(by Steve Hopkins)

The 2025 Pan American Cup began with Preliminary Rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday.  In Men’s Singles, three Americans fought through Preliminary Rounds to claims 3 of the 8 available slots in the Main Draw.  Jishan Liang topped Rohan Lewis of Jamaica 3-0, Sid Naresh defeated Diego Gallardo of Mexico 3-0, and Xiangjing Zhang defeated Shemar Britton of Guyana 3-0.  The other Preliminary Round winners were Guilherme Teodoro and Leonard Iizuka of Brazil, Ian Morales of Guatemala, and Marcelo Aguirre of Paraguay.

The Pan American Cup is the ITTF Continental Cup for the Americas.  It is being played at the 888 Table Tennis Center in Burlingame, a suburb of San Francisco.  The event features $20,000 in prize money, the players reaching the Main Draw will earn ITTF ranking points, and those that reach the Semifinals (in Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles) will be awarded entry into the ITTF Singles World Cup.

This year, on the Men’s side, USA’s Kanak Jha and Brazil’s Vitor Ishiy are the top seeds.  The rest of the top seeds include Edward Ly of Canada, Alberto Mino of Ecuador, and Horacio Cifuentes of Argentina.  On the Women’s side, Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi is the top seed followed by USA’s Lily Zhang, Canada’s Mo Zhang, and USA’s Amy Wang.

Who’s going to punch their ticket for the World Cup in Macao this April?  Tune in this week as we provide updates from San Francisco.  Main Round action starts on Thursday.

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