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Date of Birth: Oct. 9, 1966 Residence: San Jose Education: BS Computer Science at San Jose State University Ethnicity: Vietnamese Rating: 2609 Style: All-out forehand attack Equipment: Shell Shock blade with Refoma Sponsor: Nittaku Clubs Played: Palo Alto and SJ State |
Khoa moved to the US at the age of nine as his father may have been put into a concentration camp in Vietnam since he was working for the government if they didn't leave. After coming to the US, Khoa's father introduced his sons to the game and Khoa showed the most promise. At the age of fifteen, he made the junior national team and at the age of twenty-one, he won a gold and silver medal at the Pan American Games.
His biggest successes and biggest disappointments came during the Olympic Trials. In 1992, he finished as the first alternate for the team. In 1996, he had taken time off work to train professionally in Sweden and was in the running with one final singles match against Maryland's Todd Sweeris. Simple: the winner goes to Atlanta and the loser hopes to make it as a doubles player. For the first time, he lost to Todd Sweeris 3-0. Then came his doubles chance and he was 4 points away from making the team leading to another heartbreaking result.
Then he focused on work and family for the next two years and the itch to train again began in 1998. In singles, he was eliminated in the preliminary stage but after teaming up with National Men's Singles Champion Cheng Yinghua, he made the 2000 US Olympic Men's Doubles Team. Four years later, he qualified in singles by beating David Zhuang, someone who he had not beaten since 1995, and two Canadians, Bence Csaba and Peter-Paul Pradeeban, that he had never beaten before. His other major accomplishment is winning the North American Men's Singles title in 2000. He is arguably the most talented player in the US because of his smooth strokes and the fact that he has reached the world-class level without anyone world-class to practice with.
Khoa has beaten 1996 Olympic Men's Singles Quarterfinalist Johnny Huang of Canada and played very close matches with 2004 Olympic Men's Singles Quarterfinalist Leung Chu Yan of Hong Kong, and European Doubles Champs Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth, Ilija Lupulesku, and Aleksander Karakasevic who are all top 50 in the world. He also played even in the first half of the match with World Champions Werner Schlager and Ma Wenge and nearly beat World Team Finalist Martin Bratanov of Belgium. His highest world-ranking was #110 after the 1987 World Championships in New Delhi, India.