2011 Pan Am Games - Team competition begins

The team competition of the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico began Sunday. In this competition, countries compete against each other in a best of three matches, consisting of two singles matches and a doubles match. The order of the matches varies, so, for example, the doubles match could be the first, second or third match, if necessary.

An aspect of the team competition is that countries can shuffle their line ups from the individual competitions, so the players who competed in singles or doubles or both may not be the same in the team competition as it was in the earlier individual competition.

For example, it seems Chris Crowther is playing singles and doubles for the USA.

The first result goes to the Ecuador men's team, who defeated Dominican Republic 2-0, winning the two singles matches, as Fernando Rios defeated Luis Perez, 15-10, 15-10, and Jose Ugalde beat Ramon De Leon, 15-8, 15-7. Ecuador will now play Canada in the quarter finals.

In other early men's action, Argentina defeated Costa Rica with a doubles win, 15-8, 15-12, after spliting their singles matches with Daniel Maggi (Arg) beating Teobaldo Fumero (CR), 15-3, 15-14, and Felipe Camacho (CR) besting Shai Manzuri (Arg), 7-15, 15-4, 11-1. Argentina will now play Mexico in the quarter finals.

Finally in the first round, Bolivia beat Honduras in two straight matches. Ricardo Monroy beat Selvin Cruz, 15-2, 15-2, and Carlos Keller defeated Raul Banegas, 15-1, 15-12. Bolivia then played the USA in the quarter finals, and lost 2-0.

American Chris Crowther was part of both winning matches against Bolivia, as he beat Carlos Keller, 15-7, 15-10, and teamed with Shane Vanderson to win doubles over Roland Keller and Monroy, 15-7, 15-10.

Mexico also won 2-0 in the men's quarter finals. Alvaro Beltran was part of the two wins for Mexico as they defeated Argentina. Beltran defeated Shai Manzuri, 15-6, 15-4, and teamed with Javier Moreno to win doubles over Manzuri and Daniel Maggi, 15-10, 15-10.

USA will play Ecuador in the semi-finals, as Ecuador defeated Canada 2-1. Jose Alvarez and Fernando Rios (Ecuador) beat Mike Green and Kris Odegard in doubles, 15-7, 11-15, 11-8. Vincent Gagnon leveled the match at 1-1 with a 15-7, 15-9 victory over Jose Ugalde. But in the tie-breaker, Rios defeated Tim Landeryou, 15-13, 15-13.

In women's quarter final action, top seeded Mexico beat Venezuela. Samantha Salas defeated Mariana Tobon, 15-0, 15-6, and then teamed with Paola Longoria to defeat Tobon and Ishey Paredes, 15-3, 15-1.

Ecuador defeated Canada, 2-1, with wins in singles - Maria Paz Munoz defeating Jennifer Saunders, 15-4, 15-11 - and doubles - Munor and Maria Cordova beat Saunders and Brandi Jacobson Prentice, 12-15, 15-10, 11-1. Frédérique Lambert defeated Cordova, 15-7, 8-15, 11-2.

The USA beat the Dominican Republic, 2-0, as Cheryl Gudinas beat Yira Portes, 15-0, 15-1, and Rhonda Rajsich and Aimee Ruiz beat Portes and Claudine Garcia, 15-9, 15-6.

Bolivia were also 2-0 winners, defeating Chile, as Maria Vargas beat Carla Munoz, 15-5, 15-6, and Jenny Daza and Cintia Loma beat Munoz and Angela Grisar, 15-6, 15-7.

In the first round match, Venezuela beat Argentina, 2-1. Mariana Tobon (Ven) beating Dafne Macrino (Arg), 15-2, 15-3, Véronique Guillemette (Arg) defeating Ishey Paredes, 15-6, 15-6, then Tobon and Paredes won the doubles 15-8, 13-15, 11-9, over Guillemette and Macrino.

The team competition runs Sunday October 23 to Tuesday October 25.

2011 Pan American Games - Guadalajara, Mexico

Women's Team - Quarter finals

Mexico d. Venezuela, 2-0
Ecuador d. Canada, 2-1

Bolivia d. Chile, 2-0
USA d. Dominican Republic, 2-0

Women's Team - Semi-finals

Mexico d. Ecuador
USA vs. Bolivia

Men's Team - Quarter finals

Mexico d. Argentina, 2-0
Colombia d. Venezuela, 2-1

USA d. Bolivia, 2-0
Ecuador d. Canada, 2-1

Men's Team - Semi-finals

Mexico vs. Colombia
USA vs. Ecuador

Men's Team - First round

Ecuador d. Dominican Republic, 2-0
Bolivia d. Honduras, 2-1
Argentina d. Costa Rica, 2-1

Follow the bouncing ball....