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 Rodriguez
grabs
Guatemala title
It was an awesome final, with a crowd of over 250 present at Sporta
and with high hopes of watching an excellent game.
The game started with Eric Galvez, the second seed from
Mexico, dominating a first game and taking it 11/7. The second game
became much more even but still Eric on top of his game, suddenly a
4/6 score in his favour. Top seed Miguel Miguel Rodriguez
started to dictate his own pace and took over the game, finalizing
the second 11/8.
The third game started with an amazing play by Miguel, intercepting
a cross court by Eric at the top of the court and from then on it
was a complete domination by Miguel Angel, overwhelmed Erik and
finalizing the last two games with a score of 11/2, giving Miguel
Angel the tournament 7/11, 11/8, 11/2, 11/2 [for his tenth PSA
title].
As organizers the event was a total success in all aspects, the
level of play was amazing and the sportsmanship shown by the players
on every game. We had such a good experience that we already invited
for next years tournament.
Thanks a lot for everyone who helped on the tournament and see you
next year.
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 Internacional
Sporta 2009
17-22 Mar, Guatemala, $15k |
Round One
19 Mar |
Quarters
20 Mar |
Semis
21 Mar |
Final
22 Mar |
[1] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Col)
12/10, 11/8, 11/7
Cesar Salazar (Mex) |
[1] Miguel Angel Rodriguez
11/9, 13/15, 11/2, 11/5
[Q] Eric Tepos Valtierra |
[1] Miguel Angel Rodriguez
11/9, 11/13, 11/9, 11/9
[3] Arturo Salazar |
[1] Miguel Angel Rodriguez
7/11, 11/8, 11/2, 11/2
[2] Eric Galvez |
[8] Arthur Gaskin (Irl)
1/11, 11/13, 12/10, 11/1, 11/7
[Q] Eric Tepos Valtierra (Mex) |
[3] Arturo Salazar (Mex)
11/0, 11/6, 11/2
Mauricio Sedano (Arg) |
[3] Arturo Salazar
11/3, 11/4, 9/11, 11/2
[7] Yann Perrin |
[7] Yann Perrin (Fra)
11/6, 11/8, 11/9
[Q] Lewis WAlters (Eng) |
Bernardo Samper (Col)
11/4, 11/7, 11/6
[6] Gilly Lane (Usa) |
Bernardo Samper
9/11, 11/3, 11/5, 7/11, 11/8
[4] Jorge Ferreira |
Bernardo Samper
11/6, 11/8, 11/6
[2] Eric Galvez |
[Q] Alan Clyne (Sco)
11/9, 11/8, 11/4
[4] Jorge Ferreira (Mex) |
Rafael Alarcon (Bra)
11/9, 9/11, 11/3, 11/4
[5] Campbell Grayson (Nzl) |
Rafael Alarcon
11/7, 5/11, 11/5, 11/6
[2] Eric Galvez |
[Q] Fabien Verseille (Fra)
11/7, 11/6, 11/4
[2] Eric Galvez (Mex) |
Qualifying Draw:
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Samper
secures Semi-Final slot in Sporta Open
Unseeded Colombian Bernardo Samper produced his second
successive upset in the Internacional Sporta Open by beating
fourth-seeded Mexican Jorge Isaac Baltazar Ferreira in five games to
reach the semi-finals at Sporta in Santa Catarina Pinula, Guatemala.
 After
despatching sixth seed Gilly Lane in the opening round, the
New-York-based 26-year-old battled to victory over Baltazar
Ferreira, the world No55 from Mexico City.
Samper, the world No 111 competing in his first Tour event since
November, will now face a further Mexican Eric Galvez. The
second seed from Puebla dismissed Brazilian Rafael Alarcon.
 The
other semi-final will also be a Colombian/Mexican encounter.
Miguel Angel Rodriguez, from the Colombian capital Bogotá, ended
the run of Mexican qualifier Erik Tepos Valtierra. The top seed will
now meet Arturo Salazar, the twin brother of his first round
victim Cesar Salazar.
Third seed Salazar concluded European interest in the Guatemala
event when he beat France's Yann Perrin, the No7 seed.
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Valtierra
vanquishes Gaskin in Guatemala
The huge surprise of the tournament has been Erik Tepos from Mexico,
who again was the one that made a comeback and built from the bottom
a big upset. Beginning to what it seemed a easy game for Arthur
Gaskin (IRL) with an easy 1/11 first game, Erick never let go of the
game and even after losing the second game with a closer score of
11/13, he never gave up.
On the third game he nearly lost the game but finally went on won
the game at 12/10. With an obviously tired Arthur from the long game
and a calm Erik, the result from the first game was on Erik´s favour
now 11/1. There was no way out for Arthur and although he made a
huge effort on the last game the altitude and fitness from Erik was
something he could not overcome, giving Erik a final score of 1/11,
11/13,12/10,11/1,11/7.
The other upset from the tournament was Bernardo Samper (COL) who
defeated the sixth seed Gilly Lane (USA) in straight sets. After the
game Gilly expressed that he could never get into rhythm and could
not take off the pressure from Bernardo. Again the altitude played a
major role. Although Gilly lost he expressed good comments to the
organization and specially the crowd that cheers not for a player
but to the game of squash.
The rest of the matches had no surprises but have demonstrated how
the level of play is rising by the round, giving the audience a
taste of what will come up on the rest of the tournament. As Gilly
expressed the crowd is amazed by the level of play and cheers both
players and we expect a full crowd for today's quarterfinals.
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Qualifying
complete
in Guatemala
Everything happened as expected with no upsets in the first round of
qualifying. All games results came through without any incidents,
only good sportsmanship from all the players and giving the local
players a chance to enjoy a game with such good athletes and
representatives of world squash.
All players have been cooperative and helpful to the organization
but Fabien Verseille from France has gained everyone's heart
with his warm attitude and joyful personality.
In the last game of the day we where amazed by the level of play
demonstrated by Jorge Gutierrez (ARG), three time panamerican
champion and Tom Pashley (ENG), taking it to the limit all
the way up to 3-2, with a 15/17 fourth game. At the end Tom
prevailed in the last game winning it 11/7, demonstrating his
ability as an all around player.
In the second round of the we had our first upset, given by
Fabien Verseille winning the first match of the afternoon to
another one of the audience favourites Jethro Binns (WAL), advancing
to the Main Draw.
The next two games of the afternoon happened without any surprises,
just a excellent level of squash and great sportsmanship
demonstrated from the players. Alan Clyne (SCO) defeated
Sergio López (MEX) our national coach, and Lewis Walters
(ENG) over Fernando Lopez (MEX).
In the last game of the night Erik Tepos (MEX) overcame a 0-1
start up against Tom Pashley (ENG), giving us the second upset of
the day and winning against a obviuos tired Tom, still resented from
the long and hard game of last night, prevailing 3-1 at the end.
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