The Men’s Singles competition at the Pan Am Games 2015 in Toronto saw a big upset yesterday as continental champion Osleni Guerrero was shown the door.
The Cuban, ranked No.50, was beaten by a player ranked over 150 places below him – Canada’s Andrew D’Souza. The 21-year-old Canadian overcame the loss of the first game to prevail 13-21 21-14 21-13.
D’Souza (BWF home page) will take on Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon in the final. Cordon survived a close semi-final against USA’s Howard Shu, 16-21 21-14 21-18.
Women’s Singles continental champion Michelle Li was taken to three games by USA’s Jamie Subandhi. Li had a 6-0 record over Subandhi, with two of those matches going the distance. Yesterday, Subandhi established a strong lead midway in the game, going from 6-7 to 17-14, before edging through at 21-19. She continued to play strongly in the third, and at 10-11 it could have gone either way. But Li was dominant towards the end and closed it out 21-11 19-21 21-15.
It will be an all-Canadian Women’s Singles final as Li’s doubles partner Rachel Honderich (above) overpowered USA’s Iris Wang. Honderich cruised to victory, 21-15 21-11, in 23 minutes.
The Canadians however fell to USA in the Women’s Doubles semi-finals. Li and Honderich were outclassed 21-11 21-8 by Paula Lynn Obanana/Eva Lee. In the other semi-final, Brazil’s Luana Vicente and Lohaynny Vicente (below) edged past Alex Bruce/Phyllis Chan (Canada) in the first game before consolidating their lead in the second: 22-20 21-14.
The Mixed Doubles final will feature USA’s Phillip Chew/Jamie Subandhi against Canada’s Toby Ng/Alex Bruce. Chew/Subandhi beat Peru’s Mario Cuba/Katherine Winder while Ng/Bruce beat Brazil’s Alex Yuwan Tjong/Lohaynny Vicente 21-17 21-16.
Chew will be in two finals as he also made the Men’s Doubles title round with Sattawat Pongnairat (below), overcoming Mexico’s Job Castillo/Lino Munoz. Their final opponents will be Brazil’s Hugo Arthuso/Daniel Paiola, who beat Dominican Republic’s Jose Cabrera/Javier Ozuna 21-13 23-21.
Text by Dev Sukumar | Badmintonphoto
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