(by Steve Hopkins/Photo by ITTF)
The 2019 Pan American Games is through the fifth day in Lima, Peru. The tournament began on August 4 and will continue through August 10. The tournament has now completed the Singles and Doubles events and just the Team events remain.
The top seed in Men’s Singles is Hugo Calderano (World No. 6). His teammate, Gustavo Tsuboi, is the second seed (World No. 32), and USA’s Kanak Jha (World No. 33) is the third seed. The top Men’s Team seed is Brazil with Tsuoboi, Jouti, and Calderano. Chile is the second seed with Gomez, Lamadrid, and Moya. Team USA is seeded third with Kanak Jha, Nikhil Kumar, and Nicholas Tio. The Puerto Rican team of Brian Afanador, Daniel Gonzalez, and Angel Naranjo is seeded sixth. The Canadian team is seeded tenth (Eugene Wang, Jeremy Hazin, and Marko Medjugorac).
In Women’s Singles, Canada’s Mo Zhang is the top seed at World No. 27, Adriana Diaz (No. 30) of Puerto Rico is second, and Americans Jennifer Wu and Lily Zhang are third and fourth seed (at World No 35 and World No. 66). Team USA is the tournament’s top seed with Amy Wang joining Wu and Zhang. Puerto Rico is the second seed with Adriana Diaz, Melanie Diaz, and Daniely Rios. Team Canada if fifth with Mo Zhang, Alicia Cote, and Ivy Liao.
The Quarterfinals of the Team events were played on Friday. In the Women’s Team Event, USA defeated Cuba 3-0, Brazil defeated Chile 3-0, Canada defeated Mexico 3-0, and Puerto Rico defeated Argentina 3-0. Saturday’s Semifinal matchups are Puerto Rico versus Canada and Brazil versus TeamUSA.
In the Men’s Team Event, USA defeated the Dominican Republic 3-1, with the one win for the Dominican Republic going to Jiaji Wu, their new star player. Canada fell to Cuba 3-1, Brazil defeated Paraguay 3-0, and Argentina topped Puerto Rico 3-0. The matchups on Saturday will be USA versus Brazil and Argentina versus Cuba.
The Semifinals will be played Saturday morning, and the Finals will be played Saturday evening.
Notable Results:
In Men’s Singles, top-seeded Hugo Calderano needed all seven games to beat Jiaji Wu to claim the title. In fact, Calderano was down 1-2 and down 2-3 before winning the final two games. The final score was 4-3 (8, -6, -8, 7, -8, 8, 2). Kanak Jha and Eugene Wang claimed the bronze medals.
In Women’s Singles, second-seeded Adriana Diaz claimed the title with a 4-1 win over USA’s Jennifer Wu. Melanie Diaz and Takahashi were the bronze medalists.
The Mixed Doubles title went to Canada’s Eugene Wang and Mo Zhang who defeated Brazil (Tsuoboi/Takahashi) 4-1. Puerto Rico (Afanador/Diaz) and Argentina (Alto/Cifuentes) received the Bronze.
The Men’s Doubles title went to Brazil (Calderano/Tsuboi) over Argentina (Alto/Cifuentes) 4-2. The semifinalists were Puerto Rico (Afanador/Gonzalez) and the Dominican Republic (Santos/Gonzales).
The Women’s Doubles title went to Puerto Rico’s Diaz and Diaz team. The defeated Team USA’s Jennifer Wu and Lily Zhang 4-3. The semifinalists were Brazil (Takahashi/Yamada) and Canada Cote/Zhang).
Check in at ButterflyOnline.com for updates throughout the event.
