The Race to Paris reached a dead heat with a few Olympic contenders making the semifinals of the VVVII Pan Am Individual Championships 2024 in Guatemala.
Mixed doubles contenders Ty Alexander Lindeman/Josephine Wu of Canada, currently the top Pan Am pair at No.31, will face USA’s Presley Smith/Allison Lee in the semifinals.
The Canadians’ closest challengers Vinson Chiu/Jennie Gai, who are just 920 points behind, also made the semifinals, where they take on Brazil’s Fabricio Farias/Jaqueline Lima.
Vinson Chiu & Jennie Gai
Josephine Wu also faces a test in women’s doubles when she and Catherine Choi take on USA’s Francesca Corbett/Allison Lee, while the other semifinal will feature frontrunners Annie Xu/Kerry Xu against Jaqueline Lima/Samia Lima. The Xu sisters currently lead the Pan Am qualifiers at No.32 in the world rankings, but they are ahead of Choi/Wu by just 172 points. Corbett/Lee are further behind the Canadians by 3501 points.
In the quarterfinals yesterday, Lindeman/Wu prevailed over Mexico’s Luis Armando Montoya Navarro/Miriam Jacqueline Rodriguez Perez in straight games, after a morning scare in the second round, where they were taken to three tight games by Guatemala’s Christopher Alexander Martinez Salvador/Mariana Isabel Paiz Quan, 21-16 17-21 21-18.
Chiu/Lai followed them into the semifinals holding off Canada’s Kevin Lee/Eliana Zhang 21-14 21-19.
Other Highlights
Rachel Chan of Canada
» The women’s singles semifinals will feature Canada versus USA, with top seed Beiwen Zhang against Rachel Chan, and second seed Michelle Li against Lauren Lam.
» The men’s singles semifinals will see the top four seeds in action. Top seed Brian Yang faces El Salvador’s Uriel Francisco Canjura Artiga, while second seed Kevin Cordon is up against Ygor Coelho.
BWF Newsletter
