(by Steve Hopkins)
The American Bank Center in Corpus Christi has been busy over the last two weeks as the host of the US Team Trials, the Pan Am Games, and a WTT Feeder Series Event. Americans (as well as players from Mexico and Canada and other places in this hemisphere that don’t have opportunities to play in many WTT events in Europe and Asia) competed for the $22,500 in event prize money.
In Men’s Singles, three Americans reached the Round of 16: Jinbao Ma, Nikhil Kumar, and Xinging Zhang. Xianging fell 0-3 to eventual winner Kiril Gerassimenko, and Nikhil fell to Harmeet Desai of India 1-3. Jinbao Ma won one additional match before falling in the Quarters – Jinbao finished with wins over Daniel Gonzalez and Lubomir Pistej before falling to Finalist Joao Monteiro 2-3. The Final pitted Joao Monteiro and Kiril Gerassimenko – and Kirill won the title 3-2.
In Women’s Singles, three Americans reached the Quarterfinals. Amy Wang fell to surprise winner Sreeja Akula in the Quarters. In the next Round, USA’s Jiangshan Guo also fell to Akula. And the last-standing American, Lily Zhang, fell victim to Akula in the Final. Leaving the great run of the Indian player aside, Amy Wang had a solid win over Canada’s Ivy Liao in their Round of 16 match-up, Jiangshan Guo logged two big upset wins over Margaryta Pesotka and Giulia Takahashi on her way to the Semifinals, and Lily had four wins including topping Germany’s Yuan Wan and Canada’s Mo Zhang on her way to the Final.
Two American teams reached the Semifinals of Men’s Doubles. Jishan Liang and Jinbao Ma lost to Germany’s Cedric Meissner and Ricardo Walther, and Sid Naresh and Kai Zhang lost to Gustavo Gomez and Nicolas Burgos. Gomez and Burgos won the Final.
The American team won the Women’s Doubles – with Zhen Deng and Jiaqi Lin taking down Mexico 3-2. Deng and Lin upset the highly seeded American Team of Amy Wang and Lily Zhang in the Quarters before rolling their way through the draw. An Italian team of Niagol Stoyanov and Giorgia Piccolin were the surprise winners of Mixed Doubles. They took down the top seeded German squad of Meissner and Wan in the Semifinals and then defeated TeamUSA’s Nikhil Kumar and Amy Wang in the Final.
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