by Ian Marshall, Editor
In the opening group stage contest, after colleagues Edward Ly and Marko Medjugorac had experienced defeat at the hands of Gaston Alto and Horacio Cifuentes (11-4, 8-11, 11-6, 11-4), Jeremy Hazin entered centre stage.
Responding to the needs of his team, he beat Nicolas Galvano in five games (7-11, 11-7, 11-13, 11-6, 11-8) before in an even closer encounter overcoming Gaston Alto (8-11, 11-7, 11-5, 2-11, 11-9) to set the scene for Edward Ly to seal the victory. The 16 year old duly obliged, he accounted for Nicolas Galvan in four games (11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 11-5). The one further success for Argentina was secured by Horacio Cifuentes in the third match of the engagement; he prevailed in opposition to Marko Medjugorac (11-9, 11-5, 11-8).
Hopes alive
Defeat for Argentina but hopes of progress to the main draw remain alive; teams finishing in first and second positions in each of the three groups advance to the knock-out stage. No changes to the selection, Argentina recorded a 3-0 win against the Chilean outfit formed by Nicolas Burgos, Gustavo Gomez and Juan Lamadrid. Canada now meets Chile in the concluding contest.
Problems for the second seeds but no such difficulties for other leading outfits; Brazil, the top seeds, with Vitor Ishiy, Eric Jouti and Gustavo Tsuboi on duty secured first place in their group without surrendering a single individual match, a situation that applied also to the no.3 seeds, the United States combination of Kanak Jha, Nikhil Kumar and Zhang Kai.
Respectively, Paraguay meets Ecuador; Puerto Rico confronts Mexico to determine second positions.
Turning the tables
Defeat for the second seeds, as the day came to a close, there was also defeat for the second seeds in the women’s team event and an air of revenge. Beaten by Puerto Rico the previous month in the final at the Pan American Games in Lima, Brazil turned the tables; they recorded a 3-1 win.
Caroline Kumahara and Jessica Yamada combined to beat Melanie Diaz and Daniely Rios (13-11, 9-11, 1-1, 11-7, 13-11), to give Brazil the ideal start. Adriana Diaz accounted for Bruna Takahashi to level matters but there was to be no further success for Puerto Rico; Caroline Kumahara overcame Melanie Diaz (11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 14-12), before Bruna Takahashi accounted for Daniely Rios to end proceedings.
Defeat for Puerto Rico but an earlier 3-0 success against Canada’s Sophie Gauthier, Joyce Xu and Zhang Mo means that the door to the main draw is open. Similarly, in their opening contest the Brazilians had secured a 3-0 win in opposition to Mexico’s Marbella Aceves, Clio Barcenas and Monica Muñoz.
Brazil now meets Canada, Puerto Rico opposes Mexico to determine the final order.
Meanwhile, in the corresponding group, the United States, the top seeds, selecting from Crystal Wang, Amy Wang, Wu Yue and Lily Zhang ended the day unbeaten.
The group stage of the men’s and women’s team events plus the men’s team quarter-finals will be played to a conclusion on Wednesday 4th September.
