Marino Heads to Pan American Games Semifinals After Thrilling Victory in Santiago

Photo : ITF

Rebecca Marino continues to be a brute force in the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. In the quarter-finals, she walked away with a victory in a hard-fought battle against Yuliana Lizarazo of Colombia in three sets 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

The Canadian, who is seeded second, saw much success in her first serves, scoring points on 72 per cent of them. Though she wasn’t dominant in her second serves, converting half of them into points was enough to propel her to the semifinals.

In her route to the semifinals, Marino bested Deborah Dominguez and Anastasia Iamchkine.

Marino took home the first set in a length duel where she dominated on her first serve. She won 80 per cent of her first serves, though she struggled slightly on her second serves. It made no difference to Marino in that set, as she managed to secure two break points and four aces to secure her initial win.

The second set went Lizarazo’s way as Marino saw her stats take a bit of a hit. She was still solid though less effective in her first serves, scoring points on 11 of her 16. Her Colombian opponent bested her in both first and second serve points, as well as converted break points, to take home the second set.

The evenly-fought match came to a thrilling conclusion in the third set, with Marino walking away with a stunning victory. Despite some more difficulty in points won on first serves, Marino had an easier time with her second serves, converting 75 per cent of them.

Break points in the third set were harder to come by for Marino, but it was all for naught as Lizarazo could not capitalize in the final moments of the match.

Tomorrow, Marino will face off against Lourdes Carle of Argentina, who is seeded third. As of the time of writing, it’s unclear when, exactly, Marino will play.

Written By

Louis Pavlakos