by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

At the final hurdle Carlos Ishida and Eduardo Tomoike, on duty for Brazil ‘B’, recorded a three-one win over Siddharta Almeida and Luiz Anjos, representing Brazil ‘A’; however, they came perilously close to departing proceedings at the quarter-final stage.

In the contest against Argentina ‘B’, with the overall score in the fixture level at two matches apiece, Carlos Ishida beat Leandro Fuentes by the very narrowest of margins in the deciding contest (11-7, 8-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9) to secure his team a place in the semi-finals.

The player to cause the Brazilians problems was Santiago Tolosa. He overcame both Carlos Ishida (12-10, 12-10, 9-11, 3-11, 11-6) and Eduardo Tomoike (9-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9).

Tense times; the penultimate round was less dramatic; a three-one margin of victory was the outcome in opposition to Chile’s Denys Fierro and Andres Martinez.

Similarly at the same stage, for Siddharta Almeida and Luiz Anjos a three-one win was the margin of victory against the Argentina ‘A’ duo of Martin Bentancor and Francisco Sanchi. The win came after a three-nil quarter-final success had been secured in opposition the latter’s compatriots, the Argentina ‘C’ Team partnership of Matias de Vicenzo and Santiago Lorenzo.

Impressive performances from Brazil but the most impressive effort for the South American country was that afforded by Livia Lima.

She remained unbeaten throughout the whole of the Junior Girls’ Team event. In partnership with Isabelle Xiong, a three matches to one win was posted against the Argentina ‘A’ Team pairing of Camila Kaizoji and Candela Perez in the semi-final, before the same margin of victory was clinched in the final when facing the Paraguay ‘A’ Team formation of Leyla Gomez and Cielo Mutti.

In the counterpart penultimate round contest, a three-one win had also been the order of the day for Leyla Gomez and Cielo Mutti; the pairing ended the hopes of the Argentina ‘B’ Team partnership of Aldana Gonzalez and Muriel Rajmil.