(by Steve Hopkins)

The knockout rounds of the 2025 Pan American Cup started on Friday.  Jishan Liang won his opening match 4-2 over Guilherme Teodoro of Brazil, and Nandan Naresh topped Shema Britton 4-1.  Each will play in the Round of 16 on Saturday.

About half of the Round of 16 matches were scheduled for Friday evening, and that included Kanak Jha who fought back from a 1-3 deficit to defeat Leonardo Iizuka of Brazil 4-3.  Jha will face the winner of Rogelio Castro and Santiago Lorenzo in the Quarterfinals on Saturday.

Canada’s Eugene Wang defeated Mexico’s Marcos Madrid in their Round of 16 match this evening.  Wang will face the winner of Alberto Mino and USA’s Jishan Liang when they faceoff on Saturday morning.  The other American to play tomorrow morning in Men’s Singles is Nandan Naresh who will face the tournament second seed Vitor Ishiy at 10a Pacific Time.  One other match of interest to American fans is coming up late this evening – that match will be between Brian Afanador of Puerto Rico (who ousted Sid Naresh in their opening round match up this morning) and Canada’s Edward Ly (who was the surprise winner of this event a year ago).

Both American women in action won this evening.  Lily Zhang had a 4-0 win over Angelica Arellano, and will face Giulia Takahashi of Brazil in the next round.  And Amy Wang outlasted Chile’s defender Zhiying Zeng 4-2.  The other American through to this round is Jessica Reyes Lai who will face Canada’s Mo Zhang on Saturday morning.  Top seeded Bruna Takahashi will play for the first time Saturday afternoon when she faces Canada’s Ivy Liao.

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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