Asuncion, Paraguay, June 9, 2014: The Brazilian duo of Cazuo MATSUMOTO and Caroline KUMAHARA have clinched the ITTF-Latin American Cup titles in Asuncion, Paraguay and in doing so have qualified for the Men’s and Women’s ITTF World Cups.
The Men’s and Women’s ITTF World Cups are two of the most prestigious table tennis events on the ITTF calendar, which only 20 of the best table tennis players in the world could qualify for. The 2014 editions will take place in:
• Women’s World Cup, 17 – 19 Oct 2014, Place TBD
• LIEBHERR Men’s World Cup, 24 – 26 Oct 2014, Dusseldorf, Germany
Recovering from an injury, Cazuo MATSUMOTO played a tactically perfect match in the men’s final against Mexico’s Marcos MADRID, eventually overcoming his opponent 15-13, 7-11, 12-14, 7-11, 9-11.
After his victory, the Brazilian stated “Marcos has been playing very well at this event, so that motivated to me to make more effort to beat him and win the title.”
“I’m so happy with the qualification to the World Cup. I played only five years ago in 2009, a long time, and in that moment was very difficult to make a good performance. Now it is different. I think the Brazilian players have showed they can beat all the players of the world.”
In the Women’s finals, top seed Caroline KUMAHARA accounted for Brazilian compatriot Silva LIGIA in six games (8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6, 13-11), winning the title for the first time in her career.
The Sao Paulo native stated after her victory: “It was a big effort to reach at the final, and recently with LIGIA was also a very difficult match. She has a lot of experience. I´m very happy for the title, I want to give the thanks to my family, my Coach Hugo HOYAMA, and all my supporters and people on Brazil. I´m where I am because of them”.
Excited about her entry into the Women’s World Cup, the 18-year-old added that “The World Cup is a very strong tournament with many high level players, so it is going to be a very difficult tournament. My aim is to play my best and do better than I did in 2012.
I think this year will be better as I now have more experience.”
The Latin American representatives Cazuo MATSUMOTO and Caroline KUMAHARA will join the respective Continental Cups winners to compete in the Men’s and Women’s World Cups:
• DHS 2014 Europe Cup: LI Jiao (NED), LIU Jia (AUT), Viktoria PAVLOVICH (BLR), Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (GER), Marcos FREITAS (POR), Michael MAZE (DEN)
• GAC 2014 Honda Asian Cup: DING Ning (CHN), LI Xiaoxia (CHN), YU Mengyu (SIN), MA Long (CHN), FAN Zhendong (CHN), Jun MIZUTANI (JPN)
• K-Sport 2014 ITTF-Oceania Cup: William HENZELL (AUS), LAY Jianfang (AUS)
The rest of the 20 positions available at the Men’s and Women’s World Cup will be made up by representatives from the ITTF-North America Cup (25-26 June in Vancouver, Canada), ITTF-African Cup (27-28 June in Laos, Nigeria), and the current World Champions. —- ITTF
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