All Men’s Defending Champs Ousted on Day 1
Tucson, AZ, WPH Press, 8/17/24
The fifth summer of the WPH Icebreaker continued with the Ice Bowl at Tucson’s Clark Park, featuring men’s pro small ball singles, women’s small ball singles, men’s pro big ball singles and doubles, and A singles in the twenty-fifth Icebreaker since the inaugural Icebreaker in the summer of 2020.
Men’s Big Ball Singles
The Men’s Big Ball Singles produced the best matches of the event, as several matches saw all three games decided by two points.
Defending champion Chopper Hernandez was ousted by his cramping doubles partner Alberto Pizano, as Pizano limped and hobbled his way to a gritty three-game quarterfinal win. Chava Cordova overcame a slimmed-down version of “The Wiz” in a tiebreaker, as Cordova survived a third-game rally from Duenas to advance to the bottom bracket semifinal to meet Pizano on Sunday morning.
The upper bracket semifinals were postponed until Sunday morning due to a late-night Tucson monsoon.
Quarterfinals
Siordia vs. Vicencio (in progress – rain delayed)
Samzon vs. Medina (in progress – rain delayed)
Pizano def A. Hernandez 12-15, 16-14, 15-11
Chava def Duenas 15-6, 12-15, 15-10
Semifinals (Sunday)
tbd vs. tbd
Pizano vs. Chava
Men’s Small Ball Singles
Sam Esser fly-killed his way to his second Icebreaker final on Saturday, rallying from a one-game deficit to defeat David Fink in three games in the quarterfinals then avenging his semifinal loss from the Julybreaker to six-time Icebreaker champ Lucho Cordova with an emphatic two-game win, taking down the two most winning players on Icebreaker history in a seven-hour span.
Leo Canales continued his stellar 2024 play, advancing to his second consecutive Icebreaker final with two-game sweeps against Ivan Burgos and defending Ice Bowl champion Danos Cordova.
Quarterfinals
Lucho def A. Cordova 15-6, 11-15, 15-7
Esser def Fink 7-15, 15-7, 15-9
Canales def Burgos 15-4, 15-3
Danos def Ruiz 14-16, 15-8, 15-5
Semifinals
Esser def Lucho 15-7, 15-5
Canales def Danos 15-7, 15-12
Final (Sunday): Esser vs. Canales
Women’s Small Ball Singles
The Women’s semifinals were one-sided, as top-seed Mikaila Esser and third-seeded Danielle Daskalakis outscored their semifinal opponents by a combined score of 60-7 to meet for the Ice Bowl title on Sunday morning.
Semifinals
Esser def Camacho 15-2, 15-1
Daskalakis def Ruiz 15-2, 15-2
Final (Sunday): Esser vs. Daskalakis
Men’s Big Ball Doubles
The father-son team of Javi and Xavier Flores authored the upset of the year in the opening round of the Big Ball Pro Doubles, sweeping the defending champions Chopper Hernandez and Alberto Pizano in two games. Team Cordova quickly ended the Flores celebration just an hour later, moving into the Big Ball Pro doubles semifinals with a convincing two-game sweep. Team Cordova will face Brian Medina and Jonathan Castellanos in Sunday’s upper bracket semifinal, after Team Medina/Castellanos stunned top-seeded Oscar Siordia and Bear Vicencio.
Samzon Hernandez and Boxer Rosales will await the winner of Team Ruiz/Esser and Team Vasquez/Chava in the bottom bracket semifinal.
Semifinals
Team Medina/ Castellanos vs. Team Cordova
Team Samzon/Boxer vs. TBD
Thank you to Scott Cleveland, Jim Verhaghe, Jesse Aranda, Doug Woods and all of those who volunteered to cook the Saturday evening BBQ. Thank you to all of the players and WPH staffers for braving the 100+ degree heat at Clark Park.
All brackets and info for the 2024 WPH Icebreaker HERE
2020-2024 Icebreaker Fun Facts + Icebreaker History of Champions HERE
Icebreaker pro player bios HERE
WPH Coaching Centers HERE
WPH Workout Central HERE
2024/25 Race 4 Eight schedule and entries HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer