by Ian Marshall, Editor
Furthermore, in events in which national associations were limited to two pairs, the United States won both gold and silver; thus repeating the performance of the previous day when restricted to a maximum of four partnerships, they provided all four semi-finalists.
Success for Sharon Alguetti and Kanak Jha was arguably as expected; they were the top seeds but in the final when facing Nikhil Kumar and Nicholas Tio, the no.9 seeds, they almost came to grief. They had to withstand a spirited fightback by their colleagues, five games being needed to ensure victory (13-11. 11-8, 8-11, 4-11, 11-7).
Earlier in the latter stages, Sharon Alguetti and Kanak Jha had beaten Argentina’s Leandro Fuentes and Alexis Orencel, the no.5 seeds (11-13, 11-7, 11-9, 11-4), prior to accounting for Chile’s Nicolas Burgos and Andres Martinez, the no.4 seeds (11-8, 11-8, 11-2) to reach the final.
Impressive from Sharon Alguetti and Kanak Jha, for Nikhil Kumar and Nicholas Tio life had been slightly more exacting. A four games quarter-final success had been recorded against Argentina’s Martin Bentancor and Santiago Lorenzo, the no.3 seeds (11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6), prior to the full give games being required to end the hopes of Brazil’s Guilherme Teodoro and Eduardo Tomoike, the no.2 seeds (11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-3, 11-2).
Notably for Sharon Alguetti it is three events completed; three gold medals!
Meanwhile, somewhat conversely in the Girls’ Doubles event, the win recorded by Rachel Sung and Rachel Yang was not to be anticipated; they commenced play as the no.7 seeds.
At the quarter-final stage they beat Brazil’s Livia Lima and Bruna Takahashi, the no.3 seeds, in what proved to be their most testing encounter of the whole campaign; they emerged successful but only by the minimal two point margin in the deciding fifth game (10-12, 11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 14-12).
A close call, the penultimate round was less fraught; a four games win was posted against Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz and Fabiola Diaz, the no.2 seed (10-12, 11-5, 11-5, 11-7), before in the final victory by the same margin was recorded against colleagues, Amy Wang and Crystal Wang, the top seeds (11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 13-11).
In the adjacent half of the draw, in the later rounds, Amy Wang and Crystal Wang had accounted for Guatemala’s Lucia Cordero and Hidalynn Zapata, the no.5 seeds (11-1, 11-9, 11-9), prior to recording a semi-final success in opposition to Canada’s Ivy Liao and Isabelle Xiong (11-5, 9-11, 13-11, 11-9).
Now with just two events remaining and all titles to date finishing in the hands of the United States, further medals, the colour to be decided, beckon.
At the semi-final stage of the Boys’ Singles event, Kanak Jha meets Nicolas Burgos, Sharon Alguetti confronts Guilherme Teodoro; in the counterpart Girls’ Team competition, Amy Wang plays Bruna Takahashi, Crystal Wang opposes Adriana Diaz.
The matches plus the finals will be played later in the day.
