(by Steve Hopkins)

This video is from the Serbian Open last year.  It was uploaded by the Official ITTF Channel on Youtube and shows Puerto Rico’s Brian Afanador taking on Japan’s Yuta Tanaka.  Both players are still early in their careers and are still improving.  Afanador is 23 years old, and Tanaka is 20 years old.  For Afanador, specifically, he is Puerto Rico’s top ranked player, and the tenth ranked player in the ITTF Latin America Region.   Afanador entered 2020 at 80 in the world and is currently ranked No. 91.  He broke into the top 100 for the first time in June of 2019, and he spent most of 2018 outside of the top 150.  Each year has shown improvement for Afanador.

Enjoy this great match between Afanador and Tanaka – great athleticism, strong backhands, and all the energy two young, rising players have to offer.

Brian Afanador uses the Viscaria blade, Tenergy 05  on the forehand and Dignics 05 on the backhand.  The Brian Afanador Pro-Line Combination Racket is currently on sale through ButterflyOnline.com  *Incidentally, Yuta Tanaka is also a Butterfly player – he uses the Zhang Jike ZLC and Dignics 055 on both sides.

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Watch Brian Afanador  take on the role of interviewer with Brazillian player Bruna Takahashi.  The series is presented by ITTFWorld and is called”Instagram Live Takeover” during the Pandemic:

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