(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT)
This week San Francisco was host to a WTT Youth Contender series event. American players took advantage of playing in their home country as they won 10 of the 12 events.
Kef Noorani took top honors this week, taking home titles in three separate events. In the U 19 event, the fifteen year old Noorani fought through the bottom half of the draw as the second seed on his way to the Final. In the Final, he defeated Alex Luo 3-2. Noorani also won the U17 singles event, dominating from start to finish as he lost only one game in three matches – including a 3-0 Finals win over Chirag Pradhan. The third event win for Noorani was U19 Mixed Doubles where he teamed with Irene Yeoh to defeat Alex Luo and Sally Moyland 3-2.
Moyland continued her dominant play, winning three matches 3-0, 3-0, 3-0. That run was completed with a 3-0 win over Irene Yeoh. The U17 Girls Singles title went to Lisa Wang of Germany who defeated Indian player Hansini Mathan 3-1.
The other event that did not go to an America was U15 Girls Singles which was won by Junru Zhang of Uganda. Junru defeated USA’s Isabella Gao 3-0 in the Final. The U15 Boys title went to Tanish Mamidyala with his 3-1 Finals win over top seeded Chirag Pradhan. The U15 Mixed Doubles title went to Kyler Chen and Abigail Yu.
The U13 Boys title went to Atharva Arvind who pulled off two upsets on his way to a Finals win over Ali Afrakhteh. Isabella Joseph topped Isabella Gao 3-0 to take the U13 Girls Singles title. Furas Ahmed was the top seed in U11 Boys Singles and he won the event Final 3-0 over Nivaan Srinivasan.
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