Month: October 2024

Congrats to your Pro Singles winner on the weekend: Kane Waselenchuk

Kane wins his 127th career Tier 1 IRT title. We’ll talk about the final and the point implications later on.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=44845

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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/tbe

In the 32s: A last minute draw change jumbled the lowest 7-8 seeds from where they stood monday, and led to just a couple of compelling matchups in the opening round.

– Mexican U21 Gastelum upended USA junior Cody elkins 10,10 to earn a shot at Kane

– Alonso took out Antone 13,4; the USA national team member made him sweat in game one for sure.

– The biggest result, and biggest shock to me: Martell easily beat Garcia 4,10. That’s tough for Garcia, who I think was the only South American to make the trip.

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In the 16s:

– Alonso took out Jake in a tough 11-9 breaker. I don’t think this is an upset necessarily based on the way both have been playing, and it gives you some pause to ask, “just how good is Alonso?” If he played regularly, is he top 4? Too high?

– Trujillo took out Martel, also in a breaker. This isn’t an upset by seed, but it is a notable result b/c Trujillo has had some losses recently to his fellow countrymen. This is a solid win over a solid player and gives Trujillo’s top 10 ranking a boost.

– Montoya edged his doubles partner Mar in a breaker. No surprise they went to a 3rd game; even if one is the #2 seed and the other is in the 20s, these two are neck and neck talent wise.

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In the Quarters

– #1 Kane cruises past Natera 6,4. He’s just getting warmed up.

– Great win by Acuna, downing Alonso 2,13. I thought for certain we were going to see another Alonso-Kane matchup, but the Costa Rican had other thoughts.

– Parrilla had a typical 7,13 win over Manilla. Both control players tried to out control the other, and Andree was better at it.

– Montoya set down Trujillo 12,3. After a close first game, the powerful Rodrigo went to town and advanced with ease.

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In the Semis

– Acuna kept it close b/c he has a game plan against Kane that we’ve seen before, but just not a good enough one y et. kane advances 10,7

– In the other semi, two players who have played each other dozens of times over the years faced off again, and this time Parrilla took out Montoya 9,6 to move into the final.

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In the Finals, we got an interesting matchup. Kane and Andree have a history playing each other. One of their first meetings was a 0,0,0 embarrassment at the 2016 US Open when Andree was a budding player on the competing WRT. They met in the final of Chicago a few months later and Parrilla pushed Kane in at least one game, showing a bit of a gumption at the time. They’ve usually played close games, albeit mostly Kane wins … then Parrilla got an 11-10 finals win over Kane in January 2022 for a big win.

Kane jumped out to a massive first game lead, ahead 10-0 at one point, and he honestly looked miffed when Parrilla finally got a point and ruined his donut. Well, that wasn’t going to be where Parrilla stopped … he ran off ten unanswered points himself to tie the game and Kane had to press to win it 15-14. Game two was one-way traffic for the Mexican, who crushed Kane 15-3 to force a breaker.

Fun fact: on the IRT, when players split the first two games, the player who won the second game has the advantage, having won 51% of the time. So advantage momentum, albeit only slightly. Kane had none of that, crushing Parrilla 11-3 to win the match. Andree scored 32 total points, Kane 29 … but it was the points at the end that counted. The end of the match was a little testy, with Andree having some words for Kane on his way out of the court, which were returned in turn.

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Points Implications of results.

Kane regains 1st place on tour, for the first time in several years. The last time he was #1 on tour, the best I can tell, was at the 2021 US Open. He has about a 90 point lead on #2 Moscoso, but we know that Moscoso is now out for the rest of 2024. Parrilla now sits third and Kane has him by about 377 points. That’s huge; the next event to drop was Boston in Nov 2023, which Parrilla won, so that means he’s defending winner’s points/400 points. Montoya has dropped to 4th, just a handful behind Parrilla, and has a quarter and semi to defend the rest of the way out.

But the 377 gap is massive: if there’s just one more tier 1 (which is worth 400 for winning, 501.33 if its a tier1+), Kane basically has the year end title already sewn up. We know about Pleasanton in November; maybe we get Pelham Memorial increased to Tier 1 in December, but it was a Satellite last year. So amazingly Kane is in pole position to win the year end title

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– With no Pro doubles, the Open Doubles came down to the four best pros playing, with Mar/Garcia topping Sendrey/Gastelum in the final.

– In Men’s Open, doubles partners Sendrey and Gastelem both advanced to the final and then double forfeited.

– Arizona’s Susie Boulanger & Damian Zamorano took the Mixed Open Doubles final in a walk-over.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

Next up is the Pleasanton Golden State Open in Pleasanton in a month’s time.

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tags

Hello racquetball fans! It’s been a minute since we were talking about the Men’s pro tour (last tier 1 stop: May in Canoga Park), but they’re back in action at a site that the Men’s tour has never visited before (at least for a Tier 1): Spokane, Washington.

Washington has been host to the IRT in the past, but not for more than a decade.

Seattle has hosted a dozen big-time events over the years, and in the late 80s/early 90s Seattle hosted the “Grand Nationals” event that was often the sole major of the year. Famously, in 1988 the tour rolled into Seattle to finish off the season at the CityFed Grand Nationals, with the year end title completely up for grabs; the players on tour knew that the final major would have a massive amount of points awarded, and any one of the top 5-6 players entering that event could win the year end title. the #1, #2 and #4 ranked players all fell in the quarters, and #3 seeded @Ruben Gonzalez topped #5 @Egan Inoue for the tournament win and year-end title.

Because it’s been some months since the IRT was in action, we’ve seen a bit of movement in the rankings, so the projected quarterfinals may look a little different than you’d expect. We’re also seeing a bit of a thinner draw due to the geographic location of the event and the difficulty some international players have in getting there. However, that all said, we’re going to see some excellent matches all the way through.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=44845

The most obvious Top player missing is #1 Moscoso, who suffered an arm injury while training over the weekend, basically the day before he was set to board a plane to come to the USA. He’s set to have surgery this week and could be sidelined for the rest of the season, a dagger to his chances of finishing #1 for the first time. Also missing is current #10 De La Rosa and #12 Sam Murray, the latter somewhat surprisingly given the few Tier 1 events we are set to have in 2024. In Conrrado’s absence, Kane ascends to the #1 seed for the first time since the 2021 US Open. He’s in the driver’s seat to win the 2024 title right now, years after he last won it at the end of the 2019-2020 season.

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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable matches I’m looking at. The draw was re-made at the very last minute because of the dropping out of Kadim Carrasco due to travel issues thanks to Milton (lots of South Americans fly through Florida as a transfer point) which scattered every round of 32 and 16 matchup.

In the 32s:

– #12 @Carlos Ramirez takes on #21 John Wolfe , who toured for a brief period a few years back. Ramirez very quietly has now risen to #16 in the rankings and is the #12 seed here by virtue of several absences, and he’s done so mainly by his consistency attending events on tour. He’s made three round of 16s in his career 15 events and his best ever result may have been a 2022 win over Gastelum. He has a solid opportunity to get into another round of 16 here.

– #13 @Jordy Alonso vs #20 @Wayne Antone Racquetball : Antone was set to play Carrasco before he dropped out; now he has to fend with a guy who put an “L” on Kane and made a tour final earlier this year. Antone’s solid, but Alonso has the ability to beat basically anyone if he’s on.

– #14 Cole Sendrey gets a fun one against Canadian National #19 @Lee Connell. The Canadian has been around the block and is old enough to be Cole’s dad, but can still play. Sendrey will need to focus to win this match.

– #11 Robert Collins vs #22 @Gatlin Sutherland. This is a fun one: Collins was just named the US Junior National team coach (well deserved by the way), and Sutherland is a regular on the US Junior National team. How will the player do against the coach? This is Sutherland’s pro debut. he’s had some success in US Junior nationals event (one title back in 2014, made the finals of 16s two years ago, and he owns 4 junior national doubles titles), but he’ll have his hands full with veteran Collins.

#10 @Jaime Martell Racquetball vs #23 @Diego Garcia . The last minute seed change has the most impact on Martell, who has a career high seeding here only to get drawn against Garcia. Last time Diego showed up an an IRT event, he took out two top seeds and took a game off of Montoya in the quarters before falling, and at the last Worlds he beat Acuna straight up and fell 11-9 in the fifth to Jake. I see Garcia moving on.

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round of 16:

– #1 Waselenchuk vs #16 @Diego Gastelum ; Kane gets started with a decent tie; Gastelum is no pushover, being the 2023 U21 world champ and with a handful of wins over IRT top 10 player Trujillo in the last couple of years. He’s probably best known for taking Jake to a 15-14 game one loss at the 2023 Worlds event out of nowhere, shocking those in attendance who had never seen him before. That being said, for Kane this isn’t the same as running into someone like Alonso, and he should move on.

– #9 @Thomas Carter vs #8 @Alan Natera: These two meet again. They were 8 & 9 at the last IRT event, and Natera cruised to an 8,6 win. I see a similar result here.

– #4 @Jake Bredenbeck vs #13 Alonso. Jake is the unfortunate recipient of the Alonso matchup, a player who beat Kane, Collins, Martell, and Montoya at the last IRT event. Is Alonso the new Landa on tour? For those who don’t remember, Landa didn’t tour regularly until deep into his 20s, but would periodically show up at pro stops and knock off top-seeded players with ease. I see Alonso doing the same now.

– #7 @Erick Trujillo vs Garcia: these two faced off twice at the 2022 Worlds u21 junior championship, with Garcia winning in the group stage and then in the U21 final. Both games went the distance, all 5 games. Trujillo didn’t get to #7 by accident and has some wins on tour for sure, but so does Garcia. I still like the dark-horse here.

– #2 Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball vs #15 @javier Mar; the luck of the draw pits long-time doubles partners and good friends Montoya & Mar together at this stage, instead of two rounds subsequent. The last time they played, Rodrigo got the better of his friend in 2023 in Minnesota, but Mar absolutely has beaten him in the past. Mar has struggled with injuries for some time, but seems to be healthy and is coming off a solid 3WB event. I still think Montoya is the favorite but it could be close. Upsets frequently happen when two people this close play.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Waselenchuk over #8 Natera; Kane over powers the Mexican turned Chilean.

– #13 Alonso over #5 Acuna: Jordy is too much of a shotmaker for Acuna to handle.

– #3 Parrilla over #6 Manilla: both players have straightforward paths to the quarters thanks to the last minute schedule change, and Parrilla is gifted a semis slot.

– #2 Montoya over #23 Garcia: they met in 2023 World Singles in Denver as mentioned above, and Montoya won in a breaker. I’d expect a similar result here.

Semis:

– Kane over Alonso. Kane will have learned how to beat Jordy, will be on the gas from the get go, and won’t lose to the same guy twice.

– Montoya over Parrilla: just too much firepower at this point in both players’ careers.

Finals;

– Kane over Montoya: you hate to predict against the best player of all time, but if there’s a player who has both the game and the mentality to beat him, I think its Rodrigo. When they played in Minnesota, Kane won 14,(7),2 in a match that was a lot closer than the score indicated. The first game was a coinflip and Montoya cruised in game two before letting his concentration slip a bit in the breaker. Kane never lets his concentration slip, and still has the power and shot-making ability to counter even the athletic Montoya.

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Doubles:

There’s no pro doubles here, but there is an Open doubles that’s gotten some late prize money, so look for some of the traveling pros to pour into Open doubles to try to earn a bit more cash. Mar & Garcia as #1 seeds and I like them over #2 Sendrey/Gastelum in the final.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots! Thanks to Favio for giving me an advance copy of the draw and for being a fan.

Thanks to the Tourney Director Rich Carver for putting this event on!

Thanks to our main sponsors @mche property Services and the @Spokane Athletic club; it goes without saying that without you and your support, we don’t have a sport.

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Associations

International Racquetball Tour International Racquetball Tour