by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Manager
Star of the show in the final was Benita Zhou, she accounted for Juliana Rodriguez in the opening match of the fixture (11-8, 13-11, 11-5) and in the deciding fifth encounter Macarena Montecino (12-10, 11-7, 2-11, 11-8). The one further win for the Canadians was secured in the fourth exchange when Isabelle Xiong defeated Juliana Rodriguez (11-4, 9-11, 11-7, 11-4).
A close call in the final, earlier it had been the same in the penultimate round; the player to cause the problems in the three-two success being Kelly Fei Zhao. She beat both Benita Zhou (11-8, 11-9, 11-7) and Isabelle Xiong (5-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-8).
In the counterpart semi-final; in an equally close contest, Juliana Rodriguez and Chile’s Macarena Montecino overcame Swathi Giri and Emily Tan of the United States.
Gold for the host nation in the Cadet Girls’ Team event, in the counterpart Cadet Boys’ Team competition, Central America joined forces with Europe to claim the top prize; Costa Rica’s Alfredo Sanchez lined up alongside Russia’s Alexey Perfilgev.
Furthermore, the title was secured very much at the expense of the United States. Aat the quarter-final stage they beat Avery Chan and Daniel Ng by three matches to two, one round later it was a three-one success in opposition to Kai Zarehbin and Alexander Wu, before in the final a third United States partnership was put to the sword.
They recorded a full distance five match win in opposition to Ted Li and Sid Naresh. Man of the moment was Alfredo Sanchez. He beat Sid Naresh in the opening match of the fixture (14-12, 9-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-4), prior to securing the doubles with Alexey Perfilgev (11-9, 11-9, 11-5). Soon after, in the vital contest, he overcame Ted Li to seal the victory (11-5, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9).
In the opposite half of the draw, at the quarter-final stage, Ted Li and Sid Naresh had beaten Canada’s David Xu and Edison Huang, prior to accounting for colleagues Aditya Godhwani and Jayden Zhou, to reserve their place in the final.
Play in the Cadet Boys’ Team and Cadet Girls’ Team events now concluded; attention turns to the Cadet Boys’ Singles and Cadet Girls’ Singles competitions; a two day event, play concludes on Thursday 31st May.
