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COMPLETE RESULTS
singles, doubles and team
(excel)

28-Oct:
Men's final:
[1] Eric Galvez (Mex) bt [3/4] Jose Angel Becerril (Mex)  
       9/1, 9/2, 8/10, 9/1
Women's final:
[2] Alana Miller (Can) bt [1] Samantha Teran (Mex)
       3/9, 0/9, 9/7, 9/0, 9/5
   
MILLER DENIES
MEXICAN DOUBLE

Canada's Alana Miller denied Mexico double gold in the Panamerican Squash Championships when she upset defending champion Samantha Teran in the women's final in San Salvador.

Miller bounced back from a two games down to win 3-9 0-9 9-7 9-0 9-5 to record her first ever win over the 24-year-old world No31 from Mexico City, champion in 2002 and 2004.

"The Pan Am title is prestigious in squash and to beat Samantha for the first time in my career is extra special because she's won this tournament so many times," said Miller, the Canadian champion in 2004 and the No2 seed in El Salvador.

"In the first two games I couldn't find my rhythm and she pinned me to the back of the court. But I started to slow the pace down. I hit more lobs to the back and that opened the middle of the court and I was able to take control," said the 25-year-old, ranked six places lower than her opponent.

''I really thought I could do it this time,'' she said. ''I believed in myself and my coach just said to relax and have fun because what I was doing wasn't working. There was a disputed play in the third game as well and that got me really fired up. It was probably the turning point.''

There was Mexican joy in the men's event however, when top seed Eric Galvez, runner-up in the past two events, beat compatriot Jose Angel Becerril 9-1, 9-2, 8-10, 9-1 to win the title for the first time.

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 MEN'S DRAW
  
WOMEN'S DRAW

COMPLETE RESULTS
incl. Doubles & Teams

MIXED FORTUNES FOR US TEAMS Ivy Pochoda reports The US Women's team romped through their pool scoring two 3-0 victories over Argentina and El Salvador, dropping only one game in six matches. The US Men's team faired slightly worse, falling to Argentina 1-2 in a series of physical matches that took over four hours to complete. Chris Gordon, on court first in the number two slot, scored an impressive, concentrated 3-0 win over Hernan Darcangelo. He was followed by Julian Illingworth, who faded away in the fifth against Argentina´s number one player, Robetino Pezzota. However, Michael Puertas, failed to capitalise on his one game lead, succumbing to Rodrigo Pezzota in four unpleasantly physical games. In the evening, the men coasted to a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica. Ivy Pochoda

 

 

KAREN'S MARATHON Karen Redfern reports The squash Marathon began on Tuesday, and some players had to play three matches in a day. I myself was one of those players! I had three matches on Tuesday, two on Wednesday. The last match was the semi-final against Alana Miller and I had no energy at all. It was a very easy match for her and considering my age, 41, that would be expected after so many matches ... Hopefully I will survive until the end of the week!!!!! The team event started today, Thursday, and the Brazilian Ladies team met Colombia and won 2-1 Karen Redfern 3-1 Silvia Agulo Thaisa serafini 3-0 Isabel Restrepo Tatiana Borges 2-3 Mariana Reyes The Brazilian men's team should do very well and hopefully will win the team event. They beat Chile team 3-0 in the first round. Karen Redfern

 
 

TEAMS UNDER WAY Ivy Pochoda reports Although the individual event has yet to be completed, today saw the kick off of the PanAmerican Federation Team Championships. The US Men's team finds themselves seeded third and in a pool with Venezuela, Argentina, and Costa Rica. They needed just over an hour to polish off Venezuela with Illingworth, Gordon, and Crombie all winning in quick three game matches. The US Women, who are seeded first, had the day off today. Their pool consists of El Salvador and Argentina, both of whom they will take on tomorrow. Ivy Pochoda

The first men’s semi-final saw a PSA match-up between Eric Galvez (#48) of Mexico and Rafael Alarcon (#68) of Brazil. This match had everything, shotmaking, retrieving and of course a few interesting refereeing calls. Galvez came out in the first game playing a high paced game, hitting hard low drives and cutting balls off before they hit the back wall and all-out shot making which Galvez is known for.

Give Alarcon credit, as he kept up with the pace but the shot making of Galvez was just too much and he lost the the first game 9/0 in twenty minutes. The second game continued at the same pace with Galvez getting to a five love lead and things looked bleak for Alarcon. However the resilient Brazilian cut down his mistakes and tried to slow the pace and this proved to be successful. However after getting to 5-6 he made a crucial unforced error on the forehand side when it looked like he was going to run away with the game.

At this point Galvez, who looked a bit winded by the pace he was keeping, found his length back and ran away with the game in twenty minutes 9/5. In the third game Alarcon started to dictate the play some more and combined with mistakes by a tiring Galvez resulted in a quick 9-2 win for Alarcon in 17 minutes(all relative). In the fourth game, both players came out looking to play long rallies and after some dubious referee calls, they were also playing through so it made for some entertaining squash and also showed the pure shot making of Galvez especially on the backhand side which as Alarcon found out was deadly. Alarcon, frustrated and tiring just could not find the answer to this and so lost the fourth game and match to a very excited Galvez, 9-4.

The last semi-final between Robertino Pezzota of Argentina and Jose Becerril of Mexico was in contrast to the first semi-final an all out slug fest. No shots were readily attempted to the front unless they had to boast the ball. Surprisingly, Becerril who survived a strong challenge from Julian Illingworth of the USA in the morning looked strong and took the first game 9/7. The second game was a see saw battle until 8-7, before a scary moment when on game ball for Pezzota, he went for a drive kill on the backhand and his follow through hit Becerril in the face.

Becerril lay on the ground for a few tense minutes with a welt on his left forehead before getting up, regaining his composure for one point and losing the second game 9-7.

In the third and fourth it looked like the blow to Becerril’s head allowed him to focus more and he went on to take the next two games to win very convincingly in four games 9/7,7/9,9/4,9/4

So it sets up a final between team mates from Mexico and also sees Samantha Teran trying to continue her dominance in this event with her third title in four years. Alana Miller is looking to keep the Canadian flag flying high and win her first Pan-American title.

Ray Chan-A-Sue

                          Chris Gordon Files!

However the best example of this was the Chris Gordon (USA) and Santigo Montoya (COL) match which saw a number of strange twists. Gordon coming off two weeks of travelling and looking not like his normal self still dug in playing the aging veteran from Columbia, looked like a battle of “wills”.

Of course there was the usual stuff that you would not see at any other squash tournament, the Columbian team arguing that a light fixture over the back of the court was blown out and that he could not see, so off the players came and waited to see if it could be fixed for thirty minutes to see if it the organizers would repair it.

However, after thirty minutes no one came, so they resumed the match which then saw Montoya get a bloody nose so again there was an interruption of play. In all the match lasted two and half hours, most of it being long rallies and plenty of hand outs to go with the interruptions. Gordon wins it in two and half hours 10-8 in the fifth.

The facilities in El Salvador are beautiful as the landscape. The only thing missing from the Canadians' stand point is a bit of air conditioning. Actually a lot more would do. The team event starts on Thursday morning in a strange format which sees the team’s event in the morning and the finals of the two individual events at night.

The two favourites in the Women’s looks to be Canada’s Alana Miller and Mexico’s Samantha Teran who look a class above the rest of the field, but in this heat anything can happen.

                  Teran on course to retain title

On the men’s side Eric Galvez of Mexico continues to steamroll through the draw and is in the semi-final tonight against Robertina Pezzota of Argentina who took out 38 year American number one Michael Puertas.

Rafael Alarcon of Brazil looks to be the pick of the bottom half and will play the winner of Julian Illingworth of USA and Jose Becerril of Mexico.

           Ray Chan-A-Sue

Referees and organisers at the venue

MEN'S DRAW
  
WOMEN'S DRAW
 

Brazilian team practice

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Live from San Salvador

Galvez aims for title