Mejia Wins 3rd Title at 30th Annual Christmas Classic
Dec 12, 2022
Montse Mejia (MEX) earned her third pro title at the annual Christmas Classic event hosted at the Severna Park Racquetball and Fitness Club in Millersville, Maryland. This was Mejia’s second title in a row after winning at Chicago’s Turkey Shoot in November, and in both events, she took out #1 Paola Longoria (MEX) and #2 Alexandra Herrera (MEX) to do so.
With her third title, Mejia joins an elite group with the same number of pro wins including current LPRT players Samantha Salas (MEX), Herrera, and Maria Jose Vargas (ARG).
There is no question why this seasonal, festive tournament has been around for so long even though the location has changed three times. The local players and fans are as warm and friendly as they come, so thank you to everyone who came out to watch and cheer for the LPRT athletes. The LPRT would also like to thank AGE Solutions and all the sponsors for supporting the 30th Annual Christmas Classic. We also give a big shout out to our generous tournament directors/sponsors, Karen and Mike Grisz, who give back to this sport in so many ways including their support of the LPRT for this event.
Thank you to Todd Boss of proracquetballstats.com for his full recap of the event:
Congrats to your winners on the weekend:
- Singles: Montse Mejia
- Doubles; @Samantha Salas Solis and @Alexandra Herrera
Mejia wins her third career title, and 2nd in a row, with a dominant final's win over Longoria. She now has 3 career titles, the same number of titles as current LPRT players Salas, Herrera, and Vargas. (see http://rb.gy/vdajxp ).
In Mejia's last four pro events entered, she's lost 14,10 in the final of the Team Root Super Max event to Longoria, lost 11-10 in the Aguascalientes final (unable to convert on match point) to Longoria, then won the Chicago event (beating #1 and #2 en route), then this weekend also beats #1 and #2 to win in Maryland. That's a nice run.
Earlier this year, after Herrera won two straight tourneys, we were wondering if she was the heir apparent. Now we're wondering if we were premature, in that we have a player in Mejia who routinely beats Herrera and is now topping the world #1 8,7 in finals.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37908
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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rb.gy/by5ykr
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In the 32s:
-Susy Acosta stretched MRR to 11-9 before losing.
- Ana Gabriela Martinez , after missing most of the fall slate and seeing her ranking drop nearly out of the top 16, tops Nancy Enriquez to move forward.
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In the 16s:
- #1 Longoria handled Gaby 8,8 to move on in a stern round of 16 test.
- Kelani Lawrence got a very solid win over #8 @Brenda Laime, playing on essentially her home courts.
- Natalia Mendez reversed last event's upset loss to Lotts, topping her in two.
- The big talking point and big upset of the round was #13 Valeria Centellas mounting a fantastic comeback from 5-10 down in the breaker to upset #4 @Erika Manilla . Lots of online chatter about bad calls at the expense of Manilla, but this observer didn't really see anything to be that upset about. There were two calls in particular (a cross court side-out winner that Manilla thought skipped but Centellas immediately walked to the box for and which sounded just fine), then a "cut backhand" slice shot Manilla hit for what she presumed was a winner but which sounded funny on the front wall and was called a skip. Tough loss either way.
- @Hollie Scott got a very solid win, beating #6 @Jessica Parrilla 11-10 to move on.
- In a continuing rivalry that keeps popping up this season, @Carla Munoz took the latest episode over Samantha Salas in a tight one.
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In the Quarters, chalk
- #1 Longoria over #9 Lawrence, but not after dropping the first game.
- #4 Mendez had her best tourney for a while, getting to the semis with a solid 10,9 win over fellow Argentine Centellas.
- #3 Mejia went breaker against upset-minded Scott but moved on.
- #2 Herrera was pushed 11-9 by Munoz before advancing.
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In the Semis
- #1 Longoria in two straight over #4 Mendez.
- #2 Mejia in a breaker, once again, to top #2 Herrera.
Then in the final ... a dominant 8,7 win for Mejia as discussed.
Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: http://rb.gy/ieneht
Salas and Herrera won a weird looking match, taking the first game 15-0 before Mejia/Longoria made a match of it. Still no official word why these two long-time pairs split up, but i'm sure we'll get the 411 at some point.