PSA Club Campestre De Cali: Glass Shatters on Court in Dramatic Opening Day

Alfredo Avila Vergara came out on top of a dramatic five-game encounter with home favourite Ronald Palomino in round one of the PSA Club Campestre De Cali. 

Avila Vergara and Palomino were closing the day’s play on court 2, or at least that was what was supposed to happen. 

But with the score at 2-1 to the Mexican, the players returned to court to start game four, only for the glass back wall to shatter after Palomino collided with it on the first rally of the game. 

Play was unsurprisingly suspended, as the Colombian received medical attention and an alternative plan put in place to move play to court five. 

Upon the resumption of play on the other court, Palomino proceeded to win game four 11-9, forcing a decider, but the drama was not done there. 

At 9-8 up, Avila Vergara took a 15-minute injury break after Palomino had caught him with his racquet on the follow through of his swing, but the Mexican returned to court to complete victory, winning 11-9 in the fifth to set up a second-round clash with fourth seed Faraz Khan. 

That match was one of two to go the distance in round one in Colombia, with Josue Enriquez and Viktor Byrtus also going to five. 

Czech No.2 Byrtus lost game one but turned things around in the next half an hour, taking game two on a tiebreak and game three 11-6. 

He lost game four but then had victory within reach at 5-1 up in the fifth, only to lose six points in a row to hand the initiative back to the Guatemalan, who closed out the win 11-8 moments later. 

Defeat for Byrtus meant two of the eight [916] seeds went out in round one, with Sebastian Salazar having lost 3-1 to Colombia’s Edgar Ramirez earlier in the day. 

You can see a full breakdown of the results here.