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Important lesson for Team Canada
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Vancouver, September 2, 2013 – The week ended with the Junior Boys
Finals between the top two junior boys from Taipei. Canada’s #1 Hongtao
Chen had an impressive run to the semi-finals beating Taipei’s #3
Chia-Hung Sun in the quarters. However, in the semis it was game-over
for Hongtao against Taipei’s Tai-Wei Wang.
Earlier in the week,
Chen had an impressive showing at the North
American Championships Junior and Senior Singles. He dominated the
Junior Singles and had to concede only to North America’s and Canada’s
#1 Zhen Wang in the Men’s Singles. Zhen Wang won the North American
Men’s titles after a spectacular display of technique and athletics in
the finals.
The Canadian Women’s Team recorded a sensational 3-0
win over Team USA. Women’s team National Team coach took a gamble with
the order of play, pitting Canada’s #1 Mo Zhang against the higher
ranked US #1 in the first match. Zhang promptly rewarded the coach’s
confidence in her and defeated the American by a score of 3-2. Leading
1-0, Canada sent 17 year old Anqi Luo into the court against a higher
ranked Erica Wu (US). Luo showed fine form and extended the
Canadian lead to 2-0. In the third match of the fixture Anqi Luo and
Michelle Liaw faced Ariel Hsing and Prachi Jha – the Canadian doubles
completed another upset and to the delight of the crowd complete the
3-0 upset and claimed the continental title.
The Junior Girls
team faced off against Team USA and had to concede superiority to them
(0-3). The Junior Boys Team failed to qualify for the World
Junior Championships losing 3-0 to Team USA.
Without Canada’s
top three men (Wang and Chen face eligibility issues and Andre
Ho complained of back pain) the Canadian Men’s Team went into the match
with their second guard and were no match for the Americans. As in the
women’s match, the encounter ended 3-0, this time for the Americans.
Full results for the ITTF North American Championships are at www.ittfnorthamerica.com
At
the Canadian Junior Open, the Junior Boys team faced a tough challenge
from Team USA, with an upset win by 13-year old Kanak Jha over Hongtao
Chen. Under the calm direction of one of Canada’s young coaches working
at this event, Maxime Surprenant, James Pintea turned in a strong
performance and won two points for the Canadian team. In the
quarter-finals, however, Team Taipei proved too strong and Canada had to
surrender its medal hopes.
The Cadet team competition produced
some additional success for the Canadian teams. Canada’s top girls team –
Jiabao Liu and Cherry Zheng – won bronze as did the boys team (Jeremy
Hazin and Moxi Guo): the Canadians lost a tough match to Singapore
B with Jeremy Hazin losing the final match 2-3 (9-11 in the fifth); the
final score was 3-2 for Singapore B.
Anqi Luo drew a bad lot in
the Junior Girls event. After winning her round-robin
matches convincingly, she faced Japan’s defensive artist Seira Ushijima,
the eventual winner of the tournament, and had to concede the match
with little opposition.
Canada’s cadet girl champion Jiabao Liu
(ON) faced off against the US’s defender Angela Guan in the
quarter-finals. Jiabao started well and started off to a 2-0 lead (11-7,
11-3). Then, instead of continuing her strategy and waiting for
her opportunity to score, the young Canadian saw a possible upset win
and wanted to finish the match quickly. This played into the game of
Guan who, started to score more and more by changing her defensive spin.
Guan would go on and win the match 3-2 securing a podium finish.
On
the boys’ side the only Canadians in the quarters were Xuebo Li (ON)
and the much improved Michale Luo (BC). Xuebo advance to the semis with a
win over Arash Shah (US) while Michael Luo lost in a close match
against Kunal Chodri (1-3), who later defeat Xuebo Li (3-0) for a place
in the finals.
In the Junior Boys, the lone Canadian in the
quarter finals was Hongtao Chen (ON). He faced a difficult task against
Taipei’s Chia Hung Sun, survived a few tense moments and emerged a
winner by a score of 4-1. In the semis the Canadian played too
passively opening the door to the finals for the aggressive Taiwanese.
The finals
became an exclusive Taiwanese affair with Heng Wei Yang prevailing 4-2
in an exciting match filled with speed and spin rallies.
From
a Canadian perspective, the lengthy preparation in China (prior to
the competition) certainly paid off. While major improvements take time,
the players returning from the camp in China certainly showed some
impressive improvements.
Since this is one of the few
international competitions to which young Canadians have access, it is
an important opportunity for coaches and players to compete and learn in
a high-level international competition.
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