Ulliman is in Jersey looking to become a 2x champ of the Average Joe’s. Photo via r2sports
With the turn of the new year, we get the 4th annual Average Joe’s money tournament, held at the famous “Court 4” on the Kelley brother’s property in Montague, NJ.
More than 20 top amateurs have traveled to Jersey for this year’s event, which is part tourney and part weekend racquetball camp on the Kelley’s property.
Past champions:
– 1st Annual in 2021: Joe Kelley over Austin Cunningham
– 2nd Annual 2022: Kyle Ulliman over Victor Migliore
– 3rd Annual 2023: Sam Kelley over Victor Migliore
This year’s event features perhaps the widest geographic draw yet, with the regular Northeast crew present, plus players from up and down the east coast, top guys in from Ohio like last year, and even top USA junior @Cole Sendrey in from Texas.
Here’s a preview of the singles and (back for the 2nd year in a row) doubles draws:
In the singles draw, your top seeds are:
#1 @Dylan Pruit from Maryland
#2 your host and defending champ Sam Kelley
#3 two-time finalist and Ohio native Victor Migliore
#4 2022 champion Kyle Ulliman.
However, there’s talent up and down the draw; the inugural champ Joe Kelley is the #8 seed, the finalist in 2021 Cunningham is the #12 seed, and superstar Junior Sendrey is the #6 seed. How will this play out
In the quarters, look for Joe Kelley to give #1 Pruitt a run for his money but fall just short. I like Cunningham to upset lefty David Austin early but fall to Ulliman in the quarters. From the bottom half, Sendrey will struggle with Migliore’s power and quickness but may get a shocker upset, while its hard to see Sam Kelley falling before the semis.
Look for Sam over Migliore in one semi, and Ulliman over Pruitt in the other semi, then Ulliman in the final to be a 2-time champ.
In Doubles, look for the top seeded team of Pruitt & Cunningham to cruise into the finals, while the bottom half semi between team Ohio (Migliore and Ulliman) and team Kelley (brothers Sam and Joe) will be a battle royale. I like the Ohioans to take out the hosts, then top #1 seeds for the title.
Watch for streaming all weekend as the guys hang out on the Kelley residence. We’ll recap on Sunday or Monday.
Vargas dominates to win in DC. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Maria Jose Vargas
– Doubles: Alexandra Herrera and Monserrat Mejia
Vargas wins her 7th career LPRT singles title, putting her ahead of Mejia and tying her for 11th place all time with a couple of hall of fame calibre players in Marci Drexler and Caryn McKinney.
In the 32s, the tour welcomed back @Maria Renee Rodriguez , who we hadn’t seen on tour since May. She topped @Stephanie Synhorst to move on to face #1 Mejia. Texas junior @Naomi Ros got a nice win over fellow USA player Lexi York to move on, and Colombian @Maria Paz Riquelme took out Floridian Chanis Leon in a rematch of their opener from Boston.
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In the 16s
– #9 @Samantha Salas Solis got the better of Carla Muñoz this time around, winning in a breaker of the always-close 8/9 matchup.
– #13 Cris Amaya advanced to the quarters of a pro event for the first time since January 2020 with a close 2-game win over Brenda Laime 13,14.
– #6 Alexandra Herrera made fast work of country-woman Jessica Parrilla for the 2nd straight event, moving on 6,5
– An injury to Argentine @Natalia Mendez gave team USA Kelani Lawrence a walk-over into the quarters.
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In the Quarters
– #1 Mejia moved past Salas 2,11
– #13 Amaya turned back the clock once again and moved into her first pro semi since March of 2017 by topping Guatemalan @Ana Gabriele Martinelli in a breaker. Amaya lost game one easily and saved match points against in game two before topping Gaby in the breaker.
– #3 Vargas cruised past Herrera 3,10, another statement win defining the gulf that has opened between Herrera and the top 3 ladies on tour
– #2 @Paola Longoria was not very troubled by Lawrence, moving on 4,2.
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In the Semis
– Mejia ended Amaya’s luck, advancing to the final 8,3
– Vargas topped Longoria for the 3rd time in their last 4 meetings, but it couldn’t have been any closer. (13),10,10. Vargas controlled most of the breaker and got to 10-6, but then Longoria saved match point against (plus two more) as she clawed her way to 10-10. Vargas buried a side-out winner, then aced Longoria on her fourth match point attempt to take the win.
In the Finals, Vargas improved to 6-4 lifetime (including wins in their last two meetings) to take the title.
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Points Implications of results
When last year’s Xmas classic expires, Vargas will leapfrog Longoria for #2 on tour, relegating Paola to #3 on tour. It has been so long since Longoria was ranked below #2 on tour that our records don’t even reliably have seeding data; we know Paola was the #5 seed at the 2008 US Open, which she won, and by that season’s end she was firmly ensconced at #1 on tour. So, a seminal event on tour.
Other top 10-15 moves: Salas moves one notch ahead of Mendez in the rankings, while Munoz drops from #10 to #12.
Mejia and Herrera won their third straight LPRT pro doubles title, and their 8th as a pair, with a comprehensive 10,8 win over the #1 seeds Longoria & Salas. The reigning Mexican champs (who won 2023 PARC but who got upset in the semis at the Pan Am Games) continues to be the best doubles team in the world, even if they’re still ranked #2 behind Longoria & Salas.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Ros beat York again and then Synhorst to take Women’s Open singles.
– Dylan Pruitt took out Mauricio Zelada in an all-Maryland Men’s Open final.
– Pruitt teamed with Jessica Parrilla to win the Men’s open doubles title.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from the LPRT crew, thanks to the tourney director, and thanks to all the sponsors as always.
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We’re finishing off the last tournament weekend of the 2023 year. I’ll recap the Beach Battle from Hollywood and then after a break I’ll do a 2023 season IRT recap.
Moscoso secures the last event of the 2023 season, his 8th career title. This moves him into a tie for 14th overall with none other than @John Ellis , who was recognized this weekend for his induction into the USA Racquetball hall of fame. See https://rball.pro/2fg for a full list of title winners in the history of the tour.
However, the story line of the weekend was @DaDaniel De la Rosa , losing finalist but who wrapped up his 3rd year end title in a row. The other story line, of course, was the return of the Glass Court to the pro sport. Congrats to tournament organizers Adam Manilla and Bobby Horn for securing the funding and expending the effort to make this happen. The IRT draw was one of the largest we’ve seen since the last time the court was in use, and it looked awesome. Thanks as always to @Keith Minor and Kwm Gutterman for your ongoing support of the sport, and for housing the court.
In the qualifiers, some interesting/surprising results:
– Up and coming Mexican 18U Cristhian Sanchez took out top amateur Martin Anthony to move into the main draw.
– Former WRT #1 Alejandro Cardoza topped Guatemalan international Edwin Galicia to get into the main draw.
– 13-time title winner @Kane Waselenchuk moved into the main draw as expected, topping fellow Texan Craig Clements .
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In the 32s:
– @Sam Bredenbeck got a nice win over Bolivian vet Kadim Carrasco to force his way into the 16s.
– 2-time IRT champ Rocky Carson reminded current tour players that he can still ball, topping #12 @Javier Mar in a breaker to move on.
– Guatemalan #1 @JuJuan Salvatiera surprised #13 Robert Collins to move on.
– Kane, seeded 19th in this event, cruised past Mexican 21U @Erick Trujillo 7,7 to get into the 16s and setup a rematch of Boston’s showdown with Moscoso.
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In the 16s:
– @Andres Acuna dominated Alan Natera in the 8/9 match 6,10, setting up the expected quarter final battle with DLR.
– Rocky shocked #5 Andree Parrilla 11,9 to move into the quarters.
– In a very highly anticipated match, #3 Moscoso faced off against Waselenchuk. To this observer, Kane wasn’t looking nearly as sharp in Pleasanton as he did in Boston, as evidenced by Trujillo’s ability to get points on him in the earlier round. The glass court plays slow as well, which contributes (along with the slower ball) to balls being up and gettable to an extent that wasn’t the case on Boston’s cement walls. Kane controlled game one for long stretches, but Moscoso kept it close and ended up losing 15-10. I was critical of Moscoso’s lack of serving diversity and his game plan being exposed by the tactical genius of Kane ahead of this match, but all credit to Conrrado here; he came out firing in game two and blitzed Kane 15-4 in a one-way traffic game that continued into the tiebreaker. Final score: (10),4,4. I believe we saw the Bolivian get over a mental hurdle and just gain confidence as the match wore on, freeing him to go for his typical “shoot with abandon” mentality and, once he started hitting those shots, there was nothing anyone could do.
– @Eduardo Portillo topped @Alejandro Landa 10,3 in what was Landa’s final pro singles match as a full time touring pro. We’ll do a career retrospective of Landa in this space at a later date.
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In the Quarters, we got some match results with historical implications.
– #1 Daniel DE LA Rosa , who went into this event knowing that a semi finals appearance would seal the 2023 title, took the court knowing that the results before him already sealed the deal (more on that later). Perhaps distracted, he dropped a game to #8 Acuna but ground back to take a close breaker 11-8.
– #4 Rodrigo Montoya blitzed Carson 15-1 in the first and then held on 15-13 for the two game win to send the veteran Cinderella home.
– #3 Moscoso sent home your host on the weekend Manilla 6,11
– #2 @Jake Bredenbeck , who went into this event knowing that he needed a tourney win plus some help, was shocked by #7 Portillo 10,13 to end his season. This result ended up officially sealing the 2023 title for DLR and sent Jake home with a bitter taste.
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In the Semis
– DLR made fast work of Montoya 8,7
– Moscoso blasted Lalo 6,2 to setup an entertaining final.
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In the Finals, Moscoso played a comprehensive lights out match, crushing the new #1 DLR 4,3 to take the title. Daniel had little response to Moscoso’s dominance, and the Bolivian made a bit of a statement with the win. Despite finishing #2, Moscoso actually out-titled Daniel this year 4-3 (though Daniel made 4 other finals to Moscoso’s two, demonstrating a bit more consistency throughout the year).
In the post-game interview, Daniel announced that he will not be “touring full time” in 2024, alluding to his commitments to “another sport.” There’s little surprise here; he signed an exclusive 3-year contract with the Professional Pickleball Association in August which guarantees a salary, benefits, and expense reimbursement to an extent where DLR could not say no. His main sponsor Pro Kennex and Mike Martinez tried to manage the situation on social media by noting that DLR is a “multi sport” sponsored player and has expectations of continuing to play and compete in racquetball, but as they say, we’ll see how it goes.
A quick glance at the 2024 known schedules for Racquetball and Pickleball right now shows that
– DLR is free to play the Lewis Drug (no conflicts)
– may have a conflict for USA Nationals on 2/11/24 weekend if he plays the MLP,
– would have a MLP conflict for Minnesota HoF tourney
– Definitely has a PPA conflict with 3/17 Papa Nicholas event (which is also Beach Bash in 2024)
So we’ll see. The biggest question may just be how many tier1s can the IRT get in 2024. We’ve lost the Longhorn Open, I’ve seen no word from the Atlanta guys (Suivant and Williams) about their regular February event, the SoCal Open isn’t on the books for April, Denver is not happening this year, Tracktown & Boston were first time events in 2023 that may or may not return, there’s no guarantee of a US Open in 2024, we’ve seemingly lost the Sarasota/Dovetail open, the organizers of the DC-area Capital Classic have pulled back. NY Open is gone along with its sponsor from the sport, and the Pelham TOC downgraded to a satellite. So, DLR may not have to “tour full time” to play a full slate of 2024 events if there’s only a handful.
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Points Implications of results
As noted above, DLR sealed the year end title (his 3rd) with Jake’s quarter final loss. More interestingly is that Moscoso’s win coupled with Jake’s early loss has jumped Conrrado up to #2 for the season. The only other last minute moves in the top 10 saw Acuna bump up to #8, pushing the absent Murray back to #10 for the year. Landa’s final season ends with him just getting pushed out of the top 10.
We’ll do a full comprehensive recap of the season later on this month.
Montoya and Mar captured another doubles title as a team. Its their 3rd pro doubles title this season and their 7th together professionally. This is on top of their 2023 Pan Am games gold, their 2022 Worlds, and their 2019 Pan Am gold medals as a partnership.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– @Diego Gastelum took an all Mexican U21 final against Rico. Both players got walkovers from Guatemalans in the semis, possibly due to travel issues.
– Alan Natera / Victor Koliczew got a win in the Open Doubles final when NorCal duo Torres and Reynolds withdrew.
– Christie Noler took the 4-player Women’s Open RR
– Sonya_Shetty_/_Victoria_Rodriguez took the women’s Open draw
– Shane Diaz / Will Reynolds: took Mixed Open
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Steve Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew . Thanks to guest broadcasters all weeked like @Brian Pineda and @Sudsy Monchik , who make it great to watch along from home.
We’re doing double duty this weekend, with the men on one coast and the ladies the other. Also this weekend is the 31st Annual Christmas Classic, being hosted just south of Baltimore at the Severna Park club, which features an old school sunken glass court with permanent seating behind it.
No Erika this weekend; she stays in Pleasanton to help her brother run the IRT event.
Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable matches that i’m looking forward to:
In the 32s, three play-ins. We get a repeat of lefties Riquelme-Leon from Chicago a few weeks ago, plus a fun match between two USA players York and Ros.
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round of 16:
Some slight jumbling of the back of the top 10 gives us some fun round of 16 matchups. Munoz and Salas repeat their frequent rivalry as of late. Parrilla and Herrera go at it again in the 16s, just as they did in Chicago a few weeks ago. Mendez and Lawrence in the 7/10 looks great. Lots of challenging round of 16 matches here.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1. Mejia versus the Salas/Munoz winner. Mejia jsut handled Munoz in the Portland Lprt exhibition, but would struggle a bit more with the veteran Salas.
– #5 Gaby is back, projecting into #4 Laime. Great match. Laime was upset early in the previous match, and Gaby is a tough matchup.
– #3 Vargas projects into #6 Herrera, another possible quarters rematch from Chicago where she advanced easily.
– #2 Longoria set to face the Lawrence/Mendez winner. If Kelani, look for her to continue to edge closer to an upset.
Semis:
– Mejia over Gaby. I don’t think Gaby is playing regularly enough to take out Mejia.
– Vargas over Longoria; Vargas has the hot hand.
Finals; Vargas continues her winning streak and takes her second in a row.
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Doubles review
All the regular teams are here, and i project another all Mexican final. We’ll give this one to Longoria and Salas.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Timothy Baghurst, Sandy Rios, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Stuart Solomon for driving down from Boston and putting this event on!
Thanks to our main sponsors; it goes without saying that without you and your support, we don’t have a sport.
Can DLR finish off the title for 2023?
Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
Welcome to the 10th and last IRT Tier 1 event of the 2023 season. For the first time since 2015, the season-ending title race comes down to this event. We’ll talk about that at more herein.
I just did a guest spot on Sudsy Monchik ‘s show talking about a bunch of these issues. I’ve got a surprise time crunch for the rest of this week so this will be abbreviated.
Short answer on the title race: if DLR makes the semis, he’s got the title sewn up. If he gets upset early, then Jake has to advance 3 rounds further to win (i.e., Jake wins, DLR loses in qtrs = jake title. Jake finals and DLR loss in 16s = Jake title. Jake semis and Daniel loss in 32s won’t be enough).
There’s a massive 48 player draw here, which is awesome and by far the biggest draw since Denver or the last US Open.
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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
In the round of 64, there’s a couple of matches i think will be competitive. Bredenbeck – Jennings, Riffel-gomez, Cardona-Galicia, Sendrey-Wolfe, and Horn-Gatica could all be fun. the best match though of the round is @wWayne Antone versus Diego Gastelum , fresh of a win at U21 worlds. Two solid players and this should be a great match.
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Projecting the 32s: keep an eye on:
– Natera-Martin; Martin can make top player sweat. Parrilla-Cardona; two old WRT foes take off and Cardona can play with Andree. Rocky Carson faces @Javier Mar in a fantastic round of 32. King Kane plays into @Erick Trujillo , against whom he once got a 1,1 win. Lastly Thomas Carter likely faces co-host bobby Horn in a tough one (if bobby’s been playing racquetball instead of pickelball that is).
– DLR likely faces N ick Riffel, not the easest first rounder but one that DLR should handle
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round of 16:
– DLR title watch: he likely faces Carrasco or Sam Bredenbeck; he should advance over both
– Acuna-Natera in 8/9 should be a great match. Acuna has the edge
– Mar-Parrilla or Carson-Parrilla; expect a tactical showdown
– for the 2nd event in a row Kane Waselenchuk plays into Moscoso, and for reasons I expounded on in Sudsy’s show, Kane wins again.
– Portillo faces Landa in wh at might be Landa’s final regular touring match
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Projected Qtrs:
– DLR over Acuna; these two met in Boston and it was a nailbiter: 14,14. Can Acuna play spoiler here? DLR is 5-0 lifetime vs Acuna, 2-0 versus Natera so the odds are with him to advance and capture the title.
– Montoya vs the winner of Mar/Carson/Parrilla; advantage Rodrigo whoever it is. I have a soft spot for Mar, but he’s better on the doubles court
– Kane plays into Manilla for the 2nd event in a row, and i can’t see any different of a result than in Boston.
– Jake plays Lalo; Jake s hould move on, knowing what’s at stake.
Semis:
– A distracted DLR, knowing this result wins him the title, loses to MOntoya
– Jake faces Kane again, and wins another nail biter after Kane runs out of gas.
Finals;
– Montoya over Jake; they’ve met a bunch of times going back to WRT and Montoya holds a slight 5-4 career advantage.
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Doubles review
Always project Montoya and Mar to win in doubles. DLR and Landa are 2nd seed but i could see a shocker like Acuna/Portillo from the bottom half.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Adam Manilla and Bobby Horn for putting this event on and getting the funds to bring back the portable court for the first time on tour since the 2021 US Open. Thanks to all the event sponsors; it goes without saying that without you and your support, we don’t have a sport.
Vargas dominates to win in Chicago. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Maria Jose Vargas
– Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alexandra Herrera
Vargas wins her 6th career LPRT singles title, bringing her back into a tie with current #1 Montse Mejia for 13th all time. See https://rball.pro/4vk for a complete list of LPRT tournament winners with their career totals.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=41683
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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/ng0
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In the 32s, Floridian Chanis Leon got a solid win over Colombian Maria Paz Riquelme , while @Lexi York got the win over fellow American @Stephanie Synhorst to move on.
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In the 16s:
– Natalia Mendez took a topsy-turvy match over Carla Muñoz in the 8/9 match-up, winning the first game 15-5, then losing the second game 15-1, before cruising in the tie-breaker 11-2. Odd score-line for sure.
– #10 Kelani Lawrence got a first career win over #7 Samantha Salas Solis 12,11.
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In the Quarters
– #1 Monserrat Mejia dropped the first game against Mendez before advancing.
– #4 Vargas ground out two close game wins against #5 Alexandra Herrera 13,11.
– #6 Erika Manilla got her first career win over #3 Brenda Laime Jalil with a very solid 9,7 win.
– #2 Paola Longoria subdued Kelani 9,6 to move into another semi.
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In the Semis, two upsets.
– #4 Vargas crushed #1 Mejia 7,7 to move into the final. Vargas continues to show why she’s putting her name in the hat for #1.
– #6 Manilla got her career best win, topping the 13-time LPRT tour champion Longoria in a tie-breaker ot move into the final. It’s her second career final after last year’s US Open.
In the Finals, Vargas was just too strong and cruised to a 9,5 win in a match between the two hardest hitters on tour. Vargas completes a dominant performance in Chicago, where not one player even scored double digits on her the entire weekend.
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Points Implications of results
Vargas should move up to #3, pushing Laime down a spot Herrera’s loss will push her back to #7, a spot she hasn’t seen in nearly a decade. With Alexandra’s falling, Manilla moves up to #5 and the absent Gaby up to #6. Mendez rebounds back up to #8.
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Doubles review
The doubles contest came down to the two top Mexican teams as expected, with Herrera & Mejia winning their 7th pro doubles title together.
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/6z9
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Lawrence took the Women’s Open draw over Munoz.
– Thomas Carter beat fellow Illinois native Jeremy Dixon in Men’s Open.
– Carter teamed with @Alok Mehta to win Men’s Open Doubles too.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from the LPRT crew.
We get a break for turkey day, then there’s just 3 pro tournaments left. An IRT Satellite in Portland, then the final tour stop of the 2023 season for the men in Pleasanton, and lastly the long running Xmas Classic in the DC area for the ladies.
Can Laime make another run? Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
The LPRT is back in action after a 3 month hiatus; the last time we saw the pro ladies on the court was in Denver for World Singles & Doubles. This is the 5th year in a row the famed Glasscourt club in Lombard outside of Chicago has hosted the Ladies for the “Turkey Shoot,” and it’ll be great to see the pros battling it out on the “Fishbowl” court in the club (which features glass on three sides).
We have a bit of a smaller draw than expected: just 18 players here in Chicago. Two of the top 10 are missing (Barrios and Gaby) but most of the rest of the top 10 is here, making for a pretty solid draw.
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Lets preview the draw. With 18 players there’s just two play ins: @Lexi York takes on @Stephanie Synhorst and @Maria Paz Riquelme takes on Chanis Leon . Both could be pretty tight, and it’ll be interesting to watch the two lefties (Riquelme and Leon) battle for a spot in the 16s.
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round of 16: Some fun matches coming our way in the opening round:
– 8/9: Carla Muñoz versus Natalia Mendez : Carla is just 1-8 lifetime against the Argentine. They’ve split their last 2 meetings, but Natalia got her in Denver at this same juncture.
– 5/12: @Alexandra Herrera versus Jessica Parrilla . Herrera has slipped out of the top 4 for the first time since January 2018. Parrilla spent all of last season in the top 8 and now is on the outside looking in. These two have met 13 times in all competitions, and Leoni hasn’t gotten a win over her lefty counterpart since 2016. Odds are Alexandra is moving on here.
– 6/11: @Erika Manilla versus @Valeria Centella : Centellas shocked Erika in December of last year, and Erika won the rematch rather handily in May in Greenville. Which Centellas shows up here? Manilla is coming off a gold medal in Chile, a career accomplishment, and is riding high.
– 7/10: Samantha Salas vs Kelani Lawrence: 4 career meetings between these two and Samantha is 4-0. Kelani has pushed their last two meetings to the bring though and will be pushing to get a breakthrough win.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Monserrat Mejia over Mendez. Montse is 3-1 lifetime, but they’re usually close. But Mejia should advance here.
– #4 @Maria Jose Vargas over Herrera. Vargas is 9-2 lifetime, and Herrera’s wins came during a time when Vargas was down and Alexandra was seriously “up.” The tides have changed now, and Vargas is going to be tough to beat.
– #3 Brenda Laime over Manilla: Laime has quietly ascended to #3 with a slew of top finishes this season. But she’s jeckyl and hyde: in six events in the calendar year 2023, Laime has three round of 16 losses … and two finals. She’s 2-0 over Manilla this year, handling her with relative ease in their last meeting in Denver, and her time training with Mercado & Zelada is paying off. She moves on.
– #2 @Paola Longoria over Salas: Longoria and Salas meet again; they’ve met 60 times previously on the LPRT (and more in Mexican nationals) and they’ll meet again. Longoria moves on.
Semis:
– Mejia over Vargas: despite Vargas’ career rebound, Mejia has owned her in 2023, winning all three of their matchups. Mejia’s mental game is solid and she handles Vargas’ power with ease.
– Longoria over Laime: Brenda may have famously beaten Paola in Virginia last September, but Longoria otherwise has owned this matchup. Laime needs to play flawless racquetball and have a strategy to win here.
Finals; Longoria over Mejia.
I do think Paola is highly motivated to regain #1. And despite Mejia winning the title and being ranked #1 right now, Longoria has won their last three matchups (Mexican Nationals in Feb, World Singles in Aug, and then the Pan Am Games gold medal match). Three wins, three different confederations.
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Doubles review
Just 8 teams competing, but all the regulars partnerships are present. Longoria & Salas are #1, Herrera & Mejia are #2 and are the favorites to get to the final to battle again. Team Argentina (Vargas & Mendez) will try to stop Longoria & Salas in the semis, while an intriguing team of Laime & Manilla will test their mettle against the long-time partners Scott & Lawrence before getting to the semis.
Look for Mejia & Herrera to take this.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Regular broadcaster @Timothy Baghurst is busy coaching the kids in Bolivia, so look for others on the mike this weekend to join Jerry J Josey Jr. ., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike.
Thanks to the Tourney Director Dan Jaskier for putting this event on!
Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.
Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on LPRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!
DLR can lock up the 2023 title in Boston. Maybe.
Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
After months away, the IRT is back in action, heading to Boston for the 2023 Rally for our Warriors. The LPRT was at the same club (Wayside Athletic in Marlborough) back in March, but it has been some time since the Men’s pros were in the Boston area. You have to go all the way back to March of 2007, for the Red Swain Memorial for the last time the IRT was in Massachusetts, so congrats to Stuart Solomon for putting this together.
The draw is a bit diminished for this event (22 pros are in town, probably a side effect of the expense of the Pan Am games and other travel this summer), but the stakes couldn’t be higher. With just this event, the satellite in Portland, and then the season finisher in Pleasanton, there’s very little time to settle the 2023 year end title. Assuming that this event and Pleasanton are regular Tier1 tour stops, #1 seed @Daniel De La Rosa can secure the year end title with a win here in Boston. however, #2 Jake Bredenbeck and #3 Conrrado Moscoso can both really put a monkey wrench into those plans with winning performances here.
Also interesting: none other than Kane Waselenchuk is in this draw. He turns 42 today. We havn’t seen Kane in singles since his Achilles injury in Sept 2022. Will he compete? He entered singles in Denver but withdrew, so it remains to be seen. If he competes, he’s seeded 22nd out of 22 by virtue of having expired all his previous rankings points, and is scheduled to play #11 Robert collins at 4pm EST. If he wins, he plays into #6 Adam Manilla and then to #3 Moscoso, so that’d be a heck of a test for him.
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Lets preview the draw. Only the singles draw has been released as of this writing.
Two top 10 players are absent: Portillo and Landa. this slightly changes the projected round of 16 matches for the top 3 players, which could play into the year end standings heavily.
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In the 32s, some notable matches:
– Should be fun to see what Mexican Axel Barojas can do against the Chilean national Rafael Gatica
– Kane should have a decent shot against Collins in a battle of veteran pro lefties.
– top New England player @JoJose Flores should move on against IRT regular @Jim Douglas
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round of 16:
– The 8/9 matchup between Alan Natera and Andres Acuña could be great. Natera has been on fire lately and could push the Costa Rican here.
– #4 Rodrigo Montoya will get an early test against Erick Trujillo , who has seen his progress stall a bit after some eye opening early results.
– If he plays, and if he advances, all eyes would be on #22 Kane versus #6 Adam Manilla in this round. It’d be another matchup of lefties, but a different battle for Kane. Manilla is fresh off a gold medal in Chile in Mixed, and has been getting some pretty solid results lately. He beat Diego Garcia in Chile, he’s got pro wins over Murray and Acuna this season, and he took out Jake at USA Nationals. This would be a great litmus test for Kane’s comeback, but I suspect Adam would be too much for him.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 DLR over the Natera/Acuna winner. I don’t think either player has what it takes to take out Daniel right now.
– #4 Montoya over #5 @Andree Parrilla ; these long-time adversaries are now settling into the realization that Montoya has the upper hand in their rivalry.
– #3 Moscoso versus the Kane/Manilla winner. Well, I’m certain that neutrals (myself included) would love to see Kane versus Conrrado. It would certainly put and end to the social media campaign that believes that Kane still would beat anyone who he plays. Many believe that, even if he got by Manilla, Kane would be overpowered at this juncture against a player who is probably the most talented in the world.
– #2 @Jake Bredenbeck over Big Canada #7 Samuel Murray
Semis:
– DLR over Montoya. Montoya does have a handful of wins against DLR in their careers. I also think DLR knows precisely what he needs to do to secure the title and will be rather motivated here.
– Moscoso over Jake; Jake may be seeded #2, and Jake may have beaten Conrrado in their last meeting in Chicago, but Conrrado’s the better player.
Finals;
– Moscoso over DLR. Moscoso is on a run, fresh off Pan Am gold, and looks unstoppable. He wins Boston to force Pleasanton to count.
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Doubles review: no draws as of this publishing.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
Moscoso wins his 4th major IRF title in the last two years and establishes himself as the best international player in the world.
Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
Racquetball’s highest international honor, the Pan American Games, has completed its singles and doubles competitions. Here’s a recap of the winners:
Congratulations to the individual winners:
– Men’s Singles: Conrrado Moscoso: Bolivia
– Women’s Singles: Paola Longoria: Mexico
– Men’s Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya & Javier Mar: Mexico
– Women’s Doubles: Gaby Martinez & Maria Renee Rodriguez, Guatemala
– Mixed Doubles: Adam Manilla & Erika Manilla, USA
Five events and four different countries represented in the winner’s circle, a great testament to the spread of the sport and talent throughout the two continents.
I’ve run out of URL shorteners in my account for the month, so for the Doubles just got to www.proracquetballstats.com, click on IRF Doubles, then pull down for these three events.
– Men’s Doubles:
– Women’s Doubles:
– Mixed Doubles:
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Here’s a run-through of the notable results for me in each draw.
Men’s Singles:
In the 16s, three interesting results for me. Andres Acuña handled Canadian Coby Iwaasa in three straight, a solid win for the Costa Rican over a tough player in Iwaasa who we rarely see on tour. Mexico’s Eduardo Portillo was stretched to five games before advancing over Ecuador’s Jose Daniel Ugalde. Lastly, the toughest match of the round was USA’s Adam Manilla advancing over Argentina’s Diego Garcia in five games. Garcia regularly gets upset wins whenever he can get to a pro event, and this was a very solid win for Manilla despite the seeds.
In the quarters: #1 seed @Conrrado Moscoso handled Acuna as expected, but USA’s top player Daniel De La Rosa fell in five games to Portillo in a huge upset. Portillo won 13-11 in the fifth, with the final call being a disputed service return skip. The courts in Santiago unfortunately were constructed with a small gap between the floor and the front wall, and to this observer it looked as if DLR hit a perfect return that would have rolled out on a normal court but which “popped up” on this court; the call stood and Lalo had his win. On the other side, Manilla game Mexico’s Rodrigo Montoya a run for his money but fell in five. Lastly, the #2 seed Carlos Keller Vargas held serve against Big Canada Samuel Murray to move on.
In the semis: Moscoso blitzed Lalo, while Keller shocked Montoya (the 2019 Pan Am games gold medalist) with a 5-game win to make it an all-Bolivia final.
In the final, Moscoso and Keller, who annually seem to play for the Bolivian National singles title and who have gone back and forth for years, played another in their series. This time around, Moscoso came out on top in three games. Conrrado wins his fourth straight major IRF title (2023 PARC, 2022 Worlds, and 2022 PARC; Bolivia did not send teams to the 2022 World Games) and has really solidified his place at the top of the Men’s international game.
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Women’s Singles
The 32s and 16s went basically as expected. A couple notable round of 16 matches included Costa Rica’s Maricruz Ortiz topping Guatemala’s @Maria Renee Rodriguez by the score line of 9,7,17. third game: 19-17. The match of the round though was the 2-15 seeds Carla Muñoz and Maria Jose Vargas , who went the distance with the Argentine coming from 2-1 games down to win.
In the quarters, Ortiz continued to impress, topping the draw’s #1 seed Natalia Mendez 12-10 in the fifth to move on and secure a medal. Current LPRT #1 @Montse Mejia took out the 2022 PARC champ Angelica Barrios in three. Three-time defending champ Paola Longoria moved past USA’s Erika Manilla in three, and Vargas rebounded from her near-upset loss to grind out a great 3-game win over 2018 World Champ and 7-time IRF singles finalist Ana Gabriela Martinez to move on.
In the semis, the two Mexicans held serve, with Mejia shutting down Ortiz in three, while Longoria reversed a recent trend of losses to Vargas on tour with a solid 4-game win to set up an all Mexico Final.
In the final, Longoria won her 25th IRF singles title of her career, and her fourth straight Pan American gold, with a 3-game win over her new rival.
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Men’s Doubles
The clear-cut #1 Men’s Doubles team in the world Rodrigo Montoya and @Javier Mar cruised to the title, dropping just one game along the way.
The quarter finals featured two major results: the #2 seeded Bolivian team of Moscoso and @Kadim Carrasco was shocked by the Guatemalan team of @Juan Jose Salvatierra and @Edwin Galicia. Bolivia was the finalist earlier this year at PARC, but they were one-and-done here. Meanwhile, the battle of heavyweights in the quarters was team USA versus team Canada. Murray and Iwaasa won the 2022 PARC event together and are a very experienced team, and they pulled the 5-game “upset” over De La Rosa and @Alejandro Landa to send the US team home one-and done. Canada ran to the final to face team Mexico and took game one before falling.
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Women’s Doubles
The Guatemalan pair of Martinez and Rodriguez finally broke through at a major and took the title, topping the surprise finalists from Argentina Mendez an Vargas. Gaby and MRR have been playing together for a decade and have made a slew of major international Women’s Doubles finals but have always fallen short of winning. Not on the day today, as they played the veteran Argentine team tough and outslugged them for the gold medal.
Vargas and Mendez were in the final by virtue of a shocking upset of the #1 seeds and heavily favored team from Mexico Mejia and Alexandra Herrera . Team USA fell to the Argentines in the quarters, while team Bolivia (Barrios and Daza) lost to the Guatemalans in four close games in the other semi.
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Mixed Doubles
There’s not a long history of Mixed Doubles in IRF events, but the few that have been held have been dominated by Mexico. They’ve won 3 of the 4 such events and were the losing finalist to Bolivia in the other. So when both Mexico and Bolivia were upset in the semis, it sent some shock waves across the sport.
Team Argentina took out team Bolivia (Moscoso & Barrios) in one five-game semifinal triumph, while team USA shocked team Mexico (Portillo & Longoria) in the other, to guarantee a first-time winner in the final.
There, the Manilla’s took over and dominated, winning the Gold medal 4,4,6 with a great game plan of having Adam range over to cherry pick balls and Erika out-hitting fellow power-swinger Vargas along the right.
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Team Standings.
At the end of the five bracket competitions, the conventional IRF points tally was tabulated to determine the overall Team standings. This is different from the Team competition that followed all the individual draws, an event that seems to have been added on to make the trip more worthwhile to the players. These are unofficial standings and are not generally done for events that don’t feature group stages.
Overall Team Standings:
1. Mexico 760
2. Bolivia 540
3. Argentina 440
4. USA 380
5. Guatemala 370
Mexico cruised to the combined title thanks primarily to the Bolivian’s poor Women’s showing. Only the Mixed gold saved USA from being in 5th place behind Guatemala, a country that literally only has one facility in their entire nation.
Men’s Team Standings:
1. Bolivia 360
1T. Mexico 360
3. USA 200
3T Canada 200
5. Costa Rica 150
Mexico won doubles, Bolivia won singles, so perhaps the tiebreaker is Bolivia having the better runner’s up performances.
Women’s Team Standings:
1. Mexico 400
2. Argentina 300
3. Guatemala 240
4. Bolivia 180
4. USA 180
Bolivia would win a TB by virtue of better Doubles performance over USA, if we were awarding team medals.
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As was well discussed during the event, streaming/broadcasting was non-existent officially until the finals, and even then just the doubles was broadcast on the https://panamsportschannel.org/ channel. It is what it is; racquetball fans are just not used to participating in an event where the broadcast rights are sold as a package and free streaming is readily available. We did get some guerrilla streams from parents and players, which kept us satiated here at home.
However, during the doubles final, the streaming was magnificent. High quality cameras showed crisp, crystal clear images of the sport. If only we could get this quality week in/week out. That was a treat.
Longoria is the 3-time defending Pan American Games gold medalist. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
This weekend, the sport of racquetball competes in the Pan American Games. The 19th annual Pan American Games is being hosted by Chile, who built a fantastic new racquetball complex to host this competition. Absent the sport ever being put into the Olympics, this quadriennal competition featuring all the countries in the two American continents is the absolute highest level the sport currently competes.
Racquetball first appeared in the Pan Am games in 1995, in Buenos Aires. In that tournament, John Ellis topped Michael Bronfield in an 11-10 final to cap off his amateur career before turning pro, with Derek Robinson and Canadian Sherman Greenfeld making the semis. On the Women’s side, two legendary female hall of famers from the USA battled in the final, with Michelle Wolf (at the time, Michelle Gould) topping Cheryl Gudinas for the title.
Making it into the Pan Am games was a seminal moment for the sport; it meant we were finally to be recognized as an “Olympic-level sport” in the eyes of the USOPC and IOC (since Pan Am games rises to that level), and it led to an official relationship with the highest US sports organization that lasts to this day.
Racquetball has now been competed in 6 Pan Am Games, missing only one event since the 1995 event (that being Brazil in 2007, when no courts were built). On the Men’s singles side, players from the USA won the first 5 Pan Am golds, with Rodrigo Montoya topping Alvaro Beltran in the 2019 final in Peru to break that streak. See http://rb.gy/gjl3f . For those who remember this famous match, Beltran was ahead in the second game when he dove for a ball and shattered the back glass door, covering himself in shards of glass. He was on a roll but ended up losing the match.
On the women’s singles side, Paola Longoria has dominated the last three events as expected, and is in Chile to pursue a 4th straight. See http://rb.gy/0cav6 .
They play singles, doubles, mixed and a team competition. We’ll do a quick preview of the draws with some predictions.
As is normally the case in International events, the seeding is not as fans of the game would expect. That’s because the seeds are done by country (not player), and the country performance for several past events is taken into consideration. Furthermore the #1 and #2 seeds per country are driven by National results. It means we’ll have matchups of top pros way too early as always, and unbalanced brackets … as we have with practically every IRF competition.
Men’s Singles
Thanks to poor recent performances, team USA is the 3rd ranked country, meaning its representatives (Daniel De la Rosa and Adam Manilla ) are seeded 5th and 6th. DLR will have to face Mexican #2 @Eduardo Portillo in the quarters to get a shot at #1 overall seed Conrrado Moscoso in the semis.
In the bottom half, Manilla gets dark-horse #11 Diego Garcia in his opener and could be looking at a quick exit. Defending champ Rodrigo Montoya probably has to contend with Garcia and then the winner of the Carlos Keller Vargas – @Samuel Murray winner to get back to the final. Still, the top half is heavily weighted.
Usually when I look at a possible Moscoso-DLR match, i take into account the elevation, the ball, and the court construction. IRF uses the Gearbox black (slow), and Santiago is at a decent elevation (1,800 feet). I don’t know the court construction but can guess its panel. These factors seem to cancel each other out, but the slower the game plays, the better the advantage for DLR will be. DLR is healthy, has the game plan, and the patience that Moscoso doesn’t have. Meanwhile, Moscoso has won the last three major IRF events (2023 PARC, 2022 Worlds, 2022 PARC) … but has yet to have to contend with DLR in these competitions.
I’ll predict DLR takes Moscoso out in the semis and then tops Montoya in the final. DLR didn’t switch sides to fly all the way down here to lose.
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Women’s Singles
Lots of top-10 LPRT matchups early on in this bracket, as Argentine Natalia Mendez gets a #1 overall seed but has to contend with former #2 LPRT pro Frederique Lambert in the 16s. If she can get past the Canadian, she may have to contend with Costa Rican dark-horse Maricruz Ortiz. Meanwhile, the following four players are all in the same quadrant: #1 LPRT pro @Montse Mejia, 2022 PARC champ Angelica Barrios, former top10 touring pro Veronica Sotomayor , and USA’s @Michelle key . Just a brutal draw for all involved, but its hard to see anyone but Mejia coming out from the top.
The bottom half features five of the top 10 on the LPRT tour right now, including several recent tourney winners. @MarMaria José Vargas is the #2 seed, but last time she faced #7 @AAna Gabriela Martinez she got beat 9,12. 3-time defending champ Longoria is seeded #3 (by virtue of her win over Mejia at Mexican Nationals earlier this year) and is set to face top American Erika Manilla in the quarters, a player she’s dropped games to but never lost to. I see Gaby taking out Vargas, then losing to Longoria in the semis.
I sense Longoria vs Mejia in the final, and even though Mejia is #1 in the rankings, Longoria is #1 in international play and wins her 4th PanAm gold.
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Men’s Doubles:
There are great doubles matches all over this draw, with all the top teams present. #1 Montoya/Mar will barely sweat before making the final, while the bottom half will be a dogfight. USA (DLR & Alejandro Landa ) vs Canada (@Coby Iwaasa & Samuel Murray ) will be a tough one, but the winner here will be favored over #2 Bolivia (Moscoso playing with @Kadim Carrasco ). In the final though I favor Montoya & Mar to defend their Pan Am gold from 2019.
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Women’s Doubles:
The #1 team of Longoria & Mejia is the clear favorite. Team USA (Manilla & Key) will have a tough quarter against team Argentina (Mendez & Vargas) to then take a crack at #1 seeds. From the bottom, the long-time Guatemalan pair of @Maria Renee Rodriguez and Gaby will be favored to get to the final, but will be tested by #3 Bolivia (Barrios and @Jenny Daza Navia ). Look for Mexico to win.
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Mixed Doubles:
#1 Moscoso & Barrios won the 2023 PARC event over Montoya & Longoria; now Mexico is represented by Portillo & Longoria and I think Bolivia is an even bigger favorite to win. #4 Argentina (Vargas & Garcia) will be tough, as will #3 USA (Manilla and Manilla), but I expect this to go chalk.
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After the individual events, all the players get together for a team competition. Those draws will come out later on, but its the individual matches that matter.
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A comment; i’m sure fans of the sport have seen the video put out by @Cristina Amaya this week, talking about what happened and why she and teammate @Maria Paz Riquelme were excluded from the competition. The pair finished 6th in Women’s rankings at the 2023 PARC and should have qualified, but (if I’m understanding the situation) their defunct/bankrupted national federation did not file the paperwork to include their delegation, and thus their spots were given away. This all apparently happened in May but was only found out recently by the understandably crushed Colombian players. What a sh*tty thing to happen, and honestly someone should have notified them or made an exception. It’s not Amaya and Maria paz’ fault their federation collapsed due to corruption and greed. Their two spots (apparently) went to the next team in line, which was Cuba (it also looks like the Dominican Republic snuck two players in thanks to two of the countries ahead of them giving up female spots). Its a shame, and a situation that should have been avoided.
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Streaming outlook: it looks grim for streaming options, in that this event (unlike practically every other racquetball tournament) features broadcast rights that have been sold elsewhere. I’m sure we’ll see guerrilla streams here and there, but don’t hold your breath for 100% coverage.
