Semi Sweet USA

Singles Net:
John Leys cruised into the semifinals of open singles net on Wednesday while Eric Wulff was unable to upset his way into the top 8.

Round two began with Eric scoring an 11–9, 11–2 victory over Vince Bradley.  Next up was Andreas Wolff, this year's European Overall Champion, the winner going to the quarter finals.  Eric fell behind early before coming back from a 10–4 deficit in game one, finally succumbing 12–10.  The second game was less dramatic with Andreas maintaining control to advance with an 11–6 triumph.

John Leys enjoyed a bye in the morning's first round due to his high seed.  He took full advantage, using the time to warm up thoroughly and get a jump start on what proved to be a dominant afternoon.  Chaos #4 breezed into the open singles semifinal for the third year running.  John's first victim was German representative Chris Loew, 11–8, 11–3.  Number 4 didn't miss a step while moving on to face his second up and coming German star of the afternoon, Florian Goetze, from Frankfurt.  Chaos #4 was victorious once again 11–8, 11–3.

The afternoon certainly wasn't completely dark for the Germans.  Of course, Andreas Wolff advanced to the round of eight for his first time, but the feel good story of the day is all about Patrick Schrickel, from Berlin.  He advanced to the semifinals by upsetting the four seed, Bruce Guettich – USA.  This is Patti's first World Championship semifinal appearance in any event.

The open singles semifinal matches are now set.  Emmanuel Bouchard from Quebec, Canada matches with Patrick Schrickel, from Berlin, Germany, and USA/Chaos #4, John Leys, meets USA/NPR 72 Chris Siebert.  This is also Chris Siebert's first semifinal appearance in open singles net and it was well earned with a 3 game victory over Finland's hometown boy, Jani Markkanen.

Doubles Net:
Doubles net continued today and once again, aside from the wind, the weather was perfect.

USA/Chaos 5, Eric Wulff, and his partner USA/NPR 72, Chris Siebert, are still undefeated in games and advanced to the semi finals to take place in the Helsinki Sports Hall Friday at noon.  They did so by defeating Yves Archambault and his Finish partner, Juha, 11–7, 11–6 before taking care of another USA team, Bruce Guettich and Peter Shunny, 11–7, 11–8.  This is Eric’s first ever appearance in the open net semi final round at the World Championships.

USA/Chaos #3 and 4 cruised once again.  They also have yet to loose a game, let alone a match, and will face first time semi–finalists, German Team A, Florian Goetze and Patrick Schrickel, who have put on an impressive perfomance thus far.  Flo and Patti are, however, heavy underdogs.  USA/Chaos #9 and USA 33, Chris Ott and Corey Current, were eliminated by Finland B.  They didn’t go down easily however, finally falling 11–8 in the third.

USA/Chaos 0 and 13 were also eliminated from contention today.

Doubles semifinals are as follows…

PT Lovern and John Leys (USA/Chaos) VS Patrick Schrickel and Florian Goetze (Germany)

Chris Siebert (USA/NPR) and Eric Wulff (USA/Chaos) VS Emmanuel Bouchard and JF Lemieux (Quebec, Canada).

Freestyle:
Results from the first round of freestyle are in and Carol Wedemeyer's undefeated streak is officially in tact.  Carol won her pool on Tuesday and will be the final performer for the women on Championship Saturday.  Carol also participated in the shred competition today, Thursday, and again results are not yet tabulated, and it is not clear whether she finished first, second, or third in this freestyle skills contest.

Peter Irish (USA) won his first round pool with another strong performance and USA/Chaos #7, 'net semi–retired' Tuan Vu, executed his strongest freestyle routine in years to take second place in his pool and advance to the semi final round.

The semifinal round of open singles freestyle just concluded and it is not yet clear if Tuan will advance to the finals.  Sources indicate his performance was not as strong as round one and that advancing is unlikely.

On a completely different note, let it be reported here first…

Peter 'The Executioner' Irish has broken the record for advancing to the open singles freestyle finals in consecutive years, now making it 15 straight years.  Peter was not happy with his routine but he still did well enough to advance.  He is quoted as saying… "let’s just say I left room for improvement in the finals".

Peter and Tuan also advanced to the finals of open doubles freestyle.

Also, it must be noted that, being a player myself, I'm having trouble finding the time to gather all the information I’d like.  I realize that many results are lacking and I'll try to get the status of more women's events and mixed doubles net.

Lastly, for the first time ever, the tournament host is posting results daily in an effort to get them to you ASAP.  Therefore, remember to check in http://www.footbag.org/worlds2005.

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