by Simon Daish

Martin Bentancor headed into the day as the highest ranked player in Group Three; the Argentine didn’t disappoint the home crowd as he successfully came through without dropping a single game.

Opening the group with a strong showing against Chile’s Jorge Paredes (11-3, 11-8, 11-6), Martin Bentancor ensured his place at the top with a straight games victory over Ramon Jackman of Barbados (11-4, 11-6, 11-1).

More joy for the host nation against competitors from Chile and Barbados came in Group Four as Leandro Fuentes prevailed in his meetings with Denys Fierro (11-9, 11-3, 8-11, 11-8) and Marcus Smith (11-2, 11-5, 11-7) to take top spot.

Disappointment for Chile in those two groups, but there were reasons for the country’s representatives to be cheerful across Group 1 and Group 2 as Nicolas Burgos and Andres Martinez both secured first position in the respective groups.

Nicolas Burgos came through his group without conceding a game and was rarely troubled even by the second ranked player in the group Mariano Mendez (11-9, 11-5, 11-7), while Andres Martinez saw off Brazil’s Sergio Bignardi (11-8, 11-7, 11-6) and Argentina’s Luciano Alto (9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9).

One of the standout performances of the day came in Group Nine as Puerto Rican athlete Sebastian Echevarria extended his stay in the competition with a fine display.

Recovering from a two games to one deficit Sebastian Echevarria came out on top in a crucial tie against Peru’s Felipe Duffoo (12-10, 3-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6) to seal first place, and a terrific comeback against Terence Yeung of Canada (11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 9-11, 7-11) proved enough to see another Puerto Rican representative Francisco Matias through to the next round.

Elsewhere in the Junior Boys’ Singles group stage there were also fine efforts made by Eduardo Tomoike and Dario Arce after the Brazilian and Mexican competitors topped Group Five and Group Ten respectively.