Article and photo courtesy of www.ittf.com and Cristain Larrain
By Marius Widmer, ITTF Media Coordniator
Lily Zhang and Ariel Hsing won the Girls Doubles in Chile. The young North Americans dominated a one-sided match from the beginning against the Brazilians Fukushima/Kumahara.
The Boys final also ended three-nil. Alvaro Robles and Marcelo Aguirre overcame the Eastern European pair of Merzlikin/Novota.
Both, the Girls and the Boys winner had the most difficult moments in their respective semi-final.
Keeping the Focus
Thirteen year old Lily Zhang said after the one-sided final. We had to work hard for the success and keep the focus because all the players here are strong. Asked about their strengths, she did not hesitate. We work well together and we communicate.
The most difficult moment for Zhang/Hsing was in the semi-final when they were 1-2 down in games against the Argentineans Ana Codina/Augustina Iwasa.
The top seeded Americans also prevailed because their hardest opponents, the second seeded Asian pair Lam/Li, suffered an early exit in the quarter-finals against Low/Meneses of the Chile.
No Luck for Chiles Boys
The Boys final ended with 3-0 in favour of the top seeded pair as well. Marcelo Aguirre of Paraguay won the title with his Spanish partner Alvaro Robles against the Slovak-Russian pair Samuel Novota/Taras Merzlikin.
In the semi-finals the winners-elect ousted the locals Felipe Olivares and Matias Contreras in four games. In the Team event, the same doubles match ended in favour of the Chileans, who however lost the whole Team match yesterday as well as the Doubles match today. In the end it was again Chilean sadness and Spanish-Paraguayan happiness.
