Tournaments

15 Jul 2018

Three titles already secured at the 2018 Pan American Junior Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - Boys’ Team, Girls’ Team, Mixed Doubles - on the afternoon of Sunday 15th July, the domination exerted by the United States continued.

Sharon Alguetti and Kanak Jha won the Boys’ Doubles event, the Girls’ Doubles title was secured by Rachel Sung and Rachel Yang.

by Ian Marshall, Editor

Furthermore, in events in which national associations were limited to two pairs, the United States won both gold and silver; thus repeating the performance of the previous day when restricted to a maximum of four partnerships, they provided all four semi-finalists.

Success for Sharon Alguetti and Kanak Jha was arguably as expected; they were the top seeds but in the final when facing Nikhil Kumar and Nicholas Tio, the no.9 seeds, they almost came to grief. They had to withstand a spirited fightback by their colleagues, five games being needed to ensure victory (13-11. 11-8, 8-11, 4-11, 11-7).

Earlier in the latter stages, Sharon Alguetti and Kanak Jha had beaten Argentina’s Leandro Fuentes and Alexis Orencel, the no.5 seeds (11-13, 11-7, 11-9, 11-4), prior to accounting for Chile’s Nicolas Burgos and Andres Martinez, the no.4 seeds (11-8, 11-8, 11-2) to reach the final.

Impressive from Sharon Alguetti and Kanak Jha, for Nikhil Kumar and Nicholas Tio life had been slightly more exacting. A four games quarter-final success had been recorded against Argentina’s Martin Bentancor and Santiago Lorenzo, the no.3 seeds (11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6), prior to the full give games being required to end the hopes of Brazil’s Guilherme Teodoro and Eduardo Tomoike, the no.2 seeds (11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-3, 11-2).

Notably for Sharon Alguetti it is three events completed; three gold medals!

Meanwhile, somewhat conversely in the Girls’ Doubles event, the win recorded by Rachel Sung and Rachel Yang was not to be anticipated; they commenced play as the no.7 seeds.

At the quarter-final stage they beat Brazil’s Livia Lima and Bruna Takahashi, the no.3 seeds, in what proved to be their most testing encounter of the whole campaign; they emerged successful but only by the minimal two point margin in the deciding fifth game (10-12, 11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 14-12).

A close call, the penultimate round was less fraught; a four games win was posted against Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz and Fabiola Diaz, the no.2 seed (10-12, 11-5, 11-5, 11-7), before in the final victory by the same margin was recorded against colleagues, Amy Wang and Crystal Wang, the top seeds (11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 13-11).

In the adjacent half of the draw, in the later rounds, Amy Wang and Crystal Wang had accounted for Guatemala’s Lucia Cordero and Hidalynn Zapata, the no.5 seeds (11-1, 11-9, 11-9), prior to recording a semi-final success in opposition to Canada’s Ivy Liao and Isabelle Xiong (11-5, 9-11, 13-11, 11-9).

Now with just two events remaining and all titles to date finishing in the hands of the United States, further medals, the colour to be decided, beckon.

At the semi-final stage of the Boys’ Singles event, Kanak Jha meets Nicolas Burgos, Sharon Alguetti confronts Guilherme Teodoro; in the counterpart Girls’ Team competition, Amy Wang plays Bruna Takahashi, Crystal Wang opposes Adriana Diaz.

The matches plus the finals will be played later in the day.

2018 Pan American Junior Championships Kanak Jha Sharon Alguetti Rachel Sung Rebecca Yang
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Day 5 - ITTF - PanAm Junior Championships