(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
Houston is host of the WTT Youth Contender Series event this week and American players are out in force. Many events have not yet concluded, but of the six events that have finished, Americans have won five.
Daniel Tran and Sally Moyland teamed up in the U19 Mixed Doubles event. Tran/Moyland had a come-from-behind 3-2 win over top seeded Bosman Botha and Wu Ying Syuan. And after dispensing the top seeds, they defeated the event’s second seeded Puerto Rican pair of Enrique Rios and Valentina Davila in straight sets (3-0). The premiere U19 Boys’ and Girls’ Singles events will be played in full on Monday.
The U17 events concluded on Saturday. Puerto Rico’s Enrique Rios defeated USA’s Tanish Pendse in the Final 3-1. Rios had defeated Cuba’s Andy Maqueira 3-2 in one Semifinal, and Pendse defeated Chirag Pradhan of the US 3-2 in the other Semi. In U17 Girls, Americans reached both Semifinals but both fell before the Final. Taipei’s Lin Wan-Rong defeated USA’s Satya Aspathi and Taipei’s Wu Ying Syuan defeated USA’s Mandy Yu. Lin topped teammate Wu in the Final 3-0.
In U15, only Mixed Doubles has concluded thus far. In that event, Chirag Pradhan and Isabella Luo defeated the second seeded pair of Jaden Jia and Tiana Piyadasa in the Semifinals and then topped Kyler Chen and Abigail Yu. Both matches were by a narrow 3-2 margin. U15 Singles events will be played on Monday.
Most international players could not travel for the lowest age groups, so it was mostly American competitors at those lower age tiers. In Boys U13 it was Allen Mao over Ethan Jiao 3-1 in the Final with Vishruth Raghuram and Yunhao Cui in third. In U13 Girls Singles it was Allison Zhang over Adela Huang 3-2 in the Final with Isabella Joseph and Amanda Liu finishing in third. U11 events will be played on Monday.
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