Author: Todd Boss

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2025 Mexican Junior Nationals Recap

This past weekend featured the 2025 Mexican Junior National tournament in the Mexican racquetball hotbed of Chihuahua, Mexico. Mexico is the last of the “big 3” North American countries to hold its Junior Nationals, and the results of these events determine the national team members that will represent their country at the upcoming World Juniors in the Dominican Republic in mid December later this year.

Here’s a quick recap of the qualifiers and some commentary.

Mexican Junior tournament and qualification goes as follows: the entrants play a double elimination draw; the winner of the winner’s bracket is the champion and Junior National titlist, while the winner of the loser’s bracket is the 2nd player to join the delegation. This consolation bracket champ often is not the winner’s bracket finalist, and the format gives players hope of getting back on the team even with an early loss. Mexico does not play any official doubles competitions at its junior nationals; the singles qualifiers will form the doubles teams at Worlds.

R2 site for 2025 Mexican Jr Nationals: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48744

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Congrats to the following Boys Singles winners and finalists for team Mexico (each has the winner’s bracket titlist listed first, then the consolation bracket champion and second national team representative second)

(click here https://rball.pro/olf for a Matrix of all Mexican boy’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)

– Boys 21U: Sebastian Hernandez, Jorge Gutierrez

– Boys 18U: Eder Renteria, Diego Romano

– Boys 16U: Santiago Castillo, Emilio Jurado

– Boys 14U: Elias Medrano, Alejandro Perez Picon

– Boys 12U: Max Soto, Hermann Gracia Castro

– Boys 10U: Kerman Gracia Castro, Isaac Soto

– Boys 10Udb: Jose Enrique Caro, Diego Diaz

– Boys 8U: Angel Perez, Esteban Sandoval

– Boys 8Udb: Luis Enrique Rivera, Esteban Sandoval

– Boys 6Umb: Angel Perez, Alex Nunez

Commentary on the divisions:

Hernandez repeats as U21 champ, but has still yet to appear in an IRT event. Eder Renteria wins his first Jr title since 2018. Santiago Castillo also returns to the title-holders club after a few years off, having been shut out of the entire 14U cycle. Medrano wins his 2nd title in three years. Soto wins his 3rd title in three years and is setup to plow through the Mexican Juniors. Kerman Damian Gracia repeats as 10U champ and gets his 3rd overall title. Lastly, newcomer Angel Perez wins both the 6U and 8U multi bounce competitions to start off his junior career with a bang.

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Congrats to the following Girls Singles finalists for team Mexico:

(click here: https://rball.pro/qcm for a Matrix of all Mexican Girls’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)

– Girls 21U: Angela veronica ortega, Ivanna Balderrama

– Girls 18U: Marifernanda Trujillo, Yanna Salazar

– Girls 16U: Andrea Perez Picon, Lily Farias

– Girls 14U: Michelle Gomez, Grissel Gomez Rubio

– Girls 12U: Maria Jose Jurado, Mia Almanza

– Girls 10U: Jocelyn dominguez Chavez, Ana Paula De la Riva

– Girls 10Udb: Ana Paula De la Riva, Andrea Carrasco

– Girls 8Udb: Maria Rivera, Areai Maldonado

Commentary on the Girls divisions:

Ortega gets back on top, adding her 5th career Junior title to her bookshelf with one year of eligibility left. Trujillo claims her 5th title and now has one in each of the 5 traditional age slots (10,12,14,16,18). Former USA national Andrea Perez Picon wins her first Mexican junior title as the #1 seed in 16s. Michelle Gomez returns to the winner’s circle after a year off. 12U champ Jurado earns her 3rd career title.

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Congrats to all the Mexican Junior National title winners and National team qualifiers for 2025.

International Racquetball Tour

LPRT

@Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol

@International Racquetball Federation – IRF

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LPRT 2024-25 Season Recap Part 3: Outside the top 10 Players

Erika Manilla faces a long road ahead to get back into the top 4. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory

In our last recap article, we’re going to selectively discuss players who didn’t make the top 10 but who are notable, we’ll talk about players who dropped off the tour this year, and opine some at the end.

Notables in the 11-20 range on tour:

– #11 @Samantha Salas Solis missed out on #10 by a scant 3 points and thus misses out on a top 10 spot for the fourth year running. She’s now 38 and is finishing up her 22nd year on tour. She made 2 quarters this year, and can still get wins, and is still Paola’s doubles partner getting titles. How much longer will she tour? We only had 7 events this year, so a once-a-month trip to see old friends isn’t too hard to keep up with.

– @Valeria Centellas and Lexi York finished with almost identical results and points this year, coming in at #12 and #13. Both made all seven events, each made the round of 16 five out of seven times.

– #15 @Stephanie Synhorst made all seven events, made the round of 16 three times, and just out-pointed Carla to finish #15.

– @Carla Munoz finished last year inside the top 10, but missed three of the seven events this year to fall to #16. She’s obviously closer to a top 10 player but just couldn’t hang with the ladies ranked above her missing so much time this season.

– #17 Maria Renee Rodríguez Josey returned to the tour after taking a bit of time away for life, education, etc. She finished #17 with three round of 16 finishes.

– @Michelle Key, who went years without appearing on tour, made four events and just made it into the top 20 this year.

– Former top 10 player @Angela Barrios fell all the way to #21. Barrios is always a tough draw when she does play, whether internationally or professionally, but is like many Bolivian players who struggle financially to make all tour events.

– Naomi Ros, who holds both the USA Racquetball National Adult title and the U21 Junior title right now, finished ranked 22nd.

– @Susana Acosta made it to two events, enough to ensure her 27th season in the rankings.

– Laura Brandt played in two events and finished tied for #28 with a few other ladies, but did so at the age of 57., She became the 3rd oldest player ever to make a round of 16 on tour.

– Two former top 4 players also finished with just enough results to get into the top 30: @Frederique Lambert and Erika Manilla . Lambert’s racquetball career now is mostly limited to Canadian National events, while Manilla’s hip injury has turned out to be far more difficult to recover from than she likely thought. Since exiting the 2024 US Nationals with the injury, she’s played just one LPRT event (in Dec 2024) and then attempted to earn back the US national singles title in May 2025. A healthy Manilla pushes for a top 4 spot on tour, but now she has to work her way all the way back from being ranked well outside the top positions.

– A slew of ladies finished “tied” for #34 with 18.75 points, basically the number of points one earns by making a round of 32 in a singular event. Included in that crew was the @Rhonda Rajsich, who entered her first LPRT pro event in years at the Arizona Open. Also notable in that group is 16U and busy national tournament participant Victoria Rodriguez , former top Mexican Junior @Lucia Gonzalez, and NorCal Outdoor specialist @Erica Williams.

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Some notable names who failed to even log an appearance this year:

– Sunshine Arterburn finished #21 last year; zero appearances this year.

– Argentine lefty @martina Katz showed some promise last year in limited appearances and was missing this season.

– Bolivian veterans @Jenny Daza and Yazmine Sabja Aliss missed out on this season. Former top Bolivian junior Michaela Meneses seems like she’s done with the sport.

– Former Junior legend @Adrienne Fisher Haynes didn’t play this season.

– Irish star Aisling Hickey got some surprise results last season but didn’t log an appearance this year.

– No traveling visits from the Ecuadorian Munoz regulars.

– Masiel Rivera has gone from being a top10 threat to no appearances in just a few years.

– Long-time touring pro @Adriana Riveros may ahve finally called it quits.

– Texan @Linda tyler is usually good for an event or two but hasn’t been seen in a while.

Lots of missing Mexican youngsters as well, who normally help fill out these draws and cause some surprises. The tour depth dropped for the 4th year running; we only had 43 distinct players play this season, down from 60+ a few years ago just after covid. A sign of the times.

That’s it for the season! LPRT kicks off with @jim hiser’s big World Singles and Doubles extravaganza in August.

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LPRT 2024-25 Season Ending Recap Series part 2: The top 10

Longoria is back on top. Photo via 2019 US Open/Kevin Savory

Hello Racquetball fans. This is part 2 of the LPRT 2024-25 season ending recap series. In Part 1 last week, I loaded up the official year end standings for the tour and did the data entry into the www.proracquetballstats.com database to show the rankings properly in various season-wide reports.

Here, we’re going to review the top 10 ladies of the year. In a fun twist, I’ll also refer back to my recap from last season where I made a far-too-early prediction on this year’s finish. The two reports to have up while reading through this report are the Season Summary Report https://rball.pro/84115e and the Season-ending rankings https://rball.pro/5eca5e .

– #1: Paola Longoria .1521.5 points, 22-5 for the year. 2 titles, 4 finals, 1 semi.

Longoria is back on top after a two year hiatus, She was dominant all year, making every final until the last event (where she already had the title wrapped up). She re-took over #1 on tour in December and didn’t look back. This is her 14th career pro title and at age 35 seems to have settled down after a couple of years of life changes (she got married and got elected to the Mexican congress). I predicted last year she’d either finish #1 or retire; clearly not retiring. Now i’m predicting she stays right where she is; at #1, though not nearly as dominantly as in year’s past.

– #2-T Monserrat Mejia: 1218 points, 18-5 for the year. 2 titles, 1 final, 3 semis.

Amazingly, both Vargas and Mejia finished tied for 2nd on tour with the exact same results and record for the season. The two met four times though, with Mejia winning 3 of the 4, but there’s no tiebreaker here. Mejia’s 5 losses on the season were to Longoria three times, Laime, and Vargas. After dominating the 2022-23 season, she fell to zero titles in 23-24, but rebounds this year with 2 wins, bringing her career total to 8 titles. I predicted she’d stay at #3 last year, but she’s stepped up. I’m predicting she returns to #2 next season.

– #2-T @Maria Jose Vargas : 1218 points, 18-5 for the year. 2 titles, 1 final, 3 semis.

Vargas takes a small step back from her dominant 5-win 23-24 season but stays tied for 2nd. Despite tying for 2nd, Vargas is trending downward, having lost 3 of 4 versus Mejia. I thought she would take the title again last year; now i think she’ll finish 3rd next season.

– #4. Ana Gabriela Martínez 919 points. 15-5 for year. 1 title, 1 final, 3 semis.

Gaby really put it together this season, getting her 3rd career title and finishing 4th, her highest ever season finish. She only missed one event, which really helped keep her ranking high. She managed to go the entire season w/o facing Mejia and gave Longoria two of her losses this season. I predicted last year she’d continue to languish in the 9-10 range on tour, but clearly she’s part of the upper tier of four players right now, each of whom had a title this year. I think she sticks right in the #4 spot next season again unless she misses too many events. The wildcardd for Gaby finishing top4 will be @Erika Manilla ‘s health and Herrera’s attendance.

– #5 @natalia mendez, 528 points, 9-7 for the season. 7 quarters in 7 events

Mendez was a model of consistency this year, never once getting upset in the 16s and earning exactly a quarter final berth in all seven events. This was enough to let her stick at the #7 seed for most of the season, then jumping the next two rivals for #5 at season’s end. I sense though she was lucky not to get an upset-special round of 16 this year and probably finishes closer to #10 next year, as I predicted last y ear.

– #6. @Brenda Laime Jalil 492.5 points. 8-6 for season, 2 semis, 3 qtrs

Laime remains in the #5-#6 range for the third straight year, but did it with a slightly different pathway than in year’s past. Two years ago she was Jeckyl and Hyde, making 3 finals but also losing in the 16s four times. This year she cut down on early upsets (only one upset in the 16s at the NoVa event) and had more consistency. Had she not missed the Arizona Open she may very well have finished 5th. I think she continues to finish right in this spot until she can get more breakthrough wins.

– #7 Kelani Lawrence 487.5 points, 8-7 for season 6 qtrs and one 16s upset

Lawrence had almost an identical season to Mendez, save for one round of 16 upset to Parrilla in the Xmas classic last December. She continues to be a model of consistency on tour, nearly always advancing into the quarters but falling at that Juncture. She has made just one semifinal in her entire career, but the quarters 20 times. Nonetheless, she’s now finished in this 6-7 range for two years in a row and i think she’ll continue to be right here next season.

– #8 @Alexandra Herrera , 451.5 points, 7-5 this season, 2 semis, 3 qtrs, 2 missed

Herrera, a mainstay in the top 4 for nearly a decade, missed two events this year that likely cost her enough points to drop from #4 to #8 on tour. Her big rival this year turned out to be Gaby as they met in the 4/5 quarter final spot three times this season. She managed to avoid her doubles partner Mejia, but the two missed events cost her. If she can make all the tournaments, I think she returns to that 4-5 range. however, the #8 spot is a really tough spot to get away from; even if she wins a round of 16 she projects right into the top player on tour, who she’s got wins against but whom has had her number lately. She may be stuck here for a bit.

– #9 Jessica Parrilla , 320.25 points, 6-7 for season, 2 qtrs and 4 round of 16s

There’s a bit of a drop-off from 8 to 9 in the points, defining a bit of separation on tour between the ladies ranked in the 9-11 range versus those ranked in the 6-8 range. Leoni returns to the top 10 after missing out last season, and managed to do it with a couple of solid wins over Lawrence and Laime to earn quarterfinals appearances. She also held off round of 16 upsets to keep this spot. I sense though she may get pushed down a bit going forward, especially in the 9-10 seed spot.

– #10: Cristina Amaya Cassino , 302.5 points, 3-7 for season, 1 qtr

Amaya just pipped Salas for #10 and thus stays in the top 10 for the second season in a row after dropping well out for a few years. This pivot in performance for a lady in her mid 30s is crazy, and well earned for Amaya. Her biggest win of the season was over Munoz in Chicago, which was instrumental in finishing at this spot. Also, kudos and bravo to Amaya for her awesome Racquetball News TV Weekly series: if you’re not following her on Youtube or Facebook you should be.

https://www.facebook.com/racquetballnewstv

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Next up, we’ll cover the rest of the tour notables, talk about some trends in the sport and on tour, and talk about what may happen next year.

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LPRT 2024-25 Season Ending Recap Series

Gaby wins the season opener in an 11-10 thriller. It was her only win of the season. Photo via Gaby

Hello Racquetball fans! The latest LPRT finished up in late June, with @Paola Longoria winning her 14th career Pro year-end title. As is our custom, we’ll do a few posts to recap the season.

In this post we’ll just put in links to the season-summary resources here at Pro Racquetball Stats, to which we’ve just finished adding the year-end standings. Next we’ll do a recap of the top 10 players, then in the last post we’ll cover the rest of the tour with notables and what not.

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Key Reports that show Interesting Year End Data:

– Year-End Standings in the database: https://rball.pro/67385e

Longoria ended up winning the title by more than 300 points. That’s exactly the number of points earned for a regular season tour event, so one missed event going forward and Vargas or Mejia could catch her going forward. The race between the top 3 is tight.

– All Finals this season: https://rball.pro/adb65d

We had 7 events this season, one fewer than last season. The tour lost the San Antonio and Chesapeake events, picked up the NoVa invitational, but will presumably lose the Glass Door event next season unless the Peters family/Chicago crew can find another site. They’ll pick up World Singes & Doubles and hopefully the US Open in 2026, but are still missing some of the big-money events they had at the beginning of the decade in places like Aguascaliente, Kansas City, Longoria made the finals of 6 of this season’s 7 events, only missing the last tourney where she already had the title sewn up.

– Distinct Winners per season: https://rball.pro/62777f

This season we saw four different winners in seven events, with very even distribution. @Gaby Martinez took the season opener, then the top 3 ladies each won twice this season. It was the consistency of Longoria versus her rivals that propelled her to the top.

– Season Summary report: https://rball.pro/a82149

This is my go-to report to see the best summary information for the entire tour in one place. This shows every player who appeared on the season, their season-ending rank, and they’re ordered # of tourney wins, # of finals, # of semis, etc. I’ve also got their age at the end of the season, their career and seasonal W/L records, etc. Interesting factoid from this report: there were just six distinct players all season who even made a Semi final. That’s amazing.

– Highest Seeds To… Report: https://rball.pro/62ff50

The highest seed to win this year was Gaby as a #9 seed. Twice we saw an #11 seed make their way to the quarters (both times Jessica Parrilla ).

– Draw sizes for the season: https://rball.pro/98d393

The tour was relatively consistent last fall: 23-25 entrants per event. That bumped up a bit this spring to peak at 27 entrants for both AZ and Boston, but fell off in June to a season low 18 players in Charlotte.

– Complete list of Year-end title winners: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/lprt/lprt_year_end_titles.html

This text-page shows Longoria’s 14 titles, now double the next closest player (Michelle Gould).

– LPRT Tour History; https://www.proracquetballstats.com/lprt/lprt_tour_history.html

This is a years-running list of “important events” that have happened on tour. If you see a major event i’m missing by all means let me know and I’ll add it in.

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That’s it for today. Next post we’ll cover the top 10.

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2025 51st Annual Outdoor Nationals & World Championships Recap

McDonald with three titles this weekend. Photo 2023 Outdoor Nats via Lara

We’ve just finished Outdoor Nationals for 2025, the 51st time this long-running “grand daddy of all Outdoor tournaments” event has been held.

Congrats to your Pro/Open winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Doubles: Kane Waselenchuk and @Chris McDonald

– Women’s Open Doubles: @Victoria Rodriguez and @Katie Neils

– Mixed Open Doubles: @Jack McDonald and @Martha McDonald

– Men’s Pro Singles: @Danny Lavely

– Women’s Pro Singles: not held

Exec summary: Kane wins his second straight pro outdoor nationals title, this time with Florida legend McDonald, who claims his first ever title after decades of competing. Chris ended up with three titles on the weekend, while Martha adds a title nearly 50 years after her first Outdoor Nationals championship. A lack of ladies pros onsite this year led to the womens and mixed divisions being turned into “Open” divisions, though we’ll still load the champions into the database.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=47360

ProRacquetballStats.com Match Reports by Pro division (notification that the results have been loaded to the database):

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/42d82e

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/0eef63

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/a8ebd5

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/c726e6

– Women’s Singles: (not held in 2025)

Triple Crown Reports: (these show the winners of all Pro divisions at all WOR outdoor majors across time)

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/j47

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/2vv

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/y43

– Men’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/86z

– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/x8g

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Lets do a quick recap of the Pro/Open draws.

Men’s Pro Doubles: a small but star-studded draw of past champions whittled down to the two top seeds: Davis & Tucker (the 2018 and 2023 champs) and McDonald & Waselenchuk, who won his first title last year with Rocky. After playing together last year in Vegas and this year in California, Chris & Kane have gelled as a team and blew through the final, winning the title 4,4 to earn the surfboard.

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Women’s Open Doubles:

The ladies in attendance played a combo round robin event, and at the end the two teams who entered “Open” won their groups and met in the final. There, teenager Rodriguez and Arizonia Neils took out Onesti-Warren & Williams for the title.

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Mixed Open Doubles: The legendary @Martha McDonald teamed with younger son Jack to go undefeated in group play and then win the Mixed Open title in a walkover. Martha has been coming to Outdoor Nationals for 50+ years and had singles pro titles back in the 1970s.

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Men’s Singles: HoFamer Greg Solis made the final in his latest attempt to add a pro singles title to his resume, but he couldn’t overcome the top seeded @Danny Lavely.

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Other Major Draws in California:

– CPRT: Kane & Chris got the double win this weekend, taking out the same two teams they beat to win the Pro title to win the CPRT title as well.

– Men’s 75s: The always-tough lefty/righty pair of Patrick Allin and Lou Orosco took the combined 75+ draw.

– Men’s 100/Centurion: Alvaro Beltran & Knox La Rue took out the top seeds St. Clair & Berg in the semis before setting down favorites Hall & Rocky in the final.

– Men’s Open: It was all McDonalds in the Open final, as brothers Jack and Chris powered their way to the win.

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Thanks to the Tourney Directors Geoff Osberg and Jesus Ustarroz for putting this event on, and congratulations on your induction into the WOR Hall of Fame for your decade-plus of service here.

Thanks once again to all the sponsors.

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Next up?

We’ll do all the accounting for the Outdoor Cup series and publish a status of updated standings post Outdoor Nats later this week.

Per our handy master racquetball calendar … https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…

NMRA Masters is next weekend in Colorado Springs; this also serves as the IRF Senior International championships. Then, the last weekend in July is the National Senior Games and Mexican Juniors.

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3Wall Ball

WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball

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2025 USA Racquetball Junior Nationals Recap

Naomi Ros with the triple crown at Junior Nationals. Photo via Ken fife

USA Racquetball held its 52nd annual Junior Nationals event last week on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and the event drew a solid field of top juniors from St Louis, San Antonio, Portland, Stockton, and other junior racquetball hot beds around the country.

The event has been held every year since 1974, save for the Covid year in 2020, and is one of the longest running events in the sport.

With this post, is official notification that the Junior Nationals results have been entered into the ProRacquetballStats.com database. For Juniors, we upload full bracket results for 21s,18s,16s, and 14s, but just load up winners and finalists for all age groups younger than 14U. For doubles, we load up just the finalists.

The best way to see Junior Singles winners is with the cross-year/cross-age group Matrix reports built into the site. They show all the winners for all age divisions going back to 1974. Here’s direct links for each Matrix report:

– Boys USA Junior National Singles Champion Matrix: https://rball.pro/mey

– Girls USA Junior National Singles Champion Matrix: https://rball.pro/cpf

Each full division draw can be accessed from the “event” pulldown after you enter either the Juniors or the Junior Doubles section. One Junior Nationals results in 18-20 singles draws plus another 15 doubles draws being entered into the database, so there’s a lot of new data here this week.

R2sports home page for the event, with all the full brackets: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=46099

For 2025, congrats to your Boys Singles winners:

– Boys 21U: @DJ Mendoza

– Boys 18U: Eshan Ali

– Boys 16U: Vaishant Mangalampalli

– Boys 14U: Ayan Sharma

– Boys 12U: Ryan Joeckel

– Boys 10U: Michael Glenn

– Boys 10Udb: Elijah Machado

– Boys 8U: Jasur Pridatko

– Boys 8Umb: Saharsh Gorthy

– Boys 6UMB: no event in 2025

– Boys 8Umb: Zane Horner

– Boys 6Umb: Xavier De La Torre-Berrera

Congrats to your Girls singles winners:

– Girls 21U: Naomi Ros

– Girls 18U: Sonya Shetty

– Girls 16U: Aanshi Thakur

– Girls 14U; Shreya Chandel

– Girls 12U: Aaradhya Raja

– Girls 10U: Sloka Marivada

– Girls 10Udb: Sylvie Hatcher-Ross

– Girls 8U: Sylvie Hatcher-Ross

– Girls 8Umb: Sasha Rai

– Girls 6Umb: Almira Pridatko

Congrats to your Boys Doubles winners:

– Boys 21U: Cole Sendrey & DJ Mendoza

– Boys 18U: Eshan Ali & Juan Herrera II

– Boys 16U: Grant Williams & Evan Whitley

– Boys 14U: Lucas Frost-Biskup & Ayan Sharma

– Boys 12U: Aiden Townsen & Noah Jackola

– Boys 10U: Michael Glenn & Damien Gil

Congrats to your Girls Doubles winners:

– Girls 21U: Naomi Ros & Ava Kaiser

– Girls 18U: Victoria Rodriguez & Sonya Shetty

– Girls 16U; Aarya Shetty * Aanshi Thakur

– Girls 14U: Audrey Reed & Violet Kennedy

– Girls 12U: Aaradhya Raja & Yana Alegria

– Girls 10U: Maryam Bukhari & Sloka Marivada

And Congrats to your Mixed Doubles winners:

– Mixed 21U: Cole Sendrey & Naomi Ros

– Mixed 18U: Eshan Ali & Sonya Shetty

– Mixed 16U: Vaishant Mangalampalli & Aarya Shetty

– Mixed 14U: Ayan Sharma & Shreya Chandel

– Mixed 12U: Noah Jackola & Aaradhya Raja

– Mixed 10U: Michael Glenn & Sloka Marivada

(Apologies for any typos: these were hand typed into this post)

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Note: there are some combined divisions at 2025 nationals, especially in the 10s, 8s and 6s. I determined the champions when age groups were combined by looking at head to head results to “name” an age group champion. In some cases there are uncontested winners for younger entrants who competed with the next higher age group.

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Here’s some quick commentary on the Singles champions by grouping.

Boys Singles;

In 21U, Mendoza held off Sendrey in a battle of Texas junior IRT regulars to give Mendoza his first Junior title. The GOAT @Kane Waselenchuk was on hand to cheer on his pupil. in 18U Eshan Ali took his 6th career junior title. Vaishant Mangalampalli moved up as the reigning 14U champ and took 16U in his first shot. Ayan Sharma returned to the winner’s circle for the first time since 2018. Both the 10U and 12U winners were first timers; congrats to Michael Glenn and Ryan Joeckel. Jasur Pridatko repeated as 8U champ. Lastly the two multi/double bounce champs were first timers as well: Elijah Machado in 10UDB and then Gorthy, Saharsh in 8UMB.

Special recognition to Ash Murphy, who made the final in 8U, 8Umb and 10Udb. Also a shoutout to David Rada in 14U, who came in as the #30 seed out of a 32 player draw and made a run to the final as a complete unknown. They often say that in Junior draws, the hardest matches are the first round and the final, since kids show up out of nowhere and make huge runs quite frequently.

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Girls Singles quick recaps.

Reigning US Adult and 2024 18U champ Naomi Ros moved up to 21s and took the title, setting the stage for the possibility of 7 straight junior titles for Ros since her naturalization in the US. Sonya Shetty took 18U, her 5th national title. Aanshi Thakur repeated as 16U junior titleist. We had first time winners in both 14U and 12U in Shreya Chandel and Aaradhya Raja respectively. Marivada Sloka took 10U, her 3rd junior title. Sylvie Hatcher-Ross took both the 10Udb and the 8U title. Sasha Rai, 2-time defending 6Umb champ, moved up to take the 8Umb title. Lastly newcomer Almira Pridatko won the 6Umb.

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Multi-title winners

The following players took home the coveted “Triple Crown,” winning singles, gender doubles, and mixed doubles this year:

– Eshan Ali (18U)

– Ayan Sharma (14U)

– Michael Glenn (10U)

– Naomi Ros (21U)

– Sonya Shetty (18U)

– Aaradhya Raja (12U)

– Sloka Marivada (10U)

The following players took home the “double,” winning both Singles and a Doubles title in their age groups:

– DJ Mendoza (21U)

– Aanshi Thakur (16U)

– Shreya Chandel (14U)

These players took the “Double Double,” winning both Gender and Mixed doubles titles.

– Vaishant Mangalampalli (16U)

– Shreya Chandel

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Phew. that’s it for Junior Nationals. Congrats to all the 2025 winners. The National team includes the two singles finalists and the doubles winners in each division; those players have first right of refusal to represent Team USA at Junior Worlds later this year in the Dominican Republic.

Next up on the racquetball calendar? 2025 Outdoor Nationals, teaming with 3WallBall this year in Huntington Beach! We’ll preview and recap that event as we always do.

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LPRT Sweet Caroline Recap

Brenda Laime wins her 4th doubles title on the season. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: @Maria Jose Vargas

– Doubles: @Brenda Laime Jalil and Natalia Mendez Erlwein

Vargas finishes off her season with a win, while Laime wins her 4th pro doubles title of the season. Longoria had already clinched the year end title. More in the points section later.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=49103

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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/61cdf6

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In the 32s, two of the best U21 players in the world (Bolivia’s Camila Rivero and USA’s Naomi Ros) topped LPRT tour vets Rodriguez and Synhorst to move on).

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In the 16s, chalk. All top 8 seeds moved on in the season’s final event. The only round of 16 to even go to a tie-breaker was in the 7/10 match, with @Kelani Lawrence advancing over Christina Amaya.

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In the Quarters, again chalk but with some closer matches.

– With @Alexandra Herrera now dropped to the #8 spot, the 1-8 is tougher than it normally is, and indeed @Paola Longoria had to go to the breaker to move past the lefty Herrera 6,(9),2.

– #4 @Ana Ana Gabriela Martínez cruised past #5 Mendez in two.

– #3 Vargas crushed Laime 6,2 in a battle of hard hitters.

– #2 @Montse Mejia wasn’t too troubled in advancing past Lawrence 7,6

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In the Semis, the clear-cut top four players on tour have separated themselves at this point, with a massive gap in the points ranking between #4 and #5. Herrera used to be part of this upper group, and Manilla’s hip injury continues to prevent her from even playing, else we’d be closer to a “big 6” rather than our current “big 4.”

And, true to form, when you have a group of closely matched players, week in and week out you just never know who’s gonna win. And this weekend, we got two upsets in the semis.

– Gaby took out Longoria by the surprising scoreline 3,12 to get to her second final of the season. If Martinez hadn’t missed an event this season, she might e pressing for #2 on tour.

– Vargas flipped the script on Mejia in the 2/3 semi final, winning an incredibly streaky match 6,(3),1.

In the Finals, Vargas powered past the Guatemalan 8,5. Gaby entered the event a little under the weather but made it to the final before running out of gas.

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Points Implications of results

With the win, Vargas made up the ground she was trailing Mejia for #2 on the season and now the two players are in a virtual dead heat for the #2 year end spot. It will come down to point fractions and who was able to win a game in an eventual loss; we’ll keep an eye out for hte final season rankings. No other changes in the top 16 came from the season ender, with the exception of the absent Carla Munoz missing points for the second straight event and now dropping all the way to #16. She’ll face an up-hill climb to get back to the quarters next season.

Here’s a link to my LPRT 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 @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.

women

https://docs.google.com/…/16o0aE4YophvlQdezlMVj…/edit…

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/46a919

Laime and Mendez finish off the title as the #1 seeds, topping Vargas and Centellas in the final. Thus, 3 of the four finalists were Argentine, and all four are Bolivian-born players who have left to represent other South American federations.

Meja and Herrera, who dominated the pro doubles circuit last season (they won 6 of the 7 doubles titles in the 23-24 season) won just once together this year as Laime became the top dog. Laime had 4 titles this year with 3 different players. Vargas switched partners, moving from Mendez to Centellas, and managed to make the final in 6 of the season’s 7 events but could garner just one title. Meanwhile, the reign of Longoria/Salas seems over; they made just two finals this season as both players are facing career choices going forward.

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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

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2…/edit…

Next week is USA Junior Nationals, the last of the big USAR events of the season.

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tags

@LPRT

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LPRT Sweet Caroline Open Preview

Longoria has sewn up the year end title. Photo via Fran Davis Racquetball

Right on the heels of the Northern Virginia Invitational, the traditional season ending event for the LPRT is upon us: the Sweet Caroline Open. Normally held in Greenville, SC, at the club that serves as the home for the LPRT’s official Hall of Fame, this year due to club renovations (thankfully that, and not yet another historic racquetball club closing) being held at the Dowd YMCA in Charlotte, NC. The ladies of the tour drove south down 95, passing through my hometown in Richmond, before heading into North Carolina proper.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=49103

Basically the same set of ladies who competed last weekend in DC, with a couple of changes at the tail end of the seedings. However, thanks to some major ranking shakeups, the quarters project to be completely different than last week.

With her finals finish last weekend, Longoria has sewn up the year end title, her 14th. The top 8 finishes are mostly set; only a huge run of upsets would change the final season rankings from where they sit now. There’s a bit of room in the 9-10-11 spots where someone could nab a “top 10” finish for the season, if the players cared about such a thing. So, a bit to play for this weekend.

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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:

There’s just 2 matches in the 32s, and both could be interesting. In the 16/17 MRR takes on reigning US National champ @Naomi Ros in a good test for our young champion. Meanwhile, in the 15/18 matchup, the reigning U21 world junior champ from Bolivia @Camila Rivero is in town, taking on tour vet @Stephanie Synhorst.

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round of 16:

– I’d like to see what Ros can do against Something-time Mexican champ @Paola Longoria (I don’t have any idea how many Mexican national titles Paola has, thanks to shoddy record keeping at the FMR, but I do know she’s won every title save for one since 2014, and likely every title from around 2008-2014, so i’d estimate it at either 16 or 17).

– With Herrera all the way down at #8, she faces #9 Parrilla for a shot at Paola.

– All Argentine grudge match between Mendez and Centellas, in a battle of the long-time representative and the player they’re trying to replace her with.

– Laime got upset early last week; can she hang with hard-hitting Salas to live up to her seed?

– Lotts plays into Vargas, and she can hang with the big hitting Argentine.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Longoria over Herrera: the time where Alexandra could beat Paola seems now past.

– Gaby over Mendez: We never seem to talk about Ana Gabriele Martinez’ draw until suddenly she’s in the semis, taking on Paola.

– Vargas over Laime: Laime seems to either make the final or lose in the first round.

– Mejia over Lawrence. With her win last week Montse moves up to #2 and takes on the American Kelani, who has a couple hour’s drive from her Va Beach home to get to Charlotte for this one.

Semis: I like the top four seeds once again

– Longoria has another close one against Gaby but moves on

– Mejia has the hot hand, Vargas knows she’s out of the title race and loses.

Finals; Longoria finishes off her season with a title in the last event.

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Doubles review

Longoria & Salas take the weekend off from doubles, which paves the way for Mejia & Herrera to get a title, even if they’ve been supplanted in the rankings.

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Costa Rica Open 2025 Recap

Montoya wins the double in Costa Rica Photo Kevin Savory 2022 Portland IRT event

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Singles: Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball

– Men’s Open Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya & @Javier Mar

Montoya gets the Costa Rica double gold.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=49239

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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

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In the 32s:

– Hernandez crushed Ecuadorian vet Ugalde 2,4.

– Costa Rica’s Gabriel Garcia took out Guatemalan vet Salvatierra in two. good win.

– Interesting result: a little known Costa Rican named Felipe Segreda defeated regular IRT touring pro Carlos Ramirez 9,14.

– Another interesting international result: Guatemala’s #2 Jose Caceres took out top Ecuadorian Cueva in the 15/18 match.

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In the 16s:

– Hernandez made Acuna bend but he didn’t break, advancing 10,14.

– Gastelum with a great win over Miranda 8,9. There’s a handful of players right in the same age/cohort who seem to be beating each other up whenever they play and it includes Miranda, Gastelum, Trujillo, Hernandez, and to a lesser extent Acha and Barrios from Bolivia.

– Speaking of Trujillo, he took out Bolivian U18 star Flores in an 11-10 thriller. I honestly thought Flores had a shot at winning this tournament.

– Diego Garcia cruised past Alonso 13,2 in a result that should surprise no one at this point.

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In the Quarters

– Acuna destroyed Gastelum 1,1. Matchups matter: If Miranda had moved on i would have made this a lot closer. But Acuna survived one Mexican U21 star to crush another and move on.

– Mar d Trujillo; again, had this been Flores, i think we’d be singing a different tune. Mar’s tactically superior game plan outshines his young countryman’s Every time.

– Montoya d Garcia in a wbf-ns. What?? Garcia infamously had a wbf-ns when he misread the start time announcement for his IRT match in Chicago; is it possible he did it again? How can you have a no-show in a pro event that you’ve literally flown in for? Unless this was mis-entered as an inj-fft … there’s more to this story.

– Parrilla outclassed Carter 1,2.

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In the Semis, after all the possible upsets I predicted … we have the top four seeds advancing, mostly easily.

– #4 Mar outlasted #1 Acuna 11-9 in the third in a win that probably was expected irrespective of the seeding

– #2 Montoya ground out an 8,10 win over long-time SLP rival Parrilla to setup a final against his double partner.

In the Finals, Montoya handled his doubles partner as he normally does 10,10.

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Points Implications of results

I’m not sure because we don’t know the “tier” of this IRT satellite. If its a tier 2 (meaning a prize purse north of $10k but below the Tier 1 standards) then the points go 120 winner, 90 finalist, 60 semis, 40 quarters. If its a 5-10k event, then lower those points by 25%. I don’t think these points are going to make much of a difference in the year end race, but another 120 for Montoya certainly doesn’t hurt.

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Doubles review

Seeds held to the semis with the doubles teams, though a couple of the teams really had to work to get there. In the 4/5 match Hernandez/Trujillo had a barn-burner with Team Argentina (Miranda/Garcia), advancing 11-8 in the third In the 2/7 match, the very solid Ecuadorian team of Ugalde/Cueva really pressed Team San Luis Potosi (Parrilla & Alonso), finally falling 11-9.

In the semis, #1 Montoya/Mar dropped a game to their young Mexican rivals Hernandez/Trujillo but advanced. Meanwhile, Alonso & Parrilla were pushd to the absolute edge, saving match points against to win 11-10 against hte home-town favorites Acuna & Garcia.

In the final, Mar & Montoya beat their rivals 9,10 for the title.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

Next weekend is the LPRT season ending Sweet Caroline open in Charlotte, as well as the Mexican Junior Olympics. The last weekend of the month is USA Jr Nationals.

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tags

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LPRT Northern Virginia Invitational Recap

Mejia wins the battle, but Longoria wins the war. Photo unk.

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Montserrate Mejia

– Doubles: Maria Jose Vargas & @Valeria Centellas

Exec Summary: Mejia denies Longoria and wins her 8th career title, now sitting in 12th place alone. Nonetheless, Longoria secures the 2024-25 year end title, her 14th.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48794

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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/11b4f8

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In the 32s, a couple of notable results:

– Sanchez took out MRR to move on.

– Synhorst topped the veteran Acosta in a solid win

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In the 16s, just a couple of notable matches to mention:

– Lexi York took #5 Herrera to a breaker but fell

– The sole upset was #11 Parrilla taking out #6 Laime.

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In the Quarters

– #1 Longoria did what she normally does against #8 Lawrence, grinding out a solid win

– #4 Gaby made fast work of #5 Herrera.

– #3 Mejia took out her long-time rival Parrilla 8,7

– #2 Vargas was pushed by her former doubles partner Mendez but advanced 2,11

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In the Semis

– Longoria came out on top of a close 13,14 match against Gaby, who always seems to play Paola tough.

– In the increasingly tough 2/3 battle, Mejia came out on top over Vargas in a breaker. She advances to her 3rd straight final in as many chances after going months without doing so.

In the Finals, Mejia had it going on this day, winning13,5 to take the title, her 2nd in the last three events.

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Points Implications of results

Despite losing in the final, Longoria has officially sewn up her 14th career pro title. She has an insurmountable 334 point lead in the season-to-date standings, and with just one non-Grand slam event remaining she cannot be caught. Longoria returns to the top after missing out on the last two year end titles, and heads into the new season with a commanding lead, having made the final of all 6 stops thus far this season.

In other interesting rankings movement: going by Season-to-date standings, Mejia has not yet sewn up #2 but is close to doing so, but should jump Vargas for that slot in the year end event. Mendez has made a huge jump and projects to finish 5th. After years of being in the top 4, Herrera looks to slip all the way to #8. Munoz’ absence here costs here dearly; she’s projecting to finish #13 now. Lastly, three players are tied with the exact same number of points for 14th place (York, Lotts, and Synhorst), which will make the last event super interesting if they all attend.

Here’s a link to my IRT 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 @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16o0aE4YophvlQdezlMVj_dqPRUoDQqwE5-LtsLbOncg/edit?usp=sharing

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/40849b

Centellas got her first pro doubles title in nearly 5 years, teaming with Vargas to take out the Longoria/Salas team.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

The Ladies are right back at it, driving down I95 from DC to get to Charlotte for the season-ending Sweet Caroline Open, normally held in Greenville SC but moving this year due to club renovations.

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tags

@lpLPRT