Rebecca Marino, in bid for Olympic tennis berth, drops Pan Am Games semifinal

Rebecca Marino isn't headed to the Paris Olympics for Canada, yet, but will play for a tennis bronze medal at the Pan Am Games.

Third-seeded Lourdes Carle defeated the Vancouver athlete 6-1, 6-4 in one hour 25 minutes in semifinal action on Saturday in Santiago, Chile.

The 32-year-old Marino, the tournament's No. 2 seed, struggled on first serve in a 27-minute opening set, posting a 52 per cent success rate to 87 per cent for Carle, 23. Also, Marino converted three of nine points on second serve to three of six by her opponent.

The Canadian put forth a more gutsy performance in the second set and held the advantage at 4-4 and 5-4 but couldn't finish off Carle, who clinched an Olympic berth and a medal at these Games.

Marino, who hadn't reached the semifinals at a tournament this season until Saturday, will face Laura Pigossi of Brazil or Argentina's Juloia Riera in Sunday's bronze-medal match at 10 a.m. ET.

Marino began this week defeating 18-year-old Deborah Dominguez of Guatemala and Anastasia Iamchkine of Peru. On Friday, she outlasted Yuliana Lizarazo of Colombia in three sets (7-5, 4-6, 6-4).

Last month, Marino lost to American Elizabeth Mandlik in the quarterfinals at the Japan Open. She also fell to Patricia Maria Tig of Romania 7-6 (6), 7-6(1) in the opening round of the U.S. Open in New York in August.

Live coverage of the Pan Am Games continues on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.