(by Steve Hopkins, photo USATT)
TeamUSA secured three Golds and a Bronze in Singles competition over the weekend at the ParapanAm in Santiago. Doubles pairings added another three Bronze medals on Monday morning.
TeamUSA logged some great results in weekend action in the Singles Events. Tahl Leibovitz swept his Semifinal match with a 3-0 win over Argentina’s Eithan Skliarskiy and then rolled through the Class 9 Final with another 3-0 win over Brazil’s Lucas Dos Santos. Ian Seidenfeld was pushed to five games in his Final against Ignacio Torres of Chile. Seidenfeld won the first game, but then lost two straight to fall behind. Ultimately, he fought through the final two games with 11-9 and 13-11 wins for the 3-2 Class 6 Singles victory. The third Gold Medal went to Jenson Van Emburgh in Class 3 Singles where he won the Final with a 3-1 score over Brazil’s Fabio Souza. Logan Watson also secured a Bronze medal for TeamUSA with a third place finish in Class 9.
In Doubles, Logan and Tahl teamed up to win their Quarterfinal match on Sunday in MD 18 Doubles and they fell to a Brazillian team in the Semifinals. Ian Seidenfeld and Marco Makkar fell 3-2 to a Brazillian team in their MD14 Doubles Semifinal. Jenson Van Emberg and Pamela Fontaine lost in their Semifinal match (also to a Brazillian team) in Mixed Doubles SC4-7. Each of those three doubles teams secured a Bronze Medal for their efforts.
In total, that’s seven medals for TeamUSA – and each of the Singles Golds secured a spot at the Paralympic Games next year. Congratulations to Tahl Leibovitz, Ian Seidenfeld and Jenson Van Emburgh – we look forward to cheering you on next year in Paris.
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