EVENT RECAP
COURT WARS
By Williams Accounting and Consulting along with Suivant Consulting
The first ever Court Wars event has come to a close. Twelve athletes came to Bay Club Pleasanton to compete in a 1 day war. In person attendance sold out which provided tons of energy flowing through the building. Competing in the event we had three out of the four World Champion medalist, 1 former US Open Doubles Champion and multiple national champions. These talented athletes brought a full day of racquetball action.
4 out of the 5 matchups went to a tie breaker game proving that these matchups were very competitive and some of the best matchups we have in the game today! One of the highlights of the day was the return of Markie Rojas competing on the court. After years without touching a racquet Markie proved he could still hang with the best. Read below as we give our analysis of each game and how each of the players preformed.
MATCHUP #1
11-2 , 7-11 , 11-7 Nikhil Prasad
In our first match, current junior national champion Nikhil Prasad faced off against one of the winningest juniors of all time Antonio Rojas. This had a lot of hype and a lot of trash talk pre-event. Subbing in for Timmy Hansen due to injury, Rojas brought a very confident attitude and had no doubt that he would be taking it to Prasad. However Prasad did not let it get to him and took it to Rojas early on in the match winning the first game, 11-2 by moving Rojas all over the court with his squash style play. Game 2 started very similarly until Rojas pumped the brakes by taking advantage of every second between each rally. He was able to string a few serves and flat rollouts to take game two 11-7. In the breaker, conditioning and recent on court time became the deciding factor. Even though Rojas was able to continue putting pressure on Prasad with his drive serves and made some amazing shots, he was clearly fatigued while Nikhil’s endurance kept him in rally's and level headed to continue taking smart shots. Prasad was able to dial it in and close out the match 11-7 and take the first ever Court Wars belt.
MATCHUP #2
4-11 , 11-4 , 11-4 Andree Parrilla
The second match of the night was between touring professionals Andree Parrilla and Mario Mercado. These two are very experienced and have both won pro stops on the IRT. No surprise here that the match would be a tight one. Game one started off with Mercado serving and rolling backhands at the highest level. With silky smooth backhand splats, he was able to win game one 11-4 and looked to make quick work of Parrilla. Game two flipped completely when Parrilla found a mix of serves to cool off Mercado. All of the sudden those same serves and backhand rollouts were not falling in and Parrilla won game two 11-4 and we had ourselves a coin flip going into the tie breaker. The third game could not have started better for Mario Mercado as he went up 4-1. With all the momentum, Mario thought it was 4-0 and had a verbal exchange with the referee about the score. Whatever happened mentally in Mercado’s head at this moment killed any rhythm he had and Parrilla took advantage. Parrilla went to his backhand slice lob serve and Mercado could not find an answer. The young Mexican superstar went on a 10-0 run to close the match 11-4 to take the belt.
MATCHUP #3
6-11 , 11-1 , 11-5 Erika Manilla
Our next battle was between USA and Mexico. Our only female match of the day was between Erika Manilla and Jessica Parrilla. This was a very anticipated match and the fire within these ladies is known and seen early in the match. Parrilla started the match off with some very solid serves and backhand winners to keep Manilla on her heels and moving around the court as she took game one 11-6. Game two was all Manilla as she put on a clinic and served Parrilla off the court. The power and accuracy of the Manilla serve was unmatched as she cruised to win game 11-1 to force a third game. The tiebreaker had potential to be tight with a lot of longer rallies. Manilla was bringing all of her power from all parts of the court as Parrilla used her speed to stay in rallies. There were moments of Parrilla earning setups and opportunities to take the match, however, she could not keep the ball off of the side wall and Manilla was able to finish the match with double the amount of winners as she closed out the match 11-5.
MATCHUP #4
11-5, 11-6 Bredenbeck's
Next up we had our doubles match of the day with Jose Diaz and Markie Rojas taking on the touring team of the brothers Jake and Sam Bredenbeck. Diaz and Jake Bredenbeck have a history of doubles together but now found themselves in a battle against each other as Diaz teams up with his childhood partner and brother. This match had a lot of potential as everyone thought it would go the distance, but this one was all the Bredenbeck brothers. With flashes of high level play from Rojas and Diaz, Sam Bredenbeck was the player of the day and looked unstoppable. Jake, usually a very powerful and physically dominant player, showed his experience as he stayed very calm and ended rallies with a lot of finesse. The combo of Sam’s performance and Jake’s shotmaking, the brothers take this match in two straight games 11-5, 11-6.
MATCHUP #5
5-11, 11-1, 11-5 Alejandro Landa
Finally the match that everyone was waiting for, the rematch of this year's World Championships between Andres Acuna and Alex Landa. These two have obvious history and have played so much this season. This match looked to be over quickly as Acuna made quick work of Landa 11-5 in the first game using a combo of power and touch. His crack serves and backhand touch to the left corner seemed to be the recipe for success to win the match. In the second game Acuna looked like he would close it out and some even thought a donut might be coming. Landa went into a full on lazy game style that included zero running and only dinking the ball. It seemed that he had checked out for the day. All in a few moments the Landa strategy seemed to put Acuna to sleep and Landa found himself coming back and even took the lead as he took game two 11-7 to go to the breaker. In the third and deciding game, Acuna was not able to come out of the sleepy spell Landa put on him resulting in Landa using more of a normal strategy as he cruised to win the match 11-5 as he wins our featured match of the night.
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