During the Thanksgiving weekend in the US, there was good racquetball being played both north and south of the border. First tourney Review: the Canadian National Singles Selection event #1.
I have been capturing these Canadian National selection events, as well as Mexican Selection events into my staging data but have not loaded them to the Amateur database. Instead the Amateur database just shows the champions of the annual “National” tournaments. Especially with the Mexican selection events (which determine who has been going to international events instead of the National champs as of late), i’m debating whether to enter the data into the database since they’re top-level competitions. I’m open to suggestions.
In the meantime, congrats to Samuel Murray and Frederique Lambert on their wins on the weekend. both entered as #1 seeds and pretty much the current unquestioned #1 players in Canada. There were few surprises in the draws, which mostly went according to chalk. Notable results to me:
– Pedro Castro just barely squeaked by Nicolas Bousquet 15,14 in the 4/5 seed quarter; very close matches. (Note: Canada plays win-by-2, so that score isn’t a typo; final score was 17-15, 16-14).
– Tim Landeryou committed Canadian racquetball fratricide, ousting his younger brother James Landeryou in the quarters.
– #2 seed Coby Iwaasa took the first game off of Murray in the final before falling in a rematch of the 2018 Canadian Nationals final. Iwaasa played great at Worlds and made the final of the WRT event in Calgary last month and looks to be nearly fully returned to the scene after a 3 year layoff.
On the Women’s side:
– Danielle Drury took out #4 seed Alexis Iwaasa in the quarters; the sole deviation from chalk seeding in the event.
– #3 seed Christine Richardson was not able to follow-up on her career amateur best result and fell in the semis.
– The Ageless Jennifer Jen Saunders made the final, losing in two to Lambert. Saunders has made the final of Canada Women’s Nationals an astounding EIGHTEEN straight years, winning 10 of those 18 finals.
These two results are big first steps for Murray, Lambert, Iwaasa and Saunders qualifying for the big 2019 international events. The annual Pan American Racquetball Championships of course, but the big event of 2019 is the quadrennial Pan American Games, which are including Racquetball for the 6th time in event history.
Congrats to #1 Paola Longoria, who was a double winner on the weekend, taking the Singles draw over #2 seeded Samantha Salas Solis, then teaming with Salas to win the pro doubles draw.
Longoria and Salas have now met in the finals of each of the season’s first four events, solidifying their lead at the top of the rankings table. Longoria improves to 46-3 against Salas on the pro tours with the win. This win represents Longoria’s 86th pro title in the database (though we may be missing some of her earlier tourney wins; a situation we’re working on rectifiying). Lastly, this tourney extends Paola’s current match winning streak to 21 games; she’s won the last 5 pro events.
Lets take a quick run through the singles draw. Here’s the match report in the database:
Upsets/notable results for me:
– Four regular touring players, coincidentally seeded 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th, were all upset in the first round of play. 4-time pro champ Cheryl Gudinas put a 5-game loss on Sheryl Lotts, then nearly beat Natalia Mendez, taking her to a 5th game tiebreaker.
– Junior up and coming player Angelica Barrios took out Adrienne Fisher Haynes and took a game off of #5 seed Rhonda Rajsich before bowing out.
– Michelle De La Rosa got a solid win over #10 Susy Acosta before falling in 3 closer games to #4 seed Maria Jose Vargas. De La Rosa (nee Key) has now played in 3 events this season, after playing just a handful over the past few years, and could be a force on tour if she continues to play. She’s made a number of Quarters and even one Semi and is a dangerous opponent.
– Masiel Rivera Oporto played her 3rd event of the season and made her second round of 16; she’s right in the range of seeding where she could continue to get opportunistic match-ups and keep moving up the rankings.
– I liked what I saw out of youngster Brenda Laime, who got past Erin Rivera before taking a game off of #2 seed Solis.
– 16U world champ Valeria Centellas was one-and-done in the pro draw, running into the 7th seeded Colombian Amaya Cris, but she played very well in the Women’s Open draw, beating experienced American Sharon Jackson and then Lexi York before losing in two close games to experienced international player Adriana Riveros in the semis.
– Speaking of York; she made her pro tour debut after a pretty good juniors run (she was the 2015 USA 18U champ and made the semis of junior worlds that same year). Hope to see more of York in the coming years.
The quarters, semis and finals went almost perfectly chalk along the lines of seeds; the only discrepancy was #9 seeded Colombian Adriana Riveros defeating #8 Chilean Carla Muñoz Montesinos in the quarters. Neutral fans always want to root for upsets, but this tournament was missing four key names who normally would have provided some upsets to the current LPRT heirarchy. Namely, Montserrat Montse Mejia, Ana Gabriela Gaby Martinez, Frederique Lambertand Nancy Enriquez.
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On the doubles side, the dominant team of Longoria/Salas easily took this tourney, crushing Alexandra Herrera & Munoz 2,9 in the final.
The Longoria/Salas team is now 71-3 together since we began tracking LPRT doubles in 2013. Longoria has won 36 of the 41 doubles draws she’s entered in that time, most of them won with Salas. I still can’t quite believe they were upset as a team at the 2018 Mexican selection event, thus preventing them from competing in Worlds this past summer.
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Next up for the LPRT: the Christmas Classic in Laurel, MD.
Hello all, welcome back to pro racquetball after a great World Juniors event. This weekend, the LPRT returns to action, visiting Chicago for their annual event. There’s an interesting draw, with a ton of young players and some pro tour debuts. Lets Review the draw.
Follow LPRT on Facebook; they’re streaming live matches starting at 11am EST (as in, after you’re reading this; they’re already playing!)
The draw is missing a couple of notable names: both finalists from the 18U world juniors Montse Mejia and Ana Gabriela Gaby Martinez are missing; quite understanable in that the World Juniors event is a grueling event, especially when playing both singles and doubles. Also missing is #3 ranked Frederique Lambert,5th ranked Nancy Enriquez, which bumps up both Amaya and Munoz to top 8 seeds in this event.
Fun side note for this event: Chicago native and 4-time pro tour winner Cheryl Gudinas makes a rare appearance and makes her 182nd career appearance. She remains tied for the most appearances ever with fellow 4-time pro tour winner and #5 seed Rhonda Rajsich.
Here’s some interesting Round of 32 matches to watch for:
– DC native Masiel Rivera Oporto takes on Montserrat Perez in the always competitive 16/17 seed match
– Lexi York, who we last saw in a top-level match making the semis of Girls 18U at World Juniors in 2005, returns to the court to take on #8 Seed Adriana Riveros.
– Bolivian Angelica Barrios, herself fresh off of a run to the semis of the Girls 18U at World Juniors, takes on LPRT veteran tour player Adrienne Fisher Haynes.
– Michelle De La Rosa, fresh from playing in the 2018 USA Pickleball championships in Indian Wells, faces up against long time tour vet Susana Susy Acosta in what could be a pretty tough opener. De La Rosa lost 12-10 in the fifth at the US Open and is clearly a threat to advance deep in any pro tour.
– Virginia native Kelani Lawrence makes just her 3rd pro draw of 2018 and faces off against Guatemalan vet Maria Renee Rodríguez in a tough opener for both players.
– Sheryl Lotts gets to go up against the legend Cheryl Gudinas in her home town.
– And lastly, in what is the most interesting match for me, reigning World doubles champion and freshly crowned 16U world junior champion Valeria Centellas is in the draw as the lowest seed, playing #7 Colombian vet Amaya Crisin the opening round. I suspect Amaya may be too much for the 16-yr old to handle, but its a great way to get a debut to the pro circuit.
Projecting the 16s: There’s lots of 32s that could go either way; here’s some of the round of 16 matches that could be noteworthy:
– Carla Munoz-Riveros as the 8/9 match: they’ve played a bunch both internationally and in the LPRT. Munoz owns the last 3 wins and seems to have gained the upper hand in this rivalry.
– #4 Seeded Maria Jose Vargas versus De La Rosa: Vargas can run hot or cold, has had some inconsistent results lately. These two have played 6 times before and Vargas is 6-0, but the matches include a number of 4 and 5 game marathons.
In the quarters, I’m going with:
– Paola Longoria over Munoz
– Rajsich upsetting Vargas
– Alexandra Herrera handling Natalia Mendez
– Samantha Salas handling Amaya.
From there, I’m going chalk, with a 1/2 final and Longoria prevailing over Salas like normal. Unfortunately a few of the rising players i’d expect to make noise in this draw (Martinez, Mejia, Enriquez) are missing so the old guard prevails).
Here’s a review of the four eldest-most age categories (the ones that www.proracquetballstats.com currently tracks) and how the tournaments played out.
The two Americans both fought hard but fell at the quarter-final stage. Los Angeles native Dane Elkins took #1 overall seed Fernando Ruiz Michel to a tiebreaker, and Stocktonian Ricardo Ricky Diaz (brother of IRT pro Jose Diaz) played #3 seed Bolivian Gerson Miranda tough, eventually falling 13,12. The two Mexican top seeds both advanced tot he semis with ease.
In the semis, it was Bolivia vs Mexico on both sides of the draw … and it was both Mexican’s advancing to the final to force a rematch of the Mexican Nationals final in May. #4 Eduardo Portillo Rendon took out #1 seeded Fernando Ruiz Michel in two hard fought games, while #2 Sebastian Fernandez cruised past #3 seeded Gerson Miranda.
In the Final, we got a rematch of the Mexican 18U Junior National final from past May (won by Fernandez), the 18U selection event final in Mexico (again won by Fernandez) and a rematch of the 2016 16U World Juniors final (won by Portillo). On this day though, Portillo was the better player, dropping the first game 14 then cruising to the title (14),4,7.
The knock-out rounds featured all four top seeds advancing with relative ease into the semis; only #4 Gaby Martinez had more than 3 points scored against her in any quarter-final game, downing Canadian Alexis Iwaasa 9,5.
In the semis, Martinez took out the #1 seeded Mexican Ana Laura Flores with ease 5,3, while #3 Montse Mejia took a close match against #2 Angelica Barrios 14,8.
The Final thus was a rematch of 2017’s 18U world championship (won by Mejia), and of the 2016 16U World championship (won by Martinez), and represents a fitting end to both players’ junior careers. A fantastic match ensued, with Mejia taking the first game 14, dropping the second game 8, then controlling the tiebreaker to down the reigning World Champ and defend her 18U world championship. Final score: 14,(8),6. Martinez is denied a chance at becoming just the second player ever to hold both a Junior and World Adult singles title simultaneously.
The two top seeds advanced to the semis with little fan fare, with #1 Jose Carlos Ramos topping Texan Cayden Aikens in two, and #2 Bolivian Diego Garcia Quispe getting an injury fft win. #12 seed Mexican Guillermo Ortega “upset” the #4 seeded Bolivian Adrian Jaldin (though Ortega was the #3 seed entering the round robins) to make the semis. Lastly American #6 seed Sahil Thakur could not capitalize on a one-game lead and fell in a tiebreaker to #3 seed Ecuadorian Juan Sebastian Flores.
In the semis, Ramos topped fellow Mexican Ortega a rematch of the 16U National selection event in August (also won by Ramos), while pre-tourney favorite Garcia pasted Flores 3,2 to advance to the World final.
In the final, Garcia took a dominant win 4,10 over the #1 seed to take the title. Garcia did not drop a game in this tournament, and the 15-10 second game in the finals was the most any player scored on him in this tournament. He’s set to be a force to be reckoned with going forward.
The top four seeds advanced to the semis, taking out both Canadians (Juliette Parent and Cassie Prentice) as well as the lone remaining American (Annie Roberts).
In the semis, #1 seed Valeria Centellas advanced over the Mexican Guadalupe Griffin 5,10 while #3 Costa Rican Maricruz Ortiz topped the Mexican #1 Maria Fernanda Gutierrez, making for the only of these four finals to feature no Mexican juniors.
In the final, Centellas dropped the first game 9, then dominated the rest of the way, taking the final (9),4,3 to take the world 16U title for Bolivia.
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Quick wrap of Doubles action:
– Boys 18U final featured four of the best singles players in the tourney, as Mexico and Bolivia went at it in a rematch of the scintillating RR match. In the final, the Mexican team of Fernandez and Rodrigo Rodriguez came out on top, getting revenge for their RR loss to the Bolivian team of Fernando Ruiz and Gerson Miranda for the title.
– Girls 18U final featured the top Mexican team versus Ecuador. The Mexican team of Ana Laura Flores and Abril Sacristan cruised to a world title.
– Boys 16U also featured Mexico vs Bolivia in the final (like the 16U). The Mexican team had to play just one match to get to the final (getting a bye and an inj-fft), but could not overcome the Bolivian team powered by the singles champ Garcia.
– Girls 16U was Bolivia vs Canada, who ousted the higher seeded Mexican team in the semis. On this day the Bolivians cruised to the title 8,7 over team Canada.
The Girls 16U final was notable for this fact; Bolivian Valeria Centellas won the Adult World doubles championships earlier this year with Yazmine Sabja Aliss and now holds the 16U junior worlds doubles championship … as far as we can tell, this is a first in the international game (having a player hold both the Adult and the junior world title in doubles).
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A quick note: as we’ve clearly been seeing for a while, the balance of power both in Juniors and on the pro tours is clearly no longer with the originating countries of the sport. USA and Canadian players failed to advance to even the semis in either 16U or 18U. Team USA did experience some success; the Americans swept the 14U doubles titles, made the finals of both 14U singles events and American Nikil Prasad won the boys 12U in dominant fashion. But the older levels were completely dominated by Mexico and Bolivia.
The 2018 30th annual International Racquetball Federation – IRF World Juniors event has been underway since Saturday in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The round robin matches are now complete and the knockout brackets are set. We’re to the business end of this tourney, so lets preview the draws and make some predictions.
Draws are available at IRF’s website http://www.internationalracquetball.com/ by clicking on the event and then the direct link for draws. Follow the IRF on facebook to get notified of live feeds; Timothy Baghurst is broadcasting all day every day for a week straight and is doing a great job.
Note: we only really track 16U and 18U (for now), so here’s a preview of the 16 and 18U knockout draws for both Boys and Girls. Lots of familiar names in these draws, especially for fans of international racquetball and the growing international game.
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In the Boys 18U, USA 18U champ and pre-tourney #1 seed Ricardo Ricky Diaz lost twice in the RRs, dropping his knock-out seed to #11 Similarly, USA #2 Dane Elkins saw his pre-tourney seed take a hit with two round-robin upsets himself. The two favorites to make the final (the two top Mexicans) Sebastian Fernandez and Eduardo Portillo Rendon both cruised through the round robins to maintain their top four seeds in the knockout phase.
Predictions for the knockouts: I can see some minor upsets in the early rounds, especially with the two now under-seeded Americans, but I still see the top four seeds (the two Bolivians and the two Mexicans) advancing to the semis.
In the semis, I see the two Mexican players advancing over their Bolivian rivals; Portillo over #1 seed Fernandoz Ruiz Michel and Fernandez over #3 Gerson Miranda (which would be a rematch of the 2017 16U world final). This would setup a re-match of the 2018 Mexican Junior 18U final, won by Fernandez in a tiebreaker. I see Fernandez taking this title and becoming a force to be reckoned with on the pro tours soon.
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In the Girls 18U, the top four seeds entering round robin play maintained their seeds into the main draw, and gave us a likely preview of the final on day one. Looking ahead at the draw:
– Look for the two Americans Elyse Duffy and Graciana Wargo to advance to the quarters but run into heavy favorites.
– In the Quarters, the top 3 seeds Ana Laura Flores, Bolivian Angelica Barrios and #3 Montserrat Montse Mejia should advance easily to the semis. #4 seed and current reigning adult World Champion Ana Gabriela Gaby Martinez fell to Mejia in the round robins and has to face #5 seeded Alexis Iwaasain the quarters. Martinez beat Iwaasa at this same stage in last year’s World Juniors and should win again.
– In the semis, Martinez should outlast the #1 seeded Flores to setup a rematch with Mejia of the 2017 World 18U girls final (2017 18U match report here: https://bit.ly/2RCPMVu).
– In the final, I predict Martinez returns the favor and captures the first ever double-double world title of Adult and 18U.
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In the Boys 16U, there’s a couple of familiar names in the draw to those following the IRT this year. #2 seeded Diego Garcia Quispe played in both the Laurel event and in the US Open and acquitted himself quite well. I predict he runs to the title, defeating American Sahil Thakur in the semi and #1 seeded Mexican Jose Ramos in the final.
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In the Girls 16U…the two Americans Annie Roberts and Erin Slutzky have to play each other in the first knock out round, but the winner plays into the #2 seed Mexican Maria Gutierrez. It may not matter; the #1 overall seed is current reigning World doubles champion Valeria Centellas, who played 18U last year in World Juniors (as a 15 yr old) and still made the semis. I predict Centellas over Gutierrez in the final.
Congrats to Paola Longoria on her double win on the weekend. This is her 85th tier-1 singles tourney win, nearly double the next closest competitor in the ladies pro tour history.
The round of 16 went completely chalk, with all eight top seeds advancing. 7 of the 8 matches were three straight games, though #8 Natalia Mendez took three tight games over #9 Cristina Amaya Cris 9,9,8. Only Maria Jose Vargas was stretched to four, dropping a game to Adriana Riveros before advancing.
In the Quarters…a couple of surprising results. #1 Paola Longoria dropped a game to Mendez but advanced. #4 Alexandra Herrera got a solid win over #5 Nancy Enriquez, #3 Salas had a 4-game win over Vargas, and #7 Rhonda Rajsichgot an upset win over #2 Frederique Lambert.
In the semis…Longoria overpowered #4 Herrera in three to advance to her 99th career tier-1 final, but Salas was stretched to the limit by Rajsich, requiring a 5th game tiebreaker to advance to her 13th career final.
In the final: Salas did what she could to stay with Longoria, but it was another 3-game win for the champion. Longoria improves to 45-3 career h2h against her frequent doubles partner.
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The doubles draw saw an 8-team competition, and much closer matches.
In the quarters, the top team of Longoria/Salas was stretched to a tiebreaker by the team of Nancy Enriquez and current world doubles champion Yazmine Sabja Aliss before losing. Lambert/Munoz upset the Argentinian national team of Vargas/Mendez. The US National doubles team Rajsich/Sheryl Lotts reversed some recent form and trounced the Colombian National #1 team of Riveros/Amaya. Lastly the #2 seeds Herrera/Rodriguez came back from a game one pounding to advance in a tiebreaker.
The semis were anticlimactic,with the #1 team getting an injury walkover into the final when Carla Munoz turned her ankle, and the #2 team advancing easily 7,9.
The final was similarly anti-climactic, as the world’s best team wiped out the make-shift #2 seeds 7,2 for the win. Longoria & Salas improve to an amazing 68-3 record in pro doubles since we started tracking it in 2013.
The LPRT returns to action this weekend, traveling to Boston for the annual Boston Open. This event has been on the books this Halloween weekend for a few years now and has become a popular LPRT stop.
22 women are entered in the Singles draw, and the draw has some interesting participants and omissions.
Top 10 players missing include #9 Jessica Parrilla (still recovering from knee surgery) and more importantly #10 Ana Gabriele Martinez, who has made two semis in two tournaments this season and misses out on a chance to put herself into the top 8. The only other top 20 players missing are #17 Susy Acosta and #20 Montse Mejia. (Post-publishing note: its likely that both Martinez and Mejia are missing this event due to its proximity to World Juniors, which starts the following weekend. Both are favorites in their final juniors appearance to reach the 18U final).
There’s a few interesting “blast from the past” players in this draw; Laura Brandt first appeared on the pro tour in 2005 and plays her second pro event this month. Jennifer Mayadas-Dering played events in the late 90s into the 2000s, then took 14 years off before re-appearing in pro draws lately. Lastly, four-time tour champ Cheryl Gudinas plays her third straight Boston Open, and for the time being remains tied with Rhonda Rajsich for most ever appearances on the pro tour with 181.
Lets run through the draw and note some possible good matches to watch for:
In the 32s:
– Adrienne Fisher Haynes gets the 4-time former champ Gudinas in the first round. Haynes is 2-16 lifetime versus Gudinas … and those two wins came in their two most recent meetings (in 2012 and 2013).
– Cassi Leefaces off against Dering, making for a match-up of two New Yorkers.
– Guatemalan Maria Renee Rodriguez faces off against DC-area native Masiel Rivera Oporto.
In the 16s:
– Bolivian dark-horse player Yazmine Sabja Aliss gets an unlucky early match-up with #1 Paola Longoria. Sabja is a dangerous player who can hang with nearly every player in the world … but I think she’ll be hard-pressed to pull off an upset of this magnitude here.
– In the 8/9 seed, a South American battle between Colombian Amaya Cris and Argentinian Natalia Mendez.
– Representatives of these two countries will also battle in the bottom half of hte draw, when Colombian Adriana Riveros and Argentinian Maria Jose Vargas meet.
Possible Quarters:
– Longoria should handle Mendez.
– A highly interesting all-Mexico quarter final between Nancy Enriquezand Alexandra Herrera awaits; Enriquez has been upset in both LPRT events this season by the same (missing) player in Martinez; now she has a path to the semis against a player who she has beaten. Herrera leads the h2h on tour 2-1 but they havn’t played in more than a year.
– Samantha Salas faces off against Vargas; a few years ago Vargas seemed like she was perched to take over the #2 spot on tour (and in fact did in 2015). But she’s been hit and miss this season while Salas has come back energized from her injury last season.
– Dr to be Frederique Lambert is set to take on the legend Rajsich in the last quarter.
Projected Semis: Longoria, Enriquez, Salas and Lambert.
Parrilla gets a solid tourney win, 5th of his WRT career.
The World Racquetball Tour‘s 2018 Canadian Open is in the books; congrats to Andree Parrilla on his win. Parrilla gets his 5th ever WRT tourney win, and is the third straight different winner in as many WRT events this year.
Lets re-cap the event, with commentary on the notable matches (to me) by round:
In the 32s, no major upsets but some good matches:
– Tanner Prentice took a close one over fellow Canadian Mitch Brayley14,11.
– Tim Landeryou, who has made the Canadian Nationals finals four times in 8 years, was stretched to a tiebreaker by current Canadian 16U champ Ian Frattinger.
– Eduardo Lalo Portillo got a solid win over veteran Canadian Lee Connell.
The fireworks started in the round of 16, when 5 of the top 8 seeds were ousted.
– #9 Luis Avila topped #8 Justus Benson in a tiebreaker.
– #21 seeded Samuel Murray beat #5 seeded Alex Cardona in a tiebreaker. An upset by seed, probably not an upset by overall world standings, and the match did not disappoint. Back and forth action and then a furious rally in the end before Murray got the 11-9 tie-breaker win. Tough draw for Cardona, but good viewing for the neutrals.
– #14 Jordy Alonso upset #3 seeded Jaime Martell Neri 8 and 12. Martell has a number of solid wins on his resume, so this isn’t a completely shock result, but Martell is the winner of the most recent WRT event and was a favorite for the semis here.
– #22 Coby Iwaasa unsurprisingly upset #6 Christian Longoria 9,6. Iwaasa won a stacked WRT event in Lombard IL in 2014 before heading out on a 2-year sabbatical, and he seems nearly back to his top form.
– But the biggest upset happened at the bottom of the draw; Mexican Junior Eduardo Portillo upset #2 seeded Jake Bredenbeck 9,9. Portillo doesn’t have a ton of pro events on his resume, but was a finalist at 2017 18U worlds and in the 2018 Mexican Junior Nationals. A really shocking result for Bredenbeck here, who has 5 career WRT titles including in January.
In the Quarters….
– #1 Bobby David Horn eased past Avila in two straight.
– #4 Andree Parrilla took out Murray in two straight. As I noted in the preview, this result should surprise no-one despite Murray’s higher ranking on the IRT. I sense it is just a matter of time before Andree Parrilla is ranked in the 5-6 range on the IRT.
– Iwaasa continued his run, dominating Alonso 5,9 to force his way into the semis as the 22nd seeded player in a 24-man draw.
– Gerardo Franco Gonzalez took out upset-minded Portillo in a tie-breaker to advance to his 3rd ever WRT semi-finals appearance.
In the Semis:
– Parrilla evened their career senior h2h record over Horn by advancing in a tactical tie-breaker win.
– Iwaasa got his fourth straight 2-game victory over WRT regulars, this time dispatching Franco with ease.
In the Final, Parrilla ended up winning 11 and 13, though the scores did not reflect the very streaky nature of the match. Parrilla was down big in game one before rattling off 10 straight to win it, and was up 14-4 before a huge Iwaasa come back.
I had predicted a Parrilla win, but definitely did not predict an Iwaasa final. But this is no surprise result for the Canadian, and I hope we get to see more of him going forward.
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In the Doubles…
– Top seeded Horn/Benson were trounced in the quarters by the all-Canadian team of Landeryou/Brayley. The other top 4 seeds advanced to the semis. The final was thought to be the expected match-up of Murray/Bredenbeck versus Cardona/Franco … until Murray dropped out and was replaced by Jake’s brother. Cardona and Franco prevailed … I’ll likely make a note of this result in the notes but will transcribe it as if Murray advanced to the final. Either that or I record a fft loss for the losing team.
The World Racquetball Tour is back in action, hosting its 3rd tourney of 2018 and its first event since May. The tour is in Calgary … which is the first time (as far as I can tell) that pro racquetball has ever been hosted in this Alberta city.
There’s 24 players in the Men’s draw, including many IRT regulars. The draw represents a nice balance of Northern Hemisphere countries: 8 Canadians, 9 Mexicans, 6 Americans.
Lets take a look at the draw and highlight some notable potential match-ups and make some predictions.
In the 32s:
– Samuel Murray vs Taylor Knoth; Murray, the current #6 ranked IRT player, makes just his 2nd ever WRT appearance and is an early tourney favorite despite his #21 seed here. Knoth gets an unlucky match-up; he’s got the potential to advance in any pro tourney he enters, as evidenced by the win he got over a regular touring pro the last time he entered a pro draw (Jan 2018). I expect Murray to advance but Knoth will play him tough.
– Eduardo Lalo Portillo vs Lee Connell: Portillo gets a tough match-up against the veteran Connell, who has been playing pro events since Lalo was 5.
In the 16s:
– the 8/9 match-up between WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball outdoor specialist Luis Avila and #8 seeded Justus Benson could be interesting. These two met on the WRT once before, in Sept 2016 with Avila advancing easily. Has Benson closed the gap?
– Murray v Alex Cardona. What a brutal round of 16 for both players; this is a semis quality match. Honestly, this is a great example of why you should have protected seeding for top ranked IRT players doing drop-ins to the WRT. Ironically, the only other time Murray played the WRT … he also met Cardona in the 16s. It was Atlanta 2015 and Cardona got him in a tie-breaker, but we’re 3 years on and these players are trending in opposite directions. Murray advances in two solid games.
– Andree Parrilla v Tim Landeryou; a great match-up between one of Mexico’s best and one of Canada’s best. Both players are routinely making quarters or semis of their federation National events. Parrilla has made the quarters or better in 7 of the last 11 IRT events he’s played in and is fresh off of a semis appearance in the US Open. Parrilla advances but it isn’t easy.
– Coby Iwaasa v Christian Longoria; another tough round of 16 match-up here; Iwaasa excelled at 2018 Worlds, losing two very tight matches to IRT top-10 ranked player Mario Mercado. I think Iwaasa upsets Longoria here and advances on home soil.
– Gerardo Franco Gonzalez v Alan Natera Chavez; a great match between two country-men who are up and coming players. Natera beat Franco in Mexico Nationals earlier this year while making a huge run to the semis and has been playing very solid. Look for a Natera win again here.
Potential Quarter finals match-ups
– #1 David Horn v #9 Avila: Horn’s slow start to the IRT season has dropped him to #12 there, but he remains #1 in the WRT. He should advance past fellow Californian Avila here.
– #21 Murray vs #4 Parrilla: Another great match here; Parrilla has met Murray already twice this year on the IRT and beaten him both times, including a solid 8,8 defeat at the US Open two weekends ago. Look for Parrilla to advance.
– #3 Jaime Martell Neri vs Iwaasa: Martell is the winner of the most recently held WRT event, beating both Horn and Bredenbeck to take the Atlanta Open in May. He played a couple of IRT Satellite events in Mexico in September with mixed results, but may have his hands full here. I’m not sure which way this potential match-up goes, but it’ll be tight.
– #2 Jake Bredenbeck versus Natera: Jake has been snake-bitten at IRT events lately; he’s fallen in the 16s or early in seven straight IRT tourneys. He’s gotten pretty rotten draws, and has been “stuck” right in that tough ranking range where he is constantly playing into one of the top 3 players in the round of 16. But on the WRT he remains tough; making the finals of 3 of the last 4 WRT events and winning in January (a solid win over Rodrigo Montoya Solís ). Natera probably gives Jake a solid game but falls at this gate.
Semis projection:
– Parrilla-Horn: The 1/4 match here was the 8/9 match in Laurel, won by Parrilla before he dropped an 11-10 heart-breaker to Rocky Carson. I think Andree gets his number again and advances to the final.
– Jake vs Iwaasa: If Iwaasa gets this far, he’ll try to take out both Bredenbeck brothers in one event (he faces Sam Bredenbeck in the first round). If this is Jake-Martell, it’ll be a rematch of the Atlanta 2018 final. Jake is 6-1 lifetime over Martell but he’s 0-1 this calendar year.
Finals projection: Parrilla over Jake. Jake is 3-0 lifetime over Parrilla … but all 3 matches were in 2015. Parrilla is on a tear and is the favorite for me to win this weekend in Calgary.
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There’s a solid doubles draw in Calgary; 10 teams. I’ll go with the team of Murray/Jake over Cardona/Franco in the final.
Congratulations to Paola Longoria, who captured her 9th career US Open title by defeating #3 Samantha Salas Solis 9,2,5. Paola has not lost at this event since 2010, when she was upset in the final by #2 Rhonda Rajsich.
This tournament represents Longoria’s 84th Tier 1 or Grand Slam title, and she seems well on her way towards challenging Kane Waselenchuk‘s overall record for total pro titles (which currently sits at 111).
Paola maintains her current stranglehold on the points lead on the LPRT; she is set to extend her current lead on #2 Frederique Lambert, who was vanquished in the semis by finalist Salas.
