Spanish Open Recap
(by Steve Hopkins/Photo by ITTF)
The 2020 ITTF Challenge Spanish Open concluded today in Granada, Spain. As a Challenge event, the draw did not include the elite players of the world, but with 9 players in the Top 100, this was still a very competitive tournament. The top two seeds, Benedikt Duda of Germany and Kirill Gerassimenko of Kazakhstan ultimately advanced all the way to the Final to face each other.
Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez fell in the Round of 64 to Japan’s Hiroto Shinozuka. USA’s Nicholas Tio met the same fate, losing to Egypt’s Noshad Alamiyan 4-3. USA’s Mishel Levinski provided a solid performance logging wins over Khalid Assar of Egypt and Olajide Omatayo of Nigeria before falling to Benedek Olah of Finland.
In the Semifinals, Benedikt Duda overcame Benedek Olah 4-1 and Kirill Gerassimenko defeated Steffen Mengel 4-1. The Final went the full distance with Gerassimenko pulling the minor upset to claim the Spanish title.
The Women’s title went to Japan’s Honoka Hashimoto. Hashimoto defeated Yang Xiaoxin of Monoco 4-1. USA’s Amy Wang fell 4-2 in the Round of 64 to Katerina Tomanovska. Puerto Rico’s Daniely Rios also fell in the Round of 64, to Satsuki Odo of Japan.
Nicholas Tio represented TeamUSA in the U21 Men’s event. He fell in the Semifinals, but not before logging four wins (over Korea, Germany, Belgium, and Russia).
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