WTT Contender Buenos Aires 2025...

[AJ Scott]

This event started 2 days ago and will go on through Sunday:
https://www.worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Matches&innerselectedTab=Scheduled&eventId=3121
[tomorrow's schedule].  When looking at the schedule, please remember
that Argentina is one hour ahead of us.  They are playing on 3 tables
and all 3 are being livestreamed at the WTT YouTube channel.

Player List:
https://www.worldtabletennis.com/eventInfo?selectedTab=Player%20List&eventId=3175&innerselectedTab=Scheduled.
The top 5 men's seeds are Hugo Calderano, Oh Junsung, Shinozuka Hiroto,
Hwan Bae and Uda Yukiya.  On the women's side, the top 5 seeds are
Harimoto Miwa, Ohdo Satsuki, Cheng I-ching, Bruna Takahashi and Nagasaki
Miyu.

Penholders...  The only one I recognize is a German-Brazilian woman by
the name of Victoria Strassburg.

Pips-out/anti-spin players...  On the men's side, the only name I
recognize is a Brazilian chopper, Hamilton Yamane ("ah-MEEL-tone
ya-MA-nee").  Of course, on the women's side, it's many more--Satoh
Hitomi (chopper), Manika Batra (long pips/bh), Giulia Takahashi (short
pips/bh), YD Ghorpade (long pips/bh), Ayhika Mukherjee (anti-spin/bh,
short pips/fh), Zeng Zhiying (chopper), and Clio Barcenas of Mexico
(long pips/bh?).  Ayhika Mukherjee, ranked 94th in the world, took out
yet another top-20 player earlier today--the 4th seed, Bruna Takahashi,
the Brazilian no. 1.  Takahashi's still alive in the mixed doubles and
is playing with her boyfriend and nat'l teammate, Hugo Calderano, the
world's no. 3.  They play their next match tomorrow (Friday) morning at
9 am on table 2 vs. another Brazilian pair, Felipe Doti and Bruna's
younger sister, Giulia.  That should be an easy win for Hugo/Bruna. 
Ayhika Mukherjee also plays a mixed doubles match at 9 am tomorrow on
table 1 alongside a guy I call the "boy-wonder of India", Ankur
Bhattacharjee.  Anyhow, Mukherjee and Diya Chitale are the last Indian
women standing in the singles draw.  Mukherjee has what appears to be an
easy singles match tomorrow vs. a lowly Brazilian, but Chitale has to
face the top seed, Harimoto Miwa.

As for the top men's seed, Hugo Calderano, I don't see any threat to him
this week.  He should go straight to the final and win it--he just needs
to stay calm and focused.  Next week, the Tour moves north to Foz do
Iguasu, Brazil for another WTT Contender event.  And then in August,
there are 2 big events--WTT Champions Yokohama and the Europe Smash
Sweden.  Hugo Calderano has signed up for the Smash...