T&T's Aaron Wilson, two-time reigning Caribbean Junior champion reached as far as the quarterfinal round of the Junior Boys and Cadet Boys singles competition at the International Table Tennis Federation Circuit Junior & Cadet Open in San Salvador, El Salvador on Sunday.
With a semifinal spot and bronze medal at stake for the least, the third seeded Wilson was beaten by Puerto Rican Francisco Mattias 11-6, 6-11, 10-12, 10-12, 8-11.
Brazilian Siddharta Almeida, who combined with Wilson for the boys team added the singles crown when he beat eighth ranked Puerto Rican Sebastian Echavarria, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 12-10, 11-7. At the quarter-final stage Almeida accounted for Gabriel Perez 11-4, 11-4, 11-6, 11-6, before overcoming Francisco Matias, the sixth seed 9-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-9.
Echavarria recorded a quarter-final win over Panama's Jacobo Vahnish, the surprise first round winner over Sweden's Oskar Danielsson, the no.4 seed (15-13, 17-15, 11-8, 12-10).
One round later, Echavarria had raised the eyebrows even more by overcoming colleague Yomar Gonzalez, the top seed (11-5, 13-11, 11-6, 11-6).
On Saturday, Wilson made light work of his Group Three opponents to end with a 3-0 record at the Alameda Juan Pablo II Centro de Gobierno, San Salvador, Palacio de los Deportes.
Wilson, a member of Carenage Blasters defeated El Salvador's Oliver Mendoza 11-7, 11-8, 8-11, 11-6; Guatemala's Roerto Diaz 12-10, 11-5, 11-6, and Sweden's Teodor Siljeholm 11-6, 11-7, 11-7.
However, the trio of Jesse Dookie (1-2), Matthew Mootra (0-3) and Luc O'Young (0-3), the latter two who combined for a quarterfinal showing in the Team event did not get out of their respective groups.
In the T&T Cadet Boys competition Dookie and Fin Boss qualified to the main draw as well but were beaten at the round-of-16 stage while Nikoli Barbour-Alexis missed out due to points-ratio after he ended in a three-way tie in his pool.
Dookie loss to Panama's Emilio Wong 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-13, 8-11 and beat home town player Walter Acuna 11-5, 11-0, 11-6 in Group Two while Boss went under to Puerto Rico's Gabriel Perez 2-11, 12-10, 4-11, 11-8, 6-11 but then got the better of host smasher Rodrigo Sanchez 11-6, 11-5, 12-10 and Sweden's Jens Holmqvist 11-8, 11-4, 8-11, 13-11.
Barbour-Alexis tasted defeat at the hands of El Salvador's Celvin Perez 11-8, 10-12, 6-11, 9-11 but rebounded with wins over Guatemalan Luis Ton 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 9-11, 11-3 and Costa Rican Juan Trejos 12-10, 11-13, 5-11, 15-13, 11-4 in Group Seven.
However at the end of the series, the trio of Barbour-Alexis, Perez and Ton all had 2-1 records, but based of their better sets won ratio, Ton (8-5) and Perez (7-6) secured the top two spots ahead of the T&T player who had a 70-7 record.
Jacob Vahnish made up for his quarter-final exit in the Junior Boys' Singles by winning the Cadet Boys', when he beat Costa Rica's Jos� Perez 13-11, 11-6, 11-2 to claim the title.
At the semi-final stage, Vahnish ousted Ecuador's Bryan Escobar 11-2, 12-10, 11-5 while Perez defeated Paraguay's Elias Apud 5-11, 11-8, 11-8, 12-10.