Acuña and Rodriguez Crowned 40th Irish Open Champions

This weekend we celebrated the 40th Irish & 37th Arklow Open sponsored by Gearbox Racquetball, at Arklow Coral Leisure Centre with more than 65 athletes and 6 different nations taking part.

It was our international competitors that rose to the cream of the crop as Andres Acuna (Costa Rica) took home both the Men’s Open Singles and Doubles titles with Wexford partner Sean Lyng while Marie Renee Rodriguez took home the Ladies Open Singles title.

The 11th World Games Champion, Andres Acuña defeated his Dovetail teammate Andree Parilla (Mexico) by 3 games to 1 in the first semi final to reach the final. While on the other side of the draw, we saw Lalo Portillo(Mexico) defeat the best of the Irish players James Ryan from the Rossmore club in Co Tipperary. It was 3-1  to the Mexican in a high quality semi-final.  The final between Acuña and Portillo went all the way to an exciting conclusion with Acuña taking the crown 13 points to 11 in the fifth and final game..

In the Ladies Open Singles, Maria Renee Rodriguez brought home the crown when she defeated All Ireland Champion Aisling Hickey (Rossmore) 3-1. However in the Ladies Open Doubles, it was Aisling Hickey and Antonia Neary’s day as they defeated Susan Farrell and Maria Renee Rodriguez in the Ladies Open Doubles Final.

Other noteworthy winners include Reece Young (Arklow) who took home not only the CD Singles title but the CD Doubles title with his brother Elliot. In the Ladies CD Doubles, it was a five set thriller that saw Caylee Hogan/ Cara Delaney (Mitchelstown/Galmoy) defeat Kilkennys Deanna Phelan/Ann Marie Keogh.  In the Mens 50+, Joe Devenney (Ballinrobe) took the crown while Billy Walsh(Kilkenn) took the 60+ crown.

A huge thank you to tournament director Adam Neary, the Arklow Racquetball Club committee, all our sponsors, the four hosting venues, Team Dovetail and our own RAI executive committee.
A lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes to make an event like this possible and so we are grateful for all the effort by all involved.

Full Results: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/viewResults.asp?TID=41187