Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: @Kane Waselenchuk
– Doubles: @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball & Javier Mar
The comeback is complete. Waselenchuk, who ascended to the #1 spot on tour for the first time in years, secured the 2024 year end title in dominant fashion at this event in Pleasanton. He wins his 128th career pro Tier 1 title, extending his lead over his LPRT counterpart to 15 (Paola Longoria has 113 career Tier 1 titles). More importantly, Kane secures his 15th career year-end pro title, and will do so at the age of 43, which is 4 years older than the previous record-holder. We’ll do a deeper-dive into the year end standings once all of 2023’s points expire, but suffice it to say, we’re seeing something pretty amazing here for any sport.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=45389
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/l60
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In the 64s, there were no real upsets of note. We got a ton of international vs international matches for young Bolivians who made the trip.
– American junior DJ Mendoza got a nice win over an up and coming Mexican Junior Sebastian Ruelas
– @gerson Miranda took out veteran international Juan Francisco Cueva .
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In the 32s:
– #21 Mar took out #12 Robbie Collins with ease
– #19 Carson advanced over #14 Carrasco as expected.
– the biggest result of the round was #4 @Andres Acuña holding firm and taking out Argentine Diego Garcia . Acuna dropped the first game but then found another gear and blitzed to a (10),2,3 win. I thought this would go the other way for sure in my preview.
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In the 16s:
– Kane crushed @Diego Gastelum 2,2, a bit of a different vibe than the last time they met.
– Mar upset #5 @Jake Bredenbeck to finish off a pretty disappointing season for the USA top dog.
– #3 Montoya got an injury default against Rocky when he took an awkward step in a rally and tweaked something in his knee.
– Tourney host and #6 Adam Manilla got a really surprising win (to this observer) by taking out the red-hot @Jordy Alonso 10,9. Great win to overcome a guy who’s shown to be a force lately on tour.
– #7 @EErick Trujillo got a walkover against @Jaime Martell Racquetball when Jaime got some really awful news from home and had to fly back immediately. Our thoughts are with Martell and his family during this tough time.
– #2 @Andree Parrilla , who had a very distant shot at maybe possibly catching Kane for #1 … fell in the 16s to his doubles partner and drastically under-seeded #15 Eduardo Portillo Rendon
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In the Quarters
– Kane crushed @Alan Natera for the third tourney running at this juncture
– Mar got an injury walkover against Acuna, one of three WBF-INJ at this event.
– Manilla got a career best win by toppling Rodrigo Montoya in three. He secures just his second ever career pro singles semi final on his home courts.
– Portillo destroyed his younger Mexican rival Trujillo 7,1 to move into the semis.
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In the Semis
– Kane crushed Mar 6,3, showing no mercy this event. Mar once played a famous game against Kane at the US Open when practically no one knew who he was, using his touch to really flummox the champ and keep the game close … today was not one of those days.
– Manilla mounted a fantastic comeback in the breaker, saving match-points against at 7-10 and then rolling off four straight points to win 11-10 and move into his first career final. Both played well enough to win, and when Lalo missed an easy short-hop even Favio on the mike said, “that’s going to cost him.” And it did.
In the Finals, two lefties faced off for a pro title for the first time since a 2009 final in Allentown, PA between Kane and @Mitch Williams (ironically, Mitch’s sole career final). Manilla jumped ahead early, and kept game one close with some off-speed mid-lob Z serves and with great subterfuge on his drives, but as is typical of Kane, he hung in and ground out the game one win. Game two was more fo the same early before Kane just took over for the title 11,8.
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Points Implications of results
In the immediate aftermath of this event, Kane opens up a massive lead atop the standings to #2 Moscoso, one that will grow even more once the last two events expire from the tail end of last year (one of which was a Tier1 Moscoso win). In fact, Moscoco probably will fall to #3 once we get to December 31st. Manilla’s huge event will jump him to #4, just ahead of Parrilla. Jake will take a tumble in the ranks but will maintain top 10 status.
https://irttour.com/rankings/ are now updated for the event this past weekend.
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Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/ply
Montoya and Mar maintain their dominance atop the pro doubles tour. Montoya has now made the finals of 12 of the last 14 competed pro doubles events, many of them with Mar, and won seven of them. They topped the field again, this time beating Manilla & Bredenbeck in the final.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Two LPRT talents @Veronica Sotomayor and @Erika Manilla entered the Men’s open singles here. This is Erika’s first event back post hip surgery, while Vero had come down from Washington state with husband Sudsy Monchik to play some ball with their business partner Mark C Frank .
– Both ladies made the Open semis, but both ended falling to the same kid: Bolivian junior Sebastian Terrazas, who is playing in his age 15 season in 2024 and was the 2021 12U world champ. Watch out for this kid.
– The Argentine national Men’s doubles team of Miranda/Garcia took the Open doubles draw filled with junior national doubles teams competing next month at Junior Worlds.
– Andrea Perez-Picon took the Women’s Open RR.
– Perez-Picon also took the Mixed Open doubles draw, a fun draw where she ended up beating her sister Estefania in the finals.
– A star-studded 100+ Men’s doubles was taken by two NorCal locals Derek Chock & Greg Vezey, who got some solid wins.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Steve Schulze, Pablo Fajre, Richard Eisemann and the IRTLive crew
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Manilla and @Bobby Horn for putting this event on!
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Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
The LPRT is back in action this coming weekend at the Glass Door in Lombard for the annual Turkey shoot event! We’ll be back with a preview later this week.
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tags
International Racquetball Tour