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US Women Advance to Meet Canada for Gold
By Rob Dinerman © 2002 SquashTalk

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August 31 , 2002 © 2002
[index of Pan Am reports] [Men's Team Draw] Women's Team Draw

Canada - USA Showdown

QUITO, -- The U. S. Women's team overpowered Brazil yesterday afternoon in the semi-final round of the 2002 Pan American Federation Cup and will now face a strong Canadian contingent in the final, which is scheduled to begin at 3 o'clock this afternoon.

It was the fifth 3-0 tally in as many attempts for the Americans, who have been playing as if they were double-parked and who continued that no-nonsense approach by brusquely dispatching the Brazilians in three matches that combined did not consume even one hour.

Julia Beaver started off with a 9-1, 3 and 4 win over against Pamela Pomporna, following which the No. 1 match went on between Latasha Khan, a three-time and current U. S. National champion, and Brazil's Karen Redfern, who had reached the semis of the individual tourney last week while Khan had been eliminated in the second round.

The Seattle-based American star has had difficulty in the early stages of several of her team matches as well, but from the very outset she assumed complete control against an opponent who was clearly sub-par physically and going for (and tinning) shots that simply were not there.

The first game went by quickly, 9-0 for Khan, who exploited Redfern's apparent fatigue and inability to change direction by holding the ball, letting Redfern make her first move and then hitting it in the opposite direction. The attritional nature of nearly a dozen combined individual and team matches in virtually as many days had by this time taken a serious toll on Redfern, who had barely lost in a fourth-set tiebreaker in the individual semis against Canada's Marnie Baizley before bowing to Baizley's teammate Melanie Jans in the bronze medal match.

She retired after dropping the second game 9-2 to Khan, giving the Americans the team victory and reducing the final match (which Shabana Khan took 9-4, 9-2) to a best-of-three dead rubber.

The upcoming final with Canada will be the first true test for either team and a formidable one it will be for the Americans, given the skills of Jans---who in yesterday's balancing semi against Mexico reversed last week's four-game semi-final loss in the individual to eventual champion Samantha Teran in a back-and-forth five in which she led 2-0 but trailed 7-4 in the fifth before rallying to win 9-7---and her teammates Baizley, the individual silver medalist, who won in three over Mexico's Karina Herrena, and Lauren Wagner, who had upset top individuals seed Latasha Khan in the round-of-16.

Wagner was given an unexpected walkover yesterday when the vanquished Mexicans declined to play the dead rubber.

The American men rebounded from Thursday's disappointing 2-1 quarter-final defeat against Canada by easily beating host Ecuador, three matches to love.

They will now face top seed Mexico, another quarter-final casualty, in today's match for 5th or 6th place overall. Ecuador was only able to field two players since injuries had sidelined the rest of their squad, and Dave McNeely, who hasn't dropped a match in this entire team event, and Damian Walker both won fairly handily, pretty much saving themselves for what should be a much more competitive go this afternoon.

Physical maladies of several types almost prevented the Canadian men from reaching today's team final against Argentina and may well doom their hopes for a Canada men's-women's "double."

In yesterday's exciting semi-final with Brazil, Shawn DeLierre gave his country a crucial early win by rallying from a two-game deficit to topple Luciano Barbosa 4-9 0-9 9-5 9-1 9-3 in a match in which he seemed to have no chance after getting shut out in that second game. But Canada's charismatic No. 1 Viktor Berg, whose game is premised on his normally bottomless energy supply and mobility, was deprived of both of these traits by a hip injury that only worsened as his match with Rafael Arlaton wore on, especially when his desperate attempt to come away with a close first game fell short in a 9-8 tiebreaker in which Berg's highly unusual "one-point" call when Arlaton caught him at 8-all betrayed his lack of confidence in his rapidly deteriorating physical capabilities.

After then losing the second game 9-1 and falling hopelessly behind 7-0 in the third, Berg bowed to the inevitable and retired, leaving the team outcome in the hands of Canadian veteran Sabir Butt and Ronivaldo Santos, who worked his way to a two games to one advantage after losing the opening set. It was at this crossroads stage that Butt's experience, which had served him so well in Thursday's quarter-final win over American Preston Quick, once again came to the fore, as he was able to make a series of subtle adjustments that reversed the match's momentum and enabled him to capture the vital closing laps of his vital 9-6 4-9 6-9 9-3 9-3 victory that gave Canada a 2-1 team win.

Berg is doubtful for the final with Argentina, which won the other semi by defeating a Colombia squad that had upset Mexico. It appears likely that both Butt and Delierre may have to replicate their semi-final heroics against Brazil, given Viktor's condition and that of the fourth Canadian team member Ian Power, who has been suffering grievously with a case of intestinal flu that caused him to get sick on the court in Wednesday's round-of-16 match against Jamaica.

The end of this nearly two-week-long competition can't come soon enough for many of the participants, and the swiftness with which the American women have won their pre-final matches may play an important role in today's conclusion to what has become at least as much a battle of attrition as a contest of strategy and technical skill.

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