{"id":1006,"date":"2020-02-03T15:59:29","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T15:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2020-02-03T15:59:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T15:59:31","slug":"irt-lou-bradley-memorial-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/03\/irt-lou-bradley-memorial-wrap-up\/","title":{"rendered":"IRT Lou Bradley Memorial Wrap-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Kane dominates in Wisconsin for the win. \n Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Congrats to Kane Waselenchuk on his 122th career IRT Tier 1 title on the weekend. He triumphed over a trio of top Mexican players then blasted Mercado in the final to take the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

R2 Sports App home page for event: https:\/\/www.r2sports.com\/website\/event-website.asp?TID=31897<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singles Match report in the PRS database: http:\/\/rball.pro\/EB643C<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—————-
In the 64s:
– #25 Sam Bredenbeck eked out a tie-breaker win over #24 Scott McClellan<\/a>
– Both Kelley brothers (Sam and Joe), travelling from the NJ\/PA area, fell in two to traveling pros. Great job supporting the event though, along with all the traveling players.
– #23 Kadim Carrasco<\/a>] took a close match from #26 Justus Benson<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—————-
In the 32s, we started to see some interesting results.
– As suspected, the 16\/17 match was close, with #16 Javier Mar taking out younger countryman #17 Sebastian ‘Patata’ Fernandez<\/a>] in a tie-breaker.
– #12 Carlos Keller Vargas<\/a> was stretched by Costa Rican veteran #21 Felipe Camacho<\/a>, winning two closer games.
– #13 Thomas Carter<\/a> got revenge from last week, topping #20 Javier Estrada in a breaker to move on. Sold win for Carter to reverse his two-tourney one-and-done streak.
– #11 Mario Mercado Valenzuela<\/a> held serve against #22 Alan Natera Chavez<\/a>, winning in two closer games.
– #10 Sebastian Franco<\/a> was stretched by South American neighbor Carrasco, advancing 14,13.
– #15 Eduardo Garay played a complete match and dominated #18 Adam Manilla<\/a> 8,8 to move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the 32s went perfectly chalk; all the seeds from 9-16 advanced into the next round. I think I predicted at least 2-3 upsets here but the seeds prevailed this time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—————-
In the 16s:
– #1 Kane Waselenchuk got his tourney started against a tough foe in #16 Mar, but advanced 7,8. We saw a similar pattern in game 2 to a lot of Kane’s games against solid opponents; it was even for a while … then it was 8-8 … then you blink your eye and its 15-8 as Kane turns up the pressure and moves on.
– In a fascinating result, #9 Rodrigo Montoya Sol\u00eds<\/a>] dominated #8 Conrrado kevin Moscoso Ortiz Racquetball<\/a> 12,4 to remain unbeaten against the Bolivian Iris Grand Slam winner and move on.
– #5 Samuel Murray<\/a> held serve against Keller, moving on after taking a close game one.
– #4 \u00c1lvaro Beltr\u00e1n<\/a> stifled any chance of another upset at the hands of the lefty Carter (as had happened in December in Portland), cruising to a 4,12 win.
– #3 Andree Parrilla<\/a> is ready to put this month behind him; the player I thought could make a run to the final here instead was upset in the round of 16 for the third successive week, this time at the hands of Gerardo Franco Gonzalez 11-7 in the breaker. Franco advances to his 4th pro quarter final.
– #6 Lalo Portillo<\/a>‘s dreams of back to back finals ended early; he was dropped by #11 Mercado in the round of 16s for the 2nd time in three weeks, this time by the overwhelming scoreline of 4,7.
– #10 S.Franco evened up his career h2h line with #7 Jake Bredenbeck<\/a>, taking him out in two to advance.
– #2 Alex Landa <\/a>showed little ill-effects from his arm injury of last weekend, advancing over a tough foe in #15 Garay 6,(7),5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, three upsets at this stage; the top is nearly chalk 1,9,5,4 in the quarters, while the bottom is 14,11,10,2. I had predicted some upsets here … but none of them came to pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—————-
In the Quarters
– #1 Kane topped #9 Montoya to move on, but not with out a bit of controversy. Early in the second game a long rally had the players come together and Kane seemed to almost shove Montoya to get out of the way of a shot. It was kind of reminiscent of the early physical days of the sport. No penalty was given and nothing seemed to come of it … but at the end of the tourney Montoya scored the most points of any player against Kane in a game on the weekend, and seems to be getting incrementally better against the King each time they face each other.
– #4 Alvaro Beltran<\/a> came from a game down to top Canadian #1 Murray and keep his perfect h2h record alive over him.
– #11 Mercado advanced to his first pro semi since the Bolivian Grand Slam by topping upstart GFranco 13,2. Franco looked frisky in game one … but collapsed once he lost the close opening game.
– #2 Landa made short work of #10 S.Franco 5,5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—————
In the Semis; two interesting matches.
– #4 Beltran dominated #1 Kane …. for a quarter of their match. Beltran led 5-0 and 7-3 in the first …. and then didn’t score again. Kane ran off 27 unanswered points from 3-7 down in the first game to win the match 7,0. Just a complete white washing where Kane played textbook ball for most of the match.
– #11 Mercado saved game point in the first and then took a close one from #2 Landa to advance to just his second ever pro final 14,11. He becomes the rare double-digit seed to make a pro final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Finals…. it was one way traffic. Kane crushed Mercado 2,3 to take the title. 5 total points against represents the 2nd most dominant final scoreline in the history of the tour (see http:\/\/rball.pro\/C1E703<\/a> for the full list … not surprisingly Kane owns most of the top scorelines on this report).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—————-
Points Implications of results;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s no expiring tier 1 from last season to drop off, but there’s still a lot of movement in the top 20 on tour after this event:
– Parrilla’s 3-tourney swoon finally costs him in the rankings: he’ll drop to #5 behind Beltran.
– DLR’s absence costs him too; despite Moscoso’s early upset exit, he’ll pip Daniel for #6 on tour.
– Montoya and Mercado will both jump over Jake in the tightly bunched set of players in the 10-13 range. Around 30 ranking points separate 10th from 13th and these three players along with Sebastian Franco continue to juggle spots based on tournament results.
– Gerardo Franco jumps to #16, Mar continues to rise up (now #19), and the missing Acuna gets dumped three spots to #21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—————-
Other Draws:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Men’s Open, a solid bracket included several former top-8 IRT players plus a ton of locals. As it turned out, two of the pro quarter-finalists were the 1 and 3 seeds in the Open (and both forfeited out, thinning the draw) and the 8 quarter-finalists ended up being 6 touring internationals plus mid-western top amateurs Lee Meinerz and Anthony Martin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the qtrs:
– SFranco topped Meinerz 8,11
– Fernandez crushed Garay 4,1 to advance.
– Camacho got a walkover when Mercado withdrew.
– Portillo topped Martin 8,4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the semis:
– Fernandez walks over Franco
– Portillo crushes Camacho 2,3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the final, a familiar battle. Mexican nationals Fernandez and Portillo are a year apart and often met in the back end of junior nationals and junior worlds events. Some of their recent match history includes these notable finals:
– Portillo d Fernandez in the 16U World junior finals in 2016
– Fernandez d Portillo in the Mexican 18U natioanls final in 2018
– then, 3 months later the two met in the 18U junior worlds final, Portillo’s last junior event, and Portillo won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how about on this day? They played a back and forth match eventually won by Patata Fernandez (4),7,8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Men’s Open Doubles, in the absence of an official IRT pro doubles draw we saw a 15-team bracket headlined by the reigning Pan Am Games gold medalists Mar\/Montoya. Also in the doubles draws were a couple of old friends from the East Coast, Brent Walters<\/a> and Russ Bruns<\/a>, both of whom have strong ties to the Virginia Racquetball scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end though, the top two seeds, both all-Mexican traveling teams, advanced to the final. #1 Montoya\/Mar, one of the best teams in the world and the reigning Pan American Games gold medalists, ended up topping Natera\/Estrada in two tight games for the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————
Next up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IRT takes a break until mid-march when they return to Chicago. Meanwhile, USA National Doubles is next weekend, featuring a juicy pairing of 5-time pro champ Sudsy Monchik teaming up with IRT #2 Landa, who has to represent the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, there’s almost nothing going on that we’d normally track in February; I may have to come up with some fun ideas to discuss during the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————-
International Racquetball Tour<\/a>
International Racquetball Federation – IRF<\/a>
International Racquetball Federation<\/a>
USA Racquetball<\/a>
Racquetball Canada<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Mexicana de Raquetbol<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Boliviana de Racquetball<\/a>
Racquetball Colombia<\/a>
Federacion Colombiana de Racquetball<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Costarricense de Racquetball<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congrats to Kane Waselenchuk on his 122th career IRT Tier 1 title on the weekend. He triumphed over a trio of top Mexican players then blasted Mercado in the final to take the title. R2 Sports App home page for event: https:\/\/www.r2sports.com\/website\/event-website.asp?TID=31897 —————— Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw. Singles Match report in … <\/p>\n

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