Hello Racquetball fans. A quick note to inform the community that I’ve done the typical year-end data upload into ProRacquetballStats.com for the just ended IRT season. Here’s some links that now show the updated data, along with some of the artifacts I maintain for the sport.
– Season Summary Report: https://rball.pro/zlj . This report has a breakdown of finishes for all players, is sorted by Wins, then Finals, then Semis, etc.
– All the season-level reports are now of course complete for the year. You can get a list of finals, draw sizes,
All the static files of data have also been updated:
– Number of Overall Titles: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/…/number_of_titles… DLR wins his 3rd and moves into a tie with Charlie Brumfield (who won 3 pro and an additional 2 amateur national titles in the early 1970s).
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.
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.
Montoya spoils both Jake and Conrrado’s title chances. Photo Kevin Savory 2022 Portland IRT event
Congrats to your Pro singles winner on the weekend: Rodrigo Montoya
The Pelham Memorial was dropped from a full tier 1 (which it has been for a few years) down to an IRT Satellite event for the 2023 season, but still featured a really solid draw with 4 of the top 5 players in the world all advancing to the semis. A reminder: non tier 1s are NOT loaded to the Pro Racquetball Stats database, but i’m covering his b/c of the strength of the draw and because of the year end race implications.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=41520
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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
In the 16s, the top 8 seeds advanced as expected but we got some solid matches. I the 8/9, @Sam Bredenbeck pushed Kadim Carrasco before falling in a breaker. Montoya faced off against former IRT tour veteran Charlie Pratt and advanced. Jaime Martell faced former tour regular @Tony Carson and advanced in two closer games 12,10.
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In the Quarters, again all top 4 seeds advanced but a couple of the matches were closer than expected. Alan Natera pushed #3 Andree Parrilla in the first game before Parrilla advanced in two. Martell took a game off of #2 Conrrado Moscoso before the Bolivian took control.
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In the Semis, two upsets.
– #1 @Jake Bredenbeck , who was trying to win this satellite to put as much additional pressure on Daniel De la Rosa heading into Pleasanton, was upset in two 15-14 games against Parrilla. Jake’s going to be kicking himself for having game point in both games but failing to convert.
– #2 Moscoso, who is still technically capable of winning the year end event, lost easily to a familiar nemesis Montoya. Rodrigo has a number of career wins over Conrrado and handled him easily here 7,11.
In the Finals, Montoya took out Parrilla in a tie-breaker that was cut short by an injury that forced Parrilla to retire.
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Points Implications of results
– Jake adds some points to his total, but not really enough to trouble DLR for the year end title. When the 2022 Portland points expire, Jake will trail De la Rosa by roughly 211 points, which means that Jake will have to “make up” 211 points on Daniel in Pleasanton to earn the title. Jake will need a shocking early round upset from DLR and will need to win in Pleasanton to really have a shot at the title. If Daniel gets to the semis … he’ll have the title sewn up.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– There was a nice little LPRT exhibition that included Montse Mejia, Carla Munoz, Michelle Key, and Erika Manilla.
– Men’s Open Singles was andres gomez taking out Oregon local player @Sunji Spencer in a tiebreaker.
– Men’s Open Doubles featured two solid teams in the final: Martel/Natera versus Pratt & Tony Carson. The mexicans took out the Americans in a great 11-8 tiebreaker match.
– Mixed Open was taken by @Will Reynolds and Shane Diaz, who got a walkover against Key & Rhys Anderson.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew .
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Dave Azuma and Jeff Clark for putting this event on!
Next weekend is the big finale of the 2023 IRT season in Pleasanton. @Adam Manilla
and Bobby Horn have the portable court up and running, and the tournament should be amazing. Then, the weekend following the Ladies are back in action in my hometown DC area Xmas classic, a tournament I used to help run 25 years ago.
Parrilla gets back into the winner’s circle in Boston
Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory
Congrats to your IRT Singles Pro winner on the weekend: Andree Parrilla
Parrilla surprises the field, taking out the #1, #2 and #4 seeds en route to the title. This is Andree’s 3rd career IRT tier 1 title, and he becomes the 5th different player to take a tier 1 title this year. Each of the top 5 ranked players on tour have taken a title this year, after 6 different players won last year, continuing to show the diversity on tour that we have right now.
– 14-time IRT season-ending champion @Kane Waselenchuk made his return to pro singles, nearly 14 months after he tore his Achilles heel, and on the weekend of his 42nd birthday. He had entered Denver in August but pulled out last minute. Not this time, as he took the court against fellow lefty veteran Robert collins to open the event. Seeded 22nd out of 22, Kane made fast work of the #11 seed Collins 5,5 to announce his return to the sport.
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In the 16s:
– #8 @Andres Acuña got a nice win against the streaking Alan Natera 13,13.
– Kane survived his first real test against a top ranked opponent, taking out #6 Adam Manilla with ease 2,4.
– #7 Samuel Murray was taken to a breaker by veteran lefty #10 Thomas Carter but rebounded to advance in three.
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In the Quarters:
– #1 @Daniel De La Rosa was pushed to the limit by Costa Rican Acuna, advancing 14,14. It doesn’t get much closer than that, and it makes this observer wonder if DLR is entirely “into” this tourney.
– #5 Parrilla reverses a recent trend of losing to his long time Mexican Rival #4 Rodrigo Montoya , winning an 11-7 breaker to move into the semis.
– In the match that I, along with many neutrals wanted to see, former #1 King Kane trounced #3 @Conrrado Moscoso 8,6 to move on. Kane mixed up power and touch masterfully, using power-based accuracy on his serves to force attackable returns from Conrrado, and then using his amazing touch in the front court to dink balls away for winners. Moscoso was unable to adapt his all-attack game and had no answers really for Kane’s approach. The scores probably weren’t as close as they indicated, as game two was mostly one way traffic once it became clear Conrrado had no answer. This was a real eye-opening result for this observer; i was certain a 42-yr old Kane coming off a massive injury would fall here, and It really makes me question the status of the current top ranked pros in the game’s hierarchy if Kane can win so easily. More importantly to the 2023 points race, this early round loss combined with DLR’s advancing to the semi most likely sealed the 2023 title for DLR; more on that later.
– #2 Jake Bredenbeck survived match point against versus Big Canada Murray to move on to the semis for the 8th time in 9 tournaments this year, continuing to be the most consistent player on tour.
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In the Semis
– #1 De La Rosa frittered away game one 15-14 against Parrilla and then played catchup most of game 2 before losing 14,13 and missing out on an opportunity to really seal the 2023 title.
– #2 Bredenbeck showed more of a game plan against Kane than the opponents prior, but still had to survive another match point against in game two to get this to a tiebreaker. There, a clearly injured Kane limped his way to an 11-4 game3 loss that he probably should have just forfeited. Nonetheless, its Jake who advances to the title game.
In the Finals, Andree and Jake gave a fantastic showing, with the game going to the very end. Andree takes the title with an 11-10 thriller.
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Points Implications of results
In the short term, I believe making the finals will vault Jake to the #1 spot on tour, if just barely over DLR. I say “I believe” because my working XLS doesn’t take into account the slight points totals that the players earn for losing in three. If this happens, it’d be the first time Jake has officially ascended to #1, even if briefly.
In the longer term (i.e. for the rest of the season), DLR increases his “season to date” points lead over Moscoso to 495 points (his lead over Jake is 540 points once you drop the lowest scores for all players). This means the following: If Pleasanton is a normal Tier 1 event in terms of points awarded, then DLR has now sewn up the year end title for 2023. If however Pleasanton is counted as a grand slam (which awards 600 points to the winner), the title technically is still up for grabs. There’s also a chance that Boston counts as a Grand Slam as well (though doubtful, since there was no money in Pro Doubles), but we’ll have to see what happens when the rankings run on Tuesday.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– In Open Singles Trujillo defeated Murray (who was “allowed” to enter Open since he has dropped out of the IRT top in the final. Top NE players Flores and Keegan Smith were in the semis.
– Open Doubles: competed on Sunday, Flores teamed with Orlando Cabana to take the doubles title, beating Alok Mehta and Erick Cuevas in the final.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters @FavFavio , Steve Schulze ,Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew
Thanks to the Tourney Director @Stuart Solomon or 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.
The LPRT visits Chicago next weekend, and World Juniors has already started down in Tarja Bolivia. After that, we have 3 more pro events to finish out the calendar year; a satellite IRT in Portland, the Pleasanton IRT event, then the LPRT returning to Severna Park for the Xmas classic.
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!
A double on the weekend for DLR, which couldn’t come at a better time as the 2023 season nears its close and he tries to go for a 3rd straight pro title.
In the 32s, the only real notable match was the strong return to the singles court of @Alvaro Beltran , who took out #13 Robert collins with ease 2,11. While we’ve seen Alvi play some doubles since his shock elbow injury last October, this is the first time he’s taken the singles court on the IRT since last October.
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In the 16s:
– In the always close 8/9 match, @Samuel Murray took out Alex Landa in a battle of former top 4 players who have both slipped down the rankings as of late.
– #5 Eduardo Portillo had to dig deep to top the red-hot #12 @Alan Natera in a breaker.
– #3 DLR was surprisingly taken to a breaker by his young Mexican rival Erick Cuevas before moving on.
– #7 Adam Manilla got a tie-breaker win over #10 Andres Acuña to move on and solidify his ranking on tour.
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In the Quarters
– #9 Murray continued his years-long mastery of #1 Conrrado Moscoso ‘s game, topping him 12,13 to move on and put a serious dent in Moscoso’s chance of winning the year end title. Murray is now 5-4 lifetime against Moscoso across competitions dating to 2018.
– #4 Rodrigo Montoya and Portillo played a close one, with Montoya taking the breaker 11-9 to move on.
– #3 DLR advanced past Parrilla by the closest of margins, winning 13,14.
– #2 Jake Bredenbeck avenged a US National team qualifying loss to Manilla, winning in a tie-breaker.
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In the Semis
– Montoya improved to 4-2 lifetime over Murray with a straightforward 12,9 win.
– DLR made it two in a row over Jake, winning in a tie-breaker to move into the final.
In the Finals, DLR made relatively fast work of Montoya, improving to 9-4 lifetime across competitions with the 2,11 win.
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Points Implications of results
During the tournament, I confirmed that the IRT remains on an 11-tournament rolling schedule for its rankings, having flirted with the idea of pivoting to a 365-day calendar earlier this year but ultimately staying with the same system that was put in place in mid 2020 during Covid. By the end of 2023, it won’t matter, because there will be exactly 11 events in the calendar year (assuming no more cancellations of the 3 remaining events on the books).
What i’m not sure about is the mechanism for counting these last 11 events; is it cumulative last 11 or is it “last 11, dropping the lowest.” Because in the short term, that’ll make a huge difference as to what happens at the very top of the tour rankings as soon as this event is put in. By my records, if all 11 tournaments are counted w/o dropping the lowest score, Jake Bredenbeck will ascend to #1 by the slimmest of margins over #2 DLR, with Conrrado falling to #3. However, if its “top 11 drop the lowest” then DLR will drop a zero-point score and ascend back to #1, with Moscoso #2 and Jake #3.
Either way, The Tracktown dropped the 2022 US Open, which costs Moscoso 600 points, but two of the next three events to drop were events towards the end of 2022 that DLR missed, meaning everyone else likely is playing for 2nd place unless DLR takes some shock early losses in the last couple of events.
Does DLR’s Pickleball commitments play a role here? Maybe. The 3 remaining events on the IRT schedule are:
– 11/12 in Boston
– 12/3 in Portland
– 12/10 in Pleasanton.
Pickleball events on the schedule for those weekends?
– 11/12: USAP Nationals, a huge event underwritten by the PPA
– 12/3: San Clemente PPA season finals.
– 12/10: MLP Season 3, event 3; the last event of the 2023 MLP season.
Wow. So DLR has a MLP event the same weekend as the IRT event in Pleasanton that could decide the tour. Phew. Something’s gotta give there.
Former #1 Kane Waselenchuk was in Eugene this weekend, but only playing doubles. He and fellow 40-something Beltran teamed up and won a round, but fell in the quarters to the #1 seeds Manilla/Parrilla.
In a testament to how close these doubles teams are, every match in the quarters and semis went to tie-breaker as the top two seeds advanced to the final.
#2 DLR/Landa, the US National team for Chile’s Pan Am games, topped the likely Bolivian doubles team Moscoso/Kadim Carrasco in one semi, then took out Manilla/Parrilla for the title.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Victor Camacho took out Texas junior @Cole Sendrey for the Men’s Open title.
– SoCal players @Iain Dunn and Paul Saraceno took out @Israel Torres and @Steve Lewis in the Men’s Open Doubles final.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew
Thanks to the Tourney Director Wayne Antone for putting this event on with such short notice. It was great to see a new event on the schedule and I hope you can make it an annual one.
Unless we get another event on the books last minute, the next big thing is 3WallBall in Las Vegas the first week of October! I’ll be there, on the mike and covering the event. Maybe even playing (hah, probably not).
Can Moscoso make it 2 in a row and keep the pressure on for the 2023 title? Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
Welcome to the business end of the 2023 IRT season. After a fun event in Denver (thanks again Jim Hiser !) the IRT is back in action at an event just recently added to the schedule. The IRT has this event, a Boston stop in November, a satellite event in Portland, and then Bobby Horn/Adam Manilla’s Pleasanton stop in early December and that’s it for the season. Every points counts.
Thanks to the hard work of Oregonian Wayne Antone , US National doubles finalist earlier this year, along with Portland native and resident Charlie Pratt , longtime US National team member, touring pro, USA Racquetball board member and former US Junior National team coach, we have the IRT visiting Eugene for the very first time.
Eugene, of course, is the home-town of Nike, hence the name of the event “Track town.” Racquetball has an interesting tie-in to Nike and the running world; Linda Prefontaine, sister of the famous runner Steve, was a top racquetball player in the late 70s/early 80s and competed in multiple pro events. See https://rball.pro/yku for her career record.
I’m a little late to the preview, so the draw has already started. So i’ll do a quicker summary than normal.
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Lets preview the singles Draw
– Murray-Landa in the 8/9 spot used to be in the 4/5 spot; both players are slipping down the rankings tourney by tourney. Landa was sick and missed Colorado, and has had one thing or another bug him for a while.
– Natera looked great in Denver; can he turn that into performance in Eugene?
– Manilla-Acuna in the 16s is tough.
– Beltran is back and topped Collins in the 32s with ease. Great to see.
– DLR-Parrilla quarter will be a test, as will Jake-Manilla. Adam took out jake at US National singles, basically eliminating Jake from the team for Pan Am games, so we know he can win, but Jake’s #2 for a reason.
– Its hard to see anything other than a repeat of the semis from Denver, as we now have a real separation between the top 4 guys (Moscoso, Jake, DLR, Montoya) and the rest of the tour.
– I think we see another DLR-Moscoso final, and this time a non-injured DLR may very well take it.
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Doubles review
– Waselenchuk is here, but only playing doubles. He and Alvi won their opener and have a good shot at #1 Manilla/Parrilla based on Beltran’s form and the fact that neither 40-something pro has to cover the whole court
– The 2/3 semi on the bottom could be great: Jake/Murray vs DLR/Landa. Two power hitters versus two control players who also happen to be your US National doubles team at the Pan Am Games.
– I like Montoya and Natera to get to the final, but to then lose to DLR/Landa.
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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!
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.
– All the hype about former #1 Kane Waselenchuk returning to the court turned out to be worthless, as he withdrew before even playing his first qualifier against Texan DJ Mendoza . As he did after withdrawing from the 2021 US Open, he went on Sudsy Monchik ‘s podcast and went on a 25 minute diatribe about the IRT without really giving a reason why he withdrew. For neutrals who really just want to see him play, to see if he’s still “got it” it was definitely a let-down, as i’m sure it was for those on site.
– @Elias Nieto had two solid wins to get into the round of 32, topping Canada/Chile’s @Pedro Castro and then USA’s @Sam Bredenbeck .
– Hometown favorite @Jacob Kingsford had a nice win over @Rodrigo Mendoza to get into the main draw.
– @Erick Cuevas Fernandez got a nice win over east coaster @Dylan Pruitt to move on.
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In the 32s:
– #21 Diego García topped #12 Thomas Carter in game one 15-5, then got an injury forfeit to move into the 16s as a 20+ seed.
– Career pro win for Neito Elias , taking out #13 Alan Natera in a breaker. Nieto is really coming into his own; he got a win over Murray at PARC earlier this year and now reverses the result with Natera since their last meeting.
– #19 Erick Trujillo made fast work of #14 Jaime Martell 5,9, a solid win for Trujillo, who had had some sputtering results lately.
– #7 Alejandro Landa no shows, giving @juan Francisco Cueva a walk-over into the 16s. We now know that the IRT preemptively put a slew of players into the draw, then when it was released well ahead of the event those who had no intentions of coming were given forfeits. I think we all appreciate the attempt to get the draws out early to build buzz (especially since the amateur entries were capped), but there’s a reason draws for pro events are not released until the day before; players drop out last minute all the time. Int’l players can’t get visas, or flights get cancelled, or players get injuries and withdraw. The LPRT changed its draws last minute, since that’s what the players want, and it made our prediction piece useless … but the IRT stuck with its release and ended up giving multiple walk-overs in the event.
– #23 Carlos Keller Vargas came from a game down to topple #10 @Andres Acuña. A tough break for Acuna, to draw Keller here.
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In the 16s
– #1 @Conrrado Moscoso made fast work of former #1 Rocky Carson 4,5.
– #8 Adam Manilla got a very solid win over #9 Samuel Murray 7,7. These kinds of 8/9 wins are crucial for players at the edge of the top 10 to stay there.
– Garcia with a very good win over Eduardo Portillo, coming from behind after dropping game one. Garcia has now beaten Lalo twice this year, to go along wins over Mar and Carson last October, a U21 junior worlds win last December, and a semi-finals showing at PARC in April where he lost 21-19 in the 5th game to Keller. Is Garcia legitimately a top 5 player in the world?
– Nieto extended #4 @Rodrigo Montoya to a third game before falling, really making a statement this weekend.
– #6 @Andree Parrilla got a solid win over @Javier Mar, a regular troublespot, to advance to the quarters.
– Little known Diego Gastelum really hung with #2 @Jake Bredenbeck , losing game one 15-14 before getting ran off the court in game two.
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In the Quarters, the top four seeds advanced as expected.
– Moscoso trounced Manilla 11,3
– Montoya lost game one to Garcia before advancing.
– @Daniel De La Rosa finally got pressed, losing game one to Andree 8 before moving on.
– Bredenbeck ground out a very close 13,12 win over the always-tough Keller.
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In the Semis
– Moscoso took care of business 11,6 over Montoya; the last few times these guys played its been super close, a bunch of 15-14 games. Not today: Conrrado really played Rodrigo off the court.
– In a rematch of the US nationals final, DLR worked through some sort of ankle or calf injury to top Jake and move into the final. It was a pretty impressive performance from someone who was clearly hurt.
In the final, DLR blasted Moscoso 15-3 in game one, then seemed to basically give up in game two to preserve his game cycles for a tiebreaker. In the breaker, DLR went for glory shots again and again as it was clear his movement was hampered, and towards the end of the breaker Moscoso got to just a few more shots than DLR anticipated, leading to an 11-7 loss and the title for Conrrado.
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Points Implications of results
This event didn’t expire anything from 2022, so there won’t be a single change until you get to about the #18-20 range. The next event will feature the same top 4 seeds in the same order. I’m not sure if the IRT flips seeds 5-8 anymore (I don’t believe so). We’re not going to see appreciable movement in the rankings until about the middle of October, by which time DLR should be in a pretty good position. The next three events to expire are:
– 2022’s Capital Classic (DLR: did not play)
– 2022’s US Open (DLR lost in 16s)
– 2022’s Golden State Open (DLR: did not play)
So, DLR is defending just 135 points from these next three events. By way of comparison, Moscoso will be defending 1150 points and Jake will be defending 675 points from those same three events. If DLR shows up and makes the semis or finals of the next handful of events, he’ll rocket back to #1 and will be hard to catch.
A last minute pair of withdrawals of mid-20s international players resulted in a shifting of the draw last minute, which drastically changed a couple of key first round matchups that really could have re-shaped the way this draw went. As discussed by LPRT Deputy commissioner Timothy Baghurst on social media, this is what they players want; they want withdrawals that result in no-show walkovers into the money rounds eliminated, no matter what the impact on the draws.
Lets review the notable matches resultant of the re-shaped draw:
In the 32s:
– Rarely seen @Nancy Enrique took a solid TB win over #17 Sheryl Lotts.
– #13 Criss Amaya got a solid win over #20 @Lexi York .
– #11 @Gaby Martínez got a bummer of a walk-over win against Costa Rican junior Maricruz Ortiz . I would have liked to see this one. Not knowing the answer, it seems like Ortiz got hurt in Mixed, because she forfeited out of both Pros and Open.
– #6 @maMaria Jose Vargas made fast work of her practice partner and dark-horse candidate Veronica Sotomayor 3,2 to extinguish any deep runs by 20+ seeds.
In the 16s:
– #9 Natalia Mendez reversed the course of her last couple of matchups with #8 Carla Munoz , winning a tight one 9,14 to move on.
– #5 Brenda Laime Jalil made fast work of #12 Kelani Lawrence 10,5 to move on.
– Gaby shocked this observer and cruised past Vargas 9,12 to move on. Vargas has been on such a roll lately, i’m surprised she got upset early despite her seed. I feel like there’s a set of 5 women in a class of their selves in the ladies game right now (Mejia, Longoria, Herrera, Gaby, Vargas), and when two of them meet in the 16s, its always a high-stakes match.
– #10 @Samantha Salas Solis took out Jessica Parrilla in a slight upset in the 7-10 matchup.
Quarters:
– #1 Montse Mejia lost the first game against Mendez before buckling down and cruising to a win.
– Laime took out #4 @EErika Manila 7,10 to move into the semis.
– #3 Alexandra Herrera got back on top, defeating Gaby 13,7 to return to the semis. What a quartile; The #3 quartile in this event had Herrera, Vargas, Gaby, Sotomayor, and Ortiz. Phew.
– #2 Paola Longoria made fast work of Salas to move on. In three matches to this point in the tournament, Longoria had given up just 10 combined points in 6 games … a sign of things to come?
Semis:
– Mejia topped Laime by the more dominant score line than I was expecting 6,12.
– Longoria ground out a tough win over Herrera 10,14.
Finals: we got the match we wanted: 1 v 2. Last year’s champ versus this year’s champ. And we got a back and forth affair, Longoria grinding out a game one win 15-13 before Mejia caught fire in game two and blasted Paola 15-3. In the tiebreaker, Longoria found a weakness: a cut lob serve to Mejia’s forehand that she just couldn’t help but attack … and with a lively ball and concrete and altitude, cross court overheads come off the back wall for setups over and over, and before Mejia could alter her strategy Longoria ran away with the tiebreaker 11-5 for the title.
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Points Impact of the event.
If you see the rankings today … 8/14, they look weird, because the Paola Longoria Experience from 8/14/22 is still in there. However, tomorrow on 8/15/23, the impact of those points expiration will be more clear.
The top 3 will not change despite Paola’s win. Laime will switch places with Manilla and move to #4. Vargas and Munuz will move up one spot each, to #6 and #7 respectively as Barrios drops down by virtue of missing the Denver event and its grand slam points. Gaby moves into the top 10, while Leoni drops out of it.
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Mixed Pro Doubles recap
The 28-team Mixed Pro doubles draw gave us some crazy results in the early rounds, Here’s a couple of the crazy upsets by seed from the 32s and 16s:
– #1 seeds Montoya & Salas, who won this event in 2021, were shocked by #16 Gaby & Edwin Galicia in a tie-breaker.
– #24 Waselenchuk & Michelle Key advanced past two very good doubles players in @Kadim Carrasco and Laime in the opener 10,10. Carrasco just couldn’t put balls away in the altitude, but Kane could and that made the difference.
– #13 Martell & Amaya went 11-10 against Adriana Riveros and Diego Garcia to move on.
– #19 Ecuadorians Jose Daniel Ugalde and Sotomayor took out Costa Ricans #14 Acuna & Ortiz.
– #10 Lawrence & Carter took out Canada’s top pairing of Samuel Murray and Frederique Lambert in two, not an upset by seed by definitely by reputation.
– The run of Kane/Key was ended by the husband-wife team of Natera/Munoz in controversial fashion. After destroying the #24 seeds 15-2 in the first, Kane and Key took game two and forced a breaker. A back and forth tie-breaker was ended on a no-call at match point when Natera hit a jam serve at Kane, who held up but was not given a hinder. An unsatisfying end to the match, but one which was vindicated as Natera/Munoz raced to the final together.
7 of the top 8 seeds moved on to the quarters. #8 Natera/Munoz crushed #16 Gaby/Galicia, and then topped Mar/Mejia in the semis with relative ease 8,9 to gain the final together. From the bottom half, Moscoso and Longoria earned their finals appearance, topping the veteran Beltran/Mendez team, then advancing past the troublesome DLR/Scott team, before crushing Portillo/Herrera to get to the final.
In the final, Natera’s excellent play finally met its match in Moscoso, and the dominant pair cruised to the pro title.
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Open Singles and Doubles, other notable draws
There was no “Pro” Gender Doubles in Denver, with TD Hiser opting to put money into the Pro Mixed instead, but the doubles draws were still solid.
– In Men’s Open Doubles, Beltran/Carson turned back the clock and took the title over the hard-hitting pair of @Sam Bredenbeck and Sam Murray 11-9.
– In Women’s Open Doubles, Salas teamed with Mendez to take out the all_USA doubles pair of Lawrence & Scott
– In Men’s Open singles, Trujillo topped Gastelum in an all Mexico U21 final.
– In Women’s Open Singles: @Martina Katz took the final against @Shane Diaz.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from both pro tour’s teams. That means Favio Soto , Samuel Schulze ,Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew, plus Timothy Baghurst , Sandy Rios , Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh , plus all the guest commentators.
Thanks to the Tourney Director Jim Hiser for putting on this event. It was 2 years in the making, and I hope you do it again.
Thanks to title sponsor Keith Minor and Kwm Gutterman ; without your continued support we wouldn’t have a pro sport.
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.
Kane is Back. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
NOTE: just after publishing this, the LPRT changed the pro draw, changing someof the matchups. Unfortunately the Ladies pro section of this now is out of date.
Hello Racquetball Fans! Welcome to 2023 World Singles and Doubles, being held in and around Highland Ranch, Colorado. It will be the biggest indoor tournament of the year, an event two years in the making which boasts a huge prize purse and one of the most rare events in the sport: Pro Mixed Doubles. This event is the first event of the new LPRT 2023-24 season, and it marks the beginning of the second half of the IRT’s 2023 season, and holds intrigue across the board for both tours.
Both pro tours have healthy attendance. There’s 56 men and 35 women in Denver, numbers not approached on either side since the last US Open. Most of the top 20 on both sides is present, and the Men’s side features the triumphant return to the court of 14-time #1 Kane Waselenchuk after a 10 month absence due to an injury sustained last September.
The big question mark, of course, is Kane’s fitness and match prep. He played in Outdoor Nationals a few weeks ago, but outdoor doubles is a vastly different experience than indoor pro singles. He’s now nearing 42 years of age, coming off a full-blown Achilles heel injury, and nobody (besides him) really knows how he’ll be prepared for a pro singles event. Especially one at altitude. It isn’t as if he forgot how to play the sport, and if he makes a deep run in Denver I’ll simultaneously be surprised and not surprised. I honestly don’t know what to predict; an early exit or a title, or something in-between. I do know this: Kane generally has played with a chip on his shoulder after long absences, looking to make a statement, so opponents beware.
We’re previewing the IRT, LPRT, and Mixed Pro draws here. There are also “Open” Doubles on both sides with strong draws, but which won’t “count” as pro events since they’re not full pro purses, as well as the regular Open singles draws for the non-top 10 players.
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IRT Men’s Singles preview
There’s two rounds of qualifiers into the main draw of 32; the top 16 players got byes into the 32s, and everyone else had to play at least one qualifier.
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Qualifiers that look interesting:
– Nick Riffel vs @Juan Jose Salvatierra could be a tough match, assuming former touring pro Riffel gets past his round of 128 match.
– Cole Sendry vs @Edwin Galicia is a nice test for the USA U18 up and coming player.
– Erick Trujillo should have the advantage over Bolivian doubles specialist Roland Keller , but this is no cakewalk for either player.
– Former IRT top 10 player @Carlos Keller Vargas projects to face former Intercollegiates champ @Erik Garcia for a spot in the main draw.
– Maryland’s own @Dylan Pruitt , if he can get past Canadian national team member @Naman Gaur , projects into @Erick Cuevas Fernandez in a match that could go either way.
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Round of 32 matches to watch for:
– #9 @Adam Manilla vs Waselenchuk; Manilla is the unlucky top 10 player who gets Kane in the first round. These two played in the tournament where Kane got injured last fall, with Manilla losing 11,7. Since then, Adam has played well and is on home courts. But I’ll pick Kane to advance here.
– #12 Thomas Carter projects to get qualifier @Diego García in the round of 32, another non-full time playing pro who can do some damage. These two played at PARC in April in Guatemala and Garcia came out on top, one of several impressive wins for the young Bolivian-turned-Argentine in that event. I’ll go with Garcia with the upset here.
– #13 Alan Natera versus #20 Sam Bredenbeck could be tight; how far has Sam’s singles game come in the past few months? Natera is climbing up the ranks quietly, and will be favored to advance.
– #14 Jaime Martell projects to play countryman Trujillo, if Erick can advance past Roland. I think Martell can handle him, but this is potentially a tight match.
– #10 newlywed Andres Acuña is the unlucky player to get the last of the big names coming out of qualifying; Keller. These two also played in Guatemala at PARC, a 4-game win for Keller, and I think Carlos will upset the Costa Rican again here.
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Projecting the 16s; here’s some possible great matches:
– #8 Samuel Murray plays the winner of Manilla/Waselenchuk. If Kane gets by Adam, he runs into fellow Canadian Murray, who he has utterly dominated during their careers. Kane won their last meeting in NY in 2022 1,1. A bad potential matchup for Sam, and I’ll favor Kane to continue his mental and physical dominance here.
– If Garcia gets by Carter, he runs into #5 @Eduardo Portillo , another player he beat at PARC. Look for Garcia to make a deep run in Denver.
– #6 Andree Parrilla projects to face always-the-dark horse #11 @Javier Mar . Mar owns the career h2h 5-3 and has won the last two meetings, and I always like Mar to get the upset win.
– The winner of Keller/Acuna he plays into #7 @Alejandro Landa , and both opponents offer intrigue here. Landa-Acuna bad blood history is well documented, while Keller-Landa have met just three times in 10 years. The question for Landa is always health; he’s been bedeviled by injuries for a while. Upset watch here.
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Quarters prediction:
– #1 Conrrado Moscoso over Waselenchuk. Here’s where I think the Kane train derails in Denver. Moscoso is #1, he’s battle tested, he’s used to playing at altitude, and he’s game ready. If Kane wins this … he wins the event and gives us all pause as to the current state of the game.
– #4 @Rodrigo Montoya over Garcia: the upset-laden run ends at the hands of the top Mexican.
– #3 Daniel De La Rosa over Mar. We havn’t mentioned DLR yet; he has a pretty straightforward draw to the quarters, then projects to meet one of two top Mexican players (Mar or Parrilla) that he knows well and should move on.
– #2 @Jake Bredenbeck over Keller (or Acuna, or Landa). We also havn’t mentioned Jake yet; his two openers look very straightforward, and he’ll get his first test here. whoever moves on from the #7/#10 section should be the underdog against Jake.
Semis and Final:
– Moscoso over Montoya: they always play tight, but Moscoso has figured out early-career troubles playing Rodrigo and now has won 6 of their last 8 meetings (and one of those losses was his head-banging forfeit in Florida in 2022).
– DLR over Jake: unpopular opinion, since Jake won their last meeting … but DLR is still 13-3 lifetime over Jake. That being said, Jake’s 2023 has been spectacular, and his ascension to #2 is well earned. But DLR should be on a mission here; he is behind on points, and needs to start winning events to give himself a shot at a third pro title at year’s end. I think he starts here.
Final: A rematch of the 2021 World Singles & Doubles final; Moscoso vs DLR. In 2021, DLR won 7,13 for the title, but things are a bit different since then. They’ve only met twice since, in two successive finals earlier this year. DLR topped Conrrado in Austin in January, then the result flipped at the Lewis Drug two weeks later. Who has the advantage with fast concrete courts and altitude negating the effects of the slower ball? I sense Moscoso wins here.
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Ladies Singles Preview
NOTE: just after publishing this, the LPRT changed the pro draw, changing someof the matchups. Unfortunately the Ladies pro section of this now is out of date.
Just as Kane is returning to the men’s tour after a long absence, so does the Ladies tour have a former top player returning after some time away. Veronica Sotomayor is in the draw for the first time since Feb 2022 and will be looking to shake things up. She’s the player everyone wants to avoid in the draw.
Round of 32 matches of intrigue:
– @Sheryl Lotts vs Nancy Enriquez in the 16/17 matchup should be solid. Former top 10 player Nancy gets surprise wins often, and Lotts returns to the tour after months away, but with a ton of playing under her belt in her new Florida digs.
– Lexi York takes on Cris Amaya in a tough opener for both. York gets a ton of playing time with the Bredenbeck brothers and could surprise the tour regular Amaya.
– #4 Erika Manila vs Sotomayor: a semis-quality matchup in the round of 32 isn’t fair to either player, but Sotomayor had to play someone to start. Manilla’s last match on tour was a 3,7 loss in the round of 16 in the season’s final event, one which didn’t affect her season ending ranking but which had to leave a bad taste. Meanwhile, Vero basically trains all week with the likes of Ortiz, Vargas, Lotts, and Sudsy Monchik and is game ready. Upset watch here; I would not be surprised if Sotomayor handles Manilla’s power and sends her packing early.
– #11 Gaby Martinez faces Maricruz Ortiz in a match she should win, but which gives Ortiz another chance to show how far she’s progressed.
– Two top US juniors in @Naomi ros and @Shane Diaz take on top 10 pros in Natalia Mendez and Carla Munoz respectively, but I don’t expect them to get upsets on tour just yet.
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Round of 16 matches to watch for
– In the 8/9, Mendez and Munoz are set to battle. Mendez is trending down while Carla is trending up, and I favor the Chilean here.
– Brenda Laime takes on east-coast rival @Kelani Lawrence in a new budding rivalry. They’ve played 4 times in 10 months, splitting them 2 and 2. Laime has gotten wins at the majors, and has very quietly ascended to her current #5 ranking, and could continue making noise on tour. Laime to advance.
– #6 Maria Jose Vargas takes on #11 Gaby in a semis-quality meeting between two of the top four ladies in the world right now. Vargas has just been on fire since her return to the tour, and I favor her for another deep run.
– 7/10 is Jessica Parrilla vs Samantha Salas Solis , who have played each other for years. Salas holds the upper hand though, and should move on here.
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Quarters prediction:
– #1 @Montse Mejia over Munoz. This is no walkover; Carla played Montse tough in Virginia at this juncture, the match going 12,12, and has some career wins. But Montse is #1 now for a reason, and moves on.
– #5 Laime over Sotomayor: I think Vero’s run ends at the hands of the classical power/pinch game of Laime.
– #6 Vargas over #3 Alexandra Herrera ; amazing how tides shift; Herrera was 0-for-career against Vargas until early 2022, when she put it all together and couldn’t lose to anyone. But now, Herrera is slipping, with several round of 16 losses and is in jeopardy of getting pushed out of the top 3 for the first time in years.
– #2 Paola Longoria over Salas: Longoria has looked vulnerable of course, but not against her long-time doubles partner, over whom she holds a commanding h2h career lead (68-3). She’ll move on, then the real tournament starts.
Semis and Finals picks:
– #1 Mejia over #5 Laime. It wouldn’t shock me if Laime gets a win here, but I expect Mejia to hold serve and return to the finals. These two play similarly, but Mejia’s got a better overall pinch/pass game plus can handle Laime’s power.
– #6 Vargas over #2 Longoria. I think Vargas has the confidence to win, and will build on the last few meetings against her long-time antagonist.
Finals: Mejia over Vargas. I think Montse is relishing the chance to get a title as #1 for the first time.
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Mixed Pro Doubles Preview.
No fewer than 28 mixed pro doubles teams are set to compete, and racquetball fans are looking forward to this rarity. The defending champions from the 2021 event are back together and are the #1 seeds: Salas & Montoya. The similarities to prior Mixed Pro events pretty much ends there, as teams are jumbled and seedings done using a combination of USAR ranking points and past experiences.
Here’s the opening round matches I’m liking:
– #16 Sam Bredenbeck & Lexi York vs #17 Galicia and Gaby: an interesting contrast in styles here; Gaby should win the right sided battle with Lexi, but Sam can overpower Galicia. Look for this one to be close.
– #24 Kane & Michelle Key versus #9 @Kadim Carrasco and Laime: Carrasco and Laime are both solid doubles players, but so is Key as the reigning US National doubles champ. Kane is Kane, and in doubles can be pretty brutal to line up against on the backhand as a right-handed player. Don’t let #24 fool you (Kane has literally never played mixed before, knocking down their seeding): this is a tourney favorite.
– #14 Acuna/Ortiz versus #19 Sotomayor & @Jose Daniel Ugalde . Ugalde has some solid doubles experience (he made the finals of 2022 PARC men’s doubles) and can hang with Acuna. Sotomayor should win the right-side battle with the younger Ortiz. That kind of split usually means close tiebreaker.
– #23 Samuel Murray & @Frederique Lambert versus #10 Carter & Lawrence: a tough matchup for both teams, as the under-seeded Canadians feed into the all-USA Carter/Lawrence team. The big question here is how game-ready is Lambert right now? She’s now down to seemingly only playing a couple times a year during her medical residency. The former #2 LPRT player still is tough to beat, so expect a tiebreaker here.
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Round of 16 matches I like:
– #24 Kane/Key over #8 Natera/Munoz: I like the Kane & Key matchup over the husband-wife team of Natera and Munoz, even though Munoz is every bit as good a doubles player as Key.
– #12 Garcia/Vargas over #5 Manilla/Manilla. This will be an unpopular opinion, but I think the matchup for the reigning US Mixed doubles titlists and home-town favorites here is a tough one. Garcia is every bit as good as Adam on one side, and Vargas is better than Erika on the other. Power matches power here, so the match will come down to shot making and mental fortitude.
– #3 Portillo/Herrera over #19 Ugalde/Sotomayor. The inclusion of the lefty Herrera, who will match up against Ugalde, counter balances Portillo blasting away against Sotomayor on both players’ forehand. Herrera is tough to beat in doubles, as is Lalo, and they have the edge.
– #7 DLR/Scott over Murray/Lambert. DLR and Scott are probably under-seeded here given their combined exploits on the court. DLR is inarguably the best doubles player in the world indoor or out, and will take over this match. Murray’s no slouch though, so it’ll come down again to how match-ready Lambert is.
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Quarters Prediction:
– #1 Montoya/Salas over Waselenchuk/Key. A great quarter final that I look forward to watching. Salas is probably the 2nd best right-sided ladies doubles player out there (behind Mejia), and she’ll trump Key in that battle. Montoya has just as much power as Kane on the left side, so this match should be close.
– #4 Mar/Mejia over #12 Garcia/Vargas. This is a great match, but I can’t get over two of the best individual doubles players in Mar/Mejia getting beat here.
– #3 Portillo/Herrera over the #6 Parrilla brother/sister combo: I think this all Mexican battle goes according to seeds.
– #2 Moscoso/Longoria over #7 DLR/Scott. Longoria makes the difference here, winning the right-sided battle with Scott as DLR does all he can to counter the shot-making of Conrrado
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Semis and Finals:
– #4 Mar/Mejia over #1 Montoya/Salas. Just a hunch, but the two doubles partners Mar & Montoya cancel themselves out, leaving the newly crowned #1 player to take over against her veteran Mexican rival.
– #2 Moscoso/Longoria over Portillo/Herrera; Longoria is just too tough to lose at this juncture, as is Moscoso.
Final: Moscoso/Longoria over Mar/Mejia. I think Paola and Montse cancel themselves out, but Moscoso has the edge over Mar and that makes the difference.
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Thanks to the Tourney Director Jim Hiser for putting this event on! Also for attendees there’s a great History of Racquetball/Museum exhibit done with the help of Jim Easterling and @Randy Stafford’s efforts.
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in the final. Top NE players Flores and Keegan Smith were in the semis.
