner made a solid chop again and moved back into the table, but his chop just missed the table wide, and Jorgen won the game. The crowd went ga-ga and even Persson was shaking his head in disbelief. Waldner backed up right towards the camera, so it will be interesting to see what they caught on tape.
Waldner won the third game and was in the fourth game 17-18 (I think) with the serve. He put two serves into the net to end any chance he might have had to pull the match out of his hat.
FINAL
Primorac - Persson : 21-23, 21-19, 21-14, 21-15
The first game was close and tightly played. Both players were solid and hitting the ball well. Zoran wanted to hold the backhand corner for forehand opportunities, but Persson played most of his attacks wide. As Primorac moved to counter, Persson attacked the middle and backhand. On the other hand, Primorac was moving well and hitting strongly. He also was the first player whose serves, gave Persson trouble and Zoran cashed in.
The second game started with similarly strong play, but by the end of it, it was clear the Persson was wearing out. He started missing shots badly that he hadn't missed at all. When Primorac pulled out a close second game, you could see Jorgen droop. He knew his only chance was to win a quick match, before he ran out of juice. The remaining two games were a cakewalk for Primorac who must have tuned for this tournament. He continued strong and appeared to be very well-conditioned.
At the end of the match Zoran took his champagne bottle and shook it for about 30 seconds. He then jumped on the table and launched the cork into the second deck, (literally!) and sprayed as much of the crowd as he could reach. For the second year in a row, he not only won the tournament, but entertained the crowd with the highest quality play.
For the second year in a row, Primorac had an easier path to the final from an endurance standpoint. Despite a 5-game match with Kong, the games were more strategic and not as draining as the intense 4-game match between the Swedes. Zoran also had the earlier semi-final, so he had a two-hour rest compared to one hour for Persson. Last year Kim Tak Soo had only 40 minutes rest before the finals after playing an incredibly intense match against JM Saive. Someone in our club who knows the Swedes well said before the match that Persson was pooped and might not have enough juice to make it. This was unfortunate for both players, because Primorac was playing very well and this could have been a very close, tightly played match. It's just the luck of the draw, but it was unfortunate.
For those who have never seen top-10 players live, you should! It is light-years better than even watching the tapes. On the tapes much of the strategy and positioning is lost and it tends to be more like a bunch of points in a row. The touch they display is beyond belief. The tapes also don't do justice to the power and quickness of the top players.
I would like to add some of my observations, too. I was very surprised and disappointed to see Kong not trying harder in this tournament. Being one of the two number 1 ranked players in the world, he definitely should know that he is one of the main reasons why some of the spectators attend this tournament, and should try his best to give the fans their money's worth, so to speak. He had some flashes of brilliance, but overall, he seemed to be a bit dazed, and always tired by the end of each match, maybe because of his jet-lag. It was clear that his heart was not in this tournament. Maybe next year the organizers should get some up-and-coming Chinese player, like Wang Liqin or Yang Sen, who would be hungrier.
Last year's matches were very entertaining, but I believe technically this year's were of an even higher quality. Like Mr. Sushchik pointed out, Persson was extremely impressive; his powerful backhand flat kills were something I have not even seen from Rosskopf. The arrangement of him playing the final match an hour after his exhausting match against Waldner probably cost him the victory. If he keeps it up, he will be a strong contender in the Worlds in May.
There was a Chinese guy dressed in a sweat-suit accompanying Kong, but it is not obvious whether he is a coach. He may simply be a translator, or an escort. A real coach would be very unhappy with Kong's performance. In the first game against Kim, he was ahead 17-4 (he opened the game with 10 straight points) and somehow managed to let Kim tie it at 20-20! That is unheard of, at this level.
It seems like Kong has solved the Kim Taek Soo problem, judging from the way he played against Kim. He kept Kim pinned to the backhand side, either with forehand loops or backhand hits. He did not have any problem with Kim's serves. When Kong is serving to Kim, he likes to serve backhand short to Kim's backhand, and Kim could not initiate any attack and had to push it back. Then Kong would backhand loop, and start either a backhand to backhand counter, or forehand loop. In either case, he would establish the offensive position. Kong is also very good with medium distance loop exchanges. He has one of the most stable and consistent loops in the business.
Primorac played very, very well. He beat Matsushita very convincingly. I did not know he can handle chopppers so well. He has a very aggressive style, and when he is on, he is scary. He probably feels like he owns the Gilbert Cup.
The international competition started with the match between Xu(USA:) and Waldner. It was a rather sad game. Judging by the degree of his disorientation, if Xu is rated 2700 (???) in the US then Waldner would be at least around 3300. It looked like Xu was feeling the pain but did not know what was hitting him. Waldner played with him like a cat plays with a caught mouse. In the middle of the first game, I guess, Waldner noticed that the crowd was about to break in tears and slightly pulled the claws in. The match was mostly an exhibition, without much fight. In his other games Xu looked somewhat better.
IMUO, Todd Sweeris looked better in his game against Kong. This, however, is not reflected in the scores. I guess, Todd has more experience in international competition than Xu.
Looking now at some of the scores from the preliminary rounds, all those "2:1" (Waldner-Matsushita and Persson against Kong and Kim) seem almost like mistakes to me. For some reason I had the feeling that Waldner, Primorac and Persson were separated from others by a big margin.
In the semi-finals the first match was between Primorac and Kong. Primorac won in 5 games. Next came the match between Waldner and Persson. This match, IMUO, was the most spectacular match of the tournament. Person won in 4 games. After this match I said to myslef "Primorac will win". Although Primorac played 5 games agains Kong, that match was not nearly as physically draining for him as the match against Waldner was for Persson. I thought, Persson would not have time to recover before the final. Primorac had more time to get ready. I think, in the final match the exhaustion was noticeable in Persson after two games. I kinda wanted Persson to win and thought that the schedule was unfair with respect to him.
Player-by-player, I think Persson was the most spectacular competitor. He was absolutely unbelivable. He was homogeneously distributed all over the court, so that no matter where the ball went, Persson was there. And even if he was not there, he still managed to return the ball. :) From my point it sometimes looked that he was doing cannon shots while his body was in almost horizontal position. I guess it is simply because he is so tall, but it sure looked interesting. And, boy, does he know how to hit! His forehand flip-kill and his backhand shot were guaranteed to send the crowd into applause anytime. When he and Waldner played in semi-final, the crowd was practically intoxicated with the show. Both players did wonders.
I think, I expected more from Kong. I was under the impression that he was not in a good shape or, perhaps, at a wrong point in his training cycle. In his game against Primorac he frequently shook his head as if he was trying to wake up from some spell.
Matsushita (chopper), although did not make it to the semifinals, provided a lot of entertainment, and, I think, many people had a lot of sympathy for him.
Primorac was the most confident player. Waldner was second to Persson in "spectacularness". I felt sorry that Kim Taek Soo did not make it to the semifinal, but I'd feel the same way about Kong, should he have lost the game to Kim.