Monday, March 2, 2009

Weekend Review - Ranking possibilities & Open results

Both Paola Longoria and Kane Waselenchuk may be moving up the rankings with their wins on the weekend. Last week, Longoria was third on the Women's Professional Racquetball Organization (WPRO) rankings, 102.74 points behind Cheryl Gudinas Holmes in second. But her victory at the Great Balls of Fire tournament in Miami combined with Gudinas Holmes's loss to Longoria in the semi-finals could be enough to put Longoria into second, which would be her highest career ranking.

Similarly, Waselenchuk was fourth on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) rankings 256 points behind Alvaro Beltran in third, and he won the San Diego Open while Beltran lost in the semi-finals to Jack Huczek. Thus, Waselenchuk may have passed Beltran and got a little bit closer to his goal of finishing the season on top.

If so, then in the next tournament Waselenchuk will be on same side of the draw as Jack Huczek, who he's played in the last three tournament finals. It would mean they'd meet in the semis rather than the finals with Beltran facing IRT #1 Rocky Carson in the other semi-final - assuming everything works out according to the rankings, which of course doesn't always happen.

Open Division Results

Great Balls of Fire - Veronica Sotomayor won the women's open division in Miami. She defeated Jennifer Saunders in the final, 15-12, 11-15, 11-7. To reach the final, Sotomayor defeated T. J. Baumbaugh, 15-12, 8-15, 11-5 in the quarter-finals, and Keely Franks, 15-8, 5-15, 11-9 in the semi-finals, while Saunders beat Jo Shattuck, 15-5, 15-9 in the quarters, and Adrienne Fisher, 5-15, 15-11, 11-10 in the semis.

San Diego Open - Jacqueline Paraiso, US women's doubles champion and former WPRO #1, won the women's open division at the San Diego Open by defeating Samantha Salas Solis in the final, 15-7, 13-15, 11-2. In the semi-finals, Paraiso beat Michelle Poage, 15-4, 15-10, and Salas Solis defeated Jessica Parrilla, 15-4, 15-10.

On the men's side in San Diego, Kris Odegard took the title with two default victories. In fact, it seems Odegard was the only player able to show up for the semi finals, as Chris Crowther and Gil Mejia both forfeited their semi-final match. Bizarre.

Odegard won his semi by forfeit as Jose Rojas was a no show. As Odegard was the only person in the final, we wonder if he got both the first place and second place prize money.

Follow the bouncing ball....

1 comment:

Arun Rohila said...

Hi folks..love your blog and enjoy reading about the pros and how they are doing.

It would be really helpful if you could tell me HOW the Pro points work, because it was a little confusing on the IRT-Tour.com website.

If you could give an example of how many points Kane got at the San Diego tournament, that would be great.