by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager
Star of the show was Kai Zarehbin; in the opening match of the fixture he beat Fabian Cuba Molina (11-4, 11-8, 11-3) before in the fourth contest recovering from a two games to nil deficit to overcome Joel Cisneros (7-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7).
The two wins set the stage for Alexander Wu to be the hero of the hour; he duly responded. He beat Fabian Cuba Molina in straight games (11-9, 12-10, 11-7).
Otherwise, it was success for the leading outfits but there was a close call for the top seeds. The partnership formed by Costa Rica’s Alfredo Sanchez and Russia’s Alexey Perfilyev was extended the full distance by the United States pairing of Sid Naresh and Ted Li.
Mainstay of the victory was Alexey Perfilyev. He beat both Sid Naresh (13-11, 11-8, 13-11) and Ted Li (7-11, 11-9, 11-8, 15-13), whilst teaming with Alfredo Sanchez to secure the doubles.
A close for the top seeds; for Canada’s David Xu and Edison Huang, the no.2 seeds, as for the United States pairing of Aditya Godhwani and Jayden Zhou, the no.3 seeds, it was top place in the group without alarm bells soundings.
Meanwhile, in the Cadet Girls’ Team competition where there were three groups in the initial phase, it was pole position at the end of the day for the principal combinations.
Impressively, the Canadian duo formed by Isabelle Xiong and Benita Zhou topped their group, as did the United States combinations of Swathi Giri and Emily Tan alongside colleagues Lavanya Maruthapandian and Sabrina Zhu.
Both the Cadet Boys’ Team and Cadet Girls’ Team events conclude on Tuesday 29th May.
