(by Steve Hopkins)
With the top two rated players (and 3 of the top 6 rated players) on the same team, Team Aria TT was a strong favorite entering the 2023 Butterfly Puerto Rico Open Teams. Kou Lei, Eugene Wang, and Angel Naranjo closed out the tournament with a solid performance in the Finals, but it was not without drama.
Second seeded Danny’s Team featured Daniel Gonzalez, Romain Lorentz, and Derek Valentin (and Juan Jesus Gomez Carbajal and Gabriel Perez) provided the challenge in the Finals. Daniel Gonzalez and Eugene Wang played the first match – and the games were close. Gonzalez took the first game 11-9, Wang reversed the script to win the second by the same score. Gonzalez again won the third – coming from behind to tie the score at 10 and then winning two straight for the 12-10 win. But his momentum stalled in game 4 as Wang jumped out to an early lead and held on for an 11-6 win to tie the game score. And more of the same in the final game, as Wang won the first three points and then held that lead for an 11-7 win. That was the only loss for Gonzales in the tournament.
The next match was between Kou Lei and Romain Lorentz. By rating, this should have been a pretty easy win for Kou Lei – but Lorentz paid little attention to the 200 rating point deficit as he hit blistering forehands (countered smashes with smashes), and was unpredictable enough to keep Kou Lei on his heels. Each of the first two games were close across the middle – but at the end of both games, Lorentz jumped ahead to claim a dominant 2-0 lead. Those scores were 11-9 and 13-11. The momentum turned strongly in the third game as Kou Lei started with a different level of determination Lei played more careful and stood closer to the table. It did not appear that he changed how he was playing as much as he was more precise and more intense. Lei dominated the third game 11-4, and started strong again in the fourth game. Lorentz made one more run and tied the score at 8-8…
In the Lorentz run – he was down 7-3 but managed to win three of four points. Then a long lob rally ended with Lorentz outlasting Kou Lei’s smashes. After a Kou Lei ball tipped the net and fell off to the side, Lorentz had a great recovery that kept the point alive – and the score was tied 8-8. But the rally ended there. Kou Lei hit a slow spinning backhand loop that was a change that caught Lorentz off guard. The next point ended with a mid-rally drop shot by Koi Lei that Lorentz miss-hit. And after a poorly struck attack fell into the net, Lorentz’s run ended. Not only did the run end there – but Lorentz never really got back into the match as Kou Lei dominated the final game 11-2. A 3-2 win for Kou Lei – and a 2-0 lead for Team Aria in the first-to-three Final.
The third (and what turned out to be the “final”) match was between Angel Naranjo and Derek Valentin. Unlike the other two matches, the favored player was strong from the start – with hometown favorite Naranjo starting strong with an 11-4 win in the first game. The second game was tight – with Valentin tying the score 9-9 before Naranjo scored two straight. The third game started with another strong run by Naranjo and he sailed to an 11-6 win. 3-0 to Naranjo and a 3-0 win for Team Aria.
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Video of the Finals (at Departamento de Recreacion y Deportes DRD)
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