Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays to all racquetball fans!
So, when i’m writing previews or doing commentary, i’m often asking myself, “what is this player’s career best win?” To do that, I’ve generally fired up a player’s comprehensive match history and then tried to eyeball who i thought was their best win. But that’s difficult to do accurately and subject to some opinion, so i’ve often wanted some way to create a report that attempts to do just this.
I’ve just created a new way to try to answer the question: a new report called “Best Career Win.” This report sorts all wins in the database for the player by the vanquished player’s seeding, from highest seed to lowest. The report isn’t perfect (it doesn’t really work for players like Kane Waselenchuk or Paola Longoria , who have spent huge portions of their career at #1 and for whom the question of “best career win” doesn’t really apply), and since it is based on seeding data doesn’t really work for older players, but it does work pretty well for lower ranked players and especially non-regular tour players.
An interesting side-effect of the report answers a fun trivia question: how many times has PlayerX defeated a #1 seed in a tournament?
Reminder: seeding data is only accurate from 2009 forward, so this is also a query that generally only works for the modern player.
To find the query, go to www.proracquetballstats.com, select the tour, pick your player from the pulldowns, then select the button next to “Career Best Win” from the report options.
Here’s a couple of players that i’ve used as examples during testing:
– Daniel De La Rosa: http://rball.pro/E53B2E . Six times he’s defeated the #1 seeded player (every time it was @Rocky Carson).
– @Carla Munoz: http://rball.pro/9282AC . Did you know Carla defeated @Rhonda Rajsich when Rhonda was ranked #1 on tour?
Bredenbeck helped his team to victory at the Court Wars PPV. Photo Kevin Savory 2020 USAR national doubles
The first ever Court Wars PPV racquetball event, held a the Bay Club in Pleasanton, CA, is in the books; here’s a wrap-up of the action.
In the first match, two NorCal juniors (well, near juniors) Antonio Rojas and Nikhil Prasad battled it out.
Prasad looked to me like he’s grown 6 inches since we last saw him, and he came out firing. Rojas came out quite cold and got smoked in the first game 11-2. Tatoe rebounded, found his game, and took the second game 11-7. In the breaker, Rojas seemed to tire a bit, and tried to keep it close, but Nik pulled away to take the match. Final score: 2,(7),7.
In Match #2…Mercado came out on fire, and won a crisp first game 11-4. Parrilla rebounded and played smarter shorts in game two and reversed the score, winning 11-4. After flipping a coin for the serve in the breaker, Mario ran out to a 4-1 win and was looking good … then Parrilla turned it on, went on a 10-0 run and took the breaker. Final score: (4),4,4
In Match #3, the two ladies pros battled out a back and forth match. In game one, Parrilla cruised to an 11-6 win. Erika came roaring back and raced to an 11-1 game two win. In the breaker, Erika got rolling in the service box, won a fantastic rally at 9-5, got a service winner on an iffy-maybe-it-was-a-screen-serve, then got a clear winner to take the 11th point and the match. Final score: (6),1,5.
Match #4 was perhaps the most anticipated “fun” match of the evening, featuring a couple of players who we know would “talk” their way through the match. Rojas showed a bit more rust than was expected, and Diaz was clearly frustrated by the calls, and the Bredenbeck’s won in two.
Match #5 was an interesting one: a rematch of The World’s final from just a week ago. Acuna came out hot and just blasted Landa, who looked like he was nursing an injury. But whatever was bugging Alex loosened up, and he cruised to game 2 and 3 wins.
—- An excellent job by all parties, pulling this off for the first time.
Thanks to all the sponsors who made this possible including @Donald Williams and Williams Accounting & Consulting, Suivant Consulting , Dovetail/Mike Kinkead , plus all the other sponsors. Congrats to Adam Manilla , Erika Manilla and @Manilla Athletics for the great idea and for putting it on. Thanks to Wayne Antone for reffing, @Bobby Horn and @Elli John and Brian Pineda for all their announcing work.
Sostre the double winner this weekend. Photo Steve Fitzsimons 3WB 2020
Congrats to your One-wall Doubles winners on the weekend:
Men’s Pro Doubles: Robert Sostre/William Rolon
Women’s Pro Doubles: Masiel Rivera/Aimee Roehler
Mixed Pro Doubles: Robert Sostre/Masiel Rivera
75+: Sergio Rivera/Suresh Vemulapalli
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37870
The weather looked great and the competition was awesome all weekend. Here’s a recap of the four biggest draws.
Men’s Pro Doubles recap:
12 teams entered this draw, split into three RR groups. The format gave the winners of the RR groups byes into the knockout semis, and then the three second place teams played a winner-take all mini-RR group to determine the last semi finalists.
Group winners:
@Robert Sostre and William Rolon
@Yasmani Perez and Alejandro Barceló
@Ignacio Espinal and Eric Faro
The three 2nd place teams who duked it out for the last semi spot were:
@Thomas Gerhardt and @Mike Harmon
@Richie MIller and @David Blatt
@Freddie Ramirez and @Joe Young
Ramirez and Young claimed the last knockout spot by topping the wild card RR group.
In the semis, Sostre/Rolon took out Ramirez/Young in a matchup of long-time one-wall partners Iceman and Freddie. In the other semi, Espinal & Faro topped the surprise group winners Perez/Barcelo.
In the final, Sostre/Rolon were just too strong and took out Espinal & Faro in two close games.
Women’s Pro Doubles Recap:
The Women’s pro doubles played one big RR group to determine the top two teams, who then met again in a winner take all final.
In the group stage, LPRT touring pro @Masiel Rivera and Hall of Famer @Aimee Roehler cruised to a group win, with #1 seeds and NY one-wall legends @Maira Ramos and @Kathy Guinan taking second.
In the knockout final, Rivera/Roehler won the rematch against the New Yorkers to take the pro title.
Mixed Pro Recap;
An excellent mixed doubles draw was hit somewhat by injuries by Sunday morning, but still featured some top teams battling it out. The 10 teams split into RR groups of five each, with the top two teams advancing to the knockouts.
Group A winners: Sostre/Rivera Group B winners: @Ruben Pagan / Roehler.
Second place finishers: @David Blatt and @Anita Maldonado from Group A, and @Richard Miller / @Maira Ramos from group B.
In the knockouts, Sostre/Rivera held serve in the top half, while Pagan/Roehler were upset by the NYC pairing of MIller/Ramos. In the final, Sostre/Rivera made it a double, winning the Mixed 21-16.
Combined 75+ Recap
The Combined 75+ was nearly as big of a draw as the Men’s Pro, and was hotly contested. Like with Mixed, the 11 teams split into two big RR groups, with the top two teams advancing to the semis.
From Group A, @Alejandro Barcelo and @Richie Miller took the group, with the traveling VA team of @Sergio Rivera and @Suresh Vemulapalli taking 2nd.
In Group B: the pro finalists Espinal and Faro took the top spot, while the Miami duo of @Daniel Talamo and @Gleiber Barrios Subires surprised some one-wall top pros to take second.
In the knockouts, some amazing upsets. Barcelo/Miller took out the underdog Miami pairing in the first semi, but the Virginians shocked the pro finalists to get to the finals. There, Rivera and Vemalapalli took out another favored pro outdoor pairing to surprise the tournament and win the final. Kudos to Rivera and Suresh for their big win!
Thanks to the Tourney Directors @thao le and @maddie melendez for putting this event on! Thanks to @vic leibofsky for his help on the draws and making sure all of us watching from afar knew what was going on.
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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it.
Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar … https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9S…/
… The next big tournament on the schedule is the IRT Suivant Consulting Grand Slam in Mid January 2022. We have a few lower tier events in the early part of January.
Sostre is in Florida this weekend; can he take home multiple titles? Photo Steve Fitzsimons 3WB 2020
The AGE Solutions Hollywood Beach Battle
r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37870
Just when you thought the outdoor season was over … the venerable DC-based team of racquetball promotors Thao Le and Maddie Melendez are bringing racquetball back to the Historic Garfield Street one-wall courts in Hollywood, Florida this coming weekend, with a little help from regular Florida racquetball organizers like Vic Leibofsky, Rob Mijares and Jeff Wright.
Headline sponsored by DC-area player @Andy Gomer and his company AGE Solutions, this is the first time tournament racquetball has been played on these courts since the March 2019 Beach Bash. 2020’s event was one of the first major rball events to be cancelled thanks to the burgeoning Covid crisis, and 2021’s event never got off the organizational floor with the city from a permitting perspective. But here we are, and the draws look amazing.
Despite a space-limited capacity figure for the tournament, this tournament has drawn a who’s who of one-wall players from up and down the east coast, with a number of players flying in from New York/New Jersey and Washington DC. Other top outdoor players are coming in from Arizona and Texas and North Carolina. And of course, a ton of Florida’s finest are here, ready to fend off the challenges from one-wall out-of-towners and try to take home the titles on home soil.
Here’s a quick preview of the doubles-only pro draws to be competed this weekend. Note: some of these draws and partnerships may change by the time draws are released; some last minute withdrawals have forced some scrambling to find new partners… the Tournament Director’s lament.
Men’s Pro Doubles.
There’s 12 teams entered into the Pro one-wall doubles, and the competition will be fierce. They’re split into three RR groups of four teams each to start.
In Group 1, the favorites are the top seeded NYC team of Robert Sostre and William Rolon, who were the 2019 and 2020 One-Wall champions in Vegas together. Individually, these two hold a slew of Beach Bash titles; Rolon won in 2017 and 2018 with David Blatt, while Sostre holds four Beach Bash titles (and made another four finals) with long-time partner Freddy Ramirez. The “Iceman” and “The Warrior” will be tough to beat. However, Group 1’s #2 seed is the sneaky good team of Thomas Gerhardt and Mike Harmon, who very accomplished indoor players who also more than hold their own in the outdoor arena.
In Group 2, the #1 seeds are the tough team of Richard Miller and David Blatt, who themselves are one-wall royalty from NYC. Miller owns three Beach Bash titles (and made the pro finals another five times), while Blatt (known as “The Hulk” or “The Hulkster”) has both a Beach Bash and a Vegas one-wall title on his resume. They’ll be pushed in their group by top outdoor Florida players such as @Marcos Gravier, Alejandro Barcelo, and Yasmani Pérez. Also, shoutout here to Osman Alejandro Lazarte, a long-time DC area top player who’s entered in with a dark-horse New Englander in Sudheer Tata and could make waves.
In Group 3, the top seeded team is one-wall royalty in Freddy Ramirez paired up with perhaps the most powerful player in Hollywood this weekend in Joe Young. Freddy owns dozens of one-wall titles in his career and is perhaps the best right-sided one-wall player in history, while Young blasted his way to a Beach Bash title in 2015 and is a regular in outdoor majors. They’ll be challenged in the group stage by NYC ex-pat @Ignacio Espinal (Iggy) playing with @Eric Faro from New York and a dark horse team from Stratton Woods in @Sergio Rivera and @Suresh Vemulapalli.
Group Predictions: I hate to go chalk, but its hard to see any of the three top seeds getting upset in the group stage. Best chance for an upset goes to Gerhardt/Harmon in group 1.
The playoffs will be determined in a cool way: the three group winners advance to the semis, while the three runners-up will play a mini RR to determine the fourth semi finalist.
In the knockouts, I like Miller/Blatt over Ramirez/Young in the final, if the brackets work out that way.
Mixed Pro Doubles
The Mixed Pro draw is stacked. Some of the teams that stood out to me as immediate contenders include:
Sostre playing with LPRT touring pro Masiel Rivera Oporto
Gerhardt playing with Virginia top outdoor player @Aime brewer.
Ruben Pagan of onewallball.com playing with Hall of Famer Aimee Roehler.
Blatt playing with the legendary Anita Maldonado, who owns five major one-wall titles and is perhaps the best female paddleball player of all time.
Miller playing with @Maira Ramos, a pairing that won both the 2010 and the 2013 Mixed pro Beach Bash titles together.
Freddy playing with Kathy Guinan – Norwex Independent Consultant, who owns two Beach Bash doubles titles from 2010 and 2012.
Wow. These round robins are going to be amazing. Each RR group has three teams that you could make easy arguments for advancing.
Predictions: I’m going to go with Sostre/Rivera winning group one, Pagan/Roehler in group two, and Sostre/Rivera taking the playoff.
Women’s Pro Doubles
There’s eight women’s pro doubles teams entered, and the competition looks fierce.
In Group A, an old-school pairing of Guinan/Ramos will look to fend off what looks like a very powerful team of Roehler/Rivera.
In Group B, look for a battle between the Virginia-based pairing of Carrie Handfinger Hoeft and Brewer and the @Claudia Andrade/@Michelle Michbo Herbert team, which could be pretty tough.
In the final, I don’t think Roehler/Rivera can be stopped.
Other Draws
There’s huge Draws in Elite, in Men’s 75+, and others. Kudos to all the players who are flying in to support this event.
Look for streaming from the individual players throughout the weekend. I know that wifi is tough at the court, so we’ll hope for the best we can.
3WallBall Outdoor World Championships Mid-Atlantic World Outdoor Racquetball WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
Marco Rojas comes out of retirement for the Manilla Court Wars. Photo Kevin Savory
For the first time in years, perhaps dating to the old Hogan-Yellen winner-take-all matches in the late 1980s, a racquetball promoter has put together a pay-for-play exhibition and its happening this coming weekend.
The Manilla Athletics Court Wars 2021 is set to happen on 12/18/21, live on pay per view and available at this website: https://manillaathletics.com/courtwars-info
Consider supporting this endeavor and buying your tickets. I’ve got mine. We need more of this kind of out-of-the-box thinking, not less, in our sport.
Title sponsors include the two owners of Manilla Athletics (that being pro players and team USA members Adam Manilla and Erika Manilla) as well as two of the leading sponsors of racquetball in the Atlanta area, Williams Consulting and Suivant Consulting.
There’s already a great preview at https://manillaathletics.com/courtwars-info of each of the 5 matches (which I highly recommend to go read) but here’s my preview and prediction for the five matches in the event.
Match #1: Antonio Rojas versus Nikhil Prasad. First up is an all Junior (well, nearly junior) event, featuring two of the more decorated Junior competitors the USA has ever seen. Both players hail from northern California (Rojas from Stockton, and Prasad from Fremont). Rojas finished his junior career with 8 junior national titles and simultaneously held the 16U and 18U titles in 2019 (a rare feat: it has only been done by two other males, that being Jose Rojas and Jack Huczek). Prasad is still going, is the reigning 16U junior national champion as we speak and holds six junior national titles, with a chance to sweep the 18Us in the next two years to match Tatoe’s accomplishments. Neither player has yet to debut on the pro tour (though Tatoe did play in a WRT event when he was quite young).
Prediction: I think age wins out here: Prasad is an excellent player and clearly the best 16U player in the land, but Rojas was winning 18U titles when he was Prasad’s age, and at this young age, a couple of years of experience and strength means a ton.
Match #2: Mario Mercado versus Andree Parrilla Match #2 features two IRT touring pros, the currently ranked #4 and #10 players on tour. Both are experienced international players, and both represented their home countries at the recent World championships (Parrilla playing for Mexico, Mercado playing for Colombia). They’ve met 5 times professionally, all on the IRT. Parrilla leads h2h 3-2. Their last meeting was at this year’s US Open, a two game 11,8 win for Andree. But, Mercado is coming off a strong run of form; he won the Arizona pro-am IRT event in November and made it to the semis of Worlds, where he dropped an 11-9 thriller to Acuna to miss out on the finals. They play a somewhat contrasting style: Mercado is inarguably a shooter, going for bottom boards and pinch shot rollouts at every opportunity. Parrilla is more of a grinder, a defender who relies on accuracy more than power. This match could come down to who is sharper, and despite the run of form lately I give the edge to the higher ranked pro:
Prediction: Parrilla in a breaker.
Match #3: Erika Manilla versus Jessica Parrilla I love this matchup, especially right now, because Manilla has had a great run of form and is looking like she merits a spot in the top 10 on tour. Meanwhile, Parrilla IS in the top 10 on tour right now, meaning this could be a very evenly matched contest. They’ve only met once: way back in 2017 at the US Open, an easy 3-game win for Parrilla when Erika was barely out of juniors. But so much has happened since then: Parrilla suffered an awful knee injury and missed an entire year on tour, and really is still working her way back. Manilla finished college and has now been able to focus more fully on playing, and her results show. She had a great run at the US Open (making the pro semis and really pushing #1 Longoria), and she made the doubles final at Worlds with Rhonda Rajsich. She continues to get solid wins on tour. The key to this match will be emotions. As in, who can manage theirs better. Both players play with their emotions plainly on their sleeves; a missed shot results in gesticulation, while a made shot results in exaltation. Sometimes playing with emotion can be good, other times it can be blinding to proper game management. Look for plenty of “Come on!” and “Vamos” from the competitors as they battle this one out.
Prediction: Parrilla in a close breaker.
Match #4: Doubles: Jose Diaz & Marco Rojas versus Jake Bredenbeck and Sam Bredenbeck A fun doubles exhibition, featuring two of the best doubles players in America and long-time double partners Diaz and Jake. Diaz and Jake made the finals of the 2014 Pan American sports Festival, the Finals of the 2015 US Open, a bunch of Pro doubles finals, and the 2020 US national doubles finals. But now times have changed: Jake played 2021 US nationals with his brother Sam and seems to have taken his brother on as a permanent doubles partner, likely due to Diaz stepping back from playing. How will these two fare on the court facing each other for the first time in years? Meanwhile, some newer fans of the sport may not “remember” just how good Rojas was on tour. He was in the top 10 for four years in the mid 2010s, a constant presence in the back-ends of tournaments, and maintains to this day winning h2h records against a slew of top players (Landa, DLR, Pratt, Murray, Horn, and Diaz). A victim of the financial issues in our sport, Rojas quit the tour in May of 2017 to focus on getting a “real job,” which he’s been doing ever since. But now he’s back, and he’s part of what promises to be a very vocal “209” pairing, going against the Minnesota farm hand brother-brother pairing. There is no lack of confidence coming from the Rojas/Diaz pairing, and they’ll be sure to let everyone know as the game moves on. Generally when i predict doubles matches, I look at the strongest and weakest players on the court as the determining factors. I’m assuming Rojas will get some practice time in, but will his rustiness be a factor? Meanwhile, Jake projects to be the most dominant player on the court; can he carry the team? Of the four players, Sam is the least accomplished player; will that be the determining factor?
Prediction: Diaz/Rojas eke it out.
Match #5: Alex Landa versus Andres Acuña Well, you couldn’t ask for a better match here. This is an immediate rematch of the 2021 World final, won in dominant fashion by Landa 6,6. I won’t rehash the “history” between these two; it is well documented elsewhere. What I will point out is this: these guys have played each other, a lot, this year. This will be the fifth meeting between these two players since August. Landa won the first three (all round of 16 matches in pro events), before Acuna took out the mentally fatigued Landa in Sarasota, a huge upset and a marquee win for Acuna’s career. Then Acuna played fantastic ball all week in Guatemala to earn a well-merited spot in the gold medal game. On paper, this is World #2 versus World #16, and you wouldn’t think it would be that close. But in reality, these are players moving in opposite directions. Acuna is up and coming, has added pace and is starting to get notable wins left and right. Landa is now 33, kind of a “witching hour” age for pro racquetball players where they generally lose a step or two, lose a few MPH on their fastballs, and suddenly go from top dogs to upset-fodder. Not to mention … at some point you have to “grow up” and realize you can’t play rball forever. Is this where Landa sits right now, career wise? His recent results (outside of winning Worlds) certainly show this; he has not made a final since March of 2020, and he’s taking first-time losses to a number of up and coming players. The big question for this match will be; is Landa’s heart going to be into it? If he’s not getting up for pro tournaments, can he get up for an exhibition? Meanwhile, Acuna plays to win; he doesn’t take matches off; he can’t afford to right now. Every win for him is more important than the last and he’s hungry.
Erika Manilla is really starting to make a name for herself on tour. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory
Congrats to Paola Longoria, who was the double pro winner on the weekend yet again. She adds to her already amazing pro title history; this is her 105th pro Tier 1 singles title and her 49th Pro Doubles title since we started tracking pro doubles on the women’s tour in Aug 2014. Paola won the doubles title this weekend with Maria Jose Vargas Parada, and not her regular doubles partner Salas (who was absent this week).
Singles Match report: http://rball.pro/5819A5 Doubles match report: http://rball.pro/6AAF40
Here’s a quick run-through the notable singles matches this weekend for me:
Great win for Erika Manilla in the 16s, controlling the powerful Mexican player Montse Mejia in two games. Mejia won a grand slam earlier this year, but has several head scratching losses since. Not to take anything away from Manilla, whose US Open performance and subsequent playing has her firmly in my world top 8 right now.
Also a great win for Carla Muñoz Montesinos in the 16s, taking out #9 Valeria Centellas in the round of 16 with ease. Munoz is close to breaking back into the top 10 and this was a solid win that will help cement her return.
Kelani Lawrence got another win over her American rival Rhonda Rajsich, and had to come back from a game down to do so.
Maria Renee Rodríguez took #6 Jessica Parrilla to a breaker after a somewhat disappointing Worlds showing. The seeds held from the quarters onward, with the draw going perfectly chalk. But there were some closer games and matches.
Lawrence nearly took game one in the quarters from #2 Vargas before losing 14,6
Herrera could not repeat the feat of downing Vargas twice in a row and fell in the semis in a breaker 7,(13),8. However, it does seem like we’re starting to see a real rivalry for the #2 spot on tour, which means great projected semi finals each week.
#4 Natalia Mendez Erlwein cooled the hot Manilla in the quarters to play to her seed once again.
In the final, Vargas really pushed Longoria in game one 15-13 before falling. Would like to see some consistent competition for the #1 player.
On the doubles draw, the #1 seeds of Alexandra Herrera and Mejia advanced to the final as expected, where they faced the tough Vargas/Longoria pairing. The two top teams split games before Longoria/Vargas blew away their young Mexican counter parts in the breaker to take the title.
In Mixed doubles, we had some excellent play. A number of the top LPRT pros teamed up with the pros and top amateurs playing to give the draw a really solid mixed feel. The semis featured Lalo Portillo and Alexandra Herrera taking out two local players in Ben Bleyer and Masiel Rivera Oporto, while on the bottom Mario Mercado and Erika Manilla made for a formidable pairing and topped Lawrence, playing with lefty North Carolinian Jacob Matthews.
In the final though, Mercado/Manilla could not overtake the excellent doubles players in Lalo/Herrera and lost in two.
Men’s Open draw A healthy 17 player draw featured four top pros who held to their seeds and advanced into the quarters.
Local amateurs Josh Shea (NY), Joe Kelley (PA), Austin Cunningham (GA) and Dylan Pruitt (MD) advanced into the quarters and put up good fights against the top touring pros; indeed, three of the four quarters went to breaker. However, the top seeds advanced to the semis for some quality late-round pro action. At the top, Portillo cruised past local favorite MoMo Zelada 11,0, while at the bottom Mario Mercado lost a Worlds quarterfinal rematch against USA’s Jake Bredenbeck, but then was given an inj fft into the final. Unfortunately, no final was held; Mercado got the walkover win despite losing the semi.
Great last tournament of the 2021 from all involved; thanks to the Grisz clan Karen Grisz and Mike Grisz for running the 29th version of this long-running tournament.
What’s next? After an incredibly busy month, the ladies get a break. The next scheduled pro stop on the LPRT isn’t until mid February, when Sudsy Monchik is hosting the tour in Vero Beach, FL. We hope for a January event for the ladies pros.
Erick Trujillo finishes off his juniors career with a world title. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory
Congrats to all the newly crowned Junior Worlds singles champions:
Boys 18U: Erick Trujillo, Mexico
Boys 16U: Jorge Gutierrez, Mexico
Boys 14U Eder Renteria, Mexico
Boys 12U: Sebastian Terrazas, Bolivia
Boys 10U: Gustavo Cordova, Bolivia
Click here; http://rball.pro/043BA8 for a matrix of all Junior Worlds Boys champions for all of time.
Comments on the draws: Boys 18U: A first (and only) junior world championship for Trujillo, who graduates from Juniors with a win at the highest level. We look forward to his continuing to compete on the IRT, as he’s had a decent debut so far. He topped fellow Mexican Sebastián Longoria in the final. Boys 16U Mexican champion Jorge Gutierrez topped Bolivian’s #1 Ezequiel Subieta in a competitive final that featured all Bolivia/Mexican semis. This is Gutierrez’s first ever world title. Boys 14U: Renteria captures his third ever Junior World Title in his age 13 season, winning the final over countryman Sebastian Ruelas in a rematch of the Mexican 14U final earlier this year. Boys 12U Terrazas wins his first junior world title in a draw dominated by Bolivians: all three entered advanced to the semis. Boys 10U
Cordova won an all-Bolivian final over countryman Matias Garabito.
Girls 18U: Micaela Meneses Cuellar, Bolivia
Girls 16U: Krystin Salinas, Bolivia
Girls 14U: Natalia Mendez (no relation), Bolivia
Girls 12U: Jamileth Sipec, Guatemala
Girls 10U: Michelle Gomez, Mexico Click here: https://rball.pro/BCE571 for a matrix of all Junior Worlds winners for all of time. Comments on the victors: Girls 18U Bolivia’s Meneses finishes a grueling two weeks in Guatemala, having also represented her country in the Adult competition. She finished in 13th place, just outside of the guaranteed spots for World Games 2022, but would be first in line if one of the top 12 drops out. She wins junior worlds in her age 17 season in dominant fashion, winning the final 5,2 and still has a year to go. She’s already a regular on the LPRT and we look forward to more from the young Bolivian. She tops the promising lefty Argentine Martina Katz in the final, who impressed all weekend. Girls 16U After a nail-biting semi win over Mexico’s #2 player @Angela Ortega, Salinas crushed Mexican’s #1 @Cynthia Gutierrez 3,5 to win her first ever Junior World title. Girls 14U Bolivian Natalia Mendez (no relation to the LPRT touring player Natalia Mendez Erlwein) captured her first ever Junior World title, topping Mexican champ and #1 seed Maria Fernanda Trujillo in the final. Girls 12U: Sipec broke the Bolivian stronghold on girls titles by vanquishing both Mexican top seeded players en route to the title. Girls 10U
Gomez avenged a loss to Costa Rica’s Larissa Faeth in the group stage by topping her for the 10U title.
Doubles: We have captured the doubles champions into the database; see http://rball.pro/943497 for a complete list of all Junior worlds doubles champions from 2021 and going back in time.
We have not seen team results posted officially, but it seems that Mexico just beat out Bolivia for the team competition. No idea who might have come in third.
Thus ends a long two weeks of competition in Guatemala. Congrats to all players, to all who competed. Thanks to the IRT broadcasting crew who spent the better part of two weeks in Guatemala City broadcasting. Dean DeAngelo Baer and Pablo Fajre should get some well-deserved rest.
Next up for IRF? The Pan American Racquetball Championships next april in, hopefully , Bolivia! International Racquetball Federation – IRF
Can Kelani build on her run to the Worlds final? Photo USAR Singles 2019 via Kevin Savory
Hot on the heels of the finish of Worlds, the 29th annual Xmas classic tournament is upon us. This year it is being held in my old stomping grounds in Severna Park, Maryland, moving from its host from years past due to the long-standing Sportfit Laurel club closing during Covid. R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=36518 Thanks to the busy racquetball calendar over the past month, participation is down greatly here versus a typical LPRT event. Most of the women’s pro draws over the past two seasons have been in the 30-35 range; this event has just 19 players entered.
top20 players missing; #4 Martinez (probably exhausted after finishing “hosting” duties in Guatemala), #6 Barrios (tough logistics between Bolivia, Guatemala and Baltimore), #8 Salas (hot off another doubles title), and #12 Laime (which is kind of weird because she lives about 20 minutes from the club).
Lets preview the draw. The round of 16 features 3 play-in matches, all of which feature a regular touring player facing off against a younger rival. Perez-Chen, Ros-Scott, and Rivera-Diaz could all be interesting matches. The Round of 16 features several really compelling matches that I can’t wait to see.
#8/#9 Carla Muñoz Montesinos versus Valeria Centellas should be interesting: both players were upset early at Worlds (relative to their seedings in the singles and doubles knockouts) and will be looking for the quarterfinal spot here. Munoz has been gradually working her way back into the top 10 for a few years now after finishing 8th in 2017, and a show-me win against a similarly ranked player like Centellas are important to get that top 10 ranking.
#5 Montse Mejia vs #12 Erika Manilla; wow, great match for the 16s. Mejia, when she’s in the game mentally, is among the four best players in the world and is on a short list of players who’ve beaten Longoria in the past few years. Manilla has been rocketing up the rankings on the back of her excellent US Open showing and will be riding high after playing a huge part of Team USA’s IRF Worlds win last weekend. Which Mejia shows up in Maryland?
#3 Alexandra Herrera versus #14 Hollie Rae Scott; a first-time match-up for these two players, and it could be interesting. Herrera had a career best showing in the last LPRT event, beating Vargas in the semis and then going toe-to-toe with Longoria before losing the pro final 11-9. Can she build on that performance and regain #2 on tour? Meanwhile, Scott has a knack for beating top LPRT pros when she enters events; upset watch here.
#7 Rhonda Rajsich vs #10 Kelani Lawrence; these two just faced off in the semis of Worlds in Guatemala, with Kelani taking a straight-forward 12,7 win. They turn around and play in the 16s less than a week later; how will the travel and emotions of last week affect each player? On paper Rajsich is slightly favored, but these two keep trading off wins and losses over the past few years. Projecting the Quarters:
#1 Paola Longoria, fresh off a dominant performance in Guatemala, should move past the winner of Centellas/Munoz here.
#4 Mendez could face a stiff foe against whoever advances between Mejia and Manilla. If Manilla wins, she’s got the momentum to get to the semis, but if Mejia wins, Mejia would be slightly favored.
#3 Herrera over #6 Jessica Parrilla; the lefty Herrera has not lost to Jessica since 2016, and it doesn’t seem like she’ll lose here either.
#2 Vargas versus the Lawrence/Rajsich winner. An interesting wrinkle here: Rajsich upset Vargas to knock her out of Worlds in a shock round of 16 upset; could we see a rematch? Or, if Lawrence advances, can she take out the powerful Argentine, who might be looking for some revenge after losing so early last week? My projected semis and finals:
Longoria over Mejia
Vargas over Herrera
and Longoria cruising to another pro title in the final.
Doubles review Eight teams are entered here: Longoria is without her typical doubles partner Salas and instead has teamed up with Vargas … and are somehow only seeded third. The entire draw looks compelling and should be fun to watch. From the top, I’ll predict #1 Herrera/Mejia advance to the final; these two have shown they’ve got the chops to take over #1 at some point if/when Longoria/Salas retire. From the bottom, we get an immediate rematch of the semis from Worlds, with team USA (#7 seed) facing off against team Argentina (#2 seeds). I’m going with team USA again, who then lose to the powerful Longoria/Vargas team in the semis.
In the final, look for some fireworks but for the two top ranked ladies to vanquish the budding Mexican duo.
Men’s Draw: there’s a pretty good little Men’s Pro draw in Severna Park, with 17 players from up and down the east coast and beyond competing. We have not seen the draw yet, but it features top 10 quality IRT pros such as Lalo Portillo, Mario Mercado, Jake Bredenbeck, and MoMo Zelada to go along with top regional amateurs such as Ben Bleyer, Joe Kelley, Austin Cunningham, and NY junior phenom Josh Shea. Kind of squinting to predict the seeds, i’d guess we’d see Portillo vs Zelada in one semi (barring any upsets), and Jake vs Mario in a tough Worlds rematch in the other. Great matches, especially Jake vs Mario, who just played in Worlds and where Mario took him out in a breaker.
Early prediction: Lalo beats Mario in the final.
Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr. and the one and only JT R Ball on the mike (JT has flown in all the way from California for this event). Thanks to the Tourney Directors Karen Grisz and all your crew for putting this event on! 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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it. Tags LPRT
Landa wins Worlds.
Photo from 2020 USAR National doubles by Kevin Savory
Congrats to your winners on the weekend:
Men’s Singles: Alex Landa
Men’s Doubles; Rodrigo Montoya/Javier Mar
Women’s Singles: Paola Longoria
Women’s Doubles: Paola Longoria/Samantha Salas
Team: USA
All four draws have been loaded to the database (the official Team results are pending). Here’s those links:
Men’s Singles: http://rball.pro/5E56AA
Men’s Doubles; http://rball.pro/6A670B
Women’s Singles: http://rball.pro/F31645
Women’s Doubles: http://rball.pro/8F6654
Home page for the event: https://www.internationalracquetball.com/xx-world…/
Here’s some commentary and observations on the four draws.
Men’s Singles: Alex Landa wins his second “major” IRF event (he previously won the 2017 PARC event in San Jose, Costa Rica) by cruising through the group stage as the #1 seed entering the event. In the knockouts, he overcame a first game 15-3 blow-out loss to my pre-tournament favorite Conrrado Moscoso to win that semi with relative ease the rest of the way (3),8,6. A great adjustment by Landa to get to the final form the top-half. Moscoso had taken a close quarter final against #4 seed Andree Parrilla to get to the semis. From the bottom half, Andres Acuña entered the event as the #13 seed in the round robins before blowing out pre-tournament #2 seed Rodrigo Montoya Solis 5,4 to seize hold of the #2 seed in the knockout stages. But the bottom half was stacked with talent and the touring pros all beat each other up to make the final. USA’s Jake Bredenbeck got a great win over Montoya to vanquish him in the 16s, but then Jake fell to Colombia’s #6 Mario Mercado in the quarters. Mercado and Acuna played an absolutely fantastic match in the semis, a back and forth excellent display of shot making and cliff hangers before Acuna put Mario away to earn a spot in the final.
The final was anticlimactic, especially given all the “history” between Landa and Acuna. This is a frequent matchup as of late; the two have met in the 16s four times in the last five IRT pro events, with Acuna finally taking a match from Alex in Sarasota in the last event prior to Worlds. But the final turned into a route, as Landa played like the Landa we know from 2019-20, the one who took over the #1 spot in the world. Landa wins 6,6 to take the title and make his country switch all the more meaningful.
Women’s Singles
1 Paola Longoria blew through the draw, never dropping a game and only getting stretched to double digits twice, in winning the singles title. This title is her 21st international singles title overall; 4 Worlds, 3 Pan American Games, 8 PARCs, 2 World Games, and the rest regional titles.
The gulf between Paola and the rest of the professionals playing continues to be large. The current #2, #4, #5, #6, #8 and #10 ranked players on tour were all in Guatemala … and none of them even made the final to challenge Paola. That challenger was the surprising Kelani Lawrence, who got a couple of really solid wins over fellow touring pros Carla Muñoz Montesinos, Angelica Barrios and then against her fellow teammate Rhonda Rajsich in the semis to earn her spot in the finals. There, Paola cruised 6,1 to win the title.
Rajsich had a great tourney, rebounding from a 3rd place finish in the RRs and a #15 seeding in the group stage to oust #2 overall seed Maria Jose Vargas Parada in the 16s, then crush home-town favorite Maria Renee Rodríguez in the quarters to make the semis.
Men’s Doubles The Mexican pairing of Montoya & Mar has now won three straight Mexican national doubles titles, twice beating the presumed #1 doubles team of Daniel De La Rosa and Alvaro Beltran in the final. And now they’ve won the last two IRF competitions together, both times vanquishing the top Bolivian pair of Moscoso and Roland Keller in the final. They’re a young pairing, but they clearly are making their mark on international racquetball. Women’s Doubles
Longoria and Samantha Salas Solis continue to add to their amazing collection of titles by cruising through the draw and topping team USA in the final 14,6. This 2021 Worlds title is their 15th international title together as a team (4 worlds, 3 Pan Am games, 7 PARCs, and one regional title), to go along with 35 pro doubles titles since 2014 and somewhere in the range of 14-15 Mexican National doubles titles. Just amazing.
Team competition. Despite taking 3 of the 4 titles, team Mexico was pipped at the top of the team rankings on the strength of Landa’s singles win, two finals appearances and the early round upsets by two Mexican men’s singles players. Bolivia was a distant third.
This is the first time team USA has taken a combined team win since the 2014 Worlds, breaking a streak of 7 straight team wins by Mexico.
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from the IRTlive broadcasting team Dean DeAngelo Baer, !Gary Ga Mazaroff, and Pablo Fajre.
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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it.
Next up? Per our handy master racquetball calendar … https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
IRF World Juniors has already started and overlapped with the end of Worlds in Guatemala City; that tournament will run through the weekend.
Next weekend, the LPRT heads to my old stomping grounds in Severna Park for the last pro event of the season.
There’s also a lower-tier IRT event in Atlanta the weekend of the 12th.
then, two fun events for the 12/19 weekend: one is the return of racquetball to the outdoor courts in Hollywood Florida, the other is Court Wars, hosted by the Manillas and featuring a number of compelling matches, including a rematch of the World men’s singles final.
We’re through the RRS, and with no rest for the weary the knockouts start today at 9am Central.
Here’s a quick preview of the four draws: Men’s Singles: There was just one major upset in the Men’s Singles RR, which led to the inevitable question: which top seed would get screwed by having Rodrigo Montoya Solis drop to a low seed? The answer is: USA’s Jake Bredenbeck, who gets Montoya as a #14 seed in the round of 16 later today (presuming Rodrigo advances out of the 32s of course). These two have not met since the last of their 6 WRT meetings and they’re 3-3 h2h …but I think i’m favoring Jake here this weekend. Montoya has been nursing a shoulder injury and I don’t think he can hang with Jake’s power right now. Other 16s that could be interesting include a possible all Guatemala matchup at 8/9 between @Juan Jose Salvatierra and Javier Martinez, #5 Conrrado Moscoso versus his former country-man Diego Garcia Quispe (who now plays for Argentina), and an all-Costa Rica matchup between doubles partners #2 Andres Acuña and #15 Felipe Camacho. Predictions: I’m going Chalk to the quarters; hard to see any of the top 8 players getting upset. In the quarters:
Alex Landa over Martinez
Moscoso over Andree Parrilla; a great quarter final of contrasting styles. Parrilla has a win over Moscoso on the IRT, so this is no cakewalk for the most recent IRT pro champ. Look for this to go tie-breaker.
Mario Mercado over Jake: Mario really gets up for international competitions, and will be a dark-horse to advance.
Acuna over @Luis Aguilar, if he gets here. Aguilar is the most vulnerable of the top 8 seeds to get upset early, but if he beats Jose Daniel Ugalde Albornoz in the 16s he’ll face an uphill challenge to top Acuna. Semis:
Moscoso over Landa: Moscoso is hot, Landa is still not back to 100% form from his ailments of the summer.
Acuna over Mercado: wow; last time I have these two guys playing is in 2014 Junior Worlds 18u, when Acuna topped Mercado in the group stage before Mario raced to the junior 18U world title over none other than Moscoso, his likely opponent in the final. This is a tough one to predict, but i’ll go with Mercado.
Final: Moscoso over Mercado. They met recently in Sarasota, a very close 14,13 win for Moscoso, so this is no gimme. Look for an entertaining match as the spirited Mercado pushes the more talented Moscoso the entire way.
Women’s Singles preview The women’s RRs featured a couple of group seeds fall, but not unexpectedly, since (for example) Chile’s Carla Muñoz Montesinos was seeded 17th despite being nearly a top 10 LPRT player. So the knockout se eds look pretty straight forward. In the 32s, USA’s Kelani Lawrence faces the improving Ireland #1 Aisling Hickey in what looks like the toughest play-in of the bracket. In the 16s, a couple of fun matches await:
Defending World champ Ana Gabriela Martínez projects to face tough Ecuadorian vet Maria Pazita Muñoz Albornoz.
Both Bolivians are drawn into the same 16, with Angelica Barrios set for a Bolivian Nationals final rematch with Micaela Meneses Cuellar.
#6 Munoz, for her troubles in winning her group likely gets fellow LPRT regular Lawrence … who beat the Chilean at the 2019 Pan Am games.
two long-time LPRT touring pros in Maria Renee Rodriguez and Amaya Cris face off in the #7/#10. MRR beat her 11-10 at the US Open a few months back, but generally Amaya has held the upper hand in the head-to-head. We’ll give the nod to the home-town favorite here.
Lastly, Rhonda Rajsich projects into the #2 seed Maria Jose Vargas Parada, a tough first rounder for the Argentine. My projected quarters:
Paola Longoria over her doubles partner Samantha Salas Solis
Gaby over Natalia Mendez Erlwein
Barrios over the winner of Munoz/Lawrence (who i sense will be Munoz)
Vargas over MRR. She may be on home soil but beating the #2 player in the world is tough. Semis; here’s where the rubber meets the road.
Longoria over Gaby; so, Gaby topped Longoria to win the 2018 Worlds in a huge shock, and Gaby is on home soil. But these two have played 19 times, that one win in 2018 remains Gaby’s sole victory over Paola, and the last few times they’ve played it has been a beat down, with Paola winning by scores like 6,5 or 1,7 or 2,5. Paola is very sharp right now and is destined to win this tournament.
Vargas over Barrios: another interesting matchup between two native Bolivians with really contrasting styles. In their last meeting, Barrios won the first game before Vargas figured something out and raced to the next two games. I’m guessing with hyper-involved coaching and national team members cheering her on, she won’t make that mistake twice.
Final: Longoria blitzes past Vargas like she generally does for the title.
Men’s doubles: I’m liking Team USA vs Team Mexico in one semi; that’ll be great theater. I’m favoring Mexico to the final; they’re a more experienced team and did not struggle with inferior competition in the RRs like USA did. On the bottom side, Team Canada is going to get a rematch with team Bolivia just to get back to the semis, and Team Colombia has a chance at revenge against team Argentina for the same. The bottom half is wide open, but i’ll go out on a limb and put team Canada in the final.
Mexico over Canada in the final.
Women’s Doubles: I’m liking team Mexico over team Guatemala in the top half. In the bottom half i’m liking team USA for the upset over Bolivia in the quarters but then to lose the rematch against team Argentina in the semis.
Mexico over Argentina in the final
So far we’ve depended a ton on individuals streaming, such as Malia Kamahoahoa Bailey on the Team USA coaching staff or the individual players (Meneses, Barrios, Moscoso are always good for live streaming their matches). But the IRT crew has just arrived in town so look for Pablo Fajre and Dean DeAngelo Baer to get setup and start broadcasting today.
