IRT Tracktown Open Pro-Am Recap
by Todd Boss and Karen Grisz
For the first time ever, the IRT was in Eugene, Oregon, for the 2023 Tracktown Open ProAm, August 31-September 3, 2023.
Thanks to Tournament Director Wayne Antone for putting this event on with short notice at the Downtown Athletic Club. It was great to see a new event on the schedule, and we hope Wayne can make it an annual one!
Congratulations to the winners:
• Singles – Daniel De La Rosa
• Doubles – Daniel De La Rosa and Alex Landa
Singles Recap
In the Round of 32s, the only real notable match was the strong return to the singles court of veteran Alvaro Beltran who took out #13 Robbie Collins with an easy victory, 15-2, 15-11. While we've seen Alvaro play some doubles since his elbow injury last October, this is the first time he's taken to the singles court on the IRT since last October.
In the 16s
In the always close 8/9 seeding match, Samuel Murray took out Alex Landa in a battle of former top 4 players who have both slipped down the rankings as of late.
#5 Eduardo Portillo had to dig deep to top the red hot #12 Alan Natera in a tiebreaker.
#3 Daniel De La Rosa (DLR) was surprisingly taken to a tiebreaker by his young Mexican rival Erick Cuevas before moving on.
#11 Thomas Carter shocked #6 Andree Parrilla 15-2 in the first game, but Parrilla rebounded to advance.
#7 Adam Manilla got a tiebreaker win over #10 Andres Acuña to move on and solidify his ranking on tour.
In the Quarters
#9 Murray continued his years-long mastery of #1 Conrrado Moscoso’s game, topping him 15-12, 15-13 to move on and put a serious dent in Moscoso's chance of winning the year-end title of #1 player in the world. Murray is now 5-4 lifetime against Moscoso across competitions dating to 2018.
#4 Rodrigo Montoya and Portillo played a close one, with Montoya taking the tiebreaker 11-9 to move to the semis.
#3 DLR advanced past Parrilla by the closest of margins, winning 15-13, 15-14.
#2 Jake Bredenbeck avenged a U.S. National Team Qualifying loss to Manilla, winning in a tiebreaker.
In the Semis
Montoya improved to 4-2 lifetime over Murray with a straightforward 15-12, 15-9 win.
DLR made it two in a row over Jake, winning in a tiebreaker to move into the final.
In the Finals
DLR made relatively fast work of Montoya, improving to 9-4 lifetime across competitions with the 15-2, 15-11 win.
Points Implications of Results
By the end of 2023, the IRT will have had 11 events in the calendar year. Ten of the 11 events will count toward rankings (the lowest score is dropped). Basically, when there is a tournament, the oldest tournament still counted gets replaced by the new results. The Tracktown dropped the 2022 US Open, which cost Moscoso 600 points, but two of the next three events to drop as we go through 2023 are events DLR missed towards the end of 2022, meaning everyone else likely is playing for 2nd place unless DLR takes some shock early losses in the last couple of events. Based on this, it appears that DLR will ascend back to #1, with Moscoso #2 and Jake #3. But the season isn’t over yet!
The three remaining events on the IRT schedule are:
November 12 in Boston, Massachusetts
December 3 in Portland, Oregon
December 10 in Pleasanton, California
Doubles Recap
Former #1 Kane Waselenchuk was at the Tracktown but only playing doubles. He and fellow 40-something Beltran teamed up and won a round, but they fell in the quarters to #1 seeds Adam Manilla/Andree Parrilla.
In a testament to how close these doubles teams are, every match in the quarters and semis went tiebreaker as the top two seeds advanced to the final.
#2 DLR/Landa, the U.S. National Team in doubles for the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, topped the likely Bolivian doubles team Conrrado Moscoso/Kadim Carrasco in one semifinal, then took out Manilla/Parrilla for the title.
For a closer look at the Tracktown draws, visit: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-results.asp?TID=41552
