Hugo Hoyama, the table tennis champion from Brazil

Hugo Hoyama is a Brazilian left-handed penhold grip style of player. He is ranked at 116 in the singles rating in world table tennis. However, his doubles record is also very impressive. In the PAN-American Games, he was the singles champion in 1991 and 1995. He reached the quarterfinals in 1999 and the semifinals in 2003. In the same PAN-American Games, in the doubles event, he was the runner-up in 1987. He won the doubles event in 1991 and 1995, playing with compatriot Claudio Kano. He won the 2003 doubles event, partnering Thiago Monteiro. Recently, Hugo Hoyama, at the age of 36, won the 2007 Latin American Championship doubles event held in Guarulhos, Brazil, playing with Thiago Monteiro again.

They were the top seeds and they easily overcame the challenge of Pablo Tabachnik and Liu Song of Argentina in 4 games. As usual with their game, Hugo Hoyama created the openings with his left-handed penhold grip shots and Monteiro capitalized on them. They won the Championship 11-7, 14-12, 13-11. After the match, Hoyama commented, “Tactically I think we played well today. We didn’t rush, we didn’t lose any easy points and I think our service and receive of service was really good today.”

Earlier, in the same Championships, Hoyama reached the semifinals in the singles event. In the previous year, in the 2006 Latin American Championships in Medellin, Colombia, Hoyama won the doubles finals and was runner-up in the singles event. He had also won the Latin American Championships singles title in 2002, 2000, 1996, 1994, and 1992. He achieved the doubles crown in 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996, and 1994.

In the world events, Hugo Hoyama reached the 1996 ITTF Pro Tour singles quarterfinals in Xian, China and the 1997 ITTF Pro Tour singles semifinals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Later, he again reached the singles quarterfinals in 2001 ITTF Pro Tour in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the doubles event, Hoyama reached the semifinals in the 2006 ITTF Pro Tour in Sao Paulo, Brazil and the quarterfinals in the 2006 ITTF Pro Tour in Santiago, Chile.

One of the most important singles games Hugo Hoyama played in recent times was in the 2006 Latin American Championships in Sao Paolo, Brazil. In the singles event, Hoyama was facing 3-times champion of the event, Liu Song of Argentina, in the semifinals. Liu Song had won the event in 1998 in Mexico City, in 2003 in El Salvador, and earlier in the year, in Medellin. In the semifinals, Hoyama put up a great fight, extending Liu to 7 games. Liu took the first game 11-7. Hoyama won the next 3 games in style at 11-9, 11-9, and 11-5. However, Liu proved too strong for Hoyama, taking the next 2 games 11-6 and 11-3. In a cliffhanger decider of the seventh game, Hoyama leveled at 9-all but Liu prevailed and won the game 11-9 to advance into the finals. Liu went on to win the final and take the championship for the fourth time.