{"id":1666,"date":"2022-07-28T13:49:03","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T13:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/?p=1666"},"modified":"2022-07-28T13:49:03","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T13:49:03","slug":"alex-landa-open-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/28\/alex-landa-open-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Landa Open Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Landa-Alejandro-usopen19-savory2-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-895\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Landa-Alejandro-usopen19-savory2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Landa-Alejandro-usopen19-savory2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Landa-Alejandro-usopen19-savory2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Landa-Alejandro-usopen19-savory2.jpg 1874w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption>Landa headlines the draw at his namesake event.  Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>As you may have already seen on KRG and elsewhere in social media, there&#8217;s a very solid IRT satellite tournament scheduled for this weekend, the Torneo de Raquetbol Landa Open 2022, in honor of current IRT #4 Alex Landa . It is being held in Juarez, one of the bigger racquetball communities in Mexico, right across the river from El Paso where Landa resides.<br>The pro singles draw has 34 pro players, almost entirely from Mexico. The Guatemalan team is here, along with Set Cubillos Ruiz from Colombia and a couple of Americans, but this is almost entirely a domestic draw. And its stacked; this is arguably a deeper draw than the last Mexican Nationals event, and it should be a ton of fun to watch from afar.<br>r2sports link: https:\/\/www.r2sports.com\/tourney\/home.asp?TID=39837<br>Here&#8217;s a quick preview of the Singles and Doubles draws. Play gets kicked off later today, Thursday 7.28.22, and the @International Racquetball Tour streaming team is in the house to get us some live action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reminder: Juarez is Mountain time zone, so its 2 hours earlier than EST for timing purposes.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>round of 32s to look for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>#9 @Erick Cuevas Fernandez versus #24 @Christian Longoria is compelling: Longoria is better than his seeding, while Cuevas&#8217; seeding in an IRT event is inflated due to his playing more events. This is a pretty even match.<\/li><li>#21 @Jose Ramos versus #12 Cubillos: Ramos won a slew of Mexican Junior national titles and lost his last 18U season to Covid. This is a nice test against a veteran international player.<\/li><li>#20 @Polo Gutierrez vs #13 @Christian Wer; Polo was at one point recently a force in Mexican racquetball and won a slew of WRT events before an elbow injury curtailed the back half of his career. He&#8217;s still a very solid player and is an upset watch all weekend.<\/li><li>Both Renteria brothers are entered (owners of 9 junior national titles between them), and both take on Guatemalan competition in the openers.<\/li><li>&#8211; 15-18 @Guillermo Ortega versus @Sebastian Hernandez should be a close match between two up and comers in the Mexican scene.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Projecting the 16s, which are all scheduled for Friday night. Here&#8217;s some match-ups I&#8217;m projecting and hoping to see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>#1 @Andree Parrilla projects to face #17 Alex Cardona (who I think advances past Guatemalan Mendoza in the 32s). That&#8217;s a brutal draw for the former WRT #1; this is a quarters quality matchup.<\/li><li>#4Rodrigo Montoya vs #20 Gutierrez. A contrast in styles, with Montoya&#8217;s power and athleticism heading up against Polo&#8217;s pin-point control and unorthodox playing style. Montoya should advance but upset watch here if Polo is rested and in form.<\/li><li>#3 Alvaro Beltran vs #14 Jaime Martel ; Martell is one of the better players in the world that you may not know of, with multiple recent wins over players ranked in the teens on the IRT. I hate picking against Alvaro, but he&#8217;s struggled in singles events lately and Martel can beat players. Upset watch.<br><br><br>Predicted Quarters:<\/li><li>#1 Parrilla over #8 @Jordy Alonso: Alonso probably is a top 10 player if he toured regularly, with wins over Horn, Jake and Sebastian Franco earlier this year. But Parrilla is too tough for him here.<\/li><li>#4 Montoya over #5 @Sebastian Fernandez : Patata has a relatively straightforward path into the quarters, but there is set to face the tough Montoya. Both of these players are athletic as all get-out, and this would be a fantastic match to see live. Rodrigo moves on.<\/li><li>#6 Erick Trujillo over #14 Martel: with wins over the likes of Natera, Garay, and Franco t his year, Trujillo is starting to become a feared opponent on tour. Martell is a veteran, and certainly can win this game, but i&#8217;ll go with the youngster to move on.<\/li><li>#2 Landa over #7 @Javier Mar: the only times I have these two meeting was in Mexican Nationals in 2017 (Mar win in the final) and 2019 (Landa win in the quarters). On paper this is a Landa win; Mar has taken time off from singles recently to rehab an injury, while Landa has also fought off injury issues in the last year, but both should be recovered. Expect a tactical shot making match here, with Landa moving on in two close games.<br><br><br>Semis:<\/li><li>Montoya over Parrilla: Montoya just has Parrilla&#8217;s number, having just beat him in the World Games and owning a 6-3 adult record h2h against him. Makes you wonder why Montoya isn&#8217;t also in the top 4 in the world, if he can continually beat the current #2 player. Anyway; i&#8217;m going with another Montoya win here.<\/li><li>Landa over Trujillo; experience trumps youth here; Trujillo has the talent to get into main IRT draws but not to win them just yet. Landa solves him and moves into the final of his namesake tourney.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final: Montoya over Landa. Montoya topped Landa in Birmingham (though landa was under the weather), and they have a 3-3 head to head record dating to 2017 in top-level events. Montoya has won the last two meetings on tour\/internationally and is riding the hot hand.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>IRT U21 preview<br>In the Under21 pro division, 14 players are entered, headlined by Trujillo and Cuevas. this is a great showcase for rising talent and i&#8217;m glad to see this division again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Predictions: Trujillo over Hernandez from the top half, Ortega over Cuevas from the bottom half, and Trujillo wins the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Open Doubles Preview<br>This 12-team draw features some fun teams. it is headlined by Montoya\/Mar, perhaps the finest doubles team in the world. They should advance to the final with relative ease.<br>The bottom half features a throwback veteran team of Landa\/Beltran as the #2 seed; they should be able to outlast #3 Hernandez\/Trujillo to get to the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final should be chalk though, as Montoya\/Mar are hard to beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As mentioned, streaming on the IRT this weekend. Follow the IRT and sign up for live streaming notifications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As you may have already seen on KRG and elsewhere in social media, there&#8217;s a very solid IRT satellite tournament scheduled for this weekend, the Torneo de Raquetbol Landa Open 2022, in honor of current IRT #4 Alex Landa . It is being held in Juarez, one of the bigger racquetball communities in Mexico, right &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/28\/alex-landa-open-preview\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Alex Landa Open Preview&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,99,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doubles","category-irt","category-mexico","category-singles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1667,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions\/1667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}