Pan Am Fed Update
June 27, 2004, By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004

Pan American Federation Cup Update: Quick, Quibell Both Narrowly Edged Out In Second Round

Two-time and reigning S. L. Green champion Preston Quick and Intercollegiate Individual woman's title-holder Michelle Quibell both were eliminated, though only barely, yesterday afternoon in second-round action in the Individual portion of the 2004 Pan American Federation Cup, held this year in Tepic, Mexico.

Top seed Quick, whose bronze medal in last year's Pan American Games marked the first time that an American man earned an individual medal of any kind in this hemisphere competition, has made a habit over the past few years of rescuing matches, especially in the final round of important tournaments, that has bordered on legendary status, including the 8-4 fifth-game deficit he surmounted against Damian Walker in the '03 S. L. Green final and the multiple match-balls-against he saved in the third, fourth and fifth games this past winter against Damien Mudge in the Tournament Of Champions Teaching Pro final in Grand Central Station.

But this time it was Quick himself who was overtaken and edged out in both the third and fourth games by Jose Becemil of the host nation, who then closed Quick out in the fifth game to complete a remarkable 5-9 6-9 9-8 10-8 9-1 upset victory in the round of 32. Becemil will now face another American, namely Julian Illingworth, an easy victor over Feo Valecillo of Venezuela. Their teammates Chris Gordon and Michael Puertas, Quick's co-finalist in this year's S. L. Green and the winner of the recent Team Trials in Westchester late last month, are also safely through, with Puertas now scheduled to go up against a familiar figure in American squash, Colombia's Bernardo Samper, the captain of Trinity College's national championship team and the winner of the '02 Intercollegiate Individual title. Samper's former Bantam teammate Nickolas Kyme, who played sparingly on the PSA/NA tour this past season from his base in his native Bermuda after graduating a year ago, is also still in the draw, having won his opening match.

Three of the four American entrants in the 32-player women's draw are still going strong. Last year's Pan American Games gold medal winner Latasha Khan, who also led the U. S. to their first-ever team gold, is not playing in this event, nor is her Canadian co-finalist Melanie Jans or any of the latter's '03 teammates. Lily Lorentzen, Louisa Hall and second seed Meredeth Quick are all safely through to the quarter-finals, with Lorentzen's 9-5 9-7 6-9 9-5 second-round win over Silvia Angulo of Colombia representing the only game any of this trio has dropped in their five combined matches.

Michelle Quibell had a real possibility of joining them after the gritty fashion in which she persevered through tiebreaker sessions in both the first and fourth games in her round of 16 marathon against the top-seeded Mexican Samantha Teran, an active player on the WISPA tour whose father, Javier, played on several of the Mexican squads that won the USSRA Five-Man Team Championship during the hardball nationals. After dropping the taut first game, Teran had dominated the second and third but when she fell just short in the fourth, she seemed to be in real trouble.
However, she was able to pull her game back together and assume a substantial lead in the fifth game which Quibell was not able to overcome, resulting in an exciting 8-10 9-1 9-0 8-10 9-4 win for Teran, who will now face Colombia Mariana De Reyes in the quarter-finals.

Squashtalk.com All materials © 1999-2004. Communicate with us at info@squashtalk.com.
Published by Squashtalk LLC, 409 Massachusetts Ave, Suite 102, Acton, MA 01720 USA, Editor and Publisher Ron Beck,
Graphics editor Debra Tessier Send comments, ideas, contributions and feedback to the webmaster.
Copyright © 1999-2004 SquashTalk, all rights reserved, may not be reproduced in any form except for one-time personal use.