Denver Semi Finals - Rain Delays

It was semi-final day in Denver at the Motorola World Racquetball Championships - the first tournament of the 2009-2010 International Racquetball Tour (IRT) season and a Grand Slam event. The matches are being played outdoors, as the portable all Lucite court is set up in downtown Denver.

Given that it's outdoors, that led to perhaps the first time racquetball matches have been delayed due to rain. At least, it's likely a first for 4 wall racquetball. There was a slight rain delay to the start of the first semi-final match between Rocky Carson and Jack Huczek, and then another delay in the middle of the third game that seems to have led to both semi-final matches being delayed until Sunday morning.

Kane Waselenchuk and Shane Vanderson were scheduled to play their semi-final immediately after Huczek and Carson's match ended.

In game one of their match, Huczek got off to a good start, getting a 4-0 lead. Carson fought back to close the gap to 5-3, but that's a close as he got as Huczek went on to win game one 11-3. Huczek was using primarily lob serves, especially lobs to the right side that would nick of the side wall. Then on serve return, he was cutting off Carson's Z serves before they reached the back left corner.

Game two began slowly, as they played 14 rallies only to be tied at 2-2. Then Huczek again went into the lead at 7-3 causing Carson to call a timeout. He came back in, got a side out and scored three points to close the gap to 7-6. Huczek then regained serve only to have Carson take it right back and score four points to make it 10-7.

Huczek called a time out, and they exchanged serves for a few times before Carson finished it off 11-7 to level the match at one game a piece.

Game three also began slowly with the serve going back and forth until Carson was down 2-3 and began hitting drive z serves to the back left corner. That resulted in a six point run, including a diving winner that made it 8-3. Huczek got the serve back, cut the deficit to one at 8-7 at which point there was a short rain delay of a couple of minutes.

When play began, Huczek got another point to make it 8-8. Then another rain delay occurred, and it seems that matches will be delayed until Sunday morning.

The semi-finals and final will be streamed live on line at www.irtnetwork.com on Sunday. Check with the IRT Network website or IRT website for match times.

2009 IRT Motorola Racquetball World Championships, Denver

Semi finals
Kane Waselenchuk vs. Shane Vanderson
Jack Huczek vs. Rocky Carson

Finals
Kane Waselenchuk or Shane Vanderson vs. Jack Huczek or Rocky Carson

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