Author: Todd Boss

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2025 Golden State Open Recap

Vargas takes back over #1 on tour with her win in Golden State Open. Photo via usaracquetballevents.com

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Singles: Conrrado Moscoso

– Women’s Pro Singles: Maria Jose Vargas

– Mixed Pro Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & Gaby Martinez

Moscoso wins his 10th career singles title (he’s now 14th all time) and his third straight major Mixed Pro Doubles title (to go along with the 2023 and 2025 World Singles & Doubles titles). Vargas wins her 13th career title, tied for 10th ever, and takes over World #1.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48678

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

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/42ed4b

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In the 32s:

– @Robbie Collins dropped the first game to @Wayne Antone 15-1, then came back to win 15-10 and 11-0 thereout.

– @DJ Mendoza grabbed the first game against Bolivian vet Carrasco, but couldn’t finish it out, losing in three.

– Bolivian junior debutant Santiago Borja certainly made #2 Javier Mar work for it, losing into 14 & 11. Great showing.

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In the 16s:

– Martell made fast work of Carter 7,3 in the 8/9 seed matchup

– Parrilla came back from a blowout game 1 loss to edge Diego Garcia in three 11-9. This was an upset special for me, but Parrilla held him off.

– Carrasco earned his first career pro IRT tier1 quarterfinal with a walkover injury against Natera. Alan had major knee surgery earlier this year and struggled a bit in his round of 32 match against a junior, and had to step out of this match.

– Alonso squeaked past Gastelum 6,14.

– Moscoso crushed Bolivian native turned Argentine Miranda 0,2.

– Lastly, the big result of the round: #2 Mar, who we already had circled as a potential upset in this match, had to retire after losing the first game to Bolivian phenom Flores.

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In the Quarters, all four matches go breaker:

– Montoya was stretched to three against countryman Martell but advanced.

– Parrilla held off Manilla 11-9 in the third to move into the semis.

– Alonso was pressed by Carrasco, but moved on in a very close 13,(13),8 result.

– Moscoso was pressed all night by Flores, but found an extra gear in the breaker to win 14,(10),6.

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In the Semis, the two top players in the draw (Montoya and Moscoso) cruised into the finals with little trouble; Montoya frustrated his long-time rival Parrilla 8,2 and Moscoso blasted Alonso 4,0 to setup the dream final.

In the Finals, we had two players who seem like they’re a lot closer than they historically have been: Moscoso led the h2h for their careers 9-5, but had won the last 5 meetings to put some separation between them from a period a few years ago where Montoya really seemed to have his number. Rodrigo did his best here to reverse the trend, taking game one 15-13, but Moscoso took over from there, winning games two and three by 15-7, 11-5 margins that weren’t ever really in doubt.

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Points Implications of Men’s Pro results

Moscoso’s win should move him up to #5, which once again in a full draw would put him on a collision course with Kane prior to a final. Montoya moves up one spot and now sits #3, though there’s little separating #2 to #6 (270 total points). Any missed event and a big run from any of the #2 to #6 guys will put them right behind Kane, who despite missing this event still maintains a massive lead atop the rankings.

In other movement: Natera’s injury loss costs him; he drops from 6 to 9. Flores now sits 16th in the rankings, meaning he’s creeping closer to more manageable round of 16s with each passing event; he was the #15 seed as the #19th ranked player this past weekend, moving up 4 spots due to missing players, and that should just continue. Trujillo, a mainstay on tour for the last couple of years, has missed his 3rd straight Tier 1 and may be quietly stepping back from touring for now.

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.

men

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z6eg6NJT6fjGMfRRyKTNLShAiDoz0TzzmQCt1_SbNBo/edit?usp=sharing

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

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/300dd0

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In the 32s:

– MRR got a solid win over Mexican junior Gutierrez 13,11 in kind of a trap match.

– Rajsich won her most recent return to LPRT, 6,3 over the elder Perez-Picon sisters.

– Andrea Perez-Picon, the reigning 16U Mexican Jr Champ who has also won US Jr National titles in the past out of the 209 Stockton Jr. factory, got a win over fellow Norcal player Erica Williams to advance.

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In the 16s:

– Centellas got a solid win over Parrilla in the 8/9 matchup, a good sign for the Argentine as she gets back into regular touring.

– Mendez was pressed by MRR before winning in three

– Gaby dominated US National Sanchez 4,2

– Mejia took out former 4-time pro champ Rajsich in two

– Laime was stretched before topping Munoz in three

– Lotts got a career win, topping Amaya in three, earning her 4th career quarter final appearance.

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In the Quarters, all four matches go chalk.

– #1 Longoria was pushed by Centellas 9,10

– #4 Gaby Martinez cruised past Mendez 7,11

– #3 Mejia had a match, going toe to toe with fellow power hitter Laime before advancing 11-8 in the third

– #2 Vargas moved past upset-minded Lotts 6,10

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In the Semis, Longoria was pressed to a breaker by Gaby as she often is, but she persevered after some acrobatic rallies to move into the final. Meanwhile, Vargas-Mejia turned into a smooth win for the Argentine, who is dialed in this weekend and advances 7,9.

In the Finals, Vargas just controlled the match from start to finish, Longoria just couldn’t seem to hit her serves or her lines, and Maria Jose won 8,8 to take her third straight title on tour. As @Steve Castleberry pointed out to me, It has been nearly to the beginning of Longoria’s touring career since she failed to win a tournament one out of four in a row … Vargas has now won the last three events, matching her career best stretch that powered her to her first pro title at the end of 2023.

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Points Implications of Women’s Pro results

The Points are tight at the top, and I may have my XLS calcs wrong, but I believe with this win Vargas takes back over #1 on tour by around 20 points. My sources tell me Longoria may miss the next event due to conflicts with her new career in politics, which could spell trouble for her title defense. Other movements: despite Herrera’s absence she will jump Laime for #6. There should be a wholesale shuffling of the ladies ranked 14th to 18th with Lott’s big win, MRR’s strong return, and York/Synhorst’s absence this weekend.

Here’s a link to my running 2-year+ Women’s ranking worksheet.

women

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

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Mixed Pro Doubles review

Natera’s injury suffered during singles resulted in his wife picking up a last minute sub … and she managed to “find” a suitable replacement in the legendary Alvaro Beltran. Alvi’s inclusion caused a last minute shuffling of the whole mixed draft and actually improved the draw, removing one blatantly too-early matchup and getting neutrals a better draw. Here’s a quick rundown of how the action went:

In the 16s:

– the Parrillas were pushed to an 11-10 limit by Guatemalans MRR and Galicia, a testament to how “back” Maria Renee seems to be based on her results this weekend.

– Last minute sub Beltran got to a breaker, but fell alongside Munoz to the Argentines MIranda and Mendez

– The Manillas, kind of inexplicably seeded 10th despite winning US Nationals Mixed two years ago, “uspet” the #7 seeds Carter & Lotts.

In the quarters:

– Mejia & Mar held off the tough young Flores/Centellas pairing.

– The Parrilla siblings took out the #4 seeds Miranda & Mendez

– Moscoso &Martinez had a great win over Vargas & Garcia in the match of the round.

– The Manilla siblings, seeded 10th, continue to upset and prove the seeding committee wrong with a solid 15,7 win over #2 Montoya/Laime.

Semis: the two favorites advanced, with Mar/Mejia dominating the Parrillas and Moscoso/Martinez crushing the Manillas.

In the final, Moscoso won his 3rd straight major Mixed Pro doubles title with a come-from-behind win over Mar & Mejia (14),10,2.

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Open Singles, Open Doubles, other notable draws

– Texan USA Junior National DJ Mendoza won a stacked Men’s Open singles draw, beating the surprise finalist Alvaro Guillen from Costa Rica

– Mexican former Jr star Ivanna Balderrama won a solid international junior laden Women’s Open/Elite draw, beating fellow Mexican Michelle Gomez in the final.

– Flores & Guillen took the big Men’s Open Doubles draw, getting a walk-over in the final but more than earning their title.

– Guatemalans MRR and Reyes won the small RR Women’s Open Doubles draw.

– Guatemalans continued to shine, taking the Mixed Open doubles draw as Mansilla/Sipac beat Mexicans Martin & Gutierrez in the final.

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Thanks for all the streaming, thanks for the Tourney directors, and the sponsors.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

The 10th annual Asia Open Racquetball competition is next weekend in Seoul. After that, there’s an IRT Satellite just announced in the Chicagoland area. November features more IRT events plus a possible IRT/LPRT collab in Denver.

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tags

@International Racquetball Tour

LPRT

Posted on

2025 Golden State Open Preview

Rhonda Rajsich with a rare pro appearance. Photo 202 USAR Doubles by Kevin Savory

One of the year’s biggest events is this coming weekend; the 2025 Golden State Open, the brainchild of two former touring pros in @David ” Bobby” Horn and @Adam Manilla, hosted by two of Stockton’s legends @John Ellis and Steve Cook. Both pro tours are onsite at the Bay Club Pleasanton in the East Bay portion of the San Francisco bay area, which means a huge prize purse fundraising effort was done and we get Mixed Pro Doubles for the second time in as many months.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48678

There’s 38 men’s pros and 21 Women’s pros on hand, with fireworks and unexpected results anticipated. By the time you read this play has already started, with the round of 64 on the mens side getting a rare Wednesday evening start.

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Let’s preview the Draws. We’ll do the two singles draws and then the Mixed Pro draw. They’re hosting Open doubles draws for both genders, but the top pros are not entered.

Men first: as we covered in our IRTclub Fantasy Fastbreak podcast with @BBrian Pineda (see here for the link if interested: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1590097114629503/?multi_permalinks=3794248374214355&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen ), we are missing the top three ranked players out of this draw and four of the top 10. Kane and Jake both have weddings (separate weddings we believe), Andres had a family commitment, and Lalo is elsewhere along with his girlfriend Herrera.

This leaves Rodrigo Montoya to get a #1 seed, a career high. In fact, most of the top 8 at this event are at career high seedings: Mar at #2, Natera at #3, Alonso at #6, and Carter at #8 are all career-best seeds, and the mashed up top 8 is going to give us some new and unexpected head-to-heads here.

More importantly, the absence of Kane in particular historically has been a big indicator that we may get a first time winner.

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In the round of 64 and 32, here’s a few matches to watch for:

– Mauro Rojas vs Emir Martinez: Rojas a former US Junior National champ, and Emir a former top Junior from Mexico. Tough opener, and as it turns out it went three before Rojas fell.

– There’s a few unknown Bolivians who made the trip and who could make waves: Arnez & Borja in particular. Santiago Borja is the two-time defending World 14U junior champion. Both won their openers to face off against top ranked pros in the 32s.

– Sendrey vs Wolfe in the 32s is a solid test for the teenager to see if he can take out a semi-regular IRT touring player.

– Mexican Junior Santiago Castillo, who owns a slew of Mexican Jr National titles including the 2024 16U title, faces off against IRT veteran @Thomas Carter in a match he can’t look past.

– Carrasco-Mendoza in the 14-19 matchup could be close: how much is Mendoza improving versus how quickly is the aging Carrasco’s skills fading?

– If Borja wins his first, he plays into #2 Mar. A good pro debut for the 15yr old.

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Round of 16:

– Martell-Carter in the 8/9 is an interesting matchup; they’ve never met in a top-level event.

– We’re projecting two lefties who both play out of the Bay Area a lot in Collins and Manilla into the 16s.

– Tough draw once again for Parrilla: last week Moscoso played into him early, this week is Garcia, who’s demonstrated his ability to beat nearly anyone on tour.

– Gastelum-Alonso could be close: they met at 2024 Mexican Nationals and Alonso prevailed in three, but Gastelum has come a long way. This is Pineda’s big upset pick.

– the dangerous Miranda meets Moscoso in the 7-10 matchup; this is too bad for Miranda, who has been eyeing a deep run.

– #2 Mar faces off against #15 Flores in a huge trouble area for the Mexican. If Flores plays up to his capabilities, this might be a huge upset.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Montoya over the Carter/Martel winner: Montoya will be favored no matter who comes out here, and has to like his draw this weekend in general. No crazy bolivian junior world champs, no Moscoso seeded 16th, etc.

– Manilla-Garcia: Manilla made a massive run here last year as the host; can he do it again?

– Natera v Alonso: both players are probably looking at each other going, “hey i should win this” and get back to the semis. Could be close

– Moscoso will be favored over whoever comes out of that bottom half, whether its a huge shock like Borja, an upset-minded Flores, or Mar holding serve against two top Bolivian juniors he’s set to face early.

Semis:

– Montoya over Manilla/Garcia winner: Montoya’s only obstacle to the final this week is injury.

– Moscoso over Natera/Alonso winner: this could be over fast.

Finals; I’m calling a Moscoso-Montoya final, with Conrrado taking the title.

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Women’s Pro Singles preview:

Like with the Men’s draw, the ladies draw is missing a few key players. Herrera is out, as is Lawrence and Salas (surgery). So that’s three top 10 ladies missing. What we do have in this draw is a bunch of top Junior Mexicans who we rarely see, including the Perez-Picon sisters. Plus, we get a rare sighting of Rhonda Rajsich, which is awesome to see the future Hall of Famer.

Preview of the draw:

round of 32s to watch for:

– top Mexican U21 player Cynthia Gutierrez makes her LPRT debut and faces Maria Renee Rodriguez-Josey in a tough one for the veteran

– Andrea Perez PIcon, the reigning Mexican 16U champ and finalist at World Juniors last December, faces Norcal’s ERica Williams. Andrea’s older sister Estefania feeds into the Legend Rajsich.

Projected 16s of note:

– The 8/9 between Centellas and Parrilla will be awesome.

– #4 Gaby Martinez projects to play rising USA player Annie Sanchez, who’s played some top players close lately.

– Mejia could face Rhonda in a generational battle of top players

– Munoz-Laime is probably the match of the round.

– Amaya-Lotts will be a battle.

Qtrs on: From here, I see the top four ladies advancing as they typically do: there’s such a gap between Longoria/Mejia/Vargas/Gaby to the rest of the tour right now, it’s hard to predict any upsets. I see Longoria topping Mejia in the final.

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Mixed Pro Doubles

I love Mixed pro doubles: we just have no idea who’s going to win some of these early matches. Normally I look at the two women’s players and try to use that as a determining factor (thinking that the weakest link on the court will get the most shots and will play the biggest part in the match result), but that doesn’t always tell the whole story, and the doubles acumen of the players involved needs to be given more weight. With Salas missing (one of the best mixed doubles players ever) and Longoria skipping out, there’s some new teams and tough matchups.

Here’s some matches to look for and some guesses how this draw will go:

In the 16s, easily the match of the round is the Manilla siblings versus the Argentine mixed national team of Garcia/Vargas: how this is an opening round match is beyond me.

In the quarters:

– Mar/Mejia should advance

– I like Natera/Munoz over the Parrilla sisters

– Moscoso/Martinez should beat whoever comes out of the above 6/11 match, but once again this is the toughest part of the bracket.

– Montoya/Laime is an amazing team and should top Miranda/Mendez.

Semis:

– Mar/Mejia should beat Natera/Munoz … but when these two teams met in the 2023 World Doubles competition it was an 8,9 win for the Chileans. So who knows. I think Munoz is a better doubles player than her counterpart, but Mejia is the harder hitter. Mar-Natera is probably a wash on the left, but Mar is a superior doubles player when he plays with Montoya on the right.

– Moscoso/Gaby over Montoya/Laime, but I have no confidence here. Montoya won the 2025 World Doubles mixed title with Paola in both 2023 and 2025, and Gaby should hold her own as a solid doubles player on the right. But, Laime is no doubles slouch and they could surprise here. Great match.

In the final, i’ll go with the winner of the bottom semi, who i’m thinking is going to be Moscoso/Gaby.

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IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!

Associations

International Racquetball Tour

LPRT

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2025 Academy Open recap

Mar with the double on the weekend. Photo Kevin Savory 2019 US Open

The Lomas Racquet club in San Luis Potosi held a solid local event last weekend, which ended up drawing a slew of top touring pros both Male and Female, especially those with ties to the SLP racquetball community, competing in the 2025 Academy open.

Congrats to the winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Open Singles: Javier Mar

– Women’s Open Singles: Paola Longoria

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

– Women’s Open Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alexandra Herrera

Perhaps the most surprising entrant across the board was 3-time IRT champion @Daniel De La Rosa, who hails from the area and grew up playing on these courts, but who has “retired” from pro racquetball to pursue Pro Pickleball and who last appeared in an IRT event in January 2024. How rusty was DLR and how would he fair against the top Mexican touring pros of today?

Let’s do a quick recap of the Open Draws.

—-

Men’s Open Singles:

Seeding at FMR events always makes me scratch my head; DLR was seeded 3rd, ahead of Andree Parrilla (currently ranked in the top 8 on tour). I suppose out of respect. Nonetheless, he played to his seed, making the semis before falling to #2 Javier Mar. Mar beat him 10,1,9, probably a fair result and one where DLR showed a ton of rust against a player he normally handles easily. From the top half, #5 @Diego Gastelum upset #4 @Andree Parrilla in the quarters, then fell to top seed #1 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball to setup a 1-vs-2 singles final between doubles partners Mar & Montoya. In the final, Mar got the better of his friend and long-time partner Montoya in four games.

Men’s Open Doubles:

Mar/Montoya and Parrilla/Gastelum took the group stages, forcing DLR/Mendoza to face the favorites in the semis. There they lost, and Mar & Montoya took the title, giving Mar the double for the weekend.

Women’s Open Singles:

Four top-10 LPRT pros headlined the draw and played to their seeds into the semis. #1 Paola Longoria topped Jessica Parrilla in one semi, while Montse Mejia topped Alexandra Herrera in the other. In the final, Mejia cruised to a game one win, then Longoria turned it around and won three straight for the title.

Women’s Open Doubles:

Five teams played a full RR for the title: LPRT #1 teamed with Hollie Scott, who traveled with boyfriend De la Rosa down for the event, and were “upset” in the group stage final by Mejia & Herrera (seeded 2nd despite being the best doubles team in the world for some time now).

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An excellent draw and great competition in SLP, even if we didn’t really get any of the up and coming juniors in Mexico making any noise this weekend. The tourney certainly served as a great tune-up for next Week’s Golden State Open, which we’ll preview in a few days.

Posted on

2025 IRT Track Town Recap

Kane wins #131 on tour. Photo Ken Fife

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Pro Singles: @Kane Waselenchuk

Kane wins his 131st career Tier1 title on tour, which now gives him an even 60 more titles than 2nd place Cliff Swain in the known history of the tour.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=50060

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

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/43f709

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In the 32s: the two most notable/closest matches involved the two tourney hosts @Charlie Pratt and @Wayne Antone.

– Pratt (a former Tier 1 winner himself) matched up against the former #1 Moscoso as the Bolivian continues his comeback trail from falling out of the top 20 due to injury; Charlie could do little with Moscoso, losing 4,2.

– Antone played touring veteran @Robbie Collins tough in the first game, but eventually fell 12,5 to the hard hitting Hawaiian.

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In the 16s, we saw mostly blow-outs, as there seems to be the beginnings of a gap on tour as the top 8-10 players seem like they’re beginning to separate themselves from the rest of the tour. There were two relatively close matches though and a couple others worth noting:

– #8 @Adam Manilla crushed #9 @Jordy Alonso 2,6, kind of making a statement about where both players truly sit right now. Alonso had a couple of notable events earlier this year, but has struggled to break into the top 10, while Manilla’s injury has him stuck in that dreaded #8/#9 slot that plays into Kane, making it tougher for him to move up.

– #5 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball was stretched a bit by @Diego Gastelum 7,12. Gastelum (along with the likes of Garcia, Flores, Hernandez, Trujillo, and Miranda) seems like the next “wave” of players that will be taking over the tour’s middle class, and it’s just a matter of time before we see Diego winning this kind of match.

– #13 Moscoso beat #4 @Andree Parrilla 14,10 in this week’s “top 8 seed who gets beat way too early because Mosocso is on his come back tour” match.

– Mar shellacked Martell 4,4 in a match I thought would be a bit closer.

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In the Quarters

– Manilla certainly made Kane work for it a bit more than in Denver a couple weeks ago, losing 12,6

– In perhaps the tourney’s best match, Moscoso over came match points against in game two before winning in a breaker. final score: (8),14,4

– #3 @Jake Bredenbeck out-controlled Mar’s control game and ground out a 10,9 win to move on.

– #2 @Andres Acuna, the defending event champ, was brought back to earth when he couldn’t convert match point against #7 @alan Natera. Natera moves into the semis for just the second time in his career.

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In the Semis

– Kane beat Moscoso in the longest 4,3 match you’ll ever see, which took 45 minutes and was back and forth 3-shot rallies being traded by the tour’s two hardest hitters. In the end, Kane’s consistency and Moscoso’s error-prone shot making was the difference in this “blowout” that, amazingly, was a lot closer than the score line indicated.

– Jake handled Natera in two close games to get to his 9th career pro final.

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In the Finals, we saw an interesting match for sure. Jake scored the first seven points (as many as Moscoso got in his entire match) and at one point had a 10-1 lead over Kane in game one by serving absolutely lights out to both sides of the court. Kane had little answer for Jake’s pinpoint serve placement to open the match. Kane eventually got back into the game but ran out of time in his comeback, losing Game one 15-11.

Clearly Kane just needed a bit more warm-up time, because from the start of game 2 to the end of the match, it was one-way traffic the other way. Kane blasted Jake off the court 15-2 by flipping the script and himself serving even more effectively than Jake did in the opener, and then Kane didn’t letup until the match was over, winning the match (11),2,2. Kane went down 10-1 in the first game … then won 36 points to Jake’s 8 the rest of the way.

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Points Implications of results

Kane adds to his lead atop the tour: he’s now 1000 points ahead of Acuna in 2nd place, but is now entering a stretch where he’s defending max points for the next six months: he won four straight times between October 2024 and Mar 2025, so any non-win means the tour is catching up to him for a while.

Portillos’ absence and Parrilla’s early loss cost them: they drop from 3 & 4 to 7&8 respectively. Jake ascends to #3 on tour with his finals appearance. Moscoso moves up to #11, Trujillo drops to #15 in the only other significant top-20 player movement.

In a couple week’s time, when Last year’s Spokane event expires, we will see even more movement. We likely will see Mar moving up to a career high as Montoya has more points expiring from mid Oct 2024.

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.

men

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z6eg6NJT6fjGMfRRyKTNLShAiDoz0TzzmQCt1_SbNBo/edit?usp=sharing

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Doubles review: there was no Pro doubles in Eugene.

Open Singles, other notable draws

– Local player @Sunji Spencer beat IRT touring regular @Carlos Ramirez to win Open Singles.

– Antone/Turner beat Spencer/Rivera in a small Open Doubles draw.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

Next up we move to the Manilla/Horn Golden State Open in Pleasanton, where we’ll have both the men and women pros in action!

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tags

@International racquetball tour

Posted on

IRT 2025 Track Town Open Preview

Can Acuna repeat his feat? Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

First off, if you haven’t seen the Fantasy Fastbreak podcast I do with Brian Pineda before and after every IRT event, then you’re missing out. Go here for us talking through this draft and talking IRT Club Fantasy Racquetball

https://www.facebook.com/racquetballtour/videos/1555995488722938

After a year’s hiatus, the IRT returns to a relatively new spot on the schedule in Eugene, Oregon for the 2025 Track Town Open. Originally the brain child of former US National team members and Pacific Northwest residents @Charlie Pratt Racquetball and Wayne Antone, this tournament brings back the IRT and the full strength of a Tier 1 stop to Oregon once again. Nearby Portland is one of the biggest junior development areas in the world, and we see a ton of former top juniors entered into both the pro draws and the event in general.

The 2023 version of this event represented a couple of really historic moments on tour. It was the last tournament that 3-time tour champion @Daniel De La Rosa ever won, and this win (and an early loss by then-#1 Moscoso) essentially sealed the 2023 title for the soon-to-be-departing Pickleball pro. It was also directly in the wake of this event that Jake Bredenbeck ascended to hold the #1 spot on tour, which he held until the season’s final event.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=50060

There’s 23 entrants into the pro singles draw here, as the tourney’s location makes it a tough travel challenge for central and South Americans. The event is missing a couple of top competitors: #3 Lalo Portillo is out, something that I’d guess might be more prevalent now that he’s a fully certified airline pilot. Then, a big chunk of the 11-20 guys are not here, including Miranda, Trujillo, Garcia, Flores, and Sam Bredenbeck. This means on the one hand fewer upsets in the early rounds, and it means opportunity for the top players to book some needed points.

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

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In the 32s:

– Several local players get their IRT pro tour debuts this weekend, including Tony Teach, Sean Brooks, and Travis Haines.

– Oregon native, former touring pro, holder of the 2017 Pelham Memorial Tier 1 title, and former US National team coach @Charlie Pratt gets a rare appearance on tour; he plays #13 Moscoso. If Pratt had played into anyone else in the 9-16 range maybe he has a chance, but Conrrado will cruise past him.

– I like the @Wayne Antone Racquetball / @Robert Collins opener; could go either way.

– Two tour regulars in Carlos Ramirez and Jim Douglas get to play each other for a spot in the main draw.

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round of 16 Notable matches:

– Manilla and Alonso face off in the 8/9; great match. Should go the distance.

– Montoya gets the Gastelum/Spencer winner and needs to keep focused to move on. Gastelum gets a good test against a fellow Mexican.

– @Conrrado Moscoso comes into this event #13 on the back of some newly achieved points; this at least gets him out of a 1-16 matchup with Kane. Instead he plays into the #4 seed in @Andree parrilla, which I’m sure he’s not happy about.

– @Jake Bredenbeck gets the Collins/Antone winner. I don’t think there’s an upset here, but all of these guys are US National team veterans who can get points off of each other.

– top Mexicans Mar and Martell project into each other; I don’t have them meeting in a top-level event since Mexican Nationals in 2019.

– Natera continues to work his way back after ankle surgery earlier this year with a winnable match versus Carter in the 7/10.

– Last event’s champion Acuna starts his march back to the final against the Ramirez/Douglas winner.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 @Kane Waselenchuk over Manilla in a rematch of World Doubles lefty on lefty quarters. Hopefully Adam scores a few more points this time.

– we get a possible banger of a match between the two hardest hitters on tour in Moscoso and Montoya. For neutrals, huge fan of this potential matchup.

– Mar vs Bredenbeck rekindles an old rivalry that dates back to their first meeting in early 2016. Mar hasn’t lost to Jake since, including a meeting on tour in Pleasanton last year. Advantage Javi.

– Acuna gets his first test in Natera in the quarters; they met three times in three straight events in late 23-early 24, all three easy Acuna wins, and with Natera perhaps not yet 100% post surgery this should be Acuna moving into the semis for the 4th time in his last 5 events.

Semis:

– Kane and Moscoso project to play in my predictions in the semis, not the 16s as in Denver. And that might workout just fine for the Bolivian, who gets Kane after a couple of rounds of matches instead of fresh and lively on a Thursday. Furthermore, this will be Kane’s 2nd match of Saturday, as the pros will play both quarters and semis on one day. Will it matter? Kane won 5,14 two weeks ago, an interesting result to me in that Moscoso is usually more of a front-runner (meaning, when he loses in two, it’s usually close in the first game and a blow out in the second). I’m thinking this goes breaker, and Kane may be pressed a bit more than he’s used to before advancing.

– Acuna projects to face Mar in this scenario, a player he just waxed in the Denver quarters. I see no reason for a different result here.

Finals; a rematch of Acuna and Kane. Something tells me Kane wants to exact some revenge here and will get plenty of beauty rest Saturday night in order to be ready for a beating Sunday. Look for a two-game statement win from the King.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.

Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend 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.

IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!

Associations

@International Racquetball Tour

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IRT DMV Invitational Recap

Tourney Host Sebastian Franco. Photo Kevin Savory 2018 US Open

Hot on the heels of World Singles & Doubles was a quick Satellite event held in the old DMV, my stomping grounds. The DMV Invitational was held last weekend in Severna Park and played host to a slew of international players who stuck around state-side to play another event before heading back home.

This led to a solid 24-man IRT draw and some great action. here’s a quick recap:

Top seed Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball , who had to forfeit out of Denver’s event with an ugly-looking ankle sprain, ground out a couple solid wins to get to the final. He topped two of the best local players in Maryland in order in John Behm and then Ezequiel Subieta, who once made the Bolivian Junior national team before settling in the DC area and dominating DC/MD/VA events. Subieta topped the tourney host and former IRT Tier1 winner @sebastian Franco 7,2 to earn the shot at Montoya. In the semis, Montoya beat Sam Bredenbeck but certainly had to work for it, with Sam pushing Rodrigo 12,11 before falling.

From the bottom half, the player we keep talking about Bolivian 18U champ @Jhonatan Flores had himself a solid event, beating local favorite Zelada in the 16s and then No. 2 seed @javier mar in the quarters. He then fell to former #1 and fellow Bolivian @Conrrado Moscoso in the semis, but it was no blowout (11-7 in the third).

The final we well contested until Montoya had to retire again, losing 15-9 and retiring at 6-6 in the second. Moscoso takes the title in a Bolivia heavy field befitting a DC area event and its large Bolivian population.

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Doubles:

the two top pairs of IRT tour vets and regular partners were the two top seeds, and made their way to the final without much incident. There, the No 1 Montoya/Mar pair had to forfeit out with Rodrigo’s injury, giving hte title to No. 2 Moscoso/Carrasco. This gives Moscoso the double for his troubles.

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Any points are good points to earn for Moscoso right now, and these Satellite points should be enough to move Moscoso up a couple slots on the ranking, perhaps enough to get him out of a 1-16 matchup with Kane next time.

Next up on the calendar: The IRT Tracktown Open in Oregon at the end of the month.

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2025 World Singles and Doubles Recap

Andres Acuna wins his first tier 1 IRT title. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Singles: @Andres Acuna

– Women’s Pro Singles: Maria Jose Vargas

– Mixed Pro Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & Paola Longoria

Acuna becomes the 46th man in the history of the pro tours (dating to Sept 1973) to win a Tier 1 title. Vargas wins her 13th career title and is now in the top 10 all time on the ladies tour. Lastly, Moscoso/Longoria repeat as winners of this event, topping the #15 seeds Carson & Key in an amazing run to the final.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=42889

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

Men’s Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/7a1248

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In the 64s:

– US Junior national team member @DJ Mendoza took a barn burner over DC-area Open player turned Florida Man @Dylan Pruitt, surviving 11-10 to move on. Tough matchup for both, and predictably it went the distance.

– European #1 German @Marcel Leunsmann made his IRT pro debut and pushed the solid @MIguel Angel Arteaga in game one 15-14 before running out of gas 14,4.

– We had a weird situation where a score in R2 was entered then changed; initially Camacho was listed as a winner over Carrasco by the very odd scoreline (0),0,0, indicating a triple donut. Turns out the real scoreline was a 6,(13),10 edge of your seat win for the Bolivian.

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In the 32s:

– Moscoso got a walkover/withdrawal from Carlos Ramirez to setup the anticipated round of 16 against Moscoso

– @Sam Bredenbeck got a really solid win over #12 @Jaime Martell Racquetball , 12,7. This is probably his career best win, certainly by seed of the opponent, but also by talent of the opponent.

– Bolivian 18U champ Flores crushed his fellow rising Junior Gastelum 6,9 to put himself into the 16s.

– Bolivian Vet Carrasco upset @Thomas Carter 13,6. This is a step back for Carter, the kind of matches he’s generally been winning lately has he’s climbed up the rankings.

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In the 16s, we get some big surprises and of course a heavyweight matchup

– In the 1/16, we get basically the two best players in the sport playing thanks to Moscoso’s injuries costing him a ton of ranking points. The two played their typical match; lots of power, great shot making, and a series of streaks that defined each game. Kane jumped out well ahead in game 1, Moscoso fought back briefly, then Kane powered into Game 2. There it was the reverse; Moscoso jumped ahead, Kane fought back, and then it was Kane fighting off game points at the end and taking the gam 15-14 to save a tie-breaker. It was good to see Moscoso not capitulate in game two after a heavy game 1 loss; he’s just 10-26 lifetime on tour when he loses the first game. Hopefully we don’t see another 1-16 like this at the next event.

– @Adam Manilla returned from injury and ground out a great 11-10 win over #8 @alan Natera to move on. Solid win by Adam, who is looking to get back into his lofty 4-5 range.

– @Jake Bredenbeck tamed the young Bolivian phenom @Jhonathan Flores 7,9 against this prognosticator’s predictions both here and on the IRT club podcast. Jake played well and just controlled the youngster.

– Miranda got a walkover against #3 Parrilla, whose back tightened up on him suddenly and wouldn’t release in time to play.

– Montoya was pressed to a breaker by Bolivian Carrasco before advancing, but the effort caused him to roll an ankle, which knocked him out of the next round.

– Mar destroyed Alonso 8,0 in a big time reversal of latest trends.

– In another top round matchup, #2 Acuna stepped up and took out the tough Argentine @dieDiego Garcia 5,6. A two-time international finalist this year, Garcia was thought to be a dark-horse for the semis, but Acuna had other plans.

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In the Quarters

– Kane destroyed Adam 0,2 in a lefty on lefty crime.

– Portillo outlasted Jake in a breaker to get back to the semis once again.

– Miranda gets his second straight walkover, this time over Montoya, to get to the semis without playing for two days.

– Acuna played amazingly well to outclass Mar 9,5. All props here; these were two straight great wins for the costa Rican.

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In the Semis

– Kane took out Lalo 7,12 to get to anther final.

– Acuna looked like he might get upset, as Miranda controlled game one, but he flipped the script to get to the final (7),13,3.

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In the Finals, what looked like a mismatch quickly turned into a battle. Kane from the onset didn’t look as if he was moving at 100%, but still made shots. Acuna’s drive serves were working to the left and to the right and kept in points. The two were neck and neck to 14-14, which is where Kane usually finds some magic to pull wins out of losses … but the pair went back and forth at game point several times before Acuna pulled it out.

This effort seemed to deflate Kane, who got down early fast in game two and started mailing it in. I didn’t see a postgame comment about what might have been the issue, but by match point against Kane wasn’t even trying. I did not see any post match intel on what may have been ailing him, but i’ll make two main points here.

1. Kane is 43. He’s not going to be 100% physically for every match anymore. So a big part of his title pursuit will be mitigating injury and staying healthy long enough on these tough weekends to get to the semis and finals regularly. Now, as we saw in this match, even at 43 he’s still the best player out there, he’s still in a position to crush drive serves on muscle memory and get a lot of free points on 3-shot rallies where his serve is flailed back for a setup. However, on those days where he has to play both a 16 and a quarter, he’s vulnerable. By Sunday, having played hard for three straight days, sometimes you’ll see him stiffen up, tweak something, etc. That’s just part of the story now.

2. I’m not taking anything away from Acuna here. You can talk all you want about how Kane wasn’t 100%, but that ignores how well Acuna has played Kane lately, and it ignores how good Acuna has been playing lately. He didn’t get to #2 in the world by luck, and the last few times he’s played Kane its been closer and closer. Kane beat him 12,14 earlier this year in Minnesota. The time before that it was 10,7 in Spokane. Andres took a game off Kane last year in Sioux Falls. Back in March 2022 Kane was crushing him 3,3 … no longer; now its a battle every time. So all props to Acuna here. I thought he would lose in the 16s and he won the event.

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With this win, Acuna becomes the 46th ever player to win a Tier 1 title. He joins an interesting looking group of 1-title holders on tour that includes a few current players (Portillo, Montoya) a few recently retired players (Mercado, Franco, Pratt), some 90s pros (Guidry, Sweeney, Croft), and some historical guys (Hawkes, Wagner).

see https://rball.pro/q60 for a list of all title holders historically.

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Men’s Points Implication of the results

Kane maintains a massive lead atop the rankings, but with a pivot to fall-to-spring scoring there’s a lot of time to catch up. Portillo moves to #3 with the result, probably a fitting ranking given his performance this season so far. Mar moves up to #7, which is a career high. Miranda will move up to #13 on tour, amazing given that he had barely played any events prior to 2025. Moscoso remains at #17, which runs the risk of another Kane-Conrrado round of 16 unless we have a couple guys miss the next event (which is of course possible, since many are facing long flights from South America). Flores up to #18.

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

Women’s Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/86790d

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In the 32s:

– A meeting between two top Americans turned into a disappointing injury fft, as @michelle key had to withdraw from her first round singles match against reigning US national champ Naomi Ros with injury. Key had just advanced two rounds in Mixed, so hopefully she’s sacrificing one draw for another.

– The legend @Rhonda Rajsich, who had played just two pro events since retiring in June 2022, got a come from behind win over tour regular @Stephanie Synhorst.

– Canadian #2 @Juliette Parent got a nice win over LPRT tour veteran @Maria Renee Rodriguez in three.

– In a showdown between the top U21 players in the world and one of her leading rivals who just matriculated out of Juniors, Bolivian @Camila Rivero topped @Annie Sanchez in two.

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In the 16s:

– Props to Naomi Ros for pushing Longoria to a tie-breaker. Every time Ros takes the court against a top player, she learns valuable take-aways that make her a better player.

– Salas advanced by 11-10 over Centellas, a battle of generational talents.

– @Carla Munoz got one of the better wins of her career with a TB win over #4 Herrera. She missed two events at the end of last season, which sent her ranking plummeting, but wins like this will get her back in no time.

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In the Quarters

– It was mostly chalk, as 1,2,3 top seeds advanced. With Herrera out, #5 Mendez took advantage and Munoz couldn’t beat them both in a row.

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In the Semis

– Mendez shocked Longoria in game 2, winning 15-2 but fell to give Paola another final.

– Vargas and Mejia renewed their rivalry, playing a very close 13,12 match to send Vargas to the final and setup 1v2.

In the Finals, Longoria and Vargas had their typical back and forth battle in the first two games, splitting them to go to yet another tiebreaker in their recent head to head rivalry. There, something happened that has literally never happened to Paola before: she took a donut in a pro match. Vargas topped her 11-0 in the breaker to take the title, giving Paola her first career donut. Not only that, but Longoria had only ever even been held to 1 point in a game four times , all of them before 2010. It’s just a crazy stat.

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Points Implications of results for the Ladies

Vargas makes a big jump up in the standings but still remains #2. She had a bad Denver 2024 event expire (she lost in the qtrs last year) but won, so she is now within 100 points of Paola for the lead. Gaby’s absence once again crushes her in the rankings; she’s now 600 points behind 3rd place. Herrera will drop to #6 with the upset loss. Parrilla will drop to #11 with the absence. Munoz remains #15, while Ros moves into the top 20 for the first time.

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Here’s a link to my Rolling 2year Calendar XLS for both tours, 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.

Note: with the new IRT ownership, the points have changed for IRT events for previous 2025 results and going forward. Here’s a quick overview of the points changes:

– 1st place: 420 (was 400)

– finalist: 280 (was 300): this clearly gives more credit for winning an event now

– semis; 210 (was 220); down a little

– qtrs: 140 (was 150): down a little

– 16s: 70 (was 90): so just making the 16s isn’t as big as it once was

– 32s: 35 (was 40): little change.

men

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z6eg6NJT6fjGMfRRyKTNLShAiDoz0TzzmQCt1_SbNBo/edit?usp=sharing

women

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

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Mixed Pro Doubles review

As predicted in my preview, both in print and on the IRT Fantasy podcast, you could throw the seedings out of the window in the Mixed draw, as the first round gave us a slew of “upsets.”

By the time the round of 16 was over, we’d seen the #2, #5, and #8 seeds vanquished. The most impressive early run was by #15 Carson & Key, who won their opener against Texas juniors Mendoza & Ros, then ousted the defending Mixed Pro finalists Natera & Munoz rather easily to move on. The Manilla siblings, both of whom who have struggled with injury over the last year, shook off some early rust to blast the #5 seeds Parrilla & Mendez to move into the quarters.

In the Mixed qtrs, the top 3 seeds advanced, while Carson & Key kept their I-formation show going and took out 2018 Mixed pro champs Montoya & Salas in a breaker.

In the semis: Longoria/Moscoso advanced over Mar/Mejia in an amazing match, one point shy of the perfect match 14,(14),9. Carson & Key kept the show going with a similarly brutal tiebreaker win over the Herrera/Portillo pair to setup a #1 vs #15 unlikely final.

In the final: Key & Carson took game one, but the top seeds pulled the match out in a 3rd successive tiebreaker to win the title and defend their 2023 win.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Arteaga beat Cole Sendrey in the Open final.

– The all Junior team of Mendez & Flores won the Open Doubles over Team Guatemala (Caceres & Salvatierra)

– Annie Sanchez beat Guatemalan Reyes in the Women’s Open final.

– Sheryl Lotts & Lexi York took the “Pro/Open” doubles title, which had a slew of solid teams.

– Jaime Martell & Chanis Leon took the Mixed Open Doubles draw.

There were a slew of really solid Age group competitions too, with lots of Nationally recognized names present. Bravo to all the people who traveled to this event to play and support it. We may never get another one like it.

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Fantasy Racquetball Competition Wrap-up

The first round of the IRT club Fantasy brackets kicked off, and there’s a 10-way tie for first at the moment. I’m in 12th place, 1 point behind the main crew.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from both pro teams.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

Next up is National Racquetball day and a slew of shootouts and events around the country. This includes an IRT satellite event in the DMV hosted by Sebastian Franco in Severna Park that’s catching a lot of the South Americans on their way out of town. The next big pro event is the Tracktown Open in Eugene Oregon at the end of the month.

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tags

@iInternational Racquetball Tour

@LPRT

Posted on

2025 World Singles and Doubles Preview

Can Jhonathan Flores make another run? Photo via IRT IG

Welcome to the fourth edition of Tournament Director Jim Hiser’s World Singles and Doubles tournament in Denver, the biggest pro event we currently have on the Racquetball calendar. Hiser, the former pro tour commissioner and long-time Executive Director of USA Racquetball , devised this event back in 2018 as a doubles-only showcase featuring (for what was believed to be the first time) a Pro Mixed Doubles draw.

Starting in 2021 (after skipping the Covid year), Hiser added in full pro singles draws for both the International Racquetball Tour and the LPRT but keeping the prize money for the Pro Mixed, making this a unique showcase of Mixed doubles talent. Nowhere outside of @International Racquetball Federation – IRF are there really top-level pro mixed draws, and IRF events don’t have nearly the depth that we get on tour thanks to one mixed team per country.

The Pro mixed winners in the past have been:

– 2018: Daniel De La Rosa/Michelle De La Rosa (now Key)

– 2021: Rodrigo Montoya/Samantha Salas

– 2023: Conrrado Moscoso/Paola Longoria

These are perfectly expected winners; what’s been fun has been some of the crazy teams that made the finals. In 2018, the all-Colombian team of Mario Mercado and Adriana Riveros made the final, two pros who don’t even tour anymore. In 2021, it was Sebastian Fernandez and Alexandra Herrera, who topped the DLRs in the quarters before falling in the final. In 2023, the (now) Husband and Wife team of Natera and Munoz shocked King Kane and Michelle Key in the round of 16, then raced to the final before falling. These surprise results are what make Mixed Pro so much fun; the matchups on paper just don’t seem to follow what happens on the court.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=42889

We’ll give abbreviated previews to all three draws (IRT, LPRT, and Mixed) here.

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IRT:

There’s 43 players here, with most of the top 20 on hand. Thanks to injuries last year, @Conrrado Moscoso is seeded 17th and unfortunately plays into #1 @Kane Waselenchuk in the round of 16. A tough pill to swallow; this should have been a semi or final. One good player will be going home super early.

There’s a couple of intriguing round of 64 matches between mostly local players, but the projected 32s could have some shocks. Look for former touring pro and @Formulaflow CEO @Mauricio Zelada to give #9 @Adam Manilla fits if the lefty veteran not fully healthy. Martell-Bredenbeck is a fun one. However the two biggest matches of the round will be Miranda-Sendrey and Flores-Gastelum, matchups of U21 types who are vying to be the future of the Men’s pro sport.

I see some possible big upsets in the 16s: Argentina’s @Diego Garcia has made the finals of the last two international major events and could easily beat #2 @Andres Acuna. The Flores/Gastelum winner may catch #4 @Jake Bredenbeck by surprise if he’s not careful. Lastly Mar-Alonso is a bruiser of a 7-10 matchup that could go either way.

My upset-heavy semis: Kane, Flores, Montoya, and Garcia, with a high-powered Kane-Montoya final.

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LPRT

The Ladies draw is missing its #4 player Gaby, and a couple other regulars in the top 16 or so, which may give us some new matchups. 4-time pro tour champ @Rhonda Rajsich is in Denver and may go a round or two, depending on how much she’s been playing.

In the 16s, look for a fun 8/9 matchup between @valeria Centellas and @Samantha Salas Solis , Amaya-Lotts could be a barn-burner, but the big mis-match is the underseeded @Carla Munoz, who missed a couple of events and is now seeded way down in the mid-teens, having to play @Alexandra Herrera way too early.

My semis are the 4 favorites: Longoria, Herrera, Mejia, and Vargas. My final is a rematch of the World Games final between Longoria and Vargas, with the #1 seed taking it.

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Mixed Doubles Preview

The two top seeds are last year’s finalists, but I’m not sure who is confident that either team will return to the final. This is an absolutely stacked draw. The former USA and reigning 2023 Pan Am Games champions (Adam & Erika Manilla) are the #12 seed. Montoya and Solis, who won this event in 2021, are the #7 seeds. The #2 ladies pro, who just made the World Games Mixed final, is the #9 seed. Two of the greatest doubles players in the history of the sport (Carson and Key) are the #15 seeds. So, suffice it to say, anything can happen here.

I favor Moscoso and Longoria to repeat, if only because they’re the top skilled players in the draw playing together. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them upset in the quarters. Meanwhile, Mar & Mejia are both basically the best doubles players by gender in the world and they’re together, and have a relatively straight forward path into at least the semis. Portillo & Herrera as the #3 seed are both top notch doubles players in their own rights, and as we’ve seen with Natera & Munoz, sometimes a couple off the court can really shine together on the court.

Should be a fun draw!

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Look for Streaming in the normal places you’d expect, on the IRT and LPRT feeds.

Coincidentally if you’re an IRT fan, consider joining the IRT Club; we’re kicking off a new season-long Fantasy Racquetball concept, and to go with it Brian Pineda and i are doing pre- and post-tournament podcasts. We’ll debut this week with our preview of the IRT draw and the Mixed draws here. Here’s our first episode:

Posted on

IRT Copa Corpoil Quick Recap

Andree Parrilla with the win on home soil. Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory

The first IRT event of the season* (more on that in a moment) was held last weekend in Mexican racquetball hotbed San Luis Potosi, and it featured a solid draw of locals competing for IRT Satellite points. Here’s a quick recap. No r2sports link, so we had to draw inferences on some of the results, but here we go:

* you may notice that I said first event of the season, even though we’re in August. That’s right; the IRT’s new leadership has decided to go back to the fall-to-spring schedule instead of the Jan-Dec schedule adopted during the Covid mess. So, we declared a 2024 season champion, and then we’ll declare a 2025-26 season champion next June after the US Open. This was considered more ideal than just declaring a “2025” champ based on the 3 events held in Feb and March of this year.

Here’s how this weekend’s event went down:

The top four seeds were, in order, Andrés Parrilla , @Erick Trujillo , @jordy alonso, and Diego Gastelum , all four regular IRT touring pros. However, the rest of the draw featured a slew of solid up and coming players from Mexico and the southwest, including US Junior National team member @DJ Mendoza, @Elias Neito, and 2-time defending Mexican U21 champ @Sebastian Hernandez.

When the semis hit thought, the top four seeds had advanced to face off. In the top half, Parrillao advanced past Gastelum, while from the bottom half Trujillo got a solid win over Alonso to setup a 1-vs-2 final.

In the final, Parrilla topped Trujillo in a battle of two IRT top 10 players 7,9 to take the title on his home court.

It’s a new International Racquetball Tour world, with new blood and new ownership, and this is the first of a possible 20-event slate. Great to see.

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2025 World Games Recap

Team USA atop the podium. Photo via USA Racquetball

Congrats to your winners from the 2025 World Games:

– Men’s Singles: Conrrado Moscoso , Bolivia

– Women’s Singles: Maria Jose Vargas , Argentina

– Mixed Doubles: Jake Bredenbeck / Naomi Ros, USA

Pro Racquetball Stats Results links for the three draws:

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/58944b

– Women’s Singles:: https://rball.pro/28cfd0

– Mixed Doubles: https://rball.pro/b3914c

R2sports link for the event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=50215

Recaps of the draws:

Men’s Singles:

The first round was relatively straight-forward, since the structure of this event basically guarantees that the top 8-9 racquetball playing countries would play entrants from less-well known countries in the first knockout rounds. There were a couple of stretched matches: Canada’s @coby Iwaasa was pushed to 5 games by the DR’s @Ramon De Leon. The one “upset” was Guatemala’s @Edwin Galicia upsetting Uruguy veteran @jose daniel ugalde in four games.

The big surprise of the tournament came in the next round, as Galicia took out #1 seed @jaJake Bredenbeck in four shocking games. 2025 PARC champ @Diego Garcia upset the defending World Games winner @Andres Acuna, while title-favorites Moscoso and @Eduardo Portillo won relatively easily to setup a tough Mexico-Bolivia semi.

Garcia continued his run, topping Galicia to get back to the final, while Moscoso went 5 games with Portillo before advancing to setup a rematch of the 2025 PARC men’s semifinal against Garcia. The two played an amazing final, which went to 5 games and which was finally won by Conrrado 14-12 in the fifth game. It’s Moscoso’s 6th career IRF title and he now owns the complete suite of international titles: Worlds, PARC, Pan Am Games, World Games, and South American games.

See this link for every IRF Men’s final in history: https://rball.pro/b2x

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Women’s Singles:

Like with the Men, the first round of the Women’s draw featured mostly blow outs between top racquetball playing countries and lesser-known competitors. There was one big upset though: Costa Rican @Larissa Faeth took out long-time LPRT touring veteran @Christina Amaya (playing for Italy) in four games.

In the quarters, Bolivian #1 @Angelica Barrios beat USA’s reigning national champion Ros in an upset by seeds but probably not really an upset based on capabilities and accomplishment to setup a semi-final round between the top four ladies in the competition.

In the top semi, Barrios played one of the matches of her life, and had top seed and GOAT @Paola Longoria on the ropes, but suffered a catastrophic knee injury that unfortunately forced her out of the event and will sideline her for months. Longoria, winner of the 2009, 2013, and 2022 World Games’ titles, advanced to the final. There she met current LPRT #2 Vargas, who handled the #2 seed and always-dangerous @AnaAna Gabriela Martínez in four games.

The final saw a changing of the guard in some respects internationally, as Vargas held firm against Longoria, and came back after dropping game one to grind out three close games for the title. It’s Vargas’ fourth international title.

See here for a list of all IRF women’s Open finals: https://rball.pro/6fd827

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Mixed Open

Mixed Open was a first at the World Games, and the 2025 Mixed title in China was just the 9th ever Mixed Doubles competition held by an IRF-sanctioned tournament (see https://rball.pro/d26121 for a list of all prior finals). The defending champions of Mixed from earlier this year (Team Chile Natera/Munoz) were not even qualified for the World Games, which meant a new titlist was to be crowned.

The structure of the China event meant that the Mixed teams were not necessarily the “best” teams a country could put forward, since they had to be comprised of the two qualifying singles players, but we still saw some pretty good teams put together and some great results.

Seven of the Eight seeds held in the opening round; the sole upset was team Japan over team South Korea (fitting that these two countries played, since they generally hate each other). The quarters gave us some really surprising results: Team Canada ousted Team Guatemala in four games, team japan got a walkover against Bolivia when Barrios had to retire, and then in a far-too-early pairing, team Argentina (Vargas & Garcia) beat the #2 seeds Team Mexico (Longoria & Portillo) in three straight. I had Mexico-Argentina penciled in as the non-final match of the event… but a 3-game beating of a team with Longoria was surprising.

In the semis, Team USA was stretched to the limit before beating Canada in the 5th, while the Argentines cruised past team japan to setup a solid final. There, in an even bigger surprise, Team USA bowled over Team Argentina 7,9,6 to claim the title. It’s the fourth Mixed IRF title for a USA-based team in the last five events held, giving USA a great history of winning these international competitions.

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Congrats to all winners, and congrats to the World Games for continuing to support racquetball.

@International Racquetball Federation – IRF

The World Games

@USA Racquetball