With his finals result at the 2023 Longhorn Open, @Conrrado Moscoso has officially ascended to the #1 spot on tour. This is obviously the first time Moscoso has ascended to #1 ranking on tour, and it represents the first time a player from outside the “Big 3” countries USA/Canada/Mexico has risen this far. Moscoso achieved a #1 tournament seed in October 2022 (when DLR skipped the Pleasanton event and Moscoso had risen to #2 temporarily), but now is the top dog.
I’ve seen more than a few comments from KRG and elsewhere online questioning how he could be #1 over Daniel De La Rosa when they met in the Longhorn final and Daniel beat Conrrado heads-up. These comments are misguided and don’t seem to exhibit an understanding of a rolling ranking system.
Why did Conrrado leapfrog Daniel for #1 despite losing the final to him on Sunday?
The answer is simple: the IRT rankings are not based on a “who beat who yesterday” concept, Its based on a rolling calendar of results. Just like Squash, or Tennis, and most any other individual pro sport with a “tour,” the reigning #1 is determined based on the totality of their results over a longer period of time than one specific match.
Right now, the IRT’s ranking system includes every player’s past 11 Tier1/Grand Slam tournaments. In the wake of Covid, the IRT pivoted from a conventional rolling 365-day calendar (which had been in place since the 1981-82 season) to include tournaments that may fall outside that range. The choice of exactly 11 tournaments was specific; that was roughly the average number of events that the tour was hosting before Covid struck, so it made sense to not penalize players who chose to not play events and expand the ranking calendar to include older events.
I maintain a “Rolling 2-year IRT Worksheet” that helps illustrate the points. I use this spreadsheet to write up my “predicted impacts to rankings” in all my recap posts.
I’ve uploaded the latest copy of it here:
https://docs.google.com/…/1M4bwt…/edit…
When the Longhorn Open finished, the rankings recalculation would take the Longhorn Results and “expire” the 12th oldest tournament. That expiring tournament turned out to be the 2021 US Open, won by Daniel. So, Daniel was set to “lose” 600 points for winning that grand slam, and to replace those points with whatever points he earned in Austin. That turned out to be 400 points for winning. So Take Daniel’s pre-Austin ranking points total (2933), subtract 600, add 400, and you get 2733.
Now lets do the same arithmetic for Connrado: heading into Austin he had 2652 points. His 2021 US Open was disappointing: he lost to Carlos Keller in the 16s, meaning he only earned 135 points there. So take 2652, subtract 135, add in his points for making the Austin final (300), and you get 2817.
2817 is more than 2733 … so that’s why Moscoso is now #1.
(Note: i’m excluding fractions of points earned for specific game wins/losses for simplicity of the post; in reality DLR has exactly 2,733.44 points, and Moscoso has exactly 2817.51 points).
Here’s the next interesting point: NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS in the next IRT event (the Lewis Drug Pro-Am on Jan 22nd), Conrrado will stay #1. Why? Because he did not play the 2021 Arizona event (which will expire next), and thus has no points to “defend.” He can do nothing but improve and increase his lead at the top of the tour. It won’t be until the Suivant Consulting GS in mid February where we might see some changes … that tournament will expire Sarasota from Nov 2021, won by Conrrado, so he’ll have 400 points to defend. But he’ll also have a Grand Slam to replace those points, and if he gets anywhere close to the back end of the tournament he’ll maintain the lead again.
At some point, the IRT probably will pivot back to a conventional 365-year calendar. We’re out of Covid, we’re back to a regular cadence of events (there’s going to be 7 events by the end of April, a very healthy slate, and then we’ll have Denver in the summer and the regular events in the fall, meaning we will have plenty of events in the calendar year on which to base events). DLR may very well trail Conrrado for months … but he will “catch up” greatly come this fall. He missed three IRT events between September and December 2022, meaning he’ll drastically catch-up later this year. It should make for an exciting finish to the 2023 season.
But in the meantime, I hope this explains the reasoning and provides insight to the machinations of the rankings.
Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
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In the 128s and 64s:
– The match of the opening qualifying rounds did not seem to disappoint, as Diego García got by Alejandro Cardona 14,10. Wish we had a live-stream somewhere of the match.
– As predicted, the two top U21 internationals debuting in this event won in the 128s and 64s to get to the main draw. Mexico’s @Jose Carlos Ramos cruised past Maryland’s @Eridson Lopez in the opener then topped #18 seed Erick Cuevas 10,11 to force a meeting with Mar.
– Meanwhile at the top of the qualifying draw, former 18U world champ @Gerson Miranda topped New York’s Josue Perdomo in the opener, then went breaker to down veteran tour player and #17 seed @Robert Collin to setup a meeting with another top junior U21 player in Trujillo.
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In the 32s:
– Trujillo topped Miranda in a battle of former World 18U champs, and fittingly it went breaker. I hope we see more of the Bolivian; he’s got game.
– Alan Natera got a great win over Sebastian Fernandez , holding off match point against in game two and then winning the breaker 11-9. This is Natera’s best win since this event in 2020, when he topped Bredenbeck at this same juncture.
– Andres Acuña got a solid win over upstart Garcia 11,7 in a match I thought could go the other way. This opens up the draw for Acuna, who could easily make a quarter’s run.
– Anthony Martin got his second walk-over in a row, having gotten a wbf-ns over Zelada in the 64s then over Franco in the 32s. One has to wonder if these two players both had the same flight cancelled, being that they’re both coming from BWI (not for nothing, a big Southwest airport, and Southwest continues to have major operational issues in the wake of weather issues over the past couple of weeks).
– Interestingly another “Team Zurek” guy in Eduardo Garay no showed as well, giving Jaime Martell a clear shot into the 16s.
– @Thomas Carter held serve and topped big hitting Sam Bredenbeck in two. A solid win for Carter to hold serve against a player he should beat.
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In the 16s, multiple upsets, some of which were predictable, some not.
– In the 8/9 match, Adam Manilla gave @Rodrigo Montoya everything he could handle, going to the brink and losing 11-10.
– A career best win for Carter, who topped #5 @Alejandro Landa 13,10 to move into the quarters. Landa seemed none too pleased with the ball, describing the play in Texas this weekend as being closer to squash than racquetball.
– #10 Acuna made quick work of #7 Mario Mercado 7,7, the only guy who seemed to make his flight from the Baltimore suburbs.
– Lastly, for the third time in the last 10 months, Andree Parrilla was upset in the 16s as a #1 or #2 seed. This time, a repeat of what happened in Maryland last September, as #15 @Javier Mar flummoxed Andree with excellent serving tactics in games 2 and 3 to frustrate the #2 player and knock him out early.
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In the Quarters, no real surprises
– #1 DLR went toe to toe with #8 Montoya, who last met in the final of the Dovetail Open in Sarasota. Game one was a tense tactical back and forth affair that looked for a while like a 15-14 game before DLR pulled away at 9-9 to win 15-9. Game two was anti-climactic, as DLR seemed to have solved the new ball and played with more patience and won going away.
– #4 @Eduardo Portilla absolutely blasted surprise quarterfinalist Carter 1,4.
– #3 Conrrado Moscoso won in two solid games against Jake Bredenbeck 11,10.
– #15 Mar kept his tournament going, taking two close tactical games from the master tactician #10 Acuna 13,13.
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In the Semis, the top two players in the world not named Kane advanced.
– #1 DLR cruised past #4 Lalo 8,7
– #3 Conrrado handled #15 Mar 10,12, mounting a furious comeback in game two to do so.
In the Finals, we got the match we wanted and that I predicted. These two had met 5 times previously: twice internationally in 2015 (1-1), then three times professionally. Conrrado beat DLR at the 2019 US Open in the semis before losing the final to Kane in his real eye opening debut domestically, then DLR beat him at the Lewis Drug a few months later, then they last faced off in the finals of the 2021 Denver event, another DLR win.
The neutrals were not disappointed. The two played a 40+ minute back and forth affair in game 1, with neither player backing down and little separating them. Moscoso made it to game point first but could not convert; DLR did, winning game one 15-14.
Game two featured DLR jumping ahead and threatening to run away with it, but Conrrado crawled back. Then Moscoso got the lead, and DLR clawed back. A couple of collisions and a couple of missed shots made the difference at the back end of game 2, as DLR pulled away and took the match 15-14, 15-12.
It was a statement win, the current (for now) #1 player taking out the upstart and threatening player who looked set to take the top spot.
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Points Implications of results:
Despite his win, DLR will drop from the #1 ranking on tour, and Moscoso will ascend to #1 when the updated rankings come out. That’s because this event expires the 2021 US Open, won by DLR (and worth 600 points). Moscoso lost in the quarters there, so he’s gaining enough points on DLR with the finals appearance here to overtake both him and Parrilla (whose round of 16 exit really hurt him) for the #1 spot.
Other interesting moves:
– Jake should move up to #6, his career high.
– Kane and Rocky will drop to #10 and #11 respectively with the no-shows.
– This will move Mercado and Montoya up to the 8 and 9 spots, meaning we’re possibly projecting Montoya to still be facing the #1 seed in the quarters.
– Carter will move up to #14, which may be his career high as well.
– Mar will jump up from #19 to #15. He’s still a ways from a protected seed, but with a few players above him almost guaranteed to be missing from the next event, he’s gotta like his future draws.
– Trujillo is now officially inside the top 20 and continues to get the wins he expects.
– Lastly, Keller, the 2021 US Open finalist, loses a ton of points and drops from 14 to outside the top 20.
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Doubles review:
The #1 doubles team in the world Montoya & Mar took the Doubles title over #2 Landa/Moscoso with little fanfare in a match played after the scintillating singles pro file. The doubles draw was quite chalk-y; there was exactly one upset by seed the entire draw, that being the no-show loss when Garay/Franco missed the tournament as the #6 doubles team.
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Other Notable draws:
– Men’s Open: IRT touring pro Alan Natera took the Men’s Open draw, defeating Texas 16U junior Cole Sendrey in the final. Sendrey took out the #2 and #3 open seeds to get to the final (Martin and Pruitt), a great tourney. LPRT top player Erika Manilla entered the Men’s Open but lost in the first round.
– Women’s Open: Hollie Scott took out newly crowned World 16U champ Naomi Ros to take the Women’s Open title.
– Husband/Wife team Carla Munoz and Natera took the Men’s Open Doubles draw, defeating NorCal duo @Will Reynolds and @Israel Torres in the final.
– Ros teamed with fellow junior @Estefania Perez-Picon to take the Women’s Open Doubles crown. Fellow juniors Wargo and Diaz came in 2nd.
– Mixed open was won by Scott and @DDiego Gastel , topping Pruitt & Ros in the final.
Lastly, a shout out to the Men’s A draw. Normally at these pro events, the largest division by entrants is always the Men’s pro singles. Not here, not t his weekend. No fewer than 51 players entered Men’s A. The semis featured the #9 seed Michael Fuller, the #45 seed in Jesus Jaquez, the #46 seed in Christian Treviato, and the #39 seed in Alfredo Estrada. Jaquez (from Chihuahua) toped Treviato (from Monterrey) in an all-Mexican final.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew. They got some great help along the way from Alexis Iwaasa and from tourney director Soly Kor who was on the mike for the pro final.
Thanks to the Tourney Director Kor for putting this event on! It was great to be back in Austin after a two year hiatus.
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Next weekend is the long-running Wintergreen tournament in Maryland, which is getting some attention as Moscoso just committed to play it. Look for it to have some last minute sign-ups to get a shot at the Bolivian.
the following week is the Lewis Drug, always a tour favorite.
Another win for Moscoso? Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
One of the biggest events (by participation) of the year upon us, and for the first time since Covid hit, the Longhorn open is back on the campus of the University of Texas in Austin. More than 380 pros and amateurs are in Austin this weekend to play, and the pro draw looks great.
There’s 36 pros here. We have some intriguing rarely seen players who could make some noise, and we have some interesting absences that will make for some shaken up later match-ups.
Top-20 players missing include #6 Murray (unknown why he’s missing), #8 Kane (injured), #9 Carson (Load management), #14 Keller (distance), and #20 Beltran (injured).
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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to. Qualifying starts today Thursday, 1/5/23 3pm Central, so get ready for some action.
In the round of 128:
– We have two notable international juniors showing up and playing the IRT domestically for the first time. Mexican U21 champion and multi-junior world title winner Jose Carlos Ramos is here and can make some noise. And former World 18U champion Gerson Miranda is here as well, playing the IRT for the first time outside his own home country (he played the 2019 Bolivian Iris grand slam on his home courts). Both are excellent players and should progress in the draw.
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In the round of 64:
– Look for Miranda and Ramos to get upsets against the top two ranked qualifiers Robert Collins and Erick Cuevas respectively.
– Two juniors Guillermo Ortega and @Cole Sendrey face off in a good match-up of Mexico 21U versus USA 16U.
– Mauricio Zelada will have his hands full with Utah’s Anthony Martin
– The match of the round, if it comes to pass, is Bolivian turned Argentine @Diego García , fresh off a Worlds 21U win and with several solid wins last season, versus former top WRT player @Alejandro Cardona . Cardona has no-showed the last two IRT events he’s entered with Visa/travel issues, but hopefully he’s here this weekend b/c he’s a great player and this would be a great match for the neutrals.
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Projecting the 32:
– #16 @Erick Trujillo would project to face fellow junior phenom Miranda in my scenario. Phew. This would be the 2019 World 18U champ versus the 2021 World 18U champ.
– #12 Thomas Carter projects to face fellow American @Sam Bredenbeck . A good test for both to see who comes out on top.
– #13 Sebastian Fernandez projects to face #20 Alan Natera here, a player he’s beaten 3 times in top-level competitions but who plays tough.
– #14 Eduardo Garay projects to face the always-dangerous Jaime Martell here, a match I favor Martell to win.
– #11 Sebastian Franco , who lost at this juncture in the 32s five times last season, projects to face his fellow Suburban Maryland friend @MoMo Zelada here. They’ve played a few times on the IRT and Franco will have the upper hand, but Zelada has come up with crazy wins against his good buddies from Maryland on tour in the past.
– #10 Andres Acuña projects to be the unlucky player to face Garcia … and I think Garcia can beat him. I have these two neck and neck in my personal rankings, and this will be a battle.
– #15 @Javier Mar possibly gets the Mexican junior phenom Ramos here, another gotcha match that may be an upset. Mar is the better player … but Ramos may be fired up.
Lots of potential for upsets in the 32s in this event. Should be great on Friday Morning for streaming.
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round of 16: Here’s some matches to watch for in the 16s.
– #1 @Daniel De La Rosa vs Trujillo/Miranda winner. I think DLR handles both players, but this is definitely a harder round of 16 than it could be for the #1 player. It will be interesting to see how DLR looks; he’s cut some weight and is in great shape and probably is looking ahead at some highly anticipated matches in this event.
– #4 Eduardo Portillo projects to play Fernandez in the 16s. Portillo should win, but Patata finally gets a round of 16 against someone not named DLR or Montoya for the first time in a while, and will be opportunistic.
– #7 Mario Mercado versus the Acuna/Garcia winner; upset watch here against a vulnerable Mercado; if Garcia wins this could be another surprise quarter for the Argentine.
– #2 Andree Parrilla projects to face Mar, who just beat him in Maryland in September and has a career winning pct against him. Not the round of 16 Andree wanted, and another possible tripping point for the #2 player.
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Projected Qtrs:
– 1/8: DLR vs Rodrigo Montoya . Great match. Daniel crushed him at the Sarasota finals last November, but Montoya won at the US Open against a possibly indifferent DLR en route to the final. DLR is 7-3 in 10 top-level meetings in the DB and should be favored … but any given Sunday right?
– 4/5: The first big 4/5 test of the new season should come to pass, with the falling Landa taking on the surging Portillo. They’ve met 7 times; Landa got the first 3, Portillo has won 3 of the last 4. I favor Lalo here.
– 3/6: Conrrado Moscoso over Jake Bredenbeck . I just don’t think Jake has the game to challenge Moscoso right now. The Bolivian has all the power Jake has and more, plus has superior shot-making.
– 2/7: This could be Parrilla/Mercado by chalk … or if the crazy upsets happen that I think will happen, this will be Mar vs Garcia. Since I love upsets, i’ll assume this is the #15 versus the #23 for the semis, and the veteran Mar advances.
Semis:
– #1 DLR handles Portillo
– #3 Moscoso handles Mar.
Finals.
Well, this is the final that most neutrals want. DLR will have run through a far more difficult path to get here than Conrrado. These two have played 5 times; DLR is 3-2. They’ve split two IRF meetings, and then DLR has won 2 of their 3 matchups on the IRT. But they have not met since the Denver 2021 final, managing to avoid each other for a season and a half.
Interestingly, thanks to the huge gulf of 2021 points at the US Open between Moscoso and DLR that are set to expire after t his event … it won’t matter who wins if they play; odds are that if Moscoso gets to at least the semis, he’ll overtake DLR for #1 on tour.
I think Moscoso is hungrier and will take this. But it’ll be an amazing match either way.
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Doubles review
14 teams in the draw, highlighted by the long-time dominant pairing of Montoya/Mar. With Murray absent, Landa picks up Moscoso as his partner, an interesting team at #2. Landa likes playing the forehand anyway, so this gives Conrrado free reign on the backhand side to play his crazy shots.
Other new teams include Acuna/Lalo, who are both Dovetail guys but who pair up with Rocky’s absence. With Beltran hurt, DLR picks up SoCal paddleball maven Patata as the #4 seed.
I like a chalk final 1vs 2, with the reigning Mexican champs to take it.
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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 , Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
Thanks to the Tourney Director @Soly Kor 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.
Erick Trujillo is set to make a big splash on tour in 2023. Photo Kevin Savory/US Open 2021
Welcome to Part 4 of our season recap: a discussion of some notable players ranked 21 and above this year.
Part 1: reference links to various year-end resources of note.
Part 2: the top 10
Part 3: 11-20
Part 4: notables ranked 21st and above (this post)
Thanks to the lack of funds available in our sport, more and more we’re seeing quite talented players who, if everyone was touring full time, might very well be ranked higher. These are the players nobody wants to see in the qualifiers when they do show up, and they’re the kind of “weekend warriors” who inspire the rest of us … we’re all “weekend warriors” at heart.
Here’s a run through some notable players ranked outside the top 20, with some comments and in some cases predictions on 2023.
– #21 Erick Trujillo ; might as well start with the elephant in the room. Trujillo has exploded onto the IRT scene, making a couple of rounds of 16 and even one quarter final. He made the finals of both Mexico u21 and World u21 (losing to Jose Ramos and Diego Garcia respectively). He’s already got solid wins on his resume (Mar, Franco, Garay) and will continue to improve. I see him moving into the teens with ease, and possibly higher, as he improves.
– #24: Jaime Martel played more events in 2022 than he had in the last three seasons combined, and it showed. He made the main draw three times, got to a quarter final, got some really solid wins. He topped Patata, Murray, and Franco in the last two events before a quarters loss to Jake in Pleasanton (one where he beat the big man 15-2 in the first game).
If he continues to play full time, look for him to push for the top 20.
– #27 Jordy Alonso has gotten some really impressive wins this past season, and if he can string together more of a full time tour schedule I can see him (along with Martell) pushing for the top 20 on tour.
– #28 Sam Bredenbeck was really, really zinging it at Worlds, playing the left side in doubles. He’s stepped up his game in terms of power, is training with some great players in Minnesota, and it’d be great to see him playing week in-week out to get his ranking up.
#31 Diego Garcia could be the best player not playing the tour full time. Here’s a quick list of players he beat in 2022 (internationally or professionally): Mercado, Collins, Franco, Mar, Carson, Trujillo twice, and Ramos to win World 21U. That’s quite a slate of wins. We hadn’t seen him domestically since Oct 2019 as he switched countries from Bolivia to Argentina.
I wonder if he can start getting support to travel and tour, because if so watch out, he could be pushing for the top 10.
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#36 Bobby Horn is still heavily involved in the sport, working with the Manillas on their online training/coaching initiative and working hard to host programming at his home club in Pleasanton. When he does play, he’s still dangerous.
#46 @Cole Sendry , USA 16U competitor, played his first few IRT events this year and got some experience.
#53 Maurice Miller took a big step back from touring but still is a dangerous opponent when he shows.
#83 @Jordan Barth is the highest ranked player (by USAR rankings) who doesn’t tour regularly. he’s #28 at USAR and would be an interesting addition to the tour.
#98 Cliff Swain ; his 35th year in the rankings.
#99 Coby Iwaasa , long-time #2 in Canada and who regularly gets strong international wins. Rarely appears on the IRT. Another guy who would be interesting to see play.
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A shout-out to the Guatemalans, who seem to play nearly every IRT event. Bravo, its always awesome to see the likes of @JuJuan Salvatiera , Christian Wer, @Javier martinez , Edwin Galicia , and @Geovani Mendoza at these events.
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That’s it for our 2022 season retrospective. We have the Longhorn Open this coming weekend, so look for our preview soon.
Montoya should be the big riser in 2023 … if he plays. Photo Kevin Savory 2022 Portland IRT event
Welcome to Part 3 of our season recap: a discussion of the guys who finished 11-20th this year.
Part 1: reference links to various year-end resources of note.
Part 2: the top 10
Part 3: 11-20 (This post)
Part 4: notables ranked 21st and above
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“Finishing in the top 10” is a metric I use a lot, but i’m not sure it means a ton to players. I get the sense that pro players care first and foremost about season-ending #1s, then tourney wins, then just want to earn as much money as possible (which normally means they want to get to at least the semis of an event to make “decent” money for the weekend. Top 8 is the place where you really want to be; that guarantees you a round of 16 spot and prize money each weekend; if you’re in 9th or 10th then you’re playing one extra match just to get there each weekend. But, its easy to divide analysis by the “top10” so that’s what we do.
Fyi: Rocky Carson is the Men’s all-time leader in “top 10s” for a season with 23.
Second place is Cliff Swain , who had 20 top-10 seasons plus another 15 seasons with results; see my top 10 matrix report here for more fun info: https://rball.pro/tbz).
That all being said, the guys who are just outside the top 10 are always interesting to me. Generally are guys who fall into one of three distinct categories:
– Former top 10 guys on their way down
– Up and coming full-time players who are trying to grind their way into the top 10
– Part time players who are better than their ranking but who can’t commit full time to the tour.
Looking at the guys who finished 11-20th this season (https://rball.pro/t8a ), i’d probably classify them as follows:
– On the way out: Franco, Beltran
– Grinders: Manilla, Acuna, Carter
– Wish they could play more: Montoya, Keller, Fernandez, Garay, Mar
We’ll use these story-lines throughout this writeup.
Lets talk about the guys who finished 11th-20th this year and give some projections on where they may end up next season.
– #11: Rodrigo Montoya played 7 of the 9 events this year, made two finals and saw his ranking jump from #17 last year to just outside of the top 10 this year. I’ve already kind of buried the lede with my last post in where I think Montoya ends up next year.
For me, Montoya’s talent has always been evident. He has two major IRF titles (2018 Worlds and then 2019 Pan Am Games Gold). He won 4 titles and made another 4 finals on the old WRT before it went defunct. But he’s never been able to give the IRT a full-time go, and has been balancing school and touring for years (he’s an Aerospace Engineer and holds an MBA and has spent most of the past few years in grad school).
This year in 2022, in addition to his pro successes, he made the back ends of multiple international events (finals of Mexican Nationals, finals of the World Games, semis of PARC, and semis of Worlds). This workload seemed to take its toll; he lost his final 2022 match 1,4 and put up very little resistance.
Prediction for 2023? Well, if he plays a full slate of events, he’s a top-4 talent in the world and should finish top 4. But if he’s hurt or continues to miss events here and there, he’ll be stuck in that 10-16 range where he’s been for years.
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#12: Adam Manilla improved from #14 last year to #12 this year. In 8 events played, he made 4 quarters and lost in the 16s four times. To get to his four quarters, he had wins over top players Landa, Portillo, Mercado, and Keller; not a bad slate of wins. His 16s losses were to Landa, Rocky, Rocky, and Carter (only the last one really being a “bad” loss). He’s clearly improving as a player, made the semis of Nationals (again losing to Rocky), and when he did lose he played tough, often losing games 15-11/15-12 against top4 guys.
He’s on a roll and I see him continuing to incrementally improve on his ranking. I can see him right on the cusp of the top 10 at the end of this coming season, maybe even higher if we see some possible machinations at the back half of the top 10 (like if Kane retires and opens up a top 10 spot).
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#13 Andres Acuña improved on his 2021 ranking of #16 mostly on the back of a strong run in Sarasota, where he had a career best showing of making the semis (beating Landa and getting a walkover against Lalo to get there). Otherwise he remains stuck at the round of 16 gate, losing in the 16s in 6 of the 8 tournaments he entered.
He has managed to get out of the always-dangerous 16/17 seed range, which gives a very tough round of 32 match only to head into the #1 seed (almost always a loss), and now can feed into players he has a better chance of beating to advance into the quarters, but the time is now. He cannot continue to lose in the 16s and have a shot at the top10.
Interestingly, he showed more internationally than he did on the pro circuit, making the final of PARC (losing to Moscoso), winning the World Games (topping Montoya in the final), and making the semis of Worlds (losing to Rocky). On the pro tour his best win all season was probably Mar in Chicago or Landa in Sarasota, and he took a “bad” loss against Zelada in Maryland.
For 2023, I see him doing more of the same; mostly round of 16 losses, an occasional quarter, an occasional upset with a bad round of 32 matchup. But he’s absolutely committed to the tour full time and won’t miss a tourney. That says 12-13 range for me.
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#14 Carlos Keller sees his ranking drop slightly from its #12 spot in 2021, but this lofty ranking is built on a house of cards. He missed 6 of the 9 events in 2022 after essentially touring full time the previous two seasons, and his #14 ranking is buttressed by the fact that it still includes the Grand Slam points of his finals run in the 2021 US Open.
When those points expire, his ranking will plummet out of the top 20 and unless he plans on re-committing to touring full time he’ll stay in the 20s. In the 17 events he has played in the last 3 seasons now, he’s lost in the 16s or earlier in 14 of them. This is not a winning financial strategy and is likely why he’s stepped back.
Expect his ranking to be in the mid 20s going forward as he plays just a couple events a year.
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#15: @Sebastian Franco has seen his former top 10 ranking slip to #13 last year and #15 this year. In 7 events played this year, he lost in the 32s 5 times.
Life seems to have caught up to Franco, as family commitments and work requirements seem to be conspiring against him as a touring pro. Losing in the 32s is not a winning financial strategy, and I’d guess we’ll be seeing less and less of him going forward. He’s good enough to keep making a quarterfinal here and there, so I’ll predict he hangs around the top 20.
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#16: Thomas Carter improved from #18 last season and played well this year. He got solid wins in the 32s all year and capped the season with a great win over fellow lefty Manilla in Portland. Eight tourneys played, five times he made the 16s. That’s definitely a recipe for sticking in the top 16.
For 2023 I expect more of the same, with him getting an occasional upset win or upset loss, and hanging right at this same range 15-16.
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#17: Sebastian Fernandez marginally improved on his 2021 finish of #19. For the better part of two seasons he’s been absolutely “stuck” at the 16/17 seed in events, and has not advanced past the 16s in that time.
In his last 10 Pro events, here’s who took him out: Martell, Montoya, Landa, DLR, Montoya, DLR, DLR, DLR, Landa. That takes you all the way back to the 2021 US Open. Thats … well that’s a tough slate of round of 16 or round of 32 opponents. Patata is challenged just to get a decent shot at advancing. And you can kind of see it in his play; after playing most of the first half of the tour, he played just the US Open and Pleasanton to end it, perhaps going back into partial touring as he said he would a couple of years ago.
2023 prediction: he hangs around at this same gate, maybe gets a couple of wins, and marginally improves on his ranking.
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#18: Eduardo Garay dropped from #15 last year to #18 this year and seems to be struggling for consistency on tour. In 6 events he was beaten in the 32s three times, the rest in the 16s.
His international career remains in limbo; after seemingly converting to Colombia that federation has collapsed and he hasn’t played internationally in years. He’s working for Francisco Fajardo and Team Zurek, which is great, but (like Franco) it seems to be having a negative effect on his playing career.
For 2023, I predict he continues to be part time and hangs around the 19-20 range.
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#19 @Javier Mar got some statement wins this year, but continues to play the tour essentially part time. It is hard to predict that he makes a huge push when he seems to play just half the events (a situation that guarantees he’s always qualifying and guarantees he gets random round of 32 matches that are coin flips).
For 2023 I’m guessing he improves on his ranking slightly, but won’t get much about the 16-17 range unless he commits to playing full time.
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#20 @Alvaro Beltran saw his ranking plummet from #11 to #20, partly because he frankly was just done playing singles and partly because of the elbow injury he suffered in Las Vegas that took him out of the last couple of events. I would be surprised to see him playing serious singles going forward, and may be either retiring, just pivoting to doubles, or pivoting to select events that are drive-able as he transitions into a Gearbox ambassador role.
Expect his singles ranking to slowly disappear as he moves towards retirement in 2023.
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Predicted 11-20 rankings for 2023 (and other rankings for players mentioned here):
DLR finishes #1 in 2022; can he do it again in 2023? Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
Welcome to Part 2 of our season recap: a discussion of the top 10.
Part 1: reference links to various year-end resources of note.
Part 2: the top 10 (this post)
Part 3: 11-20
Part 4: notables ranked 21st and above
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Lets dive into the top 10. For these previews I’ll generally talk about how the player did last year to this year, make some comments, and then make a prediction for their 2023 ranking.
#1. Daniel De La Rosa . De La Rosa (or DLR as I most often refer to him) finished atop the IRT standings for the second straight year. After running away with the tour in 2022 (winning the year end title by more than 900 points), DLR missed several events in 2022, under performed at the US Open (losing in the 16s), and barely edged #2 Parrilla for the 2022 title. DLR’s title was certainly buttressed by the temporary rolling 11-tournament ranking structure, which kept the 2021 US Open points on everyone’s resume for the year end 2022 rankings (a tourney DLR won).
DLR’s continued presence on the racquetball pro tour was in jeopardy for a bit (and could still be) as he is also a top-ranked Pickleball Player and has gotten some notice on the pro pickleball tours. Certainly there’s more money in Pickleball right now … but DLR’s not currently competitive enough to be pushing for the back ends of these tournaments. His PB career was also thrown for a short term loop by not being selected in the big 2023 MLP draft. However, one thing to watch in 2023 is whether or not DLR makes a decision to focus less on Rball and more on Pball going forward.
He will be helped by the eventual pivot back to 365-rolling day rankings; under the current system his missed events in 2022 would have badly hampered his ability to keep the title in 2023 … but now he can re-commit to the 2023 slate and be in a position (especially in Oct/Nov/Dec) to radically see his ranking rise as his poor US Open expires and his missing 2022 Portland results are replaced with his points earned in the 2023 version.
That being said, I suspect we’ll be seeing a new champ in 2023. I predict DLR slips to #2 or #3 on tour next year. Last time we saw DLR th ough, h e was in serious shape (Vegas) and was hitting with a new buzz. Maybe he’s hearing the footsteps and won’t relinquish his crown so easily.
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#2 Andree Parrilla . Parrilla rose from #4 in 2021 to #2 on tour this year, earned a couple of #1 seeds when DLR missed events, got a famous 11-10 win over Kane in the Atlanta Grand Slam, and rode these results to the #2 ranking on tour for the season.
However, Andree has some chinks in the armor that he must clean up if he wants to ascend to and stay at #1. He lost in the 16s twice this season and he lost to players outside the top 10 multiple times. #1 players don’t do that; they show consistency in making the weekend tourney after tourney. Part of this issue in 2022 was bad match-ups for Andree, running into “better than their ranking” players like Mar and Montoya at inopportune times. But losses to Mercado and Bredenbeck (with all due respect) cannot happen for Andree to move to #1.
For 2023, I suspect we’ll see Parrilla drop a slot or two on tour, just based on true talent levels of players right now. Look for him to finish #3 or #4 in 2023.
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#3 Conrrado Moscoso . His highest finish yet on tour, really competing full time for the first time, after finishing #7 last year. Moscoso got two wins on the season, including his famous US Open domination in October. He finished the season on a serious roll, winning 11 straight between Minneapolis, Pleasanton and Sarasota before an unfortunate concussion-protocol injury forfeit in the semis of the Dovetail. He has shown a propensity to be taken out by a superior game plan (two losses to Murray mid-season), but has also showed that he can truly take over a tournament like nobody since Kane.
He managed to make 8 of the 9 events, a difficult feat being based in Bolivia, and only missed the 9th when it was clear that it would have no real meaning for the year ending standings. He even traveled to the US for outdoor events and made his mark there this year.
For 2023 … I think Moscoso will overtake DLR and will finish #1. In terms of pure talent, Conrrado is the best player in the world not named Kane. My new year wish is to get a bunch of Moscoso-DLR finals to settle the argument.
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#4 Eduardo Portillo finished 5th last year and incrementally moved up a slot to #4 this year. He was one of the 6 players to win a tournament this year on tour, taking advantage of Kane’s injury to win in Virginia. He struggled with injury this season: a knee injury in January cost him performances really until May, then he forfeited out of another tournament in Sarasota (that was illness, not a physical injury).
Lalo got some solid wins, but also took some curious losses on the year. He needs to continue to be successful in those 4vs5 quarter final matchups in the quarters, then look opportunistic in the semis to continue to push for a top 4 spot.
As for 2023, he’s healthy and played well making the final of the Portland event. But I don’t think he can overtake the players ahead of him right now and is destined to stick in this 4-6 range for a bit. I think he slips to #5 in 2023, depending on how much play a couple of other players get that we’ll talk about soon. He’s the youngest regular touring player by a decent margin (he’s in his age 23 year, 3 years younger than anyone else who is regularly touring) and is in a great position to improve on his craft, but he has his work cut out for him if he wants to move up.
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#5 Alejandro Landa saw his ranking slip from #2 last season to #5 this year. This despite a year where he made 5 semi-finals, which you’d think would be good enough to keep him in the top 4. The problem was … Landa never went any further than these semi finals, when he got there. Nine players on tour this year made a final; Landa wasn’t one of them.
Almost from the moment he ascended to #1 on tour in January 2020, Landa has struggled to maintain the consistency he needs to stay there. He has made just ONE pro final since January 2020 (in Chicago in March of 2020 before Covid shut everything down). He has definitely had career moments, like his seminal win at Worlds in December 2021, but mostly has failed to play to his rank. This has been partly due to a lingering back injury that caused him grief for months, and partly due to the distractions (family and career) that come with players as the get into their 30s. Landa is now a few months from turning 35, and the 33-34 age window is usually a critical turning point for players on tour. We’ve been spoiled recently by the likes of Kane, Rocky, and Alvaro playing into their 40s, but for the most part the 33-34 window is where we see players step back.
I predict Landa will start to curtail his touring as he struggles to get past the quarters, making these trips less sense financially, and we’ll see him perhaps in the 8-10 range by season’s end in 2023.
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#6 Samuel Murray slipped back to #6 on tour this year after getting a huge Grand Slam win bump to elevate him to his career high #3 finish in 2021. #6 seems about right for Murray, who prior to 2021 had finished (in descending order) 7th, 7th and 8th the three previous seasons. He made three semis, three quarters, and lost in the 16s three times this season.
Murray, by virtue of being a fixture in the Canadian National team, has financial support to continue to tour going forward, so there’s no reason to think he won’t do exactly the same in 2023 that he did in 2022. He’s a steady practitioner of the sport, who sometimes gets some great wins and sometimes takes some upset losses. He topped Moscoso twice in 2022; two excellent wins. He took a couple of upset losses in the 16s (twice to Montoya; no shame there), but for the most part spent the season beating he should have beaten an losing to who he should have lost to.
For 2023, I expect Murray to be right in this same range, in the 6-7 range, and to continue to be a steady quarter finals entrant.
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#7 Jake Bredenbeck . 2022 was a career year for Jake, who made the Pleasanton final and then won the last event of the season in Portland, with three great wins over top-8 players Murray, Parrilla, and Portillo in a row to take his first title. This was his first career IRT win for Jake, and was a great validation for the improvements we’ve been seeing in his game over the past couple of seasons.
In 2022, he improved on his #9 finish from last season and finished 7th. He was just a few points out of #6, getting pipped by Murray by a scant 15 points. He suffered two round of 32 losses on the season (Alonso in Chicago and then Horn in NY), which ended up making the difference. After the summer break, Jake came back strong in the last half of the season to enter 2023 with momentum.
Those two round of 32 losses loom large for 2023, as they seem likely to get replaced by at least QF appearances at this point. He’s a protected seed, meaning he’s not facing a match until the 16s anyway (unless the IRT puts in a radical scheduling change to go with the anticipated point system change to start the new year). Which means … Jake will see his ranking rise in the first half of the year. If he can hold on, I see him improving on his #7 finish for 2022. I’m not sure he can catch the top 5 players above him, but I can see him finishing 6th.
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#8 Kane Waselenchuk was well on his way to returning to the throne, after having relinquished the IRT title in 2021. In contrast to the 2021 season, Kane was on track to play the tour full time in 2022, and by September had worked his way back up to #2 in the rankings. Rumors abounded about his plans … would he play and win the US Open and then walk away (Pete Sampras style?) Would he play the tour full time in 2022 and then walk away with one last title? Both career-ending stories made sense to this observer … but they were thrown for a serious loop by a serious injury suffered in Maryland. A full tear of his Achilles heel on a non-contact play early in the pro semis in Severna Park ended his 2022 season and left both his 2023 season and his career plans in doubt.
Achilles injuries generally take between 6-12 months to recover from. By all accounts, at six months people should be back at full activity, but that full movement and “trust” in the repaired tendon takes another six months. But, this recovery time is also based on the individual: Kane’s no longer a 25yr old athlete. He’s north of 40, has embarked on a new non-racquetball related career, and presumably isn’t training full time like a full-time athlete would.. How committed is he to coming back and re-dominating on the court? How much energy does he have left in his competitive motor to do so? Kane has never wanted to take the court unless he was at 100% … the question is, how long will it take him to get there? He’s been tight-lipped on social media about his recovery, so we’re all guessing at this point.
Projected Ranking for 2023? The injury was in Mid-September, which puts his 6-month recovery window to mid-March 2023. There’s going to be FIVE tournaments by that point, and there’s just no realistic way he will be able to compete for the 2023 title missing nearly half the slate of events. There’s no 2023 US Open (his favorite tournament), so no marquee event to target as a return.
Does he come back and play the back half of the 2023 slate, get a bunch of wins and prove a point to the tour one last time? Or does he not tempt fate and walks away now? We’ll see. For the time being, I’ll predict he comes back for the 2nd half of the season, gets a couple of wins, enough to buttress his ranking enough to keep him in the back half of the top 10, and maybe he’ll do a 2024 swan song run.
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#9 Rocky Carson finished right about where he was ranked in 2021; dropping one slot but mostly playing about the same level over the past couple of seasons. After setting a truly Lou Gehrig-esque tournament playing streak (not missing one pro event between 2001 and 2017), he’s now missing events here and there. He’s also starting to see the tour pass him by; in his last 12 pro tournaments, he’s advanced past the quarter finals just twice (Nov 2021 and then Mar 2022).
In his year-end Facebook live interview, Carson admitted that he’s no longer a full-time tour player, that his focus now is on US National team representation. The events he missed in 2022 seemed to show the pattern of attendance we can expect; he missed two of the east-coast events, avoiding a 5 hour west-to-east grueling flight. He also missed the final event when it was clear it would make little difference in his year end ranking. Reportedly he’s not in the Longhorn Open field, so we’re already seeing some early “load management.”
Luckily for Rocky, the first half of the 2023 slate features mostly central and west coast events; Austin, Sioux Falls, Atlanta, Fridley MN, Chicago, Fullerton, and Tijuana. The only east coast event on that list is Atlanta .. which is a Grand Slam and worth the trip. National Singles/Doubles is nicely spaced in-between the Lewis Drug and the Atlanta GS. The challenge he’ll face is the first three weeks of March, where he’s got Minnesota, Beach Bash, and Chicago in a row before a one week break to the 2023 PARC.
That’s a heck of a tough travel schedule for a player north of 40, and I think we’ll see some missed events along the way from Carson as he manages his playing load. We don’t yet know where the 2023 PARC is going to be, but the odds are it will be in a central or south American city requiring a massive 10-12 day trip, so that will factor into Carson’s priorities as well.
Projection for 2023? When Carson plays he generally makes the quarters, so I think he’ll tread water one more season and hang towards the back half of the top 10 again.
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#10 Mario Mercado hung onto the 10th spot on tour for the second year running thanks to the running 11-tournament rankings system, which pulled in solid end-of-2021 results for Mercado and kept him ranked 10th. For the season, Mercado lost in the 16s six of the nine tournaments he entered, making a couple of quarters and one semi. Those are not the numbers of a #10 player, and the beginning of 2023 should see him fall quickly into the teens.
Mercado remains a dangerous player, one who can turn it on and get wins over the tour’s best. In Pleasanton, he beat both Parrilla and Moscoso before losing to Jake in the semis. However most of the 2022 season saw him in tough 8/9 or 7/10 matchups against guys like Manilla, Jake, and Rocky, those kinds of incredibly even matches that are coin flips to predict, let alone play, and he came out on the wrong side more often than not.
For 2023, I predict that Mercado continues to play full-time and promote FormulaFlow with partner Zelada, but will continue to put up similar results and gets pushed into the mid-teens by year’s end.
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My predicted top 10 in 2023:
1. Moscoso
2. DLR
3. Parrilla
4. Montoya (who we’ll talk about next post)
5. Portillo
6. Jake Bredenbeck
7. Murray
8. Waselenchuk
9. Landa
10. Carson
(outside top 10: Mercado)
Next post; the players in the 11-20 range, which include more than a few guys who are top 10 by talent but not by points, and one of whom i’m predicting a huge run up the rankings for 2023.
Mejia wins her third career title, and 2nd in a row, with a dominant final’s win over Longoria. She now has 3 career titles, the same number of titles as current LPRT players Salas, Herrera, and Vargas. (see http://rb.gy/vdajxp ).
In Mejia’s last four pro events entered, she’s lost 14,10 in the final of the Team Root Super Max event to Longoria, lost 11-10 in the Aguascalientes final (unable to convert on match point) to Longoria, then won the Chicago event (beating #1 and #2 en route), then this weekend also beats #1 and #2 to win in Maryland. That’s a nice run.
Earlier this year, after Herrera won two straight tourneys, we were wondering if she was the heir apparent. Now we’re wondering if we were premature, in that we have a player in Mejia who routinely beats Herrera and is now topping the world #1 8,7 in finals.
– Ana Gabriela Martinez , after missing most of the fall slate and seeing her ranking drop nearly out of the top 16, tops Nancy Enriquez to move forward.
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In the 16s:
– #1 Longoria handled Gaby 8,8 to move on in a stern round of 16 test.
– Kelani Lawrence got a very solid win over #8 @Brenda Laime, playing on essentially her home courts.
– Natalia Mendez reversed last event’s upset loss to Lotts, topping her in two.
– The big talking point and big upset of the round was #13 Valeria Centellas mounting a fantastic comeback from 5-10 down in the breaker to upset #4 @Erika Manilla . Lots of online chatter about bad calls at the expense of Manilla, but this observer didn’t really see anything to be that upset about. There were two calls in particular (a cross court side-out winner that Manilla thought skipped but Centellas immediately walked to the box for and which sounded just fine), then a “cut backhand” slice shot Manilla hit for what she presumed was a winner but which sounded funny on the front wall and was called a skip. Tough loss either way.
– @Hollie Scott got a very solid win, beating #6 @Jessica Parrilla 11-10 to move on.
– In a continuing rivalry that keeps popping up this season, @Carla Munoz took the latest episode over Samantha Salas in a tight one.
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In the Quarters, chalk
– #1 Longoria over #9 Lawrence, but not after dropping the first game.
– #4 Mendez had her best tourney for a while, getting to the semis with a solid 10,9 win over fellow Argentine Centellas.
– #3 Mejia went breaker against upset-minded Scott but moved on.
– #2 Herrera was pushed 11-9 by Munoz before advancing.
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In the Semis
– #1 Longoria in two straight over #4 Mendez.
– #2 Mejia in a breaker, once again, to top #2 Herrera.
Then in the final … a dominant 8,7 win for Mejia as discussed.
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Points Implications of results
Not too much: I don’t see any changes in the top 7, but I do see some severe tightening at the top of the race. Longoria had an 1100 point lead after winning her namesake grand slam in August; that lead is now lower than 500 points. She has two finals and two wins to defend from the last half of last season, but without a KC Supermax commitment and (at this point) things could get a little dicey if Longoria wants to maintain her #1 streak.
Elsewhere further down in the rankings:
– Laime missed this event last year so she moves up to #8 despite the early loss.
– Same with Salas; she didn’t play last year and only gains points: she moves up to #10.
– Vargas takes a dive, from #8 to #15, which means everyone above her moves up one slot.
– Gaby remains mired outside the top 16 and will need a huge run to move up at this point.
Salas and Herrera won a weird looking match, taking the first game 15-0 before Mejia/Longoria made a match of it. Still no official word why these two long-time pairs split up, but i’m sure we’ll get the 411 at some point.
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Women’s Open, other draws
– Centellas got a walkover win in the Women’s open final over Amaya, who got a great win in the semis over Enriquez.
– the Men’s Open was won by Dylan Pruitt , who took out Virginia’s Justin Carpenter in the final.
– Carpet baggers @Damian Zamorano and Craig Clement took the Men’s Open draw.
– Carpenter and Kelani (both Chesapeake VA natives) took the small Mixed Pro Doubles draw over teams that included Parrilla, Centellas, and tour commissioner @Tj Baumbaugh .
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., and @Tj Baumbaugh]
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Karen Grisz 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.
The last remaining event on the 2022 calendar of note is the 2nd annual Beach Battle in Hollywood, FL next weekend. Then its happy new year and the first big event on the 2023 slate will be the IRT Longhorn Open.
Barrios takes the triple crown of U21 at World Juniors. Photo via Barrios’ facebook page.
One of the biggest tournaments for us to enter each year just wrapped up; Junior Worlds 2022, held this year for the second year running at the fabulous brand new facility in Guatemala City.
Champions were crowned in Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles in six age groups: 21U, 18U, 16U, 14U, 12U, and 10U, as well as a team competition, meaning that in essence this tournament actually held 30 separate competitions to enter into the database. Its the rough equivalent of doing 30 small pro tournaments all at once, with the added benefit of typing in brand new names never before seen for a good chunk of the participants. If you see any typos, or name corrections, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Reminder: as a practice, Pro Racquetball Stats does not capture full draws for any groups younger than 14yr olds; for the 12s, 10s, and younger we just capture the champions for historical reporting.
– Mixed 10U: Hermann Gracia / Michelle Gomez, Mexico
Mexico takes 4 of the 6 Mixed doubles titles.
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Grand total of Titles won by Country:
– Mexico: 17 of 30
– Bolivia: 10 of 30
– Argentina, USA, and Costa Rica: 1 each
Team Mexico really dominates the 2022 event, especially on the Boys side where they took 10 of the 12 divisions. Bolivia won 7 of their 10 titles in Girls divisions, supporting what we’ve seen on the pro tour, where Bolivian players (or Bolivian born) comprise 3 of the top 10 and 6 of the top 20 players.
Bravo to these players, who took hold Triple Crowns of Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles:
– Angelica Barrios: 21U, Bolivia
– Sebastian Hernandez: 18U, Mexico
– Jorge Gutierrez, 16U, Mexico
– Hermann Gracia, 10U, Mexico
– Michelle Gomez, 10U, Mexico
These players earned double crowns:
– Yanna Salazar, 16U, Mexico
– Sebastian Ruelas, 14U, Mexico
– Pablo Ignacio Lagos, 12U, Bolivia
– Angelica Villaroel Garzon , 12U, Bolivia
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Every draw has a match report in the database that you can run: instead of repeating dozens of links we’ll give some examples here. Surf to www.proracquetballstats.com, click on either Juniors or “Junior Doubles” database, then at the very top you can pull down a match report. You can also run a number of different reports for singles and doubles.
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Now some quick commentary division by singles division, mostly to recognize winners who have earned multiple Junior World titles over the years, and to provide some commentary on the older divisions with players who have already competed on the pro tours…
I use these “Matrix Reports” constantly; they show all the Junior winners across every age group for all of time. These links are for the Junior Worlds and date to 1989, the first ever Junior Worlds event, but are also available for USA, Canada, and Mexico.
Clearly the two best players (Garcia and Erick Trujillo ) in this draw ended up in the same RR group, and then they fought their way to meet again in the final. Garcia (representing Argentina but who used to represent Bolivia) got two wins over his young Mexican to take Gold. The last time Garcia showed up on tour, he beat both Javier Mar and Rocky Carson; pretty heady company. We hope to see more of him. This is Garcia’s 7th Junior World title.
Notable here is Jose Carlos Ramos, aka “Pepe,” who beat Trujillo in the Mexican Junior nationals final and thus was the #1 seeded Mexican player here; he fell to Garcia in the semis. American #1 Micah Farmer got a great win over Bolivian @Adrian Jaldin but then fell to Garcia in the quarters.
Boys 18U:
Mexico’s Sebastian Hernandez came out of nowhere to win both his country 18U and World 18U titles, his first career Junior titles. He dominated in Guatemala, and the only player to even take a game off of him was an obviously hobbled @Timmy Hansen .
Hernandez joins a pretty illustrious list of 18U boys champs: here in reverse order are past winners: Trujillo, Miranda, Portillo, Marco Rojas, Christian Longoria, Montoya, Mercado, Moscoso, Marco Rojas, and Keller. That list includes 5 players currently ranked in the top 15, multiple IRT tournament winners, etc.
16U:
Mexico’s Jorge Gutierrez repeats as the 16U Junior worlds champ, the first time we’ve had a repeat 16U singles champ since Longoria in 2015. He’s another guy who has really blasted onto the scene, with no previous Mexican Junior titles prior to 2021. We went wire-to-wire as the #1 seed and defeated his countryman Eder Renteria in the final.
14U:
Hats off to Galindo for taking this title; he was inexplicably the #18 seed here, behind two other fellow Mexican players, despite being the 14U losing finalist in Mexican Junior Nationals and thus finishing ahead of multiple other Mexican entrants to this draw. I’ve complained about questionable IRF seedings before but this one is beyond me. He defeats Ruelas in the final after losing the Mexican final to him.
12U: An all-Bolivian Final which featured two Mexican semifinalists and a first time champion.
10U: Hermann Gracia (not Garcia as r2sports shows it) follows up his 10U Mexican title with a worlds title, taking out USA’s Alejandro Robles Picon in a huge come-from behind effort in the final.
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Girls 21U
Current LPRT regular Angelica Barrios skipped the pro stop in Maryland to compete and secured her third ever Junior Worlds title. She was pushed in the knockouts by Argentine lefty Martina Katz before topping tough Costa Rican Maricruz Ortiz in the semis (a match that many thought was the true final). Mexico’s @Maria Gutierrez (who went by Mafer in this event) upset USA’s Shane Diaz to make the final.
Girls 18U
Bolivia’s LPRT touring pro Micaela Meneses repeated as 18U world champ and did not drop a game all event. She secures her 6th Career Junior World title. She topped both Mexican entrants en route to the title.
Girls 16U:
USA’s @Naomi Ros gave the US its sole gold medal at this event, beating both the Bolivian #1 and Mexican #1 to take the title. This is Ros’ second Junior world title; the first was in 12U when she was still competing for Mexico.
Girls 14U: Bolivia’s Adriana Noelia Blacutt wins her first junior world title.
Girls 12U: Another Bolivian first time girls winner in María Laura Villacreses took the title, defeating three of the top seeds along the way.
Girls 10U was taken by Mexico’s Michelle Gomez, who has now entered four junior events in her career and won four titles. She’s the two-time defending Mexico 10U champ, and now she’s the two-time defending World 10U champ.
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Thanks to the International Racquetball Federation for hosting the event, thanks to the great hosts in Guatemala, thanks to all our the coaches and parents who sacrificed to get your kids down there, especially t his close to the holiday season, thanks to @Gary Mazaroff
for the streaming all tournament.
Tomorrow we’ll publish the LPRT summary, th en we’ll take a break until the end of the year when we’ll start posting some IRT season recap material.
Can Mejia get another title? Photo Kevin Savory US Open 2019
LPRT is back in action, and back in my hometown, for the last pro event of this calendar year 2022.
Quick History lesson on this event, for those who are interested:
This is the 30th iteration of this event, which puts its first occurrence way back in 1991 (it missed a year for Covid like everything else). It was originally the brain child of long-time DC-area racquetball promoter Ed Willis II, who ran tournaments for more than a decade in the area and was briefly the LPRT tour commissioner.
When I moved to Arlington VA in late 1997, i hooked up with Team Ed to help them with tournament prep; I dug into my old files for when I was working with Team Ed and I have a file dated Dec 1999 with start times for the 8th annual event. Top seeds in the Men’s Open draw of the 1999 event? Dan Fowler , Daniel F Llacera , Mike Porter, David Day, Dave White, Stan Davis, Ben Hale, Jamal Harris . If I had to guess i’d say Fowler took Llacera in the final, with Porter and Day making the semis. The Women’s open was a bit smaller but featured Doreen Fowler and … current LPRT commissioner @TJ Baumbaugh as the top seeds.
The event used to be run at the historic Crystal City Sport & Health, which hosted pro stops for decades dating to the 1980s, before moving to the Tysons Club, then moving around the area as the Sport & Health chain in the area systematically eliminated courts throughout the chain. Today i’m not sure there’s a single racquetball court inside the beltway, where as for decades the DC area had a massive community of players, both club and tournament. A shame.
The tourney (and Team Ed’s portfolio) was eventually was taken over by Karen Grisz , who took over when Ed stepped out of racquetball promotion, and the tournament moved to Sportfit Laurel for a time before settling where it is today: at one of the last clubs in the DC/Baltimore area with enough courts to hold anything more than a shootout; Severna Park.
This weekend’s event features 22 Ladies pros and has a pretty good talent level despite the smaller draw. 9 of the top 10 are here (only missing the new mom Vargas), and then 8 of the next top 10 ranked players are here (missing only Barrios, who is at World Juniors, and the recently retired Rajsich). So, a solid 17 of the top 20 present.
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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
In the 32s,
– watch for Ana Gabriela Martinez , who returns to the tour for the first time in months and gets a #17 seed for her troubles. She faces off against #16 Nancy Enriquez and is favored to move on.
– I like Lotts vs Lexi York as a play-in to the main draw; Lotts has been playing well lately and should move on.
– #14 Maria Renee Rodriguez will have a good test against long-time tour player @Susy Acosta
– For the 2nd event in a row, the two traveling Colombians, and doubles partners @Maria Paz Riquelme and @Cristina Amaya have to face off. Maybe we tweak the seeding next time? These two also may very well face off in the 2nd round of Women’s Open.
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round of 16:
– #1 Paola Longoria gets the absolute worst case round of 16 match she could ask for, projecting to face Gaby. At the end of the day, Longoria holds a dominant career h2h against the Guatemalan, but Gaby has toppled Paola in the past.
– #8 Kelani Lawrence vs #9 Brenda Laime Jalil . Great match; hope we get this streamed. Two very close players, MD vs VA. I favor Laime to move on and set up another qtr against Paola.
– #5 Natalia Mendez vs #12 Lotts: ironically a rematch of Lott’s huge upset win over Mendez in Chicago. Can she do it again?
– #6 Jessica Parrilla vs #11 @Hollie Scott : this is a very even matchup, and the kind of match Scott needs to win if she wants to break into the top 10.
– #7 @Carla Munoz vs #10 Samantha Salas Solis: these two keep running into each other; they met in August and again at the US Open. They’ve split those two meetings … who comes out on top this time? Salas seems to have found a second win lately and could pull the upset.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Longoria v #9 Laime, again. this would be the 4th meeting of the season. Laime shocked the #1 in Chesapeake; can she do it again on essentially home soil?
– #4 Erika Manilla vs #5 Mendez; assuming no upsets, Manilla gets a challenging match to get back to the semis.
– #3 Montse Mejía vs the Parrilla/Scott winner: Mejia would be favored either way.
– #2 Alexandra Herrera vs the Salas/Munoz winner: Herrera favored either way.
Semis:
– Longoria over Manilla: Paola is 7-0 lifetime over Erika, but the American #1 improving. Erika has gone from losing 0,1 to Longoria in Nov 2021 to taking a game off of her at the US Open in October. She projects to get another shot here.
– Mejia over Herrera; Montse is 6-3 lifetime over Herrera, including the last two meetings.
Finals: Mejia over Longoria. Montse beat her in Chicago, has a couple other wins over Paola, and won’t be intimidated. After Longoria labors through what arguably could be called the most difficult possible draw she could have … she runs out of gas in the final.
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Doubles review
Once again, we see the long-time partnership of Longoria/Salas split up … as we do with the long-time partnership of Herrera/Mejia. These players have paired up with each other, and we should see all four in the final.
Longoria/Mejia is a more formidable doubles pairing than even Longoria/Salas and is my favorite to win.
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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, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Mike Grisz , Karen Grisz, and Bill Milbach for putting this event on! Since its Severna Park, I know Slemo Warigon will be involved too.
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!
Bredenbeck wins!
Photo Kevin Savory 2020 USAR national doubles
Congrats to your Pro Singles winner on the weekend: Jake Bredenbeck !
Jake becomes the 44th man to ever win a Tier 1 professional racquetball event, dating to the fall of 1974. See http://rb.gy/aibnid for a list of all Tier 1 winners in the history of the IRT and its predecessors. Jake joins a club of “One time winners” on tour which includes 10 players, several of which are active currently (Murray, Portillo, Mercado, Franco, Pratt).
No real surprises in the 32s. The main notable match was Alan Natera ‘s 0,0 win, the first time we’ve had a double donut on tour since Jan 2019 (see this link for the tour’s worst defeats to see all the double/triple donuts we’ve had: https://rball.pro/99u )
In the 16s, just one upset by seed but several notable matches:
– #9 Thomas Carter got a very solid win over the recently surging #8 Adam Manilla 11-9 in the breaker. Carter was solid, making serves, and making shots, while Adam was leaving things up and not putting away his opportunities. Carter makes his 3rd career pro quarter: see http://rb.gy/hio52i for his career Summary.
– #7 @Rodrigo Montoya was pushed to a breaker by Alan Natera before advancing.
– #2 Eduardo Portillo advanced over Canadian Michael LeDuc by the 0,0 score line, the second double donut of the tournament.
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In the Quarters, three of the top four seeds advance.
– #1 Andree Parrilla got pushed 15-14 in game one by #9 Carter, but then blew him out in game two 15-2 to advance.
– #5 Bredenbeck improved to 3-2 lifetime against Big Canada Samuel Murray to move on. Jake topped Sam 9,4 in a comprehensive victory.
– #3 Alejandro Landa held off Mercado but was taken to a breaker to do so.
– #2 Portillo blasted #7 Montoya 1,4 to move on. Montoya, who I tipped to win this event, did not drive serve early and does not seem to this observer like he was healthy.
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In the Semis
– Jake won a fantastic match that featured multiple come-from-behind actions to top his long-time rival Parrilla to move into the final.
– Portillo ground out a win over the veteran Landa, winning game one 13 and then having landa retire at 11-11 in the second.
In the Finals
– Jake had another match that featured a ton of comebacks to win his first title.
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Points Implications of results
This tournament expired the 2021 Chicago event, and the top 4 players on tour were essentially locked into their spots irrespective of the results here (probably why the attendance was sparse).
However, the players ranked 5-10 collectively are separated by just 200 points, so every tournament jumbles the seeding. Based on these results, and the expiration of 2021 Chicago, Murray should drop from 5 to 7, Landa and Kane will move up a slot, and Rocky drops down to #10. Montoya just misses out on a top 10 spot for the season.
At some point I presume the tour will pivot back to a 365-day rolling calendar, now that we’re beyond covid and are back to a decent schedule. Right now, the 2022 title is determined in part by tournaments that happened in 2021 (not the least of which is the 2021 US Open, which gives a huge chunk of points to DLR in particular), and it probably isn’t “fair” to continue to do this.
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Men’s Open, other draws
There was no Pro doubles here, nor a U21 division (since all those players are at World Juniors). The Men’s Open draw was small, and was won by Natera over Montana Amateur Ty Hedalen . Hedalen teamed with Matthew Ivar Majxner to take the Open Doubles title, representing Montana well. California duo Will Reynolds and Estefania Perez-Picon took the large Mixed Open doubles draw. Shout out to fellow USAR board member @Cindy Tillbury, who won the Women’s Open doubles draw with partner Rachel Chamness. Lastly sometime LPRT touring pro @Lexi York took the 20-person Men’s Elite singles draw.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew
World Juniors is underway now; knockout brackets will be determined later this week after the RRs complete.
After that, the LPRT is heading to the DC Area to play the 30th iteration of the Xmas Classic, a tournament I used to help run 20 years ago. Then the last major event on the 2022 schedule is an outdoor event in Hollywood Florida that’s become one of the most popular outdoor tournaments all year.
