WPRO - Ektelon World Championships - Longoria into final

Appropriately, it'll be #1 and #2 in the final of the last event of the 2010-2011 Women's Professional Racquetball Organization (WPRO) season, as #1 Rhonda Rajsich will play #2 Paola Longoria in the final of the 2011 LA Ektelon World Championship in New Orleans on Sunday.

In Saturday's second semi-final, Rajsich defeated 4th seed Kerri Wachtel, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8. It was a match that demonstrated the importance of serving, as Rajsich "served lights out" as Wachtel said afterwards. Wachtel felt she played fine when she could get a rally going, but that just wasn't often enough.

Throughout the match, Rajsich drove serve, often drive Zs to the left, Wachtel's backhand. But Rajsich used a mix of serves that effectively kept Wachtel off balance.

In the second game, which Wachtel won, she hit drive Z serves to Rajsich's forehand, which was effective. Then late in that game Wachtel switched to kiss lob serves to Rajsich's backhand and finished off the game. Wachtel returned to these serves in game four as she was trying to force a fifth game. It almost worked, as Wachtel erased a 7-3 deficit to pull even at 7-7. She got to 9-8, but then Rajsich finished the job and won the match in four games.

Earlier Longoria had a convincing victory over Samantha Salas, winning in three straight games, 11-3, 11-5, 11-3.

You can see the final from New Orleans via the IRT Network. Also, The Racquetball Blog is tweeting results as they happen, so follow us on Twitter.

The final will be Sunday at noon CDT.

2011 LA WPRO Ektelon World Championships
Semi-finals

Rhonda Rajsich d. Kerri Wachtel, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8
Paola Longoria d. Samantha Salas, 11-3, 11-5, 11-3

Final

Rhonda Rajsich v. Paola Longoria - Noon CDT Sunday

Follow the bouncing ball....