France-based top T&T table-tennis pair, Dexter St Louis and his step-daughter Rhean Chung, continued their unbeaten run at the Pan American Sport Festival in Mexico City with victories in their singles matches yesterday at the National Centre for Talent Development and High Performance Sports. St Louis, a five-time Caribbean singles champion, swept past Venezuelan, Marcos Rosas, 11–9, 11–8, 11–3 and Jamaica Ryan Peters, 11–9, 11–3, 11–4 in his Group Five matches to reach the main draw knockout stage. However, the two other local men, Aaron Wilson and Curtis Humphreys were beaten in their openers and faced must win matches to advance.
Wilson was humbled by Brazilian Ishiy Vitor, 9–11, 2–11, 4–11 in his Group Two opener and faced Costa Rica Jeison Martinez in his second match, while Humphreys went under to Argentine, Pablo Tabachnik, 10–12, 5–11, 9–11 and came up against Barbadian Kristian Doughty 8–11, 6–11, 1–11 in Group Seven. In the women’s competition, Chung, also a five-time Caribbean women’s champion, defeated Colombian Paloma Sarmiento 11–9, 11–7, 11–6 before she was taken the distance by Canadian Alicia Cote, 5–11, 11–6, 6–11, 11–4, 12–10 in Group Six, while ten-time national women’s single champion, Aleena Edwards was beaten in her Group Four curtain raiser 5–11, 7–11, 7–11 by Chile’s Paulina Vega with her final match against Dominican Republic, Lineth Vila carded for last night.
Last night in the men’s doubles, St Louis and Humphreys came up against Tyrese Knight and Marcus Smith of Barbados in the round-of-16 with a quarterfinal encounter against Argentine’s Gaston Alto and Pablo Tabachnik up next for the winners ahead of today’s semifinal and finals. In the women’s doubles, Chung and Ashley Quashie started off the round-of-16 versus Canada’s Alicia Cote and Michelle Liaw. On Thursday, the T&T men ended bottom of their round-robin Group Two series after losing to Canada and Dominican Republic, both by 3–1 margins while the local women’s team also suffered 1–3 losses, against Brazil and Guatemala with St Louis and Chung getting both wins in each category.