"The course of true love never did run smooth." Lysander's lament in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" could also apply to the 2019 Pan American Junior Championships. Everything was running smoothly for Team USA in the tournament, staged this June 24-29 in Cancún, having won gold in the junior girls' teams, junior boys' teams and mixed doubles events. The team wins qualified the USA boys and girls to compete in the World Junior Championships this November in Thailand. The USA had at least one semifinalist in all the remaining junior girls' and boys' singles and doubles events. It was midday Saturday. The USA girls' doubles matches were underway. Amy Wang and Crystal Wang led Guatemala's Lucia Cordero and Hidalynn Zapata 8-5 in the first game. In the other semifinal, Rachel Sung and Rachel Yang had lost the first game to Canada's Ivy Liao and Benita Zhou, but were leading 5-3 in the second. Things were looking very bright for the USA juniors until everything went dark. Literally. With no warning or explanation, the tournament venue owners suddenly shut off all the lights in the building. All remaining matches were postponed and everyone went home, mystified and quite unsatisfied. In September, all four semifinalists in the junior girls' singles happened to be in Asunción, Paraguay for the 2019 Pan American Championships. On September 9, about 3,760 miles from where it all began, the USA's Amy Wang overcame teammate Rachel Sung to be crowned the 2019 Pan American Junior Girls' Champion. Now, with the USA juniors in Korat, Thailand for the aforementioned World Junior Championships, another one of the events was given its even more belated conclusion. Nearly five months and 10,000 miles from June in Cancún, all four semifinalists were on hand from the junior boys' singles. The USA's Nikhil Kumar went the distance in his matchup with Chile's Nicolas Burgos, ultimately losing in seven. Kumar's compatriot Victor Liu, on the other hand, was victorious in his semifinal with Panama's Jacobo Vahnish, setting up a title match with Burgos. Liu (pictured) would face a deficit of two games to nil before rallying to win the next three. The sixth game went down to the wire before the Chilean won at deuce, carrying that momentum through the seventh game to the title. With Liu claiming silver and Kumar a bronze in the absurdly delayed event, they then got back to the mission at hand. In the current World Junior Championships, they made the quarterfinals before settling for a very respectable eight-place overall finish. The USA junior girls did even better, finishing fifth. Now matters turn to doubles and individual events, to conclude December 1st. Let us be united in our hope that their course runs smooth.

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