(by Steve Hopkins)

There was a delay in action on Monday at the 2023 ITTF Pan American Championships, as parts of Havana suffered power outages.  Fuel shortages and power outages have been common issues in parts of Cuba in recent years, but it was a short-lived issue and action resumed on Tuesday.  In Men’s Singles, top seeded Hugo Calderano won both of his Tuesday matches as he advanced to the Quarterfinals.  Calderano topped Mexico’s Rogelio Castro 4-1 and then defeated USA’s Jishan Liang 4-0. Calderano’s Quarterfinal opponent will be Marcelo Aguirre, who topped Horacio Cifuentes 4-2 in the Round of 16.

Puerto Rico’s Brian Afanador and Canada’s Eugene Wang will face each other in another Quarterfinal matchup.  Afanador has been dominant thus far with 4-0 and 4-1 wins, and Eugene Wang had a solid 4-2 win over Brazil’s Eric Jouti in their late Tuesday match.  Alberto Mino and Nicolas Burgos will face each other in the Quarters as well.  Burgos eliminated USA’s Darryl Tsao and Brazil’s Vitor Ishiy.  The final Quarters pairing will be between Brazil’s Guilherme Teodoro and Argentina’s Santiago Lorenzo.  Lorenzo needed all seven games to eliminate USA’s Sid Naresh 4-3.  Naresh also fought through a tough seven game match earlier in the day, defeating Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez 4-3.  Quarterfinal matches are scheduled for Wednesday.

Top seed Adriana Diaz has rolled through to the Quarterfinals with a 4-0 win over USA’s Sally Moyland, a d4-1 win over Cuba’s Daniela Fonseca Carrazana.  Diaz will face Mexico’s Arantxa Cossio Aceves.  Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi will face Canada’s Mo Zhang in another Quarterfinal matchup.  Takahashi defeated USA’s Rachel Sung 4-1 in the Round of 16, and Zhang topped Puerto Rico’s Fabiola Diaz 4-0 in the same round.

USA’s Amy Wang has logged two 4-0 wins to reach her Quarterfinal round.  Wang will face Brazil’s Giulia Takahashi.  USA’s Lily Zhang has also logged a pair of 4-0 wins to reach the Quarters where she will face Chile’s Zhiying Zeng.

Lots of quality table tennis on tap all week long – we’ll have more updates soon.

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