The semi-finalists of the Pan America World Championship qualification event have been decided, as USA’s Nicholas Spizzirri and Colombia’s Lucia Bautista scored upsets to move into the final four in St Louis, Missouri.
Spizzirri was involved in an all-USA battle in the quarter finals, as he came up against event top seed Shahjahan Khan. The pair were involved in many hard, closely-fought rallies in the first two games but both went the way of the No.5 seed 11-9, 11-9. Khan managed to pull a game back by winning the third but Spizzirri bounced back in style to win game four 11-8 and continue his pursuit of a ticket to Cairo.
Spizzirri will now take on Guatemala’s Alejandro Enriquez after he beat USA’s Salim Khan also in four games. The bottom half semi-final will see two Argentines go head to head as No.2 seed Leandro Romiglio will take on Jeremias Azaña after the pair defeated David Baillargeon and Francesco Marcantonio in thier respective quarter final matches.
Women’s No.2 seed Laila Sedky suffered a shock loss in the women’s draw as she fell to Colombia’s Lucia Bautista in four games. The powerful Colombian took the first two games 14-12, 11-7 to place one foot in the semi-finals. Despite Sedky clawing a game back to extend the contest, Bautista showed her resilience to close out game four 11-8 and book her place in the final four.
She’ll now face Mexico’s Diana Garcia, after she needed five games to move past Canada’s former World No.16 Danielle Ray. Garcia established a 2-0 lead before Ray mounted an impressive comeback to level the match 2-2. The efforts needed to win games three and four seemed to catch up with the Canadian in the decider however as she was forced to retire at 7-1 down. Top seed Margot Prow was the only player to win 3-0 in the women’s quarters, beating Riva Bhagwati in just 25 minutes. She’ll face USA’s Caroline Fouts in the last four after she came through an all-USA battle with Lucie Stefanoni, winning 13-11 in the deciding fifth game.
The semi-finals get underway at 17:00 (GMT-6) live on SQUASHTV.
Results: Women’s Quarter-Finals
[1] Margot Prow (BAR) bt Riva Bhagwati (USA) 3-0: 11-7, 11-5, 11-5 (25m)[3] Caroline Fouts (USA) bt [8] Lucie Stefanoni (USA) 3-2: 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 6-11, 13-11 (54m)
[4] Diana Garcia (MEX) bt [7] Danielle Ray (CAN) 3-2: 11-8, 11-8, 10-12, 9-11, 7-1 ret. (46m)
[5] Lucia Bautista (COL) bt [2] Laila Sedky (USA) 3-1: 14-12, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7 (38m)
Results: Men’s Quarter-Finals
[5] Nicholas Spizzirri (USA) bt [1] Shahjahan Khan (USA) 3-1: 11-9, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8 (58m)[7] Alejandro Enriquez (GUA) bt Salim Khan (USA) 3-1: 11-4, 8-11, 11-9, 11-2 (56m)
[4] Jeremias Azaña (ARG) bt Francesco Marcantonio (PAR) 3-0: 11-4, 11-8, 11-8 (41m)
[2] Leandro Romiglio (ARG) bt [6] David Baillargeon (CAN) 3-1: 11-5, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8 (51m)
Draw: Women’s Semi-Finals
[1] Margot Prow (BAR) v [3] Caroline Fouts (USA)[4] Diana Garcia (MEX) v [5] Lucia Bautista (COL)
