The Pan Am Games – by Latasha Khan
There
are 18 countries participating. the most ever. At present the
individual
event has already taken place; The team event started on Sunday. The
referees
from the u.s. are Rishad Alikhan, Paul Brogna, Ben Harris and
Meherji Madan
US Team Triumps after Day 1:
Women:
Latasha
Khan is seeded number defeated Jessica Dias of Chile 9-0,9-0,9-0
Shabana
Khan seeded number 2 defeated Maricella Castillo 5, 0, 6
Meredeth
Quick seeded in the 9-16 pool defeated Pamela Ankerman of
Guatemala
2, 0, 2
Julia
Beaver also seeded in the 9-16 pool defeated Nora Aguirrebengoa of
Argentina
3, 0, 3
Men:
Damian
Walker coming back after an awful bout with Montezumas revenge
defeated
Ecuadorean star Gonzalo Chacon. TV cameras and flash
photography
could not stop his 0, 2, 1 win over the host countryman.
Damian
is seeded in the 9-16 pool.
David
McNeely seeded 8 plays Friday
Preston
Quick seeded 6 plays Friday
Richard
Chin defeated James Bullock of Jamaica 9-6, 5-9, 9-2, 9-2. James
will
be a junior at Harvard playing number 1.
Both
mens and womens teams have been supporting each other, preparing one
another
for the tough competition ahead. After a relatively easy
beginning,
the competition now picks up.
A
few highlights;
We
arrived 5 days early in order to acclimatize. We are 9,000 feet above
sea
level so the breathing was difficult at first...but our blood has
thinned
and we no longer need as much oxygen (so we are told!! ...it is
still
difficult to walk up a flight of stairs without stopping at the top
and
gasping for air) nevertheless, we are ready for battle!!
We
all took a journey to step on the equator, they deem it the "Center of
the
World" Very intriguing spot!!
Meredeth
and Julia tried catching the shuttle bus to the courts only to
find
that it was canceled. In an attempt to get to the courts on time,
they
hailed a taxi. Half way through the 20 minute trip to the club, the
taxi
ran out of gas going up the steep carved mountainous road. Luckily
our
2 strong American women helped push the taxi 100 feet to the top of
the
hill to allow the cab to coast down the other side to a gas station...
Weather
is fabulous, breezy and sunny during the day and cool at night.
US
referees are working 10 hour days!! Thank you, thank you, thank
you.
All
of us are enjoying representing the US!!!! Parade of nations is at 12
today.
Results
Quarterfinals : Melanie Jans defeated Lauren Wagner 9-6 9-7 9-7
Samantha Teran def Diane Huerta 9-0 9-0 9-1
Marnie Baizley def Isabel Restrepo 9-2 9-0 9-3
Karen Redfern def Julia Beaver 9-4 9-7 9-7
Semis: Samantha Teran def Melanie Jans 5-9 10-8 9-5 9-1
Marnie Baizley def Karen Redfern 9-4 8-10 9-0 10-8
Melanie
and Lauren's match could have gone either way. Melanie just had a little
more confidence. Samantha dominated her Mexican team mate, as the score
indicates. Marnie was just to experienced for the incoming trinity
freshman, Isabel Restrepo. Karen just had to many shots and kept Julia
off balance. In the second and third games Julia had her opportunities,
but wasn't able to convert. Julia didn't feel like she played as well as
she could. She is looking forward to performing well in the team event.
The
semis were quite competitive and it came down to who had the most gas left in
the tank. Melanie got off to a good start taking the first game, while
Samantha made a few too many mistakes. As the match went on Samantha cut
down on her errors and started to wear down Melanie. In the last game
Melanie just couldn't keep up. It was a similar situation in the other
semi. Marnie got off to a good start, taking the first game, but once
again Karen pulled out some amazing drops from her bag of tricks. Marnie
buckled down in the third and Karen started to tire and thus made a lot of
unforced errors. Karen came roaring back in the fourth taking a 8-4 lead,
but Marnie hung in the game. Karen just didn't have enough stamina to
close out the game and Marnie took the match.
Alright,
I have finally have the men's results. The team results are also
included. But they did not record who played who on each team. I
did not know they they were going to do this. So I do not know the names
or the match scores of each individual team match. I watched our guys
play, but I did not write down the names of the guys or the scores of each
game. I will do that from now on since it does not get recorded on the
disk.
Semis: J Gutierrez ARG def R Santos BRA 9-3 9-2 9-6
E Galvez MEX def R Alarcron BRA 4-9 9-5 1-9 9-1 10-9
Final: Gutierrez def Galvez 9-7 9-5 9-2
3rd place Santos def Alarcron 9-6 7-9 9-3 9-2
Gutierrez was just too strong for Santos, but the other semi was another story.
Alarcron was up 2-1 in games when he got hit in the face by Galvez.
Alarcron had to get stitches on his face, which they did courtside. After
a hour break, they went back on court. At this point Galvez was up 7-0
anyway and took the game 9-1. The fifth was close and Alarcron had four
match balls he could not convert. Galvez won the match with a miss hit off
his racquet that tickled to the front wall. Both players were frozen as
the ball just barely touched the front wall and thus giving Galvez the match
after 3 hours. Galvez really did not have much for the next day and Gutierrez
took the title pretty handily.
The
men's team event also started yesterday. The US men's Team was quite
dominate over Peru, winning all three matches pretty convincingly.
Richard Chin playing at three won in a easy three. Damian got off to a bit of
slow start dropping the first game, then won the next three. He just
proceeded to run his opponent in circles. David crushed the Peru number 2 with
the loss of three points the entire match. Coach Paul Assiante was happy with
the Men's overall performance, and thinks that team is looking sharp. Next up
for the guys is the Dominican team. The Women also start today against
Chile.
Men's team results
Zone
A Ecuador def El Salvador 2-1
Mexico def Jamaica 3-0
Zone
B Colombia def Chile
3-0 Brazil def Paraguay
3-0
Zone
C USA def Peru
3-0
Argentina def Dominicana 3-0
Zone
D Canada def Bermuda
3-0 Guatemala def Venezuela 3-0
The women's individual title went to Mexico's Samantha Teren who who defeated
Canadian Marnie Baizley 9-5 9-6 9-1. Samantha, who is from the high
altitude city, Mexico City, was more comfortable with the altitude than
all of her opponents. Melanie Jans took 3rd over Karen Redfern 6-9 9-1
10-8 9-0.
I
have good news today and bad news. The bad news first. The disk
that they game me is not opening so I don't have all the results. The
good news is that both US teams won 3-0. Meredith went on court first and
dropped one point the entire match. She won 9-0, 9-0, 9-1 over Chile's
Tranntenberg. I played next and didn't get off to the best start. I
won the opening game 9-8. I settled down and was more aggressive and won
the next two 9-1, 9-2. Shabana went on court last and was very aggressive
and hitting the ball really sharply. She beat Diaz of Chile 9-0, 9-1,
9-1.
Sharon
was really pleased with her performance. The guys on the other hand did
not give up one point. The Dominican team didn't show. They were to
play at five, and five rolled around and nobody was there. Paul wanted to
wait, even though the ref wanted to default Dominicans. Paul went and
found out that the Dominicans thought they were playing at five and not seven.
So the US given a walk over. Next up for the both teams is
Argentina. The guys go on first and we play right after them. The
Argentinean men are the second seed in the tournament. Our guys, though,
have a good shot at beating them. Damian will be playing Guiterraz, the
winner of the individual event. Guiterraz is highly favored, but you can
never count out Damian. Preston and David are both playing really well
and should be able to pull out wins and two and three. The girls on the
other hand should win pretty handily. I will go write down yesterdays and
today’s results, by hand, because we are playing last and the matches should be
over.
Yesterday
men's match against Argentina was an absolute joke. The guys were totally
robbed and lost 2-1. The officiating on the match was an absolute
disgrace to the game. David went on first. He was hitting the ball
beautifully. He moved his Argentineans opponent, Pezzota, from corner to
corner and just wore him down. There were a few bad calls that went
against him, but David kept his cool and stayed in control. David won the
first game 9-6. In the second game Pezzota was more aggressive and David
made a few mistakes and was down 8-6. David fight back and tied the game
to 8-8. Pezzota went up 9-8. but David hit great length, opened up the
court and hit a couple of great shots and won the second 10-9. The third
was also tight. David kept the pressure on went up 8-6 and Pezzota at
match ball threw a fit about a let call and a conduct stroke was awarded
against him. Match went to David. The Argentineans were
livid. This call came back to hurt us the next two matches. Damian
played Guiterrez, the individual champion, next. The first two games were
close. Damian was moving him around the court hitting the ball very
tight, creating mistakes by Guiterrez. Damian hit some great drops but unfortunately
in this altitude the Argentinean was able to pick them up. Guiterrez
grabbed the first two games 9-5, 9-5. The third game, Damian just picked up his
game and Guiterrez made a ton of mistakes. Damian was taking him up and
then just drove the ball past him a few times. Damian took the third
9-0. The same thing happened in the fourth. Damian was in control
of the rallies and Guiterrez was on the defensive and would try to end the
points, and made loads of mistakes. Damian won the fourth 9-2. The
fifth game was very close. Guiterrez tried to pick up the pace, and
Damian was picking up a lot of balls. This was frustrating
Guiterrez. He started to get in the way.
Damian
throughout the match had numerous volley strokes that the ref was only giving
lets to and Damian finally said do you want me to hit that, because if he I do,
I am going to take his head off. Guiterrez, said something that I did not
hear, but Damian turned around and looked at him said like alright. Two
points later Damian, called a let, got a let and Guitterz said the he needs to
play the ball. The ref said let, and Guitterez said the f word to
her. That is a big no no, and the ref wasn't going to warn him.
People in the crowd (like me), said he just swore at you and that he can't do
that, so she warned him, saying that he shouldn't do that. I was
terrible. They continued play, and Damian continued to play well and was
moving great, but unfortunately he ran out of gas and Guiterrez won the fifth
9-5. It was a courageous effort by Damian. (If they had not played
in altitude, Damian would of beat him 3-0, in my opinion). Preston was on
next. This match was ridiculous. The Canadian ref was really
disgraceful. He basically was encouraging the players to run through each
other and to block. Preston just got beat up. In the first game,
Preston was chasing down a lot of balls, so the Argentinean, also named
Pezzota, (he's the older brother of the guy David played and both of the firs
names start with an R, and of course they only have the first name, first
initial written down), started to block, Preston was getting his racquet on the
ball and the ref would say no let, the ball is too good. Well this
encouraged Pezzota to block and trip. In the first game, he tripped Preston,
and Preston went sliding across the floor, and he almost hit his head against
the cement sidewall. He ended up cutting his knee open. No one
noticed the blood until a couple of points later, so he came off the court, and
had it taped, and the Pezzota came of the court and his coach started coaching
him, which you can't do. The ref said nothing. So they go back on
court and Preston wins the first 9-6. Next game, same thing.
Preston gets his racquet wrapped around the games legs and gets no let, because
the ref would say, you should have your racquet low, it should be up, so no
let. What kind of logic is that? When the ball is low, and a person
is running to hit, your racquet is low, what idiot runs with their racquet up
the entire point. Preston was down 8-6, and was making run and
Argentina's coach is yelling he's bleeding he's bleeding. Preston wasn't
bleeding. He was making such a fit. They continued play. Preston
tied the game at 8-8 but eventually lost the game 10-9. After the game the
ref said that if Preston does bleed he loses the match, which isn't true, you
just lose the game. Paul told him that he was wrong. The ref was finally
silent, and then said oh yeah your right. Just for a precaution, they
rewrapped Preston's knee.
But
the stupid calls just continued. Pezzota got warnings for stalling,
racquet abuse, ball abuse, but never got a conduct stroke. I have never
seen a match were a player was behaving so badly and never got a penalty.
In
the third, the ball broke and Pezzota came off court and was getting coaching
and drinking water. A player can't do that. They have to stay on
court and warm up the ball. Preston went on to lose the third 9-7.
Same stupid story in the fourth. The guy was right in front of the ball,
Preston would go up to hit it, get his racquet stuck on the guy and would get a
no let. It was a joke. On match ball, 8-7, the marker yelled down
on Pezzota's boast, Preston hit the tin and the ref yelled match over, because
he didn't call the ball down. The match was absolutely shameful.
The Canadian ref was boasting how it is so great when the match is so physical
and the players have to push each other. He also said in between games
when David was playing that he loves to pause before he makes the call so the crowd
looks at him in anticipation. He also said it is good for the sport if
the players hurt one another. The entire match was disgusting, from the
way the refs behaved, to the on court behavior of the Argentineans' behavior,
and the antics of their coach. Even though our guys lost, not once did
they stoop to their level, and that is something everyone should be proud
of. David, Damian, and Preston were great examples of on court behavior
and should be commended for that fact alone. The loss, of course screwed
us over in the draw though. If we beat Paraguay, we have to play Canada
in the quarters. On a happier note, the girls crushed the Argentina
team. We all sat there, all 4 and a half hours watching the men get
robbed. So we were ready to play. Julia won in 14 minutes, 9-2,
9-0, 9-2. I won 9-0, 9-0, 9-0, in 11 minutes. Shabana won 9-4, 9-0,
9-2, in 15 minutes. We have a bye, so we play the winner of Guatemala and
Colombia tomorrow. Pools results are below. I will get a draw today.
Men's
pools:
A Mexico beat Jamaica, Ecuador, and El Salvador 3-0
Ecuador beat Jamaica 3-0, El Salvador 2-1
El Salvador beat Jamaica 2-1
B
Brazil beat Chile, Colombia and Paraguay 3-0
Colombia beat Paraguay and Chile 3-0
Paraguay
beat Chile 2-1
C
Argentina beat US 2-1, Peru and Dominicana 3-0
US beat Peru and Dominicana 3-0
Peru
beat Dominicana 3-0
D
Canada beat Guatemala, Venezuela, and Bermuda 3-0
Guatemala beat Bermuda 2-1, Venezuela 3-0
Bermuda
beat Venezuela 2-1
Women's
pools:
A
Mexico beat Guatemala and Venezuela 3-0
Guatemala
beat Venezuela 2-1
B
USA beat Chile and Argentina 3-0
Argentina beat chile 2-1
C
Canada beat Brazil and Ecuador 3-0
Brazil beat Ecuador 3-0
D
El Salvador beat Colombia and Jamaica 2-1
Jamaica beat Colombia 2-1
Alright,
today was a much better day for the men. In the first round of the
elimination, USA faced Paraguay. Richard went on first and played
wonderfully and won 9-4, 9-5, 9-4. Damian then went on court, and was
sharper then ever. He was moving really well. There were no signs
of fatigue from the previous evening. The guys finished at 7:30 last
night and had to play at noon today. Damian won 9-7, 9-1, 9-2.
David played the dead rubber and won 9-1, 9-0. Everyone was very
professional, and their weren't any signs of disappointment from the events of
the previous evening. Paul was very pleased by the performance and
attitude and looks forward to facing Canada tomorrow. The girls had the
day off from competition, but jumped on court for an hour. The guys were
so efficient that they were down in under two hours. We learned our lesson last
night and brought snacks to the match, just in case were had to stay for a
while, which luckily we didn't. We face the winner of Colombia and
Guatemala tomorrow.
Men's
draw:
Mexico beat Venezuela 3-0
Colombia beat Peru 3-0
El Salvador beat Guatemala 2-1
Argentina beat Chile 3-0
Canada beat Jamaica 3-0
USA beat Paraguay 3-0
Ecuador beat Bermuda 2-1
Brazil beat Dominicana 3-0
Tomorrow
match ups for the quarters:
Mexico vs Colombia, El Salvador vs Argentina, Canada vs USA, and Brazil vs
Ecuador
Women's
draw:
Mexico bye
Ecuador vs Argentina (don't know who won)
Jamaica beat Venezuela 3-0
Canada bye
El Salvador bye
Brazil beat Chile 3-0
Colombia vs Guatemala (don't know who won)
USA bye
Tomorrow's
match up:
Mexico vs Ecuador or Argentina
Jamaica vs Canada
El Salvador vs Brazil
USA vs Colombia or Guatemala.
The
guys lost to Canada 2-1. Preston went on first and had to play Sabir
Butt. Sabir is a former top twenty psa player who has been residing
primarily in Brazil for the last eight years. He took a break from
squash, but started again two years ago. Preston went down 9-6, 9-4, 9-0.
Sabir was just too steady and experienced for Preston. Preston was still
battered and a bit bruised from the match against Argentina. Damian
played Victor Berg next. It was a close three in Victor's favor, 9-5,
9-7, 9-7. Victor is a very talented player and is very fun to
watch. Damian was competitive throughout the entire match, but couldn't
really control the points, for Victor was hitting the ball too tight and was
just too accurate. David played Shawn Delierre in the dead rubber and won
9-6, 9-3. David as been playing well the entire competition and it
continued on yesterday. He is really finishing the rallies
well. The girls won 3-0 against Colombia.
Julia
won 9-1, 9-1, 9-0 against Colombia's Sylvia Angulo. Julia was just a better
player than the Colombian. I played Isabel Resptrepo, who will be
attending Trinity this fall. Once again, I got off to a bad start, going
down 5-0 in the first game, then I settled down and won the next 27 points,
thus winning 9-5, 9-0, 9-0. I didn't want to get cold, so I went and took
a quick shower, like seven minutes, and when I came back Meredith had already
won 9-0, 9-0. So I am assuming it was pretty one sided. Next up for
the men is host country Ecuador, so it is going to be very loud. The
women will be playing Brazil.
Men's
results:
Colombia def Mexico 2-1 (Mexico was seeded to win the tournament)
Argentina def El Salvador 3-0
Canada def USA 2-1
Brazil def Ecuador 3-0
semis: Colombia vs Argentina, Canada vs Brazil
Women's
results:
Mexico def Argentina 3-0
Canada def Jamacia 3-0
Brazil def El Salvador 2-1
USA def Colombia 3-0
Semis: Mexico vs Canada, USA vs Brazil
Today
the women's team played Brazil in the semis and swept all three matches in
under an hour. Julia, playing in the number 3 position, went on
first. She played Brazil's Pomporna. Julia got have to a great
start, taking a quick 6-0 lead. Julia then started to rush a little, and
made a few unforced errors, but settled down again and took the game 9-1.
The second game went back and forth in the early stage, but Julia pulled away
and grabbed the second 9-3. The same thing happened in the third with
Julia prevailing 9-4. I went on next. I played Redfern. Redfern
showed signs of fatigue and was going for shots that were not there. I
won the first 9-0 in about five minutes. Same thing occurred in the
second. I noticed she wasn't moving all that well and just hit the ball
in the other direction. I won the second 9-2. After that game she
retired. Match was over in 10 minutes. Shabana playing in the
number 2 position, just went out here and basically was just practicing for
tomorrow. She is hitting the ball really well right now and grabbed both
games, 9-4, 9-2. Tomorrow we face Canada, 3-0 winners over Mexico.
Their match was much closer. Marnie Baizley won 3-0, and then Melanie
Jans faced Samantha Teran. Mel went up 2-0, but Samantha battled back and
took the next two. Samantha lead 7-4 in the fifth, but Mel played really
smart and won the fifth 9-7. Mexico did not play the dead rubber
match. The Men also won today quite easily over host country Ecuador.
The Ecuadorian number 3 got hurt, so they only had two players. Damian
played Gonzolo and won three love. He won the first 9-3, lost the third
9-3, then won 9-0, 9-5. (He played well enough to win, he is basically
saving himself for tomorrow). David won the dead rubber 2-0. I
didn't stay to watch, because on the next court Canada's men were playing
Brazil. Barborisa was playing Delierre. The Brazilian was up and
easy 2-0, 9-4, 9-0. The Canadian, Deleirre came fighting back and grabbed
the next three. It was quite and exciting match. Canada ended up
winning 2-1.
Victor Berg lost to Alcrcon either 3-2 or 3-1. ( I had to leave). Sabir Butt won the deciding match 3-2 over Santos. Canada is either playing Argentina or Colombia in the final. They were only on the first match, which was lasting two hours and it was only 2-2. Poor Ben Harris, our American ref was doing the match. That poor man has been glassy eyed for the last couple of days. Our ref, though, have been doing a great job, unfortunately, they can't do our matches. The US men will be playing Mexico for 5/6 at noon and we play at three.
Well
we have good news and bad news. Let's start with the good news.
The
guys beat Mexico 2-1, thus finishing 5th. David played first. He beat
Mexico's number three, Gomez, 3-0. He played really well all
week. He did not lose a match for the team. Damian had to play
Galvez again and lost 3-0. Galvez is just to comfortable in altitude and
it suits retrieving game. Preston played Hector Barragan and won
3-0. By coming in fifth, the US men qualify for the Pan Am Games next
year in The Dominican Republic.
Overall
the guys had a great tournament. They should have defeated Argentina, who
happen to be playing in the final against Canada, the only team really
stronger than the US team. It was a good showing for the guys and I think
that they have a good chance for a medal next year. Now for
the bad news. The womens lost to Canada 3-0. Julia played Marnie
Baizley first and Julia was a little nervous in the beginning. Marnie
grabbed the first 9-2. Julia settled down in the second and was ahead
7-5. Marnie just steadied up her game and Julia made a few mistakes an
dropped the second 9-7. Marnie, confident in her game won the third
9-1. I played Melanie Jans next. Unlike most of my matches, I got
off to a good start.
Unfortunately, so did she. She won the first to games 9-7, 9-4. I somehow managed to win the next two games 9-4, 9-3, but lost in the fifth 9-1. I forgot you aren't supposed to hit the ball in the middle of the court. I did hit a couple of good drop shots, but she got lets on them. Shabana played the dead rubber match against Lauren Wagner. She wasn't really too enthused to play after sitting through my roller coaster match and lost 9-6, 9-6. The team is a little disappointed, but we have decided that Canada can win the Pan Am Federation Championship. We are just going to win next year in the Pan Am Games, which is only every four years.