Michelle Li beat Beiwen Zhang in a gripping women’s singles final of the XXV Pan Am Individual Championships 2022 in San Salvador yesterday.
Zhang had two match points, marking an epic return to the top after she was wheeled out of Tokyo 2020 due to injury.
The match was tight all the way, with Zhang having the edge in the third game with leads of 12-6 and 19-15. Li caught up at the end, saved two match points, and finally prevailed on her own third opportunity for her fifth singles crown.
Kevin Cordon is champion again after a decade.
In men’s singles, Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon reclaimed his Pan Am Championships title after a decade. The left-hander dominated defending champion Brian Yang from start to finish, closing out the match 21-17 21-14 for his third men’s singles title.
Other Highlights
♦ Rachel Honderich/Kristen Tsai made it four in a row beating Canadian compatriots Catherine Choi/Josephine Wu 21-17 21-18. It was Honderich’s sixth title overall as she had also won the women’s singles and mixed doubles in 2017.
♦ Men’s doubles duo Job Castillo/Luis Montoya became the first Mexican pair to win the Pan Am title. Opponents Vinson Chiu/Joshua Yuan retired with the second seeded Mexicans leading 22-20 11-8.
♦ Josephine Wu retained her mixed doubles title, but with a different partner. Wu and Ty Alexander Lindeman, champions in 2018 before Wu partnered Joshua Hurlburt-Yu for the next two titles, beat Guatemala’s Solis Jonathan/Diana Corleto Soto 21-12 21-11. This was also Wu’s sixth overall title, as she’d won the women’s doubles in 2016 and 2017 with Michelle Tong.
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