Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Andres Acuña
The Costa Rican takes advantage of a slew of upsets to come out on top and win his second career Tier 1 title.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=54042
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/760e6e
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In the 32s:
– LA-based former touring pro John Wolfe got an 11-9 win in the 16/17 seed match against Chicago’s Base Zera.
– DJ Mendoza needed a tiebreaker to beat his junior national doubles partner Cole Sendrey to move on.
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In the 16s:
– #8 Portillo got an injury walkover against Alonso in his 8/9 match to move on and save some effort on the court.
– #5 Montoya blasted Gastelum, who had upset him in the previous event, to move on.
– #4 Flores cruised past upset-minded Trujillo 5,4 after having been stretched to a breaker against him earlier this season
– #6 Parrilla had to go breaker to beat countryman Martell.
– #7 Manilla took out fellow American lefty #10 Carter to move on.
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In the Quarters
– #8 Portillo took out a somewhat disinterested Kane Waselenchuk in a breaker 9,(11),5. Kane often found himself slightly out of position on these very slow panel courts, hitting a number of balls between his legs or going for circus shots as the pace of play seemed to be throwing him off. Meanwhile, the slow courts and slow ball seemed better suited to Lalo’s game, as he cruised to a game 1 win and a lead in Game 2. At that point, a frustrated Kane, who the previous point had wanted an avoidable on a jam serve he was aiming at the right corner, blasted a full force forehand into Portillo’s leg, attempting again to hit that reverse pinch and again demanding an avoidable. To many, it seemed like an intentional shot meant to inflict pain, or intimidation. Lalo worked through the blast without comment or complaint, and eventually took the match, but the resulting bruise nearly covered his entire quad. Nonetheless, it ended Kane’s title-winning season early, and gave Portillo his second ever win over Kane (Lalo was on the court when Kane tore his Achilles back in Sept 2022).
– Montoya took out Flores 12,14 in a tight match of hard hitters.
– Acuna eased past Parrilla 8,5 and seems “on” this weekend for sure.
– Manilla beats his second US National teammate in a row, topping Jake 9,13 to make the semis.
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In the Semis, a wide-open field now missing both top seeds meant a title was there for the taking.
– #8 Portillo continued his run, beating #5 Montoya to make his 3rd final of the season.
– #3 Acuna beat #7 Manilla in a tactical battle 8,13 to move into just his second career final.
In the Finals, Acuna topped Portillo 7,12 to win his second ever Tier 1 title.
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Points Implications of results
Neither #1 Kane or #2 Moscoso changed their overall best 10 results, and finish the year 1-2 easily. Acuna’s title moves him to #3, jumping over Jake for 4th. Montoya’s h2h win over Flores seals 5th place for him over the Bolivian, while Portillo’s run to the title secures 7th place.
Mar’s last minute absence drops him to 10th, while Natera’s absence costs him a season top 10 finish; he drops to #11.
We’ll do our annual season-ending deep dive into the players once the season points are finalized.
Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS..
men
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– There was no pro doubles, but the Open Doubles was stacked. It was taken by #3 seed Mexican youngsters Erick Trujillo / Alvaro Guillen.
– Guatemalan Juan Jose Salvatierra took the Open singles title, beating Mexican Miguel Angel Arteaga Guzman in the final.
– StL High school league grads Kyla Davis / Ella Boaz took the Women’s Open doubles title.
– Kelly Gremley / Blase Zera took the Mixed Open doubles title.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Carrie Reitmeier, Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre, and the entire IRTLive crew.
Thanks to the Tourney Director @dan whitley for putting this event on!
Thanks to the Tourney Sponsors KWM Gutterman, Downey Ethics, St. Louis Redbirds, Wood Phillips Patent/Trademark/Copywright attorneys, and
Thurman Brooks – TLBJ CPA Firm.
Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.
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Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
In two weeks, we have US Junior Nationals, to determine the players eligible for the 2026 World Juniors later this year. That will then take us to the end of the 2025-26 season officially. July features Outdoor Nationals, NMRA Nationals. August will feature Mexican Junior Nationals, an IRF regional competition in the DR, and a lower tier IRT event in Costa Rica to kick off the 2026-27 season.
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