2010 IRF World Championships - Men's Quarter Finals

Defending champion Rocky Carson and runner up Jack Huczek remain on track to meet in the finals again at the 15th International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Championships in Seoul, South Korea, as they both won their quarter final matches. Carson defeated Alejandro Herrera of Columbia, 15-1, 15-8 and Huczek beat Michimune Kono of Japan, 15-3, 15-2 to advance to the semi-finals later on Monday.

Carson will face 2010 Pan American Games Champion Ricardo Monroy of Bolivia, as he squeaked by Alejandro Landa of Mexico, 14-15, 15-9, 11-10. IRF World Championship records are incomplete, but The Racquetball Blog believes this is the first time a Bolivian has reached the semi-finals in men's singles at Worlds.

Huczek will play Canadian Vincent Gagnon, who beat Francisco Gomez of Columbia, 15-5, 15-12, in what will be a re-match of last year's World Games semi-final that Huczek won in a tie-breaker. It's Gagnon's first time in the semi-finals of the World Championships, and he'll have his work cut out for him against the 3 time World Champion.

The men's semi-finals will be played later on Monday, as well as the women's semi-finals and men's and women's doubles semi-finals.

Live Streaming

Word from Seoul is that IRF's request to the local organizing committee that would have enabled live streaming was not met, which is why there hasn't been anything on their website. However, Team India has been doing some live streaming from some modest equipment that they happened to bring along. Thus, you might be able to see some of the action via the India Racquetball website.

This relatively small problem should not taint your view of the local organizing committee who have provided an excellent venue for the event. The competition is being held in a temporary structure, which was the solution after the initially planned venue of a convention centre was unavailable. But it's no ordinary temporary building.

This building has 8 racquetball courts, including a 3 wall glass court; the others all have back wall glass. Moveover, the power unit for the structure is substantial, as they need major air conditioning units so as to keep the heat and humidity down and make the courts playable. The amount of money spent on hosting the games with the cost of this structure is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, which means it could be the most money ever spent on a racquetball event.

Hence, it's been a first class World Championship despite the live streaming glitch, which is only a problem for those of us not lucky enough to be there.

15th IRF World Championships
Seoul, South Korea

Men's Singles
Quarter finals - Monday
Jack Huczek (USA) d. Michimune Kono (Japan), 15-3, 15-2
Vincent Gagnon (Canada) d. Francisco Gomez (Columbia), 15-5, 15-12

Rocky Carson (USA) d. Alejandro Herrera (Colombia), 15-1, 15-8
Ricardo Monroy (Bolivia) d. Alejandro Landa (Mexico), 14-15, 15-9, 11-10

Semi-finals - Monday
Jack Huczek (USA) vs. Vincent Gagnon (Canada)
Rocky Carson (USA) vs. Ricardo Monroy (Bolivia)

Follow the bouncing ball....