Henry beaten in round of 16 at Pan Am

Team Jamaica did not progress past the round of 16 in the Pan Am Games on Saturday in the singles events.

Gareth Henry, who received a bye into the round of 16, drew No. 1 from Canada Andrew D'Souza, and initially seemed ready for the challenge. In the first game, Henry raced ahead to a 6-2 lead and kept the momentum going to an easy first-game win at 21-16. The tables turned in the second game, with D'Souza taking the lead at 9-3, but despite Henry's hard-fought return to 14-14, he was unable to keep pace with D'Souza, who levelled the match to 1-1, taking it to a third-set decider. D'Souza surged to an early lead in the third set, which he maintained to secure the game and the match at 21-11.

In the other singles matches of the day, Dayvon Reid from Jamaica was no match for No. 3 seed of the tournament, Kevin Cordon (Guatemala), and lost in straight sets 21-12 and 21-14, while Jamaica's ladies, Ruth Williams and Katherine Wynter, were also ousted in the round of 16. Williams lost in straight-sets to Chile's Tingting Chou 21-16, 21-8, while Wynter had a similar straight-set loss to Mexico's Mariana Ugalde 21-14, 21-12.

Jamaica redeemed themselves in both mixed doubles matches played yesterday. Reid, paired with Williams, made easy work of the Venezuelan pair of Sanchez and Ortiz, with a final score of 21-14, 21-14. And Henry and Wynter had a slightly tougher time disposing of their opponents from Ecuador, Zambrano, and Zambrano with a final score of 23-21, 21-19.