Welcome to the 3rd Annual Golden State Open, the brainchild of NorCal residents Adam Manilla and David ” Bobby” Horn , who worked to bring pro racquetball back to the Bay Area after a near decade-long absence in 2022. This is their third year running this event in Pleasanton, and they project to have a massive draw in 2024. As of this writing 229 players are entered overall, including 44 Men’s pros. That’s the biggest pro draw since the 2023 World Singles and Doubles event. The group didn’t fund the portable court this year (it’s a significant expense) but still have the biggest event of the year, but still expect the biggest and best pro tourney of the year.
R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=45389
As noted, 44 players in the singles draw for this event, which (barring any changes in the IRT schedule) will be the last event of the 2024 season. So, lots at stake. @Kane Waslenchuk has regained #1 on tour, and thanks to Moscoso’s injury has a fairly significant lead at the top to the only guy who can catch him: #3 Parrilla. And that’s before considering the points expiration from the two events at the tail end of the 2023 season: Parrilla won the Boston Open last year while Kane lost in the semis, meaning an additional 180 point delta for Parrilla to make up. In other words … the title race is effectively over.
Thanks to the proximity of this event to the upcoming Junior Worlds, we have a slew of international juniors in the country to get some competitive matches. So we’ll get to see first hand a number of the up and coming Bolivians in particular.
top20 players missing: #2 Moscoso (elbow), #12 De la Rosa (pickleball), #13 Murray (stepping back?), #18 Sam Bredenbeck (stepping back?).
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
In the round of 64:
– Bolivian newcomer Anuari Segundo, who impressed last week in Miami, gets an opener against the veteran Guatemalan @Edwin Galicia.
– The #44 seed (as in, “Mr Irrelevant”) honors go to @Yacouba Keita, who was a semi-regular touring pro a few years back out of the Atlanta area. He goes against @Javier Mar in the 64s.
– We get a rare North American appearance from former 18U world champ @Gerson Miranda, who starts off against fellow South American @Juan Francisco Cueva .
– The best potential match of the opening round may be 31v34, USA junior @DJ Mendoza taking on top Mexican 16U junior Sebastian Alejandro Ruelas. Mendoza should be able to overpower his younger opponent, but Ruelas has a long history of Mexican and World junior titles.
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Projecting the 32s:
– #1 Kane gets his start against the Ecuadorian veteran Ugalde, who is solid but not Kane-challenging solid.
– #16/#17 is an interesting match between two Mexican juniors in Erick Cuevas and @Diego Gastelum . Cuevas has been around for a while but only this year graduated from 21U competitions, while Gastelum has been been getting significant wins lately, including a defeat of current #7 Trujillo at Mexican Junior Nationals earlier this year.
– #12 Robert Collins is the unlucky top seed to draw the under-seeded Mar, who has been hampered on the singles court for a while with injury but remains a dangerous opponent. Upset watch here.
– Best match of the round: #4 @Andres Acuna comes in seeded 4th, his career best seeding … and for his troubles draws #29 @Diego Garcia , who just cruised to a title in the Xelani open and who beat Acuna at Worlds in San Antonio in August. I’ve always been a Garcia fan and, now that he’s been in-country to acclimate (instead of flying from South America the night before a match like the last time he entered an IRT event) he’ll be favored here.
– #3 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball projects to face the dangerous Bolivian junior Miranda, who can score points on him for su re. I don’t see an upset, but Montoya can’t just go through the motions here.
– We get a rare appearance on tour from @Rocky Carson , seeded 19th and who is favored over #14 @Kadim Carrasco to move on here.
– @Jordy Alonso is seeded 11th here. 11th! Alonso didn’t even play an IRT event in 2023 and has just 13 career pro events in a decade of high-level play … and now sits on the cusp of the top 10. Amazing. His best career year end finish was #27 in 2022 … and now he could be a top 10 finisher with a solid tournament.
– Tough draw for US junior Cole Sendry at #15; he gets former top 10 touring pro Eduardo Portillo Rendon , who’s missed a ton of time on tour as he gets his professional pilot’s license.
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round of 16:
– #1 Kane over #16 Gastelum: they met in the 16s in Spokane, a 2,5 win for the King. Lets see if Diego can improve upon that result.
– #8 Natera over #9 Carter, again. They’ve met in the 8/9 match now three events running, each time a relative blow out for the Mexican. No reason not to think it’ll happen again.
– #5 @Jake Bredenbeck vs #21 Mar: they have not played in 2 years, dating back to the infamous DC event where Kane got hurt and Mar lost in the final to Lalo. It hasn’t been a great year for Jake, who made four finals last season but has made just one semi-final this season. Does he have one last hurrah in him? Upset watch. Like Garcia above, Mar has always been a fan favorite of mine and I always seem to pick him for an upset.
– Whoever wins between Acuna/Garcia should advance with ease here over Carlos Ramirez.
– #3 Montoya vs Carson: how much magic does Rocky have? Montoya should send Carson back to the retirement home in SoCal.
– I think a motivated #11 Alonso takes out the distracted tourney host #6 Manilla to earn a quarter final.
– #7 Trujillo and #10 @Jaime Martell Racquetball met at this juncture in Spokane last month, a tie-breaker win for the younger Erick. He’s hot coming off the win in San Luis Potosi last week and he’ll be looking for more here.
– #2 Parrilla vs #15 Portillo; well this is kind of a ridiculous round of 16 match, players who finished last year ranked 5th and 7th respectively (and who are doubles partners). But here we are. Parrilla is motivated to have a big result here to put pressure on Kane, but I could see him fall here to the always-challenging Lalo.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Kane over #8 Natera, a rematch of Spokane’s quarter final.
– Garcia over Mar: if all my predicted upsets come to pass, we could see a 20-something seed in the semis here. Garcia is more dynamic than Mar right now, but this matchup could also easily be Acuna vs Jake or some combination of a top-5 guy and a 20-something seed.
– #3 Montoya vs #11 Alonso: Jordy shocked Rodrigo 11-10 in Canoga Park during his amazing run to the final; I don’t see that repeating here. Rodrigo won’t take him lightly.
– #2 Parrilla vs #7 Trujillo: they just played last weekend, a four-game win for Trujillo where each game was 11-9 one way or the other. I think Trujillo can do it again.
Semis:
– Kane over Garcia; they’ve never met, which means Diego could be star struck and get donuted in the first game, or it could mean he surprises the king and makes it close by playing out of his mind. One thing to keep in mind: both the qtrs and semis are on Saturday, so from a wear-and-tear perspective two games in a day on the newly-turned 43yr old could be a factor (Kane turned 43 just four days ago as of this writing: Happy Birthday!)
– Montoya over Trujillo; they’ve met 6 times since Feb 2023, all six Montoya wins and usually not close. They met in the Spokane quarters a month ago and it was 12,3. Rodrigo wins again.
Finals: Kane over Rodrigo in a breaker. We’ve seen this before; Montoya has the game to pressure Kane and to roll off points fast. If his drive serve is working, he’ll be in the match, and his athleticism extends points and leads to opportunities. The last time these two played was in Minnesota, where Rodrigo actually scored more points in the match than Kane but lost his composure/focus in the tie-breaker to lose 14,(7),2 after dominating game 2. This is where an onsite coach is useful; Montoya needs to maintain his focus and hope for an off-day from the nearly always “on” Kane for a win. But, that’s a tall order against a guy in Kane who can still bring it and who puts away nearly 100% of the balls he can set his feet on, even if he’s 43.
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Doubles Preview:
18 teams are poured into the Doubles competition, including some that aren’t entered into the singles competition. There’s a couple of great round of 16 matchups in store: Portillo/Parrilla vs Garcia/Miranda will be a barn burner. Gastelum/Sendrey versus the Ecuadorian national team of Cueva/Ugalde is tough; they’ve gotten some major international results in the past. Tournament host Horn is teaming with Mendoza to face Alonso/Carrasco.
In the end though, I expect the top four seeds to advance to the semis as expected, then for an all-Mexico final between the top seeds Montoya/Mar and Parrilla/Portillo.
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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 again to the Tourney Directors Manilla and Horn or putting this event on!
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Associations
International Racquetball Tour