Paola Longoria and Samantha Salas won their 4th US Open Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) Doubles Championship Saturday at the 2021 UnitedHealthcare US Open in Minneapolis, Minnesota by beating the defending champions Alexandra Herrera and Montserrat Mejia, 3-15, 15-11, 11-6, in the final. Longoria has won six of the seven LPRT US Open Doubles titles, with the only one she didn't win the 2019 title that went to Herrera and Mejia.
In game one, it looked like Herrera and Mejia would make a successful title defines, as they were dominant in winning 15-3. It seemed the key player was Salas, and she wasn't great in game one.
But Salas was better in game two, as she and Longoria were toe to toe with Herrera and Mejia. Then in the mid game Longoria and Salas eked ahead, and they maintained that lead to the end, winning game two 15-11 to force a tiebreaker.
The breaker started slowly. After 19 rallies, the score was still just 3-2 in favour of Longoria and Salas. Then Herrera and Mejia went for the same ball on the right side, and in coming together Mejia was injured.
She was down for some time on the court, and only left it with assistance. She took all of her injury time, but was able to return to play. However, she clearly wasn't 100%. Thus, while Salas was the key player in the match early, from this point Herrera was the key player if her side was to carry the day.
And Herrera was able to do it for awhile, as the match continued to be back and forth, and then tied at 6-6. But Longoria and Salas cued into how reduced Mejia was, and started playing more balls to her, which was successful.
That combined with a couple of errors by Herrera helped Longoria and Salas hold their opponents at 6-6, as they got the last five points need to win the match and the championship.
The win was not a popular one with the audience in attendance, although to be fair, Mejia's injury was nothing to do with Longoria and Salas.
If you missed any of the action, check out the LPRT YouTube channel, as well as the LPRT Facebook page.
2021 UnitedHealthcare US Open Racquetball Championships
October 6-10, 2021 - Minneapolis, Minnesota
LPRT Doubles - Final - Saturday
1) Paola Longoria & Samantha Salas d. 2) Alexandra Herrera & Montserrat Mejia, 3-15, 15-11, 11-6
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