Tournament Thoughts Posted on February 22, 2026 at 08:08:48 PM by decay
Went Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday.
Overall, very entertaining. Aritz was 'Aritz'. The point to go up 2-0 in the second set on Saturday was a concise resume on why he is the best player in the world.
Zulaika did show how it is possible to beat him through aggression. Too many players just try to wait it out and look for opportunities, and that just does not work. Zulaika kept at it, even when he threw bad shots, and came within a point of taking him down. He was certainly not helped by his backcourter. It is hard to say whether he wins with a different backcourter, because he may have defaulted to playing safer with a more highly skilled partner.
It was 3-2 Johan/Gorka when Lopez had cesta problems. According to the eitb website, it was 12-8 when it finally broke for good. I am of two minds regarding the events after that. On the one hand, it is a horrible time for that to happen. On the other hand, he is not a rookie. He has been player professionally at the highest level for a lot of years. I felt it should not have messed him up as much as it did. I was also surprised that Aritz did not become more aggressive, knowing that Lopez was uncomfortable back there.
For Benny, the music in between points was interminably loud and distracting. I know that was part of the Basque thing, but this was not being broadcast live like last year, so I don't even know why that was necessary. It made hearing Dave Lamont very hard, and he is one of the classic voices of jai-alai.
At the trophy presentations, even Dave told them to kill the music.
It is also impossible not to see the obvious. Johan and Gorka are the future (much nearer future now).
Tiger's Jai-Alai Chalk Talk
