(by Steve Hopkins, photo USATT)
Not to be lost amongst the news of two WTT Feeder Series events were a pair of Para events in Spokane. The ITTF World Para Future Series event was August 6-8, followed immediately by the ITTF World Para Elite Spokane.
With a focus on American players, here are the results of the Future Series event. Jenson Van Emburgh has a 2-game lead in the Final of Class 3, but Frenchman Florian Merrien won three consecutive games by just 2 points to win the Final 3-2. USA’s Samuel William Altshuler fell in the Quarters of Class 6 to Cristian Dettoni in an event won by Ignacio Torres. Jenson Van Emburgh and Zachary Alan Pickett fell in the Semifinals of the Doubles Class MD8 in an event won by a Brazilian pair (Cavalhal and Camargo). Similarly, Tahl Leibovitz and Logan Wade Watson landed Bronze in Doubles Class MD18 in an event won by Iwabuchi and Abe, a Japanese pair. The full results are available at the ITTF results site.
In the Para Elite event, Jenson Van Emburgh had sweet revenge over Florian, defeating him 3-1 in the Semifinals before a dominant 3-0 Finals win over Jang Yeongjin of Korea. A pair of Americans competed in Class 6 with USA’s Samuel Altshuler falling to Martin Perry 3-2 in the Round of 16 while Ian Seidenfeld made a deep run to the Semifinals before narrowly losing 3-2 (12-10 in the fifth) to eventual winner Ignacio Torres of Chile. Tahl Leibovitz fell 3-1 to Joshua Stacey in the Quarterfinals of Class 9 in an event won by Laurens Devos of Belgium. In Women’s Singles, Zu Mingyu fell in the Semifinals of Class 8 to eventual champion Sophia Kelmer of Brazil. Leibovitz and Watson lost in the Quarters of Doubles Class MD18. The full results are available at the ITTF results site.
The next event on the Para Tour is scheduled for September 10-12 in Tokyo – the ITTF World Para Future Tokyo 2025.
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