Twenty-five players took the plunge and played in the Hardbat Open event. With top-seeded Jimmy Butler seeded out, there were four groups of six, with the top two advancing. In the round robins, matches were best of five to 11. In the single elimination stage, it switched to best of three to 21.

Group One

AJ Carney easily won the group, going 5-0. However, #4 seed Yifei Fang pulled off a pair of upsets to come in second and was the only player to get a game off AJ.

Group Two

This group sort of went as expected, with the top two seeds, Jian Zhuang and Sara Gulabani, both advancing. However, the big upset was when fourth seed Brian Zhao upset top seed Jian, 11-9 in the fifth. So Jian and Sara both finished 4-1, with Jian advancing in first with his head-to-head win over Sara. Brian lost to two other players, and finished 3-2, tied with Steve Clafin – but Steve won head-to-head, and so finished third to Brian’s fourth.

Group Three

As expected, junior star Bryce Milford won, going 5-0. However, he fought who knows how many match points to win over #3 seed Oliver Wang, 16-14 in the fifth! Bryce said he thinks Oliver had four match points. Oliver went 4-1 and so advanced in second. If Bryce had lost that match, guess who he would have played in the quarterfinals? Yes, his coach, AJ.

Group Four

#2 seed Cesar Serna 3-1 upset top seed Michael Guo to advance, with Michael coming in second.

Quarterfinals

The scores tell the story.

· Jimmy Butler d. Sara Gulabani, 16,19

· AJ Carney d. Oliver Wang, 6,10

· Bryce Milford d. Cesar Serna, 17,17

· Jian Zhuang d. Michael Guo, 8,18

SEMIFINALS

Jimmy Butler vs. Bryce Milford.

This was a match Jimmy’s consistency, experience, and strong backhand vs. Bryce’s all-out two-winged close-to-table attack, also with a strong backhand. Bryce’s tactics from the start became clear – go after Jimmy’s wide forehand and middle. In game one, he mostly went after Jimmy’s forehand, but Jimmy’s forehand was on – and he went up 6-1. Bryce closed it to 7-6, but then it was 11-6, 21-10 for Jimmy.

In the second, Bryce found a better mix of going after Jimmy’s forehand and middle. Bryce ran away with it from the start, 7-2, 10-4, 13-5, took a timeout at 14-10, 16-10, 21-12.

The third was one of those crazy ones where Jimmy goes up 8-0, 9-3, and then it’s 10-9! Jimmy goes up 12-9, then they have an incredible counter-hitting rally where Jimmy smashes to Bryce’s forehand and Bryce pulls off a spectacular counter-smash, 12-10. But after that, Jimmy just doesn’t miss, and goes up 16-10, 21-13.

AJ Carney vs. Jian Zhuang

Jian is very consistent and has a strong backhand. But he’s up against the National Champion. They have good rallies, with AJ mostly attacking, but sometimes chopping, rarely missing and often hitting in forehand winners. March to AJ, 5, 18.

FINAL

Jimmy Butler vs. AJ Carney

This was another wild one. AJ had been chasing Jimmy in hardbat for years, losing some squeakers, before breaking through and beating him in the Hardbat Final at the US Nationals in July. The latest rematch would be here at the Classic Nationals. Only, as Jimmy himself said, this time AJ is the favorite. Jimmy said that he’d been having problems with AJ’s serves, was surprised at how much spin he was generating – and that would again be a factor this match at one key time. The final was best of three to 21.

The first game was all AJ – 7-3, 12-8, 16-9, 21-11. AJ’s playing rock-solid consistent, usually Jimmy’s forte. He often takes a step back to rally down Jimmy, whose forehand is surprisingly inconsistent.

Game two looked like another laughter as AJ takes a 9-2 lead. But as he’s done so often, Jimmy always finds a way. With AJ still playing just a touch soft, Jimmy’s attack gets more and more consistent. AJ’s also letting Jimmy play too many backhands, which are his strength. Jimmy’s also hammering AJ’s middle, forcing softer returns that, earlier, he’d been erratic against, but now he’s putting them away. Scores are 9-2, 9-5, 10-6, 10-8, 13-11 . . . and then 13-all! AJ’s getting forced off the table too much, and Jimmy’s just dominating the points. Jimmy goes up 16-14, a 14-5 run since that bad start.

It’s AJ’s serve – and everything changes. He serves three straight spinny serves deep to Jimmy’s forehand, and Jimmy misses all three. He makes two more weak returns, and AJ dominates those rallies, and wins all five on his serve to lead 19-16. Match to AJ, 21-11, 21-17.

AJ said the main adjustment at the end, besides the serves, was to stop giving Jimmy any backhands, which had been putting AJ on the defensive, setting up Jimmy’s put-away forehand. And so AJ was able to hold off Jimmy’s incredible comeback. And it should be noted that since I’ve referred to AJ and student Bryce Milford (the Hardbat Junior Champion and Open Semifinalist) as Batman and Robin, it should be noted that Robin coached Batman in the final.

This is also a big transitional time for AJ. After ten years of coaching at the Triangle Badminton and Table Tennis Center, he will be relocating to New York, where his wife, Meaghan, will be teaching fifth grade. AJ will now be coaching at the Genessee Valley TTC. At Triangle, he coached the top junior boy and girl in hardbat. Will there now be a hardbat renaissance in New York?