(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
USA’s Sally Moyland continued her consistent play this week at the WTT Youth Contender series event in Mississauga, Canada. Moyland, who recently jumped up to World No. 62 on the strength of her performance at the World Team Championships, entered the U19 event this week as the top seed. The 18 year old American didn’t disappoint with 3-1, 3-0, and 3-0 wins on her way to the title. Second place went to another American, Satya Aspathi, and Stuti Kashyap (Antigua & Barbuda) and Chen Chih Yen (Taipei) finished in third.
The top two seeds in U19 Boys both fell in the Semifinals – with Enrique Rios of Puerto Rico and Chulong Nie of Australia having to settle for third place finishes. First place went to Ignas Sisanovas of Lithuania, and second place went to Giacomo Izzo of Italy. USA’s Irene Yeoh teamed with Australia’s Chulong Nie to win the U19 Mixed Doubles. Yeoh/Nie topped Puerto Rico’s Enrique Rios and Valentina Davila 3-2 while a pair of Canadian teams finished third (Leon Vlasov/Zoe Patry and Lucas Zhang/Victoria Lee).
Puerto Rico’s Enrique Rios is No. 35 in the World in U17 Boys and he was out and away the most talented player in the event in Mississauga. Rios lost two games in four wins and closed out the Final with a 3-0 win over Alexander Malov of Spain with third place going to Eshaan Nayak and Ei Ho. Chen Chih Yen won the U17 Girls event with a 3-1 win over USA’s Satya Aspathi. Aspathi won an all-American Semifinal over Abigail Yu, while Chen topped Sunny Zhang of Canada.
Host country’s Leon Vlasov won the U15 Boys event with a 3-0 win over Lucas Alexandre of Australia. Australian Eli Ho and Canadian Yohan Ouellet each finished in third position. Chang Tzu Ying of Taipei topped Canada’s Melissa Jia 3-0 in the final of the Girls U15 with Amber Lin (Canada) and Anzhuo Han (Australia) finishing third. American pair, Jadien Jia and Abigail Yu won U15 Mixed Doubles with a 3-0 win over Malov of Spain and Tiana Piyadasa of the US.
Lucas Alexandre was the surprise winner of the U13 Boys event. Alexandre came out of the fourth position and defeated top seed Vishruth Raghuram (USA) 3-0 in the Semis and second seeded Daniel Liang (Canada) 3-1 in the Final. U13 Girls was dominated by a full roster of Canadian players with Olivia Wang (CAN) winning, Diana Qiu (CAN) finishing in second, and Tiffany Zhan (CAN) and Isabella Joseph (USA) sharing third.
Nearly all of the U11 players were from Canada. The four Canadian finishers in Boys U11 were Aarav Garg in first, Darren Chen in second and Adalius Ng and Kei Chun Yau finishing in third. There were four players in U11 Girls with Canadians Diana Qiu, Cathering Wang, and Chuhan Liang finishing 1-3 and Ciara Sayegh of Tahiti sharing third.
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