{"id":797,"date":"2019-10-03T14:19:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T14:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/?p=797"},"modified":"2019-10-03T16:55:49","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T16:55:49","slug":"irt-mens-qualifying-wrap-up-and-round-of-32-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/03\/irt-mens-qualifying-wrap-up-and-round-of-32-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"IRT Men’s Qualifying wrap-up and round of 32 preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Jaime Martel lis the higest seeded player to qualify for the 2019 main draw. Photo via Roby Partovich\/US Open 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We’re down to the top 32, having played 2-3 rounds of qualifiers Wednesday to whittle the field from 94.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

here’s the matches I found notable or upset-worthy from Wednesday’s marathon qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 256s:
– fellow Virginian Rich Benderoth<\/a> took a tiebreaker win over Erik Solter<\/a>. Shout out to Rich, who regularly spanked me a decade ago when I used to actually play this sport. Unfortunately he injured himself in the process and forfeited his next round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– USA 18U junior Lucas Shoemaker<\/a> gets a win in his professional debut, downing Bolivian Vladimir Fernando Salas in a tie-breaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Colorado native Jacob Kingsford gets a win in his debut pro\/national level event over Ecuadorian Fabian Cuesta<\/a>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– An intra-Dallas inter-generational battle was taken by the veteran; Diana-Shai Manzuri<\/a> took out Lukas Le<\/a> 5,6 to advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—————<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 128s:
– Andrew Gale<\/a> took out IRT regular Nick Riffel<\/a> in a tie-breaker; very solid win for the veteran player Gale, who first played in the US Open in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Francisco Reyes took out IRT touring regular Justus Benson<\/a> 6,12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Erik Garcia took out the tough Mexican Christian Longoria<\/a> by the scores of 10,2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Troy Warigon<\/a> dominated rematch of a qualifier in Laurel two weeks ago against Yacouba Keita<\/a>, advancing by the dominant scores of 3,1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Sam Bredenbeck<\/a> took out Colombian international Andres Gomez<\/a> in two solid games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Sebastian Fernandez<\/a> himself still an 18U junior, was stretched to a tiebreaker by a fellow Mexican junior (albeit a younger one) in Guillermo Ortega before advancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Pennsylvania amateur Joe Kelley stretched Alan Natera Chavez<\/a> to a tiebreaker before the Mexican advanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Former top WRT pro Jaime Martell Neri<\/a> took out 20th ranked Costa Rican Felipe Camacho<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– In a battle of two IRT veterans, Colombian Alejandro Herrera Azcarate<\/a> took out Japanese legend Hiroshi Shimizu in two close games to advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————-
In the 64s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Kansas amateur Bradley Rogers upset the highest ranked player in qualifying, 17th seeded Robert Collins<\/a> 12,8 to earn a main draw berth. Rogers gets his best win on tour in four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Javier Estrada<\/a> advanced over Bolivian junior phenom Diego Garcia Quispe<\/a>, who had to retire mid-game2 with injury. The two were playing close though, with the score 13-14 at the point of injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Javier Mar<\/a> dominated Ernesto Ochoa<\/a> 13,5 to advance to the main draw and a meeting with his doubles partner. Tough draw for Ochoa, who was making his IRT Tier 1 debut here after putting up some very impressive results in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Bolivian vet Kadim Carrasco<\/a> was pushed to a tiebreaker by Colombian Set Cubillos Ruiz<\/a> before advancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Big upset of a dark horse candidate for me: Colombian Francisco Reyes Gomez upset Natera in a tiebreaker to advance. We don’t know much about Reyes; he’s got a few US Open appearances in the past but this is probably his best career win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Martel gets a great win to advance into the main draw, topping Garcia 14,6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Eduardo Garay Rodriguez<\/a> held serve and topped MoMo Zelada<\/a> 11,9 to advance into the main draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Maurice Miller<\/a> ended Gale’s upset run to qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

now for the 32s. And there’s some amazing matches today. Here’s what i’m looking for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #1 Kane Waselenchuk<\/a> vs #33 Estrada: Estrada made a statement at the Black Gold cup, topping 4 top 10 players to take the title. Well, now he can measure up against the worlds best for a status check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #9 Rodrigo Montoya Solis<\/a> vs #24 Mar: these two ran into each other in the round of 32 at the Syosset open as well; just a function of unlucky seeding. Mar took that last meeting en route to a quarter final appearance. Expect a close match between these doubles partners that know each other’s game pretty well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #8 Samuel Murray<\/a> vs #25 Keller: pay no attention to the seedings here: this is a battle of two evenly matched players. They met in the 16s of the Pan Am Games in Lima, a tie-breaker win for the Canadian. But Keller is no easy out; he’s an experienced, accomplished international player with two PARC titles on his resume<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#13 David Horn\u200b vs #77 Martell; This is an interesting matchup between two long stalwards of the WRT. These two met 9 times on the old WRT, with Horn leading 5-4 h2h but Jaime Martell Racquetball\u200b taking the most recent meeting (May 2018 in Atlanta). This could go either way; Horn has missed time with an injury this season; is he 100%? He’ll need to be to beat his long time rival. (post-publishing correction<\/strong>; initially I had Martell playing into Landa here; my staging tables were incorrect and hence this correction after publishing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #14 Lalo Portillo<\/a> vs #19 Charlie Pratt<\/a>; Watch out for the upset here; every time Pratt enters a draw he makes noise. Pratt could lose here to the rapidly improving Portillo, or he could run to the semis. Expect a tactical battle here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #6 Daniel De La Rosa<\/a> vs #27 Garay: I like this match; Garay’s power versus DLR’s guile. Daniel won’t be surprised by Garay’s pop; they met in teh 2016 Mexican nationals prior to Garay’s re-flagging and he advanced in a tiebreaker. I like DLR here but I think it goes breaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #10 Mario Mercado<\/a> vs #23 Sebastian Fernandez<\/a>; this is a fascinating match-up between Mercado, who despite having (in my opinion) improving results on the court lately is treading water from a rankings perspective thanks to rising pressure of up and coming players, and Fernandez, who seems set to jump straight from 18U into the pro ranks and make a splash. I think this goes down to the wire with the veteran advancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #15 Luis Conrrado Moscoso Serrudo<\/a> vs #18 Andres Acu\u00f1a<\/a>; this should be another barn burner; they’ve met four times in IRF junior and senior events and 3 times it has gone breaker. All four are Moscoso wins … but Acuna always make sit hard on the Bolivian number one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll circle back for the 16s once the 32s are done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Racquetball Tour<\/a>
Racquetball Canada<\/a>
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Racquetball Federation – IRF<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Mexicana de Raquetbol<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Costarricense de Racquetball<\/a>
Federaci\u00f3n Boliviana de Racquetball<\/a>
Fecoracquet Fecoracquet<\/a>
USA Racquetball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re down to the top 32, having played 2-3 rounds of qualifiers Wednesday to whittle the field from 94. here’s the matches I found notable or upset-worthy from Wednesday’s marathon qualifying. In the 256s:– fellow Virginian Rich Benderoth took a tiebreaker win over Erik Solter. Shout out to Rich, who regularly spanked me a decade ago when I … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “IRT Men’s Qualifying wrap-up and round of 32 preview”<\/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":[2,7,132,98],"tags":[90,168,26,136,544,585,47,94,95,45,40,22,219,91,146,580,87,583,23,584,204,167,582,88,89,86,562,38,147,11,346,266,41,19,240,33,579,29,92,230,59,142,49,117,27,581,563],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irt","category-singles","category-us-open","category-usa","tag-alan-natera","tag-alejandro-herrera","tag-andres-acuna","tag-andres-gomez","tag-andrew-gale","tag-bradley-rogers","tag-charlie-pratt","tag-christian-longoria","tag-conrrado-moscoso","tag-daniel-de-la-rosa","tag-david-horn","tag-diego-garcia","tag-eduardo-garay","tag-eduardo-portillo","tag-erik-garcia","tag-erik-solter","tag-ernesto-ochoa","tag-fabian-cuesta","tag-felipe-camacho","tag-francisco-reyes","tag-guillermo-ortega","tag-hiroshi-shimizu","tag-jacob-kingsford","tag-jaime-martell","tag-javier-estrada","tag-javier-mar","tag-joe-kelley","tag-justus-benson","tag-kadim-carrasco","tag-kane-waselenchuk","tag-lucas-shoemaker","tag-lukas-le","tag-mario-mercado","tag-maurice-miller","tag-mauricio-zelada","tag-nick-riffel","tag-rich-benderoth","tag-robert-collins","tag-rodrigo-montoya","tag-sam-bredenbeck","tag-samuel-murray","tag-sebastian-fernandez","tag-set-cubillos","tag-shai-manzuri","tag-troy-warigon","tag-vladimir-fernando-salas","tag-yacouba-keita"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","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=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}