It was 2012 all over again, as the reigning International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Champions in Men's and Women's Singles successfully defended their titles on Saturday at the 17th IRF World Championships in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. American Rocky Carson won Men's Singles and Mexican Paola Longoria won Women's Singles, and neither was especially troubled in doing so, as they both won in two straight games and by comfortable margins.
Carson's win over Bolivian Conrado Moscoso, 15-3, 15-8, made him the most decorated man in IRF history, as it was his fourth consecutive Men's Singles title, breaking a tie with Jack Huczek (3 singles titles), Alvaro Beltran (1 singles & 2 doubles), Javier Moreno (3 doubles), and Doug Ganim (3 doubles).
Carson - almost twice the age of his opponent - played his usual game with hard Z serves to the left side. Moscoso tried to cut them off, jumping across on one to hit a forehand reverse pinch into the left corner, which led to Carson varying the pace of his Z serve.
But overall, Carson's service strategy was effective, and he followed it up with solid shots during the rallies, which Moscoso was sometime able to keep in play by diving to get the ball, but that only prolonged his plight.
Despite the loss, Moscoso is the first South American to reach the Men's Singles final, and as the current U18 World Junior Champion should have a bright future in racquetball.
Longoria defeated her nearest rival in the Women's Singles final, as she beat American Rhonda Rajsich, 15-6, 15-8, to win her second IRF singles title.
Rajsich started the match with great promise, as she went up 4-0 in game one, including two drive serve aces. But Longoria took at timeout after the second, which got Rajsich her 4th point, and came back to score eleven points before Rajsich got a 5th.
Longoria didn't serve any aces, but she did get Rajsich to skip four serve returns, including one that made the score 14-6. Longoria only had one serve return skip herself in game one.
In game two, they were close early, but then Longoria went ahead 6-3, and Rajsich never got closer than that, as Longoria went on to win the game 15-8, and take the match in two straight games.
In the second game, Rajsich had three service return skips and no ace serves, while Longoria had two return skips and one ace serve.
17th IRF World Championships
June 14-21, 2014
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Men's Singles
Final
Rocky Carson (USA) d. Conrado Moscoso (Bolivia), 15-3, 15-8
Women's Singles
Final
Paola Longoria (Mexico) d. Rhonda Rajsich (USA), 15-6, 15-8
Follow the bouncing ball....
Saturday, June 21, 2014
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