The 2019 Pan American Games are in the books, and no one there will soon forget the drama seen over the last week. In the women's team semifinals, the top-seeded USA women's team of Wu Yue, Lily Zhang and Amy Wang lost a heartbreaker to Brazil, two matches to three. In the finals, it was Brazil's turn to have their hearts broken. Facing Puerto Rico, tied at 2-all, the championship would come down to Brazil's Bruna Takahashi against Puerto Rico's Melanie Diaz. Melanie Diaz, often overshadowed by her younger sister Adriana, would have her moment in the sun. Trailing zero games to two, she staved off multiple championship points to win the third game 17-15. From there, she did not look back, claiming the last two games and the championship for an ecstatic Puerto Rico. On the gentlemen's side, the top-seeded team would also fall in the semifinals. More specifically, world #6 Hugo Calderano and his Brazilian team would be upset by the USA, 3-1. Kanak Jha, the reigning four-time US national champion and world #33, would of course prove vital to the United States' efforts. As any coach will tell you, however, there is no "I" in "team." Jha's teammates Nick Tio and Nikhil Kumar both proved indispensable. Kumar's wins in doubles and singles against Brazil set up Jha to take home the win with a deuce-in-the-fifth thriller against Eric Jouti. The doubles team of Tio and Kumar went undefeated throughout the teams event. This was a marked improvement from their showing in the men's doubles event, where they lost in the quarters. These opening-round doubles wins, always helpful for momentum and confidence, would prove especially useful in the finals. There they faced a seasoned and determined Argentina, fresh off a sweep of Cuba in the semis. The trusty tandem of Tio and Kumar secured the first match against 2016 ITTF Latin American doubles champions Horacio Cifuentes and Gaston Alto. Attention then turned to the contest between Kanak Jha and three-time Olympian Pablo Tabachnik. While the 41-year-old Argentinian Tabachnik outranks the 19-year-old Jha in life experience, the younger man's 523-spot advantage in the world rankings proved an accurate predictor of their match, a 3-0 decision for Jha. Down two matches to nil, Argentina would not go gentle into that buena noche. Horacio Cifuentes would proceed to avenge his doubles loss with a singles win against Nikhil Kumar, 3-0, halving the USA's advantage. The veteran Pablo Tabachnik would then score the equalizer with a 3-1 decision over Nicholas Tio. This set the stage for a final showdown between Kanak Jha and Gaston Alto. Unlike in his nail-biting deciding match against Brazil, Jha never let Alto into the match, slamming the door shut with a dominant (11-5, 11-8, 11-5) win. With the win, the USA men win their first Pan Am team gold since 1999. Jha, the eldest member of the team, was born in 2000.

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