William “the Warrior” Rolon the big winner in Florida this past weekend. Photo 2022 Stratton Woods by Ken fife
2022 Beach Battle Re-cap
The last big event on the 2022 Racquetball calendar happened last weekend, the Age Solutions (thanks to Andy Gomer for your continued support of outdoor and the sport in general) Beach Battle, held at the legendary Garfield Street paddleball courts in Hollywood, Florida.
This relatively new event, the brain child of DC-area outdoor aficionado Maddie Melendez , has quickly become a popular off season east coast outdoor event, which features both Paddleball and Racquetball, and draws players from up and down the East coast.
Note: everything below is One-Wall and all events are doubles.
Here’s a quick recap of the events of the weekend, highlighting the pro and popular events:
– Men’s Pro Doubles:
Dominant NY-based one-wall players William Rolon and Robert Sostre (colloquially known as “The Warrior” and “the Iceman”) took the title, topping the Florida pair of @Marcos Gravier and Roy Hernandez in a rematch of their group stage final. Semi finalists included long-time Beach Bash top talents @Eric Faro and @Igancio Espinal (winners of their group) and another top All-Florida pair of @Mike Harmon and Jonathan Burns .
– Women’s Pro Doubles:
Another all-NY pairing of @Jasmine Suarez and Delia Silva topped the quite-tough pairing of Aimee Roehler and @Katie Neil in both the group stage and in the pro final. Great win for Suarez/Silva.
– Men’s Open Doubles:
Solid Florida players @Yasmani Perez and long-time Florida tourney director Rob Mijares took the open draw over fellow Florida players @Mike Medina and @Seran Ramkissoon .
– Women’s Open Doubles:
Florida’s Karen Novick and Kelly Quinn won the group rematch over @Lisa Sostre (wife of Robert, therefore clearly to be known here and forward as “The Icewoman”) and Jewelz Santiago to take the Women’s Open title.
– Mixed Pro
The Warrior did the double (actually he did a triple; see below) by taking the Mixed pro with Kathy Guinan , once the namesake of the famous @Zerega complex in NY. In the final, they topped the excellent Virginia-rooted team of @Thomas Gerhard and @Aime Brewer.
– Mixed Open:
@Lisa Sostre teamed with @Darien Jimenez to do the Open double on the weekend, topping your tourney director Melendez playing with Mijares in the final.
– Men’s 75+
The biggest draw on the weekend was the 75+, becoming an ever more popular event with our aging player base.
Eric Faro (the original Beach Bash finalist in 2004) teamed with Nacho to take the 75+ draw. They topped under-rated VA-based player @Suresh Vemulapalli and the legend @Marty Hogan in the semis en route to the final.
In the final, Faro/Espinal topped the surprise finalists of @Novel Lopez and Jorge Algarin , who are (according to commenters post-publishing) from the Levitown One Wall league in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Bravo to them for making the final of a solid draw.
Congrats to all who played. Thanks to Maddie for running the event, thanks for all the Florida outdoor promoters who helped out, who did streaming, and who made this tourney happen.
This was the last known event of 2022. Happy Holidays to you and yours. We’ll capture the IRT year end standings and write a fun recap of the 2022 season as our next big post. Last we did that in three parts for lots of content and analysis.
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.
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.
Is this Montoya’s tournament to break through? Photo 2022 3WB via Steve Fitzsimons
Welcome to the final event of the 2022 International Racquetball Tour season, the long-running John Pelham memorial, held in one of the hotbeds of racquetball in the USA, Portland Oregon.
The timing of the event, along with the nature of the tour right now, has conspired to make this the smallest Men’s draw we’ve had in quite some time. There are 23 pros in Portland, with a number of top players missing.
The draw is missing #1, 3 and #7 on tour right now. #1 DLR has sewn up the 2022 title and had an increasingly busy Pickleball travel schedule and has skipped the event. Moscoso generally likes to cluster events to play when he makes the long flight from Bolivia, and Carson at #7 has been slowly stepping back as his sponsorship deal changes with the newer reality of the sport. A good chunk of the guys ranked 11-20 are out as well, due to vacations (Acuna is at the World cup), injuries (Kane and Alvaro of course are out for some time), or travel issues going from east to west.
That being said … when the draws are missing big names, we usually get surprises. And I think we’re going to get a 1st time winner this weekend. Read on…
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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
I see no real surprises in the 32s: Pratt-Martin should be good, as should Cuevas-Spencer.
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round of 16:
– #1 Andree Parrilla probably faces Charlie Pratt , who got his one career title on this court in 2017. Pratt has been on daddy duty lately; it remains to be seen how rusty he is.
– #7 Rodrigo Montoya likely faces off against Alan Natera in the 7/10 spot, a tough opener as compared to other top 8 seeds.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Parrilla over #8 Manilla; This is a great spot for Adam to try to get a breakthrough win, but Andree is still too tough.
– #5 @Jake Bredenbeck over #4 Samuel Murray ; Murray opted out of the recent Canadian qualifier final with injury and may not be 100%. Jake and Sam have split their 4 career meetings, so it’s anyone’s game.
– #6 Mario Mercado over #3 @Alejandro Landa Mercado made the final here in 2017 (losing to Pratt), and has been playing well. I like him to catch the slow-starting Landa off-guard and get the upset.
– #7 Rodrigo Montoya over #2 Eduardo Portillo . Montoya made the finals of US Open and Dovetail, losing to Conrrado and DLR respectively. Neither are here. I think he’s the favorite to win.
Semis:
– Parrilla over Jake; Andree is 5-1 against Jake since 2017 and seems to know how to beat him as needed.
– Montoya over Mercado, though this is a tough one; Mercado is 3-1 over Rodrigo lifetime, including a win the week after US Open in California … if Mercado gets here, watch out.
Finals;
Montoya beats Parrilla again to win his first IRT title.
Lets see if my prognosticating skills are any good for the last event of the season.
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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 Directors Azuma Dave , @Wendell Pelham, and others for putting this event on!
Mejia wins her 2nd career singles title, defeating #1 and #2 on tour to do so. Salas teams up with a new partner to win her 37th pro doubles title since we started tracking them.
No surprises in the 32s: Annie Roberts played well in taking MRR to 9,9, and Argentine junior Martina Katz played Lawrence well in game one before losing big in game two.
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In the 16s, four upsets by seeds to talk about:
– #9 Brenda Laime with a solid win over #8 Angelica Barrios 11-6 in the breaker. These are the kinds of tough wins you have to continually get when you’re in the 9-16 range in order to move up.
– #13 @Sheryl Lotts got her best career win, topping #4 Natalia Mendez 11-9.
– #11 Samantha Salas showed that she’s not done yet on tour, topping fellow Mexican veteran #6 @Jessica Parrill 11-8.
– #10 @Kelani Lawrence met #7 @Carla Munoz for the first time on the pro tour (they’ve met 4 times internationally) and got the win 11-7. A solid win between two players that are neck and neck in terms of talent.
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In the Quarters
– #1 Paola Longoria had to work for it, but she beat down the challenge from Laime (who had beaten her earlier this season). 11-8 in the breaker.
– #5 Montse Mejía made fast work of the Cinderella #13 seed Lotts, 13,2.
– #3 Erika Manilla held serve against the tough veteran Samantha Salas , moving into the semis in two close games 13,11
A great set of semi-finalists; for me the best four players in the world.
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In the Semis
– #1 Longoria was beaten again, this time by Mejia in a breaker. Mejia was down big in each game but clawed back each time.
Longoria fought back in game 2 to force a tie-breaker, saving multiple match points against, but Mejia left no doubt by jumping out to a huge lead in the breaker to win going away 11-3.
– #2 Herrera demonstrated why there’s still a gulf between #2 and #3, crushing Manilla 7,4 to move into the final. Herrera makes her 6th final out of the last 10 pro events.
In the Finals … the two long-time doubles partners (who have seemingly split) went to battle, and it looked for a time like Mejia was not going to compete. She took a bad injury in the doubles match the night before and looked sluggish in game one, losing 15-2. But she battled back, grinding out game 2 15-12 before taking the breaker after running out to a huge lead. Inspired play from Mejia.
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Points Implications of results.
This tournament sees off two Nov 2021 events (Arizona and this same event in Chicago), both won by Paola, and neither of which Montse played in, so she gets a HUGE jump in the rankings as a result.
The top 2 remain the same, and despite her recent upsets Paola still has a commanding lead for #1, just as Alexandra has a commanding lead for #2. But Montse now sits at #3 on tour, jumping over several ladies in the process.
Elsewhere on tour, Munoz moves up to #7, jumping over Vargas, who slips from #3 to #8 by virtue of losing points in essentially three events. Barrios, who has been ranked as high as #4, will slip outside the top 10 for the first time in quite a while. Lotts with her big win moves up to #14, and the absent Rajsich now slips nearly out of the top 20.
The new pairing of Herrera & Salas proved too dominant, cruising into the final from the top half. From the bottom half, the seemingly dominant Longoria/Mejia team nearly was upset in the quarters by Laime/Barrios, having to save match points before advancing. They then lost to Manilla/Mendez in the semis (Mendez choosing not to play with fellow Argentine Centellas, who instead matched up with Parrilla and got crushed in the quarters).
In the final, the two excellent doubles players Herrera/Salas outlasted the improving Manilla/Mendez team, winning 13,14.
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Other Draws:
– Lawrence cruised through the Women’s Open draw, never giving up more than 8 points in a game while topping Maldonado, Amaya, and Centellas to win.
We have Thanksgiving this coming weekend, then the first weekend in December sees the IRT visiting Portland for the Live Like John Pelham memorial. We also see the kick off of World Juniors 2022 in Guatemala.
Can Manilla make another run to the final? Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory
Welcome to the 30th Annual Turkey Shoot, presented in 2022 by Platt Hill Nursery and hosted at the famous Glass Court Swim and Fitness club in Lombard, IL. Home of the famous “fishbowl” sunken 3-wall glass court, this club is a regular host to both pro tours.
Last year’s LPRT event featured a fantastic 11-9 final between #1 Longoria and then #3 Herrera as well as a couple of double-digit seeds into the quarters, shaking up the draw. See https://rball.pro/vxh for last year’s results … what does 2022 have in store for us?
There are 24 LPRT women’s pros in Chicago-land this weekend competing.
Top 20 players missing this weekend include @Maria Jose Vargas , who has now dropped to #7 while on maternity leave; she may be back early next year. #13 Hollie Scott misses the event; curious as she has been traveling a lot for events lately. #14 Rhonda Rajsich continues her absence on tour; she has not played since the season ending event in June. Lastly Gaby Martinez , who won a major last year, has now dropped to #20 on tour; when she returns someone’s going to have an awfully hard opening round match.
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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
Round of 32:
– #14 Maria Renee Rodriguez has a fun match against USA U-21 and current Intercollegiate champ @Annie Roberts to open the tourney.
– #11 Samantha Salas Solis has an interesting one against USA’s Lexi York , who has been training with the Bredenbeck boys in Minnesota and could be tough.
– In the #15/18 match we get Colombian-on-Colombian crime, as partners Cristina Amaya and @Maria Paz Riquelme are forced to play.
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round of 16:
– 8/9, tough as always: Brenda Laime versus Angelica Barrios . Both Bolivian born, both extremely tough to beat. Two contrasting styles; the classical flair of Laime versus the control grinding of Barrios. I see Laime upsetting the #8 seed to push for another Longoria meeting.
– 5/12: Montse Mejía and @Valeria Centella , who have been meeting since Juniors, meet again. They went breaker at the US OPen; can Centellas get an upset here?
– #6 @Jessica Parrill versus possibly Salas; two long-time Mexican top players set to battle once again.
– 7.10 projects to be Carla Munoz versus Kelani Lawrence , a total battle. I have them neck and neck in my personal world rankings, with Munoz slightly ahead. Expect a tiebreaker here.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 @PaPaola Longo versus Laime: third time they will meet in the last three tourneys; Laime famously topped Paola in Virginia before Paola completely crushed Brenda at the US Open 1,8. What happens here? I don’t think Paola is going to look past Laime again, so expect a win for the #1.
– #5 Mejia over #4 Natalia Mendez : Mejia is the better player, the more complete racquetball player, but has been known to drop games to fellow friends on tour like Mendez.
– #3 Erika Manilla over #6 Parrilla: Erika has handled Leoni the last couple times they’ve met, and Manilla has her eyes on #2 on tour. She’ll be focused here.
– #2 @Alexandra Herrera vs Munoz: Carla is 0-6 lifetime against the lefty, and this would be the 3rd straight event they play. Alexandra is just too strong for Carla right now.
Semis:
– Longoria over Mejia: I know Mejia has topped Paola in the past, and it isn’t out of the realm of possible, but is she prepared? Mejia hasn’t played an LPRT event since mid August, having missed Worlds, Virginia, and the US Open. Longoria hasn’t missed anything.
– Manilla over Herrera: they just met in Minn; a 6,6 dominant win for Erika, staking her claim to be the #2 player in the world. Can she repeat?
Finals;
Longoria over Manilla in a US Open final rematch. Manilla took game one in Minn before getting wiped out 5,3 in games 2,3. Can she make it closer here?
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Doubles review
Some interesting team machinations going on in Chicago: The clear #1 pro team of Longoria/Salas .. are not playing with each other for the first time that I can recall. And, long-time #2 team Herrera/Mejia have split up too, jumbling partners so that Herrera/Salas are taking on Longoria/Mejia. Weird.
From the top I like Herrera/Salas versus Munoz/MRR, while from the bottom i like Longora/Mejia over Manilla/Mendez.
Longoria and Mejia to win.
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Thanks to the Tourney Director @DaniDaniel Jay for putting this event on!
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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!
De La Rosa wins the 2022 LPL Financial cup.
Photo 2022 Outdoor Nats via Fitzsimons
The final Outdoor Major of the year, the 2022 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships which finished off a week ago Sunday in Las Vegas, also marked the culmination of the year-long Outdoor cup series competitions.
De La Rosa led the competition from start to finish and removed any doubt of her Outdoor dominance by winning three titles in Las Vegas. Scott was ranked 5th after Beach Bash but reached all three finals at Outdoor Nationals and secured the One-Wall Mixed title in Vegas to clinch 2nd place. Munoz finished 3rd despite missing the Beach Bash event entirely; her four pro titles trail only De La Rosa for the most of any outdoor player in 2022.
The rest of the top 10 players with their 2022 outdoor highlights:
4. @Katie Neil , who won the Beach Bash women’s pro doubles title and made two one-wall semis in Vegas.
5. @Kelani Lawrence , who made the Outdoor Nationals pro doubles final with her frequent partner Scott.
6. Brenda Laime , who finishes 6th despite only playing in Vegas. She made the final of both 3-wall pro doubles events (Women’s and Mixed) in Vegas and was a break-out star.
7. Erika Manilla , who won Beach Bash doubles with Neils but who missed Outdoor Nationals during her hectic travel summer representing USA as our reigning National singles champ.
8. Alexandra Herrera , the LPRT #2 who played outdoor for the first time ever in Vegas and made three pro finals in her first foray into the outdoor game.
9. Janel Tisinger , who won Vegas 3-wall doubles with mDLR and made the singles final but who missed the other two outdoor majors.
10. Jessica Parrilla , who had solid results at both Outdoor Nats and Vegas.
De La Rosa completes a dominant showing in the Cup Series and was in first place after all three Outdoor Majors. He finishes the year with five outdoor pro titles. Portillo improved his standing to 2nd place by virtue of his 3WallBall Pro doubles title and a strong showing at Outdoor Nationals. Sostre was ranked 7th after Beach Bash, but two strong results in Las Vegas (winning the CPRT title and making the final of 1-wall Pro Doubles allowed Sostre to edge Mercado and Mar, who finished 4th and 5th respectively.
Rounding out the top 10:
4. Javier Mar was just pipped for 3rd by the Ice Man; Mar won both the Beach Bash and Vegas 1-wall pro doubles titles with Mercado. He was also the losing finalist in BB singles.
5. Mario Mercado , the double 1-wall winner with Mar, also made the Mixed 3-wall final in Vegas. Both Mar and Mercado likely would have been in the money had they made the trip to Huntington Beach.
6. @AAndres Acuña was in 2nd place in these standings after Outdoor Nats, but an early round Men’s pro doubles loss in Vegas couldn’t overcome his singles success and he drops to 6th on the year.
7. Alvaro Beltran ‘s Vegas performance was marred by his event-ending injury, which knocked him out of the pro semis (where he was favored), the CPRT finals, and a combined 100+ final.
8. Rocky Carson ‘s Vegas 3-wall pro doubles title couldn’t overcome a slew of early exits at the other two events.
9. Solis Greg took both the Outdoor Nats and Vegas CPRT titles, enough for a spot in the top 10.
10. Jason Geis’s Outdoor Nationals pro doubles title was enough to get him into the top 10.
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For the full 2022 standings, use the following two Google Spreadsheet links:
Thanks to all the pro players who competed in one of the three outdoor pro competitions this year (more than 100 men and more than 30 women). We look forward to 2023!
De La Rosa wins his 9th career tier 1 title, putting him 13th all time. Mar/Montoya win their 4th pro doubles title together, first since Chicago in March.
– #20 @Jaime Martell played well and downed #13 @SSebastian Fran in two straight forward games, perhaps not really an upset by true talent levels.
– Solid win by #14 Thomas Carter over the upstart Longoria.
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In the 16s, some upsets for sure
– #1 Daniel de la Rosa had to deal with Mar, a matchup that is more of a semis-quality match. 15-2 in the first made it seem like it’d be a laugher, but Mar ground out game 2 to force DLR to win the breaker.
– #12 Andres Acuña blew out a rusty #5 @Alejandro Landa 5,7. Landa reportedly had not played since the US Open and showed it on the court against the always-consistent Acuna.
– #4 @Eduardo Portilla outlasted the dangerous Martell in two tight games.
– #3 Andrés Parrilla was pressed by #14 Carter but moved on 11,8
– #11 Rodrigo Montoya is fast becoming the non-top 8 player nobody wants to see, again claiming a top-8 scalp in dominating #6 Samuel Murray 11,6. Are we finally going to see the uber-talented Montoya take his rightful place at the top of the IRT tour, after years of partial touring costing him the points he needed to stay there?
– #7 @Rocky Carson held off fellow American #10 @Adam Manilla, has he has done for a few tournaments now at this juncture.
– #2 Conrrado Moscoso surprisingly dropped game one to fellow hard-hitter @Eduardo Gara , but bounced back to move on.
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In the Quarters
– #1 DLR continues to bedevil #8 Jake in the quarters when they generally meet (three times in the last year), but Jake did force him to a breaker this time. Being “stuck” at #8 can be a tough place to get out of without the “flip seeding” that the tour seems to have done away with.
– #12 Acuna got a walkover win against #4 Portillo, who was under the weather and was advised not to play. Acuna makes a semi for the first time in his pro career.
– #11 Montoya topped #3 Parrilla once again; it has been more than a year since Parrilla has beaten his cohort-mate in Rodrigo.
– #2 Moscoso cruised past #7 Carson 11,5.
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In the Semis,
– DLR was pressed by the upstart Costa Rican Acuna, but moved into the final 10,13
– In the other semi, what was shaping up to be a fantastic match on paper was cut short quickly when #2 Conrrado tripped over #11 Montoya’s feet while back-pedalling to retrieve a ceiling ball, and banged his head on the back wall. He was judged not to have been concussed, but was advised to retire unfortunately.
In the Finals, DLR absolutely destroyed the player who put him out of the US Open, beating Montoya 5,3 to claim the title.
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Points Implications of results;
This tourney expires the 2021 World Singles & Doubles championship, which was DLR over Moscoso in the final. So, DLR defends his winner points, and with just one tier 1 remaining in 2022 has an insurmountable lead at the top of the IRT tour. Congratulations to DLR for securing his second straight #1 year end ranking.
Other expected points machinations:
– Parrilla and Moscoso should switch places at 2/3, but its super close and if one or the other has some random tier 2/3 points that aren’t in my model they may stay the same 2/3 order.
– Despite both losing early, Murray should move ahead of Landa at the 5/6 by virtue of having fewer points to defend from Denver.
– Manilla continues to climb the ranks; he’s nearly in the top 10 now.
– Keller’s absenses are catching up to him; he’s nearly out of the top 16 now.
– Kane won’t drop too much for the time being: he’s entering a period where he missed most of the 2021 slate of events, so he’ll have no expiring points. Meanwhil,e Beltran will continue to fall as he recovers from his injury; he’ll likely be out of the top 20 soon.
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Doubles review
– The #1 seeds Parrilla/Murray were upset in the quarters by Natera/Acuna.
– The Bredenbecks had to work far harder than they should have to top Cuevas/Ramirez
– Landa & Moscoso teamed up for the first time and looked solid together
– DLR picked up a last minute partner in Carrasco, topped Carson/Portillo, and took Mar/Montoya to a breaker. Not bad.
The final was a walkover unfortunately, when Moscoso got hurt. Would have been a solid match to see Landa/Moscoso vs Mar/Montoya.
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Other notable draws from the event
– Erick Cuevas took the IRT U21 event with a solid win over Trujillo in the final.
– Diego Gastellum took the Men’s open with the help of a couple of walkovers from the top two seeds along the way.
– Florida pair @Bradley Knudsen and Matt Fontana took the Men’s Open doubles draw.
– Hollie Scott took the Women’s Open draw, which featured 7 regular LPRT players, topping Veronica Sotomayor 11-9 in the final.
– Scott teamed up with Maria Renee Rodriguez to win the 5-team Women’s Open Doubles over solid competition. Sotomayor and Costa Rican top junior Maricruz Ortiz finished 2nd.
– Finally, two Californians who made the trip won the Mixed Open title when Will Reynolds and @EsEstefania Perez Piña took out the all-florida pair of @Assuan Castaneda and @Graci Wargo in the final.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto and Karen Grisz who worked the mike all weekend.
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Can Conrrado make it 3 IRT tourneys in a row? Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
Just a couple days after we all got back from Vegas for @3w3Wall Ball , the IRT returns for the 2022 Team Dovetail open, being held in Sarasota, FL (home town of Mike Kinkin and the Dovetail enterprise).
Draw size, observations; 38 players are here, a solid draw for a back to back.
top20 players missing; the two known injured veterans Kane Waselenchuk and Alvaro Beltran , both of whom are out for a bit. The rest of the top 10 is here, even those who just burned it up in Vegas. No #17 @Sebastian Fernandez , a west coaster who didn’t want to make the west-to-east trip after a busy Vegas. No #11 @Carlos Keller, opting to skip the long Bolivan trip this time.
Other draw observations: we have a few of the Florida open regulars (@aleAlejandro Herrera , @Alex Zamudio ), a couple of notable juniors (@cCole Send , looking for some challenging matches ahead of Junior Worlds), and a few new names making their pro tour debuts (David Sosa Lopez and Lincoln Andres-beck ). Should be a solid tourney.
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Lets preview the singles draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
128s:
– Vargas vs Sendry: Vargas rarely plays the IRT, and is more of a Fronton player back home in Bolivia, but he can ball. Sendry has his hands full.
– Herrera vs @Christian Longoria : tough draw for both. Herrera still has the power, but Longoria is a tough out.
64s.
– @Sam Bredenbeck vs Rodrigo Rodriguez : great qualifier, R vs L, power versus touch. Hard to predict; Sam has been playing well, but Rodriguez has some scalps.
– Vargas/Sendry winner vs @ErErick Fernanado Cuevas : the 128 winner will like their chances over the young Mexican in the 64s to qualify.
– Jaime Martell vs Floridian Alex Zamudio ; Zamudio is tough, Martel is tougher and will look to build on his run to the quarters in Pleasanton.
– @Alan Natera versus the Herrera/Longoria winner: no easy match for Natera, especially for someone who just played Vegas.
– Kadim Carrasco vs Esteban Requez : two Bolivians battle it out; Reque just impressed highly in Vegas, winning the Open 3-wall singles over some very tough players.
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Projecting the 32s: here’s some possible matchups, though the depth of this draw could make for some upsets and make these predictions moot:
– #16/#17 should be Erick Trujillo versus Javier Mar . Two great players, and possible trouble for DLR in the 16s (read on). I don’t think Trujillo can top the veteran Mar just yet, but another good test.
– #20 Martell will favor his chances for another upset of #13 @Sebastian Franco in the round of 32.
– #14 Thomas Carter projects to face #19 Natera, and this could be a solid match. Carter has never faced Natera in a tier 1 event.
– The 15/18 match between Garay and Carrasco could be interesting.
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round of 16:
– #1 @dDaniel de la Rosa faces yet another far-too-difficult round of 16 matchup. He frequently plays Fernandez at this juncture, but has had to face off against Alonso, Montoya, and now likely Mar here. These are all better than #16 players, and the risk of a third straight upset of the #1 seed is in play. DLR looked laser focused though in Vegas and is still the favorite here.
– 8/9 Jake Bredenbeck v Mario Mercado : Mercado was lights out in Vegas and is sharp. But Jake made the final in Pleasanton and topped Mario 9,9 along the way. I think Jake’s got his number for now.
– #4 Eduardo Portillo , newly crowned 3WB Outdoor pro doubles champ, projects to face the Martel/Franco winner to open his tourney.
– #6/#11 Montoya v Samuel Murray : tough opener for Murray; he’s 2-2 lifetime versus Montoya and he’s hot this season, having made the US Open final. Upset watch.
– 7/10 Battle of the Americans between @Rocky Carson and Adam Manilla . Manilla is 0-7 lifetime against Rocky indoors, but did take him to a breaker in Minneapolis last month.
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Projected Qtrs:
– DLR over Jake; DLR’s wired in right now.
– Portillo over Landa : Alex got him in US Open, but Lalo topped him the two times before.
– Montoya over Andree Parrilla : a rematch of the 1v16 upset in Maryland earlier this year; Montoya has his number.
– #2 Conrrado Moscoso over #7 Carson: Moscoso has owned this h2h matchup since Bolivia in 2019.
Semis:
– DLR over Portillo
– Moscoso over Montoya
Finals; 1 v 2: this is the match we all want to see right now as a measuring stick of how far Moscoso has come. Most observers have now elevated Conrrado to the “2nd best player in the world” status (behind a healthy Kane) and having pipped DLR for that mantle … but this would be a great final to see where they are right now. They havn’t run into each other in a while: DLR won in 2021 Denver and 2020 Sioux Falls, but Moscoso has some h2h wins internationally and at the US Open semis in 2019.
I like Moscoso to win his 3rd straight pro title.
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Doubles review:
With the Beltran injury, DLR picked up a last minute doubles replacement in Carrasco and are seeded third; not likely they can top the dominant Mar/Montoya pairing from the lower half. 3WB champs Rocky/Lalo are the #6 seed, team Zurek (Garay/Franco) is #7, and an intriguing Mercado/Vargas all-Bolivian native pairing is #10, making for a stacked lower half.
From the upper side, #1 Murray/Parrilla is clearly the team to beat … but we get a Landa/Conrrado pairing for the first time at #4. Also at the top: the US national finalists Bredenbeck brothers at #5 and an interesting Trujillo/Manilla lefty-righty pairing at #9 will challenge.
Prediction: Montoya/Mar top Murray/Parrilla in the final.
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