by Ian Marshall, Editor
All secured first places in their initial stage groups; at the quarter-final stage it was success against the outfits that had ended the day as runners up, precedence was asserted.
In the men’s team event, the top seeds, the Brazilian trio comprising Hugo Calderano, Eric Jouti and Gustavo Tsuboi recorded a 3-0 win in opposition to Paraguay’s Marcelo Aguirre, Santiago Osorio and Alejandra Toranzos. Similarly, Argentina’s Gaston Alto, Horacio Cifuentes and Pablo Tabachnik showed no charity when facing Puerto Rico’s Brian Afanador, Daniel Gonzalez and Angel Naranjo.
Meanwhile, for the United States trio of Kanak Jha, Nikhil Kumar and Nicholas Tio, as well as for Cuba’s Jorge Campos, Livan Martinez and Andy Pereira, life was only marginally more testing.
The United States recorded a 3-1 win in opposition to the Dominican Republic’s Samuel Galvez, Emil Santos and Wu Jiaji; by the same margin Cuba ended the hopes of Canada’s Jeremy Hazin, Marko Medjugorac and Eugene Wang.
The players to cause the problems for the victors were principally the medallists earlier in the week in the men’s singles events; for the Dominican Republic Wu Jiaji beat Nikhil Kumar (11-2, 11-3, 11-5), for Canada, Eugene Wang partnered Marko Medjugorac to doubles success in opposition to Jorge Campos and Livan Martinez (13-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-4).
Success for Cuba but they came mightily close to defeat; the score-line does not necessarily reflect the intensity of the fixture. In the third match of the engagement, Livan Martinez needed the full five games to beat Marko Medjugorac (11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6), as did Jorge Campos against Jeremy Hazin in the contest that brought proceedings to a conclusion. Tension mounting, Jorge Campos withstood a spirited fightback by the Canadian to emerge successful by the minimal two point margin in the decider (11-8, 11-5, 10-12, 9-11, 11-9).
A dramatic contest, in the counterpart women’s team quarter-finals, decisive results were the order of the day, not one individual match was surrendered by the winners.
Impressively, the United States trio formed Amy Wang, Wu Yue and Lily Zhang accounted for Cuba’s Daniela Fonseca, Idalys Lovat and Lizdainet Rodriquez; Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz, Melanie Diaz and Daniely Rios ended the hopes of Argentina’s Camila Argüelles, Ana Codina and Candela Molero.
Likewise, Brazil’s Caroline Kumahara, Bruna Takahashi and Jessica Yamada overcame Chile’s Judith Morales, Daniela Ortega and Paulina Vega; Canada’s Alicia Côté, Ivy Liao and Zhang Mo halted any aspirations harboured by Mexico’s Clio Barcenas, Monica Muñoz and Yadira Silva.
Notably, in the concluding match of the fixture, Zhang Mo beat Yadira Silva (9-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-6, 11-9) and thus avenged the defeat experienced earlier in the week when she had suffered in the second round of the women’s singles event, securing just one game (10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8, 11-8).
On the day that closes the curtain in Lima, play commences on Saturday 10th August at 10.00 am (local time), the finals’ programme begins at 5.00 pm (local time); there is no third place fixture, two bronze medals are awarded.
