By Neto Baptiste
Antigua and Barbuda’s Jody Maginley, following his exit from the singles tennis competition at this year’s Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru, said he was beaten by a player who was simply better on the day.
Maginley, who plays on the pro circuit, was beaten 6-1, 6-3 by Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo on Wednesday, a defeat that put the Antiguan out of the tournament.
“I think he played well, he made me feel a lot of pressure on my serve because I only held serve once and that is highly unusual; I think I had chances because I broke serve a couple of times and so I felt like I put myself in a good position, especially in the second set because the first set wasn’t all that close,” he said.
Maginley said he will focus on the things he needs to work on but will first take some much needed rest.
“I know the areas I need to work on and it’s nothing different from what I knew last week so it’s the same thing, it has just been a process. I just have to keep working on the same things to improve and put myself in position to win matches at these championships,” he said.
“I have been going for about two or three months with not much break so I will take a bit of a break, maybe a week off with light training and then I have a month of just basically getting back in shape and putting in the work. I will go back out in September and play some pro tournaments in the US,” the professional player added.
Maginley’s exit comes on the heels of a bronze medal performance by boxer Alston Ryan who won the country’s first medal in that discipline earlier this week.