Brazil emerged top of Group B after beating USA 3-2 in the XXI Pan Am Championships Team Event Competition yesterday in Sando Domingo.
Canada beat Peru 5-0 to top Group A, while in the battle for 5th place, hosts Dominican Republic edged past Mexico 3-2. In the semi-finals today, Brazil play Peru while Canada take on USA.
The important breakthrough for Brazil was in the first match between the evenly-matched Fabiana Silva (featured image) and USA’s Jennie Gai. Silva won a close second game and held off her opponent in the home stretch of the third to record a 16-21 23-21 21-18 result in Women’s Singles.
Ygor Oliveira was solid for Brazil and gave his team a 2-0 lead winning the Men’s Singles over Howard Shu, 21-16 21-11.
Annie Xu and Kerry Xu gave USA a lifeline with an easy win in Women’s Doubles over Fabiana Silva/Samia Lima, 21-10 21-6.
But Brazil closed it out in the fourth match as Hugo Arthuso/Francielton Farias powered past Vinson Chiu/Darren Yang 21-19 21-14 in Men’s Doubles.
In the inconsequential fifth match, Howard Shu/Crystal Pan beat Fabricio Farias/Samia Lima 21-13 17-21 21-12 in Mixed Doubles.