Mercado defeats Acuña for Men's Open title at 2022 Shamrock Shootout

Mario Mercado won Men’s Open at the 37th Annual PapaNicholas Coffee Shamrock Shootout on the weekend in Lombard, Illinois. He was the top seed, and defeated 2nd seed Andres Acuña, 15-4, 3-15, 11-10, in the final. Note, this was another match that had two lopsided first games, and then a close tie-breaker. In the semi-finals, Mercado beat 4th seed Erick Cuevas Fernandez, 15-4, 15-2, and Acuña defeated 3rd seed Erick Trujillo, 15-11, 15-5.

Coming up

This week’s events are the USA Racquetball (USAR) 2022 National Intercollegiate Championships in Tucson, Arizona, March 23-26. There are just 89 players this year, which is substantially fewer than in years past.

Also, the Racquetball Canada Eastern Championships are on this weekend, March 25-27, in Valleyfield, Québec, with several of the top Canadian players in action, including Samuel Murray, Coby Iwaasa and Trevor Webb, who have been named as the men’s players for Team Canada for the 33rd Pan American Championships in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, April 9-16.

The IRT’s next event will be the 2022 IRT SoCal Open in Fullerton, California, April 28 to April 30. The next Tier 1 Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) event is the Battle at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, April 29-May 1, but they’ll play outdoors in the 2022 Beach Bash in Hollywood, Florida March 24-27.

37th Annual PapaNicholas Coffee Shamrock Shootout
March 17-20, 2022 - Lombard, Illinois

Men’s Open - Final

1) Mario Mercado d. 2) Andres Acuña, 15-4, 3-15, 11-10

Men’s Open - Semi-finals

1) Mario Mercado d. 4) Erick Cuevas Fernandez, 15-4, 15-2
2) Andres Acuña d. 3) Erick Trujillo, 15-11, 15-5

Follow the bouncing ball….