Sunday at the 2024 WPH R48 Icebreaker: Fink Outlasts Danos in a War
Tucson, AZ, WPH Press, 12/15/24
The fourth Race 4 Eight Icebreaker, ninety-first Race 4 Eight event, and twenty-seventh overall Icebreaker ended in dramatic fashion, as the small ball singles and big ball singles finals came down to just a few shots to decide the winner.
R48 Singles
Lucho Cordova and David Fink had met in the first three R48 Icebreaker finals from 2021-2023, with Lucho winning two of three. Lucho and Fink’s finals streak would come to an end, as they met in Sunday morning’s semifinals. Lucho has had the better of his rivalry with Fink since 2018, winning nearly all of their matchups. Lucho started well in the final, driving the ball high and hard to build a 15-10 lead. Fink started hitting deep serves and fly-killing, quickly erasing the deficit and building an 18-16 lead. Lucho caught Fink at 18 but Fink ended the game with three straight points, including a crack ace for the twenty-first point. Fink surged in game two, pulling away from Lucho midway through the game and earning his fourth straight trip to the R48 Icebreaker final. “Fink played really, really good,” stated R48 Juarez tournament director Luis Cordova, Sr. “Every chance he had to fly kill, he put the ball away.”
Danos Cordova and Leo Canales both escaped with 11-8 tiebreaker wins in Saturday night’s quarterfinals, as Cordova staged a comeback against Jab Bike and Canales survived the late fall’s hottest player Sam Esser. Danos was too strong for Leo in Sunday morning’s semifinal, keeping the “Big Game Hunter” off-balance with hops and tap fly kills. “I just made too many hand errors and didn’t execute,” the hunter would later say.
Danos and Fink met for the second straight year at the R48 Icebreaker, with Fink staging an improbable comeback from one game and 10-18 down in the second to defeat Danos in last year’s semifinals. Fink would need another comeback in the final, as he fell behind 5-15 in game one. “I was having flashbacks to last year when Lucho crushed me in the final,” Fink would later say. “I kept telling myself to push as hard as I could on every point.” Fink mounted his charge from 5-15, earning points with deep serves to the left and left corner kills. Fink would eventually lead 19-16, firmly in control of the game. “I got ahead of myself at 19-16,” stated Fink. “I got so nervous and I started thinking about winning the title. I played too conservatively at 19-16 and that cost me.” Danos earned a side out and quickly scored five straight points with four unreturnable serves and a kill. “I climbed the mountain from 5-15 down, then Danos sent me crashing all the way back to the bottom.”
Danos started quickly in the second, leading 4-0 and 14-7. “I was just getting outplayed, overpowered, and I could feel the match slipping away. I told myself this could be my last chance to win a Race stop and I needed to do whatever I could to give myself a chance.”
Fink erased the deficit, tying the game at seventeen with an array of high-risk fly kills. “I prefer to play conservatively in 3-Wall, but that style won’t beat the Cordovas,” stated Fink. “I took every ball I could out of the air and went for kills. I was nervous again at 17-all, but I managed to pull that game out.”
With both players completely exhausted in the tiebreaker, Fink enjoyed a dream start, building a 5-0 and 8-2 lead. Fink missed a cross-court right corner kill by less than an inch that would have given him a 9-2 lead. “That was probably the best shot I hit in the tournament and it somehow missed,” Fink would later say.
Battling leg cramps and fatigue, Danos worked his way into the game, making digs and capitalizing on another miss from Fink. “I was so tired at 4-8 that I was thinking how I could use my timeouts to finish the game with some energy.”
Fink had the biggest setup of the match from eight feet from the wall and hit a kill the referee and line judges deemed a skip after much deliberation. “I had so much time to think about that kill shot attempt and all of the thoughts of winning the tournament and a Race stop flashed in my mind.”
Instead of Fink serving at 10-7, Danos served at 7-9 and hit an ace, cutting the lead to one. A furious thirty-shot rally ensued, with Fink ultimately winning the rally with a pass. Both players immediately keeled over, hands on their knees, trying to recover. Fink hit a short crack serve ace to score the tenth point and ended the match with a right-handed fly kill to win one of the closest finals in Race 4 Eight history. “This is the biggest win of my life and my most proud and happy moment ever on the court,” stated an emotional Fink. “My first Race win came on a forfeit, so now the five-hundred-pound monkey is really off my back. This erased all of my close losses and disappointments.”
Semifinals
Fink def Lucho 21-18, 21-10
Danos def Canales 21-11, 21-13
Final: Fink def Danos 19-21, 21-17, 11-8
R48 Playoffs
Ray Ure and Sam Esser both survived 26-24 matches against Jeff Streibig and Jab Bike in the fifth place semifinals, respectively, to meet in the fifth place final. Ure was too strong for Esser in the final, finishing fifth in his first Icebreaker start.
Ivan Burgos demolished the field in the ninth place playoffs, outscoring his three opponents by an astounding combined score of 75-14. “Yesterday was so bad that I just wanted to crush everyone in the ninth playoffs,” stated Burgos.
5th place final: Ure def Esser 25-16
9th place final: Burgos def Montijo 25-6
R48 Icebreaker Finishes
1st: Fink
2nd: Danos
3rd: Lucho/Canales
5th: Ure
6th: Esser
7th: Bike/Streibig
9th: Burgos
10th: Montijo
11th: Pizano/Job
13th: Ruiz/T. Schmitt/Langmack/Brule
Men’s Pro Big Ball Singles
Big ball legend Samzon Hernandez has won north of four-hundred pro tournaments in his career, but had not yet won an Icebreaker. Samzon survived a very close semifinal tiebreaker against SoCal rival Eddie Rocha, advancing to the final.
Alfredo Morales was steady against top-seeded Chava Cordova in the upper bracket semifinals, dominating game one and holding off game point in the second to meet Samzon in the final.
Fredo dominated game one in the final, outplaying Samzon in a lopsided 15-6 blowout. Samzon started to win the geography of the court in the second, keeping “El Hombre” behind him and serving for the game at 14-12. El Hombre earned a side out and pulled within one at 13-14 and played a perfect rally to tie the game at fourteen. Serving on match point, Fredo hit a soft serve down the left and left a right-handed kill attempt too high. Samzon was in perfect position, crushing a re kill and screaming “yes” as he hit it to force a tiebreaker.
“I went for the shot (to win the match),” Fredo would later say.
Playing in his third consecutive tiebreaker, Samzon was in control, never allowing Fredo to apply pressure. “I don’t get nervous anymore, I just love the competition,” Samzon would say in his post-match interview. “The WPH is the heartbeat of big ball handball and I just love playing in these events. It means a lot to win an Icebreaker. I am at about 85% right now (after a knee injury) and I’m planning to get all the way back by next year.”
Semifinals
Fredo def Chava 15-5, 15-14
Samzon def Rocha 15-12, 12-15, 15-11
Final: Samzon def Fredo 6-15, 15-14, 15-8
Big Ball Pro Doubles
Team Alberto Pizano/Chopper Hernandez bounced back from a shocking doubles loss at August’s Icebreaker to dominate the R48 Icebreaker pro doubles to claim their second Icebreaker pro doubles.
Team Chizano were ruthless in their domination over the weekend, crushing August’s Icebreaker champions Team Cordova in two games and dominating Team Chava/Duenas in the final, announcing themselves as the team to beat in big ball doubles.
“I always love coming here and I always feel the love,” stated Chopper.
Semifinals
Team Chizano def Team Cordova 15-2, 15-9
Team Chava/Duenas def Team Rocha/Morales 15-8, 15-14
Final: Team Chizano def Chava/Duenas 15-4, 15-7
Men’s Big Ball B Doubles
Beto Gomez won the Los Nietos Icebreaker qualifier in Santa Fe Spring, CA over Thanksgiving weekend and carried the momentum to Tucson, teaming with Nathan Orozco to defeat Team Andres Cordova/Moses Gardea and handing Team Cordova/Gardea their second consecutive B doubles Icebreaker finals loss. Team Beto/Orozco overcame match point in the second game and in doing so, demoralized Team Cordova/Gardea for the tiebreaker.
“I am forty-five but I can still play with the young kids,” stated Beto.
Finals: Team Beto/Orozco def Team Cordova/Gardea 13-15, 15-14, 15-6
Men’s A Small Ball Singles
Texas’s Eleazar Avila captured the A small ball singles, defeating Juarez’s Luis Ogaz in a tiebreaker in the final.
Final: Avila def Ogaz 8-15, 15-13, 11-7
Women’s Singles
Top-seeded Mikaila Esser and Ashley Ruiz met in the final after defeating Audrey Peters and Belisa Camacho in the semifinals, respectively. Ruiz took the early advantage in the first game, building a five-point lead early in the primetime match. Esser would come back, taking an 18-16 first game lead. Ruiz thwarted the rally, ending the game with a five-point streak.
Esser changed her strategy in game two and completely dominated the match from the start of the second, outscoring Ruiz 32-8 in the second and third games combined. “Vern (Roberts) told me between games to hit the ball with more angle and to hit the ball harder,” stated Esser of the advice she received from the hall of famer. “Ashely likes to cut the ball off, so I mixed up my serves so she was not able to take as many balls out of the air.”
Semifinals
Esser def Peters 21-2, 21-3
Ruiz def Camacho 21-1, 21-1
Final: Esser def Ruiz 18-21, 21-5, 11-3
Third place final: Peters def Camacho 21-6, 21-1
JR WPH Singles and Clinic
Eight players from Phoenix’s Carl Hayden High School competed in the junior big ball singles, playing one-game matches on Saturday afternoon, as well as taking a JR WPH clinic from WPH Outdoor legend Samzon Hernandez.
Hernandez discussed his “serve-and-kill” strategy to the Carl Hayden High School junior players. “I try to serve deep to the off-hand and always look to kill the next shot,” explained Hernandez, who has won north of four-hundred pro tournaments in his illustrious career.
“Everything worked out well for our kids,” stated Carl Hayden Coach Chris Hogan. “They enjoyed the games and the atmosphere. It was a great day to be outside and play handball! Thank you to David Fink and the WPH. We appreciate how you really look out for our program to get better!”
Congratulations to Kevin Leon for taking the JR WPH Singles at the R48 Icebreaker.
Thank you
Thank you to the WPH staff and all of our volunteers for an incredible event. Thank you to Ashley Ruiz for working tirelessly behind the tournament desk (and playing!) for more than twenty hours on Saturday and Sunday. Thank you to WPH cameraman Che Lowenstein, photographer Lolita de Vincent, WPH Executive Director Dave Vincent, WPH Development Director David Fink, WPH grill masters Scott Cleveland, Russ Whitten, and Jim Verhaeghe, WPH social media influencer Ryan “Pups” Watkins, WPH volunteer John Gorannson, and all of the players and supporters who make these event possible. Thank you Abraham Montijo, Richie Estrella, and Shorty Ruiz.
The WPH will film the action and upload the matches to Patreon (HERE). You can follow all of the 2024 R48 Icebreaker action with daily recaps on wphlive.tv
Follow all of the brackets from the 2024 WPH R48 Icebreaker HERE
Icebreaker Fun Facts/History of Champions HERE
Race 4 Eight Fun Facts HERE
Icebreaker pro player bios HERE
Race 4 Eight pro player bios HERE
WPH Coaching Centers HERE
WPH Workout Central HERE
2024/25 Race 4 Eight schedule HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer