Saturday, October 14, 2017

Parrilla defeats Beltran to win 2017 WRT Casino Racquetball Open

Andree Parrilla defeated Alvaro Beltran, 15-9, 15-9, to win the World Racquetball Tour (WRT) Casino Racquetball Open in Mexicali, Mexico Saturday, which was his 4th WRT title. Parrilla was full measure for the win, as he defeated Alejandro Landa - a 9 time WRT event winner - in the semi-finals, and then Beltran, the 4th ranked player on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) and a semi-finalist as last week’s US Open, as well as Gerardo Franco in the quarterfinals. Thus, Parrilla’s victory was well earned.

He was generally in control of the match. Parrilla had a large lead in game one, getting to 14 when Beltran was still at 5. But Beltran fought off a few game points before Parrilla was able to finish it off.

Parrilla again had a lead early in game two, 3-1. But Beltran tied it at 3-3, and he went ahead at 6-5. Then Parrilla regained the momentum, scoring six unanswered points, to go up 11-6. Beltran did call a timeout at 9-6, but to no avail.

Yet, Beltran did draw within two again at 11-9. But Parrilla continued to work for every point. For example, he dove to retrieve a ball that led to a Beltran skip, which put Parrilla on match point at 14-9.

He won it on the next rally by drive serving to the left side that Beltran returned with a backhand down the line, but Parrilla covered that shot, and hit a controlled re-kill to get the 15th and final point.

Next WRT event will include Monchik

The next WRT event will be in Salt Lake City when the Rocky Mountain Open takes place, October 25-28. Sudsy Monchik tweeted that he will be playing Salt Lake City, so it will be interesting to see how he fares. Monchik made the quarterfinals of the US Open - racquetball’s Grand Slam - only getting stopped by Beltran, so he could be a threat to win it all in Salt Lake.

2017 WRT Casino Racquetball Open, Mexicali, Mexico
October 11-15, 2017

Singles - Final - Saturday

3) Andree Parrilla d. 21) Alvaro Beltran, 15-9, 15-9

Singles - Semi-finals - Saturday

21) Alvaro Beltran d. 1) Rodrigo Montoya, 15-13, 8-15, 11-10
3) Andree Parrilla v. 7) Alejandro Landa, 15-8, 15-11

Follow the bouncing ball….

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