2019 World Cadet Challenge Recap

(by Steve Hopkins, photo courtesy of ittfworld)

In the last few days of October, Wladyslawowo Poland was host to some of the best young players in the world.  The 2019 World Cadet Challenge featured singles and team events for players under the age of 15.

American players included Ted Li and Sid Naresh in the Cadet Boys event and Joanna Sung, Angie Tan, and Emily Tan in the Cadet Girls event.  In addition to the US entrants, Puerto Rico also sent Angel Naranjo and Canada sent Max Ji, Simeon Martin, Fiona Nie, and Patrina Hui.

In the Boys event, Angel Naranjo and Ted Li were the only players from this region to make the top 16.  Along with Rogelio Castro of Mexico, these were the only three players outside of Asia and Europe to advance that far.  Ted Li and Angel Naranjo were paired against each other in the Round of 16 –  Naranjo won the match 4-1.  Castro also won his Round of 16 match.  Both Castro and Naranjo lost in the Quarterfinals (Naranjo lost to Darius Movileanu of Romania 4-0 and Castro lost to Iulian Chirita of Romania).  Movileanu went on to win the event, defeating Korea’s Seongil Jang in the Final 4-3.

In earlier action, Ted Li was 2-1, moving up one position which included an upset of the top seed in his group Navid Shams of Iran.  Sid Naresh finished 1-2, with losses to the Romanian and Russian players seeded above him while winning over the New Zealand player seeded below.  Angel Naranjo of Puerto Rico was seeded second in his group but went 3-0 including an upset of Simon Belik of the Czech Republic.  Canada’s Simeon Martin finished 0-3 (seeded fourth and finishing fourth), and Canada’s Max Ji was seeded fourth but upset Abderrahmane Azzala of Algeria to move up one spot.

In the Girls Singles event, USA’s Angie Tan and Canada’s Patrina Hui both made the Round of 16.  Patrina lost in that round to India’s Ghorpade.  Angie defeated Russia’s Vlada Voronina 4-3 before falling in the Quarterfinal to Korea’s Yeonhui Lee.  Ultimately it was Japan’s Kaho Akae who won the event with a 4-2 win over Elena Zaharia of Romania.

In earlier action, Canada’s Patrina Hui overcame her fourth seed to finish second by upsetting Melissa Belache of Algeria and Ilona Sztwiertnia of Poland.  Canada’s other player, Fiona Nie was seeded fourth and finished fourth in her group.  USA’s Emily Tan was seeded fourth but finished third in her group by upsetting Filomena Duncan of Fiji.  USA’s Joanna Sung was seeded third and finished third, including a win over Juliana Lozada of Colombia.  USA’s Angie Tan was seeded third in her group, but ran the table including upsets of Mexico’s Cossio Aceves and Poland’s Brzyska.

Emily Tan was a part of the Hopes Team in the Cadet Girls Team event.  The team was seeded third but finished first in their group – including upset wins over the European Team and Latin America Team.  In the Semifinals, the Hopes team defeated Poland 3-1 and then fell to the European Team in the Finals.

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