Rocky Carson defeated Alvaro Beltran, 11-7, 11-3, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8, to win New Jersey Open in Warren, N.J. Saturday night in a match that lasted over two and half hours. It's the fourth main event of the 2012-13 International Racquetball Tour (IRT) season.
After the first two games went Carson's way, Beltran fought back in game three by going out to a 5-0 lead and maintaining that to win 11-5. Beltran used lob serves down the right wall exclusively while Carson primarily hit his drive Z serve to the left side.
Game four was "a battle" Carson said after it was all over, as he and Beltran went back and forth and were tied six times in the game. It looked like Carson might finish the match off when he led 9-7, but Beltran held him there and won the last four points to force the tie-breaker.
The tie-breaker was a see-saw game with few side outs. Beltran went up 3-1 only to see Carson respond and make it 7-3. Then Beltran ran five points to lead 8-7.
A couple of side-outs and then Carson ran four straight points to take the match on his first match point opportunity. He got that opportunity after hitting a drive jam serve on the right side that put Beltran off balance. Carson used that serve a few times in five to good effect.
Carson said he "knew what to do" going into game five, and that it felt "really good to finish this one off," especially as he believes Beltran's "playing as well as he's ever played."
The next IRT event will be the California Open January 3-6, 2013. The New Jersey Open action can be viewed in the IRT Network archive.
New Jersey Open - December 13-15, 2012
Warren, New Jersey
Final
Rocky Carson d. Alvaro Beltran, 11-7, 11-3, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8
Follow the bouncing ball….
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment