Chris Crowther has reached the US Open semi-finals for the 2nd consecutive year, as he defeated Daniel De La Rosa, 11-9, 4-11, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, at the 2012 United Healthcare US Open in Minneapolis in what was a very gritty performance for the 6th ranked player on International Racquetball Tour (IRT). It was a hard hitting match with the proof coming with the second broken ball of the match at 5-5 in the first game.
In that first game, it seemed that Crowther tweaked something in his torso and clearly seemed to labouring to get through the match. Nevertheless he was able to do so and more credit to him for that.
During the match Crowther was charged with several foot faults by stepping over the front of the service box when drive serving. On second serve, he used a off speed half lob, and generally served everything to De La Rosa's backhand side.
De La Rosa used a greater variety of serves, although early on it seemed the straight lob down the right side wall - to Crowther's forehand - was what was working best.
Game four was close early, then Crowther took a 7-3 lead in mid-game. He extended that lead to 10-5 and a tie-breaker looked like a certainty. But De La Rosa fought back and got within three points of the match at 10-8 down, when Crowther finally finished the game off.
Game five was similar, as Crowther went up 6-3 and 8-5, but De La Rosa could only manage one point after that as Crowther finished off the game at 11-6 to take the match.
In the first quarter final of the day, Alvaro Beltran put an end to Alex Ackermann's best US Open of his career with a dominant victory winning 11-3, 11-3, 11-2.
Beltran will play the winner of IRT #1 Kane Waselenchuk and Tony Carson in one semi-final Saturday while Crowther will face #2 seed Rocky Carson (no relation to Tony), who defeated 7th seed Shane Vanderson, 11-3, 10-12, 11-9, 11-7.
The IRT Network is streaming the US Open live and some of the matches will be viewable for free all tournament.
2012 United Healthcare US Open
Minneapolis, Minnesota
(seeding)
Quarter finals
(1) Kane Waselenchuk v. (9) Tony Carson
(4) Alvaro Beltran d. Alex Ackermann, 11-3, 11-3, 11-2
(6) Chris Crowther d. Daniel De La Rosa, 11-9, 4-11, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6
(2) Rocky Carson d. (7) Shane Vanderson, 11-3, 10-12, 11-9, 11-7
Semi-finals
(1) Kane Waselenchuk or (9) Tony Carson v. (4) Alvaro Beltran
(2) Rocky Carson v. (6) Chris Crowther
Follow the bouncing ball….
Friday, October 5, 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment