Cuba’s men’s and mixed pairs anchored today in the quarterfinals of the WTT Feeder Table Tennis Beirut 2024, in Lebanon, where Andy Pereira was included in the round of 16 of the singles.
With no time to regain strength after his arrival at the venue, the runner-up of the XIX Pan American Games of Santiago 2023 signed a successful debut, winning in four sets against Serbian Dimitrije Levajac.
The Havana native came out ahead with scores of 11-6 and 13-11, gave up 7-11 in the next set and finished off the task with 11-7 to secure his place among the podium contenders, a privilege he will seek to extend with a victory over Brazilian Eric Jouti in his next outing.
Jorge Moises Campos was less “fine”, victim of a sweep (7-11, 1-11, 8-11) in his encounter with India’s Manar Vikash Thakkar.
Neither did Daniela Fonseca, winner in three sets (11-5, 11-2, 11-8) of the host Bissan Chirri, before capitulating in her match with India’s Ayhika Mukherjee, who had to go to the limit to come out on top with slates of (12-10, 11-4, 8-11, 5-11 and 11-8).
In the men’s doubles Andy and Moses won 3-2 sets (11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 10-12 and 11-9) against Azerbaijan’s Sanzhar Zhubanov-Aidos Kenzhigulov and in their next match they will start as favorites to beat locals Mohamed Nour Habach and Saad Eddine Habach.
Shorter, but no less intense, was the route of the mixed double formed by Moises and Daniela towards their victory over Vladislav Zakharov and Aray Ashkeyeva, from Kazakhstan. The duo from the Island, qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, certified favorable scores of 11-9, 11-5 and 11-9 that opened the doors to the next clash with the Indians Manush Utpalbahai Shah and Diya Chitale.
The Cuban players aim to score as many points as possible for the world ranking in the Lebanese capital. Andy is fighting to stay in the Olympic qualification zone for the individual competition, although he would also have the option of securing a ticket to the tournament to be held in the Peruvian city of Lima in May.
An improvement in the cumulative would allow Daniela and Moises to place themselves in a more advantageous position for the draw for Paris 2024.
