US OPEN Day 2
November 15th, 2007 by Adam Katz
The action here at the 12th Choice Hotels US OPEN today was non stop from very early this morning as the Men played two rounds to get to the quarterfinals and the Women played to the Round of 16.
The matches started bright and early, and I have to admit I had forgotten that and was genuinely surprised when I walked into the club and many of the IRT Pros were on court warming up. The rule of the day in the first round this morning was 3 and out as 13 of the 16 matches were settled in 3 games. Jason Thoerner and Andy Hawthorne decided that 4 games would be a better way to go while Kris Odegard decided that after winning the first 2 games he’d rather go five than get off court quickly.
I was able to watch the battle of the Carsons as Rocky took on Tony. Rocky came out strong in this one to grab a 10-0 lead in the first game, and then he really stalled. Trying for too much, he quickly allowed Tony to run off 8 straight before he decided that enough was enough and he should end the first game. The second game followed a very similar pattern as Rocky built a 7-0 lead before allowing Tony back into it. Once again Tony got it to 8 but that was all he would get. Rocky decided at that point that he really needed to settle down and he ended game 3 fairly quickly at 11-4 to end the match. I spoke with Rocky after that match and he mentioned that he really needed to focus to get those games over with and that he would definitely be working on that in his next match. That next match would be against John Ellis.
John started his day with a battle with Ruben Gonzalez. Ruben came out strong in this one and that forced John to bring his best from the start. The first two games could have gone either way, but John managed to squeak them both out before he pulled away in the third.
Another match of note was the meeting of Current National Singles Champion Mitch Williams and US OPEN Event Coordinator, Doug Ganim. That match happened to take place right outside of the media center so I had an excellent vantage point as these two played would go point for point through each game. Doug was playing extremely well today, but Mitch was able to just scrape by in 3 very tight games.
Doug did go on and win his match in the Classic Pro Racquetball tour division later on today and will be playing tomorrow in their Round of 16.
In the Round of 16, the only upsets were #10 Andy Hawthorne taking out #7 Ben Croft and #9 Jason Thoerner beating #8 Chris Crowther. Both matches were close throughout. The only near upset occurred when Shane Vanderson dropped 2 straight games after winning the first two to go to a tiebreaker, but he regrouped and gave Japan’s Hiroshi Shimizu a donut in that breaker.
On the Women’s side action kicked off with some great battles in the Choice Hotels US OPEN WPRO Round of 32 as these ladies fought for the right to advance to Friday’s Round of 16 matches.
One of the closest matches today featured Mexico’s Samantha Salas taking on Krystal Csuk from Illinois. Krystal came out and refused to miss to gain the 11-5 game one win. That only seemed to fire Samantha up as she rolled through games 2 and 3 by scores of 11-8 and 11-7. However, Krystal wasn’t about to give up on this match and dug deep to pull out the 11-2 game 4 win to force the tiebreaker. It looked like she had the momentum, but Samantha refused to lose and fought for the 11-7 win and the right to play South Carolina’s Brenda Kyzer on Friday.
Brenda put together a solid effort to dispatch Ecuador’s Veronica Sotomayor in 3 very close games. Veronica came out strong in this one to build an 8-2 first game lead, but couldn’t seem to find the right shot to finish and Brenda certainly made her pay for that.
Chile’s Angela Grisar also found herself trailing in game one before storming back to take a close three game match from California’s Aubrey O’Brien. That win earned Angela a Friday match with Doreen Fowler of Maryland who got by former US Junior Team member, Da’Monique Davis currently from Alabama.
Ohio’s Kerri Wachtel managed a quick win over Minnesota’s Vallana Perrault to earn a match up with Mexico’s Susana Acosta. It appeared that yesterday’s tough matches had taken their toll on Vallana. Susana, on the other hand, fought through the nervous jitters in the first game to sweep the final three over Florida’s Vivian Gomez.
Defending Champion, Christie Van Hees of Canada got her title defense off to a good start with a straight games win over California’s Monique Flaherty. She advances to a match with fellow Canadian, Jen Saunders who dispatched New York’s Kim Ferina in three tough games.
Last year’s finalist, Cheryl Gudinas-Holmes also advanced in straight games over Paola Nunez and now faces a Round of 16 match with another former US Junior Team player, Adrienne Fisher of Ohio. Adrienne managed to get through a very determined Michelle Earl from Alaska to gain this match.
Another 5 game marathon occurred in the match between Indiana’s Diane Moore and Canada’s Josee Grand’maitre. From the beginning, this one looked like it could go either way as both ladies came out shooting strong. In the end, Diane was able to tough it out and earn the 11-4, 5-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6 win to move onto a Friday match with Utah’s Kristin Bellows. Kristin was hitting extremely well today brimming with confidence from her recent appearance in the finals of the Canadian Racquetball Classic. She took the momentum of that tournament and gained the 3 gam e win over North Carolina’s Phyllis Morris.
Virginia’s Candi Hostovich brought a solid game plan to her match with yet another US Junior National Team member in Kara Mazur of Connecticut and was able to gain a hard fought 4 game win scores were 10-12, 11-5, 11-6, 11-7. That win earns Candi a shot at top seed Rhonda Rajsich of Arizona.
Rhonda came through a tough match with Canada’s Brandi Jacobson Prentice. Playing on the stadium court, Brandi managed to stay around in each of the games, but Rhonda is the top seed and at the end of each game, she was able to pull away in her usual athletic style.
The final Round of 16 match will feature Mexico’s Paola Longoria taking on Texan Keely Franks. Paola drew an injured Frederique Lambert in her match today and unfortunately, her injury got the better of her. She gave it all she had but the pressure that Paola was able to put on was just too much.
Keely came out strong from the outset in her match with Colorado’s Jo Shattuck and grabbed a quick 2 game lead before Jo could regroup to take game 3. It looked like the momentum was shifting, but Keely fought through it and managed to claim the victory on an ace to end game 4.
The action kicks off bright and early Friday morning here in Memphis at the 12th Choice Hotels US OPEN Racquetball Championships. Come on out and watch the world’s best players fight for the title.
Also, California’s Jose Diaz is having himself quite the tourney so far. He started it with a victory in the Pro-Am Doubles Event that kicked off the tourney and he has progressed to the Round of 16 in the Men’s A and won his first match in the Men’s 24 and Under where he will face the top seed tomorrow.
Anthony Herrera had a good day today as he won his open match with Canada’s Eric Derouchers 15-13, 15,3. I mention that mostly because it was taking place as I started typing this and I kept having to look up as Anthony was putting it all out there with some amazing diving retrievals and shots throughout. In fact, I had to write up a 10 sign and hold it up for the crowd to see after one particular rally where Anthony dove on 3 consecutive shots between the back wall and left side wall…really was a great rally.
The Women will play two rounds tomorrow to get down to the semifinals and the men will be playing their quarterfinal tomorrow…some great racquetball will be on display here at the Racquet Club of Memphis.
More later!
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