Argentina’s Leandro Romiglio and Guyana’s Nicolette Fernandes have captured the Panamerican Individual Squash Championships titles following respective wins over Colombian duo Juan Camilo Vargas and Laura Tovar in Guatemala City.
For Romiglio, it is a second Panamerican Individuals title after he took out Vargas by an 11-3, 11-8, 11-3 scoreline.
The World No.100 took out USA’s Spencer Lovejoy and Guatemala’s Josue Enriquez en route to the final, where he came up against Vargas in a repeat of the Val de Reuil Normandie three weeks previously.
That match went the way of Romiglio after 104 minutes of brutal action as the Argentinian qualified for the upcoming PSA World Championships, but this time around it was a more straightforward affair as Romiglio hit a consistent length to nullify his opponent’s attacking talents.
Meanwhile, Fernandes, a former World No.19, captured the women’s title for the first time in her career.
While caring for her father through his final stages of life during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fernandes’ only escape was going back to playing squash, a place she felt mentally and physically safe, which rekindled her love for the game.
Just over a month ago, thanks to efforts of Lorraine Ince, the Guyana Squash Association managed to put together Team Guyana, meaning Fernandes could travel to Guatemala to compete. Having retired from competition in 2016, this event was to act as a springboard for Fernandes, who had been considering playing in the upcoming World Masters in Poland this August.
Having been out of competition for over six years, she was no longer familiar with most of the players, but put together a fine run of form which saw her overcome Colombia’s Lucia Bautista and Canadian pair Maria Min and Hannah Blatt to reach the final. All of this was achieved with borrowed rackets.
Fernandes then capped a superb week with an 11-9, 11-4, 11-5 win over Tovar in the title decider.
Both Vargas and Tovar bounced back and achieved success in the men’s and women’s Doubles, respectively, while Colombia made it a hat-trick of Doubles success as Miguel Rodriguez and Lucia Boutista won the mixed event.