Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Paola Longoria
– Doubles: Montse Mejia and Alexandra Herrrera
Longoria pulls a rabbit out of her hat to win the singles final, and in doing so wins her 115th career Tier1 title. Mejia and Herrera take advantage of a Longoria-less doubles draw to cruise to another title.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=47428
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/9b76dc
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In the 32s:
– Bolivian Junior national champion Camila Rivero provided the biggest upset of the first round, topping #9 Carla Muñoz in three close games. Rivero has dominated World Juniors the last two years, winning both 18U and 21U in 2023 and then following it up with another win in Guatemala last December. She’s also now representing the country in Adults, though she either missed or didn’t place in the Feb 2025 qualifier in Auroro.
– Hollie Scott cruised past Lexi York in an upset by seed
– Annie Sanchez got the best win of her career with a toppling of long-time tour veteran Jessica Parrilla in three.
– Canadian #2 Juliette Parent pressed Amaya to three games but fell.
– Lastly, another great win for @Sheryl Lotts, downing Valeria Centellas 11,11.
In the 16s:
– Longoria had to face the tricky Barrios to move on, and was stretched 13,11. Not the round of 16 she wanted, but she got the job done.
– Rivero couldn’t follow up her big win and got crushed by fellow Bolivian (at least by birth) @Natalia Mendez 4,7
– Sanchez continued playing well and pushed #6 Lawrence to 14,12 before falling. Is Annie taking a step forward professionally?
– Lotts took a game off of #2 Vargas before falling, testament to how well she’s been playing lately.
Lots of great results out of unexpected places this event. Great to see the mid-teen players who have been putting in the work get results.
In the Quarters:
– Longoria cruised past Natalia 1,10
– Herrera got a great win over Gaby 11-6 in the breaker to give her some solid confidence heading into the rest of the season. After getting wins a few seasons ago she’s been passed by Vargas in terms of player interest, but she’s still out there.
– Mejia cruised past Lawrence 5,4
– Vargas held firm against Laime, winning two close ones 14,13.
In the semis:
– Longoria blitzed Herrera 9,0 to make a statement.
– Mejia wasn’t terribly troubled by Vargas, winning 8,9
In the final, we got a rematch of the last event in Arizona, which was a close Longoria win. Mejia had other ideas this weekend, fighting back after a first game 15-12 loss to win 15-8 and took firm control of the tiebreaker. She was up 10-5, missed a sitter, then…. the mental game kicked in. Longoria got the serve back, ground out points after points … suddenly it was an 11-10 win. A complete collapse from Mejia here to give Longoria the title.
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Points Implications of results
The big movement in the rankings should be Gaby taking over #4 on tour. Alexandra, despite beating her h2h here, will fall below her and continue to play her in the quarters. Mendez’ great run of form pushes her back up to #7.
A bit further down: Riquelme up to #14, Lotts up to #16, Centellas up to #19.
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 the tour does a couple days after each event. Sometimes I have to go back and adjust points b/c a Tier 1 turns out to be a Tier1+ or a “mini grand slam” based on points. But, it goes back years if you’re interested.
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Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/470ca2
Eventual winners Mejia & Herrera had their toughest match in their opener, playing Team Guatemala and winning 14,13. From there, smooth sailing, including a 12,5 win in the final over team Argentina.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Ros defeated Sanchez in an all-USA Jr national team final.
– The Kelley brothers ended up playing for the Men’s Open final; JKelley d SKelley.
– Sam Kelley made it a double with a win in Open Doubles with Flores
– Jolene_Sullivan_/_Tony_Prater took the Mixed Open title
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from the regular LPRT broadcasters
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Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
The IRT is right back in action with all the traveling internationals in what will be the last pro event at the Glass Door facility. Preview coming on Thursday.
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LPR T