(by Steve Hopkins, photo USATT)
When the Pan Am Youth events concluded, Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, West Virginia immediately transitioned to being host of the WTT Youth Contender series. Among the top stories of the tournament – USA’s Sally Moyland winning both U19 and U17 Singles events.
Sally entered the U17 Girls Singles event as the top seed and she cruised through the draw with wins over Puerto Rico’s Kristal Melendez 3-0, then Angelica Arellano of Ecuador 3-0, USA’s Amber Liu 3-0 and finally topping second seeded Edmarie Leon Burgos of Puerto Rico 3-1. In the U19 event, Sally beat a pair of Americans in the Quarters and Semis with 3-0 wins over Isabella Xu and Tiffany Ke. She then faced Giulia Takahashi of Brazil in the Final. The two have World Rankings that are almost identical and their Finals battle was exactly as you would expect, a 3-2 win with two games that could easily have gone either way (that the two split). Like the U17 event, it was Sally as the top seed, driving all the way through the event without a mistake. Sally Moyland wins the two most senior Girls Singles events.
TeamUSA also won U15 Girls Singles. In fact, there were three Americans in the Final Four with Amber Liu taking first place, Amy Zhang finishing second, and Mandy Yu finishing in third. TeamUSA took all four medals in the U13 Girls Singles event with Irene Yeoh finishing first, Abigail Yu in second, and Sarah Zhang and Isabella Luo both in third position. Abigail Yu won the U11 Girls event over Angel He. USA’s Alice Chen and Canada’s Amber Lin each finished in third.
Brazil’s Leonardo Kenzo Iizuka won the U19 Boys Singles event with a 3-1 win over Sid Naresh. Iizuka entered as the second seed. Sid upset the top seeded Payas Jain of India in the Semifinal. Puerto Rico’s Steven Moreno also reached the Semifinals (falling 3-1 to Iizuka). Like Moyland, Iizuka doubled up by winning the U17 Boys event as well. This time, he played the younger Naresh brother, Nandan, in the Final. Iizuka won that final 3-1.
The U15 Boys title went to Brazil’s Davi Koji Fujii 3-1 over USA’s Stanley Hsu. Puerto Rico’s Enrique Rios and Brazil’s Lucas Romanski each finished in third. TeamUSA dominated U13 Boys singles with all four top finishers from the US. Maxim Mouchinski won 3-2 over Kef Noorani in the Final. The semifinalists were Jayden Cai and Jason Liu. The top four finishers in U11 Boys Singles were also all Americans with Jaden Jia in first, Jacob Kordus in second, and Andrew Huang and Ryan Tao in third.
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