Jai Alai/Cesta Punta--Cesta Punta Pro Tour Internationaux Cesta Punta--St. Jean de Luz (Donibane Lohizune) Master 4 Tournament

The Cesta Punta World Tour's premier competition, St. Jean de Luz Cesta Punta, played at St.Jean de Luz (1) (2) runs from July 2-August 29, 2019. It began with a play in Tournament to determine a "wild card" avant (front) and arriere (back) who would join the field for a 4 tournament competition that would determine the players in a 5th "SLAM" Tournament, a champion of Champions Tournament. All Tournaments will be played on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Live video coverage, as well as demand video replays by the French TV Canal + will be available at the St. Jean de Luz Cesta Punta Youtube site.

The players

The schedule in a nutshell (on a single page) (Cestapunta Facebook)

Web based schedule (cestapunta.com)

Matches will be played in sets, two to 15 points. Tie breaker will be to 5. 5 pasas (over serves) will be allowed in the course of a match. More than that, as well as any under serve, will result in a fault.

Note: the cumulative records of all players in these tournaments will be kept at the bottom of each Tournament blog post.

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Play in Tournament 

Master 1 

Master 2  

Master 3

Master 4 

SLAM AND TWO MINOR TOURNAMENTS

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INJURY REPORT:

August 6

Thibault Basque: Basque slipped attempting a catch in the tie breaker set of the Master 3 Final, appearing to seriously injure his ankle. After some treatment on the floor, he stayed and finished the match. At the post match ceremony, he was noticeably limping as he took the podium. The seriousness of the injury is unknown at this time.

Ekhi Martinez: Ekhi was injured in the warmups and missed his Master 3 Final on August 6. He was replaced by Thibault Basque (see above) on very short notice. The extent of his injury is unknown at this time.

July 4

Jerome Portet (back) suffered an arm injury in practice before his play-in Final in the Internationaux Cesta Punta, Cesta Punta World Tour match. He missed that match. When he will return is unknown.

Note: to follow this tournament in  chronological order, read from the bottom up.

A note on Canal + scoring. I will provide Canal + scoring when it is for a complete set.  I will also provide my own full scoring for selected matches. There are three things to be aware of in Canal + scoring.

1. They count balls differently than I. I still haven't figured out how they count.

2. They do not credit a winner for a serve that is intercepted and then immediately converted into a point. It also appears they do not credit a winner for any return of serve immediately ends in a point.

3. They appear to be quite harsh on errors. It appears that most balls a player gets to and touches, but does not return, are either errors or not accounted for either way.

My scoring differs from theirs on each of  these points. I'm not going to judge either theirs or mine. I will attempt to provide you with as much information as possible. My model in scoring combines EITB's method of ball counting with an adaptation of the US Major League Baseball rule for errors: "Would a normal effort on the play be expected to yield a catch?" What is "normal effort" and "expected"? Ah... That's where the judgment comes in.

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Master 4

Kevin Ithurria, who was knocked out of this competition in his first match at the beginning of July, got a second chance with the cascade of changes due to the loss of Olharan, and made the most of it, winning (with Lekerika) 2 matches in close, but straight sets. The win propels him into the SLAM (Champion of Champions) competition beginning August 22.

FINAL

August 20

Ithurria (substituting for Hormaetxea)-(Unai) Lekerika 2
Hormaetxea (substituting for Olharan)-Etcheto 0 (Canal + via St. Jean de Luz Cesta Punta Youtube)
(15-11, 15-13) (30-24)

Match article (cestapunta.com)

Semi-final 2

August 13

Ithurria (substituting for Hormaetxea)-(Unai) Lekerika 2 Aritz (Erkiaga)-Inza 0 (Canal + via St. Jean de Luz Cesta Punta Youtube)
(15-13, 15-13) (30-26)

Selected linescores (cestapunta.com) (winners always listed 1st)

Set 1

1-5; 7-7; 8-8; 9-9; 10-10; 12-12; 13-13; 15-13

Set 2

6-2; 6-7; 11-7; 11-11; 12-12; 14-12; 15-13

Match article

Semi-final 1

August 8

Hormaetxea (substituting for Olharan)-Etcheto 2 (Diego) Beaskoetxea-Lopez 1 (St. Jean de Luz Cesta Punta Youtube)
(15-8, 8-15, 5-4) (28-27)

Lopez' 14 match winning streak comes to an end.

Selected linescores (cestapunta.com) (winners always listed 1st)

Set 1

5-3; 9-6; 9-8; 15-8

Set 2

2-7; 5-10; 6-13; 8-15

Tie breaker

1-1; 4-1; 4-4; 5-4

Match article (Cestapunta.com)

Current CPWT Rankings