2024 Golden State Open Wrap-up

Manilla makes the finals in both singles and doubles. Photographer Kevin Savory

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: @Kane Waselenchuk

– Doubles: @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball & Javier Mar

The comeback is complete. Waselenchuk, who ascended to the #1 spot on tour for the first time in years, secured the 2024 year end title in dominant fashion at this event in Pleasanton. He wins his 128th career pro Tier 1 title, extending his lead over his LPRT counterpart to 15 (Paola Longoria has 113 career Tier 1 titles). More importantly, Kane secures his 15th career year-end pro title, and will do so at the age of 43, which is 4 years older than the previous record-holder. We’ll do a deeper-dive into the year end standings once all of 2023’s points expire, but suffice it to say, we’re seeing something pretty amazing here for any sport.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=45389

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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/l60

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In the 64s, there were no real upsets of note. We got a ton of international vs international matches for young Bolivians who made the trip.

– American junior DJ Mendoza got a nice win over an up and coming Mexican Junior Sebastian Ruelas

– @gerson Miranda took out veteran international Juan Francisco Cueva .

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In the 32s:

– #21 Mar took out #12 Robbie Collins with ease

– #19 Carson advanced over #14 Carrasco as expected.

– the biggest result of the round was #4 @Andres Acuña holding firm and taking out Argentine Diego Garcia . Acuna dropped the first game but then found another gear and blitzed to a (10),2,3 win. I thought this would go the other way for sure in my preview.

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In the 16s:

– Kane crushed @Diego Gastelum 2,2, a bit of a different vibe than the last time they met.

– Mar upset #5 @Jake Bredenbeck to finish off a pretty disappointing season for the USA top dog.

– #3 Montoya got an injury default against Rocky when he took an awkward step in a rally and tweaked something in his knee.

– Tourney host and #6 Adam Manilla got a really surprising win (to this observer) by taking out the red-hot @Jordy Alonso 10,9. Great win to overcome a guy who’s shown to be a force lately on tour.

– #7 @EErick Trujillo got a walkover against @Jaime Martell Racquetball when Jaime got some really awful news from home and had to fly back immediately. Our thoughts are with Martell and his family during this tough time.

– #2 @Andree Parrilla , who had a very distant shot at maybe possibly catching Kane for #1 … fell in the 16s to his doubles partner and drastically under-seeded #15 Eduardo Portillo Rendon

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In the Quarters

– Kane crushed @Alan Natera for the third tourney running at this juncture

– Mar got an injury walkover against Acuna, one of three WBF-INJ at this event.

– Manilla got a career best win by toppling Rodrigo Montoya in three. He secures just his second ever career pro singles semi final on his home courts.

– Portillo destroyed his younger Mexican rival Trujillo 7,1 to move into the semis.

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In the Semis

– Kane crushed Mar 6,3, showing no mercy this event. Mar once played a famous game against Kane at the US Open when practically no one knew who he was, using his touch to really flummox the champ and keep the game close … today was not one of those days.

– Manilla mounted a fantastic comeback in the breaker, saving match-points against at 7-10 and then rolling off four straight points to win 11-10 and move into his first career final. Both played well enough to win, and when Lalo missed an easy short-hop even Favio on the mike said, “that’s going to cost him.” And it did.

In the Finals, two lefties faced off for a pro title for the first time since a 2009 final in Allentown, PA between Kane and @Mitch Williams (ironically, Mitch’s sole career final). Manilla jumped ahead early, and kept game one close with some off-speed mid-lob Z serves and with great subterfuge on his drives, but as is typical of Kane, he hung in and ground out the game one win. Game two was more fo the same early before Kane just took over for the title 11,8.

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Points Implications of results

In the immediate aftermath of this event, Kane opens up a massive lead atop the standings to #2 Moscoso, one that will grow even more once the last two events expire from the tail end of last year (one of which was a Tier1 Moscoso win). In fact, Moscoco probably will fall to #3 once we get to December 31st. Manilla’s huge event will jump him to #4, just ahead of Parrilla. Jake will take a tumble in the ranks but will maintain top 10 status.

https://irttour.com/rankings/ are now updated for the event this past weekend.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/ply

Montoya and Mar maintain their dominance atop the pro doubles tour. Montoya has now made the finals of 12 of the last 14 competed pro doubles events, many of them with Mar, and won seven of them. They topped the field again, this time beating Manilla & Bredenbeck in the final.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Two LPRT talents @Veronica Sotomayor and @Erika Manilla entered the Men’s open singles here. This is Erika’s first event back post hip surgery, while Vero had come down from Washington state with husband Sudsy Monchik to play some ball with their business partner Mark C Frank .

– Both ladies made the Open semis, but both ended falling to the same kid: Bolivian junior Sebastian Terrazas, who is playing in his age 15 season in 2024 and was the 2021 12U world champ. Watch out for this kid.

– The Argentine national Men’s doubles team of Miranda/Garcia took the Open doubles draw filled with junior national doubles teams competing next month at Junior Worlds.

– Andrea Perez-Picon took the Women’s Open RR.

– Perez-Picon also took the Mixed Open doubles draw, a fun draw where she ended up beating her sister Estefania in the finals.

– A star-studded 100+ Men’s doubles was taken by two NorCal locals Derek Chock & Greg Vezey, who got some solid wins.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Steve Schulze, Pablo Fajre, Richard Eisemann and the IRTLive crew

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Manilla and @Bobby Horn for putting this event on!

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

The LPRT is back in action this coming weekend at the Glass Door in Lombard for the annual Turkey shoot event! We’ll be back with a preview later this week.

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tags

International Racquetball Tour

IRT 2024 Golden State Open Preview

Kane returns to the top spot on tour, and has the 2024 title wrapped up. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Golden State Open, the brainchild of NorCal residents Adam Manilla and David ” Bobby” Horn , who worked to bring pro racquetball back to the Bay Area after a near decade-long absence in 2022. This is their third year running this event in Pleasanton, and they project to have a massive draw in 2024. As of this writing 229 players are entered overall, including 44 Men’s pros. That’s the biggest pro draw since the 2023 World Singles and Doubles event. The group didn’t fund the portable court this year (it’s a significant expense) but still have the biggest event of the year, but still expect the biggest and best pro tourney of the year.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=45389

As noted, 44 players in the singles draw for this event, which (barring any changes in the IRT schedule) will be the last event of the 2024 season. So, lots at stake. @Kane Waslenchuk has regained #1 on tour, and thanks to Moscoso’s injury has a fairly significant lead at the top to the only guy who can catch him: #3 Parrilla. And that’s before considering the points expiration from the two events at the tail end of the 2023 season: Parrilla won the Boston Open last year while Kane lost in the semis, meaning an additional 180 point delta for Parrilla to make up. In other words … the title race is effectively over.

Thanks to the proximity of this event to the upcoming Junior Worlds, we have a slew of international juniors in the country to get some competitive matches. So we’ll get to see first hand a number of the up and coming Bolivians in particular.

top20 players missing: #2 Moscoso (elbow), #12 De la Rosa (pickleball), #13 Murray (stepping back?), #18 Sam Bredenbeck (stepping back?).

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

In the round of 64:

– Bolivian newcomer Anuari Segundo, who impressed last week in Miami, gets an opener against the veteran Guatemalan @Edwin Galicia.

– The #44 seed (as in, “Mr Irrelevant”) honors go to @Yacouba Keita, who was a semi-regular touring pro a few years back out of the Atlanta area. He goes against @Javier Mar in the 64s.

– We get a rare North American appearance from former 18U world champ @Gerson Miranda, who starts off against fellow South American @Juan Francisco Cueva .

– The best potential match of the opening round may be 31v34, USA junior @DJ Mendoza taking on top Mexican 16U junior Sebastian Alejandro Ruelas. Mendoza should be able to overpower his younger opponent, but Ruelas has a long history of Mexican and World junior titles.

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Projecting the 32s:

– #1 Kane gets his start against the Ecuadorian veteran Ugalde, who is solid but not Kane-challenging solid.

– #16/#17 is an interesting match between two Mexican juniors in Erick Cuevas and @Diego Gastelum . Cuevas has been around for a while but only this year graduated from 21U competitions, while Gastelum has been been getting significant wins lately, including a defeat of current #7 Trujillo at Mexican Junior Nationals earlier this year.

– #12 Robert Collins is the unlucky top seed to draw the under-seeded Mar, who has been hampered on the singles court for a while with injury but remains a dangerous opponent. Upset watch here.

– Best match of the round: #4 @Andres Acuna comes in seeded 4th, his career best seeding … and for his troubles draws #29 @Diego Garcia , who just cruised to a title in the Xelani open and who beat Acuna at Worlds in San Antonio in August. I’ve always been a Garcia fan and, now that he’s been in-country to acclimate (instead of flying from South America the night before a match like the last time he entered an IRT event) he’ll be favored here.

– #3 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball projects to face the dangerous Bolivian junior Miranda, who can score points on him for su re. I don’t see an upset, but Montoya can’t just go through the motions here.

– We get a rare appearance on tour from @Rocky Carson , seeded 19th and who is favored over #14 @Kadim Carrasco to move on here.

– @Jordy Alonso is seeded 11th here. 11th! Alonso didn’t even play an IRT event in 2023 and has just 13 career pro events in a decade of high-level play … and now sits on the cusp of the top 10. Amazing. His best career year end finish was #27 in 2022 … and now he could be a top 10 finisher with a solid tournament.

– Tough draw for US junior Cole Sendry at #15; he gets former top 10 touring pro Eduardo Portillo Rendon , who’s missed a ton of time on tour as he gets his professional pilot’s license.

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round of 16:

– #1 Kane over #16 Gastelum: they met in the 16s in Spokane, a 2,5 win for the King. Lets see if Diego can improve upon that result.

– #8 Natera over #9 Carter, again. They’ve met in the 8/9 match now three events running, each time a relative blow out for the Mexican. No reason not to think it’ll happen again.

– #5 @Jake Bredenbeck vs #21 Mar: they have not played in 2 years, dating back to the infamous DC event where Kane got hurt and Mar lost in the final to Lalo. It hasn’t been a great year for Jake, who made four finals last season but has made just one semi-final this season. Does he have one last hurrah in him? Upset watch. Like Garcia above, Mar has always been a fan favorite of mine and I always seem to pick him for an upset.

– Whoever wins between Acuna/Garcia should advance with ease here over Carlos Ramirez.

– #3 Montoya vs Carson: how much magic does Rocky have? Montoya should send Carson back to the retirement home in SoCal.

– I think a motivated #11 Alonso takes out the distracted tourney host #6 Manilla to earn a quarter final.

– #7 Trujillo and #10 @Jaime Martell Racquetball met at this juncture in Spokane last month, a tie-breaker win for the younger Erick. He’s hot coming off the win in San Luis Potosi last week and he’ll be looking for more here.

– #2 Parrilla vs #15 Portillo; well this is kind of a ridiculous round of 16 match, players who finished last year ranked 5th and 7th respectively (and who are doubles partners). But here we are. Parrilla is motivated to have a big result here to put pressure on Kane, but I could see him fall here to the always-challenging Lalo.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Kane over #8 Natera, a rematch of Spokane’s quarter final.

– Garcia over Mar: if all my predicted upsets come to pass, we could see a 20-something seed in the semis here. Garcia is more dynamic than Mar right now, but this matchup could also easily be Acuna vs Jake or some combination of a top-5 guy and a 20-something seed.

– #3 Montoya vs #11 Alonso: Jordy shocked Rodrigo 11-10 in Canoga Park during his amazing run to the final; I don’t see that repeating here. Rodrigo won’t take him lightly.

– #2 Parrilla vs #7 Trujillo: they just played last weekend, a four-game win for Trujillo where each game was 11-9 one way or the other. I think Trujillo can do it again.

Semis:

– Kane over Garcia; they’ve never met, which means Diego could be star struck and get donuted in the first game, or it could mean he surprises the king and makes it close by playing out of his mind. One thing to keep in mind: both the qtrs and semis are on Saturday, so from a wear-and-tear perspective two games in a day on the newly-turned 43yr old could be a factor (Kane turned 43 just four days ago as of this writing: Happy Birthday!)

– Montoya over Trujillo; they’ve met 6 times since Feb 2023, all six Montoya wins and usually not close. They met in the Spokane quarters a month ago and it was 12,3. Rodrigo wins again.

Finals: Kane over Rodrigo in a breaker. We’ve seen this before; Montoya has the game to pressure Kane and to roll off points fast. If his drive serve is working, he’ll be in the match, and his athleticism extends points and leads to opportunities. The last time these two played was in Minnesota, where Rodrigo actually scored more points in the match than Kane but lost his composure/focus in the tie-breaker to lose 14,(7),2 after dominating game 2. This is where an onsite coach is useful; Montoya needs to maintain his focus and hope for an off-day from the nearly always “on” Kane for a win. But, that’s a tall order against a guy in Kane who can still bring it and who puts away nearly 100% of the balls he can set his feet on, even if he’s 43.

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Doubles Preview:

18 teams are poured into the Doubles competition, including some that aren’t entered into the singles competition. There’s a couple of great round of 16 matchups in store: Portillo/Parrilla vs Garcia/Miranda will be a barn burner. Gastelum/Sendrey versus the Ecuadorian national team of Cueva/Ugalde is tough; they’ve gotten some major international results in the past. Tournament host Horn is teaming with Mendoza to face Alonso/Carrasco.

In the end though, I expect the top four seeds to advance to the semis as expected, then for an all-Mexico final between the top seeds Montoya/Mar and Parrilla/Portillo.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!

Thanks again to the Tourney Directors Manilla and Horn or putting this event on!

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

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International Racquetball Tour

San Luis Open 2024 Recap

Trujillo took out three tough IRT pros to take the SLP Open. Photo Kevin Savory/US Open 2021

There was another big-time non-sanctioned pro event last weekend, featuring a ton of top-level talent in the Mexican racquetball hotbed of San Luis Potosi; the 2024 San Luis Open. The pro draws were solid and we saw some big-time matchups last weekend. Here’s a run down of the action.

r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=45655

Men’s Open Singles:

Nearly all top 10 seeds are now household names to regular followers of the Men’s Pro game, and included a couple of players who have made huge impacts this season. The seeds held to the quarters, then we saw some fireworks.

– #1 @Andree Parrilla downed @Oscar Elias Nieto in the first QF with ease.

– In the second QF, #5 Erick Trujillo shocked #4 Jordy Alonso in four close games (they were playing international scoring rules). Alonso of course had made deep runs in both IRT events he’s entered, while Trujillo has been grinding his way into the top 8 and this is a solid win for the youngster.

– #6 Andres Acuña , probably underseeded, topped #3 Sebastian Hernandez in a five game thriller. Hernandez is no slouch: he was the 2022 18U world c hamp and is the reigning 21U Mexican champion, but has never played an IRT event.

– #2 Eduardo Portillo Rendon downed SLP local @Emir Martinez in three.

In the semis:

– Trujillo took out #1 Parrilla in four tight games, all of which went 11-9 one way or the other. A great win for Trujillo to build on.

– In the other semi, Portillo eased past Acuna as one might expect based on their h2h history.

In the final, Trujillo finished the job and took out Lalo for the title. Quite an event for Trujillo, beating Alonso, Parrilla, and Portillo in succession.

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Women’s Open

Just a ho-hum local open draw: four top-10 LPRT pros plus the 2024 U21 and 2023 u18 Mexican champs. How did it play out?

In the quarters, the two junior champs fell to the touring pros, leaving us with an all-LPRT semis. In the first semi, #1 Paola Longoria cruised past #4 Jessica Parrilla in three straight games, while from the lower side #2 Montse Mejia took out her doubles partner #3 @Alexandra Herrera in four.

In the final, Mejia reversed a recent losing trend to Paola and won a 5-game thriller for the title.

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Men’s Doubles:

Portillo & Parrilla teamed up to take the doubles title, beating Alonso & Acuna in the final.

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Next up, Golden State Open! we’ll preview the draw ahead of the thursday kickoff.

2nd Annual Xelani Open Recap

Diego with the double in Miami. Photo by Kevin Savory, 2018 US Open

2nd Annual Xelani Open Recap

We may not have had any sanctioned/official pro racquetball last weekend but we did have an excellent draw at the @Alex Zamudio hosted Xelani Open, held on the campus of the University of Miami. Here’s a recap.

r2 sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=45108

24 players representing seven different countries and including a massive contingent from Bolivia traveled to south Florida to compete. The top two seeds were last year’s finalists Ecuadorian Jose Daniel Ugalde Albornoz and Mexican @Diego Gastelum , who went on a fantastic run to make the final in Feb 2023.

Here’s a recap of the action.

In Men’s Singles:

– The only upset by seed in the early rounds of note was Bolvian Anduari Segundo, a complete unknown to the PRS researchers, who took out #11 Colombian Andres Gomez in the 32s then top east coast amateur @Dylan Pruitt (recently relocated from Maryland to Florida) in the 16s.

– In the quarters, Ugalde went breaker to set down Bolivian youngster Miguel Arteaga before moving on. @Mario Mercado, former IRT touring pro and former IRT Tier 1 Champion, set down top Bolivian Junior @Jhonatan Flores in three (Flores is the reigning 18U world champ and took out Jake Bredenbeck at the IRT stop in Chicago earlier this year). Bolivian turned Argentine @Diego Garcia Quispe set down the upset-minded Segundo in two,

– The big upset at this juncture was #2 seed Gastelum being dominated by recently crowned Virginia state champ @Ezequiel Subieta in two 7,9. Subieta has a solid pedigree; he represented Bolivia in the 2019 World Juniors as a 14 yr old, getting upset as a top seed in the knockouts. We havn’t heard from him since, but he’s in line to be playing in his age 19 season in 2024.

– In the semis, last year’s champion went down in defeat, an upset by seed but not by talent. Mercado cruised past Ugalde 7,6. Meanwhile, the always dangerous Garcia handled the upstart Subieta 8,9 to setup a great final between two under-rated players.

– In the singles final, Garcia really took it to the veteran Mercado, winning the first game 15-2 before finishing things off 15-9.

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Open Doubles recap:

As it turned out, the top four singles seeds all teamed up to form the top 2-seeds in Doubles, and they ended up playing for the title. In the final. #2 Gastelum & Garcia split the first two games 15-14, 14-15 with the #1 seeds Mercado & Ugalde before pulling away late to win the breaker 11-7 and to give Garcia the double.

that’s a wrap from Miami. We’ll recap the excellent SLP local event next. Next up on the rball calendar is the IRT Golden State Open, held this coming weekend in Pleasanton. For now, its the last opportunity for pros to earn points towards the 2024 year end title race, so its gonna be a big one.

2024 Capital Classic Recap

Montoya wins the double in Severna Park Photo Kevin Savory 2022 Portland IRT event

There were no officially sanctioned events this past weekend, but there was an event that used to be an IRT stop that still drew a slew of top males that’s worth recapping. It was the 2024 Capital Classic, held at the Severna Park Club just outside of Baltimore.

I’ve played at this club many times and have good memories of it. I once made a 30+ age group final there and took one the better players in the area to an 11-9 breaker before losing. It was at this club that my good friend Ben Hale taught our young racquetball playing friend Travis Woodbury how to drive a stick shift …. in my car … because I was inside drinking beer and he had drawn the short stick to drive us back to Arlington that night.

This club, and this event, used to be an IRT stop, taking over for the long-serving Laurel Sportfit club when it became a Covid casualty. It continues to be the regular stop in December for the LPRT but it seems like funding for the men has gone away. This club will always hold an important point of IRT history: it was on these courts that Kane Waselenchuk tore his Achilles heel in September 2022, drastically changing the course of the tour for the next two years.

That being said, the club and the area serve as home for a few former touring pros (@Mario Mercado, Sebastian Franco, and @Mauricio Zelada) and when players of that calibre play, others make the drive. Or, as was the case this weekend, extend their visa stay a week after last week’s Spokane event and pick up another event. This included IRT #2 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball and his doubles partner @Javier Mar, who formed the two top seeds in singles and the favorite team in doubles for the weekend.

Lets recap the action.

r2sports page: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=42218

In Men’s Open Singles, the Kelley brothers drove down from Jersey and each got an international round of 16 opponent. #9 Joe fell to Bolivian #8 Subieta, but #7 Sam got past Colombian #10 @set Ceballos. Excellent Ohio player Victor Migliore blanked New York’s Aaron Dardani in the opening round, while top Maryland amateur #5 John Behm silenced NC’s Sanz.

In the quarters, the two traveling tour pros Montoya and Mar, plus the two local former top-10 touring pros Mercado & Franco all advanced. Mercado labored over Migliore 14,14, while Montoya dropped a game to Subieta, but all advanced.

In the semis, Montoya outlasted home town favorite Franco in a hard-hitting display of power racquetball, while Mar outclassed the always-tough Mercado to setup a 1-v-2 final, ironically a rematch of the round of 16 match in Spokane. In that final, Montoya didn’t let his partner get started and won 8,8

Men’s Doubles Review:

There were eight teams that ended up playing in two RR groups, giving the players and the fans a ton of action. In group 1, top seeds Montoya & Mar swept the group, but were certainly pressed by Sam Kelley & Set Cuballos in the group final. Meanwhile, local boys Franco & Mercado took their group … but nearly were upset in the group final by joe Kelley & Migliore.

In the winner-take-all final, Montoya & Mar won going away 6,11 for the Montoya double.

IRT 2024 Inland Empire Pro/Am Recap

Kane regains #1 on tour. Photo credit: unknown

Congrats to your Pro Singles winner on the weekend: Kane Waselenchuk

Kane wins his 127th career Tier 1 IRT title. We’ll talk about the final and the point implications later on.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=44845

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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/tbe

In the 32s: A last minute draw change jumbled the lowest 7-8 seeds from where they stood monday, and led to just a couple of compelling matchups in the opening round.

– Mexican U21 Gastelum upended USA junior Cody elkins 10,10 to earn a shot at Kane

– Alonso took out Antone 13,4; the USA national team member made him sweat in game one for sure.

– The biggest result, and biggest shock to me: Martell easily beat Garcia 4,10. That’s tough for Garcia, who I think was the only South American to make the trip.

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In the 16s:

– Alonso took out Jake in a tough 11-9 breaker. I don’t think this is an upset necessarily based on the way both have been playing, and it gives you some pause to ask, “just how good is Alonso?” If he played regularly, is he top 4? Too high?

– Trujillo took out Martel, also in a breaker. This isn’t an upset by seed, but it is a notable result b/c Trujillo has had some losses recently to his fellow countrymen. This is a solid win over a solid player and gives Trujillo’s top 10 ranking a boost.

– Montoya edged his doubles partner Mar in a breaker. No surprise they went to a 3rd game; even if one is the #2 seed and the other is in the 20s, these two are neck and neck talent wise.

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In the Quarters

– #1 Kane cruises past Natera 6,4. He’s just getting warmed up.

– Great win by Acuna, downing Alonso 2,13. I thought for certain we were going to see another Alonso-Kane matchup, but the Costa Rican had other thoughts.

– Parrilla had a typical 7,13 win over Manilla. Both control players tried to out control the other, and Andree was better at it.

– Montoya set down Trujillo 12,3. After a close first game, the powerful Rodrigo went to town and advanced with ease.

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In the Semis

– Acuna kept it close b/c he has a game plan against Kane that we’ve seen before, but just not a good enough one y et. kane advances 10,7

– In the other semi, two players who have played each other dozens of times over the years faced off again, and this time Parrilla took out Montoya 9,6 to move into the final.

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In the Finals, we got an interesting matchup. Kane and Andree have a history playing each other. One of their first meetings was a 0,0,0 embarrassment at the 2016 US Open when Andree was a budding player on the competing WRT. They met in the final of Chicago a few months later and Parrilla pushed Kane in at least one game, showing a bit of a gumption at the time. They’ve usually played close games, albeit mostly Kane wins … then Parrilla got an 11-10 finals win over Kane in January 2022 for a big win.

Kane jumped out to a massive first game lead, ahead 10-0 at one point, and he honestly looked miffed when Parrilla finally got a point and ruined his donut. Well, that wasn’t going to be where Parrilla stopped … he ran off ten unanswered points himself to tie the game and Kane had to press to win it 15-14. Game two was one-way traffic for the Mexican, who crushed Kane 15-3 to force a breaker.

Fun fact: on the IRT, when players split the first two games, the player who won the second game has the advantage, having won 51% of the time. So advantage momentum, albeit only slightly. Kane had none of that, crushing Parrilla 11-3 to win the match. Andree scored 32 total points, Kane 29 … but it was the points at the end that counted. The end of the match was a little testy, with Andree having some words for Kane on his way out of the court, which were returned in turn.

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Points Implications of results.

Kane regains 1st place on tour, for the first time in several years. The last time he was #1 on tour, the best I can tell, was at the 2021 US Open. He has about a 90 point lead on #2 Moscoso, but we know that Moscoso is now out for the rest of 2024. Parrilla now sits third and Kane has him by about 377 points. That’s huge; the next event to drop was Boston in Nov 2023, which Parrilla won, so that means he’s defending winner’s points/400 points. Montoya has dropped to 4th, just a handful behind Parrilla, and has a quarter and semi to defend the rest of the way out.

But the 377 gap is massive: if there’s just one more tier 1 (which is worth 400 for winning, 501.33 if its a tier1+), Kane basically has the year end title already sewn up. We know about Pleasanton in November; maybe we get Pelham Memorial increased to Tier 1 in December, but it was a Satellite last year. So amazingly Kane is in pole position to win the year end title

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– With no Pro doubles, the Open Doubles came down to the four best pros playing, with Mar/Garcia topping Sendrey/Gastelum in the final.

– In Men’s Open, doubles partners Sendrey and Gastelem both advanced to the final and then double forfeited.

– Arizona’s Susie Boulanger & Damian Zamorano took the Mixed Open Doubles final in a walk-over.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

Next up is the Pleasanton Golden State Open in Pleasanton in a month’s time.

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tags

IRT 2024 Inland Empire Pro/Am Preview

Can we get another Alonso run? Photo via Alonso Twitter page

Hello racquetball fans! It’s been a minute since we were talking about the Men’s pro tour (last tier 1 stop: May in Canoga Park), but they’re back in action at a site that the Men’s tour has never visited before (at least for a Tier 1): Spokane, Washington.

Washington has been host to the IRT in the past, but not for more than a decade.

Seattle has hosted a dozen big-time events over the years, and in the late 80s/early 90s Seattle hosted the “Grand Nationals” event that was often the sole major of the year. Famously, in 1988 the tour rolled into Seattle to finish off the season at the CityFed Grand Nationals, with the year end title completely up for grabs; the players on tour knew that the final major would have a massive amount of points awarded, and any one of the top 5-6 players entering that event could win the year end title. the #1, #2 and #4 ranked players all fell in the quarters, and #3 seeded @Ruben Gonzalez topped #5 @Egan Inoue for the tournament win and year-end title.

Because it’s been some months since the IRT was in action, we’ve seen a bit of movement in the rankings, so the projected quarterfinals may look a little different than you’d expect. We’re also seeing a bit of a thinner draw due to the geographic location of the event and the difficulty some international players have in getting there. However, that all said, we’re going to see some excellent matches all the way through.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=44845

The most obvious Top player missing is #1 Moscoso, who suffered an arm injury while training over the weekend, basically the day before he was set to board a plane to come to the USA. He’s set to have surgery this week and could be sidelined for the rest of the season, a dagger to his chances of finishing #1 for the first time. Also missing is current #10 De La Rosa and #12 Sam Murray, the latter somewhat surprisingly given the few Tier 1 events we are set to have in 2024. In Conrrado’s absence, Kane ascends to the #1 seed for the first time since the 2021 US Open. He’s in the driver’s seat to win the 2024 title right now, years after he last won it at the end of the 2019-2020 season.

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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable matches I’m looking at. The draw was re-made at the very last minute because of the dropping out of Kadim Carrasco due to travel issues thanks to Milton (lots of South Americans fly through Florida as a transfer point) which scattered every round of 32 and 16 matchup.

In the 32s:

– #12 @Carlos Ramirez takes on #21 John Wolfe , who toured for a brief period a few years back. Ramirez very quietly has now risen to #16 in the rankings and is the #12 seed here by virtue of several absences, and he’s done so mainly by his consistency attending events on tour. He’s made three round of 16s in his career 15 events and his best ever result may have been a 2022 win over Gastelum. He has a solid opportunity to get into another round of 16 here.

– #13 @Jordy Alonso vs #20 @Wayne Antone Racquetball : Antone was set to play Carrasco before he dropped out; now he has to fend with a guy who put an “L” on Kane and made a tour final earlier this year. Antone’s solid, but Alonso has the ability to beat basically anyone if he’s on.

– #14 Cole Sendrey gets a fun one against Canadian National #19 @Lee Connell. The Canadian has been around the block and is old enough to be Cole’s dad, but can still play. Sendrey will need to focus to win this match.

– #11 Robert Collins vs #22 @Gatlin Sutherland. This is a fun one: Collins was just named the US Junior National team coach (well deserved by the way), and Sutherland is a regular on the US Junior National team. How will the player do against the coach? This is Sutherland’s pro debut. he’s had some success in US Junior nationals event (one title back in 2014, made the finals of 16s two years ago, and he owns 4 junior national doubles titles), but he’ll have his hands full with veteran Collins.

#10 @Jaime Martell Racquetball vs #23 @Diego Garcia . The last minute seed change has the most impact on Martell, who has a career high seeding here only to get drawn against Garcia. Last time Diego showed up an an IRT event, he took out two top seeds and took a game off of Montoya in the quarters before falling, and at the last Worlds he beat Acuna straight up and fell 11-9 in the fifth to Jake. I see Garcia moving on.

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round of 16:

– #1 Waselenchuk vs #16 @Diego Gastelum ; Kane gets started with a decent tie; Gastelum is no pushover, being the 2023 U21 world champ and with a handful of wins over IRT top 10 player Trujillo in the last couple of years. He’s probably best known for taking Jake to a 15-14 game one loss at the 2023 Worlds event out of nowhere, shocking those in attendance who had never seen him before. That being said, for Kane this isn’t the same as running into someone like Alonso, and he should move on.

– #9 @Thomas Carter vs #8 @Alan Natera: These two meet again. They were 8 & 9 at the last IRT event, and Natera cruised to an 8,6 win. I see a similar result here.

– #4 @Jake Bredenbeck vs #13 Alonso. Jake is the unfortunate recipient of the Alonso matchup, a player who beat Kane, Collins, Martell, and Montoya at the last IRT event. Is Alonso the new Landa on tour? For those who don’t remember, Landa didn’t tour regularly until deep into his 20s, but would periodically show up at pro stops and knock off top-seeded players with ease. I see Alonso doing the same now.

– #7 @Erick Trujillo vs Garcia: these two faced off twice at the 2022 Worlds u21 junior championship, with Garcia winning in the group stage and then in the U21 final. Both games went the distance, all 5 games. Trujillo didn’t get to #7 by accident and has some wins on tour for sure, but so does Garcia. I still like the dark-horse here.

– #2 Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball vs #15 @javier Mar; the luck of the draw pits long-time doubles partners and good friends Montoya & Mar together at this stage, instead of two rounds subsequent. The last time they played, Rodrigo got the better of his friend in 2023 in Minnesota, but Mar absolutely has beaten him in the past. Mar has struggled with injuries for some time, but seems to be healthy and is coming off a solid 3WB event. I still think Montoya is the favorite but it could be close. Upsets frequently happen when two people this close play.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Waselenchuk over #8 Natera; Kane over powers the Mexican turned Chilean.

– #13 Alonso over #5 Acuna: Jordy is too much of a shotmaker for Acuna to handle.

– #3 Parrilla over #6 Manilla: both players have straightforward paths to the quarters thanks to the last minute schedule change, and Parrilla is gifted a semis slot.

– #2 Montoya over #23 Garcia: they met in 2023 World Singles in Denver as mentioned above, and Montoya won in a breaker. I’d expect a similar result here.

Semis:

– Kane over Alonso. Kane will have learned how to beat Jordy, will be on the gas from the get go, and won’t lose to the same guy twice.

– Montoya over Parrilla: just too much firepower at this point in both players’ careers.

Finals;

– Kane over Montoya: you hate to predict against the best player of all time, but if there’s a player who has both the game and the mentality to beat him, I think its Rodrigo. When they played in Minnesota, Kane won 14,(7),2 in a match that was a lot closer than the score indicated. The first game was a coinflip and Montoya cruised in game two before letting his concentration slip a bit in the breaker. Kane never lets his concentration slip, and still has the power and shot-making ability to counter even the athletic Montoya.

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Doubles:

There’s no pro doubles here, but there is an Open doubles that’s gotten some late prize money, so look for some of the traveling pros to pour into Open doubles to try to earn a bit more cash. Mar & Garcia as #1 seeds and I like them over #2 Sendrey/Gastelum in the final.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots! Thanks to Favio for giving me an advance copy of the draw and for being a fan.

Thanks to the Tourney Director Rich Carver for putting this event on!

Thanks to our main sponsors @mche property Services and the @Spokane Athletic club; it goes without saying that without you and your support, we don’t have a sport.

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

Associations

International Racquetball Tour International Racquetball Tour

2024 Outdoor Cup Series Final Standings and Analysis

With the end of the 2024 3Wall Ball championships also comes the conclusion of the 2024 Outdoor Cup series for the season. The cup series, which are sponsored by KWM Gutterman Inc. on the Men’s side and by @LPL Financial for the women, are a year-long competition for pro players who compete in all three outdoor “Majors” (which are Beach Bash in March, Outdoor Nationals in July, and Vegas 3WB in Sept).

Here’s a recap of the final standings.

Men’s Outdoor Cup Final top 5:

1. Eduardo Portillo Rendon , 1332 points

2. Kane Waselenchuk , 1281 points

3. Chris McDonald, 1153 points

4. Robert Sostre , 1015 points

5. Alvaro Beltran , 1015 points.

Top 5 finisher discussion: usually the winner of these cup competitions is the player who did the best across all three competitions, rewarding consistency across 1-wall in Florida, then big-court 3-wall in Huntington Beach, and then 40×20 3-wall plus 1-wall in Vegas. This year though, we saw all top 5 finishers do all their damage in just two of the three events, pipping those who did manage to play all three in the end.

This competition went to the very end; if Lalo hadn’t won the pro doubles final, Kane would have taken the cup. Winner Portillo took home 3 titles this year; singles at OutdoorNats, the big 3-wall doubles title with Alvi in Vegas, plus the one-wall mixed title with Herrera. He alos had a one-wall doubles final and made the semis of every other pro division he entered. He’s put his name out there as the next big thing in Outdoor for sure. 2nd place Kane left Huntington Beach in 2nd place after his two titles there, but a couple of early exits in Vegas cost him the points he needed to win despite his and 3rd place finisher McDonald’s dominant Vegas CPRT win. Floridian and 3rd place McDonald probably could have won this cup if he had any results in his home-state Beach Bash, but he still leaves 2024 with a slew of titles. 4th place finisher Iceman Sostre was tied for 1st after a two-title beach bash performance, but had to miss Outdoor Nationals and suffered a couple of very early upsets in Vegas. Lastly, 5th place Alvi probably is more happy with a Vegas pro doubles title than a cup title, but his win in Vegas propelled him from 19th after HB to 5th here.

Notables in the 6-12 range: Rocky Carson was in 1st place after HB and should have been a shoe-in, but he only played two of the points-earning divisions in Vegas and suffered an uncharacteristic round of 16 upset loss in Men’s Pro Doubles to seal his fate in this competition. @Javier Mar finished 7th despite only playing in Vegas; he won men’s doubles, made the final of both Men’s and Mixed 3-wall doubles, and for me is now the best one-wall player in the world. @Benny Goldenberg was tied for 1st after a two-win Beach Bash, but suffered a couple of exits in the 16s in Vegas. #9 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball only played in Vegas and is a relative outdoor newbie, but did team with Mar to take one-wall doubles. Lastly #10 DJ Mendoza , the Beach Bash Singles winner, played all three events this year, the highest ranking player to do so, but failed to have the doubles impact he needed along the way to push for this title. #11 @Thomas Gerhardt played in all three events with solid results, and #12 @Adam Manilla was the lowest-cup ranked event winner with his Vegas mixed title.

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Women’s Cup Top 5

1. Brenda Laime Jalil , 1088 points

2. Michelle Key , 1070 points

3. Carla Muñoz , 913 points

4. Kelani Lawrence , 746 points

5. @Alexandra Herrera , 600 points

Discussion: Like with the men, we didn’t know who was going to take the Cup until the end of Sunday in Vegas. Laime was in two sunday finals and only had to win one of them to claim the cup, and that’s exactly what she did, winning the Mixed 3-wall with Manilla to also claim the cup. Manilla also took Women’s doubles in California plus the 1-wall women’s doubles title in Vegas this year and really made a statement about the pecking order of outdoor players. 2022 Cup winner Key just missed out on the title, winning a title in each of the three majors but suffering early upsets in most of the Vegas events to cost her the points she needed. Key was 2nd after Beach Bash and 1st after Outdoor Nationals, but was caught by Laime in the end. 3rd place Munoz just couldn’t overcome missing Beach Bash this year, but still took three titles between California and Vegas. Lawrence took home a title in Florida and was in 1st place in the Cup standings after Beach Bash, but her two finals in Vegas weren’t enough to move her further up the chain.

Notables outside of top 5: #6 Katie Neils took home her 3rd major doubles title in Florida and made the finals in California . #7 @Montse Mejia only played in Vegas but made the Mixed final and two semis. #8 @Paola Longoria won the Vegas women’s doubles with partner Key, enough to power her into the top 10. California junior @Victoria Rodriguez finished 9th, and last year’s cup winner @Hollie Scott made the one-wall final in Vegas to slip into the top 10.

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The top finishers of both cups won $1000 plus a suite-stay at The STRAT Las Vegas . 2nd place won $250 and some additional merch.

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Here’s links to the full points worksheets in Google XLS:

– Men: https://rball.pro/c5y or

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YkLkhbbgY3pNjW5YRb12fXHAI_LnVNFx/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102402795225850924380&rtpof=true&sd=true

– Women: https://rball.pro/zvw

or

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gpMyYigsDvwwP5Hk-X3BEiyVZaKjL4X1RhB5UjByXv4/edit?usp=sharing

2024 KWM Gutterman 3WallBall Recap

Portillo made a major outdoor statement this weekend in Vegas. Photo from 2022 3WB via Stephen Fitzsimons

The 15th annual 2024 KWM Gutterman 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships are in the books. It was a fun, long weekend in Las Vegas on the grounds of The STRAT Las Vegas . This year featured the introduction of World Team Racquetball and a ton of new champions in the desert.

Congrats to your Pro Racquetball division winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Alvaro Beltran /Eduardo Portillo Rendon

– Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Michelle Key / Paola Longoria

– Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles: Adam Manilla / Brenda Laime Jalil

– Men’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: Javier Mar / Rodrigo Montoya

– Women’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: Carla Munoz / Brenda Laime

– Mixed Pro 1-wall Doubles: Alexandra Herrera / Eduardo Portillo

Beltran wins his 11th Vegas 3-wall Men’s pro doubles title, with his 4th different partner. He continues to be one of the absolute best outdoor players in the game, even after the end of his indoor touring pro career. He won the first Vegas event with Gies, won a slew of titles with DLR, won four with Rocky, and now with Lalo. Speaking of Lalo, he takes two major titles in Vegas, as does Brenda Laime, who won her second major pro doubles title of the season with Carla.

This week also wrapped up the Outdoor Cup Series; we’ll cover that later in the week.

Also Congrats to the winners of the other major Racquetball divisions held this weekend:

– CPRT Pro Doubles: Kane Waselenchuk / Chris McDonald

– Combined 75+ Men’s Doubles: Patrick Allin / Lou Orosco

– Centurion/Combined 100+ Men’s Doubles; Rocky Carson / Jerry Hall

– Men’s Open Doubles: @Alejandro Barcelo / @Yasmani Perez

– Women’s Open Doubles: Susie Boulanger / Sarah Houghtailing

– Mixed Open Doubles: Kelly Gremley / Jack McDonald

And Here’s the winners of the non-racquetball Pro/Open disciplines competed this weekend

– Paddleball Men’s 3-Wall Pro Doubles: Emmett Coe / Danny Lavely

– Paddleball Mixed 3-Wall Pro Doubles: Emmett Coe / Hollie Scott

– Paddleball Male/combined 1-wall pro doubles: Kathy Guinan / William Rolon:

– Handball 3-wall Big Ball Men’s Doubles: Carlos Marin / Eddie Rocha Jr

– Handball 1-wall Big Ball Men’s Doubles: Anthony Hernandez / John Garcia

– Handball 3-wall Big Ball Men’s Singles: Anthony Hernandez vs Samzon Hernandez

– Handball 1-Wall Big Ball Men’s Singles: Eddie Rocha Jr

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=41864

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Match Reports for the 2024 event in the database by division (racquetball divisions only): if you click on these links, you’ll get the full list of matches in each division for the 2024 event with seeding and home country. This core data feeds to all the other Pro Racquetball Stats reports.

– Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/ivq

– Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/0pa

– Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/3lq

– Men’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/ck2

– Women’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/hxv

– Mixed Pro 1-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/69u

Here’s the Triple Crown reports in the database, showing all the winners of all divisions over the years.

– Men’s Doubles Triple Crown Report: https://rball.pro/pdb

– Women’s Doubles Triple Crown Report: https://rball.pro/5pw

– Mixed Doubles Triple Crown Report: https://rball.pro/bhn

(we didn’t have singles events this year, but here’s those Triple Crown reports):

– Men’s Singles Triple Crown Report: https://rball.pro/49e

– Women’s Singles Triple Crown Report: https://rball.pro/hl6

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Here’s a recap of the draws. Because of the number of divisions to cover, we’ll run through in narrative format instead of round-by-round.

– Men’s 3-wall Pro Doubles: Beltran and Portillo were stretched to a breaker in all four of their matches, but it was their semi that was most interesting to discuss. Manilla and Riffel may have been the two-time defending finalists, but many thought the power-house pair of Waselenchuk and McDonald would be the favorites here. Their semi versus eventual champs Aliv & Lalo was fascinating in terms of its strategy; after getting shellacked in game one 15-4, the Mexican duo focused a ton of its serving towards the aggressive McDonald in his advanced receiving position, and tried to force their opponents into taking offensive shots from defensive positions. It worked, and they clawed their way back into the match by playing smart and opportunistic ball. The end of the match was marred by a couple of disputed calls, but the final point was one of the better rallies you’ll see in outdoor (go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE8IkVyKxcU and hour/minute 1:10). The final was a slower, tactical game between four players who were certainly trying to “play outdoor” on the outdoor courts, a slog eventually won by Beltran and Lalo.

– Women’s 3-wall Pro Doubles: Longoria wins her 4th Vegas title, nicely spread out amongst the 15 years of the event. She took the first 3-wall pro doubles title in 2010 with Keeley Franks, and won this week with the sport’s most decorated player Key. Michelle meanwhile took her 18th Women’s outdoor pro title with Longoria, though they had to survive an 11-10 thriller in the semis against Mejia/Herrera to do so.

– Mixed 3wall Pro Doubles: Laime and Manilla broke a decade-long stranglehold on the Mixed pro division from the absent DLR, cruising into the final without being seriously challenged, then taking an 11-9 thriller against Mar & Mejia.

– Men’s One wall Pro Doubles; Mar & Montoya battered their way to the One wall pro doubles title, never seriously challenged along the way. They won the final 7,5. Mar continues to establish himself as the preeminent one-wall player in the world, winning his fourth one-wall men’s pro title in the last three seasons.

– Women’s One Wall Pro Doubles: Munoz won her third straight one-wall Vegas title, and her second in a row with Laime. The duo dominated the 2023 Beach Bash champs Lawrence/Scott in the final.

– Mixed One Wall Pro Doubles: The one-wall mixed pro draw was the single most disputed of the seeding issues that we had in Vegas this year, and you can see the results of going purely by points in the results. The draw’s #2, #3, and #4 seeds failed to make the semis, the draw was won by the #10 seed, and one could make a decent argument that the #7-#10 round of 16 match could have been the final. At the end of the day, Lalo took the title with his partner Herrera, capping a fantastic week for him: he took two titles, made the final of a third, and won the WTR MVP.

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Other Rball divisions:

– CPRT Pro Doubles: McDonald and Waselenchuk may have lost in the pro semis, but they came home with a dominant win in the CPRT. The pair destroyed Beltran & Koll in the final 4,3.

– Combined 75+ Men’s Doubles: two solid players from SoCal Allin and “Sweet” Lou took the 75+ division, beating two top players from Naples Florida in the final in Barcelo and Perez.

– Centurion/Combined 100+ Men’s Doubles: Carson teamed with Hall to take out Beltran and Knox LaRue in the 100+ final.

– Men’s Open Doubles: A Florida-heavy Open draw came down to, of course, two teams of Florida players for the title. Barcelo & Perez took out Young & Hansen for the title.

– Women’s Open Doubles: Susie Boulanger & Sarah Houghtailing won their group and then won the winner take all final.

– Mixed Open Doubles: Kelly Gremley / Jack McDonald took down Hansen and Lambert in the final. Not a bid first showing outdoor major for either Timmy or Frederique.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from the LPRT team of Jerry J Josey Jr. JT R Ball , and Tj Baumbaugh along with their many guest commentators like Mike D and Rolon.

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Mc Vegas for putting this event on, as well has his entire 3Wall Ball team. Peggine Tellez , Jen O’Meara , and @Peter McMillan worked tirelessly all weekend, along with dozens of other volunteers at the front desk and behind the scenes to make this tourney happen.

Thanks to the primary Tourney Sponsors @KWM Kwm Gutterman, PROKENNEX , @AGE Age Solutions , @LPL Financial, and others I missed here. Thanks also to the dozen other sponsors who helped either with product or finances. Without you, we do not have a pro sport, and without you we don’t have 3WallBall. Thank for all you do.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

Next up is the 2024 Inland Empire Pro-Am IRT event in Spokane Washington in a couple of weeks.

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tags

USA Racquetball

WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball

2024 KWM Gutterman Inc. 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships Preview

Florida’s Chris McDonald is the top seed in multiple pro draws this weekend in Vegas. Photo 2023 Outdoor Nats via Lara

Hello racquetball fans. Its time for the big daddy of outdoor tournaments, the 2024 14th annual 3WallBall championships. More than 375 participants are in Vegas for the weekend to play, watch, and socialize on the grounds of The STRAT Las Vegas hotel.

r2sports link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=41864

Each year I publish a Media guide for this event; here’s a direct link to that guide for 2024. It has bios and pictures for nearly 100% of the players in pro draws, along with player profile information, career indoor accomplishments, and career outdoor achievements.

https://3wallball.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/3WallBall-2024-Broadcast-Binder-v1.0.docx

If anyone in the community has corrections or updates please DM me and I’ll make them at least on the electronic version for next time.

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Draw Previews: Here’s a quick run through of the pro draws. Disclosure: I helped the team with seeding this year, as we found that the WOR points system combined with the abnormally high number of non-regular outdoor players resulted in the need to do some manual seeding this year versus 100% depending on the points system.

Also notably this year; not enough players signed up for either singles divisions, so we’ll have no Pro 3Wall Singles champs in Vegas for 2024.

Here’s some quick thoughts on the pro draws:

– Men’s 3-Wall Pro Doubles: We’ll have a new champion this year, as last year’s champs are not defending their title. Two-time defending finalists Adam Manilla and @Nick Riffel are the #1 seeds, rightfully so after earning the final two years in a row as the underdogs. They’ll likely face a gauntlet of tough teams to get back to this year’s final, which could include Natera/Acuna in the quarters and the top doubles team in the world Mar/Montoya in the semis.

The bottom half features quite the dangerous team in @kaKane Waselenchuk and Chris MacDonald as the #2 seeds. McDonald made the finals in Vegas in 2019, the closest he’s come to a Men’s pro outdoor doubles title in his long career. Kane is coming off an Outdoor Nationals title. They’ll probably face grizzled SoCal vets Allin/Orosco in the quarters, and then will get a massive test from the winner of the 3/6 seeds Beltran/Lalo and Carson/Ustarroz, both teams of which are multi-pro champs in their history.

Prediction: Look for Manilla/Riffel to silence the doubters and beat Chris/Kane in the final.

– Women’s 3-Wall Pro Doubles: Munoz and Laime just won Outdoor Nationals, but are seeded 3rd here thanks to the two defending finalists returning intact and earning the #1 and #2 seeds. This will make for a heck of a semi on the bottom side, and I think they’ll take out #2 Scott/Lawrence here to get into the final. The top half semi should also be one for the ages, as Key/Longoria (who I think edge Tisinger/Roehler in a tantalizing quarterfinal) should take out the defending champs Herrera/Mejia to get to the final. We just saw in WTR a straight-forward win for Longoria/Key over Munoz/Laime and I think we see that again in the final

– Mixed 3-Wall Pro Doubles: This was one of the most difficult draws to seed. I could make a case for more than half the draw to be a top 4 seed. If you’re reading this and questioning why one team is seeded X and another Y and you think it should be the reverse, keep in mind we tried to make the eventual quarter finals as fair as possible. So it’s less about who’s (say) #7 and who is #2 versus what the matchup will be. I like #1 McDonald & Key to get to the semis with relative ease, topping whichever one-wall specialist team gets out of the round of 16 ahead of them, and I like McDonald/Key’s chances to top whichever indoor-heavy team comes out of the 4/5 quarter will be 50/50 at best; Longoria is a tough out in any format, but she’s alongside an outdoor newbie in Montoya. Meanwhile Mar has shown he’s nearly unbeatable in one wall, but less so in three wall. That’ll be an interesting quarter for sure. From the bottom half, I like Manilla/Laime’s chances to move on here to the final, but they have to get by Natera/Munoz first. I think whoever wins that gets past Lalo/Herrera in the bottom semi. McDonald/Key for the win.

(Caveat to one-wall brackets: these brackets and seedings may change from the brackets used for these predictions; if the brackets are changed prior to the start of the draws on Friday 9am PST, my apologies).

– Men’s One-Wall Pro Doubles: Javier Mar has two Beach Bash titles and is a dangerous #2 seed here, but they’ll have to play past William Rolon , owner of four 1-wall major titles to get to the final. The top-side features #1 Lalo/Acuna, but watch out for #5 @DJ Mendoza and Waselenchuk; Mendoza won Beach Bash singles and Kane’s game is tailor made for one-wall. I see DJ/Kane taking out #1 and then winning the title in a slug-fest over Mar/Montoya.

– Women’s One-Wall Pro Doubles: Phew; there’s 8 teams here and I think 5-6 are thinking right now that they’re winning this thing. #1 Munoz/Laime won this in Vegas last year, but they’ll have to get past 2023 beach bash champs Scott/Lawrence in the semis to repeat. Key won beach bash this year with Katie Neils; they’ll face each other in the quarters on opposite teams as Key picks up Longoria. I think Key/Longoria will get past Tisinger/Roehler in the semi and will tak out Laime/Munoz in the final.

– Mixed One-Wall Pro Doubles: Sostre/Lawrence were your 2024 Beach Bash champs and will be tough to beat as the #2 seeds here; on and off-the court partners Lalo & Herrera will give a challenge in the semis … that is if they can get past NY one wall giants Goldenberg & Roehler in the quarters. From the top-side, McDonald is less known for his one-wall exploits, but he’s paired with Key and have a decent path into the semis. They’ll face a pair of touring pros with solid one-wall experience there, likely the husband-wife pair of Natera & Munoz. Look for an upset in the semis but for the Beach Bash mixed one-wall champs Sostre/Lawrence to get the 2024 one-wall pro double.

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– CPRT 40+ is nearly as deep as the Men’s Pro draw, with a high likelihood of a pro semis rematch to occur in the semis here between Waslenechuk/McDonald and Carson/Ustarroz to play for the title. #1 Beltran/Koll likely faces the lefty/righty legends Orosco/Solis in the semis to play for the title. I predict the winner of the bottom semi wins the title.

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Streaming: the @LPRT streaming team is in Vegas and is leading the way. Follow LPRT, sign up for live feed notifications, subscribe to their YouTube channel.

Thanks to the Tourney Directors @Peggine Tellez , @Mike Coulter and Jen O’Meara for putting this event on! Thanks to our main sponsors @KWM Gutterman Inc. , ProKennex Racquetball , @Team DOVETAIL , Abel Perez, LPL Financial and others I may have forgotten here . It goes without saying that without you and your support, we don’t have a sport.

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WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball