(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 first day of the Team Events saw the USA Teams cruise. The women beat Guatemala in the morning session 3-0 with Amy Wang and Jennifer Wu winning singles matches and Lily Zhang and Amy Wang teaming up to win the doubles. They were just as dominant in their afternoon match claiming a 3-0 win over Argentina. This time it was Amy Wang and Lily Zhang winning their singles matches, and the team of Jennifer Wu and Lily Zhang winning in doubles.
The USA Men’s team beat Ecuador in the morning 3-0 and beat Puerto Rico in the afternoon 3-1. In the Ecuador match it was Kank Jha and Nikhil Kumar winning their singles matches and the team of Nicholas Tio and Nikhil Kumar winning the doubles match. In the Puerto Rico match, the Puerto Rican team of Daniel Gonzales and Brian Afanador won the opening doubles match over Nicholas Tio and Nikhil Kumar. After that opening match however, it was all TeamUSA. Kanak Jha topped Angel Naranjo 3-0, Nikhil Kumar topped Brian Afanador 3-1, and Kanak Jha topped Daniel Gonzales 3-1.
Other Team results of note included top ranked Men’s team Brazil topping Canada 3-0 and Mexico 3-0. The Puerto Rican Women beat Cuba 3-1 and beat the Dominican Republic 3-1. And the Canadian Women won their opening match 3-0 over Chile.
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.
