(by Steve Hopkins)
The knockout rounds of the 2025 Pan American Cup started on Friday, and by Saturday night, USA’s Kanak Jha had reached the Quarterfinals with wins over Leonardo Iizuka (4-3) and Santiago Lorenzo (4-1). Jha saved the best for Sunday, with a dominating 4-0 win over Brazil’s Eric Jouti. In the other half of the draw, Eugene Wang defeated Alberto Mino 4-2 in the Quarters, and then dominated Argentina’s Horacio Cifuentes 4-0. Despite each having had overlapping terms of at least a decade at the top of the rankings in their neighboring countries, these Finals will be the first time Canada’s Wang and USA’s Jha face each other.
Jha started strong, seemingly dominating most rallies, but some amazing individual shots landed by Eugene Wang – two great backhands and a pair of forehand shots around the net. Ultimately, however, Jha was able to win the first game with consistent play – and Wang won most of his points off of really big swings. Game one goes 11-6 to Jha. Wang applied extra pressure at the start of the second game, taking the ball quicker off of the bounce and flattening some of his shots to turn up the speed as well. Wang was up 3-1, but the players are tied again at 5-5 with rallies getting longer and longer. Jha pulled away in the middle, up 8-6 and then 9-6. Jha closes out the second game 11-6, finishing with three big shots in the final four points. Jha came out firing in the third game, but after building a 3 point lead, Wang reeled him back in – and it was Wang that reached 5 first at 5-3. Perhaps the fastest exchange of the match thus far was at 7-7 where each smashed forehand to forehand until Jha missed. The players then traded points but Wang was able to nurse his lead and win the third game 11-9. Entering the fourth game, its Jha 2 and Wang 1. Wang begins the fourth game with a missed smash, but 3 points later their tied 2-2 with the tactics changing a little. For Jha, he is trying to move Wang left and right, and for Wang, he is playing soft shots and then overwhelming power with lightning quick attacks. Tied 4-4, then tied 5-5 as the two trade clean backhand winners. At 8-8, Jha gets aggressive on a service return pounding a backhand deep – and then finishes the next rally with another big backhand cross court. Jha gets the serve up 10-8. Jha misses a short ball wide 10-9, but then gets the benefit of an edge-winner to win 11-9. Jha extends his lead to 3-1. Wang was unlucky to end the fourth game, but every ball goes his way at the start of the fifth game – leading 5-0 before losing his first point. Jha totally lost his rhythm, down 7-1 before he lands his first winner to make it 7-2. Jha narrows the lead a little, but Wang wins his second game 11-6.
Jha is now up in the match 3-2, going in to the sixth game. Jha almost looks like he’s feeling his opponent out again – an unease like there was at the start of the match. Wang is already up 2-0 as Jha fights through his lack of feeling. Two very safe points by Jha that slowly lead to strong forehand winners (tied 2-2). Wang reached 5 first, with a 5-3 lead. Wang keeps pushing the pace, and Jha has a few unforced errors (7-4 in favor of Wang). Down 5-10, Kanak Jha fights off five match points to tie the score at 10-10. Wang gets a net, and Jha follows up with a backhand winner – now 11-11. Wang misses late in a rally, then Jha misses a big forehand – tied again 12-12. Jha plays a great 4 shot rally that ends with a forehand winner, and then Wang pounds a backhand winner to tie it against at 13-13. Wang steps around his backhand corner for a forehand winner crosscourt, and then Jha’s block falls into the net – Wang wins the game and ties the match 3-3. The crowd has been occasionally cheering for Kanak Jha – as this is Kanak’s home club (and one of his main sponsors). The crowd is making noise heading in to the seventh game – clearly uneasy as Jha’s lead has disintegrated. In the seventh and final game, its Jha up 3-1 early. Jha often uses a very high toss to change up the pace, but it does not seem to phase the veteran Wang at all. A good rally, and a little help from the net, and the two players switch sides with Jha up 5-1. The rallies have shortened a little as both players may feel the pressure but a few big points are now being traded back and forth. Jha is up 8-4 after extending his lead by taking 3 of 4 points. Sensing weakness, Jha turns it up another notch – with four big shots at Wang’s body. Jha now leads 9-4, and then then 10-4, and then the match ends at 11-4. Kanak Jha is the 2025 Pan American Cup Champion.
The Women’s Final is next up -and will be covered in a separate article. It features the top two seeds, Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi and USA’s Lily Zhang.
All of those who reached the Semifinals have now punched their ticket for the World Cup in Macao this April. For TeamUSA, that means Kanak Jha, Lily Zhang, and Amy Wang.
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