T&T Juniors Boys team failed to advance to the main draw quarterfinals of the Latin American Table Tennis Union Championships after losing to Peru, 1-3 in their must-win final Pool B match in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday.Both teams entered the match with 1-1 records after winning their matches against 11th tanked Paraguay and losing to second ranked Brazil which faced winless Paraguay in its final match.
Peru was first to strike as Juan Liyau, who has a World Junior Championship ranking of 110 defeated T&T's Arun Roopnarine 11-6, 13-11, 9-11, 11-7 to put the South Americans 1-0 ahead, but top ranked T&T junior players and recent winner of the Caribbean Junior Championship title, Aaron Wilson got his team level by beating Moises Duffoo 7-11, 11-7, 11-5, 12-10,
But Wilson's win turned out to be the lone bright spot for T&T as Mauricio Mayta then regained the lead for Peru at 2-1 by whipping Luc O'Young before Liyau got the better of Wilson 12-10, 11-9, 11-9.
On Wednesday, Wilson and Roopnarine, who are both members of the national senior team which will compete at next month's Caribbean Table-Tennis Federation Championships in Martinique, showed their class when the eighth ranked T&T boys came up against second seeded Brazil in their opening round match, and were humbled 3-0, losing their matches in five tough sets.
First, Roopnarine suffered a loss to Victor Santos 7-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-5, 5-11 and Wilson went under to Gustavo Yokota 6-11,7-11,11-9,12-10,7-11 while Luc O'Young was humbled by Rodrigo Yonesake 6-11, 6-11, 2-11.However, in their second outing with 11th rated Paraguay and facing elimination, the T&T players put in a good showing and came away with a 3-0 victory.
Roopnarine led things off beating Diego Duarte 11-6,7-11,11-5,11-5 followed by Wilson who brushed aside Mathias Ferreira 11-8,11-2,11-7, and Luc O'Young, a come-from-behind win over Ezequiel Apud 12-14, 11-5,13-11, 11-8.Yesterday in the final, top ranked Argentina came up against Brazil after recording similar 3-1 wins against Ecuador and Puerto Rico respectively.
In the quarterfinal, Ecuador overcame Peru 3-0 and Puerto Rico battled past Mexico 3-2.Today, Wilson and Roopnarine, will both be in singles and doubles action.
First up, Wilson will compete in Group 11 alongside Adrian Cabrera (Mexico), Ezequiel Apud (Paraguay) and Jose De Leon (Panama) in his round-robin while Roopnarine tackles Ricardo Villa (Mexico), Julian Rubio (Puerto Rico) and John Espinoza (Ecuador) in Group Three from which the top two players will advance out of each group to the main draw knockout.
The T&T boys will then team up in the Junior Boys Doubles to face Argentinians Fermin Tenti,winner of World Junio Championship title in Puerto Rico earlier this week, and Horacio Cifuentes, ranked 11th in the world, in their round-of-16 match-up.