Notícia

BRAZIL WINS THE TEAM'S EVENT IN CHILE

Por CBTM

Brazil's Eric Mancini and Humberto Manhani won the Boys' Team event at the Venezuelan Junior Open on Friday 2nd March 2007; one week later at the Chile Junior Open, they repeated that success and for the second consecutive week stood on the top step of the medal podium.

In the final in Valencia they beat Spain by three matches to nil; in Viña del Mar on Friday 9th March 2007 they overcame Canada in the semis and Chile in the final. They won both contests by the three games to one.

Unbeaten
Mainstay of the Brazilian success was Eric Manicini, he remained unbeaten in singles matches throughout the whole event.

At the semi-final stage against Canada he beat Jiang Yang in four games and Shen Qiang in a gruelling five games encounter. Meanwhile, in the final when facing Chile, he accounted for Matias Contreras and Felipe Olivares, both in straight games.

One Defeat
Meanwhile, for Humberto Manhani there was just one singles defeat.

He lost to Shen Qiang in the contest against Canada before teaming with Eric Mancini to win the doubles. However, the reverse was soon extinguished from his thoughts.

Against Chile he was in top gear. He beat Felipe Olivares in three straight games. The one Chilean victory in the final came in the doubles with Matias Contreras and Felipe Olivares combining to beat the two Brazilians.

Fine Performance
Defeat for Chile but the two boys can hold their heads high; both are only fourteen years old and in a competition where the age limit is eighteen, the silver medal is a very creditable performance.

In the semi-finals they beat the Brazilians Lucas Tatani and Jose Barbosa with Matias Contreras the hero of the hour. In a contest where four of the five matches went the full five games distance, Matias Contreras was the Chilean hero; he beat both Lucas Tatani and Jose Barbosa 11-8 in the decisive game.

The one further win came from Felipe Olivares against Lucas Tatani in the one contest to be decided in straight games whilst for Brazil, Lucas Tatani and Jose Barbosa overcame Felipe Olivares and Sergio Salazar in the doubles and Jose Barbosa defeated Felipe Olivares.

Back-to-Back Titles
A spirited display by the Chileans and once again an outstanding display by the Brazilian duo of Eric Mancini and Humberto Manhani who were worthy champions and delighted with back-to-back titles.

"I fell I kept a very good level of concentration today", explained Eric Mancini. "My control was good in all my matches." The Brazilian teenager had excelled but was well aware that against Shen Qiang he had been tested. "He's very good playing short, he has very good control", said Eric Mancini. "It was really difficult to beat him, whenever the play was near the net he was very good."

Control Identified
Shen Qiang was the one player to inflict a singles defeat on Humberto Manhani and like Eric Mancini; he identified control as being the key to his downfall.

"It's hard to read what he's going to do next", said Eric Mancini. "I never knew whether he was going to play short or long, I just couldn't tell."

Doubles
The only other defeat for the champions came in the final when they lost the doubles contest, having at the semi-final stage succeeded in straight games against Shen Qiang and Jiang Yang.

"I think the fact that the two Canadians are both right handers helped us", explained Eric Mancini. "Playing against the left handed Felipe Olivares and the right handed Matias Contreras was much more difficult."

Against the Chileans the Brazilians were hoisted by their own petard. Humberto Manhani is left handed whilst Eric Mancini is right handed; now they know the problems they set others.

Form Maintained
A doubles reverse but wins were the order of the day more often than not and the Brazilians had maintained the form shown in Venezuela the previous week.

"Yes, I think we played well in Venezuela", concluded Eric Mancini. "Also, I think we played well here in Viña del Mar, I feel we've maintained a very good level."

Certainly, they have maintained a very creditable level and they could reflect with pride. They were the champions in both Venezuela and Chile.