Álvaro Beltrán

Álvaro Beltrán

Personal information
Born	(1978-10-15) October 15, 1978 Tijuana, Mexico
Medal record Men's Racquetball Representing Mexico Pan American Games 2003 Santo Domingo Doubles 2011 Guadalajara Doubles 2011 Guadalajara Doubles World Championships 2012 Santo Domingo Doubles 2012 Santo Domingo Team 2006 Santo Domingo Doubles 2002 Puerto Rico Singles 2000 St Luis Potosi Singles Pan Am Championships 2015 Santo Domingo Doubles 2009 Cali Singles 2008 San Jose Singles 2007 Santiago Singles Central American and Caribbean Games 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games Singles

Álvaro Beltrán (born October 15, 1978), is a Mexican professional racquetball player. Beltrán is a former World Champion in both singles and doubles. Also, he is one of the top ranked players on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT). Beltran was ranked 3rd at the end of the 2013-14 IRT season.

Professional career

Beltrán has been the highest ranked Mexican player ever on the IRT. He's been ranked in the top 10 IRT at season's end in 10 of the last 12 seasons since 2000-01, finishing as high as #2 as of October, 2014. He won his first IRT event in 2013, when he defeated fellow Mexican Daniel De La Rosa in the final of the Red Swain Shootout. Overall, Beltrán has been in 33 finals in 156 appearances on tour, which is 8th most all time.

Beltrán has been in the finals of the US Open Racquetball Championships twice: once in 2010 and again in 2014. He was the first Mexican to do so. He lost both finals to Kane Waselenchuk, but did win the first game of the 2010 final, which was Waselenchuk's first loss of a game in six US Open finals. The 2010 final was the first US Open final with two non-American players.

Also of note, Beltrán is one of only two players to beat IRT #1 Waselenchuk in a completed match, since Waselenchk's return to the IRT tour in the fall of 2008. That win occurred at the 2009 California Open, when Beltrán defeated Waslenchuk in four games in the semi-finals.

International career

Beltrán is the only racquetball player to win World Championships in both Men's Singles and Men's Doubles. Beltrán won Men's Singles at the 2000 Racquetball World Championships hosted by the International Racquetball Federation in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, defeating American Rocky Carson in the final. He won Men's Doubles twice both with Javier Moreno. They first won in 2006, defeating Americans Carson and Jack Huczek in the final, and again six years later in 2012, defeating Americans Tony Carson and Jansen Allen. Both doubles wins were in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Beltrán and Moreno also won the gold medals in doubles at the 2003, and 2011 Pan Am Games. In 2003, they beat Americans Ruben Gonzalez and Mike Guidry in the final, and in the 2011 final, defeated Venezuelans Cesar Castillo and Jorge Hirsekorn. Beltrán also won gold in the team competition at the 2011 Pan Am Games.

In addition, Beltrán won three consecutive Pan American Championships in Men's Singles from 2007–2009, and the 2015 Pan Am Championship in Men's Doubles with Javier Moreno. He is a two time the gold medalist in Men's Singles at the Central American and Caribbean Games, as he defeated countrymen Gilberto Meija in the 2010 final and Daniel De La Rosa in the 2014 final, 15-7, 15-2.

External links

• IRT website