Rebecca Marino, in bid for Olympic tennis berth, drops Pan Am Games semifinal
Vancouver athlete to play for bronze Sunday; Julien Frascadore claims silver in judo
Rebecca Marino isn't headed to the Paris Olympics for Canada, yet, but will play for a tennis bronze medal at the Pan Am Games.
Third-seeded Lourdes Carle of Argentina defeated the Vancouver athlete 6-1, 6-4 in one hour 25 minutes in semifinal action on Saturday in Santiago, Chile.
Canada has yet to win a women's singles tennis medal in 72 years of the Pan Am Games.
"Everyone wants a Pan Am medal here," Marino told The Canadian Press. "My roommates are cyclists. They won some medals and it means a lot. Not many people can say that they're a Pan Am medallist, so if I can get that, that's fantastic."
Reaching the final would have provisionally qualified Marino, ranked 166th in the world, for Paris next summer.
Marino, who hadn't reached the semifinals at a tournament this season until Saturday, will face Laura Pigossi of Brazil in Sunday's bronze-medal match at 10 a.m. ET. She downed Argentia's Julia Riera 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7) in the other semifinal Saturday.
"It's definitely disappointing losing the match today. I know what was on the line. It was a ticket to Paris," Marino said. "There's a lot of emotion with that.
"I still feel really confident with my level. I did everything I could and I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow in that match. Leave everything on the court. That's sort of why I'm here."
Gutsy 2nd set
The tournament's No. 2 seed, Marino struggled on first serve in a 27-minute opening set, posting a 52 per cent success rate to 87 per cent for Carle, 23. Also, the 32-year-old converted three of nine points on second serve to three of six by her opponent.
The Canadian put forth a more gutsy performance in the second set, leading 3-1 and held the advantage at 4-4 and 5-4, but couldn't finish off Carle, with the latter breaking Marino's serve to clinch an Olympic berth and a medal at these Games.
"My opponent was a really solid clay-courter. I play more hard court as a Canadian," Marino said. "She hit the ground running and didn't give me much room to breathe, or to try to find my game.
"My primary goal was to try to be a little bit more aggressive as the match continued and find my footing and find my confidence. I felt like I did a good job of that, but it was a little too late. She really stepped it up in that last game. She did a good job of utilizing the surface and using a heavy ball to move me around."
Marino began this week defeating 18-year-old Deborah Dominguez of Guatemala and Anastasia Iamchkine of Peru. She then outlasted Yuliana Lizarazo of Colombia in three sets (7-5, 4-6, 6-4) in Friday's quarterfinals.
In her 2019 Pan Am Games debut, Marino lost her first-round match in Lima, tore her plantar fascia and was sidelined 18 months.
"I left in crutches, so this one I'll say is a better experience," she said.
Last month, Marino lost to American Elizabeth Mandlik in the quarterfinals at the Japan Open. She also fell to Patricia Maria Tig of Romania 7-6 (6), 7-6(1) in the opening round of the U.S. Open in New York in August.
WATCH | Highlights of Saturday's early action from Santiago, Chile:
Elsewhere, Canadian judoka Julien Frascadore wasn't able to follow his first career Pan-American title with a gold medal in his Pan Am Games debut.
The 23-year-old lasted only 40 seconds in his four-minute gold-medal match, losing by ippon to Willis Garcia of Venezuela, who is 10 years his senior.
Garcia scored an ippon — the highest score a fighter can achieve — and automatic victory in the men's under 66-kilogram weight class by executing a "perfect" throw that put his Quebec City opponent on his back at the Contact Sports Center.
WATCH | Highlights of Saturday's late action:
Frascadore began his day defeating Robin Sergio Jara Arana of Mexico in the Round of 16, Lenin Preciado of Ecuador
in the quarterfinals and Juan Postigos of Peru in the semifinals.
In mid-September, Frascadore was champion of the men's under 66 kg bracket at the Pan American Oceania championships in Calgary. A month earlier, he won gold at Jeux de la Francophonie in Kinshasa, Congo.
Canada has won 88 medals (32 gold, 26 silver, 30 bronze) after eight days of competition.
The U.S. leads the medal standings with 154, including 61 gold.
With files from The Canadian Press
