Only one top seed won a final at the World Doubles Open Championships in Denver Sunday, as 1st seeds Paola Longoria and Samantha Salas defeated 2nd seeds Alexandra Herrera & Monserrat Mejia, 15-5, 5-15, 11-6, to capture the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) title. The Men’s International Racquetball Tour (IRT) Doubles title went to Ben Croft and Kane Waselenchuk, who defeated Alvaro Beltran and Daniel De La Rosa in the final, which had an unfortunate end.
Croft and Waselenchuk won the first game 15-7, and were up 13-8 in the second game, when a rally ended with a bit of a mix up in the middle of the court. Beltran laid out to put a ball into the left corner, and then Waselenchuk went over top of him to play a ball down the line on the right side. The referee called Waselenchuk’s shot good, and no hinder on the play, although Waselenchuk came up hobbling afterwards.
As there was a couple of minutes of injury time for Waselenchuk, Beltran and De La Rosa disputed the referee’s call of a point for Croft and Waselenchuk, which made the score 14-8. Beltran and De La Rosa's complaint led to them being assessed a technical for delaying the game, so the score was 14-7. That’s when they chose to walk off the court and default the match, even though they had run a string of points to get within shouting distance of their opponents.
It was really an unfortunate ending to a match that had some high quality play.
The Mixed Doubles title went to De La Rosa and his wife Michelle, who beat the top seeds Mario Mercado and Adriana Riveros, 15-7, 15-13, and that result meant The Racquetball Blog’s prediction of a tie-breaker in the Mixed Doubles final was incorrect. Previously, 10 of the 14 matches in Mixed Doubles from the Round of 16 through the semi-finals went three games, so it was a bit of a surprise that the final was over in two straight games.
Overall, the World Doubles Open Championships seemed to be a success, as it brought the LPRT and IRT players together, which rarely happens outside of the US Open. And a big reason for its success was the Mixed Doubles division, as new pairings competed against each other, which is always fun, and many of the matches went a full three games, which is also always fun.
This ends the IRT season, but the LPRT season has one more event: the Treeroot.com Classic in Overland Park, Kansas, June 8-10. If you missed any of the action from Denver, check out the LPRT Facebook page or the LPRT Livestream channel, and the IRT Facebook page or the IRT YouTube channel.
World Doubles Open Championships
May 3-6, 2018 - Denver, Colorado
Men’s Doubles - Final - Sunday
6) Ben Croft & Kane Waselenchuk d. 1) Alvaro Beltran & Daniel De La Rosa, 15-7, 14-7, forfeit
Women’s Doubles - Final - Sunday
1) Paola Longoria & Samantha Salas d. 2) Alexandra Herrera & Monserrat Mejia, 15-5, 5-15, 11-6
Mixed Doubles - Final - Sunday
11) Daniel De La Rosa & Michelle De La Rosa d. 1) Mario Mercado & Adriana Riveros, 15-7, 15-13
Follow the bouncing ball….
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
On the Kane & Ben finals match, I think the score was 13-9, then the events that transpired with ref call @ 14-9. Then DLR and Alvey got two technicals before forfeit.
Post a Comment