Longoria defeats Salas to win 2019 LPRT Syosset Open

Paola Longoria, the #1 player on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT), continued her undefeated season Sunday, as she defeated Samantha Salas, 11-3, 5-11, 11-5, 3-11, 11-2, to win the 2019 Syosset Open in Syosset, New York. Longoria has won 8 of the 9 LPRT events this season, missing one due to injury. Salas has been runner up to Longoria 7 times, and was also runner up at the event Longoria wasn’t at. They are clearly the #1 and #2 LPRT players.

It was an unusual match that lasted over 90 minutes. Both players made great shots and gets, but none of the games was especially close. They were close early in games two and three, as they were tied 5-5 in game two and 4-4 in game three, but each time one of the players then ran out to a big lead and won the game. They were also close in game three, as Salas only led by one at 4-3. But Longoria didn’t score after that point, and served only twice as Salas won the game 11-3 to force a tie-breaker.

Then the breaker wasn’t close, as Longoria ran out to a 7-1 lead, and went on to win it comfortably at 11-2. Interestingly, Longoria, who usually drives serves on first serve and often hits drives on second serve also, hit lob serves to Salas's backhand that nicked off the left wall on first serve for much of the match, including the last few rallies of game five.

The last event of the 2018-19 LPRT season will be the Teamroot.com Classic in Overland Park, Kansas, June 14-16. If you missed the action from Syosset, you can watch it via the LPRT website, or the LPRT YouTube channel or the LPRT LiveStream channel.

2019 Syosset Open
Syosset, New York - May 2-5, 2019

LPRT Singles - Final - Sunday

1 Paola Longoria d. 2 Samantha Salas, 11-3, 5-11, 11-5, 3-11, 11-2

Follow the bouncing ball….