After a month of National championships and a satellite last weekend, we get a full Tier 1 stop at the University of Minnesota for the 2026 Minnesota Hall of Fame event.
R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=52146
Big draw this weekend, with 31 pros in the singles draw. Just two top 20 players aren’t here: Portillo fresh of his 1st Mexican national title and his fellow Mexican Jordy Alonso. Otherwise, the entire top 20 plus a big chunk of the 20-30 guys plus a slew of internationals are in town.
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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 32:
– Garcia/Sam Bredenbeck is a tough one for both players, as one would expect in the 16/17 seed match.
– Trujillo is here again, and plays into a very tough Miranda in the opener.
– Sendrey and Carrasco meet again; they played in the 1st round of the Sioux Falls event a few weeks ago; will Cole have learned anything?
– Mendoza v Carter: DJ played great at USA Nationals; can he get an upset?
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round of 16:
– Waselenchuk v Garcia: would be a rematch of Sioux Falls round of 16 if Diego gets by the younger Bredenbeck brother. Kane handled him 5,9 then; would Diego be able to improve on that result? It just goes to show how tough it is to break out of that range of rankings.
– The 8/9 projects to be Manilla/Natera: Natera is coming off an upset early loss in Portland, while Manilla took out Lalo in the last event; advantage Adam.
– The Trujillo/Miranda winner takes on Jake, who’s fresh off a national championship and playing on his “home courts” so to speak. that’s a tough round of 16 for the big man.
– Portland’s champ and everyone’s favorite dark horse plays into Andree Parrilla … who beat him 11-10 twice in the span of a couple weeks last year. Flores just took out Acuna and one would think he could beat Parrilla as well, but he has to get over that mental hump.
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Projected Qtrs:
– Kane over Manilla in an all-lefty battle
– Flores over Jake: might as well stick to my dark-horse upset guns.
– Montoya over Acuna: Even though Acuna is the higher ranked player I think Montoya is the better player.
– Moscoso over Mar: fun fact; these two first played at Junior Worlds in 2014 as 18U. Other players at that event? Mercado, Acuna, Iwaasa, Manilla, Mar, and Garay. Phew; that was a stacked event.
Semis:
– Kane over Flores: remember, Flores took a game off of Kane in March 2024 in their first meeting, the first time people really took notice of the Bolivian. Would love to see another matchup to see what happens now.
– Moscoso over Montoya: would love to see this firepower semi.
Finals: another Moscoso vs Kane meeting. We’ve gotten it twice in two tournaments, and it’d be only fitting if we got another one. Their last meeting was a dominant 9,3 win for the Bolivian, who seems like he’s turning the mental corner against the long-time #1 player. Based on what I saw in Sioux Falls, I’m predicting another Conrrado win.
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Doubles review
Mar & Montoya just got upset in the Mexican nationals by Parrilla/Portillo, but there’s no Portillo here this weekend, so they are the #1 seeds and favorites. There’s some fun teams in the draw: Flores/Martell, the young-gun mexican team of Gastelum/Trujillo, Sendrey/Mendoza, the Bredenbecks playing together, Manilla/Parrilla, the Argentine national team of Garcia/Miranda, and the rising Bolivian team of Moscoso/Carrasco.
All will be gunning for Montoya/Mar, but none can get them.
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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 Carrie Reitmeier, Favio Soto, some guest shots from Minnesota native Matt Miller, and Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew behind the scens all weekend on the microphone, calling the shots!
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