Flagstaff, AZ, WPH Press, 6/14/25
Tournament directors Sam Esser and Matt Ortega were proud to present the 2025 AZ State Four-Wall Championships at the Flagstaff Athletic Club East, featuring players from Tucson, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.
Race 4 Eight pros Sam Esser, Ivan Burgos, Abraham Montijo, and Ayden Brule headlined the Open Singles field in Flagstaff. Top seeds Esser and Burgos both faced game point in the first game of their semifinal matches, with Esser overcoming game point against the tour’s next star Ayden Brule and Burgos facing game point against his roommate Montijo. After overcoming game points in their first games, Esser and Burgos cruised in their second games to meet in the final.
Esser entered the final having defeated Burgos twice in the past two months, defeating Burgos at the Race 4 Eight Pete Tyson Classic in April and at the USHA Four Wall Nationals in Missouri in May, both in tiebreakers.
The Flagstaff final would also require a tiebreaker, as Burgos took the first game and Esser leveled the match with a dominating second game. “The first game took a lot of energy out of me,” stated Burgos. “The second game Sam got a big lead, so I used the rest of the game to recover. “The altitude (7000 feet) was affecting my recovery time in between points. I had to be more mindful of my timeouts and use them more strategically.”
Burgos reversed his tiebreaker curse against Esser to win the 2025 2025 AZ State Four-Wall Championship, catching fire at the right time to hoist the AZ title.
“(It was a) Game of runs,” Esser would later say. “Ivan had some nice kills and some incredible gets in the tiebreaker.”
“(In) the tiebreaker I was feeling good and decided to just let my hands go,” Burgos would later say. “I was swinging hard at everything and tried not to give him too much time to set up for his shots.”
Open Singles
Semifinals
Esser def Brule 15-14, 15-8
Burgos def Montijo 15-14, 15-1
Final: Burgos def Esser 15-9, 3-15, 15-9
Open Doubles Final: Esser/Montijo def Burgos/Brule 12-15, 15-9, 15-10
A Singles Final: Morgan def M. Esser 15-10, 15-2
40 Singles Final: Schilz def VonRoenn 15-13, 15-9
70 Singles Final: Eisenbooth def Forman 15-4, 15-8
Follow all of the brackets from the 2025 AZ State Four-Wall Championships HERE
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer