Brazil, Canada, and Puerto Rico Lead the Field at Pan American Cup Corpus Christi
by Joshua Dyke
The 2024 ITTF Pan Am Cup is underway, and Brazil, Canada, and Puerto Rico excelled in the round of 16 on day one in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The round of 16 is complete, and leading the field into the quarterfinals are Brazil, Canada, and Puerto Rico at the 2024 ITTF Pan Am Cup.
The women for Brazil had a phenomenal start in the round of 16. TAKAHASHI Giulia was able to breeze past her first Pan Am Cup match with a 4-0 win against ONSECA CARRAZANA Daniela of Cuba. TAKAHASHI will move on to face Amy Wang USA.
Dialed in from the start, TAKAHASHI Bruna moved past the first round in four games to win against the Dominican Republic’s rising talent, MUNOZ Shary. In the quarterfinals, Bruna will play CODINA Ana, Argentina, to get to the Pan Am Cup semifinals.
Brazil's JOUTI Eric knocked out the #1 seed in Argentinian CIFUENTES Horacio. The two players traded the first four games until the JOUTI and each game remained close until finishing in the sixth, 4-2 (7-11, 11-6, 12-14, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8). It was an absolute battle, and we hope to see more fireworks when JOUTI faces BURGOS Nicolas PUR in the next round.
DIAZ Adrianna made it into the quarterfinals for Puerto Rico after getting past a skilled Chilean, ZENG Zhiying, in five games. Having played several choppers in the past few months, DIAZ came well-prepared for her matchup with ZENG.
Looking ahead, DIAZ shared some insight about her upcoming match with ZHANG Mo, the women's fifth seed from Canada.
“With Mo, it's always a very hard match. We've known each other for a long time now and we know how each other plays. She's quiet, but she's a real fighter, and I know that. So, I'm going to give my best to prepare for every point, and I hope I can get the win.” DIAZ Adrianna
The men’s singles tenth seed GONZALEZ Daniel PUR fended off a tenacious assault from the two seed in LORENZO Santiago ARG to win in six games.
Canada's LY Edward pulled off a stunning upset against men’s #2, PEREIRA Andy of Cuba, with a four-game sweep. LY is moving on to face ISHIY Vitor BRA in the quarters on Day 2.
Nicolas Burgos CHI caught his rhythm to flip the script in the battle of the heavy hitters against LIANG Jishan USA. The 4-2 victory for BURGOS was a brilliant display of the most powerful rallies in the tournament thus far. The next match for him is with JOUTI Eric of Brazil.
“He was playing amazing the first two sets; I couldn’t believe how he was playing the ball, but then I just started taking risks on my receives, and on my attacks, and I was able to change the situation.” BURGOS Nicolas
Men’s singles were filled with high-seed upsets, and the trend continued with #9 seed GOMEZ Gustavo CHI scoring the massive upset against #3 overall, MADRID Marcos MEX. GOMEZ’s key to victory was varying his shot placement, and attacking the corners paid off tremendously in the four-game rout.
WANG Amy and ZHANG Lily for the USA mirrored the Chileans on the women’s side. Both players have made it into the quarterfinals for the host country. WANG has an exciting matchup with TAKAHASHI Giulia. ZHANG finds herself opposite the table of Ivy Liao of Canada for a North American match.