WRT 2014 Juarez Open - Round of 16

The top four seeds fell by the wayside Friday at the World Racquetball Tour (WRT) Juarez Open in Juarez, Mexico. The top seed, Polo Gutierrez, lost out earlier on Friday, in the Round of 32, and Friday night the 2nd, 3rd and 4th seeds followed him out of the tournament.

Second seed Alejandro Cardona lost to Andree Parrilla, 7-15, 15-6, 11-7, in the Round of 16. Cardona got the first two points of the tie-breaker against the current U16 World Junior Champion. But then Parrilla ran off six straight points to lead 6-2.

Cardona tied it at 6-6, but Parrilla regained the serve and drove serve to get to 9-6, including a crack ace off the left wall for the ninth point.

Cardona was able to get one back, but Parrilla won the breaker, 11-7, to move on to the quarterfinals.

Third seed Anthony Herrera lost to 14th seed Gerardo Guevara, 14-15, 15-9, 11-2, and 4th seed Gilberto Mejia lost to Javier Mar, 15-7, 15-8.

But the most competitive match of the night might have been between 5th seed David Horn and 12th seed Fernando Rios. Rios won game one and Horn game two, which set up an exciting tie-breaker.

In the breaker, Rios quickly got the first four points, leading Horn to take a timeout. Rios continued to lead at 6-2, but then Horn scored eight points in a row using an off speed drive serve to the left side.

That seemed to be game over, but Cardona dug in and held off three match points as he came back to tie the game at 10-10. Cardona served for the match, and on the ensuing rally the ball went into the back left corner. Cardona went back for it and as he turned around shot the ball to the front wall, but it skipped.

That gave Horn his fourth match point, and he hit another off speed drive serve to the left that cracked out, bouncing twice before Rios could reach it, for an 11-10 tie-breaker win.

The quarterfinals begin at 10 AM MDT Saturday with the semi-finals to follow Saturday night and the final at noon on Sunday. Matches can be viewed via the Gearbox website.

2014 WRT Juarez Open
Juarez, Mexico

Round of 16

16) Coby Iwaasa d. 33) Roland Keller, 15-11, 15-1
8) Jake Bredenbeck d. 9) Erick Sandoval, 15-5, 15-9

5) David Horn d. 12) Fernando Rios, 10-15, 15-5, 11-10
45) Javier Mar d. 4) Gilberto Mejia, 15-7, 15-8

14) Gerardo Guevara d. 3) Anthony Herrera, 14-15, 15-9, 11-2
6) Alejandro Landa d. 11) Alex Almada, 15-5, 15-6

7) Javier Moreno d. 23) Cristian Longoria, 4-15, 15-7, 11-8
14) Andree Parrilla d. 2) Alejandro Cardona, 7-15, 15-6, 11-7

Quarterfinals

8) Jake Bredenbeck v. 16) Coby Iwaasa
5) David Horn v. 45) Javier Mar

6) Alejandro Landa v. 14) Gerardo Guevara
7) Javier Moreno v. 14) Andree Parrilla

Follow the bouncing ball….