Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Jake Bredenbeck
– Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball & Javier Mar
Jake comes out on top of a weird, upset-filled event to win his 3rd career Tier 1 title and to retire the Glass Court club in style. Montoya & Mar cruise to the doubles title despite Montoya’s shoulder injury limitations.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=47136
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/ac96ab
Before we get started, A quick comment: there were a TON of top U18 and U21 internationals in this draw, and if I wasn’t bearish on the future of pro racquetball I’d be pointing at this event as a sign of the future. Competing in Chicago included:
– 2024 U21 World Champ Acha
– 2024 U21 semi finalists Trujillo and Barrios
– 2024 U21 USA Junior National titlist Horner
– 2024 U18 World Champion Flores
– 2024 U18 USA National team members Sendrey and Mendoza
– 2024 U18 USA Junior Nats quarter finalist Herrera II
– 2023 U21 World Champion Gastelum
– 2019 U18 World champ Miranda
– 2022 U21 World champ Garcia
That’s a lot of players who are all in their early 20s or younger, and they should represent the next big wave of players in this sport. Unfortunately a huge chunk of them are South Americans who can’t just hop a flight to get up here to compete, so I wonder what will come of them in their quest to move up the pro ranks. Perhaps we’ll see more of the likes of Flores, Miranda, Garcia, and Acha given the taste of success they’re having. I hope so.
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In the 64s:
– @Sam Murray kicked off his return to pro racquetball with a pretty dominant win over a tough Bolivian junior opponent in @hector Barrios 5,3
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In the 32s:
– Reigning u21 champ @Jhoel Alexis Acha got the match of a lifetime, playing King Kane and losing 4,6.
– @Sam Bredenbeck let 18U junior Cole Sendrey know just how far he has to go to compete, overpowering the Texan 13,6 to move on.
– Old WRT rivals Martel & Horn had a battle for the ages, with Horn running out of gas in the breaker.
– Thomas Carter destroyed @Kadim Carrasco 2,0 to move into the next round.
– Reigning 18U champ @Jhonathan Flores made a statement in his win over u21 international Diego Gastelum 7,6. I thought this would be closer, and it does not bode well for the collective U21 international crew, many of whom were here this weekend. Flores seems primed to destroy that competition for the next three years.
– Murray cruised past Montoya 11,6. We had a tip from a tour official that Montoya may not even play singles here, so this is not a surprising result necessarily. I did not get a chance to see him this weekend, but his competing through the doubles finals is a good sign.
– Trujillo made fast work of Mendoza, not giving the USA junior national a chance.
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Lastly, My friends at the IRT are not going to like this this take.
Argentine Diego Garcia was forfeited out of this draw because he showed up 12 minutes late to his match. You see, the tour changed the draw Wednesday night to accommodate one more player’s last minute entry, despite a registration deadline days before and most international players’ plans settled weeks before, a change that forced me to re-write much of my preview and to re-do all the match seeds. But this change also changed a bunch of published start times for players, including Garcias from 5pm to 3pm, a change relayed to him via a group text message that he missed. By the time someone told him … he rushed to the club but got there 12 minutes late.
So, to restate this; you have one of the most exciting junior players in the world who flew halfway around the world to play in one of the 7-8 pro racquetball events that will even happen this year, and you forfeit him because he’s sitting in his hotel room 10 minutes away from the club unaware that you’ve changed the draw on him with 12 hours notice. How dumb is that? What if Garcia stops coming up here because of this? You think the tour is better off not having one of the best players in the world investing the time and money to compete? This was an absolutely terrible decision, one that seems like it could have been worked around for the sake of the sport. Its not like there’s another event next week and its no big deal that he got forfeited; it probably cost a month’s wages for him to fly up here and compete.
We can’t afford to lose top players right now because someone was obstinate and refused to be flexible. Not over a hundred dollars of prize money for the winner. Have a player liaison, someone who speaks Spanish and who can help these guys navigate the situation. I thought Garcia had a real solid chance of getting to the quarters here; instead he’s dumbfounded by getting forfeited out of an event because he didn’t get a text message for a draw change that shouldn’t have happened.
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In the 16s:
– Jake solidly got past Martell
– Flores destroyed #4 Natera 9,6. Tough draw for Natera his first time in the top 4, but Flores is the real deal.
– Murray crushed Miranda 5,8 in a match I thought could go the other way due to Murray’s rust. I guess not.
– Mar was in control of his match of Alonso when he retired at the very end of game two. Mar looks dangerous this weekend for sure.
– Portillo made fast work of Trujillo 5,6. Portillo sure looks solid since he started flight school, and he’s now a danger for the semis or better every time he plays.
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In the Quarters
– Jake got a game one win over Kane, then the #1 seed retired. He tweaked something last week, and it was still bugging him, and in the post-game interview Kane said he knew he was going to have to forfeit at some point, and played until he figured he couldn’t go any further without injuring himself more significantly. During the match, Kane definitely seemed to take some awkward lunges at balls that Jake was hitting, as I looked for evidence of a point in time that led to the injury. His mobility was off for sure, and the last couple of points he mailed in before withdrawing.
– Parrilla survived a game against the Bolivian junior phenom Flores 11-10, a match he frankly should not have won. Flores blew him out in game one, then the two played neck and neck racquetball for the rest of game 2 and 3. Flores had match point on his serve and blew a wide-open forehand into the ground to give the ball to Andree, who converted and advanced.
– Mar crushed Murray 5,1 who finally showed some rust and fatigue.
– So much for being #2: Acuna was whitewashed by Portillo 3,0 in a beatdown.
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In the Semis
– Jake and Andree played their typical dogfight, with jake advancing 11,12
– Lalo pulled a rabbit out of his hat, coming back from a deep hole in the tiebreaker to beat Mar 11-9 and move into the final.
In the Finals, I would have put money on Lalo to continue his dominance, but it was jake who blew off the doors of the Mexican, winning 11,3 for his third career pro win.
Jake joins a small group of 3-time winners on tour that includes Parrilla, Strandemo, Ed Andrews, and Alvaro Beltran.
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Points Implications of results
To see the IRT rolling points simulation go here:
With the win, Jake will catapult himself up to #3 on tour, still behind Kane and Acuna. Lalo has moved up to #7, and Alonso up to #9. Mar now sits at #10 which may be a career high for him as he never plays a full schedule.
Meanwhile, Manilla’s injury costs him; he’s down to #8. But Moscoso is getting crushed; the knee injury that caused him to miss this week now has him all the way down at #14.
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Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/3d9832
Montoya & Mar didn’t drop a game en route to their 9th pro doubles title together.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Gastelum beat Barrios in the Open singles final. Sendry & S.Bredenbeck semis
– Team Argentina Miranda & Garcia took Open Doubles, beating the Lazenby brothers form St. Louis in the final.
– Ava Kaiser took the women’s Open RR singles, then teamed with Jake Wilkins to take the Mixed Open Doubles.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Richard Eisemann and Carrie Reitmeire.
Thanks to everyone at the Glass Court facility for the decades of support for Pro Racquetball. This was your swansong, and we will miss you.
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Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
Next week we get the first Outdoor Major of 2025, the Beach Bash in Hollywood Fl. We also get the WTR doing an event at the Warhawk Open, and the Bolivians will compete in the 2nd leg of their two-leg event series to determine its national champions and international representatives.
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tags
@International Racquetball Tour