IRF : 20th World Juniors - Elimination rounds begin

The first day of the elimination rounds produced mostly expected results on Thursday at the 20th World Junior Racquetball Championships in Tempe, Arizona. But there were some unexpected results, so we'll highlight those below.

In Boys 18 & under, the two Bolivian players got to the quarter finals despite being lower seeds. Roland Keller and David Echalar will be playing on Friday. But they'll be in tough. Keller, the 11th seed, will face American Danny Lavely, the 3rd seed. Perhaps a glimmer of hope for Keller is that Lavely's win in the Round of 16 over Luis Perez of the Dominican Republic was close with Lavely taking it 15-11, 15-14.

Echalar's quarter finals opponent will be the division favorite and second seed, Jose Rojas of the USA, who defeated Dayan Yamin of Venezuela, 15-0, 15-4.

Boys 16 & under went as expected with the top 8 seeds making the quarter finals.

But in Boys 14 & under Andres Fabian of Costa Rica won twice to make the quarter finals on Friday, when he'll play second seed Oscar Arias of Bolivia. Fabian defeated Edwin Galicia (Guatemala), 15-11, 15-2 in the first round, and then Carlos Barrios (Nicaragua), 15-11, 15-14, in the Round of 16.

The results in the girls divisions were as expected in the 18 & under and 16 & under divisions, although there was somewhat of a surprise in the 14 & under division. Arieth Maldonado, the second Mexican player, lost, and lost by a wide margin to Venezuelan Carolina Bockmeulen, 15-4, 15-7. Thus, Paulina Estrada is the only remaining Mexican player in that division.

We've been highlighting the Girls 16 & under draw, so here's the quarter final matches in that division.

Girls 16 & Under - Quarter finals

Maria Paz Munoz (Ecuador) v. Jessica Parrilla (Mexico)
Danielle Key (USA) v. Frédérique T. Lambert (Canada)

Sofia Rascon (Mexico) v. Yazmine Sabja (Bolivia)
Aubrey O'brien (USA) v. Cristina Cordova (Ecuador)

Those should all be good matches. They are all scheduled for 10:45 AM Friday Arizona time, with the winners to face off in the semi-finals at 5:20 PM Arizona time on Friday afternoon.

Follow the bouncing ball....