Pan Am Games – Doubles Events Progress
(by Steve Hopkins)
The 2019 Pan American Games are underway in Lima, Peru. The tournament will run from August 4 to 10 with Doubles events starting Sunday and Singles and Team events later this week and concluding next weekend.
The top seed in Men’s Singles is Hugo Calderano (World No. 6). His teammate, Gustavo Tsuboi, is the second seed (World No. 32), and USA’s Kanak Jha (World No. 33) is the third seed. The top Men’s Team seed is Brazil with Tsuoboi, Jouti, and Calderano. Chile is the second seed with Gomez, Lamadrid, and Moya. Team USA is seeded third with Kanak Jha, Nikhil Kumar, and Nicholas Tio. The Puerto Rican team of Brian Afanador, Daniel Gonzalez, and Angel Naranjo is seeded sixth. The Canadian team is seeded tenth (Eugene Wang, Jeremy Hazin, and Marko Medjugorac).
In Women’s Singles, Canada’s Mo Zhang is the top seed at World No. 27, Adriana Diaz (No. 30) of Puerto Rico is second, and Americans Jennifer Wu and Lily Zhang are third and fourth seed (at World No 35 and WSorld No. 66). Team USA is the tournament’s top seed with Amy Wang joining Wu and Zhang. Puerto Rico is the second seed with Adriana Diaz, Melanie Diaz, and Daniely Rios. Team Canada if fifth with Mo Zhang, Alicia Cote, and Ivy Liao.
Medal Round Results (Doubles through mid-day Monday):
The Mixed Doubles Semifinals matched Brazil versus Puerto Rico and USA versus Canada. Brazil’s team of Tsuboi/Takahashi defeated Puerto Rico’s Afanador/Diaz team 4-1 to advance. Canada’s Wang/Zhang team topped USA’s Jha/Wu team 4-1. It will be Brazil versus Canada for the Gold later on Monday.
The Women’s Doubles Semifinals and the Men’s Doubles Semifinals are scheduled for Monday evening. In the Women’s Doubles event it will be Brazil (Takahashi/Yamada) versus Puerto Rico (Diaz/Diaz) and USA (Wu/Zhang) versus Canada (Cote/Zhang). In the Men’s Doubles event it will be Brazil (Calderano/Tsuboi) versus Puerto Rico (Afanador/Gonzales) and Dominican Republic (Santos/Wu) versus Argentina (Alto/Cifuentes).
Singles events begin on Monday as well.
Check in at ButterflyOnline.com for updates throughout the event.
