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37th Annual PapaNicholas Coffee Shamrock Shootout IRT Wrap-Up

Kane wins again. Photo credit: unknown

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Singles: Kane Waselenchuk
  • Doubles: Javier Mar & Rodrigo Montoya

    Kane returns to the winner’s circle for the first time since before Covid and takes his 124th career Tier-1 title. Mar/Montoya take their 3rd pro doubles title together in dominant fashion.
  • R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38590

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/BF73A5

The round of 64 was relatively straight-forward with expected results. But the round of 32 had some serious fireworks and some serious upsets. A number of players had career wins. Here’s a run through:

  • #16 Thomas Carter put down a statement, splitting the first two games with #17 @Eduardo Garay before racing to a dominant 11-1 tiebreaker win. This is a very solid win over a strong player, one of the best of Carter’s IRT career.
  • The biggest upset of the round was #9 Jake Bredenbeck , who made the final of this event last October, falling to the little known Mexican Jordy Alonso 12,10. Alonso is a rare IRT participant, but has been getting more time on the court lately and nets a huge win.
  • We’ve been predicting it for a while, but the defending World 18U champion @Erick Trujillo finally got a breakthrough win over a big-time touring pro, taking out #12 @Sebastian Franco in a tight 11-9 breaker. Trujillo will have a similar looking match in the next round against #5 Murray and could go further.
  • #14 @Andres Acuña got a very solid win over #19 @Javier Mar in a breaker. Though not an upset by the seeds, Mar’s ranking has taken a tumble from its peak in the upper teens after taking time off to heal. This was another in a long line of incrementally excellent wins for Acuna, as he continues to improve on tour.
  • #11 @Alvaro Beltran split games with @Erick Cuevas before settling down and dominating the breaker 11-0 to move on.
  • – In what was likely the most entertaining match of the round, two power players from Mexico faced off in the 15/18 match-up, and the former World Champion @RRodrigo Montoya held off match-point against in the breaker to advance past @Sebastian Fernandez 4,(10),10.

In the 16s, some normalcy returned to the draw with 7 of the 8 top seeds advancing, but the one upset was a big one.

  • #1 @Daniel de la Rosa held serve against #17 Carter 11,12 in a match that was a big closer than I expected. Bravo to Carter for pressing the #1.
  • #8 Rocky Carson blew past the upset-minded Alonso to move into the quarters.
  • #5 Samuel Murray held off the phenom Trujillo 9,12 to move into the quarters.
  • #4 @Alejandro Landa , who hasn’t been seeded this low in an event since Oct 2019, went tiebreaker with the improving Manilla but moved on to setup a meeting with his doubles partner.
  • #3 @Kane Waselenchuk was the least “troubled” in the round, crushing the Costa Rican #1 Acuna 3,3 to move on with ease.
  • #6 @Eduardo Portillo , coming off a knee injury, got a fortunate walk-over against #11 @Alvaro Beltran (who injured a hip in his double match earlier in the evening) to get into the quarters without much fanfare.
  • #7 @Conrrado Moscoso made a statement, taking out an opponent who has pressed him in the past in #10 @Mario Mercado with ease 6,4 to get to the quarters yet again.
  • – And in the biggest upset of the day, #2 @Andree Parrilla ‘s difficult draw caught up with him, as he couldn’t convert match point opportunities in game two and fell 11-9 to his long-time rival @Rodrigo Montoya . Parrilla’s run of semis or better at this event comes to an end.

In the Quarters

  • #1 DLR seemed completely frustrated with his shot-making on the day, while #8 Carson turned back the clock and played some of the most complete racquetball i’ve seen out of him in years, upsetting Daniel 11,4 to move into the semis.
  • #5 Landa held off his long-time doubles partner #4 Murray after an incredibly slow start, dropping the first game 15-3 before rebounding to win the second 15-1 and outlasting the Canadian in the breaker 11-7. Landa’s emotions got the best of him on the day from a professionalism perspect ive, but he moves on.
  • #3 Waselenchuk made fast work of the knee-hampered youngster Lalo 7,5.
  • – #7 Moscoso cruised past an opponent in Montoya who he had never beaten before 6,12, getting another statement win. Montoya started very slowly (because he was late getting to his match), and Moscoso came out firing. Montoya made it closer in game two, but Moscoso’s relentless drive serves earned him lots of Aces and lots of 3-shot rallies on the day. He moves on to a highly anticipated semi.

In the Semis

  • #8 Carson continued his hot streak, dropping a close first game to Landa before blowing him out in the second and outlasting him in the breaker 11-9. He gets back to a final for the first time since November 2019.
  • #3 Kane dominated #7 Moscoso in the highly anticipated semi 6,7. Moscoso’s shot making wasn’t up to the level of Kane’s, who continued making short work of his opponents here.

In the Finals, we get a throwback match-up; a final between Rocky and Kane, something we saw week in and week out for years. Their 82nd career meeting ended as most of them had; with a Kane win 6,9.

Points Implications of results

This win should jump Kane up one spot over Parrilla to take over #2 on tour. He will still be 1100 points or so behind DLR, but has the rest of the year to make that up. There’s little other movement in the top 20 anticipated.

Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/FCC970

The story of the Doubles draw was the early exit of the #1 team of DLR/Beltran. They were taken out 11-8 in the breaker by the rapidly improving Carson/Lalo team. The other three top seeds advanced to the semis, setting up some great doubles action.
In the pro doubles semis:

  • #4 Keller/Moscoso, the reigning Bolivian champs and who have made the finals of the last three major IRF championships took out the Carson/Lalo team…. but not without having to survive match points against in an 11-10 breaker.
  • #2 Mar/Montoya (who barely survived their quarterfinal) rebounded against Big Canada/Big Minnesota (aka Jake and Sam) 11,11 to setup a great rematch of the last three major IRF finals.
  • In that final, the Mexicans again topped the Bolivians, as they have done in the last two major IRF finals, to take the crown 9,9.

In Men’s Open, the top four seeds advanced to the semis. #1 Mercado topped #4 Cuevas in one semi, #2 Acuna topped #3 Trujillo in the other semi, then Mario outlasted Acuna 11-10 to take the open title.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Dean Baer, Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Geoff Peters and @Dan Jaskier for putting this event on!

Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Next up is Beach Bash! The first outdoor major of the year, returning after a 2 year hiatus. Also next weekend is an IRT Tier 4 in Louisiana, and USAR Intercollegiates in Tucson.

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Associations
International Racquetball Tour
LPRT
International Racquetball Federation – IRF
Pan American Racquetball Confederation – PARC
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships
WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
Countries
USA Racquetball
Racquetball Canada
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
RKT
Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball
Racquetball Colombia
Federacion Colombiana de Racquetball
Federación Costarricense de Racquetball
Asociación Argentina de Racquetball
Federación Chilena Racquetball
Racquetball Rancagua, Chile
ASOCIACION DE RAQUETBOL DE GUATEMALA
Ferac Racquet
Federación Ecuatoriana de Racquetball – FERAC
India racquetball
Major Sponsors
Reaching Your Dream Foundation / Michael Lippett
FormulaFlow / Momo Zelada and Mario Mercado
Splathead / Joe Hall
onewallball / Ruben Pagan
3wallball / Mike Coulter / mc vegas
Beastmade Apparel / Jake Bredenbeck
Wear Rollout / Jonathan Clay
Racquetball Warehouse / Ben Croft
Splatit
Suivant Consulting / Williams Accounting / Donald Williams
Zurek Construction / Francisco Fajardo
AGE Solutions / Andy Gomer
team root / Randy Root
KWM Gutterman / Keith Minor
APCON/MZ Companies / Abel Perez
Team Dovetail / Mike Kinkin
Manilla Athletic / Adam Manilla Erika Manilla Bobby Horn
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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37th Annual PapaNicholas Coffee Shamrock Shootout IRT Tier 1 Preview

Kane is in the draw; can he prevent another Parrilla win? Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory


We are back in Chicago for the latest IRT event, and it looks to be a doozy. The 37th annual Shamrock shootout is back in its normal spot around St. Patricks’ day, and the tour is happy to be back in Chicago as well.
R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38590
There’s 31 men’s pros entered here this weekend, the weekend after many countries held their national selection events ahead of next month’s Pan American Racquetball Championships (PARC) in Bolivia. This has caused some of the normal international players to take the weekend off.

Top players missing from the draw include #12 Carlos Keller (fresh off his finals appearance in Bolivian Nationals), but he’s the only player in the top 20 missing here. A great draw. We see a return to action of @Javier Mar, who was nursing an injury for months that kept him out of singles action. We also see @Educardo Garay back in action after missing the past couple of events.

Lets preview the draw. With only 31 players, there’s two qualifying rounds. I see mostly straightforward wins from expected winners in the first round, so lets pick up with the Round of 32. Nearly every round of 32 match is going to be compelling, with interesting storylines.
Here’s what i’m looking forward to there:

  • #16 v #17 Garay versus @Thomas Carter . Garay probably is the better player, but hasn’t played in months on tour. Can Carter pull an upset?
  • #9 @Jake Bredenbeck takes on @Jordy Alonso, a dangerous lower seed who can play well above his ranking. I don’t think this is an upset, but Alonso may push him.
  • #12 @Sebastian Franco is an upset watch against up and coming Mexican junior @Erik Trujillo. He’ll look to setup a rematch against a top 8 pro in the 16s.
  • Two American lefties take on each other as @Adam Manilla and @Robert Collins battle it out. Look for the Colorado pro to take out the Hawaiian pro.
  • In Mar’s return to action, he faces a tall task in the fast improving #14 @Andres Acuna. Acuna is fresh of a title in Minnesota where he topped two top-10 players, and Mar’s rustiness probably prevents him from playing up to his normal top levels. Look for Acuna to move on.
  • – In my favorite match of the round, @Rodrigo Montoya takes on @Sebastian Fernandez in what should be an enjoyable shootout of power and athleticism. On paper Montoya is the better player, but Fernandez has the capabilities to move on.

round of 16:

  • #1 @Daniel De La Rosa should move on easily from Garay or Carter.
  • #8 @Rocky Carson faces a tough opponent in Bredenbeck. They met in Atlanta, a close 14,11 win for Rocky. Can Jake close the gap? Look for the veteran to move on again.
  • #5 @Samuel Murray gets started against the Franco/Trujillo winner, and should move past either player.
  • #4 @Alex Landa likely faces lefty Manilla in the 16s, a tricky match for the former #1. Manilla’s online training gig has him on the courts a ton, whereas Landa is seemingly at a career cross roads. Upset watch here.
  • #3 @Kane Waselenchuk was a last minute confirmation for the event, and is inarguably a favorite. He starts off against a friendly face in Acuna, who may get some points but will serve mostly as Kane’s warmup for the latter rounds despite his recent successes.
  • #6 @Eduardo Portillo is back in action after a knee injury suffered in Atlanta kept him out of action for 2 months. He is set to face the veteran Beltran, who can still play. Where is Lalo in his recovery? If he’s still a step slow, Beltran’s crafty game will be hard to beat. Upset watch here.
  • #7 @Conrrado Moscoso is fresh off his latest Bolivian National title, but faces a very tricky opponent in Mercado here. Mercado plays him tough every time; expect two tight games.
  • – #2 @Andree Parrilla is Mr. Chicago: his first ever pro final was here in 2017, and his first ever pro win was here in 2018. He’s made the semis the last three years after that. He loves this court and will be hard to beat. But his projected round of 16 opponent will be a troublesome one: if its Montoya, its a player in his same age class who has been playing him (and often beating him) for years. If its Patata, its a guy who won’t back down and will make him earn every point. Look for a struggle here but for Andree to prevail.

Projected Qtrs:
There’s really only one quarterfinal i’m looking forward to … but here’s all four projected.

  • #1 DLR will top #8 Carson to move on. DLR has topped Rocky every time they’ve played lately and will again here.
  • #4 Landa, if he gets here, should handle his doubles partner #5 Murray, if he gets here. But both players have had iffy results lately, so this could also be some combination of Franco and Manilla. Possible wildcard semi finalist coming out of this quadrant.
  • #3 Kane should cruise past his long-time rival Beltran, or will test Lalo’s rehabbed knee for him in this quarter to move on.
  • The big one: #2 Parrilla versus #7 Moscoso. They’ve met three times; once at the 2017 US Open (a 5-game Moscoso win that was part of his coming out party), then a Parrilla win in 2019, then a Moscoso win last December at Worlds. They’re neck and neck in my personal rankings; this is a coin flip. These are the two winners of the last two pro stops. Parrilla loves Chicago, Moscoso beat him in their last matchup and is coming off a title in Bolivia. I’m going to go with Moscoso in an upset.
    Semis:
  • DLR over Landa if the seeds hold: Landa holds a pretty definitive career W/L record over DLR … 9-3 on the IRT and 10-5 in all top-level competitions. However, they have not played since March of 2020, which is basically when Landa plateaued as a professional. I think DLR is a step ahead now, and moves into the final here.
  • Waselenchuk over Moscoso; this is a great match, a rematch of the fantastic 2019 US open final. Kane has never really been threatened by Conrrado … and in fact destroyed him the last time they played in Austin in 2019. Conrrado needs a strategy to win, much as Andree had a strategy going into the Atlanta final. I’m not sure Conrrado as a player has the capability of devising a strategy right now; that’s why he takes losses against lesser players despite probably being the 2nd most talented player on earth. Look for a Kane win.

  • Finals; we finally get (hopefully) Daniel versus Kane. Current #1 versus long-time #1. Man, I hope it happens.
    DLR, like Parrilla, is a thinking man on the court, a player who depends less on power and more on shot-making. He can handle Kane’s power. When they’ve played recently, Daniel gets his points. The scores were Kane wins, but it was 9 and 10, 8 and 10, 11 and 6. That was 2-3 years ago; what happens now?
  • I’m thinking tie-breaker, with Kane pulling it out and returning to the winner’s circle. But if Daniel maintains his cool and is not overwhelmed by the import of the match, this could be another upset win over the long-time King.

Doubles review
We thought perhaps we’d get a return to competition the venerable pairing of Kane and @Ben Croft, but they’re not in the draw. What we do have though is a stacked draw of solid international teams here to prepare for Beach Bash and for PARC.

From the top I like #1 DLR/Beltran to take out the Bolivian champs Moscoso/Keller in one semi, while the #2 Montoya/Mar takes out the team Beastmade Clothing Bredenbeck/Murray pairing in the other semi. In the final. a frequent matchup on tour and in Mexican Nationals will see the younger pairing winning out over the veteran Mexican pair.

Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for Dean Baer, Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Dan Jaskier andGeoff Peters 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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.
Associations
@International Racquetball Tour
LPRT
International Racquetball Federation – IRF
Pan American Racquetball Confederation – PARC
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships
WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
Countries
USA Racquetball
Racquetball Canada
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
RKT
Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball
Racquetball Colombia
Federacion Colombiana de Racquetball
Federación Costarricense de Racquetball
Asociación Argentina de Racquetball
Federación Chilena Racquetball
Racquetball Rancagua, Chile
ASOCIACION DE RAQUETBOL DE GUATEMALA
Ferac Racquet
Federación Ecuatoriana de Racquetball – FERAC
India racquetball
Major Sponsors
Reaching Your Dream Foundation / Michael Lippett
FormulaFlow / Momo Zelada and Mario Mercado
Splathead / Joe Hall
onewallball / Ruben Pagan
3wallball / Mike Coulter / mc vegas
Beastmade Apparel / Jake Bredenbeck
Wear Rollout / Jonathan Clay
Racquetball Warehouse / Ben Croft
Splatit
Suivant Consulting / Williams Accounting / Donald Williams
Zurek Construction / Francisco Fajardo
AGE Solutions / Andy Gomer
team root / Randy Root
KWM Gutterman / Keith Minor
APCON/MZ Companies / Abel Perez
Team Dovetail / Mike Kinkin
Manilla Athletic / Adam Manilla Erika Manilla Bobby Horn
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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Weekend Event Wrap-up

Acuna got two solid wins against top 10 opponents to take the Minnesota Hall of Fame event. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

In addition to the LPRT Boston Open, there were a slew of other events this past weekend worthy of mention. Here’s a quick run through of what was a very busy weekend globally for racquetball.

US High School Nationals.


r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38151
One of the biggest tournaments of the year (by pure attendance) was held last weekend: the 2022 @USA Racquetball High School Nationals event, held at the Vetta Sports clubs in St. Louis.


Nearly 350 High School players from around the country were in St. Louis to compete for singles, doubles, and team competitions. Here’s a recap of the #1/Gold competitions on the weekend…

  • Boys #1 Gold Singles: #1 @Josh Shea from New York topped #2 @AnAndrew Gleason from Iowa. In a likely precursor to the 18U Junior Nationals final later this year, Shea won the first HS title for a New Yorker since … @sSudsy Monchik won in 1991.
  • Girls #1 Gold Singles: #2 @Naomi Ros from San Antonio upset #1 seed @Heather Mahoney. Ros recently relocated from Mexico and topped Mahoney in the 2021 Junior Nationals, setting up a rivalry that is set to run for a couple more years on the US junior national scene. She becomes the first ever titlist from a Texas HS on the girl’s side.
  • Boys #1 Doubles: Jacob Schmidt / Gabe Collins from Christian Brothers College High School in St Louis cruised to the title as the #1 seed.
  • Girls #1 Doubles: Heather Mahoney / Ava Naworski from Casa Grande High School outside of Santa Rosa HS took the title as the #3 seeds.
  • Mixed #1 Doubles: Ros teamed with DJ Mendoza (the #4 seed in Boys #1 gold) to cruise to the Mixed doubles title.
    The team competition was dominated by Missouri/St Louis area high schools:
  • Boys’ Team: St. Louis University HS
  • Girl’s Team: Lafayette HS
  • Overall Team: Kirkwood HS

Congrats to everyone who played, organized and participated. Thanks to @LLeo Vasque ‘s tireless work on the stream all weekend.

LPRT Boston Open Draws
r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38579


Connecticut’s top player @Jose Flores upset the #1 seeded @John Behm to take the 24-man Open draw from Boston this weekend.

Women’s Open: as noted in the LPRT wrap-up, Micaela Meneses had a great women’s Open tournament, topping LPRT regulars Lotts, Lawrence and Munoz to take the title.

PAC Pueblo Athletic Shootout IRT recap
r2sports: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38852
Several IRT touring regulars traveled to Colorado to compete in the PAC shootout.
The four IRT regulars all advanced to the singles semis as expected. From there, #1 Andree Parrilla topped #4 @NNick Riff while @David Horn took out his colleague @Adam Manilla in the other semi to setup an All-WRT alumni final.
In that final, Parrilla cruised to the title, topping Horn 2,5.

In doubles, Horn and Manilla were unstoppable, cruising to the pro doubles title over #2 seeds Riffel and @Mike O’Brien in the final.

Minnesota Hall of Fame IRT Tier 3
r2sports: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38807
A solid mid-western flair draw of top players descended to Fridley over the weekend for the Hall of Fame tournament. This included the IRT broadcast team of @DeDDean Baer and @PFPablo Fajre , who made friends with a local kangaroo and called some matches.
r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38807
Congrats to local open amateurs @John Goth , Blake Hansen , and Lee Meinerz , who joined the 5 touring pros in the pro quarters.
From there, Canadian #1 @Samuel Murray topped #5 Jordy Alonso in one semi, while #3 @Andres Acuña upset home-town favorite @Jake Bredenbeck in the other semi.
In the singles final…Acuna played solid ball to top Murray 10,7 to take the singles title.

In the Doubles draw, the Bredenbeck brothers took out Murray playing with Canadian Ledu Michael in the final.

Lastly, several countries have been holding Nationals events or National team selection events ahead of next month’s Pan American Racquetball Championships. Results are a little hard to come by since no international countries use r2sports outside of the “big 3” … but here’s what we’ve been able to glean from various Facebook Posts:

  • Costa Rica held their men’s championships last weekend; in the men’s final: Andres Acuna d Gabriel Garcia 6,7,5. This is somewhat of a changing of the guard, as @FelipFelipe Camacho has represented the country for many, many years.
  • Colombia held a Men’s Selection event in Pereia, COL over the weekend.
  • Guatemala held their Men’s Selection event this past week and weekend (Women’s will be next weekend). The 4 semi finalists competed (presumably) in a RR draw; here was the results:
  1. @EdwEdwin Galicia
  2. @Juan Jose Salvatierra
  3. Christian Wer
  4. Geovani Mendoza

The top 3 will represent Guatemala, with Mendoza as the alternate.

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LPRT Boston Open Recap

Herrera makes it two for two over Longoria. Photo LPRT official


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Singles: Alexandra Herrera
  • Doubles: Paola Longoria & Samantha Salas

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38579

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/F91610

In the 32s:

  • @Hollie Scott and Maria Renee Rodriguez split two close games in their 16/17 match-up before Scott pulled away with a dominant 11-1 tiebreaker win.
  • The ever improving junior Micaela Meneses took a game off of #13 @Erika Manila before falling in a breaker.
  • @Crist’ Amaya got a solid win over fellow veteran tour player @Nancy Enriquez 11-5 in the breaker.
  • – #11 @Carla Munoz reversed the script against @Jenny Daza , topping her 9,9 to move on. Daza had gotten the big upset over Munuz in this round just last tournament.

In the 16s:

  • Scott made #1 @Paola Longoria work for her round of 16 win, pushing the top player 12,11 in their round of 16 matchup.
  • #5 @Natalia Mendez was challenged by her younger Argentinian rival @Valeria Centellas before advancing 11-7 in the breaker.
  • #13 Manilla got her fifth win over a top-5 seed on tour since October, downing #4 @Gaby Martinez in a hard-fought close match. She took the first game 15-13, then Gaby raced to a huge lead in game two before Erika pulled it all the way back. They traded blows at match point before Gaby’s athletic exploits pushed a tiebreaker. There, Manilla looked to run away with the breaker before Gaby scored 7 unanswered to push for an amazing comeback … but Manilla got the 11-8 win.
  • #3Maria Jose Vargas battled through some illness and outlasted the veteran Amaya in a tiebreaker.
  • – #7 @Montse Mejia put a statement down , crushing #10 @Brenda Laime 8,1 to move into the quarters.

In the Quarters, a couple of surprising results.

  • #1 Longoria made fast work of her doubles partner Salas 5,7
  • #5 Mendez avenged herself in a rematch against Manilla, winning in a tie-breaker to avoid two upsets in two tournaments.
  • #3 Vargas could not overcome both illness and #6 Barrios, losing in a tie-breaker.
  • – #2 Herrera outlasted her doubles partner Mejia, dropping the middle game but running away with it in the tiebreaker.

In the Semis

  • Longoria made quick work of Mendez 7,5 and was in cruise control for most of the match.
  • Herrera was not troubled by the young Bolivian Barrios 6,5 and setup the anticipated rematch of last week’s final in Vero Beach.
    In the Finals…. another shocker. Herrera dominated in game one 15-8, then for a while it looked like Longoria had found another gear, racing to a 12-1 game two win. Instead of packing it in, Herrera fought back and saved game points against to take game two 15-14 in a pretty amazing comeback win.

Herrera’s second career win moves her into the top 20 all time of tour wins. Longoria loses in the final for the second tourney in a row … something that hadn’t happened since the fall of 2010, when she lost two successive finals to Rajsich (also the last time she lost to the same person in two straight events). Is this a changing of the guard? Or a blip on Longoria’s resume?

Points Implications of results: I don’t see a ton of movement in the top 10 after this tourney. Herrera solidifies her grip on #2 and closes the gap a bit on #1. Gaby maintains a slight lead on Mendez for #4.

Further down, some more significant movement. Manilla should move up to #12 and Lawrence should move to #15, edging slowly to the top 10. Meneses continues to rise; she’s nearly in the top 20 now. Lastly two more appearances for Daza and Rico have them both inside the top 30.

Doubles review.
Hollie Scott had the tournament of her career, driving the all-American duo of Scott & Lawrence to the pro doubles final. They took out Vargas & Mendez in the quarters, then Herrera/Mejia in the semis. In the final though, they couldn’t overtake the #1 duo of Longoria/Salas, falling in a breaker.
Longoria & Salas win their 35th pro doubles title together since August 2014. Amazing.

Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/F5E7DA

Women’s Open

Meneses may have lost in the first round of pros to Manilla, but she took out several pros en route to the Women’s Open title. She took out local player @Jolene Sullivan in the round of 16, then beat Lotts, Lawrence, and Munoz for the title. Great wins.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst , Jerry J Josey Jr. , @JT R Ball , and Tj Baumbaugh

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Nothing domestically, but a couple of countries are having National selection events to pick their teams to go to PARC. We’ll try to decipher Facebook postings to figure out who has won.

tags
@LPRT

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LPRT Boston Open Preview

Is this Mejia’s weekend to shine? Photo unk.


Hot on the heels of the Vero Beach Open, the LPRT returns to action, this time in Boston. The LPRT returns to Massachusetts for the 5th time in 7 years, with the tour heading to the Wayside Athletic Club in Marlborough, MA.


R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=38579


24 ladies pros are in Boston, with some interesting additions and absences as compared to two weeks ago in Florida. #8 @Jessica Parrilla is missing; she was injured in Florida and is presumably rehabbing. But Leoni is the sole player in the top 20 who is missing from Boston; returning to action include #4 Gaby Martinez, #9 @SamantSamantha Salas , and #13 @Valerie Centellas, all of whom missed the Florida event.
Which means, this draw is stacked, and there’s great matches from the first round onwards.

Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:

In the 32s…here’s some matches to look for.

  • #16/#17 features two players very evenly matched in @Maria Renee Rodriguez and @HoHollie Scott . Even though MRR is ahead of Scott in the rankings, I think Scott is the favorite here.
  • #13 Erika Manilla versus #20 @Michaela Meneses Cuellar: Manilla should advance, but Meneses continues to get solid looks at top pros. Its just a matter of time before the Bolivian reigning junior 18U champ gets a top win.
  • #14 v #19 features two long-time LPRT touring pros, both former top 10 players now pushed down into the teens in @Cris Amaya and @Nancy Enriquez. Enriquez has had some tough openers lately (losing to Sotomayor in Vero Beach, and losing to Meneses at the US Open last fall), and is a better player than her ranking, and will look to get back into a position to go deeper into the draw here.
  • #11 @Carla Munoz versus #22 Jenny Daza : an immediate rematch to one of the biggest upsets from Vero Beach, as two South American internationals face up again. Can Munoz learn from her loss against Daza and flip the script? Or will Daza win again?
  • – #15 Kelani Lawrence versus #18 @Sheryl Lotts: these two Americans will face off in the round of 32 for the third time in 9 months, with Kelani looking to advance to force a rematch with last week’s tourney winner.

round of 16:
I’m projecting a couple of upsets in the 16s, and some solid matches.

  • #8 v #9 will be two long-time adversaries on tour: Rhonda Rajsich takes on @Samantha Salas . They’ve met 26 times over the years both internationally and professionally, with Rhonda holding an 18-8 career lead. Salas is still trying to regain her form from a couple years ago, while Rhonda continues to make waves on tour and retain her top 10 spot. Look for Rhonda in the mini upset here.
  • Sometime doubles partners Centellas and Natalia Mendez are set to face off in the 16s, with Natalia looking to right the ship after an early exit in Vero Beach. Centellas is also looking to right the ship in general. After spending most of the last two seasons well inside the top 10, she’s now drifted to #13 in the rankings and is in jeopardy of slipping further.
  • #13 Manilla is set to take on her next top-4 challenger, that being the Guatemalan #1 Martinez. Manilla topped Gaby at the US Open and will look to do so again.
  • – #7 @Montse Mejia gets her tournament started in challenging fashion against #10 @Brenda Laime. On paper this is a straightforward win for Mejia, but Laime has been turning heads lately and will put up a fight. These two close friends may struggle to amp up the competitiveness needed to win.

Projected Qtrs:

  • #1 @Paola Longoria over her longest rival Rajsich. Fun Fact: of Longoria’s career 33 pro losses, 15 of them are to Rajsich.
  • Manilla upsets Mendez for the second straight tournament to move to the semis yet again.
  • #3 Vargas takes out Barrios in a distinct battle of game styles.
  • #2 @Alexandra Herrera , fresh off her big win in Florida, runs into perhaps the one player she didn’t want to see in the quarters, that being her doubles partner Mejia. Mejia has topped Herrera the last four times they’ve met, dating to 2017. I think she could make it a 5th; look for Mejia upset here.


    Semis: we get two rematches from last week.
  • Longoria over Manilla; Erika can go to the game tape to see what she needs to do to win; basically the answer is , don’t make mistakes.
  • Vargas over Mejia: they’re close, but i still think Vargas has the advantage. Mejia knows what she needs to do to take this match; can she do it?

    final: Longoria over Vargas.

Doubles Preview.
As we get closer to the next international competition (PARC), we’ll continue to see country’s international representatives playing together on tour to get practice ahead of IRF competition. This tourney is no different, as we seem to have the Reigning championship doubles teams from Mexico (Longoria, Salas), Guatemala (Martinez/Rodriguez), and Argentina (Vargas/Mendez) as three of your top four seeds. Interestingly the USA reigning champs Rajsich/Manilla are playing with alternate partners.
Nonetheless, it will make for some great semi-finals and forward action. Look for the reigning Mexican champs to beat the Guatemalan team in one semi, and for the #2 mexican team Herrera/Mejia to top the Argentinians in the other semi.

This leads us to yet another heavyweight meeting between the two top Mexican pairs; I still give Longoria/Salas the edge.

Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for @ [554433128:2048:Timothy Baghurst], Jerry J Josey Jr., JP Edwards and @ [1254655965:2048:Tj Baumbaugh] on the mike, calling the shots!
Thanks to the Tourney Director @SStuart Soloman for putting this event on!
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Racquetball Canada Winter Selection Event recap

Murray wins his 10th straight Canadian national team event. Photo via us2019 Kevin Savory


For the first time since February 2020, Racquetball Canada hosted a selection event. Normally, Canada hosts two of these events each season (usually, in late November and then again in early February) to determine seeding for its eventual Nationals (held in May). But, thanks to Covid, we hadn’t seen one of these tournaments since right before the Pandemic took grip of society.
Trackie.com site for the event: https://www.trackie.com/…/racquetball-canada…/474684/…
Lets do a quick recap of the results.
Note: thanks to IRF’s decision to go to rally scoring, this tournament was played with the rally scoring rules. Three out of Five games to 15, win by one.
In Men’s Open, #1 Samuel Murray and #2 Coby Iwaasa met up in the final for the eight successive Canadian Nationals or Selection event, with Murray taking the title over his countryman for the 8th successive time. Murray’s 10th straight Canadian national tournament title came with the scores of 8,11,14.
click here for the Match report: http://rball.pro/F20E68

Click here for a list of all Canadian Men’s National event finals dating to 1975; http://rball.pro/2CB02F

In Women’s Open, #1 @Frederique Lambert continued her dominance over Canadian Racquetball (when she can play, given her medical residence requirements) by taking out #2 @Michele Morisset in the final (😎,10,6,10. The draw was missing @Christine (Keay) Richardson, who had made the final of the previous five Canadian national tournaments.
click here for the Match report: http://rball.pro/DCDEDE

Click here for a list of all Canadian Women’s National event finals dating to 1975; http://rball.pro/AF9A18

Murray and Lambert retain their #1 positions in Canada heading into May’s Canadian Nationals, and should be representing their country at the upcoming PARC event in Mid April In Bolivia.

@Racquetball Canada

This coming weekend is a busy one on the racquetball calendar

  • USA Racquetball High School Nationals is in St. Louis
  • the LPRT is in Boston
  • there’s an IRT Tier 3 in Findley, Minnesota that has a handful of touring pros attending.
  • there’s an IRT Tier 4 or 5 in Pueblo, Colorado, also with a few IRT regulars in the field.
    Click here for my running Racquetball “major” event tracker:
    https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
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Longoria-Herrera Match Stat Breakdown

Herrera celebrating her first LPRT win. Photo screen capture from LPRT Facebook video of awards ceremony

I thought it would be illuminating to break down the LPRT final between Paola Longoria and Alexandra Herrera, looking for some trends and interesting data points.

Using my standard detailed Match Tracker, I filled in match stats for the first game of the final, a nail-biting 15-14 win for Herrera.

Here’s a link to the match tracker detailed data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t8GgzPppq4dZvZwkS3yITkZAlKGSRQAGROM6woq-0G4/edit?usp=sharing and here’s a link to the video on Facebook for the match: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=372683864314937

Here’s some breakdowns.

Duration Stats
Game start in Video6:45 in video
Game end43:23 in video
Game duration36mins 38 seconds
Avg time per rally36.6 secs

So, this was a long game. 36 minutes overall. Both players took both their time-outs, both players took a brief equipment time-out, and there were a couple of appeals. All told, including the time-outs the average time per rally was 36.6 seconds. This is slightly longer than the average rally time for the last match I did this for; the Parrilla-Waselenchuk Atlanta final tie-breaker.

Serving Breakdown:

Serving# of svc attempts# of AcesServes Good1st Serve %1st Drive Serves1st Drive serve %1st Lob Serves1st Lob Serve %
AH Serves30222 of 3073.33%30 of 30100%0 of 300%
PL Serves30325 of 3083.33%30 of 30100%0 of 300%

Both players served exactly 30 times. Both players drove serve on every first serve, and Paola actually ended up with a higher first serve percentage than Alexandra on the day.

Serve Selection% 1st to F% 1st to B% 2nd to F% 2nd to B
AH33.33%66.67%25.00%75.00%
PL53.33%46.67%0.00%100.00%

Paola basically split her drives between Alexandra’s forehand and backhand on the day, hitting 16 drives to the left side, 14 to the right. Meanwhile, as a lefty Herrera has grown up accustomed to primarily serving to right handers, and thus focused mostly on hitting drives to Paola’s backhand. Both hit mostly simple lobs to the backhand as 2nd serves; there was almost no variation on the lob serves used: no nick lob attempt, no wall paper; just half-height lobs meant to solicit a ceiling ball in return.

Serve Breakdown and Success rates

Serve Type SelectionServe selectionhow often usedPct UsedHow often point?Pct points
AH #1 1st Serve SelectionDrive to Backhand19 of 3063.33%10 of 1662.50%
AH #2 1st Serve SelectionDrive to Forehand10 of 3033.33%4 of 580.00%
AH #3 1st Serve selectionHard Z-Serve to Backhand1 of 303.33%0 of 10.00%
AH Most frequent 2nd serve selectionLob Serve to Backhand6 of 875.00%1 of 616.67%

Here’s where we get some interesting information. Alexandra hit 19 of her 30 serves as drives to the backhand, and got points on 10 of the 16 successful first serves she made. That’s a 62% rate, pretty good. Furthermore, she tried 10 drives to Paola’s forehand, missed half of them, but got points on 4 of the 5 successful serves. She only varied away from these two straightforward serves once; a z-ball to Paola’s backhand that did not work.

Serve Type SelectionServe selectionhow often usedPct UsedHow often point?Pct points
PL #1 1st Serve SelectionDrive to Forehand16 of 3053.33%9 of 1275.00%
PL #2 1st Serve SelectionHard Z-Serve to Backhand9 of 3030.00%3 of 933.33%
PL #3 1st Serve selectionDrive to Backhand5 of 3016.67%1 of 425.00%
PL Most frequent 2nd serve selectionLob Serve to Backhand5 of 5100.00%1 of 520.00%

Meanwhile, Paola had a ton of success when driving to Alexandra’s forehand, getting 9 of her 14 points that way and having a huge success rate when she got that serve in. It was clear during the match that she started with the hard-Z to the backhand with little success, then got some points on the forehand drive, and the stuck with it the rest of the way.

 Serves leading to pointspct
AH 1st Serve good14 points out of 2263.64%
AH 1st Serve bad1 point out of 812.50%
PL 1st Serve good13 points out of 2552.00%
PL 1st Serve bad1 point out of 520.00%

This chart basically shows why you need to get your first serves in. The two players combined to score exactly 2 points on their second serves all game.

RalliesRallies WonPct of Rallies
AH Rallies won31 of 6051.67%
PL Rallies won29 of 6048.33%
Replays0 of 600.00%

This shows just how even the match was: out of 60 rallies, they nearly split them 50/50. Alexandra won two more rallies than Paola b/c Paola served first and then Alexandra scored the last point. There was not a single replay in the entire first game.

 Rally Winner/Error Stats
(not including serves)TtlFHBHPassPinch
AH Rally Winners20137119
AH Rally ending Errors321  
PL Rally Winners221111184
PL Rally Ending Errors972  

So, this shows some interesting information. Alexandra hit 13 of her 20 winners on the forehand, and pretty evenly split all her winners between passes and pinches. Meanwhile, Paola really does not shoot for the corners, getting 18 of her 22 winners as passing/kill shots. Paola also shows

The story of this game though is right here: 9 errors for Longoria versus 3 for Herrera. And of those three errors, one was an “off the back wall’ attempt that fell short and a second was a ball that bounced weird off the back wall and jammed her. In other words, Alexandra had just one skip this entire game. Longoria had 9 skips, 7 on her forehand.

Ratio of Winners to ErrorsRatioRatio
AH20 to 36.6 winners for every error
PL22 to 92.44 winners for every error

Further illumination of the shotmaking in this game: 20 winners to 3 errors for Herrera.

(these figures not including serve)Rally Stats
Average # of shots per rally , entire game3.95
Average # shots in AH-won rallys4.25
Average # of shots in PL-won rallys:3.62
Average # of shots in replay ralliesn/a
longest Rally of game17 and 16: both ended with PL error

The average number of shots per rally (not including the serve) was 3.95 in this game, but much shorter in Paola won rallies. The 3.95 figure compares to the average rally length for the Parrilla-Kane match, which was just 2.24. Women’s rallies tend to be longer.

Short Rally Statstotal% of rallies
# of Aces58.33%
# of 2 shot rallies (serve, return)813.33%
# of 3 shot rallies (serve, return, end)46.67%

A decent percentage of the 60 rallies were “short” rallies: 1,2 or 3 shots including the serve.

 Game points Saved
by AH4
by PL3

The players managed to save seven game points between them; that’s a heck of an accomplishment by both.

Lastly, since Rally scoring has now been introduced by the IRF, I thought i’d show you what this game would have looked like if it was rally scoring:

(all these times include Tos)Rally Scoring Stats
Game end if rally21:46 in video
Game duration if rally15mins 1 sec
Game score at Rally finish8-4 for AH

If playing rally scoring, the game would have been over in 15mins with the score 8-4 for Alexandra. Instead, we got a 36 minute barn-burner that saw Longoria rally from an 11-4 deficit and nearly take the game. What problem exactly are we attempting to solve with rally scoring? Because every time I do this analysis we’d basically neuter an excellent game.

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LPRT Vero Beach Open Wrap-up

Herrera with her first pro win! Photo Denver 2021 KenFife


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Singles: Alexandra Herrera
  • Doubles; Herrera & Montse Mejia

    A career weekend for Herrera, who vanquished both her top rivals Vargas and Longoria on the weekend to take her first professional singles title. Heading into this event, Herrera was a career 0-18 against Paola and 1-9 against Vargas; she beat them both to secure her first pro win. She becomes the 30th known champion on the women’s professional tour.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38227

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

In the 32s, there were a couple of upsets by seed and a couple of surprising results.

  • #17 Cris Amaya played #16 Hollie Scott as closely as you could expect, losing an 11-9 breaker. We always get great 16/17 matches and t his was no different.
  • #13 Kelani Lawrence advanced past hard-hitting Mexican 18U junior Daniela Rico 6,9. Rico continues to play LPRT veterans tough on tour but is still searching for a break-through win.
  • #14 Maria Renee Rodriguez cruised past Mexican lefty @Montserrat Perez 7,6. MRR really controlled this game and snuffed out any thoughts about an upset.
  • #22 Veronica Sotomayor upset #11 veteran @Nancy Enriquez in a come-back, hard-fought match 11-9 in the breaker. Sotomayor continues to show she’s in her former top-10 form but needs more tournaments to get the points she needs to be ranked suitable to her talent level.
  • The Biggest shock of the round was Bolivian veteran @Jenny Daza Navia upsetting #10 Carla Munoz in a breaker 11-6. Daza (who was in the same “junior class” as Longoria) has been playing internationally for a decade and a half representing Bolivia but is an infrequent participant on the LPRT. However, she continues to show she’s a dangerous opponent when she does play, adding another top-10 scalp to her resume.

– Reigning 18U World junior champion Bolivian Micaela Meneses made quick work of #15 Sheryl Lotts 6,7 to move into the 16s. Meneses improves with every tournament, and is the kind of gym rat that you know is going to get tougher every time she plays.

In the 16s, some significant results with major upsets.

  • #1 Paola Longoria cruised past #16 Scott in game one, then Hollie really made a game of it in game two before falling 15-14.
  • #9 Brenda Laime blasted #8 Rhonda Rajsich in game one then held on in game two for a statement win 3,12.
  • #12 Erika Manilla got another statement win, taking out #5 Angelica Barrios in a straight-forward 12,9 win. This is the fourth tournament this season where Erika has toppled a top-5 seed to advance, and its just a matter of time before she herself is a top-5 seed.
  • #13Kelani LawrenceKelani Lawrence got a career-best win, beating #4 Mendez in two straight. She sets up a meeting against countrywoman Manilla for a shot at the semis.
  • #3 Maria Jose Vargas made quick work of MRR 8,2 to setup a key quarter final match.
  • #6 Montse Mejía played a really comprehensive game to blast the upstart #22 Sotomayor 4,9 to move on. Mejia controlled the game from the start and was never in danger of losing. She’ll be tough to beat this weekend if she plays like this the rest of the way.
  • #7 Jessica Parrilla suffered an injury that took her out of both singles and doubles, giving Daza a walkover into the quarters. It’s just the 2nd time ever that Daza has made a pro quarterfinal.

– #2 Alexandra Herrera blitzed the junior Meneses 8,2, showing the gulf in talent that the young Bolivian has to make up.

In the Quarters

  • Longoria made quick work of Laime 7,0.
  • Manilla made a statement both on tour and in the national pecking order by cruising past her countrywoman Lawrence 7,13 to return to the semis for the second time this season.
  • Vargas was stretched thin by Mejia in a battle of perhaps the 2nd and 3rd best players on tour, but Vargas held on in the breaker to advance.

– Herrera outclassed the Bolivian veteran Daza 4,2 to move into the semis.

In the Semis

  • For stretches of this match, Manilla hung with Longoria and matched her punch for punch. But then for stretches Longoria does what she always does: consistently makes shots, rolls balls out, and relentlessly keeps the pressure up, which drives her to victory. Longoria advances in a hard-fought 11,6 match.
  • Herrera absolutely crushed her closest rival Vargas 3,8 to move into the final. This was never close from the get go, and whatever changes Alexandra has been making are working. She looks to be playing the best ball of her career.

In the Finals, a shock result. Herrera and Longoria traded off stretches of dominance, each running off multiple points in a row with excellent play and long rallies. In both games, Herrera mounted game-saving comebacks to win a two-game 14,13 thriller was just as close as the scores suggest. Herrera showed mental confidence and stayed in points and rallies, forcing Longoria into rare errors and pressure.

Points Implications of results

  • Herrera and Vargas should switch spots at 2/3, but not much else changes in the top 10.
  • Manilla continues her climb up the rankings; she should now improve to 14, meaning she’s getting close to a top 10 seed with the expected absences each event.
  • Centellas dives down, now at #13 with several early losses and a missed event.

– Daza doubles her existing points total and jumps 12 spots.

Doubles review
The doubles tournament was an interesting case study of how far Longoria could advance with a brand new partner with whome she had never played …the answer turned out to be the final, where she and MRR were vanquished with relative ease by Herrera/Mejia.

Herrera wins the double on the weekend, and Longoria loses two finals in an event for the first time in recorded/known history.

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 @sudsySudsy Monchik and his wife Veronica for putting this event on! It was an excellent time, great matches, the courts looked great, and thanks to all the sponsors.

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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it.

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Next weekend there’s a lower tier IRT event in Atlanta and an experimental tournament in Tallahassee being run by Baghurst that will feature variants of the sport and rally scoring.

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LPRT 2022 Vero Beach Open Preview

Sotomayor hosts the LPRT at her home club; how far can she go in the tourney? Photo unk source


The first LPRT event of the new year comes in a brand new location with a brand-new host: the one and only Sudsy Monchik. Sudsy and his family recently relocated to Vero Beach from Ecuador, took over programming at their club, and committed to bringing the ladies pros to South Florida.

This event is unique: no amateur draws, no full-service weekend long tournament. Just a pro draw, being held at a facility with two courts. This could be an interesting pathway forward for the pro tours, one that’s more in line with what we see in other professional racquet sports like Squash and Tennis. Thanks to this setup, every single pro match will be streamed live on the weekend, starting at 10am today 2/17/22! Log in and follow @LPRT to get live streaming notifications.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38227


24 Ladies are committed to Florida for the weekend.

top-20 players missing; We have 17 of the top 20 ladies pros here; No #4 Gaby Martínez, no #11 Valeria Centellas, And #9 Samantha Salas Solis was a last-minute drop, which definitely changes the pathway for several key players and radically alters the doubles draw. Read on for more.

Lets preview the draw.
In the round of 32, the top 8 pros neatly get a bye. We have some pretty compelling play-in matches. Here’s

  • #16/#17 Amaya Cris versus Hollie Rae Scott is a solid match, as the 16/17 always is. They’ve met once: a 12-10 fifth game barn burner back in 2019. Since then, Scott has been improving and Amaya has been slipping, so I expect a straight forward Scott win here.
  • #9 Brenda Laime Jalil gets jumped three spots thanks to absences and matches her career best seeding. She faces Costa Rican junior Maricruz Ortiz in her opener. While Cruz is tough, Laime has been spending time practicing with two top IRT touring pros and gets better every tournament.
  • #14/#19 features an intriguing matchup between the lefty Mexican Montserrat Pérez and the LPRT veteran @Maria Renee Rodriguez. I can see this going breaker with a possible upset.
  • #11 Nancy Enriquez is the unlucky loser of the “who gets to play Verónica Sotomayor in the opening round” sweepstakes. Sotomayor is the #22 seed and is on her home court. Enriquez has been playing well … but nobody out there has a better training partner than Vero. Look for the upset here; Sotomayor was a top-8 player before starting a family and is still in her prime years of playing.
  • In the #15/#18 match-up, we have an interesting one as well. Veteran @Sheryl Lotts faces off against the junior Bolivian phenom Micaela Meneses Cuellar. Meneses has a couple of decent wins on tour, and has played some top players tough. Lotts faces a tough opponent who gets better every tournament. Upset watch here, in as much as an 18 over 15 seed is an upset.

Projecting the round of 16:

  • #1 Paola Longoria should cruise past Scott, who can hang for some points but isn’t as consistent in her shot making as the champ (who is?)
  • In the #8/#9 we get Laime versus the veteran Rhonda Rajsich. They played a couple times back in April 2019, both times Rhonda wins but both times five game barn-burners. The shorter format (and the early round) favors the older player here, but Laime has also markedly improved since. I still like Brenda for the upset.
  • #5 Angelica Barrios vs #12 Manilla. This is an excellent opportunity for Manilla to get back to the pro quarters; of all the top 8 seeds she probably matches up best with the Bolivian. Angelica plays an ultra control game with her abbreviated swing mechanics, while Manilla plays more of a classical power game with athleticism and shot-making. This match will come down to whether or not Manilla grows frustrated with Barrios’ ability to hit little dink winners from all over the court and sticks with a gameplan of overpowering her younger opponent. A winnable match for Erika.
  • #4 Natalia Mendez faces USA’s @Kelani Lawrence. Amazingly, they’ve never met in any competition that PRS tracks, so this is all speculation. Mendez is #4 for a reason, Lawrence has played top-4 players tough tournament after tournament but has yet to get a breakthrough win. It may be tough for her this weekend.
  • #3 Maria Jose Vargas Parada, pushed out of #2 for the first time in months, should cruise past the winner of Perez/MRR to advance to the quarters.
  • #6 Montse Mejia projects to face Sotomayor, which should be interesting because these two have been training together in advance of this event. So they’ll be quite familiar with each other’s game. It will be a too-early departure for one of these top players; both are quarter final or better players on tour right now. This game comes down to Mejia’s mental state; she’s the most gifted natural player on tour (and yes I’m including the #1 player), and has shown the ability to cruise through draws and beat everyone in the world (including Longoria). But she takes weird losses early all the time. I’m going with Sotomayor in the upset again; Vero plays with such steely, controlled emotions on the court; she doesn’t get rattled, she calmly goes through point to point. That can unnerve a more passionate player.
  • #7 @Jessica Parrilla versus #10 Carla Muñoz Montesinos. Tough match here: the last time they played it was 11-10 in the breaker. I’m thinking this goes breaker again, and the Mexican pulls it out, but would not be surprised to see Munoz advance either.
  • – #2 Alexandra Herrera is set to face the junior Meneses, who will get some points here and there, but the solid Herrera will move on.

Projected Qtrs:

  • #1 Longoria over Laime with little trouble. Laime’s game will be neutralized by the methodical Paola, who will run off points in streaks to advance.
  • #4 Mendez stops Manilla’s run in the quarters. It should be spirited, but Mendez is tough to beat before the semis on tour right now. Manilla will need to scheme long and hard with brother Adam Manilla to find a winning game plan.
  • #3 Vargas versus Sotomayor; two more ladies who regularly train with each other. Both play the same game; classical power racquetball. Who can do it better? I like Sotomayor’s mental game here a bit more than Vargas, but if Maria Jose has her game going she’s tough to top. Vargas in a breaker.
  • #2 Herrera over her countrywoman Parrilla. It has been more than 6 years since Jessica was able to top Alexandra, and I don’t see that changing here.
    Semis: I’m predicting chalk to the semis. From there …
  • #1 Longoria over Mendez; Mendez has lost all 7 meetings to Longoria, but has taken games here and there.
  • #3 Vargas tops Herrera. Alexandra got a first win over Vargas in Chicago in November 2021, enough to propel her to #2 on tour, but Vargas is the better player and should advance.

Finals; Longoria over Vargas.

Doubles review
Salas’ last minute withdrawal has made for a new doubles team; Longoria has picked up MRR as her partner and get the #2 seed. It should be interesting to see whether Longoria can carry a new partner along to the title.
From the top of the doubles draw, its hard to see anyone other than the top pairing of Herrera/Mejia advancing. They’ve been regularly playing together for a while now, have a couple of Mexican national titles over the Longoria/Salas team, and are tough to beat.
From the bottom of the draw, can MRR hold her own against these top teams if they double-serve her? We’ll see. The Vargas/Mendez team is tough to beat and I like them for the final.

In the final, Look for Mexico over Argentina.

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!
Also, the venerable JT R Ball is heading to Florida and has been doing promotion of the event for weeks.
Look for Streaming on USA Racquetball’s page, with Leo Vasquez on the mike as always!
Thanks to the Tourney Director @Sudsy Monchik again 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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it.
Associations
@LPRT
Countries
USA Racquetball
@Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
RKT
Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball
Racquetball Colombia
Federacion Colombiana de Racquetball
Federación Costarricense de Racquetball
@Asociación Argentina de Racquetball
@Federación Chilena Racquetball
@Racquetball Rancagua, Chile
@ASOCIACION DE RAQUETBOL DE GUATEMALA
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NRT 2022 Kickoff IRT Tier 4 Re-cap

Manilla was a double winner this weekend. Photo 2019 Us National singles, Photographer Kevin Savory

There was a smaller IRT Tier 4 this past weekend, held in Omaha, Nebraska, who were visited by the Manilla brother/sister crew. Here’s a quick recap of the results.

r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38121

In the IRT Pro division, current #14 ranked Adam Manilla cruised to the singles title without dropping a game. Along the way he vanquished Iowan Alex Midkiff in the quarters, Kansas Lefty Derek Izzi in the semis, and then under-rated Minnesota top amateur @John Goth (who made the US National team in 2012) in the final. Goth had advanced to the final by topping Adam’s sister @Erika Manilla in the quarters and US Junior national team member Andrew Gleason in the semis.

In the Pro Doubles division, #1 seeds Gleason and Kansas’ @John Hudson swept through the 4-team round robin to take the title. Coming in 2nd was the surprise team of Aaron Kurowski and Gabrielle Shnurman.

In the Mixed Doubles division, the Manillas teamed up to win the division topping the Kurowski/Shnurman team in the first place game.

Congrats to Tourney Director Caroline Reitmeyer for bringing some pro racquetball to Nebraska!

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We’re entering a bit of a lull in the racquetball calendar; the next major event is not until the 2/20/22 weekend, when the LPRT heads to the Florida coast where host @sudsySudsy Monchik is holding the 2022 Vero Beach Open. Maybe i’ll do a Pro Racquetball Stats Ask Me Anything session on facebook live one night in the next couple of weeks.Racquetball Tournament in Omaha, NE USA. Dates: 1/28/2022 – 1/30/2022.R2SPORTS.COMNRT 2022 Kick Off TournamentRacquetball Tournament in Omaha, NE USA. Dates: 1/28/2022 – 1/30/2022.