Salt Lake City, UT, WPH Press, 5/16/23
After dropping his qualifier final to protégé and L.A. comrade Dylan Hernandez, Vic Perez dropped into the Aces Player’s Championship Open Singles draw, joining ten ranked pros in one of the strongest open singles draws of 2023 at the May 5-7 Aces Player’s Championship. “This draw is like a pro stop,” barked 15th ranked R48 pro Kyle English, who forfeited after the draw was made, citing tournament organizers intentionally trying to tire him out for his SR48 draw.
Once the young and aspiring pro on the R48 tour, Perez found himself facing players a decade his junior in the loaded draw, many of whom he had never faced before due to a three-year layoff for LAFD training and work.
Perez, who defeated two-time 2022/23 R48 finalist Sean Lenning in the round of 16 in his first R48 start since the 2020 RFC R48LTE at January’s R48 Red Death in Montana, advanced to the final in the upper bracket as the fifth seed, defeating Moses Gardea, Loren Collado in a battle for California, and 2022/23 Rookie of the Year Mark Doyle in the semifinals. “I was pretty pleased with how I played,” stated Doyle. “Vic is just really tough.”
4:12 miler and former Illinois State one-meter springboard all-state diver Ray Ure entered the Aces Open Singles as the sixth seed and defeated John Chapman to face NorCal’s Erik Torres in the quarterfinals. Ure and Torres split lopsided games, with the tiebreaker featuring some of the most exciting action of the event. Ure, who was clocked throwing a handball 93 miles per hour at the Aces event, closed out the match on his second match point, 11-9 in the tiebreaker. Ure advanced to the final with a two-game sweep against Ivan Burgos in the semifinal in what was sure to be a clash of future top five R48 pros.
Perez was too strong for Ure in the final, continuing his impressive run after his disappointing qualifier result by defeating Ure in two games to take the title.
Final: Perez def Ure 15-5, 15-13
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer