Gran Torneo Del San Isidro Wrap-Up
Hello Fans. We have a break in the schedule this week, but there was an interesting non-Tier 1 IRT event last weekend in Mexico, and another this weekend in Sonora. We don’t normally cover non-Tier 1 IRT events (and we do not load them to the databases), but this draw featured strong local draws of top players that I wanted to cover. So here’s a wrap up of the Tier 4 International Racquetball Tour event called Gran Torneo Del San Isidro, held in Torreon, Mexico. We’ll wrap the Sonora Open early next week.
The Men’s Pro draw from Torreon is here at r2sports.com.
Here’s a quick wrap of the event from the quarters on:
In the Quarters
– #1 seed Javier Mar topped Ernesto Ochoa in a tiebreaker. Ochoa made a great run to the 2017 Alamo City open, topping both Gerardo Franco Gonzalez and Andree Parrilla along the way.
– #4 seed Jaime Martell Neri was upset by #5 seed Javier Estrada. Martell won the 2018 WRT Georgia Open, downing both David Horn and Jake Bredenbeck along the way.
– #3 seed Alan Natera Chavez squeaked by #6 Eduardo Lalo Portillo 11-10 in the breaker. Portiollo is still playing in 18U, lost in the 18U World Juniors last year but has a 16U World Juniors title under his belt. He’s part of a crew of players in the 18-22 range in Mexico right now who are all world class.
– #2 seed Rodrigo Montoya Solís defeated #10 seed Rogilio Ramirez in two.
In the Semis:
– #1 Mar was stretched to a tiebreaker by #4 Estrada but advanced. Estrada and Mar met in the semis of the 2017 Mexican Nationals, but his career win may be his round of 16 win over world #2 Alejandro Alex Landa in the Mexican Worlds selection event in June, knocking Landa out of contention for a spot on the Mexican world’s team.
– #2 Montoya cruised by #5 Natera 6,5. Natera has had a fantastic year, making the semis of the 2018 Mexican Nationals as the #32 seed, beating #1 seeded Mar, Gerardo Franco and Christian Longoria before falling to world #4 Daniel De La Rosa in the semis.
The final unfortunately was a walk-over win by Montoya over Mar, robbing the fans of a potentially fantastic match. Montoya is of course the defending world champ, and Mar beat two top 10 IRT players in Mario Mercado and Samuel Murray en route to the US Open quarters last October. Mar also topped Montoya in the final of the WRT 2017 La Loma event. Meanwhile Montoya’s capabilities are well known, winning a stacked 2018 World’s event by topping the likes of Luis Conrrado Moscoso Serrudo, Horn and Charlie Pratt in the final.
Darn, would have loved to see a Montoya-Mar final!