Welcome to the penultimate LPRT event of the season, the 2025 Northern Virginia Invitational, being held at the Worldgate club in Herndon, VA. Worldgate is right down the road from Dulles Airport in the DC suburbs and was a flagship health club in the DC area for years, with a large indoor racquet sports presence (the club also has or had indoor tennis and had hosted Squash pro tournaments in the past).
It was bought by a large chain in the DC area called Sport & Health, whose owners acquired most of the major racquetball playing clubs in the 1990s and early 2000s and then systematically destroyed the racquetball culture of the area by removing dozens of courts or outright closing racquetball-centric clubs (such as the one where I was the club pro at for a decade). Now they’ve rebranded as a new club name and sold off some assets like Worldgate, who regained their independence and continue on with a handful of courts, some of the few remaining in the DC area.
The LPRT hasn’t been in Northern Virginia for nearly a decade, having last held an event in Arlington in Dec 2015 (the historic Crystal Gateway club, which was gutted to make way for an indoor rock climbing gym). The last time they were in Herndon was in May 2015, which is crazy to think of since long-time LPRT commissioner @TJTj Baumbaugh not only lives down the road from Worldgate but who remains employed by the Sport & Health chain as a master Personal Trainer. You can’t make club executives support the sport, as it turns out, even when you demonstrate programming is healthy and active.
R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48794
We’re getting down to the tail end of the season. The Ladies haven’t been in action for more than 3 months; last event was in March in Boston. We’ve been waiting since that time to see how the rest of the season would shake out; now we seem to have our answer. We have this tier 1 and then the final event of the season, the Sweet Caroline event that’s being played in Charlotte this year as a regular Tier 1 event as well (not its typical Grand Slam points). That generally means 240 points to the winner as the most points that a player may gain per event.
Heading into this event, #1 Longoria holds a bit more than a 400 point season to date advantage over Vargas at #2, so while she hasn’t sewed up the year end title just yet, the odds are she can put herself out of reach with a sufficiently deep enough run this weekend. Vargas or Mejia would have to make the finals here and in the last event of the season, win one of them, and have Longoria forfeit out of both events to have any shot at the title.
That being said, lets preview the draw. There’s 20 ladies here but the entire top 10 is present and a big chunk of the 11-20. There’s basically zero rookies or first timers here.
In the 32s:
– Sanchez- MRR is a nice test for Annie to see how she’s progressing.
– Acosta-Synhort as well.
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round of 16:
– How far has Sanchez come as a player? She’s gotten some impressive wins lately; now she gets a test against the #1 Longoria
– Herrera-York could be interesting: Lexi continues to improve
– Parrilla-Laime may be the best match of the round
– Mendez-Salas in the 7/10 matchup will be a battle of two players who have seen each other for years.
– Vargas may have to play new National team doubles partner Centellas in the 16s.
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Projected Qtrs:
– Longoria-Lawrence; Kelani continues to run into Paola, and continues to edge closer.
– Martinez-Herrera: two former tier1 winners clash in the quarters. Gaby might be ranked #2 on tour had she made the season opening Grand Slam.
– Mejia-Laime; two bashers bring their power game in a drive serving feast.
– Vargas-Mendez: all the Argentines in one quarter.
Semis:
– Longoria over Gaby
– Mejia over Vargas
Finals; Longoria sews up the title with a win over Mejia.
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Doubles review
The doubles seeding is a little interesting: thanks to some missed events this year long-time #1 Longoria & Salas are now the #4 seeds. Laime & Mendez together are #2 despite very little time together, and Vargas’ new Argentine partner Centellas is the #3 seed. Mejia & Herrera remain #1 but will now have to face their long-time rivals in the semis, not the final. I still see Mejia & Herrera winning.
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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!
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