(By Steve Hopkins)
2018 Canada Junior & Cadet Open Recap
China won the Junior Boys event at the 2018 Canada Junior & Cadet Open in convincing fashion, but Team USA shined as well. Americans filled three slots in the quarterfinals, had two of the final four spaces in the semifinals, and USA’s Michael Minh Tran had three upsets on his way to the final.
There were plenty of successes for Team USA as they won seven of their eight first round matches in the Junior Boys event. USA’s Sharon Alguetti was the top seeded player. He defeated Canadians David Xu and Terence Yeung and India’s Raegan Albuquerque before falling to eventual champion Sun Zheng of China 4-2. USA’s Sid Naresh also lost to Zheng, as did Canada’s Jeremy Hazin (who had been seeded fourth in the event). USA’s Jayden Zhou defeated Chile’s Jorge Paredes before falling to Portugal’s Tiago Li.
The bottom half of the draw featured a number a Canada-USA match-ups, but in this event those fell decidedly in the American’s favor. Victor Liu (USA) defeated Kenny Jiang (CAN), Gal Alguetti (USA) defeated Edward Ly (CAN), Ted Li (USA) defeated Tommy Xu (CAN), and Kai Zarehbin (USA) defeated Luc Sicard (CAN). Poland’s Artur Grela, the second seed, advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Josh Chua of Singapore. USA’s Michael Minh Tran defeated Dorian Girod of Switzerland and then eliminated teammates Victor Liu and Gal Alguetti on his way to the semifinal. Tran lost the opening game to Chua, but then closed out the match with four straight to advance to the final. Ultimately, China’s Sun Zheng won the event with a 4-0 performance (5, 11, 5, 8).
Canada’s Ann Shiao advanced to the quarterfinals in the Junior Girls event. Shiao had wins over USA’s Faith Tung and teammate Kelly Fei Zhao before falling to eventual champion Anna Wegrzyn of Poland. USA’s Sabrina Zhu advanced to the semifinals with wins over Canada’s Isabelle Xiong, Finland’s Annika Lundstrom, and Chile’s Valentina Rios. Zhu had a hard-fought loss to Germany’s Franziska Schreiner with two convincing wins and four very close losses (4-2: 8, 8, 13, -6, -5, 13). China had three players advance to the quarterfinals along with Poland, Germany, USA, Canada, and Chile. Ultimately, it was Poland over Germany in the final (Wegrzyn over Schreiner 4-2).
The Cadet Boys event was dominated by host Canada and by Team USA. USA’s Sid Naresh entered as the top seed and advanced to the semifinal with a win over Russia’s Alexey Perflyev (3-0). Naresh then defeated Canada’s Edison Huang in a very tight match 3-2 (-8, 4, -10, 12, 6). In the bottom half of the draw Canada’s Edward Ly advanced by defeating American’s Jayden Zhou and Daniel Ng. Edward then completed his run with a 3-0 win over Naresh in the final (3-0: 5,8,8).
The Cadet Girls event featured an all-USA final. Top seeded Sabrina Zhu (USA) defeated Canadians Ivy Bao and Isabelle Xiong to reach the final. In the bottom half of the draw, USA’s Lavanya Maruthapandian upset Netherland’s Emine Ernst to reach the semi and then upset teammate Swathi Giri on her way to the final. The final came down to a 12-10 fifth game – Maruthapandian over Zhu 3-2 (9,8,-4,-8,10).
