September 9, 2010
Perfect End to the Day for Ecuador as Host Nation’s Girls Respond to Pressure
 Maria-Fernanda Barco in determined mood Photo By: Katherine Garcia |
Courtesy of ITTF Maria-Fernanda Barco beat Mariana Montoya-Garro to secure victory for Ecuador `B’ against Canada `B’ in the Girls’ Team event to end a most successful day for her team. |
The 17 year old left the court in tears, earlier in the day she had withdrawn from the doubles contest against Sweden owing to illness; however, she recovered, showed immense determination, greeted every success with a scream and steered her team home.
Tension
Shannon Zheng, noticeably strong from the backhand outmaneuvering both Joselyn Peralta and Maria-Fernanda Barco to record the two Canadian wins.
“I thought before the last match I had a chance but I thought it was about even”, said Maria-Fernanda Barco. “My forehand topspin won a lot of points for me in the match, that was my strong point, perhaps I was a little stronger mentally but having everyone cheering for me really helped, it helped immensely.”
The Ecuadorians finished the day unbeaten, earlier they had beaten Sweden.
Nail-Biting
Daniela Andrade beat Maria Aguirre by the very narrowest of margins in the fifth game of the deciding match, to secure victory for the host nation after Agustina Iwasa had proved to be the thorn in the side of the Ecuadorians, beating both Tania Almendariz and Daniela Andrade.
Americans in Form
Ariel Hsing, Erica Wu and Anne Deng; they remained unbeaten to top the group at the end of the opening day.
Top Four Boys’ Seeds Succeed
’Team event but in the Boys’ Team competition, matters went according to plan.
The top four seeded teams all remained unbeaten.
It was a successful day for Brazil (Gustavo Souza, Danilo Toma), Chile `A’ (Matias Contreras, Felipe Olivares), U.S.A. (Zhang Yahao, Michael Landers) and the combination of Argentina’s Emir Baca and Brazil’s Hugo Calderano.
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