CONGRATULATIONS to my “Championship Team” Paola Longoria for winning her 5th US Open title and Rocky Carson for making it into the finals of pro doubles.
2014 US Open Champion Paola Longoria after making history winning the title for the 5th time with Coach Fran Davis.
The 2014 United Healthcare US Open Championships held in Minneapolis, MN was an amazing event. It was held at the Life Time Fitness Center, inside the Target Center, and there were 700+ participants, 17 countries and $62,000.00 in prize money. The 19th annual event was the biggest and most widely viewed event in racquetball history.
All http://www.irtnetwork.com/ subscribers can see Paola and Rocky’s matches in the archives as well as the finals of the Men’s and Women’s Pro Singles and Doubles finals will be aired on the Tennis Channel Thanksgiving weekend so make sure you check the days and times.
Paola Longoria defended her title from 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013 and is now the 5th time 2014 United Healthcare US Open Champion. She won the event in fashion against her rival Marie Jose Vargas in 3 straight games. She played amazingly well throughout the week with her aggressive style of play and her consistency, as she did not drop a game on the way to being crowned the 2014 US Open Champion.
Paola also is the 2014 United Healthcare US Open Champion in Women’s Pro Doubles as she partnered with Veronica Sotomeyer, from Ecuador, to beat Rhonda Rajsich and Marie Jose Vargas in the finals in a tie-breaker.
Paola continues to build her portfolio of being the LPRT’s #1 ranked professional player in the world with winning 150 consecutive pro matches and winning her 37th consecutive pro event.
Rocky Carson and Alvaro Beltran pose with Coach Fran Davis after their epic Doubles finals match.
Rocky Carson made it to the semi-finals of the 2014 United Healthcare US Open, but fell short to his rival, Alvaro Beltran, in a 5th game tie-breaker. Rocky fought hard and played well, but unfortunately Alvaro came back stronger in the 5th game against Rocky.
Rocky made it to the finals of the 2014 United Healthcare US Open Men’s Pro Doubles as he partnered with Alvaro Beltran, from Mexico but Kane Waselenchuk and Ben Croft beat them in the finals in a tie-breaker.
Taylor Knoth, graduated from OSU in Corvalis, OR a year ago and is now in a special engineering program and hasn’t been playing much. Taylor was able to qualify into the main draw of the 2014 United Healthcare US Open by beating Andy Hawthorne, ranked # 21, in 4 games and then played in the round of 64 against Jose Diaz, ranked #12. Taylor took the 1st game, but couldn’t stop Jose and lost the next 3.
ALL their hard work paid big dividends as they used the Racquetball Sports Triangle that I advocate in my book, Championship Racquetball. ALL year long they never missed a beat working on their racquetball skills, their mental skills and their conditioning/nutritional skills. They knew all three sides of the triangle needed to work together in order for them to reach their championship level game and they did.
Everyone wants to hold a US Open title from the pro division all the way down to the amateur divisions, which is what makes it so competitive and exciting.
I had so many of my students and our campers attend this event ….CONGRATS to all of them:
2014 US Open Champion Tammarrian Rogers 2x Medalist
Tammarrian Rogers 1st in the Women’s 40+
Tammarian Rogers/Glen Garrison 3rd in the Mixed 40+
Tammarian Rogers/Richelle Kulju 3rd in the Women’s Doubles 40+
Sam Hojat 3rd in Men’s Elite
Harlan Faircloth 1st in Centurion A’s
Bob Jackson 3rd in Centurion A’s
Holly Scott 4th in Women’s Elite
Heather Hojat, Dragana Bulatovic, Cheryl Jones, Ly Abbott, Page Kern, and Susan Spinella
I had to wear so many hats such as coach, run the HEAD Penn booth, meet for the USAR-IP Certification Program, commentate on the IRT Network, sell our “Championship Products”…book, video and camps and and and.
It is an event you DO NOT want to miss next year so plan for it and you will not be sorry you attended the BEST EVENT of the year.
Going to Jr. World Championships 2014
My “Junior Championship Racquetball Team” lead by Connor Laffey, Wayne Antone and Jordan Cooperrider are heading to the Jr. World Championships in Cali, Columbia this week October 18-25, 2014. Good Luck and stay focused. Bring home the hardware.
***It will be streamed live on the International Federation Racquetball website.
