Rhonda Rajsich of the USA will have a chance to defend her Women’s Singles title at the XXXI Pan American Championships in Temuco, Chile, and Paola Longoria of Mexico will be her opponent in the final for the second consecutive year and fourth overall in this competition. They also met back in 2013 and 2008, and both of those were won by Longoria. Rajsich will try to even the record with a win on Saturday. In the Men’s Singles final, David Horn of the USA will face Carlos Keller of Bolivia.
In the semi-finals, Rajsich defeated Gabriela Martinez of Guatemala, 15-13, 15-10, while Longoria got the best of her team-mate Samantha Salas, 15-10, 15-5. On the men’s side, Horn narrowly defeated Andree Parrilla of Mexico, 15-13 15-14, while Keller upset the top seeded Mexican Rodrigo Montoya, 15-6, 2-15, 11-4.
Early in her semi, Rajsich was down and a title defence seemed unlikely, as Martinez was up 12-3 in game one. But the champ took a timeout, and slowly put some points on the board. At 12-8, Martinez called a timeout, and she got the serve back when play resumed, which led to another point and a 13-8 lead.
But Martinez wouldn’t score again, and in fact, only served once more, as Rajsich scored seven unanswered points to pull out game one, 15-13.
Game two played out exactly the same. Martinez was up 8-1. Rajsich tied it at 8-8. Then they were back and forth until 10-10. Rajsich took it from there to close out the game, 15-10, and the match in two straight games.
In the other women’s semi-final, Longoria also won in two straight games, but Salas did have a lead early in game two at 5-1. However, Longoria, the #1 player on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) and three time reigning International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Champion, came back strong, although she was helped by some generous hinder calls by the referee.
But a bit of referee generosity doesn't account for 14 unanswered points, which is what Longoria strung together to win game two. Salas seemed to go for too much as the game went along, which often resulted in outright errors or set ups for Longoria.
The game ended unusually, because Salas stepped out of one of her shoes. Even though it didn’t disrupt play, and Longoria skipped her shot, Salas was assessed an avoidable hinder for littering - in a sense - on the field of play.
In the men’s semi-finals, Keller upset the top seeded Mexican Rodrigo Montoya, 15-6, 2-15, 11-4. It was a strange match in the sense that momentum swung hard from one player to the other. Keller was a buzzsaw in game one, playing brilliantly. Yet in game two he had trouble doing anything, and Montoya ran away with it, setting up a tie-breaker.
Often when there are two lopsided first games, the tie-breaker is close, and it was early, as they were tied 2-2. But then Keller jumped ahead winning five straight rallies to lead 7-2. Montoya got the serve back there, and a winning backhand shot made it 7-3.
But Keller got the serve back with a backhand winner of his own, and two rallies later, he led 9-3. Montoya called a timeout, but that didn’t stop Keller from getting to match point, 10-3, on the ensuing rally, as he hit a flat forehand pinch shot from about three feet from the front wall, which isn’t easy.
Montoya did prevent Keller from winning on match point one with a winning forehand cross court shot. He served an ace to the back left corner to make it 10-4, but Keller got the serve back on the next rally with a forehand shot down the left side. Another forehand winner ended the game, 11-4, and match, 2-1.
Keller will have a chance to be the 2nd Bolivian to win Men's Singles at the Pan American Championships. Ricardo Monroy was the first back in 2010.
Horn and Parrilla were close throughout their match, but the balance did shift from one player to the other. Early in game one, Horn led 6-3. Then Parrilla put together a run and tied it at 6-6. They went back and forth until 9-9, when Parrilla edged ahead to lead 13-9 for the biggest lead of the game.
Yet Horn held Parrilla there, and scored six points on almost as many rallies to squeak out game one, 15-13. Horn ended most of those late rallies with forehand pinch shots, although the game winner was a drive serve to the left that handcuffed Parrilla, so he couldn’t return it.
In game two, they were close early again, but it was Parrilla who took the 6-3 lead. He extended it to 9-3 and it looked like they’d need a third game. However, Horn, who got the serve back with an amazing behind the back pinch roll out standing right beside the left wall, had other ideas. We're not sure how Horn did smash his racquet into the left wall in going for the behind the back shot.
He slowly got closer to Parrilla, and caught up at 10-10. They looked to be tied again at 11-11, but a frustrated Parrilla hit the ball into the back wall after a rally and was assessed a technical, so Horn led 11-10. They tied again at 12-12. Parrilla broke that tie with a forehand winner, and followed it up with a backhand winner to reach game point at 14-12. Horn called timeout.
A backhand pinch shot by Horn staved off Parrilla’s first game point, when play resumed. But a soft backhand at the front got Parrilla a second game point, which ended in a hinder. The 3rd went by the boards via a ridiculously good backhand pinch return by Horn, who followed that up with a forehand reverse pinch winner to get within one at 14-13. Parrilla called timeout.
But when play resumed Parrilla skipped a forehand pinch shot, which is generally his favourite shot, so it was an uncharacteristic error. That made it 14-14. After a hinder, a long rally ensued that ended when Parrilla again skipped a shot. This time he skipped a backhand, and it gave the game and match to Horn, 15-13, 15-14.
Thus, Horn and Keller will face off in the Men’s Singles final Saturday. It’ll be only the third time in the last 12 years without a Mexican in the final, and the first since 2015, when the USA’s Jose Diaz beat his team-mate Jake Bredenbeck in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The other time was when Temuco last hosted the championships in 2012, and Canadian Mike Green defeated Fernando Rios of Ecuador for Men’s Singles gold.
XXXI Pan American Racquetball Championships
Temuco, Chile - March 24-31, 2018
Women's Singles - Semi-finals - Friday
8) Rhonda Rajsich (USA) d. 4) Gabriela Martinez (Guatemala), 15-13, 15-10
10) Paola Longoria (Mexico) d. 3) Samantha Salas (Mexico), 15-10, 15-5
Women's Singles - Final - Saturday
8) Rhonda Rajsich (USA) v. 10) Paola Longoria (Mexico) - 11 AM
Men's Singles - Semi-finals - Friday
5) Carlos Keller (Bolivia) d. 1) Rodrigo Montoya (Mexico), 15-6, 2-15, 11-4
2) David Horn (USA) d. 3) Andree Parrilla (Mexico), 15-13, 15-14
Men's Singles - Final - Saturday
2) David Horn (USA) v. 5) Carlos Keller (Bolivia) - Noon
* Note: Temuco is 1 hour ahead of Eastern time, so Noon above would be 11 AM eastern.
Follow the bouncing ball....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment