(by Steve Hopkins)
Sally Moyland capped off an amazing week at the 2022 ITTF Pan American Youth Championships (U19) in Argentina by winning the U19 Girls Singles title. She went 7-0 against the best girls in this hemisphere to take the coveted title. She also teamed with Angie Tan to win the Doubles Event, and earlier in the week she anchored TeamUSA in the Girls Team event – where Sally went 3-0 in group play and 3-0 in the knock-out round to help seal the victory for the team.
In U19 Girls Singles, Sally topped Monica Mejia 4-0 in the Round of 32, topped second seeded Brianna Burgos 4-0 in the Round of 16, and defeated Canada’s Jessie Xu 4-0 in the Quarterfinals. She did drop a game against Brazil’s Laura Watanabe, but not before going up 2-0 (she won 4-1). In the final, the scores were close but Sally won four straight 11-9, 11-8, 11-4, and 11-8. What an amazing run against very strong competition – and at age 15, Sally will have opportunity to repeat this feat in the future..
In U19 Boys Singles, Puerto Rico’s Angel Naranjo entered as the second seed and won every match he played. The event’s top seed, Ecuador’s Diego Piguave, was upset in the Semifinals by Brazil’s Leonardo Iizuka Kenzo. Angel topped Leonardo 4-2 in the Final. Angel was also undefeated in the Team event, anchoring through the draw and topping Brazil 3-2 in the Final. And, like Sally Moyland, Angel Naranjo tripled up his Gold Medals with a win in Doubles – teaming with Derek Valantin, to win. At 18, expect to see Angel make the jump to regularly representing Puerto Rico internationally at pro events.
Full results are available on the ITTF site.
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