(by Steve Hopkins)
Westchester Table Tennis Center was the host of last week’s WTT Youth Contender Series event. Players from all over the world competed, and American, Canadians, Puerto Ricans, and others were able to compete closer to home – as most of these events are centered in Europe and Asia.
In the U19 Boys Singles event, top seed Chang Yu-An of Taipei dominated, winning each match 3-0. He defeated USA’s Nandan Naresh in the Semifinal, and Aditya Sareen (who has been US-based, but plays for Australia) defeated Yang Hao-Jen in the other Semi. Sareen fell to Chang Yu-An in the Final. In U19 Girls Singles, top seed Kheith Cruz of the Philippines won the Final 3-1 over Lichen Chen of the USA. A pair of Puerto Rican players finished in third, with Daymar Castro falling in one Semi, and Edmarie Leon losing in the other. The US pair of Rachel Wang and Nandan Naresh won U19 Mixed Doubles.
Aditya Sareen was the top seed inU17 Boys, but he fell to Yang Hao-Jen in the Final. USA’s William Feng and Raefel Cabrera of the Dominican Republic finished in third. In Girls U17, Amoolya Menon finished in first with a 3-2 upset of Rachel Wang. USA’s Mandy Yu and and Canada’s Victoria Lee finished in third.
The U15 Boys title went to Charles Shen with his 3-1 win over Kevin Doyle in their All-American Final. USA’s William Feng and Vietnam’s Doan Kien Tan Nguyen were the third place finishers. USA’s Mandy Yu finished on top in the U15 Girls event. She had a 3-1 win over Puerto Rico’s Valentina Davila with USA’s Abigail Yu and Canada’s Olivia Huang falling in the Semis. William Feng and Mandy Yu teamed up for the U15 Mixed Doubles title.
Jaden Jia topped Liren Shang in U13 Boys with and Lucas Wu finished in third, the three Americans were joined in the Semis by Puerto Rico’s Matthew Cao (also finishing in 3rd). Two more Americans took the top two spots in U13 Girls with Abigail Yu topping Isabella Luo. Canadians won both the third place spots with Cindy Zhu and Alexus Lee each reaching the Semis.
U11 Boys went to Saivaishnav Senthilkumar with his 3-2 win over Baron Zhang (Derek Wang and Daniel Liang finished in third) and the U11 Girls title went to Canada’s Cindy Zhu who topped USA’s Isabella Joseph 3-0. Third sent to USA’s Emma Yang and Puerto Rico’s Valentina Rodriguez.
The top Americans will be headed to Alabama next for the US Nationals. The next WTT Youth Contender will be in Benghazi starting tomorrow (and the next WTT Star Contender will be in Bangkok this week).
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