Super Bowl weekend featured top R48 talent in Ft. Collins, Colorado, for the Gorilla Invitational. 5-time R48 Champion Sean Lenning, 9-time R48 Champion Luis Moreno, “The Giant Killer” Anthony Selestow and “Citizen of the World” Jon Iglesias led a strong field at the Gorilla.
Lenning completely dominated with his aggressive “serve and shoot” attack, advancing to the final with a two-game victory against former two-time vanquisher Selestow. Moreno encountered more difficulty en route to the final, needing a tiebreaker to overcome Iglesias.
The final pitted the top two ranked American R48 pros and the top two American stars of the past five years. Moreno bounced back from three consecutive defeats to Lenning in the first half of 2015 with two tiebreaker victories against “The Freak” in late 2015. Lenning was determined to reverse the momentum in what has become an unpredictable rivalry in the Gorilla final, streaking to a huge lead and never allowing “The Natural” to find his rhythm. Lenning would take a one-game lead 21-10. Moreno took a 7-1 lead in game two and appeared to have found his groove. “Sean stayed calm and earned a lot of side outs and points to take a 9-7 lead,” stated WPH reporter Anthony Selestow. Moreno managed just three more points in the match, as Lenning steamrolled his way to the title, 21-10,21-9. “Sean just dominated the front court throughout the match, served extremely well and forced Luis to make a lot of weak returns,” stated Selestow. “I think Sean can beat anyone playing like that!”
Iglesias defeated Selestow for third, 21-8, 21-17.
Quarterfinals:
Upper Bracket:
Sean Lenning defeats Cody Parker
Anthony Selestow defeats TJ Stender
Bottom Bracket:
Jonathan Iglesias defeats Ryan Pesch
Luis Moreno defeats Armando Ibarra
Semifinals:
Lenning defeats Anthony Selestow 21-6 21-12
Moreno defeats Jonathan Iglesias 21-16, 14-21, 11-1
Finals: Lenning defeats Moreno 21-10, 21-9
Thank you to Anthony Selestow for the updates and reporting.
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