(by Steve Hopkins, photo USATT)
Houston was host of the WTT Youth Contender Series event that wrapped up on Monday. American players were out in force with opportunity to face off against strong young players from all over the world. American players won seven of the 12 events with players from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Taipei, and Australia winning the others.
The top seed in the U19 singles event, Enrique Rios of Puerto Rico, reached the Semifinals before falling to Tamito Watanabe of Japan. In the other half of the draw, it was Australian Chulong Nie who topped American Andy Li to reach the Final. The first two games of the Final were tightly contested with Watanabe winning the first 12-10, and Nie winning the marathon second game 19-17. Watanabe won the next game to take the lead again, but after that it was all Nie, winning the last two games easily and claiming the event title with the 3-2 victory.
The girls U19 singles event fell largely by seed. Top seeded Wu Ying Syuan of Taipei won the event 3-2 over second seeded American Sally Moyland. None of Moyland’s losses were with scores of less than 8, which made for another thrilling final. The third place finishers were both Americans with Irene Yeoh falling to Wu, and Hildy Chen losing to Moyland.
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).
Making up for his disappointment in the U19 event, Puerto Rico’s Enrique Rios defeated USA’s Tanish Pendse in the Final 3-1 to claim the U17 Boys title. 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.
Cuba’s Andy Maqueira logged a dominant performance in U15 Boys Singles. Maqueira won four matches and only dropped two games – and three of his wins were over the event’s top seed, second seed, and fourth seed. Ultimately, it was Maqueira first, USA’s Chirag Pradhan second, and Cuba’s Matthew Cao and USA’s Jayden Cai sharing third. U15 Girls Singles had a surprise winner with Anya Shanbhag defeating top seeded Isabella Joseph 3-2 in the final. Third place in the event was shared by Adela Huang and Julia Zhu. In U15 Mixed Doubles 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.
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. U11 Boys’ Singles went to Allen Mao with Yunhao Cui finishing second and Preston Yu and William Zhang in third. In U11 Girls’ Singles it was Emily Jiao over Stefanie Wang with Kate Liu and Mira Shanbhag finishing third.
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