{"id":310,"date":"2019-01-02T23:42:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T23:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/?p=310"},"modified":"2019-01-07T16:22:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T16:22:33","slug":"2019-irt-california-open-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/02\/2019-irt-california-open-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 IRT California Open Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Landa is seeded #1 .. but faces a long road in California.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Happy New Year. Just as the hangovers from NYE have abated, we’re back in action on the IRT for one of the tour’s biggest annual stops; the 2019 California Open, held in Canoga Park, CA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

37 Pros are entered, a 20% increase over last year at this event and continuing a healthy trend of improved IRT event participation over the past year and a half of tourneys. There’s also some surprise entrants to this event thanks in part to RYDF sponsorships for distant players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top 20 players missing: #9\u00a0Mario Mercado<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0didn’t make the cross-country trip. #13\u00a0Charlie Pratt<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0continues to be a part-time tour player and also didn’t make the long trip. #16\u00a0Thomas Carter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0misses his first event in a while. So just 3 of the top 20 missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lets preview the qualifying and draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notable Round of 64 matches:
–\u00a0Diego Garcia Quispe<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs\u00a0Eduardo Portillo Rendon<\/strong><\/a>; a fun match-up of the current reigning 18U World Junior champ and 16U World Junior Champ. I think you have to favor the older player. Bummer these two guys couldn’t go against more established tour players to see how far they’ve advanced.
– Mauro Daniel Rojas<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs\u00a0Dane Elkins<\/strong><\/a>: Northern California versus Southern California, and even though Elkins has the home town advantage Rojas advances here.
– Felipe Mercado Sandy<\/strong><\/a> vs\u00a0Felipe Camacho<\/strong><\/a>; notable in that I believe this is the first time two players named\u00a0“Felipe” have met on tour. I might be wrong though. Advantage Camacho here.
– John Wolfe<\/strong> vs\u00a0Erick Cuevas<\/strong><\/a>; an interesting match-up of two frequent IRT tour players; this is a good opportunity for both to get a tour win.
– Luis R Avila<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0Nick Riffel<\/strong><\/a>; an interesting contrast in styles, as Avila (reigning WOR outdor 3-wall champ) faces off against one of the newer IRT touring regulars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Possible round of 32s to watch for:
– #16\u00a0Gerardo Franco Gonzalez<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs #17\u00a0Rodrigo Montoya Solis<\/strong><\/a>; tough draw for Gerardo Franco here, running into the reigning World Champ Montoya, who enters an IRT event for just the 6th time in the last three seasons.
– #9\u00a0David Horn<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs Portillo: Horn is the highest ranked player who has to play an extra match and gets a tough but winnable match-up against the quickly improving Portillo. I think Horn still advances here.
–\u00a0Sebastian Fernandez<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs\u00a0Adam Manilla<\/strong><\/a>; fun match-up between the 18U Junior World runner-up in Fernandez and recent Intercollegiate champ Manilla, who has been playing tough on tour this year. Advantage Manilla.
– Rojas vs Camacho; excellent match to see if Rojas can take the next step, heading up against the veteran Camacho, who is a tough out.
–\u00a0Robert Collins<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs Riffel: Collins, who is coming off a great tourney where he took Rocky to a tie-breaker, gets another shot to qualify for a main draw against Riffel. Expect a close match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projecting the 16s. Lots of play-in matches, but here’s how I’m seeing the round of 16 playing out.
– #1 Alejandro\u00a0<\/strong>Alex Landa<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>vs #17 Montoya. Landa is the one who gets screwed by Montoya’s presence, having to play him in the 16s instead of the semis or finals of an event. For those of you who saw my personal top 50, you know that I think these two are neck and neck. Montoya beat him a couple weeks ago, and I like Montoya again here, paving the way for him to make a semi final on the weekend. But expect a battle; Landa doesn’t generally lose easily or quickly.
– #8\u00a0Samuel Murray<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs #9 Horn: Horn beat Sam the only time they met before (April 2018), but I like Murray’s form over Horn’s right now.\u00a0
– #5\u00a0Andree Parrilla<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs Manilla: Parrilla should advance here, unless he’s looking ahead at his potential quarter final opponent.
– #4\u00a0Kane Waselenchuk<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs #13\u00a0Jake Bredenbeck<\/strong><\/a>; an interesting match up for Kane, who goes against the guy who gave him his most recent on-the-court (albeit still involving an injury forfeit) loss. Jake beat Kane in May 2016 in a 5th game default. I wonder if Kane will want to “make amends” here.
– #3\u00a0Daniel De La Rosa<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs Rojas: DLR gets started against the hard-hitting youngster, but controls the game as he is apt to do and advances.
– #6\u00a0Sebastian Franco<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs #11\u00a0Jose Diaz<\/strong><\/a>;<\/strong> hard one to predict here; we know Franco has been nursing an injury and that Diaz has been playing well. I’ll go with Diaz in an upset here.
– #7\u00a0Alvaro Beltran<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs #10\u00a0Jansen Allen<\/strong><\/a>; Jansen has beaten Alvaro the last couple times they’ve played on tour … but they havn’t met since Nov 2017. Beltran has had the break to rest up from his typically busy playing schedule and he made the final of the last IRT event, so i’ll give him the nod here.
– #2\u00a0Rocky Carson<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0vs Collins: Collins gets a re-match of the round of 16 match from last IRT event; Carson still advances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projecting the Quarters: it could be a fun event:
– Montoya-Murray: they’ve met in the past; Murray beat Montoya at the Lewis Drug event last year. So this is not a cut and dried mach. But for me, Montoya is hot and moves on.
– Parrilla-Kane: last time they met was in the semis of the US Open, where Kane won 3,12. Parrilla is a tough out, and can make life miserable for even the likes of Kane. I’d expect another similar match, where one of the two games goes long.
– DLR vs Diaz: they last met in the qtrs of the US Open, a two game win for DLR 10,9. I’d expect a similar result here.
– Carson vs Beltran: these guys have met 48 times on the IRT so far, i think they’ll meet again. They met in the semis of the Portland event and Alvaro advanced in a testy tiebreaker. I’ll gamble and predict he wins again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Semis: 
– Montoya – Kane: this would be my ideal semi; these guys have met twice, most recently in a very anticipated 2017 season opener that was won by Kane by the lopsided score of 1,0,3 but which also high-lighted what could be for the back end of IRT tourneys if we could get Montoya playing more frequently. 
– DLR-Beltran: another match-up between best buddies and doubles partners. They met in Portland and Beltran dominated him … but then DLR turned around and won the Mexican Open in a draw that featured every top Mexican player (including Beltran) in the game today. I’ll go with DLR here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final: Kane over DLR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————–
There’s a solid Doubles draw: 10 teams. I like the #1 vs #2 teams to meet (DLR\/Beltran and Landa\/Murray), but wouldn’t count out the #4 team of Diaz\/Jake to make some noise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year. Just as the hangovers from NYE have abated, we’re back in action on the IRT for one of the tour’s biggest annual stops; the 2019 California Open, held in Canoga Park, CA. 37 Pros are entered, a 20% increase over last year at this event and continuing a healthy trend of improved … <\/p>\n

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