Kane Waselenchuk won the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) Galaxy Custom Printing Atlanta Pro-Am in Lilburn, Georgia Saturday, as he defeated Daniel De La Rosa retired after losing the first game 11-0. De La Rosa picked up a lower body injury earlier in the day during his semi-final victory over Alejandro Landa, 11-7, 12-10, 1-11, 9-11, 11-6.
Waselenchuk’s win is his fifth victory by default, and third in a tournament final match. The previous two final matches were both against Alvaro Beltran with the others against Chris Crowther and Derek Robinson.
Waselenchuk beat Charlie Pratt in the semi-finals, 11-8, 11-2, 11-3.
Fun matches on the doubles side, as 3rd seeds Jansen Allen and Charlie Pratt took the title after a third game tie-breaker against 5th seeds Alejandro Landa and Samuel Murray, winning 15-13, 9-15, 11-6.
In the final, Landa and Murray were ahead in game one, but Allen and Pratt came back to nip them in end, as Allen hit a ball that was about four feet hit coming down the right side, but it cracked out at the back wall.
The fireworks happened in game two, as Landa and Murray went up 4-0, and 7-3. Allen and Pratt got it to within two at 7-5, but then Landa hit a lob serve to Allen that he took very high, overhead head style, and hit Landa high. It was a shot Allen should not have taken, and he clearly saw where Landa was, and could easily have hit Landa in the head.
Naturally, Landa was upset. He was more upset when the referee called him for an avoidable hinder on the play, which added insult to injury and was a harsh call. On the next rally, Landa was assessed another avoidable, which he was also upset about but was a clear avoidable.
After that a few of Landa’s shots went in Allen’s direction, although he and Murray were still able to stay focussed enough to maintain their lead in game two and win it 15-9. However, late in the game with Landa and Murray up 13-8, Pratt stepped on Murray’s foot, and rolled his ankle. He was clearly hurting from that, and perhaps thought there was something malicious in it, but it didn’t appear to be. It was simply a case of playing doubles with big guys.
But at the end of game two Pratt hit the ball in anger, and was assessed a technical for doing so. Thus, he and Allen began game three with -1 points.
Game three took some time to get rolling as there were a few sideouts before things got rolling. When they did, they rolled in favour of Allen and Pratt, who went up 7-1 helped by four winners from Pratt.
Allen and Pratt then got up 9-3, and looked to be done. But Landa and Murray came back to make it 9-6, as Murray hit three consecutive winners. That led Allen and Pratt to call a timeout. When play resumed, Pratt hit a winner, and then a long rally ended as Landa hit the ball into Murray in a weak attempt to keep the rally going.
Pratt finished off the match with a pair of backhand winners taking game three 11-6, and the match in three games.
In the semi-finals, Allen and Pratt defeated 2nd seeds Felipe Camacho and Daniel De La Rosa, 15-5, 15-8, while Landa and Murray knocked off the top seeds Alvaro Beltran and Rocky Carson, 10-15, 15-9, 11-8.
The next IRT action will be at the St. Louis Pro Racquetball Winter Rollout, November 17-20 in St. Louis Missouri.
2016 Galaxy Custom Printing IRT Atlanta Pro-Am - November 3–6, 2016
Lilburn, Georgia
Final - Saturday
1) Kane Waselenchuk d. 3) Daniel De La Rosa, 11-0, injury forfeit
Semi-finals - Saturday
1) Kane Waselenchuk d. Charlie Pratt, 11-8, 11-2, 11-3
3) Daniel De La Rosa d. Alejandro Landa, 11-7, 12-10, 1-11, 9-11, 11-6
IRT Doubles - Final - Saturday
3) Jansen Allen & Charlie Pratt d. 5) Alejandro Landa & Samuel Murray, 15-13, 9-15, 11-6
IRT Doubles - Semi-finals - Saturday
5) Alejandro Landa & Samuel Murray d. 1) Alvaro Beltran & Rocky Carson, 10-15, 15-9, 11-8
3) Jansen Allen & Charlie Pratt d. 2) Felipe Camacho & Daniel De La Rosa, 15-5, 15-8
Follow the bouncing ball….
Saturday, November 5, 2016
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