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This article appeared on November 6, 2017.

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The results of Day Two at the 29th International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Junior Racquetball Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Lifetime Fitness Target Center are below.

In U18 Girl’s Singles Group A, Guatemalan Gabriela Martinez went tie-breaker with Bolivian Stefanny Barrios, coming out on top 11-15, 15-9, 11-2. In Group C, Erin Rivera of Mexico survived a comeback by Canadian Alexis Iwaasa, 15-5, 5-15, 11-9. It seemed that Iwaasa was going to pull it out in the breaker, even though she fell behind 8-1 in game three.

But Iwaasa tied it at 8-8, helped by three drive serve aces to Rivera’s backhand. Rivera got the serve back on a rally that seemed to start with a short serve, but it wasn’t called short, which led to Rivera’s winner. Rivera did go up 9-8 with a drive serve winner of her own that made it 9-8.

Two winning backhands by Iwaasa and the score was tied once again, 9-9. But after a short drive serve, Iwaasa hit a lob to the left that Rivera hit a winning backhand return of, and then proceeded to win the game and match with a drive serve ace to the left side – Iwaasa’s backhand – and a drive serve winner to the left that Iwaasa could only get her racquet on.

The IRF World Juniors competition has two parts, like the World Cup of football/soccer. The first has three days of group play, and the results of that are used to create a playoff draw to determine the year’s World Junior Champions. The group stage concludes Tuesday. The playoff stage will begin Wednesday.

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