Colorado Grand Slam Event
September 15th, 2007 by Adam Katz
For those that have never attended one of the Grand Slam Racquetball events, you really need to get to one of these. The atmosphere is amazing and the level of play in every division is just a step above.
The Motorola World Professional Racquetball Championships presented by Verizon Wireless has been filled with upsets from the beginning, but nobody can say that the level of racquetball has suffered in any way.
Due to my work commitments, I was unable to get down here until Friday evening, but I did get here just in time for the Rocky Carson-Mitch Williams match. Rocky had been waiting for this match since Houston, where Mitch pulled out the win on his way to his first National Singles Open championship.
With the altitude and as hard as Mitch hits the ball, it appeared that he was going to try and serve Rocky off the court as he came out firing on all cylinders to gain the first game win 11-9.
That only seemed to fire Rocky up as he turned it up to another level to gain 2 quick games 11-7 and 11-0. He then jumped to a 6-0 lead in the 4th game. But both men are pros and Mitch wasn’t about to go down without a fight. Mixing half lobs and drive serves, Mitch fought back to 9-8, and seemed to be gaining the momentum in the match overall as Rocky seemed very frustrated with each missed opportunity on serve. But he fought through it and ended it with a bizarre lob off a seam in the glass that fooled Mitch and saile right over his head for the ace. This sets up a semifinal meeting with Mexico’s Polo Gutierrez who continued his strong play by following up his 5 game upset win over #2 Jason Mannino with a straight games win over Chris Crowther.
In the other half of the draw, Alvaro Beltran is heading to the semis after an amazing 5 game win over Shane Vanderson. I wasn’t here to see that match, but many people were still talking about it around midnight last night. He’ll meet his good friend, Javier Moreno, in the semis as Javier followed up his upset of #1 Jack Huzcek with a hard fought victory over Ben Croft last night. Both players left it all on the court last night, but having Alvaro front and center for this match seemed to fire Javier up at the end of each game as he was able to pull away for the win.
The matches start at 3 Mountain time this afternoon with Rocky and Polo followed at 5 by Alvaro and Javier.
If you happen to be in CO, I would definitely encourage you to come on out to Lynmar for the action. Dave Negrete, Doug Ganim, Eddie Meredith and all the rest have done a great job transforming this club into the latest Grand Slam event for Racquetball.
On the CO Juniors front, Adam Manilla is doing things the hard way as he is playing his first full Men’s B tournament here and so far he is looking strong as he is in the semifinals which will also be at 3 this afternoon…so I will be spending time watching both matches. Jeremy will also be around this afternoon for the first semifinal so I will try to get some pictures and send those out later.
The US Junior Team drawing for a Dell Notebook will take place shortly after the 2nd semifinal this evening. If anyone would like tickets, feel free to respond to this email and I will make sure to get them for you. They are $10 each and go towards the Junior Team and their trip to the IRF Junior Worlds in Cochabamba, Bolivia in December.
Related posts
Entry Filed under: IRT, USA Racquetball
Tags:
