Tucson, AZ, WPH Press, 8/22/26
The Fred Lewis Foundation was proud to present the 2026 3-Wall FLF Junior Summer Wrap Up Tournament at Clark Park. The open draw featured a stacked draw of Race 4 Eight pros, while juniors competed in junior brackets on Saturday morning.
Open Singles
Current 3-Wall national champion Shorty Ruiz entered the 2026 3-Wall FLF Junior Summer Wrap Up Tournament on a two-tournament 3-Wall winning streak, having won the 2025 WPH Ice Bowl (HERE) and the 2025 USHA 3-Wall Nationals (HERE). Ruiz’s streak nearly came to an end in the first round, as Ruiz faced three match points against Ayden Brule in Friday evening’s quarterfinals. Ruiz relied on his experience and clutch return of serves to advance to Saturday’s semifinals, including a return kill off of a Brule laser serve to the right.
Ruiz was clinical in the semifinals against Max Langmack, taking The Gentle Giant on a tour of the court in the two-game sweep. “I feel like I just did 40 minutes of wind sprints,” Langmack would later say after chasing Ruiz’s ceiling drives and taps kills.
Leo Canales met Ruiz in the final after defeating Ivan Burgos in a rematch of the Flagstaff clash five weeks ago (HERE). After failing to convert several match points in Flagstaff, Canales built a 14-6 lead in the first game against Burgos and survived a Burgos rally to win the first game 15-13. Canales cruised in just six minutes in game two.
Battling 108 degrees in the shade and closer to 140 degrees on the court, Canales and Ruiz split the first two games of the final. Canales took control of the tiebreaker on the first rally, making an awkward left-hand fly kill and overwhelming an exhausted Ruiz. “I don’t know I agreed to play in this (heat),” Ruiz kept repeating during one of his timeouts.
Ruiz called his final timeout with Canales serving at 10-1, and a seemingly harmless side out at 10-1 gave Ruiz the serve. Ruiz started scoring points, including his seventh point on a Canales front court error with his right from well inside the foot fault line. “That shot felt perfect off my hand,” Canales would later say.
Ruiz climbed to 9-10 and eventually to 10-10, never once surrendering the serve. Ruiz appeared to win the match on his first attempt, but a dubious hinder call forced him to serve again at 10. Ruiz dumped a kill with Canales in the back court on his second match point, extending his 3-Wall streak to three in a row and sending Canales back to the drawing board with his second finals loss in five weeks, having held match point in both.
“I just told myself you’ve done this before (faced a deficit) and you can do it, push, push, push,” Ruiz would later say. “Fortunately, everything was coming out in the end. I switched to a slow serve because a lot of people struggle with it and it gives me the setup I like.”
Semifinals
Canales def Burgos 15-13, 15-1
Ruiz def Langmack 15-7, 15-9
Final: Ruiz def Canales 15-8, 4-15, 11-10
The WPH was proud to provide fruit, water, and Gatorades for the players and fans during the outstanding event. Thank you to tournament director Abraham Montijo for an outstanding event.
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer