2nd Annual Xelani Open Recap
We may not have had any sanctioned/official pro racquetball last weekend but we did have an excellent draw at the @Alex Zamudio hosted Xelani Open, held on the campus of the University of Miami. Here’s a recap.
r2 sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=45108
24 players representing seven different countries and including a massive contingent from Bolivia traveled to south Florida to compete. The top two seeds were last year’s finalists Ecuadorian Jose Daniel Ugalde Albornoz and Mexican @Diego Gastelum , who went on a fantastic run to make the final in Feb 2023.
Here’s a recap of the action.
In Men’s Singles:
– The only upset by seed in the early rounds of note was Bolvian Anduari Segundo, a complete unknown to the PRS researchers, who took out #11 Colombian Andres Gomez in the 32s then top east coast amateur @Dylan Pruitt (recently relocated from Maryland to Florida) in the 16s.
– In the quarters, Ugalde went breaker to set down Bolivian youngster Miguel Arteaga before moving on. @Mario Mercado, former IRT touring pro and former IRT Tier 1 Champion, set down top Bolivian Junior @Jhonatan Flores in three (Flores is the reigning 18U world champ and took out Jake Bredenbeck at the IRT stop in Chicago earlier this year). Bolivian turned Argentine @Diego Garcia Quispe set down the upset-minded Segundo in two,
– The big upset at this juncture was #2 seed Gastelum being dominated by recently crowned Virginia state champ @Ezequiel Subieta in two 7,9. Subieta has a solid pedigree; he represented Bolivia in the 2019 World Juniors as a 14 yr old, getting upset as a top seed in the knockouts. We havn’t heard from him since, but he’s in line to be playing in his age 19 season in 2024.
– In the semis, last year’s champion went down in defeat, an upset by seed but not by talent. Mercado cruised past Ugalde 7,6. Meanwhile, the always dangerous Garcia handled the upstart Subieta 8,9 to setup a great final between two under-rated players.
– In the singles final, Garcia really took it to the veteran Mercado, winning the first game 15-2 before finishing things off 15-9.
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Open Doubles recap:
As it turned out, the top four singles seeds all teamed up to form the top 2-seeds in Doubles, and they ended up playing for the title. In the final. #2 Gastelum & Garcia split the first two games 15-14, 14-15 with the #1 seeds Mercado & Ugalde before pulling away late to win the breaker 11-7 and to give Garcia the double.
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that’s a wrap from Miami. We’ll recap the excellent SLP local event next. Next up on the rball calendar is the IRT Golden State Open, held this coming weekend in Pleasanton. For now, its the last opportunity for pros to earn points towards the 2024 year end title race, so its gonna be a big one.