Weekend round up: Cardona wins & upcoming events

Alejandro Cardona won Men’s Open at the 44th Annual Lewis Drug Pro-Am. He defeated Jaime Martell, 15-2, 15-7, in what was an all Mexican final. In the semi-finals, Cardona beat Canadian Coby Iwaasa, 15-6, 15-4, while Martell got a win over Mauricio Zelada by forfeit.

Upcoming events

Next month sees the 2024 USA Racquetball National Indoor Championships at the Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, February 7-11. There’s also Racquetball Canada’s 2nd National Team Selection Event of the season in Sherwood Park, Alberta, February 9-10.

The next International Racquetball Tour event will be the McNamara Hall of Fame event in Minneapolis, February 29-March 3. The next Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour event is the Boston Open, March 1-3, in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Looking ahead, we understand that the XXXV Pan American Championships will be in Guatemala City, as they were last year, from March 23-30, 2024. Also, the 2024 International Racquetball Federation World Championships will be in San Antonio, Texas, August 23-31.

That’ll be the first time Worlds have been in the USA since 1996, when they were in Phoenix. That year the USA made a clean sweep of the gold medals. Todd O’Neil won Men’s Singles and Michelle Gould won Women’s Singles. The doubles titles went to Adam Karp and Bill Sell on the men’s side and sisters Joy MacKenzie and Jackie Paraiso on the women’s side.

It’s difficult to imagine the USA - or any country really (maybe Mexico?) - sweeping gold this year.

2024 44th Lewis Drug Pro/Am
Sioux Falls, South Dakota - January 25-28, 2024

Men’s Open Singles - Final

5) Alejandro Cardona d. 2) Jaime Martell, 15-2, 15-7

Semi-finals

5) Alejandro Cardona d. 8) Coby Iwaasa, 15-6, 15-4
2) Jaime Martell d. 3) Mauricio Zelada, forfeit

Quarterfinals

8) Coby Iwaasa d. 16) Christian Pocsai, 15-4, 10-2, injury forfeit
5) Alejandro Cardona d. 4) Diego Gastelum, 10-15, 15-10, 11-7

3) Mauricio Zelada d. 6) Cole Sendrey, 15-13, 15-13
2) Jaime Martell d. 7) Set Cubillos, 15-8, 15-4

Follow the bouncing ball….