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The greatest jai-alai players in the country recently came together at the U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship at Magic City Casino in Miami, home of Magic City Jai-Alai, for three exciting days of intense play of the “world’s fastest sport.”
Winner of the Championship, Magic City Jai-Alai player Matt Langhans, (known courtside as Douglas) seized the singles champion title in the Professionals Division. During that same afternoon, Matt and his younger brother Ben Langhans (known courtside as Benny) wowed the jai-alai community with their impressive doubles team win against the Dania Jai-Alai powerhouse duo Erik Mendizabal (known courtside as Erik) and Emmanuel Laduche (known courtside as Ladutxe), considered some of the best players in the country.
The results of this tournament were noteworthy as the winning teams are relatively new to the world of professional jai-alai.
Matt Langhans is 22 and his brother Ben is 18. They are both Connecticut natives, raised in North Carolina. They both came to South Florida to join the Magic City Jai-Alai roster and started playing in 2018.
Their father, Douglas Langhans, used to play the sport professionally but gave up jai-alai soon before his sons were born. Their win against lifelong jai-alai players was astounding to the jai-alai world.
