Impressive on home soil, Maria Garonne excels on foreign shores

by Ian Marshall, Editor

Competing in women’s singles class 2-4, she accounted for Sweden’s Anna-Carin Ahlquist, the top seed (11-9, 15-13, 7-11, 11-9), gold medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games and bronze medallist four years later in Rio de Janeiro.

Notably Maria Garrone is a class 2 athlete and thus has a greater impairment than Anna-Carin Ahlquist who is class 3. Defeat for the top seed but for remaining leading names, in an event that commenced play with three groups, it was success; Mexico’s Edith Sigala and Japan’s Yukimi Chada duly secured first places.

Impressive from Maria Garrone, it was the same from in women’s singles class 6-10 from Ioana-Monica Tepelea; she accounted for Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic, the no.2 seed in straight games (11-6, 11-9, 11-7). In the counterpart group, Kelly Van Zon of the Netherlands, the top seed, gold medallist in both London and Rio de Janeiro, ended the day in top spot.

Disappointments for Ana-Carin Ahlquist and Iona-Monica Tepelea but for each it was their only defeat of the day; thus both advanced to the main draw.

Mirjana Lucic experienced defeat at the hands Ioana-Monica Tepelea (Photo: Carlos Bourbon)

Leading names prevail

Surprises in the women’s singles, in the men’s singles, the leading names all ended the day unbeaten.

In class 1-2, Chile’s Luis Bustamente remained the only player unscathed. In class 3 it was the same for Sweden’s Carl Ohgren and Venezuela’s Roberto Quijada.

Likewise, in group organised events, in class 4 Slovakia’s Peter Mihalik and Chile’s Maximiliano Rodriguez, enjoyed a successful day, a situation that applied in class 5 to Argentina’s Elias Romero and Japan’s Kentaro Doi.

A successful day for Kentaro Doi (Photo: Botan)

Standing classes

Success for the leading names in the men’s singles wheelchair categories, it was similar in the standing events.

Three groups in the first stage of class 6-7, Slovakia’s Miroslav Jambor, Japan’s Kazuya Kaneko and Colombia’s José Vargas all remained unbeaten and thus topped their groups. Likewise in class 8, first group places were gained by Sweden’s Linus Karlsson, Slovakia’s Richard Csejty and Brazil’s Luis Guarnieri; a situation that was also prevalent in class 10. Spain’s José Manuel Reyes, Japan’s Nariaki Kakita and Brazil’s Carlos Carbinatti all maintained unblemished records to top their groups.

Notable performances from Japan; in class 9 organised on a group formula, it was no different. At the end of the day, Hayuma Abe emerged the one unbeaten player.

All individual events conclude on Friday 13th December.