“National Champions stepped up to the Challenge”

Many of the matches were quite competitive, but today the junior players had gained the respect from there peers. Both Jonathan Iglesias and Stan Zavoyskiy played extremely well. In the 1^st round Jonathan played against John “Rookie” Wright who took 2^nd place in this year’s Nationals. Jonathan played very well, so well that Rookie looked frazzled and was looking for non-calls. Rookie finally defeated Eglesias 25-20. Stan Zavoyskiy also played well against his early round match with Robert Sostre. Robert “Ice Man” Sostre who is a multi-sport Champion (Handball, Paddleball, and Racquetball) was exhausted after the match. He said the kid played great and his volley game was tiring him out. Sostre defeated Zavoyskiy 25-19.  Quarterfinals action was intense as Cesar Sala squeaked by Paul Williams 25-23, John” Rookie” Wright defeated Robert Sostre 25-20, National Champion Satish Jagnandan defeated PeeWee Castro 25-14, and Tony Roberts defeated Milton Jones 25-20. In the Semi’s Satish Jagnandan unleash his assault on Tony Roberts, Satish was clicking on all cylinders and looked like he was trying to send a message to the other top players. The final score was 25-5 Satish. In the other Semi-final match up it was a match up the fans wanted to see Cesar Sala vs. “Rookie” Wright. From the beginning “Rookie” seemed in control. Cesar’s shot selection early seemed to be the problem, several missed punch shots cannot happen early against a player like “Rookie”. Although Cesar made up for his mistakes by tracking down nearly impossible balls…”Rookie” was waiting for the ball to come back to the wall…so he can “CRUSH IT”.  The match went back in forth with lots of dives and kill shots. In the Finals it was a rematch of this year’s 2004 USHA One-Wall Nationals. Satish Jagnandan who has one of the best serves in the game verses John “Rookie” Wright who quite frankly will push you to the limit and wear you down. This match went back in forth with many lead changes, then Satish took a 6 point lead. “Rookie” did storm back to tie the match at 18, but Satish’s serve and kill shots were superior as he defeated “Rookie” 25-20. In the Women’s Pro Singles Brenda Pares continued her run of dominance in 2004 by defeating Anna Calderon 25-18. Brenda Pares 2004 titles were the Queen of the Courts, Mayor’s Cup, Nationals, and HES Pro Stop. by Jimmy Russo