by Simon Daish
Taking on Guatemala’s Allan Gutierrez, no.10 seed Emil Santos completed the task at hand with little to no trouble with all four games decided by a six point margin (11-5, 11-5, 11-5, 11-5).
Disappointment for Gutierrez and his native Guatemala, but the session was completely devoid of positive news for the nation with Hector Gatica stepping forward. The no.16 seed secured his place in the Round of 16 in just under 33 minutes, powering past Jamaica’s Kane Watson in five games (11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9, 11-3).
Andy Pereira moves through with the no.11 seed from Cuba prevailing over Tyrese Knight of Barbados (11-8, 11-7, 12-14, 11-7, 11-9), while the no.12 seeded entry from Paraguay, Alejandro Toranzos also lived up to expectations, beating Uruguay’s Pablo Palou (13-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-9).
The two remaining fixtures were decided in favour of Venezuela’s Cecilio Correa and Colombia’s Alexander Echavarria following successful bouts against Guyana’s Joel Alleyne (11-7, 11-5, 9-11, 11-4, 11-3) and Shemar Britton (11-5, 4-11, 11-9, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4).
There were three Round of 32 contests to settle in the women’s singles event, two of which featured competitors from Guyana.
Chelsea Edghill, seeded 17th, gave a good account of herself as she met the player seeded one position above her, needing just five games to see off Paraguay’s Leyla Gomez (11-8, 11-7, 17-15, 7-11, 11-5). Passage to the last 16 for Edghill, but colleague Natalie Cummings misses out following the no.19 seed’s 4-2 defeat at the hands of Ecuadorian no.11 seed Nathaly Paredes (13-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6).
Table 3 played host to the third head-to-head as Venezuela’s Neridee Nino, no.14 seed, welcomed opposition from Trinidad and Tobago’s Rheann Chung, seeded 18th. Off to a bright start but Chung’s early advantage didn’t last long with a cool-headed Nino coming out on top in the following four games to extend her stay (6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-6, 11-7).
Play resumes from 16.00 local time with Round of 16 action on the agenda.
