Author: Todd Boss

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World Team Racquetball 2024 Recap

2024 Champions, team Dovetail. Photo via WTR

The first annual World Team Racquetball (WTR) exhibition was held over the last couple of days on the 3Wall Ball courts of Las Vegas, on the grounds of The STRAT hotel, and here’s a quick recap of the action.

As they say in sports, “that’s why they play the games.” My predictions were 100% wrong, and the outdoor specialists really came to play and dominate the early rounds of the competition.

To get replays, go to Youtube.com and the LPRT channel for all the videos, as the FB streaming had technical issues on Tuesday.

Match rules: the two teams played Mens, Women’s, and Mixed doubles matches. Each match was two games to 11, each win by one. The team winner is determined on total aggregate of all six games. Free substitutions were allowed throughout the matches for the Men, who had 3 guys on each team.

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Semi #1: Team Eve Genesis vs Team KWM Gutterman Inc. Kingz.

– Women’s Doubles: Team KWM started off super strong and took the Women’s tie 11-5, 11-7. Key and Longoria are a super-strong team and should be favorites this weekend in the pro division, and really took it to Munoz & Laime.

– Men’s Doubles: Team Eve surprised the KWM men by winning 11-7, 11-7. Adam Manilla was super solid on the right, Beltran turned back the clock a bit, while McDonald’s super aggressive approach left Waselenchuk trying to do too much from the back court.

– Mixed Doubles: heading into the tie, KWM led the match by just two points, so it all came down to Mixed. Team Eve shocked Team KWM 11-4 in the first game, meaning that KWM need to win game two AND win it by enough points to take the overall title. It wasn’t to be; Team Eve held on for an 11-9 win that was sewn up once they got to point 7 in the game.

Final score: Team Eve Geneis wins 55-49

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Semi #2: Team DOVETAIL vs Team ProKennex Racquetball

– Women’s Doubles: the match was split, each team winning a game. Dovetail’s pair of top indoor pros Mejia & Herrera raced away to a game one win 11-6, but PK’s top outdoor pairing of Scott & Lawrence salvaged an 11-9 game two win to put the point deficit at just 3 points heading into the Men’s tie.

– Men’s Doubles: Team Dovetail came to play in uniforms that look like they were designed to camouflage its players in Jurassic Park, while PK’s players were dressed like extras in the Barbie movie. Something had to give in the battle of distractions. Surprisingly to this observer, it was the Carson/Lalo pairing that really took it to DLR/Mar, with the Dovetail men crushing the PK men 11-4, 11-6 to give Dovetail a commanding 15 point lead.

– In Mixed, the Aces had their work cut out for them. They had to make up a 15 point deficit, which meant two heavy wins (a scoreline of 11-3, 11-4 would be needed just to tie). It wasn’t meant to be. Dovetail edged PK in the opener 11-10 to guarantee a win, leaving the last game as a “dead rubber” game that PK salvaged some pride in, with an 11-8 win.

Final score: Team Dovetail wins 58-48

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Bronze: KWM vs PK.

In the consolation match, KWM’s ladies destroyed PK’s 11-0 in less than 7 minutes (including timeouts) to open the match, then hung on for an 11-10 win to open a big KWM lead heading into the Men’s match. In the Men’s we got the big DLR-Kane matchup I thought would be the final. KWM came out with Kane & Jake instead of using Mcdonald curiously: Chris barely played as his team lost 6,7. This really tightened the match heading into the Mixed tie, so there was still all to play for. In Mixed, it was almost entirely DLR and Kane as the male partners, going primarily against Scott and Key as the female partners (though Paola did start for KWM) and it was KWM that came out on top 7,6 to win the tie. Final score 57-45

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Final: Eve vs Dovetail

– Women’s Dbls: Team DT’s top indoor doubles team of Mejia/Herrera went on a mid-match tear, breaking open an early close game one to win it 11-6, then blasting out to a massive 10-1 lead in game two that threatened to put the entire final out of reach early, but credit to Munoz & Laime for clawing the match back into reaching distance with a big run. Dovetail’s ladies win 11-6, 11-7 to open a 9-point lead to start.

– Men’s Doubles: It was “sun’s out, gun’s out” for team Dovetail, Rocky/Lalo and their sleeveless camo shirts. They came out firing against the all-blacks of Team Eve, cruising to an 11-5 game one win. Dovetail looked like they’d make the mixed tie unnecessary for a while, racing to a big game two lead before Eve’s pair of Beltran/Manilla turned the tide and won game two to give their team a chance.

– Mixed. Heading into Mixed, team DT had an 11 point lead and Eve needed a massive win to get back into things. It wasn’t to be: Carson/Mejia blew open a close first game to win 11-4 and essentially seal the match for DoveTail. The “second stringers” got to play in the second match and they played a fun 11-10 barn burner.

Final score: DT trounces Eve 62-43 for the gold medal and first place.

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Wrap-up: we got some interesting results, the on-site fans really got into it, and the first ever WTR looked like a success.

I missed who won the “MVP” of the event, but hopefully someone can fill me in to update this post after publishing.

Next up; the main 3WallBall event kicks off on Thursday! Look for a preview soon.

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World Team Racquetball 2024 Preview

The 2024 3WallBall championships in Las Vegas will feature a new style of competition never before tried within the pro ranks of the sport: Team Racquetball.

Four teams have been formed by a quartet of the leading sponsors of the sport, and they’ll descend on the signature powder blue courts of 3WallBall to compete for the first ever World Team Racquetball Title.

The teams are:

The KWM Gutterman Kingz

  • Men: Kane Waselenchuk, Chris McDonald, Jake Bredenbeck
  • Women: Michelle Key, Paola Longoria
  • Owner: Keith Minor
  • Coach: Jim Winterton

Team Eve Genesis:

  • Men: Alvaro Beltran, Adam Manilla, Alan Natera
  • Women: Carla Munoz, Brenda Laime
  • Owner: Abel Perez
  • Coach: Aimee Roehler

Team ProKennex Aces:

  • Men: Daniel De La Rosa, Javier Mar, Robert Sostre
  • Women: Kelani Lawrence, Hollie Scott
  • Owner: Mike Martinez
  • Coach: Kadim Carrasco

Team Dovetail Thunderbolts

  • Men: Rocky Carson, Lalo Portillo, Andres Acuna
  • Women: Montse Mejia, Alexandra Herrera
  • Owner: Mike Kinkin
  • Coach: Fran Davis

Each team is comprised of players who have strong ties to their respective owners. For example, the ProKennex Aces with owner Mike Martinez features all ProKennex sponsored players. Mike Kinkin’s team Dovetail features players who have been on Team Dovetail in some cases since the beginning of his involvement in the sport. Keith Minor’s KWM Gutterman team features players who have been personally sponsored by Keith over the years, and lastly Abel Perez’s Team Eve Genesis features players and staff with ties to Abel’s hometown and home country.

We’ve created one-page Stat sheets for each team, downloadable/viewable for your pleasure here:

– Dovetail: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/wtr/WTR%202024%20Team%20Dovetail%20Stats%20Info%20sheet.pdf

– Eve: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/wtr/WTR%202024%20Team%20Eve%20Genesis%20Stats%20Info%20sheet.pdf

– KWM: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/wtr/WTR%202024%20Team%20KWM%20Kingz%20Stats%20Info%20sheet.pdf

– ProKennex:

https://www.proracquetballstats.com/wtr/WTR%202024%20Team%20ProKennex%20Aces%20Stats%20Info%20sheet.pdf

Team Scouting Reports.

Here’s a quick preview of each team:

– Team KWM Gutterman is stacked, featuring the dual GOATs of the sport in Waselenchuk and Longoria. Neither have a ton of outdoor experience, but both have shown their ability to win on the 3 wall courts. Longoria pairs with the most decorated female outdoor player of all time in Michelle Key, while Kane pairs with Florida’s fiercest competitor in Chris McDonald to form quite the dynamic duo. And, if someone falls short, they have last year’s #2 IRT ranked player in hard-hitting Jake Bredenbeck to fill in. This is the team to beat.

– Team ProKennex features the most decorated outdoor doubles player in the history of the sport in De La Rosa, and he can choose between two of the best one-wall players on earth in Sostre and Mar for his doubles partner. DLR may be full time pickleball now, but he proved at IRT Worlds in August that he still remembers how to play. Their ladies are Scott & Lawrence, who regularly play doubles together on tour and for Team USA, and who both are seasoned outdoor players. DLR has the talent to will this team to win as needed, and will be a tough out especially in Mixed.

– Team Dovetail is led by reigning Outdoor Nationals champ Rocky Carson, who added his 12th major outdoor Men’s pro doubles title alongside King Kane in Huntington Beach earlier this year. He’s joined by fellow team Dovetail regulars Lalo Portillo and Andres Acuna, each with outdoor credentials to their name. Rocky teamed with Lalo to win the 2022 3WallBall pro doubles championship, while Acuna won the 2022 Outdoor Nationals singles title. They’re joined by the absolute best Ladies doubles team in the world, Montse Mejia and Alexandra Herrera, who made the finals of all seven competed LPRT pro doubles competitions last season, winning six.

– Team Eve Genesis is led by the legendary indoor and outdoor player Alvaro Beltran, who won 10 of the first 12 3WallBall pro doubles titles. He’s joined by up and coming outdoor fanatic Adam Manilla who has made the finals of Vegas the last two years and who is the #1 seed in the Pro Doubles draw this year. Team Eve also has the husband-wife team of Natera and Munoz on board; Munoz now has 10 women’s pro doubles outdoor titles in just the last five seasons. Lastly they have the services of Brenda Laime, who has quietly climbed the ranks of both the indoor and outdoor circuit.

The team competition will feature three rounds of doubles competition: one Men’s match, one Women’s match, and one Mixed match. Each match will be two games to 11. Every point counts; the winner of each match is going to be determined by total points.

On September 14th, Brian Pineda sat with 3WallBall founder Mike Coulter to draw cards, in true Las Vegas fashion, to determine the semi-final matchups. The matches, to be held on Tuesday September 24th at 5pm Vegas time, will be:

– KWM Gutterman Kings vs Team Genesis

– Pro Kennex versus Dovetail.

As it turns out, this is a great seeding because it almost precisely follows my personal seeding of the four teams.

Here’s my predictions

– In semi #1, KWM vs Genesis, we’ll probably see Waselenchuk & McDonald overpower Beltran & Manilla in the Men’s doubles tie, while Key/Longoria will be played tough by Munoz/Laime but will prevail. In the mixed ties, I suspect we’ll see Jake & Michelle taking on the Natera/Munoz pair, and Genesis will salvage a win but will lose the match.

– In semi #2, ProKennex vs Dovetail, I suspect DLR & Mar will have a fun, tactical match versus Carson & Lalo but will prevail. Then, the ProKennex pair of Lawrence & Scott will battle hard against Mejia & Herrera but will fall, leaving it to the mixed tie. Faced with a do-or-die situation, they leave the one-wall specialist Sostre on the sidelines and go with DLR & Scott, partners on and off the court, who take on Acuna & Herrera. DLR takes over and gets the win to advance to the final.

– In the final, KWM’s Waselenchuk & McDonald take on DLR and Mar in a fantastic battle, with Pro Kennex guys winning by the slimmest of margins. Key & Longoria win the grudge match of the ladies tie, crushing Scott & Lawrence. It leads to the Mixed tie, which DLR and Scott win, but thanks to the dominant women’s victory by Key & Longoria team KWM take the title.

Tune in on Tuesday evening wherever you are for this first-of-its-kind event. It is sure to be exciting. Follow WTR on Facebook for up-to-date announcements and scheduling: play will start at 6pm Vegas time each night on 9/24 and 9/25.

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In Memory: Dr. Richard “Dick” Krinsky

Dr Krinsky was the long-time coach of the Colorado State University – Pueblo (formerly known as the University of Southern Colorado), and was one of the most successful and decorated college coaches in the sport’s history. CSU-Pueblo is a standard bearer for collegiate programs in this country, and has competed against bigger and more well-funded schools for decades. Krinsky’s accomplishments earned him entry into his school’s athletic hall of fame in 2015, an amazing achievement for a racquetball-affiliated person. He deserves consideration for the USA Hall of Fame for his contributions to collegiate racquetball and to his home program.

After a battle with cancer, Dr. Krinsky passed away on 9/10/24.

Achievements:

– 5-time Overall National Champion: Dominated as the overall national champion in the years 1998-2000, 2018, and 2019.

– 14-time Men’s Team Title: Led the men’s team to 9 consecutive titles from 2004 to 2012.

– 1-time Women’s Team Title: Guided the women’s team to their first title in 2019.

– 118 Individual Titles: Secured 118 individual titles across men’s and women’s singles and doubles events.

Honors:

– CSU-Pueblo Athletics 2015 Hall of Fame Inductee: Recognized for exceptional contributions to sports as a special contributor. See https://gothunderwolves.com/honors/csu-pueblo-athletics-hall-of-fame/dr-richard-krinsky/58 for CSU Pueblo Athletics Hall of Fame page.

Contributions:

– Recruitment: Successfully recruited numerous student-athletes from both the US and internationally, enhancing the team’s talent and diversity.

– Fundraising and Development: Led fundraising efforts resulting in the construction of the only squash courts south of Colorado Springs, significantly boosting the local sports infrastructure. This record of achievement and contribution demonstrates an exceptional career deserving of hall of fame recognition.

Thanks to @jJeremy Mcglothin for the information contained herein.

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Dr. Bud Muehleisen (10/9/31 – 9/8/24)

One of the legends of our sport is no longer with us. Dr. Bud Muehleisen passed away early morning on 9/8/24 from a stroke in Fridley, Minnesota.

Dr. Bud, as he was known, was one of the very first champions of Racquetball, winning the 1969 US National title after pivoting from paddleball (where he had taken the 1966 and 1968 National titles). Once he began playing racquetball, he paired with the other top paddleball champion-convert to racquetball in Charlie Brumfield to form the most dominant doubles team of the early era. The pair, who both lived in Southern California, were instrumental in the early 1970s growth of pro racquetball, and were also the first outdoor national champions in 1974.

Dr. Bud was already in his mid 30s when he pivoted to racquetball and retired from pro play in early 1977 to focus on his career and volunteerism in the sport. He still played amateur divisions and won dozens of national titles along the way. He served on the IRA board for years (IRA was the precursor to the modern day USA Racquetball organization), helped define the rules of the sport, worked with manufacturers during the sport’s 1970s boom, was a frequent contributor to National Racquetball Magazine, and was a coach/mentor for years. To this day, the “Bud Muehleisen Award” is given out every year to the best male age group player of the year.

The “Doctor” of “Dr. Bud” was for dentistry, and he practiced for decades in La Mesa, a suburb of San Diego. He never forgot his roots though, and was a frequent visitor at the US Open and other major events.

He was in the inaugural inductee class to the USAR Hall of Fame in 1974 along with Joe Sobek, who invented the sport.

There are excellent tributes to Dr. Bud in Classic Racquetball from Chelsea George, who knew him well and was of the era. His HoF bio and his wikipedia page also give great details.

Borrowing from @Sudsy Monchik’s post: Condolences can be sent to Shannon Wright and family here (506 Rice Creek Terrace, Fridley MN 55432).

  • USA Racquetball Hall of Fame: https://www.usaracquetball.com/about/hall-of-fame
  • Bud Muehleisen award: https://www.usaracquetball.com/about/annual-awards
  • Paddleball Nat’l champs: https://paddleball.org/pdf/singles.pdf
  • USA Amateur Nat’l Champs: https://rball.pro/85i
  • Outdoor Nationals Doubles champs: https://rball.pro/9fk
  • Dr’ Bud’s career Pro/National match record: https://rball.pro/mt8
  • Dr Bud’s wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Muehleisen
  • Chelsea’s Classic Racquetball remembrance post: https://www.facebook.com/groups/917996761894504/permalink/2229475790746588

Thanks Dr. Bud for everything you did for our sport.

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IRF Worlds Team Competition Wrap-up

Final report from San Antonio; a quick word about the Team Competition (not to be confused with the Team ranks created by summing up points from the individual competitions).

All 16 countries who had enough players to field a full team (Italy, Denmark, and Eritrea had individuals competing but not enough for a team) participated in the Davis Cup style competition, which had two rounds of singles and then a doubles match to break the tie. There were both men and women’s competitions, which added together to name a Combined winner as well.

Here were the results.

Men’s Team: USA topped Canada in the final to claim the Men’s team title and finish off a 3-gold weekend for Daniel De La Rosa . Canada upset both #2 Mexico and #3 Bolivia to get to the finals in a great showing from Samuel Murray and Coby Iwaasa .

Men’s Results:

1. USA

2. Canada

3rd: Mexico and Costa Rica

Women’s Team: #1 Mexico completed the perfectly-chalk draw by topping #2 Argentina in the final. Mexico was pressed in the quarters with a shock defeat of @Paola Longoria by former LPRT touring pro-turned ER physician Frederique Lambert , but the Mexican doubles team prevailed to move on.

Women’s Results:

1. Mexico

2. Argentina

3rd: USA and Bolivia

When adding Men’s and Women’s results together to declare a combined team winner, USA and Mexico tied at the top … and Mexico won the tie-breaker to claim the Combined title.

Combined Results:

1. Mexico

2. USA

3rd: Canada and Argentina.

——————–

Impact for the 2025 World Games.

These 2024 worlds served as a qualifier for the 2025 World Games. You can read their release here: https://www.internationalracquetball.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IRF-Qualification-TWG2025s.pdf

Per this release, the “The final results of the Overall Combined Racquetball Championships San Antonio 2025 will be the qualifying event for The World Games Chengdu 2025.” We also know from the release that the available slots are divided/reserved for groups of countries as follows:

– Asia (including the host country China): 4 teams

– Europe: 4 teams

– The Americas: 8 teams

So, based on the final Combined results, who qualified and who didn’t? Here’s the exact results of the Combined Team play:

1. Mexico: Americas #1

2. USA: Americas #2

3. Canada: Americas #3

4. Argentina: Americas #4

5. Bolivia: Americas #5

6. Costa Rica: Americas #6

7. Guatemala: Americas #7

Now, here’s where it gets tricky. Three Countries, all from the Americas, tied for 8th in Combined: Chile, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. How will the 8th team be selected? I have no idea. Chile had better individual results in the individual play stage, but that may not be the tie-breaker used.

8t: Chile: America’s #8

8t: Ecuador: Americas 1st Alternate

8t: Dominican Republic: Americas 2nd alternate

11t: South Korea: Asia #2 (China as host is Asia #1)

11t: Japan: Asias #3

11t: Ireland: Europe #1

14t: India: Asia #4

14t: Colombia: Americas 3rd alternate

14t: Germany: Europe #2

Two other European teams competed at Worlds (Italy and Denmark) but they did NOT compete in the team event due to lack of personnel. Do they get Europe’s #3 and #4 spots? I don’t know.

So, assuming I’ve got this all right, here’s the 16 teams that have first right of refusal for the World Games in 2025:

– Asia: China, Japan, South Korea, India

– Europe: Ireland, Germany, Italy, Denmark

– Americas: Mexico, USA, Canada, Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Chile.

The eventual SEEDING once WG2025 starts will be determined (as is pointed out on the 2nd page of the above PDF link) by the finish in the individual events Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, and Mixed. So that’ll mean (factoring in tiebreakers in the 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8 spots):

Men’s Singles: USA, Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Guatemala, India

Women’s Singles: Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, USA, Bolivia, Italy, Canada

Mixed Doubles: USA, Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, South Korea, Canada.

I could be wrong here; take this with a grain of salt. At least we have racquetball at the 2025 World Games!

Congrats again to all the winners, congrats to the IRF and USAR and all the San Antonio racquetball supporters who made this happen, including the Sudsy Monchik-led team that did a Centurion fundraiser.

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2024 22nd Worlds Bracket Event Recap

De La Rosa wins his first World singles title, gets the double with a Mixed title. Photo via IRF

The 22nd @International Racquetball Federation – IRF World Championships bracket events are in the books. Here’s a recap of the knockout stage action, along with links for the results as entered into the Pro Racquetball Stats database.

Congratulations to the winners:

– Men’s Singles: Daniel De La Rosa , USA

– Women’s Singles: Paola Longoria , Mexico

– Men’s Doubles: Samuel Murray & @Coby Iwaasa , Canada

– Women’s Doubles: @Alexandra Herrera & Montse Mejia, Mexico

– Mixed Doubles: Daniel De la Rosa & Hollie Scott , USA

Executive Summary: Great week for DLR, who goes undefeated and wins both Singles and Mixed. One has to wonder what would have happened if he had chosen to play Men’s doubles with his USA national championship winning partner Fernandez. Team Mexico does the double, winning both Women’s Singles and Doubles. Canada’s men’s doubles team continues to get results, making their 5th international final since 2019 and getting their second title. Bolivia is completely shut out after several cycles of multiple-win performances.

r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=42436

Pro Racquetball Stats DB match results. Click on these links to see the match results for this event in the DB:

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/8gq

– Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/iby

– Men’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/v19

– Women’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/2l0

– Mixed Doubles: https://rball.pro/2gk

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For the rest of the event, they will play a “Team competition” davis-cup style where countries play singles and doubles as a team to advance; we’ll cover this and its World Games qualification import in an other post. Meanwhile, for decades all the individual play has historically resulted in separate “Team Standings” for IRF events. I’m not sure, with the advent of the team play recently, if IRF even maintains the Team Points results anymore … but we do for historical purposes. So…

Team Points Results From Knockouts

The “Team Standings” were determined by a standard algorithm that awarded points based on group stage and knockout performance.

(You can get these “team results” via queries available from the IRF singles page off of proracquetballstats.com historical site)

Combined Team (Overall)

1st – Mexico

2nd – USA

3rd – Bolivia

4th — Argentina

Mexico had the combined win sealed up even before any of the finals were played on thursday on the strength of their Women’s results. Bolivia edged Argentina for 3rd place by just four points, which is kind of ironic considering that Argentina’s entire team (Centellas, Garcia, Mendez, Miranda, and Vargas) all were born in Bolivia and switched allegiances to their South American Neighbor.

Men’s Team

1st – USA

2nd – Mexico

3rd – Bolivia

4th – Canada

USA’s dual-singles finals and Mexico’s early knockouts seal the Men’s title for USA.

Women’s Team

1st – Mexico

2nd – Argentina

3rd – Guatemala

4th – USA

Mexico nearly took maximum possible points for women, with 3 group stage wins and the singles title.

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Let’s run through the individual draws and talk about notable results.

Men’s Singles:

The Men’s singles knockout round went about as expected until the quarters … then all hell broke loose. I missed on 3 of the 4 quarter results in my prediction piece, headlined by the shock loss of the top seed and current IRT #1 Moscoso to Mexico’s #2 Portillo. USA’s #2 @Jake Bredenbeck had to go five to topple Argentina’s Garcia, and the infrequent touring pro Bolivian Carlos Keller Vargas took out Mexico’s Andree Parrilla. In the semis, Jake took out Lalo to get to the finals of an international competition the first time since 2016. There he met De La Rosa, who cruised past Keller in the other semi.

It was the first all-american final in an IRF event since 2015, and the first all-USA final in an IRF Major since 2010. Ironically, the last time Jake made an IRF singles final, his opponent was … De la Rosa as well. In the final, DLR ground out two game wins, then Jake caught fire and nearly donuted Daniel in the third before he caught fire in the fourth and pasted Jake 11-4 to claim the title. It’s Daniel’s first ever World title.

—

Women’s Singles:

The GOAT cruised into the final, topping the young Bolivian Rivero in the, then the hobbled Vargas in the semis. Meanwhile Guatemala’s Martinez beat USA’s Key in the opener, then beat former LPRT tour champ Mejia in the quarters in a match that included the single longest game (23-21) in IRF history, then she came from a game down to topple Chile’s Carla Munoz in the semis.

Longoria and @Ana Gabriela Martínez met in the Worlds final for the fourth time in the last five World Championships, and Longoria came out on top in the final to claim her 6th IRF World title. It’s also her 26th career IRF singles title, with wins dating all the way back to 2006.

—–

Men’s Doubles.

The #1 doubles team in the world (Montoya & Mar) was upset in Mexican Nationals this year by the #1 seed here (Parrilla & Portillo): they cruised into the title game with a 4-game win over team USA (Manilla & Fernandez) that wasn’t without a bit of controversy late. Meanwhile, Team Canada (Murray & Iwaasa), who have a habit of making it to the gold medal match internationally (they now have made 6 gold medal Men’s Pro Doubles matches since 2019), ground out two tough 5 game wins, including over Bolivia in the semis to ensure a medal-less event for the racquetball-rabid country, to get to the finals again.

In the final, Team Canada won a back and forth 5 game match where the momentum switched over and again.

—-

Women’s Doubles:

They had to work for it, but the dominant #1 pro doubles team of Mejia & Herrera came from behind in the 5th to win the five-game thriller over team Argentina (Vargas & Mendez) to claim the title. Its their third IRF title in the last two years.

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Mixed Doubles

Team USA’s De La Rosa would not be denied in San Antonio, as he took over for stretches to take the mixed title with partner Hollie Scott.

——

Congrats to the International Racquetball Federation for another successful event. Thanks to the IRT streaming crew, and thanks to @Gary Mazaroff and Gustavo and all his co-announcers for their hard work all week.

Next up on the Racquetball Calendar: https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2…/edit…

We’ll cover the IRF team event next week in another post. Then next weekend 9/8/24 is world Racquetball day, with shootouts and tourneys all over the country. Please consider supporting your event organizers by playing in one of these events. One of the biggest will be an outdoor event at Stratton Woods park in Northern Virginia with a lot of traveling talent for the Bolivian Open.

After that, we have the 3WallBall event with the introduction of World Team Racquetball in Las Vegas at the end of September.

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IRT 2024 Worlds Group Stage recap and Knockout Preview

Longoria is the ladies favorite heading into the knockouts Photo via US Open 2019, Kevin Savory

The matches come fast and furious at the 22nd annual International Racquetball Federation – IRF World Championships. The Round Robins finished late on 8/26/24 and the knockouts start first thing 8/27/24 morning.

The round robins “eliminated” the lowest finishers in each RR group, who drop to a consolation bracket of sorts while the top 2 from each group comprise the winner’s bracket/single elimination knockouts going forward. This ended up eliminating a few surprise players/teams, but for the most part the RRs went according to seeds across the board.

Quick observations from the group stage:

– In Men’s singles, just one upset of a top seed when Diego Garcia upset Costa Rica’s @Andres Acuna . Garcia grabs the #5 seed while Acuna drops to #14 seed and a very tough hill to climb to get back to the semis or finals. Probably the other biggest shock was India’s Vineet Singh grabbing the 2nd seed out of group 8 to claim a knockout spot in the top group. The biggest names to fall into the consolation bracket probably were Chile’s Johan Igor or perhaps South Korea’s Namwoo Lee, but otherwise the Men’s singles was pretty chalky.

– In Women’s Singles: @Carla Munoz upset USA’s @Kelani Lawrence , the #2 overall seed, in a solid international upset. @Angelica Barrios – Raquetbolista took out USA’s @Michelle Key in another upset by seed, but clearly not by world ranking, to knock both of USA’s top players out of a top 8 seed in the knockouts. The biggest upsets in the group stage were Guatemala’s @MaMaria Renee Rodríguez getting knocked into the consolation bracket, as well as Canada’s @Danielle Ramsay and Ecuador’s @Maria Jose Munoz.

– In Men’s Doubles: no real surprises. There were a couple of team upsets by seed but not by talent. Chile’s Natera/Igor was in a group of death, and Guatemala’s Galicia/Salvatierra faced an uphill battle to qualify. Perhaps the biggest story line of the group stage here was several 5-game battles that the top seeds had to undertake to maintain their perfect record on Monday.

– In Women’s Doubles, the big shock was Guatemala’s former gold medal winning team of Martinez/Rodriguez getting taken out by Canada’s Lambert & Parent. Lambert plays only sparingly and Parent is still pretty new on the world stage, so to take out a top 4 touring pro in Gaby is huge. The DR’s up and coming team of Delgado & Cespedes falls to the consolation bracket out of the same group.

– In Mixed: Guatemala shocked Canada’s Murray/Lambert team to claim the #2 knockout seed. #1 overall seed mar/Mejia had to go 5 games to top Chile’s Munoz/Natera, and USA needed to come from 2 games down to “upset” Argentina’s Miranda/Centellas to claim the #4 seed in knockouts.

—-

Knockout Previews:

– Men’s Singles: Acuna/Keller is a tough opener for both and an upset watch. #10 Salvatierra can take out #7 Garcia in the only real upsets I see in the 32s or 16s. In the quarters, I can see Argentina’s Garcia taking out USA’s Bredenbeck (he rarely tours but when he does he gets results), while the bottom half’s seeds should move on easily. I see Moscoso topping Garcia in one semi, DLR taking out Parrilla in the other, and Moscoso beating a somewhat rusty DLR for the title.

– Women’s Singles: The quarters will be epic: Longoria-Rivero, Vargas-Barrios, Mejia-Gaby, and Munoz-Mendez, with a couple of LPRT-semis quality matchups. I’m thinking that it turns out to be Longoria-Vargas in the top semi, the one player Longoria really didn’t want to see until the final. Vargas looked a bit off at the LPRT season opener, nursing an injury according to my sources, so It wouldn’t surprise me if she falls to the grinder Barrios or Longoria. Paola to the final from the top. From the bottom, whoever wins between Mejia-Gaby should advance to the final. Either way, its advantage Paola, who I think wins yet another world title.

– Men’s Doubles: Mexico’s Parrilla/Portillo probably isn’t even Mexico’s best doubles team, but they should get to the final over USA’s Manilla/Sebastian (who haven’t quite gelled as a team so far). From the bottom, I like Canada’s veteran team of Murray & Iwaasa to pick on Carrasco endlessly and move past Bolivia. In the final, Mexico wins.

– Women’s Doubles: Mejia and Herrera won 7 of the 8 LPRT doubles titles last year, and there’s no reason to think they won’t cruise to the title here.

– Mixed Doubles: the most unpredictable draw. I could see Mar/Mejia getting beat first round by Natera/Munoz, or I could see them winning it. Moscoso/Barrios versus Miranda/Centellas is an awesome opener. The top half is stacked, while the bottom half opens up really well for USA’s DLR/Scott, who should easily get to the final. But i think they’ll fall to whichever team advances from the top; i’ll guess Moscoso/Barrios.

Keep on watching on the IRF streams. Lots of fun action to come.

Ill be curious to see how they do the Team competition, which right now is stubbed out on r2 as just the top four. I’ve got the spreadsheet of typical IRF points calculations updated for the group stage for now; the expected teams are in the lead so far (Mexico, Bolivia, then USA though Argentina is right there).

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22nd IRF Worlds Event Preview

Moscoso always come to play at Worlds, and he’s the #1 seed this week. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

R2 site: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=42436

This weekend kicks off the 22nd ever World Championships, the pinnacle of international competition in our sport. The event is being held in San Antonio, at the Thousand Oaks Family YMCA, the same site that holds the LPRT’s Battle at the Alamo every year. By the time you read this, pool play will have kicked off.

This is the first time that the IRF has held its World Championships, or any major international competition, on USA soil since 1996, when the tournament was in Phoenix. It’s been nearly 30 years since either Worlds or the Pan American Racquetball Championships was held in the country of the sport’s origin, but we’re back now. USA Racquetball made the commitment earlier this year to host the tournament based partly on this argument; it has been way too long.

The competitors, who are coming from at least 16 different countries, will compete in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles for the next week. All the players will compete in round robin competitions for the first few days, which are seeded per the IRF’s seeding policy (country-based, not individual based, and driven by the results in IRF competitions over the last couple of major tournament cycles). Once RRs are done, the draws will be seeded fully and then we’ll do a single elimination knockout phase all next week, culminating with Saturday finals in all divisions.

We’ll post a knockout preview once those draws are set, with predictions.

For now, we see that there’s several top IRT and LPRT players here who are early favorites. In Men’s singles, Moscoso & DLR likely feed into the two top seeds on the men’s side. Current #2 Montoya didn’t qualify, leaving Parrilla and Portillo as the Mexican representatives and semis favorites. In Ladies singles, four of the top five ranked pros are here (Longoria, Mejia, Vargas, and Gaby), which means the eventual semis and some of the quarters even will be pro-final quality matches.

One thing fans will notice; unlike any pro event and unlike most other international events, this event will play some Olympic style draws (where the knockouts have sub draws) and there will be some sort of team competition (either as a team or based on the individual performances of country teammates). That’s because this tournament also will serve as the qualifier to the 2025 World Games, held in China.

We weren’t sure there would be racquetball at the Chengdu, China based World Games, but word came out recently that the country had committed to the event. Furthermore, they’ll be playing mixed doubles (not just singles as were played in Birmingham back in 2022). So, that means each country will qualify exactly one man and one woman (a change from 2022). Furthermore, instead of individuals qualifying based on their singles performances, a team competition to be held this week will determine the 16 countries who qualify in.

Then, the seeding at the 2025 WGs will go by individual performances here in San Antonio, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Lastly, the WG 2025 will be limited to 16 countries, with 4 saved for Asian countries (host China plus 3 others, likely to be South Korea, Japan and maybe India). There will also be 4 saved for European countries (the likely participants seem to be Ireland and Germany for sure, but two other European countries might be hard to come by. We’ve had reps from Spain, England, Ukraine, Catalonia in the past few cycles, but we’ll have to see who is here in SA.

The remaining 8 countries are for North and South Americans, but if Asia/Europe can’t field 4 teams there will be additional spots opened up. The favorite 8 American countries to qualify seem to be USA, Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Chile. That would leave aspiring and frequent international teams like Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic on the outside looking in unless a spot is freed up.

Qualification details are here: hopefully i’m interpreting this document correctly: https://www.internationalracquetball.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IRF-Qualification-TWG2025s.pdf

First things first though; round robins kick off on today 8/24/24 with streaming on IRF’s facebook channel.

@International Racquetball Federation – IRF

International Racquetball Tour

LPRT

@USA Racquetball

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Landa-Montoya Invitational 2024 Recap

Mar gets the double in Juarez last weekend. Photo via PK

Last weekend, there was as small non-sanctioned event in Juarez that featured a number of top Mexican players held in honor of the retiring Alejandro Landa and the current #2 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball Here’s a recap of the top divisions.

r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=45146

The top six seeds are regulars on the pro tour. The 8/9 match was between two top Mexican juniors in Sebastian Hernandez (who just won Mexican 21U junior nationals) and @Eder Renteria (who made the finals of 16U Junior worlds last November and the semis of Mexican 18U last month). Hernandez handled Renteria as expected to face off against #1 Montoya.

In the quarters:

– Montoya needed to go breaker to take down the Mexican 21U champ Hernandez but moved on.

– Long-time top Mexican player @Javier Mar, who’s been bedeviled with injuries the last couple of years, taking out Guatemala’s #1 Juan Salvatierra

– #3 @Jaime Martell topped Guatemalan veteran Edwin Galicia in two.

– #2 Alan Natera topped Mexican open player Mario Zamora .

In the semis, an upset. Mar took out his long-time doubles partner Montoya in two relatively easy games 5,12, while Natera eased past Martell 11,2.

In the final, Mar continued his run and topped Natera 12,12 for the title.

Side note: Natera recently converted to represent Chile, eligible by virtue of his marriage to long-time Chilean representative Carla Munoz , and recently claimed the Chilean national title and secured a berth at Worlds in San Antonio later this month.

There was a 3-team doubles competition that came down to the two top seeds for the final. There, #1 Montoya/Mar topped Chihuahua-based team of Natera/Hernandez 9,(13),5.

Congrats Mar for the double on the weekend, and for Montoya for winning his namesake event.

ps: thanks to Natera for giving me the results … the r2 site never got the singles final nor the doubles knockouts updated online but Alan provided the data.

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New Report at Pro Racquetball Stats: Most Seasons for a player

While writing the content for this past weekend’s LPRT event, I made mention of the fact that @Susy Acosta was in the draw, and that this would be her 27th season with at least one appearance. I knew it was 27 because I counted the lines on my screen from her Season Summary report. However, I didn’t know whether that was a record or not because … i never have written a query or report to answer that question.

Now I have.

And the answer is … with this appearance, Acosta is now tied with Cheryl Gudinas for having played in 27 different pro seasons, the most all time on the LPRT.

Here’s that new query, available on the report selection page of the ProRacquetballStats.com page in the bottom/General section titled “Most Seasons.”

Here’s a link to the Women’s report: https://rball.pro/nqd

And here’s the link for the Men: https://rball.pro/uvo

(Before you click on the reports, try to guess the top 5 for each as a fun exercise).

The report will also work in other databases like Juniors, Amateurs, WOR, etc. So you could get a list of how many times a certain player has played their country’s nationals or international competitions (run the one for Amateur singles and all the players with the most seasons are Canadians).

Enjoy!

I’m always open to report suggestions by the way, if you think of something you’d like to see in racquetball match data.