New US OPEN Singles Champion Crowned
The 26th US OPEN Racquetball Championships is in the books, and what a week! It was an amazing tournament at the University of Minnesota during homecoming weekend – go Gophers!
The International Racquetball Tour (IRT) appreciates the hard work of the USA Racquetball staff to put on a wonderful event after the retirement of Doug Ganim last year. So many volunteers helped to make the event a great experience for all of the players who attended; as the saying goes, “It takes a village.” The IRT worked closely with USAR and the LPRT to stream matches all weekend. The production team, led by IRT Commissioner Pablo Fajre, worked tirelessly late into each night to bring all of the excitement to the living rooms of fans around the world via the IRT Facebook page or YouTube Channel. Find links on the IRT website: https://irttour.com/.
Special thanks go to our sponsors – Gearbox, Head/Penn, and MyPillow.
The IRT Pro Singles Draw showed the depth of the men’s professional tour: 74 players from 8 countries and 17 states. In addition, there were 15 teams in IRT Doubles and 21 players in the IRT21 division. More on those later…
With the exception of Kane Waselenchuk, who was unfortunately unable to play after being injured in Maryland two weeks before the US OPEN, all of the top players in the world were ready to test their skills and battle for the title of US OPEN Champion. After two intense days of qualifying matches, the main draw started Friday with 32 players. Of the top 16 seeds, three didn’t advance to the Round of 16: #15 seed Thomas Carter (who lost to Eduardo Garay), #14 seed Alvaro Beltran (defeated by Javier Mar), and #11 seed Sebastian Franco (who lost to Diego Garcia in an 11-8 tiebreaker).*
The Round of 16 saw most of the favorites advance with the exception of the biggest upset of the tournament: #16 Rodrigo Montoya defeating #1 (and defending US OPEN Champion) Daniel De La Rosa in a stunning tiebreaker after being behind through most of the game, including 9-6, before going on to win. The best comeback of the round had to go to Sam Murray, though, who came back from 7-0 down in the tiebreaker to beat Javier Mar, 11-8.
With the #1 seed out of the tournament, the championship was up for grabs. The quarterfinals had two players who have won the last two International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Singles Championships in Conrrado Moscoso and Alejandro Landa, and they did not disappoint, beating Sam Murray and Lalo Portillo, respectively, to get to the semifinals. Rodrigo Montoya, the 2018 IRF World Singles Champion, continued his winning streak by beating local favorite Jake Bredenbeck. Andree Parrilla, the #2 seed, rounded out the semifinals with a win over Rocky Carson.
The semifinals saw more upsets, leading to a final between Bolivian Moscoso and Mexican Montoya. Moscoso was focused on the prize and proved once again that he has the mettle to win on the biggest stages in the world, with a 15-8, 15-4 win for the title of US OPEN Champion.
Alvaro Beltran and Daniel De La Rosa won the 2022 US OPEN International Racquetball Tour (IRT) doubles title on Saturday by defeating brothers Jake and Sam Bredenbeck, the 7th seeds, 14-15, 15-10, 11-4. Beltran and De La Rosa’s win was their third in the last four US OPENs. Their win goes with the IRF World Championship Beltran and De La Rosa won in Men’s Doubles for Mexico back in August. It was their second World Championship together.
The IRT is proud of the IRT21 initiative. The IRT21 is a professional division for players under the age of 21. The goal is to give younger players more opportunities to gain experience playing others of their caliber and having them earn some prize money in the process. The IRT21 division featured 21 players from 7 countries, and Diego Garcia from Argentina won the division with a thrilling 15-14, 15-10 victory over Guillermo Ortega from Mexico. If you didn’t see the match live, watch the video on the IRT YouTube Channel.
* The recaps in this article are thanks to Evan Pritchard (theracquetballblog.com) and The Daily Racquet – the more in-depth articles can be found here: https://go.teamusa.org/3RQvnLq
Written By: Karen Grisz
Photos By Dylan Shoemaker/Enrique Villaseñor
