IRT - 2013 Party with the Pros - Preview

There's a smaller than usual draw for this weekend's Party with the Pros International Racquetball Tour (IRT) tournament in St Louis, Missouri. But significantly IRT #1 Kane Waselenchuk is in the draw. Hopefully, he's fully recovered from the knee injury that led him to withdraw from the final at the last IRT event in Denver three weeks ago.

The best two qualifying matches will likely be Marco Rojas, coming off his silver medal at the Pan Am Championships, against Canadian Lee Connell, who always leaves it all on the court, and young left-hander Brad Schopieray versus Colombian Sebastian Franco, who was a bronze medalist in U18 at last year's Junior World Championships.

The winner of Rojas-Connell will face Chris Crowther in the Round of 16 with the winner of Schopieray and Franco to play Alvaro Beltran in the 16s.

The best of the Round of 16 matches could be Tony Carson versus Alejandro Landa (assuming Landa wins his qualifying match against Ryan Maher), as Landa has reached at least the quarter finals in his two IRT appearances this season, including a semi-final finish at the California Open in January.

The IRT Network will be web-cast the final round of qualifying Thursday night and then the Round of 16 beginning at 11 AM CDT Friday morning. Note that the final will be Saturday night at 7:00 CDT rather than Sunday.

2013 Party With The Pros Tournament - St Louis, Missouri

Round 1

Rich Berich v. Tyler Freeman
Zach Archer v. Doug Cohen

Round 2

Q8: Juan Herrera v. Arthur Schmeiser
Q1: Javier Moreno v. Rich Berich or Tyler Freeman

Q4: Alejandro Landa v. Ryan Maher
Q5: Marco Rojas v. Lee Connell

Q6: Brad Schopieray v. Sebastian Franco
Q3: Anthony Herrera v. Geoff Goldblatt

Q2: Andy Hawthorne v. Zach Archer or Doug Cohen
Q7: Jansen Allen v. Andrew Gale

Main Draw - Round of 16

Kane Waselenchuk v. Q8
Ben Croft v. Q1

Tony Carson v. Q4
Chris Crowther v. Q5

Alvaro Beltran v. Q6
Shane Vanderson v. Q3

Jose Rojas v. Q2
Rocky Carson v. Q7

Follow the bouncing ball....