Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Maria Jose Vargas
– Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alejandro Herrera.
TL/DR executive Summary: Vargas finishes off the most dominant season on tour since the end of Longoria’s dominant run in the 2019-20 season, making the final of every event and winning all but one this season. Also, 3 of the 4 semi-finalists were Argentines, including a career run from Valeria Centellas to the pro final.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=54043
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/d9335b
In the 16s, there were no real upsets, as all the top seeds cruised to victories against lower seeds and a few of the teenagers who made the trip.
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In the Quarters
– Vargas took out Munoz 4,10
– Mendez upset Herrera 14,9. I know this wasn’t an “upset” by seed, but historically Herrera has been the better player.
– In a monumental upset, #3 Gaby Martinez was upset by #6 Valeria Centellas in an 11-10 thriller. This is her career best win, and she makes the semis for just the second time in her career.
– Mejia cruised past Amaya 6,1.
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In the Semis
– Vargas downed her Argentine teammate Mendez without much trouble to get to the final for the 7th straight event.
– Centellas, one day after beating Gaby 11-10, beats Montse 11-10 to set a new “career best win” mark and to make her first pro final, ever.
In the all-Argentina finals, Centellas finally ran out of gas and Vargas blew her out 8,0 to take the crown.
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Points Implications of results
Vargas easily finishes #1, and by virtue of Longoria’s absence Mejia should take over #2 to finish the season. Centellas’ big run jumps her to #6 for the season, easily a career-high ranking. Munoz’ quarter final run gets her back into the top 10 for the end of the season, while Annie Sanchez’ absence dumps her out of the top 10 and she misses out on a first pro top-10 finish.
Here’s a link to my Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.
When the tour publishes its final rankings, I’ll correct this xls, capture the data and do year-end data capture and posting.
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Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/efecfc
Mejia & Herrera blasted Vargas & Centellas 3,2 to prevent a double title for Vargas on the weekend.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Atlanta’s Maurice Miller won the Men’s Open singles draw.
– Miller and Troy Warigon took the Men’s Open Doubles draw.
– Costa Rican’ teenager Larissa Faeth beat out three members of team Guatemala to take Women’s Open singles
– Christopher Ruano / Suresh Vemulapalli beat two former contemporaries of mine, when I used to actually play racquetball at something of a high level, topping Jeff Wilson and Rich Benderoth for the Combined 75+ doubles title.
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Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
This coming weekend is the final IRT event of the season, 2026 Gateway City Pro/Am in St. Louis. I’ll be doing podcasting work with @Brian Pineda this week, preview videos for the streaming, etc. Then the last event of the “season” will be US Junior Nationals later this month.
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