Paola Longoria defeated Montserrat Mejia, 13-15, 15-3, 11-5, to win the 2023 Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) KWM Gutterman World Singles and Doubles Championships in Highlands Ranch, Colorado: the first event of the 2023-24 LPRT season. It was a battle of the new #1 Mejia versus the former #1, now #2, Longoria with the #2 coming out on top. This is the same result as the first event of last season, so the rankings shouldn’t change.
The short story of the match was that Mejia didn’t have her A game, and no one’s B game is going to beat Longoria, not even Mejia’s. Mejia’s shots were too loose, so she gave Longoria several extra chances that Longoria took advantage of.
Longoria might have won in two straight games, as it looked like she would win game one, with an early 3-0 lead, and also at 7-4. But Mejia battled back, and tied it at 9-9, and then went up 13-9.
Longoria switched to a backhand drive serve, and that helped her come back to tie the game at 13-13. But Mejia hit a backhand winner off Longoria’s next serve to get the serve back.
She then won the next two rallies on three shots. Mejia drove serve to the left side on both, and also finished them both with forehand down the line winners.
Game two was all Longoria, as she went up 11-0, and closed it out at 15-3 to force a tie-breaker. In the breaker, they were close early. Mejia led 3-1, then Longoria led 4-3, and they were tied at 5-5.
Longoria broke that tie, as Mejia skipped a backhand cross court shot. That was the start of five unanswered points that made the score 10-5. Meija used both her timeouts during that run, but to no avail.
She did fight off Longoria’s first match point by returning a half lob serve to the right side with a forehand back down the line. However, Longoria got the serve right back with a return winner of her own: a backhand cross court shot off a Mejia drive serve to the left side.
On the next rally, Mejia played a shot into the back wall that Longoria moved up into the front court to take early, hitting a backhand winner to seal the victory.
The next LPRT event won’t be until October, when the Turkey Shoot Pro-Am happens in Lombard, Illinois. With no US Open this year, and the Pan American Games in October, there’s a bit of a break in the LPRT schedule. If you missed any of the action from Colorado, check out the LPRT YouTube channel for recordings of the matches.
KWM Gutterman LPRT World Singles and Doubles Open Racquetball Championships
Highlands Ranch, Colorado - August 8-13, 2023
Final - Sunday
2) Paola Longoria d. 1) Montserrat Mejia, 13-15, 15-3, 11-5
Follow the bouncing ball….
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