(by Steve Hopkins)
Nandan Naresh won U19 Boys Singles, Isabella Xu won U17 Girls Singles, Mandy Yu won U15 Girls Singles, Andrew Huang won U11 Boys Singles, and Abigail Yu won U11 Girls Singles as TeamUSA dominated Singles events at the WTT Youth Contender Series event in Mosquera, Colombia. TeamUSA also won two doubles events as Nandan Naresh and Isabella Xu won U19 Mixed, and Kef Noorani and Mandy Yu won U15 Mixed. The cumulative total amounted to wins in 7 of the 12 events – a strong showing for TeamUSA in a youth tournament that was largely players from North, Central and South America – as well as a few players from Europe.
Nandan Naresh needed to rally from behind to win the U19 Boys Final 3-2 over Puerto Rico’s Steven Moreno. Puerto Rico’s Enrique Rios and Italy’s Giacomo Izzo finished in third. Naresh was undefeated for the tournament, as he and Isabella Xu teamed up to dominate U19 Mixed Doubles – winning all three of their matches 3-0.
TeamUSA secured three medals in Girls U17 Singles with Isabella Xu winning first over Amber Liu in an all-USA Final. USA’s Mandy Yu was a Semifinalist, along with Mariana Rodriguez of Colombia. Puerto Rico finished first and third in Boys U17 Singles with Steven Moreno topping Brazil’s Lucas Romanski in the Final and Puerto Rico’s Enrique Rios taking third along with Italy’s Giacomo Izzo.
USA finished first and second in Girls U15 with Mandy Yu defeating Amber Liu (in another All-US Final). In Boys U13, USA landed two third places with Kef Noorani and Maxim Mouchinski both reaching the Semifinals. USA’s Abigail Yu finished second (falling to Olivia Huang of Canada) in the Girls U13 Singles event.
Visit ButterflyOnline.com for the latest table tennis news and results.
