PALO ALTO AT FREMONT-SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 2007
By Shashin Shodhan
The Fremont Flash are still looking for their first win of this season as they are 0-5. The Palo Alto Assassins also have not been doing well this league season so this match featured the two teams at the bottom of the standings. Fremont presented the lineup of Shashin Shodhan, Ankur Patel, and Praful Bhaidasna who is making his league debut. Bhaidasna is now the father of a baby girl who was born near the end of 2006.
Dave Samuelson (Palo Alto) vs Praful Bhaidasna (Fremont)
PRAFUL BHAIDASNA MAKES HIS LEAGUE DEBUT THIS MATCH. (Photo by Jack Chen)
Samuelson starts off with a 3-1 lead only to see Bhaidasna score 8 straight and end the first game with a 11-4 win. Bhaidasna was playing great with a barrage of loop winners. The second game is tied at 4 at which point Bhaidasna missed two of his own serves and does not recover from that point. Game 2 to Samuelson 11-6. Bhaidasna plays another great game in the third with countless loop winners and Samuelson does not look totally into the match and is not attacking. Samuelson tries to be more aggressive in the fourth but misses too many times. Bhaidasna wins the fourth 11-7 to put Fremont up 1-0 in this team tie.
DAVE SAMUELSON COULD NOT HANDLE THE BARRAGE OF LOOP WINNERS FROM PRAFUL BHAIDASNA. (Photo by Jack Chen)
Wayne Lo (Palo Alto) vs Shashin Shodhan (Fremont)
The opening game is tied at 5-5 only to see Shodhan win the next 6 points by playing more to the corners. Lo has a mini-lead of 2-0 in the second only to see Shodhan start hitting winners at will to win 11-4. Shodhan leads the third game from start to finish and posts a comfortable 3-0 win. Lo would often try to move Shodhan wide to the forehand only to see the ball go back wider to his own forehand for a winner. Fremont is now up 2-0.
WAYNE LO COULD NOT BLOCK DOWN SHASHIN SHODHAN. (Photo by Jack Chen)
Henry Kwong (Palo Alto) vs Ankur Patel (Fremont)
Kwong, being a pips-out penholder, has one of the styles that gives Patel problems as Patel's backhand is not where it needs to be. As expected, Kwong's backhand serves into Patel's backhand and drives into Patel's backhand give Patel problems. Kwong opens the first game with a 8-3 lead and wins 11-7 by dominating the serve and receive game. Patel starts playing more to the corners in the second and leads 6-2 only to see Kwong storm back to win 11-9. In the third game, like the first, Patel plays too much into the middle and loses 11-7. Fremont now leads 2-1.
ANKUR PATEL IS OUT-STEADIED BY HENRY KWONG. (Photo by Jack Chen)
Dave Samuelson/Henry Kwong (Palo Alto) vs Shashin Shodhan/Praful Bhaidasna (Fremont)
Fremont makes too many errors to open up the first game and so loses the first. Shodhan and Bhaidasna focus on prolonging the rallies after this point and they win the second and third games 11-3 and 11-5. Bhaidasna has trouble with serve and return in the fourth and Palo Alto sends this match into the fifth and final game. Palo Alto has two match points at 10-8 only to see Fremont deuce it. Fremont then has a match point at 11-10 but Palo Alto gets an unreturnable net ball. The Flash finally convert on their third match point to win 14-12 and put themselves up 3-1.
PRAFUL BHAIDASNA AND SHASHIN SHODHAN ESCAPE WITH A DEUCE IN THE FIFTH WIN OVER PALO ALTO. (Photo by Jack Chen)
Dave Samuelson (Palo Alto) vs Shashin Shodhan (Fremont)
Shodhan wins the opener with controlled play and the help of the net. In the second, Samuelson plays well from the backhand side and chop-blocks with the forehand from mid-distance and Shodhan is making too many errors. One of Samuelson's points was won a counter-smash from the barriers. Shodhan and Samuelson are tied at 1-1. At this point, Shodhan cuts down on the errors and starts playing more down-the-line and mixes controlled loops with hard loops. Shodhan is soon up 2-1 in games and 9-6 in the fourth only to see Samuelson win 13-11 with 5 of the last 7 points for Samuelson coming on Shodhan serve return errors. Shodhan was too steady for Samuelson in the fifth game and Fremont gets their first win of this season and now moves to 1-5.
SHASHIN SHODHAN CLINCHES FREMONT'S FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON OVER DAVE SAMUELSON AND PALO ALTO. (Photo by Jack Chen)