by Ian Marshall

In each age group, under 19 and under 15, the full complement of events is on offer: boys’ team, girls’ team, boys’ singles, girls’ singles, boys’ doubles, girls’ doubles mixed doubles.

Angel Naranjo heads the under 19 boys’ singles order of merit ahead of Peru’s Carlos Fernandez, Canada’s Edward Ly and Brazil’s Kenzo Carmo. In the counterpart under girls’ singles, Amy Wang is listed ahead of colleague Rachel Sung, Brazil’s Giulia Takahashi and Mexico’s Clio Barcenas.

Meanwhile, in the under 15 age group category, Brazil’s Leonardo Ilzuka Kenzo is the top seed, he is followed by Nandan Naresh of the United States, Peru’s Renzo Zeballos and Puerto Rico’s Derek Valentin.

The United States in evidence, it is the same in the under 15 girls’ singles. Emily Tan and Faith Hu reserve the respective top two positions, Puerto Rico’s Kristal Melendez is next in line followed by Brazil’s Karina Shiray.

However, it is the team events that ignite the flame; the individual events commencing on the fourth day of competition.

Notably the United States is very the nation to beat. The stars and stripes occupies the top seeded spot in the under 19 boys’ team event (Sid Naresh, Jayden Zhou, Aziz Zarehbin, Jiang Kai); a situation that also applies in the under 19 girls’ team (Joanna Sung, Rachel Sung, Amy Wang, Angie Tan) and under 15 girls’ team event (Sarah Jalli, Sally Moyland, Faith Hu, Emily Tan).

Brazil (Leonardo Izuka Kenzo, Felipe Doti Arado, Abimael Menzes Arauja, Kim Takayasu Iwasaki) leads the under 15 boys’ team order.

Play in the team events is based on the World Championships format.