Month: August 2023

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Men’s IRT Singles: Conrrado Moscoso

– Women’s LPRT Singles: @Paola Longoria

– Mixed Pro Doubles: Moscoso & Longoria

A nice bounce-back weekend for long-time #1 Longoria, who along with the current IRT #1 Moscoso both earned doubles on the weekend.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=39922

——————

Lets review the notable matches in the Men’s Pro Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/i4u

—————-

In the Qualifiers:

– All the hype about former #1 Kane Waselenchuk returning to the court turned out to be worthless, as he withdrew before even playing his first qualifier against Texan DJ Mendoza . As he did after withdrawing from the 2021 US Open, he went on Sudsy Monchik ‘s podcast and went on a 25 minute diatribe about the IRT without really giving a reason why he withdrew. For neutrals who really just want to see him play, to see if he’s still “got it” it was definitely a let-down, as i’m sure it was for those on site.

– @Elias Nieto had two solid wins to get into the round of 32, topping Canada/Chile’s @Pedro Castro and then USA’s @Sam Bredenbeck .

– Hometown favorite @Jacob Kingsford had a nice win over @Rodrigo Mendoza to get into the main draw.

– @Erick Cuevas Fernandez got a nice win over east coaster @Dylan Pruitt to move on.

—————-

In the 32s:

– #21 Diego García topped #12 Thomas Carter in game one 15-5, then got an injury forfeit to move into the 16s as a 20+ seed.

– Career pro win for Neito Elias , taking out #13 Alan Natera in a breaker. Nieto is really coming into his own; he got a win over Murray at PARC earlier this year and now reverses the result with Natera since their last meeting.

– #19 Erick Trujillo made fast work of #14 Jaime Martell 5,9, a solid win for Trujillo, who had had some sputtering results lately.

– #7 Alejandro Landa no shows, giving @juan Francisco Cueva a walk-over into the 16s. We now know that the IRT preemptively put a slew of players into the draw, then when it was released well ahead of the event those who had no intentions of coming were given forfeits. I think we all appreciate the attempt to get the draws out early to build buzz (especially since the amateur entries were capped), but there’s a reason draws for pro events are not released until the day before; players drop out last minute all the time. Int’l players can’t get visas, or flights get cancelled, or players get injuries and withdraw. The LPRT changed its draws last minute, since that’s what the players want, and it made our prediction piece useless … but the IRT stuck with its release and ended up giving multiple walk-overs in the event.

– #23 Carlos Keller Vargas came from a game down to topple #10 @Andres Acuña. A tough break for Acuna, to draw Keller here.

—————-

In the 16s

– #1 @Conrrado Moscoso made fast work of former #1 Rocky Carson 4,5.

– #8 Adam Manilla got a very solid win over #9 Samuel Murray 7,7. These kinds of 8/9 wins are crucial for players at the edge of the top 10 to stay there.

– Garcia with a very good win over Eduardo Portillo, coming from behind after dropping game one. Garcia has now beaten Lalo twice this year, to go along wins over Mar and Carson last October, a U21 junior worlds win last December, and a semi-finals showing at PARC in April where he lost 21-19 in the 5th game to Keller. Is Garcia legitimately a top 5 player in the world?

– Nieto extended #4 @Rodrigo Montoya to a third game before falling, really making a statement this weekend.

– #6 @Andree Parrilla got a solid win over @Javier Mar, a regular troublespot, to advance to the quarters.

– Little known Diego Gastelum really hung with #2 @Jake Bredenbeck , losing game one 15-14 before getting ran off the court in game two.

—————-

In the Quarters, the top four seeds advanced as expected.

– Moscoso trounced Manilla 11,3

– Montoya lost game one to Garcia before advancing.

– @Daniel De La Rosa finally got pressed, losing game one to Andree 8 before moving on.

– Bredenbeck ground out a very close 13,12 win over the always-tough Keller.

—————

In the Semis

– Moscoso took care of business 11,6 over Montoya; the last few times these guys played its been super close, a bunch of 15-14 games. Not today: Conrrado really played Rodrigo off the court.

– In a rematch of the US nationals final, DLR worked through some sort of ankle or calf injury to top Jake and move into the final. It was a pretty impressive performance from someone who was clearly hurt.

In the final, DLR blasted Moscoso 15-3 in game one, then seemed to basically give up in game two to preserve his game cycles for a tiebreaker. In the breaker, DLR went for glory shots again and again as it was clear his movement was hampered, and towards the end of the breaker Moscoso got to just a few more shots than DLR anticipated, leading to an 11-7 loss and the title for Conrrado.

—————-

Points Implications of results

This event didn’t expire anything from 2022, so there won’t be a single change until you get to about the #18-20 range. The next event will feature the same top 4 seeds in the same order. I’m not sure if the IRT flips seeds 5-8 anymore (I don’t believe so). We’re not going to see appreciable movement in the rankings until about the middle of October, by which time DLR should be in a pretty good position. The next three events to expire are:

– 2022’s Capital Classic (DLR: did not play)

– 2022’s US Open (DLR lost in 16s)

– 2022’s Golden State Open (DLR: did not play)

So, DLR is defending just 135 points from these next three events. By way of comparison, Moscoso will be defending 1150 points and Jake will be defending 675 points from those same three events. If DLR shows up and makes the semis or finals of the next handful of events, he’ll rocket back to #1 and will be hard to catch.

—————-

LPRT Singles Review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/j09

A last minute pair of withdrawals of mid-20s international players resulted in a shifting of the draw last minute, which drastically changed a couple of key first round matchups that really could have re-shaped the way this draw went. As discussed by LPRT Deputy commissioner Timothy Baghurst on social media, this is what they players want; they want withdrawals that result in no-show walkovers into the money rounds eliminated, no matter what the impact on the draws.

Lets review the notable matches resultant of the re-shaped draw:

In the 32s:

– Rarely seen @Nancy Enrique took a solid TB win over #17 Sheryl Lotts.

– #13 Criss Amaya got a solid win over #20 @Lexi York .

– #11 @Gaby Martínez got a bummer of a walk-over win against Costa Rican junior Maricruz Ortiz . I would have liked to see this one. Not knowing the answer, it seems like Ortiz got hurt in Mixed, because she forfeited out of both Pros and Open.

– #6 @maMaria Jose Vargas made fast work of her practice partner and dark-horse candidate Veronica Sotomayor 3,2 to extinguish any deep runs by 20+ seeds.

In the 16s:

– #9 Natalia Mendez reversed the course of her last couple of matchups with #8 Carla Munoz , winning a tight one 9,14 to move on.

– #5 Brenda Laime Jalil made fast work of #12 Kelani Lawrence 10,5 to move on.

– Gaby shocked this observer and cruised past Vargas 9,12 to move on. Vargas has been on such a roll lately, i’m surprised she got upset early despite her seed. I feel like there’s a set of 5 women in a class of their selves in the ladies game right now (Mejia, Longoria, Herrera, Gaby, Vargas), and when two of them meet in the 16s, its always a high-stakes match.

– #10 @Samantha Salas Solis took out Jessica Parrilla in a slight upset in the 7-10 matchup.

Quarters:

– #1 Montse Mejia lost the first game against Mendez before buckling down and cruising to a win.

– Laime took out #4 @EErika Manila 7,10 to move into the semis.

– #3 Alexandra Herrera got back on top, defeating Gaby 13,7 to return to the semis. What a quartile; The #3 quartile in this event had Herrera, Vargas, Gaby, Sotomayor, and Ortiz. Phew.

– #2 Paola Longoria made fast work of Salas to move on. In three matches to this point in the tournament, Longoria had given up just 10 combined points in 6 games … a sign of things to come?

Semis:

– Mejia topped Laime by the more dominant score line than I was expecting 6,12.

– Longoria ground out a tough win over Herrera 10,14.

Finals: we got the match we wanted: 1 v 2. Last year’s champ versus this year’s champ. And we got a back and forth affair, Longoria grinding out a game one win 15-13 before Mejia caught fire in game two and blasted Paola 15-3. In the tiebreaker, Longoria found a weakness: a cut lob serve to Mejia’s forehand that she just couldn’t help but attack … and with a lively ball and concrete and altitude, cross court overheads come off the back wall for setups over and over, and before Mejia could alter her strategy Longoria ran away with the tiebreaker 11-5 for the title.

—————-

Points Impact of the event.

If you see the rankings today … 8/14, they look weird, because the Paola Longoria Experience from 8/14/22 is still in there. However, tomorrow on 8/15/23, the impact of those points expiration will be more clear.

The top 3 will not change despite Paola’s win. Laime will switch places with Manilla and move to #4. Vargas and Munuz will move up one spot each, to #6 and #7 respectively as Barrios drops down by virtue of missing the Denver event and its grand slam points. Gaby moves into the top 10, while Leoni drops out of it.

—————-

Mixed Pro Doubles recap

The 28-team Mixed Pro doubles draw gave us some crazy results in the early rounds, Here’s a couple of the crazy upsets by seed from the 32s and 16s:

– #1 seeds Montoya & Salas, who won this event in 2021, were shocked by #16 Gaby & Edwin Galicia in a tie-breaker.

– #24 Waselenchuk & Michelle Key advanced past two very good doubles players in @Kadim Carrasco and Laime in the opener 10,10. Carrasco just couldn’t put balls away in the altitude, but Kane could and that made the difference.

– #13 Martell & Amaya went 11-10 against Adriana Riveros and Diego Garcia to move on.

– #19 Ecuadorians Jose Daniel Ugalde and Sotomayor took out Costa Ricans #14 Acuna & Ortiz.

– #10 Lawrence & Carter took out Canada’s top pairing of Samuel Murray and Frederique Lambert in two, not an upset by seed by definitely by reputation.

– The run of Kane/Key was ended by the husband-wife team of Natera/Munoz in controversial fashion. After destroying the #24 seeds 15-2 in the first, Kane and Key took game two and forced a breaker. A back and forth tie-breaker was ended on a no-call at match point when Natera hit a jam serve at Kane, who held up but was not given a hinder. An unsatisfying end to the match, but one which was vindicated as Natera/Munoz raced to the final together.

7 of the top 8 seeds moved on to the quarters. #8 Natera/Munoz crushed #16 Gaby/Galicia, and then topped Mar/Mejia in the semis with relative ease 8,9 to gain the final together. From the bottom half, Moscoso and Longoria earned their finals appearance, topping the veteran Beltran/Mendez team, then advancing past the troublesome DLR/Scott team, before crushing Portillo/Herrera to get to the final.

In the final, Natera’s excellent play finally met its match in Moscoso, and the dominant pair cruised to the pro title.

—————-

Open Singles and Doubles, other notable draws

There was no “Pro” Gender Doubles in Denver, with TD Hiser opting to put money into the Pro Mixed instead, but the doubles draws were still solid.

– In Men’s Open Doubles, Beltran/Carson turned back the clock and took the title over the hard-hitting pair of @Sam Bredenbeck and Sam Murray 11-9.

– In Women’s Open Doubles, Salas teamed with Mendez to take out the all_USA doubles pair of Lawrence & Scott

– In Men’s Open singles, Trujillo topped Gastelum in an all Mexico U21 final.

– In Women’s Open Singles: @Martina Katz took the final against @Shane Diaz.

—————–

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from both pro tour’s teams. That means Favio Soto , Samuel Schulze ,Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew, plus Timothy Baghurst , Sandy Rios , Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh , plus all the guest commentators.

Thanks to the Tourney Director Jim Hiser for putting on this event. It was 2 years in the making, and I hope you do it again.

Thanks to title sponsor Keith Minor and Kwm Gutterman ; without your continued support we wouldn’t have a pro 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.

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Labor Day weekend thanks to Wayne Antone we have the 2023 Tracktown Open in Eugene Oregon, the first time the pro tours have ever been there.

——————-

tags

NOTE: just after publishing this, the LPRT changed the pro draw, changing someof the matchups. Unfortunately the Ladies pro section of this now is out of date.

Hello Racquetball Fans! Welcome to 2023 World Singles and Doubles, being held in and around Highland Ranch, Colorado. It will be the biggest indoor tournament of the year, an event two years in the making which boasts a huge prize purse and one of the most rare events in the sport: Pro Mixed Doubles. This event is the first event of the new LPRT 2023-24 season, and it marks the beginning of the second half of the IRT’s 2023 season, and holds intrigue across the board for both tours.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=39922

Both pro tours have healthy attendance. There’s 56 men and 35 women in Denver, numbers not approached on either side since the last US Open. Most of the top 20 on both sides is present, and the Men’s side features the triumphant return to the court of 14-time #1 Kane Waselenchuk after a 10 month absence due to an injury sustained last September.

The big question mark, of course, is Kane’s fitness and match prep. He played in Outdoor Nationals a few weeks ago, but outdoor doubles is a vastly different experience than indoor pro singles. He’s now nearing 42 years of age, coming off a full-blown Achilles heel injury, and nobody (besides him) really knows how he’ll be prepared for a pro singles event. Especially one at altitude. It isn’t as if he forgot how to play the sport, and if he makes a deep run in Denver I’ll simultaneously be surprised and not surprised. I honestly don’t know what to predict; an early exit or a title, or something in-between. I do know this: Kane generally has played with a chip on his shoulder after long absences, looking to make a statement, so opponents beware.

We’re previewing the IRT, LPRT, and Mixed Pro draws here. There are also “Open” Doubles on both sides with strong draws, but which won’t “count” as pro events since they’re not full pro purses, as well as the regular Open singles draws for the non-top 10 players.

——————————

IRT Men’s Singles preview

There’s two rounds of qualifiers into the main draw of 32; the top 16 players got byes into the 32s, and everyone else had to play at least one qualifier.

—

Qualifiers that look interesting:

– Nick Riffel vs @Juan Jose Salvatierra could be a tough match, assuming former touring pro Riffel gets past his round of 128 match.

– Cole Sendry vs @Edwin Galicia is a nice test for the USA U18 up and coming player.

– Erick Trujillo should have the advantage over Bolivian doubles specialist Roland Keller , but this is no cakewalk for either player.

– Former IRT top 10 player @Carlos Keller Vargas projects to face former Intercollegiates champ @Erik Garcia for a spot in the main draw.

– Maryland’s own @Dylan Pruitt , if he can get past Canadian national team member @Naman Gaur , projects into @Erick Cuevas Fernandez in a match that could go either way.

—

Round of 32 matches to watch for:

– #9 @Adam Manilla vs Waselenchuk; Manilla is the unlucky top 10 player who gets Kane in the first round. These two played in the tournament where Kane got injured last fall, with Manilla losing 11,7. Since then, Adam has played well and is on home courts. But I’ll pick Kane to advance here.

– #12 Thomas Carter projects to get qualifier @Diego García in the round of 32, another non-full time playing pro who can do some damage. These two played at PARC in April in Guatemala and Garcia came out on top, one of several impressive wins for the young Bolivian-turned-Argentine in that event. I’ll go with Garcia with the upset here.

– #13 Alan Natera versus #20 Sam Bredenbeck could be tight; how far has Sam’s singles game come in the past few months? Natera is climbing up the ranks quietly, and will be favored to advance.

– #14 Jaime Martell projects to play countryman Trujillo, if Erick can advance past Roland. I think Martell can handle him, but this is potentially a tight match.

– #10 newlywed Andres Acuña is the unlucky player to get the last of the big names coming out of qualifying; Keller. These two also played in Guatemala at PARC, a 4-game win for Keller, and I think Carlos will upset the Costa Rican again here.

—

Projecting the 16s; here’s some possible great matches:

– #8 Samuel Murray plays the winner of Manilla/Waselenchuk. If Kane gets by Adam, he runs into fellow Canadian Murray, who he has utterly dominated during their careers. Kane won their last meeting in NY in 2022 1,1. A bad potential matchup for Sam, and I’ll favor Kane to continue his mental and physical dominance here.

– If Garcia gets by Carter, he runs into #5 @Eduardo Portillo , another player he beat at PARC. Look for Garcia to make a deep run in Denver.

– #6 Andree Parrilla projects to face always-the-dark horse #11 @Javier Mar . Mar owns the career h2h 5-3 and has won the last two meetings, and I always like Mar to get the upset win.

– The winner of Keller/Acuna he plays into #7 @Alejandro Landa , and both opponents offer intrigue here. Landa-Acuna bad blood history is well documented, while Keller-Landa have met just three times in 10 years. The question for Landa is always health; he’s been bedeviled by injuries for a while. Upset watch here.

—

Quarters prediction:

– #1 Conrrado Moscoso over Waselenchuk. Here’s where I think the Kane train derails in Denver. Moscoso is #1, he’s battle tested, he’s used to playing at altitude, and he’s game ready. If Kane wins this … he wins the event and gives us all pause as to the current state of the game.

– #4 @Rodrigo Montoya over Garcia: the upset-laden run ends at the hands of the top Mexican.

– #3 Daniel De La Rosa over Mar. We havn’t mentioned DLR yet; he has a pretty straightforward draw to the quarters, then projects to meet one of two top Mexican players (Mar or Parrilla) that he knows well and should move on.

– #2 @Jake Bredenbeck over Keller (or Acuna, or Landa). We also havn’t mentioned Jake yet; his two openers look very straightforward, and he’ll get his first test here. whoever moves on from the #7/#10 section should be the underdog against Jake.

Semis and Final:

– Moscoso over Montoya: they always play tight, but Moscoso has figured out early-career troubles playing Rodrigo and now has won 6 of their last 8 meetings (and one of those losses was his head-banging forfeit in Florida in 2022).

– DLR over Jake: unpopular opinion, since Jake won their last meeting … but DLR is still 13-3 lifetime over Jake. That being said, Jake’s 2023 has been spectacular, and his ascension to #2 is well earned. But DLR should be on a mission here; he is behind on points, and needs to start winning events to give himself a shot at a third pro title at year’s end. I think he starts here.

Final: A rematch of the 2021 World Singles & Doubles final; Moscoso vs DLR. In 2021, DLR won 7,13 for the title, but things are a bit different since then. They’ve only met twice since, in two successive finals earlier this year. DLR topped Conrrado in Austin in January, then the result flipped at the Lewis Drug two weeks later. Who has the advantage with fast concrete courts and altitude negating the effects of the slower ball? I sense Moscoso wins here.

———————————-

Ladies Singles Preview

NOTE: just after publishing this, the LPRT changed the pro draw, changing someof the matchups. Unfortunately the Ladies pro section of this now is out of date.

Just as Kane is returning to the men’s tour after a long absence, so does the Ladies tour have a former top player returning after some time away. Veronica Sotomayor is in the draw for the first time since Feb 2022 and will be looking to shake things up. She’s the player everyone wants to avoid in the draw.

Round of 32 matches of intrigue:

– @Sheryl Lotts vs Nancy Enriquez in the 16/17 matchup should be solid. Former top 10 player Nancy gets surprise wins often, and Lotts returns to the tour after months away, but with a ton of playing under her belt in her new Florida digs.

– Lexi York takes on Cris Amaya in a tough opener for both. York gets a ton of playing time with the Bredenbeck brothers and could surprise the tour regular Amaya.

– #4 Erika Manila vs Sotomayor: a semis-quality matchup in the round of 32 isn’t fair to either player, but Sotomayor had to play someone to start. Manilla’s last match on tour was a 3,7 loss in the round of 16 in the season’s final event, one which didn’t affect her season ending ranking but which had to leave a bad taste. Meanwhile, Vero basically trains all week with the likes of Ortiz, Vargas, Lotts, and Sudsy Monchik and is game ready. Upset watch here; I would not be surprised if Sotomayor handles Manilla’s power and sends her packing early.

– #11 Gaby Martinez faces Maricruz Ortiz in a match she should win, but which gives Ortiz another chance to show how far she’s progressed.

– Two top US juniors in @Naomi ros and @Shane Diaz take on top 10 pros in Natalia Mendez and Carla Munoz respectively, but I don’t expect them to get upsets on tour just yet.

—-

Round of 16 matches to watch for

– In the 8/9, Mendez and Munoz are set to battle. Mendez is trending down while Carla is trending up, and I favor the Chilean here.

– Brenda Laime takes on east-coast rival @Kelani Lawrence in a new budding rivalry. They’ve played 4 times in 10 months, splitting them 2 and 2. Laime has gotten wins at the majors, and has very quietly ascended to her current #5 ranking, and could continue making noise on tour. Laime to advance.

– #6 Maria Jose Vargas takes on #11 Gaby in a semis-quality meeting between two of the top four ladies in the world right now. Vargas has just been on fire since her return to the tour, and I favor her for another deep run.

– 7/10 is Jessica Parrilla vs Samantha Salas Solis , who have played each other for years. Salas holds the upper hand though, and should move on here.

—

Quarters prediction:

– #1 @Montse Mejia over Munoz. This is no walkover; Carla played Montse tough in Virginia at this juncture, the match going 12,12, and has some career wins. But Montse is #1 now for a reason, and moves on.

– #5 Laime over Sotomayor: I think Vero’s run ends at the hands of the classical power/pinch game of Laime.

– #6 Vargas over #3 Alexandra Herrera ; amazing how tides shift; Herrera was 0-for-career against Vargas until early 2022, when she put it all together and couldn’t lose to anyone. But now, Herrera is slipping, with several round of 16 losses and is in jeopardy of getting pushed out of the top 3 for the first time in years.

– #2 Paola Longoria over Salas: Longoria has looked vulnerable of course, but not against her long-time doubles partner, over whom she holds a commanding h2h career lead (68-3). She’ll move on, then the real tournament starts.

Semis and Finals picks:

– #1 Mejia over #5 Laime. It wouldn’t shock me if Laime gets a win here, but I expect Mejia to hold serve and return to the finals. These two play similarly, but Mejia’s got a better overall pinch/pass game plus can handle Laime’s power.

– #6 Vargas over #2 Longoria. I think Vargas has the confidence to win, and will build on the last few meetings against her long-time antagonist.

Finals: Mejia over Vargas. I think Montse is relishing the chance to get a title as #1 for the first time.

———————————

Mixed Pro Doubles Preview.

No fewer than 28 mixed pro doubles teams are set to compete, and racquetball fans are looking forward to this rarity. The defending champions from the 2021 event are back together and are the #1 seeds: Salas & Montoya. The similarities to prior Mixed Pro events pretty much ends there, as teams are jumbled and seedings done using a combination of USAR ranking points and past experiences.

Here’s the opening round matches I’m liking:

– #16 Sam Bredenbeck & Lexi York vs #17 Galicia and Gaby: an interesting contrast in styles here; Gaby should win the right sided battle with Lexi, but Sam can overpower Galicia. Look for this one to be close.

– #24 Kane & Michelle Key versus #9 @Kadim Carrasco and Laime: Carrasco and Laime are both solid doubles players, but so is Key as the reigning US National doubles champ. Kane is Kane, and in doubles can be pretty brutal to line up against on the backhand as a right-handed player. Don’t let #24 fool you (Kane has literally never played mixed before, knocking down their seeding): this is a tourney favorite.

– #14 Acuna/Ortiz versus #19 Sotomayor & @Jose Daniel Ugalde . Ugalde has some solid doubles experience (he made the finals of 2022 PARC men’s doubles) and can hang with Acuna. Sotomayor should win the right-side battle with the younger Ortiz. That kind of split usually means close tiebreaker.

– #23 Samuel Murray & @Frederique Lambert versus #10 Carter & Lawrence: a tough matchup for both teams, as the under-seeded Canadians feed into the all-USA Carter/Lawrence team. The big question here is how game-ready is Lambert right now? She’s now down to seemingly only playing a couple times a year during her medical residency. The former #2 LPRT player still is tough to beat, so expect a tiebreaker here.

—-

Round of 16 matches I like:

– #24 Kane/Key over #8 Natera/Munoz: I like the Kane & Key matchup over the husband-wife team of Natera and Munoz, even though Munoz is every bit as good a doubles player as Key.

– #12 Garcia/Vargas over #5 Manilla/Manilla. This will be an unpopular opinion, but I think the matchup for the reigning US Mixed doubles titlists and home-town favorites here is a tough one. Garcia is every bit as good as Adam on one side, and Vargas is better than Erika on the other. Power matches power here, so the match will come down to shot making and mental fortitude.

– #3 Portillo/Herrera over #19 Ugalde/Sotomayor. The inclusion of the lefty Herrera, who will match up against Ugalde, counter balances Portillo blasting away against Sotomayor on both players’ forehand. Herrera is tough to beat in doubles, as is Lalo, and they have the edge.

– #7 DLR/Scott over Murray/Lambert. DLR and Scott are probably under-seeded here given their combined exploits on the court. DLR is inarguably the best doubles player in the world indoor or out, and will take over this match. Murray’s no slouch though, so it’ll come down again to how match-ready Lambert is.

—-

Quarters Prediction:

– #1 Montoya/Salas over Waselenchuk/Key. A great quarter final that I look forward to watching. Salas is probably the 2nd best right-sided ladies doubles player out there (behind Mejia), and she’ll trump Key in that battle. Montoya has just as much power as Kane on the left side, so this match should be close.

– #4 Mar/Mejia over #12 Garcia/Vargas. This is a great match, but I can’t get over two of the best individual doubles players in Mar/Mejia getting beat here.

– #3 Portillo/Herrera over the #6 Parrilla brother/sister combo: I think this all Mexican battle goes according to seeds.

– #2 Moscoso/Longoria over #7 DLR/Scott. Longoria makes the difference here, winning the right-sided battle with Scott as DLR does all he can to counter the shot-making of Conrrado

—

Semis and Finals:

– #4 Mar/Mejia over #1 Montoya/Salas. Just a hunch, but the two doubles partners Mar & Montoya cancel themselves out, leaving the newly crowned #1 player to take over against her veteran Mexican rival.

– #2 Moscoso/Longoria over Portillo/Herrera; Longoria is just too tough to lose at this juncture, as is Moscoso.

Final: Moscoso/Longoria over Mar/Mejia. I think Paola and Montse cancel themselves out, but Moscoso has the edge over Mar and that makes the difference.

———————————

Look for Streaming in the regular places for both pro tours. Follow IRT and LPRT on Facebook and sign up for live notifications.

Thanks to the Tourney Director Jim Hiser for putting this event on! Also for attendees there’s a great History of Racquetball/Museum exhibit done with the help of Jim Easterling and @Randy Stafford’s efforts.

Thanks to the main sponsors Keith Minor and Kwm Gutterman . 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.

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

International Racquetball Tour

LPRT