Shane Vanderson caused a major upset Friday in the quarter finals of the IRTNetwork.com Open, as he defeated Jack Huczek for the first time in his career, winning 11-4, 10-12, 11-8, 11-6. Vanderson and Huczek had played 18 times previously in Tier 1 events on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) with Huczek winning them all. Huczek also defeated Vanderson in the final of the 2006 World Championships. In fact, they had only gone 5 games twice before.
But Vanderson came out on top Friday, which sets up a semi-final showdown with Rocky Carson, who defeated Ben Croft, 11-9, 0-11, 11-2, 11-3, in the quarter finals.
On the top side of the draw, Kane Waselenchuk defeated Chris Crowther in three straight games, 11-7, 11-1, 11-9. They were neck and neck in game one, including 7-6 for Waselenchuk, before he won it. In game two Waselenchuk came out serving lights out and got a 6-0 advantage before Crowther knew what was going on.
But in game three, Crowther led all the way until 9-7 at which point there were several sideouts. Then Waselenchuk got a point to make it 9-8, and after an exchange of fault serves he pushed on to win the game 11-7 and take the match.
Afterwards, Waselenchuk said "I played OK," and when asked about his left knee that he hurt two weeks ago in the final of the Florida Spring Break event, he said it's "good." Certainly, he did not seem to be hampered at all in moving around the court.
Waselenchuk will play Jason Mannino in the semis on Saturday, as Mannino came back from a game down to defeat Mitch Williams, 4-11, 11-5, 11-2, 11-1, in Friday's quarter finals.
The semi-finals and final can be viewed over the web at IRTNetwork.com for a small fee. The semis will be at 4 PM and 5 PM central time.
IRT Network.com Open, St Louis, Missouri
March 25-28, 2010
Quarter finals
Kane Waselenchuk d. Chris Crowther, 11-7, 11-1, 11-9
Jason Mannino d. Mitch Williams, 4-11, 11-5, 11-2, 11-1
Rocky Carson d. Ben Croft, 11-9, 0-11, 11-2, 11-3
Shane Vanderson d. Jack Huczek, 11-4, 10-12, 11-8, 11-6
Semi-finals
Kane Waselenchuk vs. Jason Mannino
Rocky Carson vs. Shane Vanderson
Follow the bouncing ball....
Friday, March 26, 2010
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