IRT - California Open: Expected Qualifying Draws

The International Racquetball Tour (IRT) is back in action this coming weekend with the California Open in Canoga Park, California. It's a Tier 1 event, so the top 8 players are entered. The California Open is the first event that Kane Waselenchuk does not have to qualify for, as he's now ranked 8th. Players ranked 9th and higher need to qualify for the main draw.

Highlighting the qualifying draw are tour veteran and former #1 Cliff Swain, who'll be appearing at the French Open in Paris next week, Jose Rojas - fresh off his World Juniors title last month in Boys 18 & under, as well as IRT regulars Chris Crowther, Andy Hawthorne and a four - count 'em! - four Herreras: Alejandro, Andres, Anthony and Juan.

There are 22 players in the pro qualifier, and on-line registration has closed. We've put together what we expect the qualifying draws to look like based on players' IRT rankings. Some players have the same ranking - in a few cases that's no ranking, so there's some uncertainty as the exact match ups, and the following is unofficial, but here's what we expect.

IRT 2009 California Open, Canoga Park, Calif.
First qualifying round (IRT rank)

Q8a - (24) Cliff Swain v. BYE
Q7a - (29) Jose Rojas v. BYE

Q6a - (35) Mike Orr v. (-) Tom Durham / (-) Matthew Barserian / (-) David Horn
Q5a - (58) Jason Geis v. (-) Tom Durham / (-) Matthew Barserian / (-) David Horn

Q4a - (90) Josh Tucker v. (-) Tom Durham / (-) Matthew Barserian / (-) David Horn
Q3a - (93) Terry Durham v. (349) Johnnie Molinari / (349) Darrell Baricuatro

Q2a - (126) Dawoud Ghafarshad v. (349) Johnnie Molinari / (349) Darrell Baricuatro
Q1a - (291) Majeed Shahin v. (291) Akio Shimizu

Second qualifying round (IRT rank)

Q1 - (9) Chris Crowther v. Q1a
Q2 - (11) Juan Herrera v. Q2a

Q3 - (12) Andy Hawthorne v. Q3a
Q4 - (13) Alejandro Herrera v. Q4a

Q5 - (15) Hiroshi Shimizu v. Q5a
Q6 - (17) Travis Woodbury v. Q6a

Q7 - (18) Andres Herrera v. Q7a - Jose Rojas
Q8 - (21) Anthony Herrera v. Q8a - Cliff Swain

Follow the bouncing ball....