WSC Finals – October 6, 2022 at Magic City Fronton
$25k Winners: Goixerri-Aratz defeated Inaki-Julen (3-6, 6-4, 6-5)
$10k Winners: Inaki-Julen
The final match came down to the thrilling final point where either team could have won! Congratulations to all participants and Magic City Fronton!! Rules were same as Battle Court matches (best of 3-sets, 2-serve opportunities).
Left side of Bracket:
Goixerri-Aratz vs Ikeda-Manny (Goixerri-Aratz won 6-3, 6-5)
Jairo-Nicolas vs Johan-Gorka (Johan-Gorka won 5-6, 6-5, 6-5)
Right side of Bracket:
RonRon-Manu vs Douglas-Benny (Douglas-Benny won 6-5, 6-0)
Arbe-Lekue vs Inaki-Julen (Inaki-Julen won 6-5, 2-6, 6-4)
Semi-Final Matches:
Goixerri-Aratz defeated Johan-Gorka (6-2, 6-0)
Inaki-Julen defeated Douglas-Benny (5-6, 6-4, 6-4)
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Qualifier 4: August 28th at Torneo Internacional Fronton in Spain
Winner – Arbe/Lekue $2,000
Second – Johan/Gorka $1,000
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Third Qualifier Results – 6/8/2022:
Round 1:
Ikeda-Manny beat Correa-Amigorena: 6-4, 6-3
Jairo-Nicolas beat Robin-Urbieta: 6-3, 6-3
Semi-Final:
Ikeda-Manny beat Zulaika-Arrieta: 6-3, 6-3
Jairo-Nicolas beat Carballo-Arta: 6-1, 6-2
Final:
Ikeda-Manny beat Jairo-Nicolas: 6-5, 5-6, 6-4
Both teams proceed to WSC Finals at Magic City
Ikeda-Manny won $2,000
Jairo-Nicolas won $1,000
Note: the teams of Zulaika-Arrieta and Carballo-Arta had a Bye in Round 1
Below is the point-by-point summary for all the 3rd Qualifier matches:
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Second Qualifier Results – 4/13/2022:
Despite not having played competitively on US soil since Dania closed in November last year, the team of Erik-Manu had a strong showing at Magic City in the 2nd World Super Court qualifying event at Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai in Miami today. The team of Erik-Manu (also known as the top doubles team of Erik-Ladutxe from Dania) won all 3-matches in straight-set victories over their opponents to capture the top 2nd qualifier prize of $2,000 along with one of the 8-spots in the $50k World Super Court finals at Magic City on October 13th where the first place team wins $25,000 and second pays $12,000!
Erik-Manu handily outscored the Filipino team of Robin-RonRon 6-0, 6-0 in the first round match and won 6-5, 6-2 against Jairo-Nicolas in the second round. The first set against Jairo-Nicolas was won by Erik-Ladutxe after Jairo lost his footing when they were tied at 5-5. That first set was a 21-minute set which is one of the longest sets in H2H style Jai-Alai matches where there’s 3-sets to a match, with sets to 6-points (first team to 6-points wins the set), and the first team to win 2-sets wins the match.
The Magic City Jai-Alai brother’s team of Inaki-Julen (also known as Goitia-Julen, Goitia the name Inaki played under at Dania) faced off against Erik-Manu in the final match of the 2nd WSC Qualifier after they had beaten Bueno-Nicolas and Carballo-Arta. This was another great match for viewers and did not come easy for Erik-Manu who won the first two sets 6-3 and 6-5, almost going to a 3rd set. Inaki-Julen also advance to the WSC Finals at Magic City on October 13th and won the 2nd place prize of $1,000 for their incredible effort today.
The 3rd match in today’s first round was an outstanding match of abilities between Dania’s Zulaika-Arrieta and Magic City player Carballo paired with Arta and is a must see match for fans around the world of all types of Jai-Alai. The Magic City team of Carballo-Anderluck was initially slated to play, but was changed early in the week to Carballo-Arta when Anderluck scratched for the 2nd WSC event. The 6’3” Arta had played at Dania in both front court and back court positions in early games and in the last month has done judging for Magic City Jai-Alai. The Carballo-Arta team had little practice together and lost a hotly contest first set 6-5 against Zuliaka-Arrieta, both late game Dania players, however, Carballo-Arta won the next two sets 6-3, 6-5, winning the match to proceed further in today’s qualifier. They lost their next match in 2-sets, 4-6 and 1-6, to the Magic City brother’s team of Inaki-Julen. Teams that won their first round sets today are eligible to compete again in future qualifiers if there are open spots.
The Erik-Manu team has vast experience playing together and is considered one of the best, if not the best, Jai-Alai doubles teams in the world. Their late game doubles team record playing in pari-mutuel games at Dania from September of 2018 through November of 2021 is impressive when one considers there are 8-teams in each pari-mutuel game played. The late game team record is 151-53-29-20 for an incredible 35.1% wins while an average team would have 12.5% wins, thus Erik-Manu were 2.8-times better than the average late-game team at Dania.
Today’s two qualifying teams will join the two brother’s teams of Goixerri-Aratz and Douglas-Benny who qualified at the 1st WSC Qualifier event at Magic City on February 16th. The 3rd Qualifier is at Magic City on June 8th at 3-pm EST and the 4th Qualifier is expected to be at a location in Spain in September, exact date/time TBD, at a court similar in size to the Magic City fronton short-court (120’ long x 40’ wide).
Here is a detailed scoring of all the matches for this 2nd WSC Qualifier event, compliments of SayHiLi.com’s Battle Court / H2H Jai-Alai Sports Writer Jabracadabra (aka Joel A.):
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First Qualifier Results – 2/16/2022:
The first qualifier for the $50,000 World Super Court professional doubles championship tournament was held today at 3-pm at Magic City in Miami, Florida with 8-teams participating. There were a total of 7-matches and the volleys were long and the action was sizzling hot with the matches ending after 3 hours and 40 minutes. The matches were all played under Magic City’s H2H sports betting format.
The final 2-teams guaranteed a spot in the October 13th finals at Magic City after today’s qualifier are Goixerri-Aratz and Douglas-Benny. Goixeri-Aratz won the final match over Douglas-Benny and pocketed $2000 for the team while the 2nd place prize for Douglas-Benny was $1000. The final match was a hotly contested match between these teams of brothers, all on the Magic City 2022 roster. Goixerri-Aratz won the first set 6-5 while Douglas-Benny dominated the second set 6-3. The final match went back and forth and reached a 5-5 tie where the winner of the next point determined the 1st place winners, Goixerri-Aratz.
The play was incredible by both teams and one needs to watch the matches to grasp the extremely high level of professional play at this event. The event should be available for follow-up viewing soon on watchjaialai.com. Personally, this event provided a level of Jai-Alai play I’ve never witnessed before and I’ve watched many thousands of Jai-Alai games in Florida at nine different frontons, including national tournament events at the Palm Beach and Tampa frontons in the early 1980’s. I’ve never uttered the words “f…ing incredible” more times in my life than what I uttered today watching these matches.
Here’s the scoop on all the scores for today’s incredible event:
Round 1:
Douglas-Benny beat Ikeda-Manny: 0-6, 6-5, 6-1 (Ikeda-Manny won the first 8-points of this match and Douglas-Benny still won the match). Outstanding match, you need to see this!
Arrieta-Zulaika beat Jeden-Jairo: 4-6, 6-3, 6-0
Inaki-Julen beat Foronda-Amigorena: 6-3, 6-3
Goixerri-Aratz beat Bueno-Kubala: 6-1, 6-0
Round 2 Semi-Finals:
Douglas-Benny beat Arrieta-Zulaika: 6-5, 6-1
Goixerri-Aratz beat Inaki-Julen: 6-4, 6-2
Finals:
Goixerri-Aratz beat Douglas-Benny: 6-5, 3-6, 6-5 (Note: 1-more point won by Douglas-Benny)
The top two teams from today advance to the WSC October 13th finals at Magic City while the other two teams that won in Round 1 but lost in the Round 2 semi-finals will be eligible to play in the 2nd Qualifier on April 13th at Magic City. The 3rd Qualifier is on June 8th at Magic City and the 4th Qualifier is slated for a date TBD in September overseas. The World Super Court finals with the top 8-teams are October 13th at Magic City. The World Super Court Finals first place team wins $25,000 while the 2nd place team wins $12,500. World Super Court can be viewed on all platforms except YouTube’s The Jai-Alai Channel which is reserved for Magic City Pelota (pari-mutuel games).