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2024-25 Canada National Selection Event – Winter Event Quick Recap

Last weekend, Racquetball Canada held the second of its two annual selection events, which help seed nationals and serve as qualifiers for upcoming international events. Though the 2025 Canadian National teams that will represent Canada at the 2025 PARC (Guatemala City in April and the World Games in China in August) have not yet been announced, we now have a good idea who will do the representing based on these two events.

Website for results: https://secure.racquetballcanada.ca/…/1014509/50101/0/M/

Here’s a quick recap

Men’s Open

prs report: https://rball.pro/f0f8fe

For the 17th time in the last 18 Canada Men’s Open events held, the singles final was @sSamuel Murray versus @Coby Iwaasa . And for the 16th time, Sam prevailed, winning in four games to secure the title (his 20th career Canadian nationals-level title, tying him for 2nd all time).

Women’s Open:

prs report: https://rball.pro/acf42e

@Frederique Lambert cruised to a title from a thinned field missing a couple of big names in Canadian racquetball, winning the 5-person round robin competition with a comprehensive sweep of all five games. @Juliette Parent came in 2nd.

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With their respective wins, and with their wins last fall, both Murray and Lambert presumably have locked up the two Canadian slots for the 2025 World Games in China; they’ll be the singles entrants and will play Mixed Doubles together.

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IRT 45th Annual Lewis Drug Pro-Am recap

Kane Wins again! Photo credit: unknown

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Kane Waselenchuk

– Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & @Kadim Carrasco

Kane wins his 3rd tourney on the trot, 15-matches in a row since a shock loss to Alonso last May. He extends his own record of being the oldest player to win a Tier 1 on tour. Lastly, he drastically increases his lead atop the tour rankings, and now owns nearly double the points to just the #2 player on tour. Kane continues to be unstoppable.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=46712

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

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/b5e74e

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In the 64s:

– Ortega survived a solid match from Floridian Alejandro Herrera Azcarate , who may have just flamed out after crushing the young Mexican in game one.

– Tour veterans Horn and Franco both had winning results in their return to the tour after so long away.

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Notable matches from the 32s:

– #17 @Diego Gastelum cruised past #16 Robby Collins in the 16/17 match; If Trujillo is in the top 10, then Gastelum should eventually be as well.

– #9 Jake Bredenbeck had probably the hardest round of 32, having to stare down Argentine @Diego Garcia to move on. I thought this would be closer, but Jake handled Garcia 9,9.

– Sam Bredenbeck , back on tour after months away, cruised past #13 CARLOS RAMÍREZ 3,5 in an upset by seed but probably not by talent.

– #3 @Adam Manilla was the unlucky recipient of seeing @Sebastian Franco for his round of 32, but worked his way past the long-time top 10 Colombian to move on.

– #15 @Eduardo Portillo Rendon took out #18 @Kadim Carrasco in a far-too-early match for the former top 6 player, who has seen his ranking dip as he spent much of 2024 missing events to work on his career.

– #2 Rodrigo Montoya defeated his old WRT rival David ” Bobby” Horn in two to end Horn’s comeback early.

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In the 16s, we got seed carnage. Five of the top Eight seeds fell in this round, as the latter part of the draw was littered with opportunistic double digit seeds.

– In the 8/9 match, which @Alan Natera has dominated lately, #9 Jake Bredenbeck crushed the Chilean 7,1 to move into the quarters.

– Jordy Alonso got a wbf-ns walkover against @Andree Parrilla , robbing neutrals of a very anticipated match.

– @Javier Mar is back, and took out #3 Manilla in a breaker.

– #10 Jaime Martell Neri got a well-played win over #7 @Erick Trujillo to move into the quarters.

– In the biggest upset of the night, #15 Portillo destroyed #2 Montoya 6,4 to move into the quarters. Nobody likes to see a top-6 player in the 16s, but all credit to Lalo here controlling Montoya’s power game. He wasn’t done yet either…

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In the Quarters

– #1 Kane dominated Jake, who is one of the few players on tour with a h2h win over the king, 3,8 to move on.

– #4 Moscoso survived the first real test of his comeback from arm injury, and he did so in solid fashion. After falling down early in the first against Alonso, he ran the table to close out game one and then jump to a big lead in game two. Jordy clawed his way back to 10, but the Bolivian advances to setup the dream matchup in the semis 7,10.

– After his big 16s win, Mar couldn’t continue his run and fell to the rising Costa Rican @Andres Acuna in three. Acuna makes his way into another semi and has solidified his spot in deep in the top 8.

– Portillo cruised past Martell 2,10 with his sights on the final.

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In the Semis

– Kane and Moscoso played an interesting, back and forth match that highlighted a salient fact often repeated in this space. The top players on tour can beat Kane … but they have to play three perfect games to do so. Moscoso played one perfect game, game 2, wining 15-10, but it wasn’t enough. After splitting the first two games, Kane stayed consistent while Moscoso floundered and Kane wins 11-6 in the breaker.

– In the other semi, Lalo and Acuna played a tactical close match, with Lalo advancing 11,14 to setup a final few would have predicted.

In the Final, Kane put his USAR Ranking on the line (Kane’s #1 there, but Lalo has a h2h win over him, and a defeat would immediately put Portillo top), but the result was anticlimactic. Kane wins 5,8 and Lalo wasn’t ever really in danger of an upset.

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Points Implications of results

Assuming this is a Tier1+ points event …

Kane drastically extends his lead at top, replacing last year’s semis loss with the Tier1+ points of this year’s win. Moscoso should go to #2, jumping both Montoya and Manilla. Acuna should rise one stop to #5, a career best. Natera should finally get out of the #8 spot and give himself a chance to avoid Kane in the quarters. Alonso’s results should put him in the top 10 for the first time. Portillo should jump from 15 to 12, while Gastelum jumps a bit deeper into the top 16.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/0212c1

Moscoso wins just his third career Pro doubles title, his first with Carrasco, with a well played 11-9 tiebreaker win over the top seeds Montoya/Mar.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Gastelum topped local open favorite Jordan Barth in the Men’s Open final.

– Miranda & Garcia took a very talented Open Doubles draw over Bear & Portillo in the final.

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Fantasy Racquetball Competition Wrap-up

Here were the top 5 rankings from Fantasy Racquetball for the event:

1. JT R Ball / @Daily Racquetball who predicted Lalo to the final.

2. @Mitch Brayley

3. Yours Truly Todd Boss

4. Shawn Watts

5. @Joe Linnell

6. Kurtis Cullen

I guess the Canadians are pretty good at this 🙂

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters @Richard Eisemann and Carrie Wegener Reitmeier

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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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

Canada has its second nationals qualifier this coming weekend, then we have Mexican Nationals the last week of February. The next pro stop will be in early march.

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45th Annual IRT Lewis Drug Pro-Am

A rare appearance this weekend from Sebastian Franco. Photo Kevin Savory 2018 US Open

One of the longest running privately run tournaments in the sport is set for its 45th hear. Mark Gibbs is running back the Lewis Drug Pro-Am in Sioux Falls once again, one of the most popular events on tour.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=46712

This is the first Tier 1 of the 2025 season/year, and the first under new tour ownership and involvement. We’ve already seen Adam Manilla ‘s impact, with great social media profiles of players on the IRT’s Facebook page leading up to the event. We may see some interesting change to the tour, its structure, its draws, and whatnot with the new ownership and new commissioner Dave Negrete , but for now its business as usual.

There’s 36 players in South Dakota this weekend, including the top 17 ranked players and 18 of the top 20. There’s some returning names, some well-traveled players from South Africa, and the draw looks like it will give us some great early round matches. This event is the return of Bolivian Conrrado Moscoso, who was #1 on tour most of last year but who suffered an arm injury that cost him the points race and a couple of events late in the season. Is he at 100% we’ll soon see.

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Early round matches to watch for:

There’s just two round of 64s, both of which are interesting:

– top Florida amateur and former touring pro @Alejandro Herrera Azcarate takes on up-and-coming Mexican talent @Guillermo Jesus Ortega in a fun one to fight for the right to play Kane.

– Long-time pro David ” Bobby” Horn returns to the tour; he faces US junior national team member @Benjamin Horner.

– Former top10 regular @Sebastian Franco, who hasn’t played on tour since Feb 2023, is back. He recently took the Kelley brother’s invitational, so we know he’s got some top-level playing as of late, so he should be ready to compete.

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round of 32 matches to watch for:

– #9 @Jake Bredenbeck cannot be happy to see Bolivian turned Argentine Diego Garcia as his opening round opponent. The two met last August at worlds and Jake was stretched to an 11-9 fifth game before advancing. Garcia is an upset-favorite, with multiple prior wins over top 10 players on tour like Acuna, Lalo, Trujillo, Carson, etc. this is a quarter-final’s quality match in the 32s, though the advantage goes to Jake, who only had to drive a few hours to get here.

– #5 Andree Parrilla will have his hands full with U21 star @Gerson Miranda, making a rare state-side appearance.

– #12 @Jordy Alonso , who suddenly has legit aspirations to the semis of every event he plays, has a tough opener against one of the best amateur players in the mid-west in John Goth .

– For his troubles rising to a career best ranking, #3 Adam Manilla has to face off against Franco in the 32s. They’ve met twice in the 2018-19 range and split on tour. Manilla should advance, but Franco is not exactly rusty and could pose some problems.

– In the 15/18, pilot-to-be Eduardo Portillo Rendon takes on Bolivian @Kadim Carrasco . Lalo should advance and cause some trouble in this draw.

– #2 @Rodrigo Montoya projects to face Horn, two long-time rivals who have a playing history going back more than a decade. They were WRT rivals, playing a handful of times there, once internationally, but never on IRT. I’d say that Montoya is the favorite here, but Horn won’t go down without a fight.

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Round of 16:

– #1 Kane Waselenchuk should face Gastelum in a repeat of the 16s from Pleasanton. Kane beat him 2,2 then, probably expects to be a similar score-line this weekend.

– The 8/9 match this weekend projects to be @Alan Natera and the winner of the Jake/Garcia match. Unlike the last few 8/9 matchups, Natera won’t be favored here, and I’d expect either Jake or Diego in the quarters.

– #5 Parrilla vs #12 Alonso. It’s safe to say these guys go back a ways, being a year apart, both hailing from the hotbed of San Luis Potosi in Mexico, and frequently playing in both local events and at Mexican Junior national tournaments growing up. Parrilla has a year’s edge on Jordy, which helped him out in juniors. Now? The two are pretty evenly matched, play a pretty similar game style, and this is a true coin flip for me. I always like rooting for the underdog, so give me Alonso and the points.

– Manilla vs Mar: I’ve always had a soft spot for Mar, who has split his two matchups with Adam (though both were played a while ago). Manilla has been on a roll, Mar has not really been getting the marquee wins he needs lately to keep up his dark-horse fame. I’ll go with Manilla here.

– Trujillo-Martell in the 7/10 is a fun one: I think Erick has the advantage here.

– Montoya-Portillo in the 16s. Again, not the round of 16 that Rodrigo would want, a player who has more than a couple h2h wins against him and who has demonstrated he can handle the pace. Upset watch here.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Kane over Jake: Bredenbeck famously has a career win over a healthy Kane, but the two seem to be going in different directions right now.

– Alonso over Moscoso: We’ll know pretty quickly if Moscoso’s arm is 100% because he’s going to need to hit his lines against Jordy to win. However, if Moscoso is back, this is a tough one for Alonso to win b/c Conrrado has the advantage in power, athleticism, and shot-making. Alonso plays smarter but has to play lights out to win. This is my favorite quarter final if it comes to pass.

– Manilla over Acuna: Adam rides the hot hand and takes out a possibly-still dinged Acuna (who forfeited out of the last event with injury)

– Montoya over Trujillo; they’ve played at this juncture a couple times, and Rodrigo has little difficulty getting past his younger countrymate.

Semis:

– Kane takes out Alonso/Moscoso winner. I think many would like to see Moscoso’s power against Kane’s power … but i have a sneaky suspicion it’ll be the more cerebral Alonso playing here. If they do, Kane will be looking for major revenge after last year’s exit in Canoga Park, where Jordy beat him 11-1 in the breaker. Kane’s more focused, in better shape, and will be in revenge mode here.

– Montoya faces Manilla in a rematch of the surprise upset win by Adam last December at his home tourney in Pleasanton. I was surprised Adam won then, and I’d be surprised if he won here after years of watching him rarely get to the semis. But something has clicked for Adam, and this is danger territory for Rodrigo. I still like Montoya here, but wouldn’t be surprised with an upset.

Finals; I’m projecting another meeting between Kane and the player on tour I think has the best chance of beating Kane; Rodrigo Montoya. Their last meeting was instructive to me: Kane squeaked out a 15-14 game one win, then Montoya rolled him in game 2 15-7. In the breaker, Montoya lost focus on a bad call, let a few points go by in a row, and that was that. Kane is so good at keeping his foot on your throat, he’s so focused on the court, that you cannot give up a mental edge like that. I’m not sure if Montoya can keep it together for three games, but he’s got the current best package of power (to keep Kane from just rolling out service returns), athleticism ( to extend rallies and make Kane hit that one extra shot), and maturity (to be patient on the court, to make adjustments, and to go for the right shots) to beat Kane.

All that said, Kane is the favorite to win.

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Doubles review

There’s 14 teams in pro doubles, with some great matches up and down the draw. I love the Garcia/Miranda team, basically the future of Argentina racquetball, who faces Manilla/Horn in the round of 16. Herrera/Franco is a fun all-Colombian team that will give #3 Parrilla/Portillo some fun.

#1 seeds Montoya & Mar won’t be pushed until the semis, where they project to take out Natera & Acuna (who I think will outlast the rusty Horn & Manilla in the quarters). Meanwhile in the bottom half, I think #3 Portillo/Parrilla can play “keep away” from Moscoso, focusing on Carrasco in their semi against the Bolivians to move into the final.

Final’s prediction: Mar/Montoya outlast Parrilla & Portillo but its a battle.

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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. This weekend both @Richard Eisemann

and Carrie Wegener Reitmeier are on the mike, and I’ll be helping out with data throughout the weekend.

Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, The IRT is using the same site that LPRT uses to do fantasy racquetball. To join the IRT’s “league” and pick a bracket; here’s the instructions:

Can you predict the results of the event, match by match? Give it a try to win some bragging rights!

Go to https://officepoolstop.com/ (or if already logged in: https://officepoolstop.com/Brackets/79031)

Login or create an account

Scroll to the bottom and click on Join

Enter League code: 79031

Enter League password: IRT2025

Click on Join

Click on the player you expect to win each matchup including the finals. 8 ) Scroll back up to the top to enter the combined score of the final game, so if you expect 11-10, enter 21.

Click on Submit Bracket

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International Racquetball Tour

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LPRT 2025 Arizona Recap

Mejia is back on top. Photo unk.

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Montse Mejia

– Doubles: @Paola Longoria & Samantha Salas Solis

Mejia wins her 8th career singles title, moving into 12th place all time. She returns to the winner’s circle for the first time in exactly a year; she won the 2024 Arizona Open for her last title. Meanwhile, Longoria & Salas win their 50th career pro doubles title together; our records only go back to 2014 and I have them at 40 in the database, which means another 10 in the years prior to 2014 that we could go back and find with enough LPRT event research.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=45386

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

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/q89

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In the 32s:

– Lotts and Ros had a battle, going tie-breaker, before Lotts advanced. These 16/17 seed matches are tough.

– Lucia Gonzalez pressed Amaya, losing 8,14.

– Arizona Resident Michelle Key was a withdrawal from her “home” tournament, giving MRR a walkover. She played doubles the next day, so this was an odd wbf-ns.

– Annie Sanchez got a solid win over Lexi York to move on and get a rare win on tour.

– Rhonda’s return to the tour ended with a one-and-done at the hands of Kelani 4,8

– Parrilla made fast work of Enriquez 4,2.

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In the 16s:

– The 8/9 matchup between Amaya and Salas went the distance, as expected, with Samantha squeaking out an 11-10 win.

– Herrera got pushed by Centellas, who won the first game before falling (10),13,6

– Mendez cruised past Parrilla 11,1 to earn another quarterfinal.

– The Vargas-Barrios match was tight as expected, but Maria Jose won 10,12 to avoid the round of 16 upset.

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In the Quarters

– #1 Longoria beat her doubles partner Salas, as the met for the 63rd time on tour. Believe it or not, that’s not the most frequent h2h match we’ve ever seen; Longoria played Rhonda 69 times in their career (see https://rball.pro/uce )

– #5 Gaby made fast work of #4 Herrera 8,4 to setup a solid semi from the top side.

– #3 Mejia seems like she’s on a mission, crushing #6 Lawrence 0,4 to move on.

– #2 Vargas dropped the first game against her now dropped doubles partner Mendez before advancing.

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In the Semis

– #1 Longoria had to come from a game down to beat the Guatemalan Martinez, cruising to an 11-1 tiebreaker.

– #3 Mejia continued her torrid stretch, dominating the the drained Vargas in two 7,9 to move into the final.

In the Finals, Mejia defended her 2024 title in this event with a comprehensive 8,14 win.

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Points Implications of results

Mejia and Vargas tightened the points race, but there’s still a sizeable gap from Longoria to Vargas (300 points or so), and then from Vargas to Mejia (another 300 points or so). The gap from the top 3 players just to #4 Herrera is monumental; nearly 500 points, which would take most of a season to make up.

Changes we saw: Lawrence and the missing Laime switched spots at #6/7. Synhorst should move up to #14 with her round of 32 win. Lotts is climbing up the rankings, now at #17. Centellas jumps a few spots and is now back in the top 20.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/x1k

The doubles draw gave us an upset of the #1 team for the first time in more than a year, as the new-look Argentina doubles team Vargas/Centellas topped Mejia & Herrera in the semis. However, Longoria & Salas (now dumped down to #3) didn’t drop a game all weekend and took the title 12,10.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– LPRT U21: Yanna Salazar took out countrymate Daniela Rico for the U21 title.

– Women’s Open: Naomi Ros faced Angelica Barrios as the two tops seeds, and the former top 8 LPRT pro won out as she rebuild her ranking points.

– Men’s Open: US Jr National team member Grant Williams faced Texan Daniel Bautista for the title and won 10,5.

– Men’s Open Doubles was taken by Arizona residents Coy Rogers and Alonzo Tavares

– Mixed Open Doubles was taken by Katie Neils & Freddie Villalon in a walkover that may have been travel related (i.e. someone had to get on a plane).

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

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

There was an IRT satellite in Kansas this weekend that we’ll do a quick recap of. The next big pro event is the IRT Lewis Drug in Sioux Falls in two weeks’ time.

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LPRT

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LPRT 2025 Arizona Open Preview

Rhonda is back! Photo Src: © Mike Boatman 2010

Welcome to one of the longer running events on tour, the Arizona Open, run by hall of famer @Jim Winterton in Tempe on the campus of Arizona State University.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=45386

We’ve got 27 pros entered in the singles division here, which is a high water mark so far for the new season and seems to indicate a slight increase of “tour depth” from last season.

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Let’s preview the singles draw.

In the 32s:

– We get a rematch of Lotts/Ros in the 16/17 from the Lombard event in November; Lotts won 11,10 back then, but Ros is improving by the month.

– We get a rare sighting of Lucia Gonzalez, former Mexican junior phenom. She takes on Amaya in the 32s, but based on Cristina’s form I don’t see an upset here. Gonzalez, in case you didn’t know who she was, won 7 IRF Junior world titles in her junior career, including the 18U world title in 2013 at a time when the 18U world champion basically was a guarantee of a top 10 LPRT pro (the 2 18U champs preceeding and following Lucia? Lambert, Vargas, Hererra and Mendez).

– Michelle Key, now all the way up to #12, takes on former touring pro regular MRR.

– Lexi York takes on Annie (Roberts) Sanchez, looking to take a step up after finishing off her junior career last December. Sanchez hasn’t had the success on tour that she’s had internationally and this is a good test.

– We have a @Rhonda Rajsich sighting! She’s entered an LPRT event, in her home state, for the first time in two years. She has an easier round of 32 this time than she did two years ago (when she faced Vargas), but she’s still and underdog against #6 @Kelani Lawrence .

– A tough matchup of Mexican top 10 veterans Parrilla and Enriquez is set for the 10-23 round of 32.

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round of 16:

– Amaya/Salas projection in the 8/9 match for the fourth time in a year. Salas has generally been winning these veteran battles, but they’re usually going tiebreaker.

– Gaby-Key in the 5/12: these two have been meeting somewhat regularly in international play for a decade, with Martinez holding the edge.

– Mendez vs the Enriquez/Parrilla winner. Mendez has struggled in her career against Parrilla, but has been playing well as of late and has been playing to her seeds pretty frequently.

– Vargas vs Barrios: this is brutal draw for the #2 seed Vargas, playing a player who has a slew of career wins over her. They’re 4-4 for their career against each other, though Vargas has beaten her handily in the two meetings they had last year. Nonetheless, this is about as big of a contrast in styles as you’ll see on tour and this will always be an upset watch.

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Projected Qtrs:

– 1/8 @Paola Longoria over the Salas/Amaya winner; if its Salas, it would be their 63rd professional meeting.

– 4/5 Herrera vs Gaby; this isn’t a great matchup for Gaby, who has lost to Alexandra the last three times they’ve played. They’ve all been close, but Herrera’s game style seems to stymy Martinez. I’ll go with the lefty to win here.

– 3/6 Mejia vs Lawrence; they’ve played 3 times in their careers, none were especially close. Mejia to advance.

– 2/7 Vargas tops her doubles partner Mendez, to whom she’s never lost in singles.

Semis: It’s more of the same; last event Herrera missed but Laime filled in, but was still the same crew in the semis that i’m projecting here.

– Longoria over Herrera: Alexandra had Longoria’s number for a brief moment, but seemingly no longer. Paola to the final.

– Vargas over Mejia: somehow these two have avoided each other for nearly a year on tour despite both being ranked in the top 3 that entire time. Vargas has had the upper hand lately, but this is always a fun one to watch because of the power-first style of both players. Vargas to win again.

Finals; Another Paola vs Vargas matchup. Did you know these two have played 55 times in pro and high-level IRF events over their careers? It’s been a tale of two players in their head to head career:

– From their first meeting at 2012 Worlds to this Arizona event in 2023, Longoria held an astounding 41-2 over Vargas. She won their first 26 meetings.

– From Feb 2023 to now? Vargas leads 7-5.

Yes those are arbitrary endpoints. But we know Vargas flipped a switch in 2023, which led to her first title in June of 2024, and that switch has stayed on. These two have met in two finals so far this season, splitting them both, both in TBs. No reason not to think that’ll happen again here. When Vargas has an easier semi, she seems to have an easier final; i don’t see that here. So i’ll go with Longoria to win.

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Doubles review

There’s some interesting developments in the Doubles draw. Herrera/Mejia are #1 as expected, but Vargas is playing with Centellas, not Mendez. Both represent Argentina, and they’ve never once played together previously. So, Mendez picks up one of the best doubles players in the world in Michelle Key and they’re the #2 seeds.

Key/Mendez will have their work cut out for them, as team Guatemala is the #7 seed and is a favorite to upset them. Meanwhile, the experienced team of Scott/Lawrence will test the new-look Argentines in the 4/5 matchup.

At the end of the day, I th ink its the two top Mexican teams facing off once again in the final, with Herrera/Mejia topping Longoria/Salas for the title.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Timothy Baghurst, Sandy Rios, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on LPRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!

Associations

@LPRT

Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #lprt

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5th Annual Average Joe’s Tournament Recap

Jake with the double in Jersey. Photo Kevin Savory 2020 USAR national doubles

This past weekend was a fun annual tradition; the racquetball-mad Kelley brothers hosted their 5th annual Average Joe’s Event at their custom built court on their property in New Jersey.

Last year’s event was plagued with issues, when a foot of snow hit the Kelley house and wreaked havoc on the electricity.

So, what happened in 2025? Well, four current or former touring pros showed up on the Kelley’s doorstep, which pushed 2024 champ Sendrey down to be the 5th seed. Your top 8 seeds in singles were: Sebastian Franco, Jake Bredenbeck, Momo Zelada, Sam Bredenbeck, Cole Sendrey, Joe Kelley, Jose Flores, and Kyle Ulliman.

Ulliman fell in the 8/9 game to co-host and 2023 champ Sam Kelley; the rest of the seeds went through unscathed. All four top seeds took care of business in the quarters to face off in the semis. There:

– In the top half, Franco moved past Sam Bredenbeck

– From the bottom half, Jake took care of Momo to give us a 1v2 final.

In the final, Jake took out Franco to claim the singles title.

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In doubles, Sam & Joe Kelley upset the #2 seeds from Maryland Momo & Franco early, but couldn’t take out two-time defending doubles champ Dylan Pruitt & parter Sendrey from the bottom half, putting the two young guns in the final.

The Bredenbeck’s held serve as the #1 seed, topping the team of Dixon & Flores in the other semi.

In the final, Jake made it a double for the weekend and prevented a 3-peat by Dylan by taking the title with brother Sam.

—–

Event Winner Archive:

Singles:

– 1st Annual in 2021: Joe Kelley over Austin Cunningham

– 2nd Annual 2022: Kyle Ulliman over Victor Migliore

– 3rd Annual 2023: Sam Kelley over Victor Migliore

– 4th Annual 2024: Cole Sendrey over Kyle Ulliman

– 5th Annual 2025: Jake Bredenbeck over Sebastian Franco

Doubles:

– 2021: (no doubles event)

– 2022: (no doubles event)

– 2023: Pruitt/Bleyer

– 2024: Pruitt/Cunningham

– 2025: Bredenbeck/Bredenbeck

That’s it for the 2025 Kelley Invitational.

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IRT 2024 Season Recap Part 3: Notables outside top 20 and Commentary

Carson extends his season tournament streak. Photo Portland 2019 via Kevin Savory

In part 3, we’ll talk about the notable players outside the top 20, talk about who’s left the sport or seems to be leaving the sport, and then at the end talk about the recent IRT ownership news and provide some commentary about the state of the sport.

Notable Players outside the top 20 this year:

– #22 @Sam Bredenbeck played the first three events of the year, then opted out of everything after May. His brother continued to tour for the rest of the year. Is Sam done playing the tour? He’s entered 28 tournaments in his career, with 8 round of 16s to his name. Round of 16 money isn’t enough to justify the expenses of touring.

– #23 Rocky Carson showed up for 2 events this year to secure his 29th career season with a tournament played. He’s now 3rd all time in terms of seasons with appearances behind Cliff’s 35 and Ruben’s 32.

– #25 @Jim Douglas played all 6 events, lost in the round of 32 in all six events, but is one of the few to play in every event this year.

– #26 @Jhonatan Flores could be the next big thing coming from Bolivia. He cruised to the 2024 18U junior world title (defending the same title he won in 2023), only dropping two games in the semifinal against Mexico’s Eder Renteria. He popped into the USA to play two events in March, and made a run to the quarters in Lombard with wins over James Black, Jake, and Collins. He took then stretched Kane to a tiebreaker, eventually losing 3, (13), 7. This guy is the real deal … and of course he’s Bolivian so we’ll probably barely see him on tour thanks to financial challenges inherent to the sport.

– #32 Diego Garcia Racquetball , another guy we rarely see in the states but who very well might be one of the best 10-12 players in the sport. His IRT results were lacking this year, but his international results were decent (semis at PARC, qtrs at Worlds).

– #36: @Alejandro Cardona, Mr. WRT, is still playing events and getting results. He played the first three events of the season and still can hit the ball.

– #38: @Daniel De La Rosa , 3-time IRT tour champ, now retired from touring. Despite what he said publicly in October 2024 and despite what his sponsors promised, his pickleball calendar basically crushed his racquetball season. After entering the season-opening Lewis Drug event, DLR wasn’t seen on the IRT again. He made time though to dominate US Nationals, and then cruise to a world title in San Antonio. He also played the team event at 3WB, then hopped a red-eye to make his MLP event in Virginia Beach. But the realities of the pickleball commitments are clear; he’s done playing racquetball on any regular basis. The Pickleball community values having “the racquetball champion” play their sport, so i’m sure he’ll find time to play amateur nationals and major IRF events going forward, but his time on the IRT may be done.

– #45 Gerson Miranda, #47 Hector Barrios, and #55 Sebastian Hernandez are all top-notch junior players who would represent the next generation on tour if they could play it regularly.

– #60: @Coby Iwaasa played one event, another guy who probably could be a top 15-20 player or better if there was the financial incentive to tour.

– #65: @Alvaro Beltran managed to play one event; he played the Lewis Drug and got beat by Lalo in the opener. He’s still a fantastic doubles player and continues to be a force in outdoor, but his singles time may be done except for the occasional drop-in event close to home.

– #77 @Brad Levine played the SoCal Open, and in doing so extended his own personal record of being the oldest known entrant to an IRT event.

—————

2024 saw an entire season pass without appearances from several notable players who have been active, and in some cases highly ranked, in the past few seasons.

– Alejandro Landa has retired as announced and has not appeared.

– Sebastian Franco, a regular tour player in 2022, did not play a single event this year.

– Maryland resident, former top 10 player, and Formula Flow partner @Mario Mercado did not play a single event. His business partner Zelada had one result.

– Carlos Keller Vargas continues to represent Bolivia internationally but did not play a single tour event in 2024.

– Nick Riffel, who is Adam Manilla’s regular outdoor partner and former touring pro; zero results this year.

– Sebastian Fernandez filled in last minute to win a US National title but played no pro events.

– Bobby Horn did not even enter his own event this year, but apparently is training to compete at the Lewis Drug later this month.

– Charlie Pratt’s usual single season appearance at his home town event didn’t sanction this year.

– Nothing from Mexican talents Javier Estrada, Eduardo Garay, Christian Longoria, or Gerardo Franco.

With several top-10 stalwarts now gone, there’s certainly opportunity for the next generation of players to move up, and we’re already seeing that with new players in the top 10 this year.

——-

Thoughts on 2025 and the future of the Men’s Pro Sport.

It’s not really controversial, or even penetrating, to say that the sport is in trouble. The Men’s tour in 2024 had just six stops; Lewis Drug, Minnesota HoF, Shamrock Shootout, SoCal Open, Inland Empire, and the Golden State Open. Only three of these even existed a few years ago.

That means that, just from the 2022/2023 seasons, the IRT has lost:

– Longhorn Open (UT changed its policy on hosting)

– Suivant Consulting/Williams Accounting Atlanta event (has Donald Williams stopped sponsoring events?)

– New York Open (Baer brothers stepped away)

– World Singles & Doubles (coming back in 2025 but probably for last time)

– Capital Classic (IRT co-owner Warigon has stopped sponsoring IRT events)

– Tracktown Open (maybe a one and done for 2023)

– Dovetail/Sarasota Open: Kinkin redirecting funds to support Jrs and USAR

– Rally for our Warriors in Boston (Stuart Solomon has a longer history sponsoring LPRT)

– US Open (USAR financial debacle with then-staff failing the sport and the event)

– John Pelham (more money for charity, less for pros)

That’s an entire TOUR worth of events gone in 2 seasons.

Go back a couple more years and you have former events like Arizona Open, the Lou Bradley, the Valentine Open, the Los Compadres guys in SoCal, an event in St Louis, and event in San Antonio, and the Mercedes Benz sponsored event in Cincinnati. All of these tournament directors and events are gone. Can they be reclaimed?

The 6 events last season is the fewest number of events on tour (skipping the covid-related 2021) since the tour collapsed in 1988-1989. They were able to recover then; can they now? In both cases new ownership took over; this time its Keith Minor, who has brought along the financially-connected Negrete, the motivated Manilla, and a big checkbook to hopefully rebuild relationships with the 15 or so tournament directors who have left the sport in the last few years.

Also, nowhere on this list is a single event outside the United States. The tour is dominated by Mexicans; when was the last time an IRT stop was held in Mexico? The answer? 2011. LPRT has had stops in Mexico pretty regularly but nothing for IRT. The WRT came and went, holding dozens of Mexico based events and driving a huge following in the country, and then the IRT literally hires the WRT founder … and still no Mexican events. It’s just as bad for Canada: last pro stop north of the border was in 2008 despite a Canadian national winning a dozen titles since then. We managed to put one event in Bolivia, that sport-crazed country, in 2019 … but nothing since. On the one hand, yes I understand the financials and exchange rates. But on the other hand … where the hell are the sponsors in these countries? Racquetball is crazy popular in both countries, but there’s nobody who can get a pro stop funded??

2024 Junior Worlds showed the Mexican/Bolivian dominance in the sport pretty well: 29 of the 30 titles were won by Mexican or Bolivian players/teams, yet those two countries never host pro events, and as a result their top players struggle to compete on the established pro tour of the sport. I’d really like to see how U21 winner Acha or U18 winner Flores would fare if touring regularly; instead we may get one or two annual trips from them and probably a seeding in the 30s and a brutal round of 16 loss with almost no prize money to dissuade them from coming back.

The tour is likely going to be won by a 44 yr old next year, with a slew of 29-yr old players populating the rest of the top 10. Where’s the next generation of players who will take the mangle? Can a 22yr old like Erick Trujillo step up, or will we see a 50-yr old Kane still winning titles in the year 2030?

I’m hoping to see a more robust tour schedule for 2025; we’ve already seen a slew of new event announcements, which is a good sign. My conversations with Keith indicate we may literally double the stops in 2025 from 2024 (fingers crossed), but certainly we’re in a better place than we were on tour late last year. The new group has some new ideas, and that might bring a spark to the sport.

Best of luck to Minor and the new team, and I can’t wait for the first event of 2025.

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IRT 2024 Season Recap Part 2: Players ranked 11-20

Alonso was one of the biggest stories of the year. Photo via Alonso Twitter page

We went through the top 10 in part 1. Lets talk about the guys who finished 11-20, which include a combination of grinders, former top 10 players who missed time, guys on their way out, and guys on their way in.

We start with the #12 ranked player b/c there was a tie for 10th on tour, so technically our first post had one additional player reviewed.

– 12: @Jordy Alonso . One of the biggest stories of the season was the run Alonso made at the SoCal Open in May (see https://rball.pro/pno for the match report. As the #30 seed, he won a round of 64 against Mexican Alejandro Bear, then gave Kane Waselenchuk his earliest career loss in the 32s, beating him in the breaker 11-1. He didn’t stop there, then topping Collins, Martell, and Montoya to make the final before falling to Moscoso. Making the final as a #30 seed was the second highest seed in the history of the sport behind only Kane’s return from his 2-year suspension as a #39 seed making a final. He continued getting success the rest of the way and nearly powered into the top 10. Alonso is not a flash in the pan; he had gotten signature wins before, whether it was on the IRT or it was in Mexican Nationals, but has rarely played on tour over the years.

Outlook for 2025: if he plays full time, he’s got the talent to finish deep in the top 10. I think he’s better than the guys who all finished in the 6-11 range, and could push deep into the top 10 with some results. Prediction for 2025: #7

13. Carlos Ramírez ; the Torreon, Mexico native quietly has played nearly every event on tour over the last two years, becoming a constant presence in the main draws, and for his troubles earned enough points to finish #13 on tour. He’s never advanced past the round of 16 in his career; his best result on tour probably was a tie-breaker loss to Carrasco at the 2024 Minnesota event.

Outlook for 2025: Ramirez is a regular on tour, and regularly gets to the 16s. That means he’s bound to finish in the 13-16 range; i’ll guess he gets pushed down a couple of slots and finishes in the 15-16 range in 2025. Prediction: #16

14. @javier Mar; Mar had his typical IRT season: played about half the events, got a couple of solid results (made a semi in Pleasanton), upset a couple of top-10 players (Jake, Acuna) had a couple of early round battles that didn’t go his way (round of 32 losses to Carson, Trujillo), and showed well on the doubles court (won a title in Pleasanton and finished #6). He can really shock the field (in 2022’s Capital Classic he beat, in order Roland Keller, Garay, Parrilla, Jake, and Murray to make a final). He struggled with a core injury that limited his singles play for months, and has a career that prevents him from committing to the tour full time.

Outlook for 2025: I’ve always been a fan of Mar, ever since watching him stare Kane down at the 2018 US Open and play him as tough as anyone had played him, losing 12,10 to a guy who owned the tour at the time. But Mar has had trouble replicating those results on the regular. It seems like this is who he is: a guy who makes about half the events, can get a run going, but just doesn’t play enough to crack the top 10. Prediction for 2025: #15

15. Eduardo Portillo Rendon : After four straight season in the top 10, including some significant wins and a title in 2022, Lalo missed four of the six events this season while doing flight training, studying to become a pilot. If he plays the tour regularly, he’s a top 6-8 player easily. But his schedule is an unknown; it may be very difficult for him to commit to a 4-day weekend to play a tour event while being low-man on the pilot totem pole call sheet.

Prognosis for 2025: I’m going to assume he’s missing a big chunk of the season again, playing when he can, and thus will be limited in what he can accomplish. I’ll guess #13 for next year.

16. @Robby Collins continues to chug along on tour, playing all six events, making four round of 16s but taking a couple of early losses. This has been his pattern over the past three season and seems likely to continue. He’s a veteran player who’s a tough out for a lot of his typical round of 32 opponents, but a long shot to advance past a top8 player.

Outlook for 2025: the new US Junior national team coach and sometimes-partner to Horn and Manilla in their organizational exploits seems set to continue touring regularly, so a 16-18 finish seems likely once again. Prediction: #17.

17. Diego Gastelum comes in at #17 and along with Trujillo represents the next generation of top players in this sport. Trujillo, Gastelum, Acha, Sebastian Hernandez, and Jhonatan Flores are all in the 18U/21U circle and are of similar talent levels, and they seem set to follow in Trujillo’s footsteps to try to make noise in the sport. We havn’t seen a ton from some of these players yet domestically (cost and visa issues), but some we have, including Gastelum. He beat this year’s U21 world champ Acha at worlds last year, and has some back and forth results with Trujillo in both juniors and adult events.

Prognosis for 2025: I sense Gastelum will continue to tour regularly, and I favor him to make a bunch of 16s. I can see him incrementally jumping up the ranks. I’d love to see him h2h against players like Natera or Carter or Collins to see where he rates. Prediction: #14

18. @Samuel Murray . Murray showed up at the season opener and won it for his second career tier 1 title… then he missed the rest of the pro season. He continued to play for Canada and Internationally, but not on the pro tour. Right now, he represents a first for the sport; he won his last event and may actually be retired. If this is the case, he walks off Pete Sampras style with a win, and may end up breaking a bunch of my reports that all assume players lost their last match.

Outlook for 2025: is he retired? Seems like it. He’s now 31 and is in kind of the same boat as Jake Bredenbeck: he’s a power-guy who’s aging and spent most of his 2023 season struggling to make the quarters on tour. He’s got a good thing going in Canada though, where he hasn’t relinquished the National title in a decade and thus guarantees an influx of money from the association for a while. Still, I have to think he’ll sneak across the boarder for the Lewis and Minnesota events and may get some results. I’ll go #20 next year.

19. @Kadim Carrasco continues to do what he’s done for the past few season: plays most of the events, sometimes gets to the round of 16, never beyond. In 33 career pro events he’s never gotten to the quarters. But, he has had decent success on the doubles court with Moscoso and can hold his own on the forehand side.

Outlook for 2025: more of the same; at age 36 he’s still solid and apparently likes the travel, so I’ll guess he finishes in the 19-20 range again. Prediction: #19

20. Cole Sendry. one of the top USA juniors has been a traveling man this year, flying all over the country to play pro-stops and top events. He’s shown some solid progression, with a win at the Kelley Brother’s event, and he’s gotten some decent IRT results, generally winning when he should have . His IRT losses this year were mostly understandable (Carter, Cuevas, Jake, Parrilla, Portillo). He made two round of 16s, lost in the 32s the other times.

outlook for 2025: clearly he’s actively touring, so I’d expect him to rack up points similarly to the way Carlos Ramirez does. I’d like to see him get some wins against the likes of Cuevas and Ramirez, but his seeding often has him playing a tougher opponent in the 32s. Still, playing all the events and getting wins guarantees a top 20 finish these days. Prediction: #18

Stay tuned for part 3.

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IRT 2024 Season Recap Part 1: the Top 10

Another title for Kane. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

Hello Racquetball Fans! Welcome to my annual tradition of recapping the results of the Men’s pro International Racquetball Tour season. This annual set of posts is to notify the community of the final season rankings now being loaded and live in the database, to publish some useful links wrapping up the season, and then to talk about the players.

We’ll do 3 parts:

– Part 1: Top 10 ranked players and master links

– Part 2: Players ranked 11-20

– Part 3: Notable Players ranked outside the top 20 and commentary about the state of the sport.

—

First, here’s some quick links for the 2024 rankings and how they present in the database:

– 2024 Rankings, from 1-77: https://rball.pro/lwj

– 2024 Season Summary Report for all 2024 players: https://rball.pro/hx0

The season-ending ranks for each player also flow to their personal Season Summary Reports for their careers. For example, here’s Adam Manilla’s Career Season Summary report, showing his year-end rankings per season: https://rball.pro/r8k

—

Now, lets run through the year’s top 10.

1. Kane Waselenchuk , He wins 4 of the 6 events for the year after missing an entire year due to his blown Achilles heel injury. He breaks several age-based records in tour history: he’s now the oldest to finish #1 by 4+ years (besting Rocky’s 2018 accomplishment) and is now oldest to win a tournament (besting Ruben’s long standing 1993 record). He wins the tour title by more than 800 points (that’s two tier 1 wins) thanks to ill-timed injuries to his strongest competitor, and things will get worse for the rest of the tour before it gets better: his first 2024 tournament to expire was a semis loss, so he’s favored to replace that result with a win to increase his lead to start the 2025 season. Some will call his 2024 performance an indictment of the depth of the tour, others will continue to see Kane for what he is: one of the most dominant individual athletes in the history of sports.

Prognosis for 2025: Honestly, I see no reason he can’t repeat as #1. The two players who can really challenge him regularly (Montoya and Moscoso) still can’t seem to put together a complete match to beat him. Kane may be 43, but he still has pinpoint accuracy on his serves and can power nearly everyone off the court without expending a ton of energy. He’s most vulnerable in events where he has to play twice in a day, or against players who can get him off-balance with the serve consistently; that’s a short list in the pro game right now. Prediction for 2025: Repeats as #1.

See https://rball.pro/4oa for more age-based records.

2. Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball : Montoya had a career season, finishing ranked #2 on tour, the highest he’s ever been ranked. He didn’t find the winner’s podium this year, but did make a final (losing 11-10 in January to Murray) and three semis along the way . After years of promise and part-time touring, he’s finally seized his spot amongst the tour elite. He also remains the #1 doubles player in the world, finishing atop the IRT Pro Doubles ranking list.

Prognosis for 2025: Montoya played every event in a season for the first time in his career, but he has a full time non-rball career that may cost him appearances here and there. I think he slips down behind Moscoso for next year. Prediction for 2025: #3.

3. Adam Manilla jumped his year-end ranking from a 2023-emulating #6 to a career-best #3 with a surprise run to the finals of the season’s final event (which awarded Grand Slam points due to the total prize purse). Manilla has toured for years now at age 29 and has generally been a “quarters” ceiling kind of player, but got a career-best win in his home event over Montoya to make his first career final and jump his ranking to #3. This was all the more impressive because, as anyone who’s run a tournament knows, running an event and trying to play in it can be really difficult.

Prognosis for next year: With all due respect to his finals run, Manilla is hitting in rarified air right now. He’s got 58 career events and has made it past the quarters just twice. I think he’ll continue to make quarter finals regularly and will finish in the 5-6 range like he did in 2023. Prediction for 2025: #6

4. Conrrado Moscoso ; Many thought 2024 would be Moscoso’s year; he ascended to #1 early in the season with DLR’s January upset and subsequent leaving the tour, and held the #1 ranking until he got hurt. Just ahead of the October 2024 Inland Empire event, Moscoso announced an arm injury and subsequent surgery for a condition that was called “periostitis.” Googling that term, we discover sometimes called “Tennis Elbow” and is a repetitive use injury. Conrrado missed the last two events of the season and slipped to 4th in the standings. As of this writing, we’re assuming he’s back and healthy for the start of the 2025 season. But time is now officially running out for Moscoso to make his mark; he’s 29, has been touring for years, and has missed a couple of real opportunities to finish #1 on tour. Interestingly though … I don’t sense that’s his real priority; based on conversations with tour insiders, Conrrado is far more interested in international titles than he is in winning a tour title. I’m sure he likes the money though that comes with IRT titles; a dollar here is worth seven Bolivanos, which makes for a great payday if he cashes cheks here.

Prognosis for 2025: assuming he’s healthy, he’ll have his work cut out for him early; being the #4 seed means he plays into #1 Kane in the semis and will struggle to defend his early 2024 results. But, if he can get himself back to the #3 slot on tour, he’ll favor his chances when he faces #2 Montoya (8-2 in their last 10 meetings). He also seems to now be free of a couple of players who have had success against him on tour (Sam Murray has 6 tour wins over Moscoso since 2018), which will clear the path for him into the later stages of events. But, I still don’t see him supplanting Kane when they meet up. Prediction for 2025: #2,

– #5 @Andree Parrilla : Another up and down season for Parrilla, who finishes 100 points behind #3 Manilla but had a better season on paper with 1 final and 2 semis reached. Still, its his sixth straight season in the top 5 on tour, but he seems mired in the 4-5 spot on tour, always coming up short against the top players on tour. Well, now one of those top players is out of the picture in DLR, so there’s room for the SLP product to move back up. He missed an event, then had an unlucky draw in Pleasanton (losing in the 16s to Lalo), else he may have easily finished 3rd this year.

Prognosis for 2025: Parrilla’s big challenge will be when running into Moscoso in the quarters in the 4/5 quarter, but once that gets cleared up Andree has owned the career h2h versus Manilla and should be favored to gradually pull ahead in the poitns race throughout 2025. Generally the only players he’s losing to right now are Moscoso & Kane. He always plays Montoya tough, if he can work his way up to force that as a regular matchup, which may help him finish high. I think though, he settles back into his regular 4/5 spot at season’s end: Prediction for 2025: #4.

#6: Andres Acuña finished around 100 points back of Parrilla for 6th, his career high finish and the sixth straight season he has improved on his season-ending ranking. He made 2 semis, 2 quarters, and had 2 round of 16 losses this year (once to Kane, once an 11-10 heart-breaker to Martell). He probably should have finished higher. Nonetheless; 2 semis are his career best, and he had a couple of really impressive results this year (a win over Montoya, plus a win over the red-hot Alonso). Acuna couldn’t stay away from Kane this year, losing to him four times in 6 events.

Prognosis for next year: If the only person you lose to is Kane, you’re going to do well on tour. Acuna is at his peak age (29) and can build on some momentum. I think he continues to get some solid wins and stays right in that 5-6 range next year. Prediction for 2025: #6

#7 Erick Trujillo finished around 100 points below Acuna and is the first player we’ve encountered in these rankings that i’d call the “new generation” of players. Every one of the following players is either 28 or 29 right now: Moscoso, Montoya, Parrilla, Manilla, Acuna, Mar, Natera, Carter. Of the regular touring players who get results, really only Trujillo and Portillo are at an age where they’re still improving as opposed to being at or near peak age 28-29. This season, Trujillo definitely had some consistency and made the quarters in 5 of 6 events (hence the #7 ranking). he had some solid wins; he beat Jake this year, has wins over Natera and Martell. He had some success at Mexican Nationals but lost to a relative unknown Acha in World Juniors.

Prognosis for next year: He should continue to make quarters, but at #7 and without the flip seeding of yester-year, he’ll continue to run into a #2 seed and lose at the quarter final stage unless he can break through with a big win and change the story. I’d like to see him with a win over Montoya or Moscoso before believing he can improve on a 7-8 range finish. he also is in jeopardy of getting passed by a couple of players who finished in the teens but who are better players. Prediction for 2025: #9.

#8 @Alan Natera showed real improvement in 2024 over past seasons, making the quarters in 4 of 6 events (versus just 2 of 9 events in 2023), but only saw his ranking rise one from the prior seasons.

Prognosis for 2025: #8/#9 can be tricky; you’re always faced with a similarly skilled opponent in the round of 16 only to face off against the top seed a round later with little hope of advancing. Natera solved these 8/9 matchups in 2025, but then would get waxed in the quarters by either Kane or Moscoso. It’s hard to break out of this spot, and for that reason I think he stays right in this general area again in 2025 save an injury above him. Prediction for 2025: #10

#9 @Jake Bredenbeck is at a career cross roads; he’s now hit age 33, which has proven to be a critical year for pro racquetball players historically. There’s dozens of examples of pro players who retired right in the 32-33 age range because they face the same problem Jake does: the tour may be passing him by. A year after he had a win and three finals, Jake failed to get even to the semis of any event this year and took four losses in the 16s or 32s (Trujillo, Flores, Alonso, and Mar). A couple of these were certainly unlucky matchups, and he can improve on his ranking for sure, but is this what he wants to keep doing?

Prognosis for 2025: He’s had some success against Natera, who he’ll run into in the 16s now, and I think he’ll be able to replace some 16s with some qtr losses. He’ll favor his chances if he’s playing Trujillo at the same junction. He can push Kane/Conrrado in a 1/8 quarter but will struggle to get to a semi going forward. At some point he may face the same question many before him have: is it worth it to tour and spend money flying around in order to get round of 16/quarter final money at best when you’re in your mid-30s and are starting to wear down physically and may be thinking about your future? I think he hangs around for one more season but time is running out. Prediction for 2025: #8.

#10T: Jaime Martell Neri and Thomas Carter . Amazingly Martell and Carter finished with identical points for the season, each making one QF and other wise losing in the 16s. I say this is amazing because players get fractional point credits for losing in three games versus two, making it really difficult to tie across an entire season. Martell achieves his first ever top 10 finish on tour after barely touring until 2017 and then not having a single IRT result for three seasons. He’s a solid player who can certainly get wins, and is dangerous if he gets hot . His quarterfinal this season was achieved with an 11-10 win over Acuna.

Meanwhile, Carter also achieves a career first top 10 and got his one quarter final this year with a solid win over Carrasco. He’s very consistent in his career: 33 round of 16 finishes across a decade of competing, with five total QFs spread across five different seasons.

Outlook for next year: I think Martell is better positioned to keep a hold of a top-10 ranking; Carter faced off against Natera in the last three events of the season in the 8/9 spot and lost each time; those have to turn into wins for Carter to move up. I’m sensing though that a couple of guys who played part time in 2024 will jump them both for the top 10 in 2025, something we’ll talk about in part 2 of this series.

Prediction for 2025: Martell #11, Carter #13.

——

That’s it for Part 1. Tune in tomorrow to talk about the 11-20 ranked players for the season.

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Racquetball 2024 Year in Review

Here’s a collection of the notable/seminal moments in the sport this year, primarily focusing on those events that impacted the pro game. As I could think of them, I threw in other events of note, though I’m sure one could argue I’m missing items.

– 1/14/24: @Maria Jose Vargas wins her third straight LPRT tournament in a row, taking a commanding lead in the season to date points rankings for the 2023-24 LPRT season.

– 1/28/24: On the IRT at the season’s first event, 3-time defending champ Daniel De La Rosa is soundly defeated by Kane Waselenchuk in the round of 16 as the #1 seed,

which immediately puts a huge dagger into DLR’s fleeting chances at retaining #1 on tour for 2024. He had already announced he will not be playing a full slate of 2024 events, but losing in the 16s makes it even that much tougher. As it turned out, this was the sole IRT event DLR played on the year, with his pro pickleball commitments turning into a full time job.

– 2/1/24: Conrrado Moscoso ascends officially to #1 on the IRT for the first time, a seminal moment for the sport. This is the first time a non-north American

has held the #1 spot on tour.

– 2/11/24: LPRT #4 and USA #1Erika Manilla is forced to retire the US National singles final due to what was thought to be a back injury at the time. Subsequent tests and MRIs show that Erika suffered a hip labrum tear. She goes in for surgery to correct the issue mid March. She doesn’t return for fully 10 months, costing her huge portions of both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons as well as multiple international tournaments representing Team USA.

– 3/1/24: During the Minnesota Pro/Am, Mark Gibbs of the IRT ownership group discloses publicly that the the IRT ownership group has opened discussions

related to attempting to resurrect the US Open. This information leaks on KRG, as someone publishes the zoom link that preliminary discussions were held on without the knowledge or permission of the people on the call. Eventual discussions with the USAR board go nowhere due to the planned proximity of the US Open to 3WallBall, and the project is dropped.

– 3/3/24: Kane tops Moscoso to take the IRT Minnesota Hall of Fame event, and in doing so wins his first Tier 1 event in nearly two years. His last win was March of 2022, and he clearly showed emotions on the court after finishing off his final’s win over new IRT #1 Moscoso. With the win, he becomes the oldest player to win a Tier 1

at 42yrs, 114 days, breaking a 30-year old record held by Ruben Gonzalez.

– 3/3/24: Despite losing in the semis of the weekend’s LPRT event, Vargas ascends to #1 on tour for the first time in her career. She now leads both the rolling 365 calendar and the season to date points rank and is the odds-on favorite to take the 2023-24 title.

– 3/3/24:Paola Longoria announces her candidacy for the Mexican Chamber of Deputies (the US Equivalent of the House of Representatives) from District 5/Nuevo Leon. Elections are in June. @Samantha Salas Solis, who has family connections to Mexican politics, also runs.

– 3/24/24: Erika Manilla is featured in a full-page story in the Denver Post.

– 3/30/24: Team USA wins its first Combined Team championship in several years at the 2024 Pan Am Racquetball Championships in Guatemala.

– 4/2/24: IRT #1 Bolivian Conrrado Moscoso is chosen to light

the flame at the semi-annual Bolivarian Youth Games.

– 4/28/24: Maria Jose Vargas wins her 5th event of the season at the Sweet Caroline grand slam, essentially wrapping up the 2023-24 title. It’s her first pro title, and

she dominated the tour this year. She topped Paola in the final 11-10, and Longoria’s husband posted ugly rants on social media in the aftermath, claiming biased

refereeing (one of the line judges was Argentine for the final) as the main reason that Paola lost and has been losing all season.

– 5/25/24: Kane Waselenchuk is upset in the first round (round of 32) at the 2024 SoCal Open by Jordy Alonso . It’s the earliest defeat of his career. He had one

round of 64 forfeit from mid 2023, but otherwise he had never been defeated in any qualifying round before the 16s, even during his tour debut. As it turned out, this blip on Kane’s comeback meant little, but it propelled Alonso to make a deep run at this event and others throughout the rest of the season.

– 5/29/24: Racquetball Warehouse announces in an email to its customers that it will be closing its doors, selling itself to RacquetWorld. This is a very long-running, well known name in the industry.

– 6/5/24: Neither Longoria nor Salas, both of whom were running for the Mexican chamber of Deputies, were directly elected in the National elections. They

can still be selected/appointed by the party.

– 6/9/24: Vargas officially wins her first ever pro title by entering the season’s final event in Chesapeake and advancing past the opening rounds. She had a large enough lead on Longoria to essentially have the title wrapped up after Greenville, so this was a formality to complete her dominant season. She becomes the third

different pro to win the last three LPRT seasons.

– 8/3/24: after missing basically the entire 2023-24 season, Valeria Centellas is back and committed for the new season.

– 8/31/24: IRF Worlds are completed in San Antonio; its the first time the US has hosted a PARC or Worlds in nearly 30 years. De La Rosa wins two titles (Singles and Mixed) for team USA to power them to a #2 overall team standing behind Mexico, but then USA wins the team knockout competition to give Daniela 3-gold weekend.

– 9/1/24: Word comes out that Longoria has been selected by her party (Movimiento Ciudadano, or Citizens’ Movement, abbreviated MC) to serve in the 66th Legislature

of the Mexican Congress. This has the likelihood of restricting her travel flexibility and could impact the 2024-25 title race.

– 9/25/24: the first ever World Team Racquetball event is competed on the Las Vegas 3Wall courts. The event features four teams of players competing in doubles for a price purse. Team Dovetail wins.

– 10/4/24: Cliff Swain and Jeff Collins announce preliminary plans to bring the US open to SW Missouri State University in June 2026. They apparently

do this and publish a video before talking to the USAR board. As i can attest, being on the board for the March 2024 discussions with the IRT group, there’s a lot of steps involved with this property before it can just be handed over. I’ll certainly be curious to see how this project evolves over the next 1.5 years.

– 10/10/24: IRT #1 Conrrado Moscoso withdraws from the Inland Empire Pro/Am with an arm injury. Two days later he has surgery to treat what is described

as “periostitis” in his right arm. Then, days later the IRT issues a press release that says that the injury was “more serious than expected” and that Moscoso is now out for the rest of 2024. Moscoso’s missing the remaining events almost certainly locks up the 2024 #1 spot for Kane Waselenchuk.

– >10/13/24: Kane wins the Inland Empire event over Parrilla in a final that was marred by cross-talk between the players that spilled over into social media in the days following. More importantly, Kane regains the #1 ranking on tour for the first time since the 2021 US Open and is now the clear favorite to win the year end title at the age of 43.

– 10/20/24: In a one week period, three former IRT touring pros were all inducted into local Hall of Fames. Mike Ceresia was inducted into the Ontario Sports hall of fame, Scott Oliver was inducted into the Stockton Athletic

Hall of Fame, and Andy Roberts was inducted into the Memphis Sports Hall of Fame. Congrats to all.

– 10/31/24: young up and coming Bolivian Micaela Meneses Cuellar announces her intentions to leave the sport due to a lack of financial support from the Bolivian ministry of Health and sports and a lack of recognition to the Bicentennial Dream program. This seems to be a common refrain from Bolivian athletes, more than a dozen of whom have switched away from their home country to compete internationally for other South American countries (usually Colombia or Argentina).

– 11/5/24: Erika Manilla does a FB live session giving updates on her playing status, hip rehab, etc. She’s going to play her first tournament back at the IRT Golden State Open to test out fitness, hip, recovery, etc.

– 11/18/24: Kane Waselenchuk wins the final event of the IRT 2024 season, the Golden State Open, and with it secures his 15th career pro title. He wins in dominant

fashion, never seriously challenged, and will end up winning the year end title by more than 800 points. It is an amazing accomplishment for the 43-yr old.

After the final, he gave a heart-felt, emotional, and classy speech thanking his sponsors the tournament hosts, and his life partner for all their support in his journey back to the top from injury.

– 12/6/24: Manilla makes her return to the tour, seeded 16th at the Xmas classic. She won her opener but fell to #1 Vargas 4,8 in the round of 16. The injury ends

up costing her 10 months of the tour and she’ll have her work cut out for her to get back to the top 10 by season’s end.

– 12/9/24: Longoria re-takes #1 on tour for the first time since Dec 2023 with a win at the Xmas Classic. She’s now halfway to another pro title after two seasons of losing out to her rivals Vargas and M ejia.

– 12/15/24: IRF’s World Juniors finishes in Guatemala, with players from Mexico and Bolivia winning 29 of the 30 junior titles. Team USA had just a handful of players even making event finals and finished a distant third in the team rankings.

– Dec 2024: sources noted that Head/Penn will not renew its ball contracts that remain with any organization (they already lost the IRT contract some time ago after putting in a non-competitive bid) and sources say that Head is leaving the racquetball R&D space altogether. This would remove one of the major racquet manufacturers from the industry.

– 12/31/24: as has been known for some time, USAR’s Mike Grisz steps down from his volunteer stewardship of the role of Executive Director. Grisz’s legacy as ED will be the saving of the sport financially in the wake of the 2022 US Open financial debacle, and his championing the return of Worlds to the US in 2024.

– Dec 2024: Sudsy’s Florida based Treasure Coast series finishes for the season, having held14 events this year. It’s the only such series in the country and proof that tournament racquetball can still be successful. Monchick, who has relocated to the Pacific Northwest for work, is planning to continue the series in his new home area.

– 12/20/24: Major News in the pro sport: the IRT has reorganized and installed Keith Minor as the new majority shareholder. Minor has brought in a new leadership team and shaken up the existing organizational structure. Former IRT owner/commissioner (he was the commissioner from 2001-2009) Dave Negrete returns as the President of the tour and returns as its new Commissioner. Former Commissioner Pablo Fajre drops to be the Deputy Commissioner but retains the title of Head of Media. Pro player Adam Manilla is installed as the VP and Secretary of the tour. Immediately, there’s action taken on the months-dormant IRT website, with four new events announced for the first quarter of 2024.

– 12/21/24: USAR announces the “Office of the Executive Director” as the replacement for Mike Grisz. A three-woman team of Karen Grisz, Cheryl Kirk, and Kristin Wattz will share the executive duties of the sport on a volunteer basis going forward.

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