Tournaments

13 Jul 2018

A journey south, the United States justified their top seeded position in both the Boys’ Team and Girls’ Team events at the 2018 Pan American Junior Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on Thursday 12th July.

They secured both titles, three matches to one wins the results at the final hurdle; Argentina and Canada being the respective outfits that had to settle for the second step of the podium.

by Ian Marshall, ITTF Editor

Mainstay of the success in the Girls’ Team final against Canada, the no.4 seeds, was Rachel Sung, a confrontation that was arguably closer than the overall score-line may suggest; the first three matches all went the full five games distance.

After Ivy Laio had beaten Amy Wang (11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-9), to give Canada the early lead, Rachel Sung accounted for Joyce Xu to level matters (11-9, 4-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-4).

The contest in the balance, Rachel Yang recovered from a two games to nil deficit to beat Isabelle Xiong by the very narrowest of margins (9-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-5, 11-9). The win swayed the momentum in favour of the United States. Rachel Sung, confident following her earlier success, duly brought matters to a conclusion; she overcame Ivy Lao in four games (11-7, 11-5, 3-11, 11-3).

Impressive from Rachel Sung, in the Boys’ Team final, it was likewise from Kanak Jha against Argentina, the no.2 seeds; a contest which followed the same pattern as that of their female counterparts.

Kanak Jha beat Santiago Lorenzo in the second match of the fixture (11-7, 11-8, 10-12, 11-8), after Martin Bentancor had given Argentina the ideal start by narrowly beating Nicholas Tio (11-4, 11-8, 5-11, 7-11, 12-10).

Parity, Sharon Alguetti prevailed against Leandro Fuentes (11-3, 11-6, 11-6) to give the United States the lead to set the scene for Kanak Jha to conclude proceedings. He duly obliged, he accounted for Martin Bentancor in three straight games (11-9, 11-4, 11-7).

Play in the team events over, the focus now turns to the individual events; play concludes on Sunday 15th July.

2018 Pan American Junior Championships Rachel Sung
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Day 5 - ITTF - PanAm Junior Championships