Costa Rican junior phenom takes the Pro/Am Doubles and gets a win in the main draw. Photo via RG Deportes
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Maria Jose Vargas
– Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alexandra Herrera
– Pro/Am Doubles: Natalia Mendez & Larissa Faeth
TL/DR Executive Summary: Vargas wins again, in dominant fashion, never truly challenged in this event. She’s now won 5 of the last 6 LPRT events and is starting to truly take over on tour. See https://rball.pro/499ce2 for a list of all finals to see how dominant Vargas has been as of late.
Meanwhile, the Mejia/Herrera doubles team won their third straight doubles title, and should be near returning to the top. See https://rball.pro/4d751c for all LPRT doubles finals.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=47436
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/4d751c
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In the 32s
– Acosta played her second event of the season, her 28th on tour.
– Recently elected USAR hall of famer @rhonda rajsich played, beating NorCal’s Erica Williams in the first round before being relegated to referee duty in the 16s.
– Costa Rican’ junior phenom Larissa Faeth got a solid win over MRR before falling to Herrera. Faeth is the 2-time defending 14U junior world Champion and has also been representing CR in Adult events, and per insiders seems to really have what it takes to make a splash on tour, and soon.
– We got a rare appearance from Lucia Gonzalez, who won a slew of Junior World titles in her career (7 in total, plus all her Mexican junior titles), but whose pro career never materialized. She took out Stephanie Synhorst before falling to Gaby 12,4.
– Manilla continued her comeback efforts, blasting Mexican veteran Nancy Enriquez before falling to #2 Mejia.
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In the 16s:
– Annie Sanchez got her best career win, and her first pro quarterfinal, topping Colombian turned Italian Cristina Amaya.
– Carla Munoz, who has slipped in the rankings after taking a few events off mid 2025, got a solid win over #5 Mendez to push back towards the top 10
– York pushed Centellas in the 7/10 match before ultimately falling 10,12
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In the Quarters, seeds took over, as all top four seeds won. Longoria had the hardest go of it, having to face her former vanquisher Herrera, who’s on the downslope from her peak a few years ago. Gaby was pushed to double digits in one game, otherwise the top four seeds advanced without opponents reaching 10 in any game.
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In the Semis:
– Vargas crunched Martinez 6,9. Vargas has really taken over on tour.
– Longoria-Mejia needed nearly 2 hours, and needed to go to 10-10 in the breaker before a winner was determined. The two split games, then were neck and neck in the breaker before a mini-run from Mejia gave her match point at 10-7. Longoria saved it, then ground out 3 points to put it at 10-10 … where Mejia got a gutsy side-out on a fly-ball kill shot. Longoria wasn’t out of her own bag of tricks, crushing a cross court to get back match point on her racquet, which she took with a well-struck deep court forehand kill for the win. Someone had to lose, and it was Mejia.
In the Finals, anticlimactic after the semis, as Vargas won her 3rd in a row, and 4th of the season, crushing Longoria 4,5 to leave no doubt. She’s won 5 of the last 6 events (making the final in the other), and has opened a massive lead atop the standings.
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Points Implications of results
Here’s a link to my LPRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It may not exactly match the LPRT’s standings, but should be close enough to gauge post-event results in the immediate.
Vargas, on the strength of 3 in a row and 5 of the last 6, has opened a massive lead atop the standings. She’s up by more than 500 points now to 2nd place (Longoria, who overtakes Mejia with the head to head win). But, Vargas will need to have something catastrophic happen to be caught this season at this point.
Other notable movement: Sanchez should enter the top 10 for the first time, and Munoz should be right on the cusp at #11. Lawrence, who seems to have quit the tour lately, will drop to #15.
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Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/fd24f8
Mejia and Herrera beat Vargas & Centellas for the title for the 3rd straight event running, but they had to work for it. They squeaked by Manilla/Key in the quarters, then had to outlast the solid new-look team of Longoria/GAby in the semis to make it there.
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Other Notable Draws:
– The LPRT ran a super-fun looking event called the “Pro/Am Doubles,” where pros teamed up with “Open players,” which usually means low-end/younger pros, for a fun pro/am division. It was taken by Mendez & Faeth, who took out Mejia and Mexican junior Yanna Salazar. Great idea, hope to see more of this in the future.
– The Men’s Open was not complete as of this writing, but is headlined by top-10 IRT pro Alan Natera, in town supporting his wife Carla Munoz. I may regret writing this, but its hard to imagine him losing this draw.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., JTRball, and Tj Baumbaugh
Next week is an IRT satellite event at the long-running Carl Myers event in Kansas, then the week after that is the annual Lewis Drug pro-am in Sioux Falls, the long-running event that’s a huge favorite of players on tour.
Rhonda Rajsich continues her comeback tour.
Photo 202 USAR Doubles by Kevin Savory
The pro first event of the 2026 season us, as the ladies head to Tempe for a long-running event in the Arizona Open. Legendary coach Jim Winterton has organized the event once again and has a solid draw of ladies pros in town.
I’m going to do the preview a little different this time, since to me there’s now a very clear-cut line between the top 4-5 players on tour and the rest of the draw. I’m going to call out some storylines to watch instead of playing out the entire draw.
– Mexican junior Mariafernanda Trujillo is set for just her second ever LPRT appearance after a long junior career; she’s still 21U eligible.
– Former top junior and a constant dark-horse when she plays Lucia Gonzalez is here, and she has a relatively winnable first round to get to the 16s.
– Newly elected Hall of Famer Rhonda Rajsich is playing in her home town; she says she’s playing the tour full time this season; can she get back to the top 10?
– Costa Rican phenom Larissa Faeth is here with a good shot at getting into the 16s.
– Erika Manilla is here, but runs into the #2 seed in the 16s. Coming back from zero points is super tough.
– Semis: hard not to predict the top 4 to the semis in Vargas, Longoria, Mejia, and Gaby.
– Vargas has won three straight, and I think she’s winning here again.
– Longoria is #3, but I like her for the final.
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Doubles review
There’s interesting teams here: Longoria no longer has her long-time partner Salas to depend on here, so she’s partnered with Gaby and they’re just the #4 seed. Watch out for that pair. Manilla & Key are seeded dead last but would probably cruise to the US national title right now. Munoz and Rajsich are the #6 seed; i’d be deathly afraid of this team in Outdoor; can they make it happen in indoor?
prediction: Herrera/Mejia over Longoria/Gaby in the final
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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!
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.
Joe Kelley with the double on the weekend on his home court. Photo via Ken fife
Last weekend the Kelley Brothers invited out some of the best talent on the East Coast to their home #4 court for the 6th Annual Average Joe’s Tournament. Here’s a quick recap of the action.
I have to admit, I didn’t even know this was going on this year, despite posting recaps on it every year since its inception. I’m lucky to have seen some of the live streams pop up from players I’m friend with on FB.
Singles recap:
The top 8 seeds went (in order): Jeremy Dixon, Cole Sendrey, Ezekiel Subieta, Victor Migliore, Joe Kelley, Dylan Pruitt, Jose Flores, and Sam Kelley. There was a full round of 16 and play-ins to there, meaning there were nearly two dozen players hanging out on the Kelley property this weekend.
In the quarters, top seed Dixon held off the host Sam Kelley, the 2023 champion, enabling Sam to work on hospitality the rest of the way. Host Joe Kelley and 2021 champ upset Ohio-native Migliore, who is a two-time finalist here exiting early. Bolivian U21 star Ezekiel Subieta took out his former Maryland-neighbor Dylan Pruitt, and lastly 2024 champ Sendrey, fresh off a trip to World Juniors last month, took out top NE player Jose Flores to move on.
In the semis, Joe Kelley kept up the upset run, taking out Dixon with a dominant show of drive serving. From the bottom half, Cole took out Subieta to get back to the final. In the final though, Kelley was on fire, bombing more drive serves against his young Texas rival and took the title 10,4. He wins the title on his home court for the second time.
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Doubles recap
Joe Kelley teamed up with Ezequiel Subiata to make it a double on the weekend. From the #3 seed, they upset Jeremy Dizon & Jose Flores in the semis, then took out the top seeds Dylan Pruitt & Cole Sendrey 14,13.
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These champions join the following honor roll of past champs in this event:
Singles:
– 1st Annual 2021: Joe Kelley over Austin Cunningham
– 2nd Annual 2022: Kyle Ulliman over Victor Migliore
– 3rd Annual 2023: Sam Kelley over Victor Migliore
– 4th Annual 2024: Cole Sendrey over Kyle Ulliman
– 5th Annual 2025: Jake Bredenbeck over Sebastian Franco
– 6th Annual 2026: Joe Kelley over Cole Sendrey
Doubles:
– 2021: (no doubles event)
– 2022: (no doubles event)
– 2023: Pruitt/Bleyer
– 2024: Pruitt/Cunningham
– 2025: Bredenbeck/Bredenbeck
– 2026: J.Kelly/Subieta
That’s it for the 2026 Average Joe’s/Kelley Invitational.
Longoria won her 14th title mid 2025. Photo via Fran Davis Racquetball
After last week’s IRT post, here’s the same for the LPRT. I’ll list the original text as I captured it in real-time, then in some cases add my 2 cents.
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– 1/15/25: Former LPRT #1 Christie (Van Hees) Huczek has been elected to the USA Racquetball Hall of Fame. Its the first Ladies pro player elected since Gudinas was selected as part of the class of 2019, and she’s just the 9th ladies pro ever elected to the Hall.
Additional thoughts: She’s also just the second non-US player after Heather McKay to be elected to the USAR Hall of Fame, having grown up in Canada before moving to the US, where she’s lived for 20 years after marrying fellow racquetball Pro Jack Huczek. Her career is an interesting “what-if” case; she was ranked in the top 3 in 2000, then abruptly retired at the age of 24 (the tour decided to completely omit her from the year end rankings for reasons inexplicable). She came back two years later and finished #2 on tour in her first full season back. Then, after winning the year end title for the 2004-5 season, she won the first 3 events of the next season, then summarily stopped playing again (still finishing 3rd that season on the strength of those wins). She had eight top-10 seasons … but it feels like she left a ton on the table.
This is an ironic book-end to the year, since the final news item below is the announcement that we’ve also elected another LPRT legend to the Hall, namely Rhonda Rajsich.
– 1/19/25: Paola Longoria officially regains the #1 ranking spot on tour heading into the January Arizona Open. This sets up a dog-fight for the top spot for the rest of the season, as Longoria, Mejia, and Vargas trade blows all spring. Some thought Longoria may have been “done” after two seasons being supplanted at the top of the tour and taking some losses as her live and career shifted, but she has made it back to the top.
– 6/16/25: Thanks to the results at the Northern Virginia Invitational, Paola Longoria has an insurmountable lead in the 2024-25 tour race and has officially
secured her 14th Pro title. She returns to the summit of the sport after two years away.
– 8/14/25: At the 2025 World Games, while leading 9-7 in the 5th game over Longoria, Angelica Barrios badly injures her knee and has to retire. This
knocks Bolivia out of the Mixed competition as well, and Barrios reportedly needs surgery to repair the damage, which could cost her half a season or more.
Update as of this writing, Barrios has still not returned to action.
– 10/12/25 with a win over Longoria in the final of Golden State, Vargas takes back over #1 on tour. She’s won the last three events (also the first three events of the new season), and is now poised to dominate the LPRT for the time being.
Narrative: Vargas has opened the 2025-26 season with three wins and a final. Longoria is trying to keep pace (she was the losing finalist to all three of Vargas’ wins so far).
– 11/7/25: Former top 4 player Erika Manilla plays her first LPRT pro event since Dec 2024, and just her second pro event since her hip injury in Feb 2024, at her home-town event, where she’s also the tournament director. She wins her round of 32 but loses to the top seed.
Comments: It has taken Erika far, far longer to get back into playing shape than anyone thought. She finished the 2022-23 season ranked #4 and had a couple of finals under her belt, and she had a triple crown at the 2023 USAR Nationals, but now faces a huge up-hill battle to get back to the same lofty heights.
– 11/7/25: #2 Longoria is forced to miss the Denver Open due to her new legislative duties, which will severely hamper her chances of winning the year end title this season. There’s just too few events and Vargas is playing too well to miss out on any chances.
Commentary: For those who don’t know, Longoria was selected by her party to represent her district in the Mexican congress back in Sept 2024. We had not seen these duties interfere with her racquetball career, until now. I don’t believe this absence in and among itself will cost her the title, not with Vargas stepping her game up so much, but it can’t help.
– 11/19/25: LPRT loses access to its Facebook page for unknown reasons, likely inadvertent music copyright issues on a video of a match being played
at a club with ambient music playing. This is a huge dagger for the social media pursuits of the organization, and now a decade of videos and content is gone.
This is a shame really. No two ways about it. Facebook isn’t exactly the easiest tech support organization to deal with either.
– 12/7/25: Some player participation observations at the halfway point of the season: long-time top 10 player Kelani Lawrence has quietly skipped the entire first half of the 2025-26 LPRT season, possibly indicating the decision to step away from active touring (I asked her directly and didn’t get a response). Furthermore, after 3 full seasons away, Rhonda Rajsich is back and intends to play nearly a full slate of events this season. Other former regulars now absent for more than half a season: Angela Barrios (bad injury), Hollie Scott, and Michelle Key.
Thoughts: we’ve suddenly seen a slew of USA players … mostly dropping off the tour. Manilla just getting back, Key hasn’t played since September, same with reigning US National champ Ros (who, to be fair, may be prioritizing school right now), and Hollie seems to be as done with rball as her beau DLR. This has dampened the draw sizes for LPRT events this year unfortunately.
– 12/9/25: Squash and Racquetball legend Heather McKay to be officially inducted into the PSA Squash Hall of Fame in March 2026 in Brisbane.
Thoughts: for anyone who thinks that Kane or Paola were “dominant” in their careers, just check out this link to McKay’s squash career. She went 18 years without losing professionally, and she once won the British Open final with a triple donut (9-0, 9-0, 9-0).
– 12/31/25: 4-time LPRT champion and 20-year legend Rhonda Rajsich is elected to the USA Racquetball hall of Fame. Rajsich’s exploits on the pro game,
in the Amateur game, and in the Outdoor game uniquely qualifier her for the hall across the entire landscape of the sport.
Rajsich became eligible coincidentally after a 3-year pause of playing pro events, which made her seem “retired” as far as Hall of Fame eligibility is concerned. She continues to mount a comeback and intends to play a full slate of pro events this season.
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I may have missed some notable events for the Ladies; feel free to remind me in the comments.
Happy New Year from Pro Racquetball Stats and Todd Boss. It ahs been a tumultuous year for the Men’s Pro tour and the sport in general. Here’s a quick run through the seminal events to this observer of the 2025 year, along with some commentary/Retrospective after the fact.
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– 1/21/25: The World Team Racquetball concept debuted at the 2024 3WB event is officially pulled underneath the IRT umbrella, with the blessing of Mike
Coulter. Mike Kinkin will become the president of the WTR. The group plans WTR events at each of the three outdoor majors in addition to other 2025 spots.
In retrospect, this announcement didn’t have the impact we thought it might at the time. WTR did run an event at the 2025 Warhawk Open, but it was mostly Amateur teams (albeit with fantastic names). That event was overshadowed by fixture congestion that badly impacted the attendance of both the Warhawk Open and the Beach Bash outdoor major, which led to bruised egos amongst the various event directors involved. This problem, coincidentally, returns again in 2026, as the two events will conflict again and will overlap with the first weekend of the Pan Am games. We just have to figure out how to stop this from happening year after year.
– 1/21/25: the new IRT commissioner Dave Negrete wants to revert back to some of the tour rules that were the norm during his time. Most notably, he wants
to return to protected top 8 seeds into the round of 16 and to go back to a fall-to-spring multi-year season. This may end up meaning that the 2025 “season”
is just six months long, comprising just those events that are held between the beginning of the year and the August World Singles and Doubles event.
In retrospect, we have not seen the “top 8 get byes into the 16s” but we have seen the conversion of the schedule to a fall-to-spring. Instead of giving a 2025 half-season champ, they decided to have a super-sized 18-month season to determine the 2025-26 champion this coming June.
– 2/28/25: Dan Jaskier, owner and President of the Glass Door Swim & Fitness club in Lombard, Illinois, announces that the club is closing after 48 years.
The 3/16/25 tournament will be the last major pro stop at the club, ending a decades-long association with both pro tours.
Update: there was a Nov 2025 post on the Glassdoor Facebook page intimating that the club was possibly re-opening. I have no idea if they’ve remodeled the inside, who’s involved, or if there’s the possibility of the return of the Geoff Peters legacy event that was one of the most popular stops on tour. IRT commissioner Negrete lives in the Chicago area, so i’m sure he’s on top of it.
-3/6/25: The IRT introduces the “IRT Club,” a monthly subscription service that gives access to a 2nd stream plus other benefits. https://irttour.com/irt-club/
Notes: this is one of the new ideas from the new IRT ownership group, and is spearheaded by Adam Manilla. They offer fantasy racquetball and a new podcast series hosted by yours truly alongside Brian Pineda. It’s $15/month and also gives access to alternate streaming at IRT events.
– 3/21/25: Months after Swain’s 10/4/24 announcement, the USAR officially announces the 2026 US Open return in June to Missouri State University.
Notes: in the months since, we’ve seen a couple of updates from the organizers, and all organizations are working as if this event is happening. So, make plans to visit Missouri in June 2026.
– 3/23/25: Cliff Swain and Jeff Collins release a new video on the US Open. They’ve confirmed dates (June 10-14th 2026). Details include:
– Portable court is to be used, will be at the Springfield Expo center
– 12 courts at Missouri state University
– all within 5mins of each other; hotel, university, showcourt
– Richard Eisemann onboard as tourney coordinator, Tillbury hospitality/vip liaisons.
– Straight draw; no qualifiers in pros
– going to old-school scoring 3/5 to 11
– Dedicated referee staff on showcase on court; 5 officials planned
– winners ref on amateur side.
– Looking to raise $300k. Gives breakdown of what that revenue goes for: $40k IRT, $40k LPRT purses, $80k court, $50k facility rental
Notes: the transparency and advance planning is refreshing. Putting out these numbers in plain sight for those who have consistently questioned why the portable court isn’t constantly in use should resolve criticism of event planners. It costs a ton to transport, install, configure, tear-down, store, and insure the court.
– 4/18/25: Mike Coulter of 3WB publicly announces that the 3WallBall in Las Vegas has to be “paused” in 2025 due to the drastic rise in costs that the economy has seen in the early parts of 2025. They’re looking for a site in Southern California to host the 2025 version of the event on courts that can be rented, not built.
Retrospect: the writing was on the wall for this announcement for a while; costs and inflation have crushed the country, attendance has dwindled at 3WB for a bit, and it stopped being a viable tournament for Coulter to host. My big worry with something like this is, once Mike loses the spot on the schedule with the hotel, it’s going to be doubly difficult to ever get it back. I hope we haven’t seen the last of 3WB in Vegas, but don’t have high hopes.
– 5/3/25: #5 Alan Natera has a knee operation. Per Natera, he had knee arthroscopy, ACL, and meniscus reconstruction. He had been playing with pain for months and it was time to do it before it got worse. No word on recovery time or how long he’ll be out, but the next scheduled event isn’t until September. Update: Alan plays in the early September 2025 World Singles & Doubles.
This injury/surgery was well timed for Natera, who didn’t miss a ton of events and still is maintaining his top 10 status. He’s taken some tough losses as he’s stuck in the 8/9 seed spot right now, part of which may still be due to him testing out the knee. I’ve had multiple knee operations, and in one case it took me two years to return to the court.
– 5/8/25: Mike Coulter/3WB announces that 2025’s Outdoor Nationals will join forces with 3WB for 2025.
Commentary: for a few weeks this looked like a dagger for the sport’s reputation … but read on for an update in early August.
– 8/7/25: IRT releases its fall/spring slate of events and its massive: there’s nearly 20 full stops and satellites planned, a return to Mexico, and a return to a number of old stops that have lost their sponsors over the years. Great news.
In the months since, the slate has been pared a bit, but there’s still been a ton of IRT-350 satellite events held and the Tier 1 slate is bigger and better than it has been in years. The new ownership group is having a major impact on the tour.
– 8/7/25: Racquetball gets back into the 2027 Pan Am Games! Despite not being included in the original slate of games IRF President Osvaldo Maggi had been working with Pan Am behind the scenes and secured a return of the sport today.
Commentary: initially, the loss of racquetball from the Pan Am games had been predicted for years by insiders, and it would have been a real disappointment for the sport. Peru took over as host from Colombia , and when Lima hosted these same games in 2019 they had Racquetball … but for some reason chose to initially eliminate it this time around. All due credit to Maggi for politicking behind the scenes and making this happen.
This is one of those seminal events that has outsized impact; if we’re out of the Pan Am Games, we as a sport may lose accreditation with our own USOPC, which cuts funding and reduces our legitimacy as a sport. I think we’re well past any pursuit of getting into the Olympics at this point in the sport’s history (and, lets be honest, when the sport was ignored for the 1984 Olympics in LA, and again in 1996 in Atlanta … both big-time racquetball towns and at the absolute height of our sport’s popularity and participation, we should have realized there was never a shot), but the Pan Am games still remained the highest honor we had internationally, and we hold onto participation for one more cycle.
– 8/8/25: Bobby Horn, who attempted a comeback last season, undergoes shoulder surgery
Note: Negrete’s re-involvement brings back a ton of connections he maintained from 20 years ago, and the group is adding new major sponsors like the Black & White and Frank Hotels.
– 10/21/25: Pro Kennex announces that they’re reuniting with long-time PK player Kane Waselenchuk.
Notes: The two parted ways in Sept 2021 when a Pandemic-
afflicted company and Waselenchuk couldn’t come to an agreement on outstanding payments as the tours cancelled events for nearly a year. It bad at the time, but the two sides buried the hatchet and are working together again. Kane was reportedly using a blacked-out Gearbox to compete and now gets his trusty old sticks back.
– 10/29/25: 3-time champ Daniel De la Rosa reportedly has his PPA contract terminated for lack of performance. Will he return to Racquetball?
Notes: this was an ill-kept secret in the pickleball world, but as of this writing we haven’t seen DLR return to any known racquetball stuff. And, in the most recent post on his page he had a ton of hashtags for MLP, so maybe DLR has negotiated his way back to a pay as you go contract with the PPA instead of the salary based one. Either way, he hasn’t played a pro event since Jan 2024, but is the reigning US National singles champion. Will DLR defend his title? Well, there is a PPA event the same weekend as USAR Nationals, so he’d have to skip it … but if he’s not under contract it won’t matter. We’ll see what happens.
– 12/7/25: Erick Trujillo has missed every event for the past 6 months; is he officially stepping back? He’s now a 5.5 DUPR rated pickleball competitive player; could he be making a push towards pro pickleball instead?
comments: Trujillo’s DUPR rating is on the rise, but I don’t see him traveling to any US-based events thus far. It’s also possible that he’s made the very rational decision that losing in the 16s at IRT events isn’t worth the money it takes to get there.
– 12/20/25: Mike Kinkin is named the President of FormulaFlow Racquetball. He joins forces with Mauricio Zelada’s budding racquet manufacturer
Notes: this is an interesting move; FormulaFlow is now one of 3-4 remaining manufacturers in the space. I haven’t had a chance to catch up with Kinkin about the move or what they plan, but it is good to see a brand pushing further into the sport rather than walking away from it.
– 12/29/25: IRT announces that the new ball of the tour is the Formula Flow Blue. This replaces the thicker, slower Gearbox ball.
Notes: no word yet on how the FF ball plays; is it faster, slower, thicker, bouncier? No idea.
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Phew; that’s it. Did I miss any major events worth noting?
