Tucson, AZ, WPH Press, 5/16/23
Every handball player has experienced it – you serve for the match and somehow you end up losing the match.
The 80-event, eleven-season Race 4 Eight tour featured 1,200 main draw matches, with players serving with match point and losing twenty-six times in those 1,200 matches (2.2%). In 149 main draw matches during the 2022/23 Race 4 Eight Men’s Pro, six players served with match point and lost (4%).
*Main draw matches include round of 16, round of 8, semifinals, and finals.
The 2022/23 Race 4 Eight Men’s Pro featured six keep-you-up-at-night, wake-up-in-a-cold-sweat, I-never-want-to-play-again type of comebacks, the most of any season in history. With hundreds of rallies in a match, the player who squandered match point and eventually lost the match can recall with uncanny accuracy the shots he hit in those rallies, replaying those decisions and shot selections for days and often lifetimes.
2022/23 Match Point Down Comebacks
Cordova vs. Canales, Jr. 2022 R48 Icebreaker (21-5, 11-21, 11-10)
Danos led 10-7 in the tiebreaker, but a side out and three straight points for Canales left the pair tied at ten. Leo nearly hit an ace to win the match, but the serve just clipped the side wall past the deep line, giving Danos a chance to play a defensive return. Leo had a big opportunity to end the match with a left-handed setup but made a shocking unforced error. “I should have just hit that one hard,” stated Leo, referring to the last shot.
Doyle vs. D. Fink 2023 R48 Mardi Gras (12-15, 16-14, 17-15)
Fink led 15-12, 12-5 but a right-handed error opened the door for Doyle, who scored eight consecutive points to take a 13-12 lead. Fink regained control, serving for the match at 14-13 and hit what he thought was a game-winning left-handed kill from thirty-two feet. Doyle anticipated the kill shot attempt and hit a perfect paddle re kill to earn a side out. Doyle quickly scored three consecutive points in one inning to force a tiebreaker, but found himself down 5-12 again in the third. Doyle charged back again, taking a 14-12 lead but failing to convert his match point, as Fink would take a 15-14 lead and serve for the match three more times. Fink could not convert, as Doyle completed the improbable comeback to win his first R48 round of 16 match.
Mulkerrins vs. Langmack 2023 R48 Houston (5-15, 16-14, 15-5)
After comfortably taking the first game, Langmack fell behind 6-12 in the second against the current collegiate finalist making his first R48 start.. From the six-point second-game deficit, Langmack entered the zone, flat rolling balls from virtually everywhere on the court with either land. Langmack erased the deficit and served for the match after eight straight points at 14-12. A diving re kill attempt into the left corner came up just short on his first attempt to win the match, an off-pace left-handed Mulkerrins paddle kill erased Langmack’s second match point, and third match point went the way of Mulkerrins with a Langmack error. Langmack missed two back wall setups to bring Mulkerrins to fourteen and two more Mulkerrins points forced a third game. Mulkerrins came to life in the third, becoming one of the few players in R48 history to advance to a quarterfinal in his first R48 start.
Esser vs. Burgos 2023 R48LTE Hall of Fame (8-15, 15-7, 17-15)
Sam Esser and Ivan Burgos match up most weeks in Tucson sparring matches, but their round of 16 clash at the 2023 Tucson R48LTE Hall of Fame would be their biggest matchup on the TRC’s #1 court. Burgos started quickly against the notoriously slow starter, fist-killing and fist-passing his way to a one-game lead. Esser slowed the game down in the second, going to an underhand lob serve and using the ceiling to flip the momentum and even the match at one game apiece.
Burgos seized a late-game tiebreaker lead, serving at 13-11. Burgos went for a shoulder-high kill with his right from the short line, skipping the shot by millimeters and giving Esser the side out. Esser capitalized, scoring three straight points to serve for the match at 14-13. Burgos earned a side out with a left-handed kill and would serve for the match two rallies later at 15-14. Burgos had a back wall setup to end the match, but strayed from his aggressive style, opting for a scoop two-wall right-handed shot to the left. Esser made Burgos pay for his indecision, killing the ball off the side wall with his left for the side out. Not known for ever diving, Esser tied the game with a diving re kill and closed out the match two points later with a kill down the right. “I just felt like I couldn’t find another gear in there, like I wasn’t even in the court,” Esser would later say.
Doyle def Ruiz 2023 R48LTE Hall of Fame (8-15, 17-15, 15-11)
Shorty Ruiz faced Mark Doyle for the second time during the 2022/23 season at the 2023 R48LTE Hall of Fame, having won their first encounter on the same court at November’s Memorial 15-11 in the tiebreaker. Ruiz took control in game one, keeping Doyle off-balance with hops and re kills. Doyle built a 9-5 lead against Ruiz and Ruiz’s glass-banging army, but Ruiz roared back, eventually serving for the match at 14-12. Ruiz could not convert three match points, opening the door for Doyle to force a third on his only game point in the second. The tiebreaker featured three avoidable hinders and four lead changes, as the glass-bangers lost their voices and bruised their hands urging on their hero. Doyle handled the adversity like a veteran, scoring the final five points of the match after trailing 10-11, including a left-crack ace to seal the win and making Ruiz the twenty-fifth victim of holding a match point and losing.
Lenning def Mulkerrins 2023 R48LTE Hall of Fame (8-15, 16-14, 15-8)
The blockbuster quarterfinal matchup at the 2023 R48LTE Hall of Fame featured former R48 #1’s Sean Lenning and Martin Mulkerrins. Mulkerrins led 3-2 in their head-to-head matchups coming into their quarterfinal and looked to be in control of the match, leading 15-8, 14-10. Mulkerrins was just one point from a straightforward two-game sweep, but Lenning had other ideas. Lenning saved Martin’s only match point at 14-10 and scored six straight points to force overtime. Mulkerrins only served one more time in the second game at 14-14 but could not score, as Lenning forced a third. Lenning feasted on a number of revolving door serves in the tiebreaker and added a number of his trademark kills and aces to stun Mulkerrins.
The only players to face a match point and win a main draw Men’s Pro R48 match are:
- Alvarado vs. Shanks Plummer 2011 (Alvarado 12-21, 21-17, 11-10
- Alvarado vs. Al. Garner Plummer 2011 (Alvarado 16-21, 21-20, 11-7)
- Fink vs. Iglesias Tucson 2013 (Fink 27-25)
- Fink vs. Cooney Simple Green U.S. Open (2013) 17-21, 21-19, 11-10
- Shanks vs. Peixoto 2013 Denver 2013 (Shanks 28-26)
- Perez vs. Ortiz Tucson 2014 (Perez 10-15, 16-14, 15-8)
- Crehan vs. Fink NYAC 2015 (Crehan, 1-15, 17-15, 15-13)
- Ortiz vs. L. Cordova Salt Lake City 2016 (Ortiz 11-14, 16-14, 15-2)
- Ortiz vs. Peixoto Atlanta 2017 (Ortiz 7-15, 17-15, 15-1)
- McCarthy vs. Lenning Tucson 2017 (McCarthy 3-15, 16-14, 15-2)
- Lenning vs. Nash Montana 2018 (Lenning 8-15, 15-13, 19-17)
- Chavez vs. Ruiz Las Vegas 2018 (Chavez 17-15, 11-14, 17-15)
- D. Munson vs. Chavez 2018 Houston (Munson 3-15, 17-15, 15-13)
- Ortiz vs. Pet. Funchion NYAC 2018 (Ortiz 6-15, 16-14, 15-9)
- Perez vs. Chavez NYAC 2018 (Perez 15-10, 11-15, 17-15)
- Perez vs. Chavez 2019 New Orleans R48LTE (13-15, 17-15, 15-11)
- Canales vs. Ortiz 2019 Tucson R48LTE Hall of Fame (16-14, 12-15, 16-14)
- Ruiz vs. Peixoto 2019 San Francisco (7-15, 15-6, 16-14)
- Iglesias vs. Peixoto 2019 Salt Lake City (5-15, 16-14, 15-2)
- Perez vs. Fink 2020 Red Death (15-12, 3-15, 16-14)
- D. Cordova vs. Canales, Jr. 2022 R48 Icebreaker (21-5, 11-21, 11-10)
- M. Doyle vs. D. Fink 2023 R48 Mardi Gras (12-15, 16-14, 17-15)
- D. Mulkerrins vs. Langmack 2023 R48 Houston (5-15, 16-14, 15-5)
- S. Esser vs. Burgos 2023 R48LTE Hall of Fame (8-15, 15-7, 17-15)
- M. Doyle def Ruiz 2023 R48LTE Hall of Fame (8-15, 17-15, 15-11)
- Lenning def Mulkerrins 2023 R48LTE Hall of Fame (8-15, 16-14, 15-8)
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer