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Right after the succesful Ecuador International Open, the ITTF Training Camp was conducted at the High Performance Center in Guayaquil. The Training Camp is being staged prior to the Ecuador Junior Open which starts on Wednesday 8th September and concludes on Sunday 13th September 2009.

Over 80 players are benefitting from the two and a half days of coaching with 10 two hours sessions being held. Five sessions are allocated for boys and five for girls. Assisting Emanuel Christiansson of Sweden is El Salvador’s Carlos Esnard, the Latin American Table Tennis Union’s Technical Director.
“It’s better to have the training camp before the tournament”, said Emanuel Christiansson. “This is a big difference to last year when we played in Cuenca, then we had the training camp after the tournament; this year the players are motivated, last year I thought they were tired.”
“I like the venue, it is perfect for an ITTF Training Camp and ITTF Junior Circuit tournament; it’s a big improvement on when I visited last year”, said Emanuel Christiansson.

Following the ITTF Junior Circuit tournament and the ITTF Training Camp in Cuenca in 2008; Emanuel Christiansson and Venezuela’s Panch Seijas visited the High Performance Training Centre in Guayaquil, the venue for this year’s events. They found a venue that possessed an average standard of lighting, a concrete floor and reduced space owing to storage areas and toilets.

It was a totally different scenario a year later. A new shower and toilet unit has been installed attached to the side of the building, four bedrooms each accommodating four players are in place above administration offices which have been completely renovated. A wireless internet link is also available. For the players convenience, there is a shop which sells food and drink plus table tennis equipment.

Stag, the table tennis equipment manufacturer, is the major sponsor with a 6.5mm thick court mat, plus a complete array of Stag Showcourt and 1,000 DX table tennis tables in place; the wall is painted dark blue to height of five metres, above that is a deep yellow and lighting of over 1,000 lux has been installed. The floor looks striking red. The colour scheme matched Ecuadorian national colours too.

(Excerpts from ITTF News)

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At the Ecuador Junior Open in Guayaquil on Wednesday 9th September 2009, the Swedish cadet boys achieved success. Both of their teams finished in first place in their respective groups.

Under the guidance of Nils Sandberg the partnership of Mikael Lundh and Kevin Siu defeated Peru, Ecuador `A’ and Ecuador `D’; whilst Jonas Stener and Elias Ranefur were in equally splendid form. They overcame El Salvador, Ecuador `B’ and Ecuador `C’.

The home crowd has something to cheer when Rodrigo Tapia, the young man representing Ecuador who in October will be in action at the ITTF Cadet Challenge in Tokyo, beat both Swedes but two defeats for Carlos Guttierez and a doubles reverse cost the home side dearly between Sweden & Ecuador 'A'. A close call against Ecuador `A’ but when faced with the Ecuador `D’ partnership of Andres Carvajal and Shane Aulestia it was a different story. The Swedes recorded a three-nil win after having accounted for Peru by three matches to one; a contest in which Mikael Lundh beat both Johan Chavez and Juan Carlos Luperdi with Kevin Siu also accounting for the latter. The one match to go astray was the doubles where Aron Villavicencio partnered Johan Chavez to success.

The Peruvians secured second place in the group overcoming Ecuador `A’ by three matches to two.
The hero for Peru is Juan Carlos Luperdi. He beat both Ecuadorians with the one further Peruvian win being recorded by Johan Chavez in opposition to Carlos Guttierez. The victories for the host nation came from Rodrigo Tapia in opposition to Johan Chavez and in the doubles against Johan Chavez and Aron Villavicencio.

Meanwhile, in the other grouping, the partnership of Jonas Stener and Elias Ranefur recorded three-nil wins against Ecuador `B’ (Walter Veloz, Marlon Vite) and Ecuador `C’ (Ian Aulestia, Danny Garcia); whilst in opposition to El Salvador’s Julio Calderon and Luis Mejia it was a three-one success. The one duel to go astray for the Swedes was the doubles but wins for Jonas Stener over Julio Calderon and Luis Mejia plus success for Elias Ranefeur against Luis Mejia ensured victory for the Swedes.

El Salvador finished in second place beating both Ecuadorian teams

(Note : Excerpt from ITTF News)

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Report From The at the Ecuador Junior Open in Guayaquil,Thursday 10th September 2009
Boys Team Matches
The combination of Singapore’s Clarence Chew and Dominican Republic's Samuel Galvez won the Boys’ Team title at the Ecuador Junior Open in Guayaquil on Thursday 10th September 2009 and in so doing they recorded a repeat success against the Argentine partnership of Pablo Saragovi and Emir Baca.

In the group stage they had recorded a three matches to one victory over the Argentine duo, in the final they did exactly the same.

The hero of the day for the Singaporean team is Clarence Chew. He is the backbone of the final victory. He beat both Pablo Saragovi and Emir Baca whilst teaming with Samuel Galvez in what proved to be the deciding match.

The one success for Argentina came in the second contest of the fixture with Emir Baca defeating Samuel Galvez. At the semi-final stage, the Argentine duo had overcome Chile’s Matias Contreras and Manuel Moya whilst Samuel Galvez and Clarence Chew had defeated Sweden’s Mattias Ekdahl and Pontus Dyrefors.

Both fixtures had been resolved by the margin of three matches to one with Emir Baca the mainstay for Argentina and Clarence Chew the hero for the joint Singapore/Dominican Republic team. The one success for Chile came in the opening duel with Matias Contreras defeating Pablo Saragovi.

Meanwhile, in the contest between Sweden and the combined Dominican Republic/Singapore team, Clarence Chew defeated both Pontus Dyrefors and Mattias Ekdahl whilst partnering Samuel Galvez to doubles success. Mattias Ekdahl secured the one win for the Swedes; in the opening match of the duel he defeated Samuel Galvez

Girls Team MAtches
The sheer class of Singapore’s 15 year old Isabelle Li shone through in the Girls’ Team event ; as alongside Sweden’s Josefin Lund, the Girls’ Team crown was secured. Once again Asian technical excellence proved unbeatable.Throughout the event, the defensive skills of the Singaporean proved too secure for her adversaries, none could read the varying degrees of spin on the ball and really possessed the technical skills to penetrate the solid backspin skills of the Asian teenager.

At the semi-final stage the duo inflicted a three matches to nil victory over the Guatemalan pairing of Hellen Salazar and Eva Godoy before ending the hopes of Chile in the final.

In the final, she accounted for both Judith Morales and Karen Rojas in straight games with the one further win against the vanquished being in the doubles.

The one success for the South Americans came in the opening match of the duel when Koren Rojas defeated Josefin Lund in four games.

In the other semi-finals, Chile had defeated Ecuador's Tania Almendariz and Daniela Andrade by three matches to one.

Note : Excerpts From ITTF News.

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Cadet Open
It was a tension filled day in the Cadet team events. Honours were shared at the Ecuador Junior & Cadet Open in Guayaquil with Peru winning the Cadet Boys’ Team event and Sweden securing the counterpart female crown. Both were hard fought duels, both going the full five match distance.
Furthermore, in both fixtures the winners recovered from a two matches to nil deficit to secure victory.

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Ecuador Junir Open - Boys
On the evening of Saturday 11th September 2009 at the Ecuador Junior Open in Guayaquil, local boy Richard Mejia brought the house down in a tension packed seven games encounter. Finally, the 17-year old boy wonder beat Argentina’s Pablo Saragovi, the no.3 seed, to book his place in the semi-finals. The High Performance Center was rocked by cries of “Richard, Richard, Richard”; he responded and maintained his concentration to book his first ever semi-final place at an ITTF Junior Circuit event.

At the Ecuador Junior Open in 2008, Richard Mejia suffered in a close seven games duel against Thomas Le Breton of France; one year later he came good. He won 11-7, 6-11, 13-11, 11-7, 7-11, 4-11, 11-9 and the local supporters went wild; poor Pablo Saragovi walked slowly to his advisor, compatriot Emir Baca while maintaining his dignity.

“I served short and often used sidespin services in the first four games”, explained Richartd Mejia. “I went ahead three-one and started to think about winning.” Lucky for him, his coach advised him to take risks in the deciding seventh game and Richard won to enter the semi-final.
In the semi-finals Richard Mejia meets Singapore’s Clarence Chew whilst Emir Baca faces Chile’s Manuel Moya. At the penultimate stage Manuel Moya defeated Sweden’s Kevin Siu whilst Clarence Chew ousted Mattias Ekhdal, the no.2 seed; in any other situation, the defeat of the no.2 seed would have been headlines.

Semi-finals & Finals
Singapore ruled supreme at the Ecuador Junior Open in Guayaquil on Sunday 13th September 2009.

Clarence Chew won both the Junior Boys’ Singles and Cadet Boys’ Singles events. In the final of the Cadet Boys’ Singles event he trailed Argentina’s Pablo Saragovi 8-10 in the vital fifth game; he levelled at 10-all, then saved another match point before securing victory with 7-11, 11-5, 11-9, 7-11, 13-11. A tough Cadet Boys’ Singles win and a hard fought Junior Boys’ Singles success for Clarence. He beat Chile’s Manuel Moya in six games. Clarence Chew succeeded 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 6-11, 11-4, 11-8

(Note : Excerpt from ITTF News)

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Ecuador Junior Open - Girls
Isabelle Li of Singapore, once again showed her class, whilst Tania Almendariz(Ecuador) gladden the hearts of home supporters hearts; that was the scenario in the semi-final stage of the Girls’ Singles event at the Ecuador Junior Open in Guayaquil on the morning of Sunday 13th September 2009.

Seeded no.1, Isabelle Li overcame Peru’s spirited Kimberly Chavez in five games (11-8, 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 11-3) whilst playing with great discipline, using her undoubted skill at playing with consistent topspin play, as opposed to speed; Tania Almendariz overcame Sweden’s Maria Engelson by a similar margin (11-5, 7-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-3.).

In the final of the Girls’ Singles event, Isabelle Li’s exquisite defensive skills proved too great for Ecuador’s Tania Almendariz, whilst in the final of the Cadet Girls’ Singles competition it was the same story in opposition to Sweden’s Maria Engelson.
Isabelle Li beat Tania Almendariz 11-7, 11-2, 11-5, 11-5 whilst in opposition to Maria Engelson she succeeded 11-9, 12-10, 11-8.

Between matches at the Ecuador Junior Open, Isabelle Li had sat quietly in one of the bedrooms at the local National Olympic Committee’s Headquarters, reading the Bible. A successful first visit to Ecuador and her one request after the match was to go to church; Jeanine Cuadros, President of the Ecuador Table Tennis Federation duly obliged by summoning daughter Sofia to be the champion’s escort.

(Note : Excerpts from ITTF News)