Argentina, Mexico, USA Shine
June 28, 2004, By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004

Pan Am Federation Cup: Argentina-Mexico In Men's Semis, Three Americans In Women's

In what likely will be a prelude to what occurs when the team portion of the 2004 Pan American Federation Cup kicks off later this week, Americans occupy all but one of the four semi-final slots in the individual women's tournament, while both men's semis feature a member of the host Mexican contingent vs. an Argentine.

Meredeth Quick and Louisa Hall, teammates on the '03 U. S. squad that won the team gold medal in the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo 10 months back, won their respective quarter-final matches (against Diana Huerta of Mexico and Lauren Polonich of Canada) without losing a game; in fact, neither has dropped a game so far this entire tournament. They have had mixed results against each other this past season, with Hall winning in five in the Harvard Club of New York Invitational in January, losing in five in a U. S. Nationals semi in Seattle in March and losing badly when the two met in the U. S. team trials last month.

Lily Lorentzen, the precocious USSRA Under-19 champion, also won her quarter-final in straight sets over Trinity College team member Isabel Restrepo of Colombia, and she will face top seed Samantha Teran, who thwarted what would otherwise have been an Americans-only semi when she won the fifth game of her round of 16 match against Michelle Quibell before disposing of Colombian Mariana De Reyes in much more peremptory 9-0, 0 and 0 fashion in the quarters.

None of the American men made it to the semis, and all but one of them were eliminated by the host nation's own unseeded Jose Becemil, whose path from the round of 32 onwards in this tournament has required him to defeat, sequentially, top seed and '03 Pan American Games bronze medalist Preston Quick, the two-time S. L. Green champion, Yale sophomore star Julian Illingworth and USSRA Under-19 champion Christopher Gordon, the youngest member of the American team and the only one to attain the quarters.

Becemil will now oppose Jorge Gutierrez of Argentina, who ousted Becemil's compatriot Jorge Baltazar in his quarter-final. In the bottom quarter, the lone remaining American, S. L. Green finalist Michael Puertas, lost in four games in the round of 16 to Trinity star Bernardo Samper, who won the Intercollegiate Individual title two years ago as a freshman but then lost yesterday's quarter-final match to Robertino Pezzota of Argentina. The latter will now face Erick Galvez, who defeated his Mexican countryman Mariano Aguilar in the balancing bottom-half quarter.

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