July - August 1999
| Vol. 10, No. 4

Bud Light Pro Nationals in Vegas
Monchik vs. Swain & Paraiso vs. Levine

king of the hill

this past season, sudsy monchik has lost only one match to cliff swain, in nine head-to-head meetings

what will it mean for Swain - and the tour - in 2000?

Following his 11-6, 11-3, 11-2 demolition of defending tour champion Cliff Swain in the finals of the Bud Light Pro Nationals in Las Vegas this past April, Sudsy Monchik said, “I feel phenomenal. This will be the third year that I’m No. 1 and I just want to keep it and never lose it.”

By winning, Monchik, 24, assured himself the 1998-99 International Racquetball Tour championship - his third in four years. And yes, his play was phenomenal, as well.

In the minds of those who witnessed the final match between five-time pro tour champ Swain and Monchik, terms like “overpowered,” “outmatched” and “dismantled” might have surfaced.

Swain, 33, finished the ‘98-99 tour season with an amazing record of 48-2 versus all tour opponents except Monchik, who held an 8-1 advantage over the Boston native.

There is a distinct tiering of the tour’s top players; Swain is a level above the “next best” group, which includes John Ellis, Jason Mannino and Mike Guidry in the #3 through #5 ranking positions.

The problem for Swain lies in the fact that he hasn’t taken a game from Monchik since February and his last victory over the New Yorker was September 7, 1998. So, should he retire? Are you kidding? He would strangle you for suggesting anything of the sort.

While other tour members might lean toward excusing themselves with “my ... [whatever] ... hurts,” Swain continuously battles numerous forms of ailments from shoulder to elbow to knee. Still, he remains quiet about his injuries and repeatedly makes his way into the finals of nearly each IRT stop — 11 of 12 this season.

In Vegas, after putting away challengers Mike Trask, Scott Reiff and Eric Muller in straight games to reach the quarterfinals, Swain finally dropped a game as Derek Robinson fell 8-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-4.

Meanwhile, Monchik moved past Andrew Lewis and James Lockhart before narrowly defeating Tony Jelso in the round of 16, 8-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-1, 11-7. Monchik then took out defending U.S. National amateur champion Adam Karp in the quarters with another low-digit thumping.

The most shocking upset in the quarters was administered by Tucson, Arizona’s Jeff Bell, who deleted fifth seed Mike Guidry 11-7, 10-12, 11-7, 3-11, 12-10.

“That’s my best win ever,” Bell said. “I’m a part time player and play select events. For me to come in and have the opportunity to play with these guys, it’s really something.”

In the first semifinal, Swain strung together some of his finest serves to down Tim Doyle in three.

“I haven’t played Cliff on this court before and him being left-handed, he hit some pretty tough serves out there and uses the glass pretty well,” Doyle said. “He hops on top of the ball a little faster than most people, so [it’s] coming back at you a little faster too ... If I left it off the back wall he killed it.”

The nightcap featured dark horse Bell, against the powerful Monchik. It was almost too painful to watch, as Monchik outscored his upstart opponent 33-3 to close out an 11-5, 11-0, 11-2 match.

“He just served me off the court,” Bell said. “He was playing to beat me, definitely, by as much as he could. I thought that if he slowed the pace down that it would be an opportunity for me. But he started out drive serving. I thought that maybe he would come out a little slower, but obviously he didn’t.”

Monchik was not about to let Bell gain any confidence. According to “Suds,” “You’ve got the Cinderella guy here and I just wanted to send a message. I didn’t want him to think that he was going to have a chance against me ... I said, ‘You know what? Let me send a message early to him and make him not want to be on the court.’”

Then came the finals between Swain and Monchik. And, in what seemed like a scant thirty minutes later, there went the finals between Swain and Monchik.

If one listened close enough to the sound immediately following Swain’s backhand skip return for the final point, there was a door slamming shut.

That unseen door closed on another lost chance at a tour title for Swain. With a nine-year difference in their ages and a distinct difference in their power games, last year’s tour championship may have been Swain’s last hurrah.

“I don’t think it will ever be the official slamming of the door,” Monchik said. “Cliff’s a great competitor and as long as he wants to be out there, him and I will be battling for a few years.”

But Monchik has a few more years remaining than Swain — nearly a decade.

“Cliff’s awesome and still the greatest of all time,” Monchik said.

Just give Monchik a few more years.

getting vertical

It has been a long trip for Jackie Paraiso — and a steady rise — but her second women’s professional tour title is now a reality.

After winning the 1992 tour championship, Paraiso remained among the women’s top five, yet didn’t secure the top spot until this April’s tiebreaker final victory over Robin Levine at the Bud Light Pro Nationals in Las Vegas.

Her 23rd win in 24 pro matches this season led to a overwhelming finish in the Women’s International Racquetball Tour rankings — 1,245 points to 757 for #2 Cheryl Gudinas.

Current World Champion and winner of the season’s first stop, Christie Van Hees tallied 696 for third place. On her way to the semifinals, Van Hees put away Leslie Pawka, Kerri Stoffregen, and fellow Canadian Lori-Jane Powell.

But unknown to the rest of the field, Van Hees was suffering with severe pain in her right quadriceps muscle. When Saturday’s semifinal against Levine arrived, Van Hees was forced to forfeit.

“On Tuesday it started feeling really tight and I just worked through it,” Van Hees said. “But this morning it swelled up and that was it.”

“I just did a couple of things last week that maybe I shouldn’t have. But I was training with Lisa (Kerr) and Kelly (Kerr) and they’re fine this week ... The diagnosis is a Grade 2 pull in my right quad. I’m just going to have to keep off of it for the next couple weeks.”

Van Hees would eventually miss the Canadian Nationals due to the injury.

With the women’s semis and finals scheduled for the same day, Levine appeared to have scored a significant advantage over her finals opponent — the winner of the Paraiso-Laura Fenton match.

“It’s definitely an advantage,” Levine said. “You’re playing two of your toughest matches on the same day. You’re barely getting enough time to get off the court, shower and get something to eat before you have to come back and play again.”

Not to mention that the Fenton-Paraiso match was the second of the two scheduled semis. Paraiso did her best to dispose of Fenton quickly, then retreat to the showers for some rest and relaxation. She held Fenton at bay to advance with an 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 victory.

“She just played better than I did,” Fenton said. “That’s the bottom line. Jackie’s a step above me right now. She didn’t make a lot of mistakes. I had a little trouble with the (right wall) glass, but that wasn’t the difference in the match. It’s ups and downs and every little break hurts ... She is definitely a better player than I am right now and that’s okay.”

That evening, Paraiso and Levine began what would be one of the finest women’s matches of the season.

After taking the first game, 11-6, Levine watched Paraiso rattle off an 8-1 run to close out the second frame, 11-3. The Sacramento product then jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second and held off a late Paraiso run to win the third, 11-7.

With the help of two aces, Levine again grabbed an early lead, 3-0. But Paraiso came back to tie the fourth game at four and then scored seven consecutive points for an 11-4 win.

In the fifth game, Levine began showing signs of leg cramps and was forced to take an injury timeout with the game knotted 1-1.

Fifteen minutes later, Levine returned to the court and fought Paraiso to four lead changes and three ties. Eventually, Paraiso managed the 11-7 match-clinching victory.

“I guess I just stayed focused,” Paraiso said. “I needed to concentrate on every point and play the ball. Not playing Robin and not playing an injured Robin. Play the ball and that’s what I focused on.”

Levine, still haunted by her injury forfeit to Paraiso in the semifinals of the ‘98 Promus U.S. OPEN, was not about to just hand over the match.

“I was worried at first because I felt a ‘pop’ in my left calf,” Levine said. “I was afraid that I had just popped my Achilles (tendon). I had never had cramps in my calf before, so I didn’t know what it was. Then my right one started cramping and it was like, ‘OK, here we go . . . After Memphis when I had to forfeit, that killed me. I hate forfeiting and I was not going to forfeit again.”