Jai Alai/Cesta Punta--Fronton Mexico Tournament 1--Premier and National League--May 3-12, 2019

Fronton Mexico's short 2019 season began on May 3 and will end on June 30, 2019. It is made up of 4 sets of two tournaments, an "A" tournament (Premier League) and a "B" tournament (National League).

FM Roster

Each tournament will be  played over the course of two weekends, the first weekend a preliminary round, the second a semi-final and final. At present each tournament will contain either 4 or 6 pairs. After the first 4 tournaments, a 5th tournament, a tournament among the highest ranking players, will be held to crown two "Champion of Champions" winners. The winners of the Premier League will win the Copa Moises Cosio Trophy.

 Parts or all of each Tournament will be streamed live via Fronton Mexico Facebook. (Consult FM website, Facebook or Twitter for times (Twitter is the quickest way to get the times, consult it the day of the matches). For those who miss the live transmissions, the matches are available on demand at the Facebook site. Selected matches may also be available at the FM Youtube site.

Player rankings (and explanation of rankings)

Injury report: April 26, 2019

Ludovic Laduche (front) (Internationaux Cesta Punta) suffered an ankle ligament injury (Fronton Mexico) in the 2nd set of the FFPB Cesta Punta Pro-Am Final (Cesta Punta Pro Tour Youtube). He will miss the entire 2 month Fronton Mexico season. He has been replaced by Angel Egea (Fronton Mexico), ex-Miami Jai Alai player. It is unknown at this time whether Laduche will be able to play in the Summer Partidos in the Basque Country.

Note: the matches are presented in reverse chronological order.

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Tournament 1
Tournament 2
Tournament 3
Tournament 4

Champion of Champions Tournaments
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Tourmanment 1: May 3-May 12, 2019

T1 Information (Fronton Mexico)

Premier League

FINAL

May 12, 2019

Goikoetxea-Del Rio 2 (Aritz) Erkiaga-Portet 1 (Fronton Mexico Facebook full match video--match begins at -1:10:35--slide back from the end to -1:10:35) (15-5; 12-15; 5-3) (32-23)

Match article (Jai Alai News Facebook)

Match article (MNI Noticias)

Discounting the 1st set of the Premier League final, when young zaguero (back court) Jerome Portet had a very difficult time, the 4 sets were decided by 7 points. Inaki Goikoetxea, in his late 30s and still arguably the best player in the world, put on a clinic that didn't rely as much on his usual un-returnable cortadas (hard side arm shots at which Goiko is the best and most powerful in the world, usually throwing the pelota through cestas), as on long high and hard chic-chacs and chulas (chic-chac is a ball the hits the floor and then back wall too low to be returned), tremendously powerful serves that put his opponents on the back foot, and beautiful two wall carom shots. Del Rio was steady on defense and showed much promise with his overhand returns. Aritz Erkiaga is a master of the "ezker hornan" (left wall shot, which he executes from straight on or from a rebote). It is a shot that has earned him the nickname "Artiste" at FM ,and if you watch this match you'll see why. Alas, Portet struggled with dropped catches, but righted the ship enough to show that he has tremendous potential as a back court player. Note that FM is the longest indoor court in the world, probably a good 8 to 10 meters longer than the usual 54 meter (about 60 yard) court. It is not easy for a back courter to adjust to that, especially a young back under the brightest of spotlights. After the first set E-P could have closed up shop. They didn't gain a lead in the match until 6-5 in the second set. They lost that lead but then fought back hard to win the set. And they fought back from 3-0 in the tie breaker to 3-3 before finally falling to two Del Rio winners. 

May 11, 2019: 

Friendly:

Olharan-Lopez 2 Olharan-Irastorza 1 (15-10, 8-15, 5-3) (28-28)

Semi-finals

May 10, 2019:

(Aritz) Erkiaga-Portet 2 Olha-Ekhi 0 (Fronton Mexico Facebook--no sound) 

(15-6; 15-9) (30-15)

Goikoetxea-Del Rio 2 Olharan-Inza 0 (Fronton Mexico Facebook with sound)(15-8; 15-13) (30-21)

Match articles for both matches (Jai Alai News Facebook)

Neither match was particularly competitive. Erkiaga led his team with +10 and Portet had an excellent match. Olha and Ekhi, according to the match article, had a "bad day at the office." After an easy first set win, Olharan-Inza put up much better resistance in the second set, but it was still not enough. 

League Round Robin

Final League Round Robin Table

Group A

Olharan-Inza 2-0
Olha-Ekhi 1-1
(Angel) Egea-Irastorza 0-2

Group B

(Aritz) Erkiaga-Portet 2-0
Goikoetxea-Del Rio 1-1
Inclan-Lopez 0-2

None of these matches were streamed

May 5, 2019

Group A: Olharan-Inza (2-0) 2 (Angel) Egea-Irastorza (0-2) 0 (15-5; 15-6) (30-11) (30-11)

(Angel) Egea-Irastorza are eliminated

Group B:

(Aritz) Erkiaga-Portet (2-0) 2 Goikoetxea-Del Rio (1-1) 1 (12-15; 15-12; 5-1) (32-28)

Match articles for both matches (Jai Alai News Facebook)

May 4, 2019

Group A: Olharan-Inza (1-0) 2 Olha-Ekhi (1-1) 0 (15-14; 15-8) (30-22)

Group B: Goikoetxea-Del Rio (1-0) 2 Inclan-Lopez (0-2) 0 (15-10; 15-14) (30-24)

Inclan-Lopez are eliminated

Match articles for both matches (Jai Alai News Facebook)

May 3, 2019

Group A: Olha-Ekhi (1-0) 2 (Angel) Egea-Irastorza (0-1) 0 (15-6; 15-12) (30-18)

Group B: (Aritz) Erkiaga-Portet (1-0) 2 Inclan-Lopez (0-1) 1 (11-15; 15-14; 5-2) (31-31) 

Match articles for both matches (Jai Alai News Facebook)

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National League Final:

Ochoa-Perez 2 Ortega-Ihitsague 0 (Fronton Mexico Facebook: match begins at 0:00)(15-14;15-14) (30-28)

Match article (Jai Alai News Facebook)
Match article (MNI Noticias)

The National League match was tremendously exciting if not technically as proficient. What stuck in my mind was journeyman zaguero (back court) Julien Ihitsague even attempting, much less executing two wall carom shots from behind the 10 line, a "Lopezian" (Imanol Lopez, arguably the best back court player in the world, who has executed more than one two wall shot from behind the 12 line at FM) shot if ever there was one. Also the great disappointment of 42 year old Adrian Ortega upon dropping a difficult catch for the final point of the match. His disappointment was palpable, but he was consoled by his teammate and opponents. He has one of the sweetest looping dejadas I have seen. It is wonderful that such a "lazy" looking shot can be so lethal.

Semi-Finals

May 11, 2019

Ochoa-Perez 2 Polanco-Echenique 1 (11-15; 15-14; 5-4) (31-33) (Fronton Mexico Twitter)

*Selected highlights and interview with Adrian Ortega * (TV Azteca Deportes via Fronton Mexico Twitter)

Ortega-Ihitsague 2 Sierra-Cordova 1 (11-15; 15-11; 5-3) (31-29) (Fronton Mexico Twitter)

In a friendly, it was Lopez-Olha 2 Olharan-Irastorza 1 (15-10, 8-15, 5-3) (Fronton Mexico Twitter)

Match articles for all three  matches (Jai Alai News Facebook)