by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor
Sweden’s Oskar Danielsson and Oskar Hedlund, the no.1 seeds, after accounting for Diego Castellanos and Jonathan Flores at the quarter-final stage in four games (9-11, 11-3, 11-3, 11-3) found the latter pair’s El Salvadorian colleagues, Oliver Mendoza and Oscar Villalta, testing penultimate round adversaries.
The Swedes emerged successful but only by the very narrowest of margins (11-9, 8-11, 12-10, 7-11, 12-10).
Difficult times for the top seeds, for the second seeds, the pairing of Costa Rica’s Gerson Carballo and India’s Mudit Dani, in the latter stages life was less demanding.
In the round of the last eight, they beat the combination of Panama’s Gerson Carballo and India’s Mudit Dani (10-12, 11-9, 11-2, 11-6), prior to ending the hopes Costa Rica’s Daniel Araya and Victor Urena (11-8, 14-12, 11-9). Notably, the Costa Ricans were very much in form; at the quarter-final stage, they had beaten El Salvador’s Jaime Galeano and Diego Orantes (6-11, 13-11, 13-11, 11-9), the first round winners in opposition to Panama’s Jacobo Vahnish and Emilo Wong, the no.3 seed (11-8, 12-10, 11-4).
Semi-final sadness for El Salvador in the Junior Boys’ Doubles but not in the Junior Girls’ Doubles; Keren Constanza and Cecilia Orantes, the no.3 seeds, booked their place in the final. At the quarter-final stage they beat Guatemala’s Lourdes Berreondo and Mercedes Mendizabal (12-10, 11-3, 11-8) before in the semi-finals ousting colleagues Lourdes Martinez and Michele Quinteros, the no.5 seeds (11-9, 11-5, 11-6).
One round earlier Lourdes Martinez and Michele Quinteros, had received a walk-over when due to face the second seeded United States duo of Sarika Ahire and Ishana Deb.
At the final hurdle, Keren Constanza and Cecilia Orantes meet Guatemala’s Paula Acevedo and Lucia Cordero, the top seeds. A direct entry to the semi-finals, they recovered from a two games to nil deficit to beat El Salvador’s Gabriela Romero and Dinora Salazar, the no.4 seeds (8-11, 9-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-9),
Play in El Salvador concludes on Sunday 20th August.
