(by Steve Hopkins, photo USATT)

Hugo Calderano topped Kanak Jha in the Men’s Final and Adriana Diaz’s upset in the Women’s Final blocked a Brazil sweep of singles titles as action continued today in the ITTF Pan American Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Both the Semifinals and Finals were played on Wednesday.  In Men’s Singles, top seed Hugo Calderano won three games before Nicolas Burgos mounted his comeback.  In the end, the final blow was an 11-5 win in the sixth game giving Calderano a 4-2 win.  USA’s Kanak Jha dominated the other Semifinal with a 4-0 win over Horacio Cifuentes of Argentina.  The Final was played a few hours later, and it took Jha several games to match Calderano’s energy.  Calderano won two games easily 11-6 and 11-6 before three tight games.  Jha won the third game 11-9, Calderano won the fourth game 12-10, and Calderano closed out the match with an 11-9 win in the fifth (a 4-1 win).

The story of the Women’s draw is the dominant performance of Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz.  Diaz won all four of her matches 4-0.  Diaz entered the event as the second seed behind Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi.  In fact, the top four seeds each advanced to the Semifinals.  Takahashi Bruna defeated Canada’s Mo Zhang 4-2 in the top half of the draw.  It was at that point that Diaz started her amazing final run – defeating USA’s Lily Zhang (the 3rd Seed) 4-0 in the Semifinal and then dominating Takahashi 4-0 in the Final.

The Doubles Finals have already been played.  The Brazilian team of Leonardo Iizuka and Guilherme Teodoro won Men’s Doubles.  The Argentinian team of Lucia Cordero and Hidalynn Zapata won Women’s Doubles.   In Mixed Doubles, it was Brazil again – the two top seeded Singles players teaming up with Hugo Calderano and Bruna Takahashi taking the title.

The Teams competition begins tomorrow, with the Finals scheduled for this weekend.

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