Mexico and Brazil’s Men's Team reach the Finals of the ITTF Latin American Cup
Mexico and Brazil made it to the finals of the Men's team event of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Latin American Cup, as the semi-finals were contested on the evening of May 24 at the Mexican city of Guadalajara.
Mexican Men's team featured Jude Okoh, Madrid Marcos and Uribe Salvador. They defeated the trio of Andy Pereira, Pavel Oxamendy and Jorge Campos in the semi-final with a close match score of three-two.
Earlier in the quarter-final, Cuba’s team defeated the trio from Argentina with a match score of three-nil. In the opening round, the Cuban squad defeated the team from El Salvador in straight three matches and marked a victory of three-nil.
The key player from the Mexican team, Madrid Marcos said, “I’ve practiced against Pavel Oxamendy and Jorge Campos but only played matches in practice, Here in Guadalajara we are very high, so playing is not easy, the ball arrives very quickly, so control
is difficult.”
He further said, “It´s quite difficult to establish a rhythm and serving short is not easy. And Pereira was able to serve short, one of the few players who was able to keep the service tight; if you play with heavy topspin you can force errors, blocking
the ball is difficult.”
The second team to reach the finals of the Men's team event was Brazil. The first ITTF-Latin pro Tour of the year was held in Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian team had Hugo Hoyama, Cazuo Matsumoto and Eric Mancini on the team. They defeated the
team from Venezuela in the semi-final. Henry Mujica, Jonathan Pino and Marco Navas were the players on the Venezuela squad. Brazil took down Venezuela with match scores three-one.
In the quarter-final stage the Brazilian trio won straight matches against the Dominican Republic team of Lin Ju, Santos Emil and Vila Batista Juan.
The Mexicans will be looking forward to win the title as it will improve the level of sport in the country. The Latin American players are not as accomplished as other players around the world but with such tournaments they are heading towards the international
circuit. The finals of the championship will be played on Wednesday, May 25 and the Mexicans are the hot favourites in the finals of the event.
Cuba will be going home with a bronze medal, but it would be enough for them as they appeared in the championship for the first time.
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