Month: January 2025

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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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

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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.

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