WOR Vegas Championships Wrap-up

Rajsich was the big winner in Vegas, making 4 finals and winning 3 of them.  Photo Src: © Mike Boatman 2010

One of the “big 3” WOR events of the year was this past weekend; lets wrap up the play.  All the results are now in the www.proracquetballstats.com database, and i’ve interspersed links to the match report below per bracket. There were some upsets, and some expected match-ups for titles … all under the Vegas sun.

Men’s Singles 3-wall: In the final Nick Montalbano blew away doubles partner William Rolon 3,8 in the final. Montalbano had survived an early round upset bid by Bolivian Conrrado Moscoso, who flew to this event with doubles partner Roland Keller before heading to Minnesota for the US Open. Match Report: https://bit.ly/2NeFOXV

Women’s Singles 3-wall: It was #1 versus #2, with the two most dominant outdoor Women’s players meeting once again for a title. And once again, Janel Tisinger-Ledkins came out on top over LPRT legend Rhonda Rajsich in a tiebreaker. Match Report: https://bit.ly/2NfnNsg

Men’s Doubles 3-Wall: The biggest pro draw at the event (14 teams) came down to #1 versus #2 in the final, and it went to the current indoor World Champion team of Alvaro Beltran and Daniel De La Rosa over one-wall guru Robert Sostre and David Horn. Match Report: https://bit.ly/2NWkfQS

Women’s Doubles 3-wall: four solid teams battled it out round robin style, and in the end the match to determine the winner went 11-10. The title goes to the team of Rajsich and Michelle Herbert over Michelle De La Rosa and Carla Muñoz. Match Report: https://bit.ly/2Oom2xB

Mixed Doubles 3-wall: The #1 seeded De La Rosa husband-wife team was unseated for the title by Rajsich and outdoor legend Rick “Soda Man” Rick Koll 11-9 in the breaker. Match Report: https://bit.ly/2NSEgYB

Men’s Doubles 1-wall: The 3-wall runners up team of Sostre and Horn took out the two guys who made the singles final in Montalbano/Rolon 13,7 in a very New York-flavored 1-wall final. Match report: https://bit.ly/2Rl2I38

Mixed Doubles 1-wall: just two teams entered, but they played a tough tiebreaker. Rajsich/Koll over Tisinger and DC-native Jason Geis 11-4 in the breaker. Match report: https://bit.ly/2OmNzjb

Great weekends for, in particular, Montalbano (singles title, 1-wall doubles final), Rajsich (singles finalist, doubles 3-wall champ, Mixed 3-wall champ, and mixed 1-wall champ), Koll (Mixed 3-wall champ and mixed 1-wall champ), Sostre and Horn (3-wall mens finalist, 1-wall mens champ), Rolon (singles finalist, 1-wall doubles finalist), and Tisinger (Singles champ, 1-wall finalist).

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Next Up: the US Open! I did daily singles summaries last year and hope to be able to find the time to do that again this year. Stay tuned to a Tuesday draw preview and hopefully daily summaries starting Wednesday.

Las Vegas 2018 WOR Preview

One of WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball‘s 3 biggest annual events of the year is this weekend; its the 2018 3-Wall Ball championships being held in Las Vegas. The courts are constructed outside the Stratosphere Hotel & Casino and the WOR event is combined with Paddleball and Handball events to be a massive outdoor festival in Sin City.

More than 200 Racquetball players are entered, including a bunch of international players that should make the pro events quite interesting. Draws are now online at this r2sports.com link.

Here’s a preview of the various Pro events.

Men’s 3-wall Pro Singles: 9 guys entered. #1 seed Luis Avila is the 2018 outdoor champ and a favorite to make the final. On the other side, Bolivian powerhouse Conrrado Moscoso is in town and will make some noise. I’m predicting Moscoso over Avila in the final.

Women’s 3-wall Pro Singles: four players entered; three LPRT top 10 touring pros and veteran outdoor power Janel Tisinger-Ledkins. I’m predicting a Tisinger-Rhonda Rajsich final in the RR stage for the title. They’ve met more than a few times to settle a major outdoor title; see this link for all outdoor finals in the database.

Men’s 3-wall Pro doubles: 14 teams, including a ton of very qualified WOR players. I’ll predict a Daniel De La Rosa/Alvaro Beltran versus David Horn/Robert Sostre final, with the current world champs coming out on top.

Women’s 3-wall Pro doubles: 4 teams competing RR all weekend. I’ll go with Jacqueline Paraiso-Larsson and Janel Tisinger-Ledkins coming out on top over Carla Muñoz  and Michelle De La Rosa .

Mixed 3-wall pro doubles: hard to bet against the husband-wife De La Rosa pair, who could face off against Rajsich and tourney promoter and outdoor legend Rick “Soda Man” Koll.

This year there’s also One-Wall pro doubles events, with some of the dominant one-wall players in the mix.

Men’s 1-wall pro doubles: hard to bet against a team that includes one-wall legend from New York; Horn/Sostre over fellow New Yorkers Nick Montalbano/William Rolon.

Mixed 1-wall pro doubles: just two teams entered, but it could be a great match: Rajsich/Koll versus Tisinger/Jason Geis. I’ll go with the lefty/righty matchup here for the title, while also rooting for a DC-area guy Gies.