Bowling Green Kentucky 6:30pm
The Kentucky Pro am kicked off tonight at Western Kentucky University here in Bowling Green. Jack Huczek put on a Head demo clinic at 4:30pm entertaining 30 adults and juniors.The Pro Qualifying began at 5:00pm with four matches. Locals Jason Hicks and Dan Case battled it out to four games with Dan coming out on top 4 (4) 2 9 He will face Chris Crowther in his next match at 8:00pm. Fresh off of their Men's 35 Nationals Doubles title in Phoenix last week, Indiana's John Amatulli defeated University of Alabama player Alan Crockett in three staright games 7 8 6 and Illinois native, Keith Minor took out Alan's brother Chris in a hard five game match 1 5 (6) (10) 3 . Amatulli will move to the main draw and meet Jack Huczek and Minor will play Rocky Carson in the main draw. Colombia's Alejandro Herrera would continue his top playing taking out John Scott from St Louis in three games 0 6 1. Hererra will meet Jason Thoerner on Thursday. Andy Hawthorne bested local Gared Edmunds 1,7,8 and will meet Jason Mannino in the main draw.
8:30PM
The remaining six o'clock matches featured University of Colorado Pueblo standout Ben Croft against New York's Jason Sylvester and Croft was the victor in four games 7 0 (9) 10 Croft will meet his college teammate Mitch Williams on Thursday. University of Memphis star Travis Woodbury took down Team Ektelon's Bob Jackson in three 6 5 10 and will play Cliff Swain in the next round. At eight Sudsy Monchik defeated Shane Karmelin of University of Alabama
4 1 4. Sudsy will meet Alvaro Beltran in the afternooon Thursday. Finishing the evening was Chris Crowther over Dan Case 3 2 7 and will go on to battle Shane Vanderson Thursday.
The Pro Am doubles event was won by Jason Hicks and Alvaro Beltran taking out a tough Ron Marr and Jack Huczek . The IRT would like to thank all the sponsors that enabled us to come to Kentucky and showcase our skills.
Jack Huczek Ron Marr Jason Hicks and Alvaro Beltran
Friday round of sixteen match results
Jason Mannino over Andy Hawthorne 6 9 6
Cliff Swain over Trvis Woodbury 9 2 7
Jack Huczek over John Amatulli 4 7 3
Shane Vanderson over Andy Hawthorne 6 10 (9) 9
Sudsy Monchik over Alvaro Beltran 6 (10) 8 (2) 11
Mitch Williams over Ben Croft 12 8 9
Jason Thoerner over Alejandro Herrera 3 8 7
Rocky Carson over Keith Minor 4 6 4
There were some great round of sixteen matches this afternoon as a fairly large crowd gathered to watch the afternoon matches here at the Preston Center at Western Kentucky University. Shane Vanderson and Chris Crowther had a very tough battle in their match. Crowther had his drive serve working most of the match but Shane's return of serve was too much in this one. Sudsy won the war against Alvaro in this five game thriller . Neither player took advantage of the unforced errors in this one as each player had to earn their points the hard way. Sudsy looks very good on was way back full time on the IRT. Mitch Williams took out his college teammate Ben Croft in three games as Croft seemed to fade in the third and Williams kept the pressure on. Andy Hawthorne gave Jason Mannino all he could handle surprising Jason with some great diving gets in the match. Andy could not put away the big shot to win the rally and Mannino took advantage of it re-killing the Hawthorne gets. The other seeds prevailed without much fanfare as Huczek won in three over John Amatulli, Jason Thoerner over Alejandro Herrera in three, Rocky Carson over Keith Minor in three and Cliff Swain took out Travis Woodbury .
The quarters look like this;
530pm Jason Mannino over Cliff Swain 8 4 9
630pm Jack Huczek over Shane Vanderson 5 9 11
730pm Sudsy Monchik over Mitch Williams 8 0 (10) (9) 7
830pm Rocky Carson over Jason Thoerner 4 4 10
All matches are central time.
The first match of the night featured Cliff Swain and Jason Mannino. This was a battle of tour veterans and they did not let the crowd down. Mannino seemed to control the match with a great return of serve that kept Cliff off balance. With Mannino up 9-5 in the third the lights went out on the feature show court. Fifteen minutes would pass and the decision was made to move to another court. The delay would bring Swain alive as he battled back to 9-9. Jason however would finish on a down the line kill and take the match 8 4 9.
The second match featured number one Jack Huczek and number six Shane Vanderson. Shane started a little slow in the first but pushed Jack hard in the next two games. Jack still the fittest on the tour would withstand the charge and move on in three close games 5 9 11. Shane continues to improve and his move to Florida looks to be a good one. Jack still remains the player to beat this season as his game remains very consistent.
The third match would pair up the comeback of former number one Sudsy Monchik and the rising star on the IRT Mitch Williams. The first game would be a tight one with Sudsy regaining his form. Game two would be all Monchik as he did not miss a shot and Mitch had trouble hitting the right shot.Sudsy would go up in the third but a Williams backhand follow thru would clip Sudsy in the left temple causing a gash just above the eye. Sudsy would get treatment and the bleeding stopped but Williams would take the momentum back and game three. It would be game four to Williams also as he began matching Sudsy shot for shot. Monchik slowly began gaining his confidence back and eventaully finishing the match with a 12 shot rally and move on to his first semi-final appearance in three years to face his childhood friend Jason Mannino in the 4pm Saturday semi-final 8,0,(10),(9),7.
Sudsy after his quater final match with Mitch
The last quarter matched up Jason Thoerner and Rocky Carson. Rocky had a great event in Kansas City and looked to continue his top level of play. Jason came out a little flat the first two games and Rocky took full advantage of it. Carson seems to have gone away from the rope a dope style of play that he used last season and is shooting the ball every chance he gets. Although Thoerner did put on a late match surge Rocky would win the match in three 4 4 10 and meet up with his doubles partner Jack Huczek in the 6pm Saturday semi. A rematch of Kansas City.
Look for Shane Vanderson to do a radar gun hard hit contest at 1pm Saturday sponsored by Head/Penn Racquet Sports. It will help raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
Full house for the Shane Vanderson Head/Pro Penn Hard Hit contest Saturday afternoon.
It was a beautiful day here in Bowling Green as the campus of Western Kentucky University was in the football spirit as WKU and Illinois State would begin battle at 6pm. The tailgating started at noon and the atmosphere was electric. It would carry over to the Preston Center where the buzz at inside was about the stellar play of Sudsy Monchik and his return to the IRT. Jason Mannino would be waiting to put an end to his run Saturday at 4pm and that is what happened 9 (9) 11 5. Sudsy played his heart out for the fans at the event as did Jason. Jason would attack Sudsy's back hand most of the match to the crowd's mazement as Monchik would hit some great backhand splats and rollouts. But in the end Mannino's stategy would prevail and his steady play would enable him to win the match. Mannino's ablity to get everything would keep the pressure on Sudsy the whole match . These two had no problem talking to eachother and the crowd the entire match which brought the entertainment value up to another notch. Jason was the victor today but Sudsy is back! Jason will face the winner of the Carson/Huczek match in Sunday's noon final.
The second match of the evening did not live up to the hype as Rocky Carson just could not mustard up enough to get by his doubles partner Jack Huczek. These two had a battle in Kansas City two weeks ago but this match would be the opposite. Both players would be off their games in the first two as Rocky struggled in the first and Jack seemed to lose concentration in the second as these two split the first two games. The third would be very well played but Rocky could not hit the big shot and Jack did. It would be all Huczek in the fourth 5 (8) 9 -2 as Rocky took a two technicals at 10-0 to the humor of the fans and in his words after " I did it so I would not get a donut" Jack will meet Jason in the final at noon Sunday.
The Final
The final would start out all Huczek as Jason came out a little flat in the first game and had trouble scoring. Mannino would come back strong in the second game hitting some great sidewall splats and showing off his great diving ability taking game two. Jack eventually would settle in to a groove and win the match and his second title in a row 0, (8), 5 4
Big thanks to Dave Calabrese and Ed Arias from www.racquetballchannel.com who are producing the live feed from WKU and the Kentucky Pro Am. You can find the link to watch on th front page in the top story section.