by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Thais Fraga Severo accounted for Chile’s Tamara Isabel Leonelli in the final of Women’s Singles Class 3-5; very much in control from start to finish, she recorded a straight games success (11-5, 11-8, 11-3).

Impressive from Thais Fraga Severo, for her male counterparts, life was somewhat more exacting in the title deciding contests.

Organised on a group basis, Aloisio Lima Junior had to recover from a two games to nil deficit to beat the host nation’s Fernando Eberhardt in the decisive Class 1 contest (9-11, 2-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-5), both players having remained hitherto unbeaten.

Likewise in the Class 2 final, Guilherme Marcio da Costa needed the full five games to overcome Chile’s Luis Bustamente (11-13, 11-9, 3-11, 11-8, 12-10), whilst for David Andrade de Freitas it was only marginally less testing. The no.2 seed, he accounted for Argentina’s Gabriel Copola, the top seed (4-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-6) to arrest the Class 3 title.

“At the beginning of the last match I was a little bit nervous but with all the experience in this kind of tournament I could easily control myself. The major difficulty was to keep concentration during the entire match. I think this cost me the match, for sure.” Gabriel Copola

Four titles claimed on the penultimate day of action by Brazil, the two wheelchair gold medals that did not finish in their grasp were in Men’s Singles Class 4 and Men’s Singles Class 5.

However, Brazil was represented; in Class 4 Alexandre Ank was beaten at the final hurdle by Chile’s Cristian Gonzalez (11-8, 11-9, 12-10); in Class 5 an all Argentine final witnessed success for Mauro Depergola in opposition to Daniel Rodriguez (11-4, 11-4, 10-12, 7-11, 11-4).

Individual events concluded, attention now turns to the team competitions.

2017 Copa Tango Para Open: Latest results and forthcoming matches