Author: Todd Boss

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2021 47th Outdoor Nationals Re-cap

Michelle De La Rosa completes another undefeated major tournament weekend. Photo Mike Augustin Vegas 2019

Congratulations to the Pro Champions on the weekend:

  • Men’s Pro Doubles: Jason Geis & Micah Rich
  • Women’s Pro Doubles: Michelle De La Rosa & Carla Munoz
  • Mixed Pro Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa & Michelle De La Rosa
  • Men’s Pro Singles: Jose Diaz
  • Women’s Pro Singles: Carla Munoz

To review the brackets and results, see here: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=31967

Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/6F519E


In the 16s, just one upset by seed, with the #10 team of Hall of Famer Freddy Ramirez & former IRT touring pro Nick Riffel taking out the #7 team of tourney director Geoff Osberg playing with 2018 Men’s singles pro champ Luis Avila in a tiebreaker.
In the quarters, a star-studded affair ended up going pure chalk, with all four top seeds advancing.

  • #1 seeds Daniel De La Rosa and Alvaro Beltran got their title defense started with a closer-than-they-probably-wanted win over the tough team of former IRT touring pro and doubles specialist Jose Diaz playing with HB native Patrick Allin. The top seeds advance 13,14.
  • #4 dark-horse team of Jason Newberg Geis and Micah Rich, who won the February Valentines Day shootout over a number of teams at this event, advanced with ease over #5 Rick Koll and Emmett Coe.
  • #3 Josh Tucker and HoFamer Greg Solis were stretched to a breaker but moved past #6 team of NYC one-wall specialists Robert Sostre and Benny Goldenberg.
  • #2 Rocky Carson and tourney co-director Jesus Ustarroz, themselves 3-time prior champs of this event, advanced with ease over the Ramirez/Riffel team.
    In the semis, two big upsets.
  • #4 Geis and Rich took out the defending champs DLR & Beltran with a great win. The #1 seeds fought off multiple game points to take game one 15-14, then Rich and Geis cruised to a game 2 win to push it to breaker. There, the Lefty/Righty team pulled away at the death and DLR/Beltran just could not get enough shots to go down to force the issue. Geis/Rich take the breaker 11-8.
  • #3 Tucker and Solis played nearly a “perfect Match,” going the absolute distance with two-time champions #2 Carson & Ustarroz. Final score: 13,(14),10.
    In the finals … veteran outdoor players Tucker/Solis took the first game, but Rich and Geis did not panic, dominating the second game to force the breaker. There, they continued to play smart outdoor racquetball and went on a run at the end to take the breaker 11-5 and take the title. Rich gets his first major outdoor title, while Geis returns to the podium at a major for the first time in a decade (he and Alvaro won the 2010 3WallBall pro doubles title).

Kudos to Rich and Geis, who may not be household names to the larger indoor community but who dominated a star-studded field this weekend.

Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/39F9C4

The defending champs and #1 seeds Michelle De La Rosa and @Carla Carla Muñoz Montesinos cruised through a 5-team RR draw that featured a slew of draws as the other four teams battled it out for 2nd place. In the end Erica Williams and Katie Neils captured 2nd place on total overall points.

Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/23766C
The top two mixed pro teams, who also met for the title in 2019, each cruised through the 5-team RR draw unscathed for their inevitable Sunday morning meeting for the title. There, the husband-wife defending champ #1 seeds Daniel De La Rosa and Michelle De La Rosa squared off against Robert Sostre and Carla Munoz.

In the final, the DLRs defended their title with a close 7,12 win over Sostre and Munoz.

Men’s Pro Singles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/CF8A2A
The Pro Singles featured 8 brave souls attempting to play singles on the cavernous Huntington Beach courts. The top 4 seeds advanced into the semis. There, Jose Diaz upset #1 seed hall of famer Greg Solis, thwarting his quest for an elusive singles crown, while 2018 singles champ Avila downed the left “Sweet” Lou Orosco in the other.

In the final…Jose Diaz added his name to the board of legends who have won Outdoor Nationals pro singles, topping Avila 12,11 for the crown.

Women’s Pro Singles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/F96427

LPRT touring pro Munoz cruised through the 5-player RR draw to capture the 2021 Women’s singles Outdoor National championship. Arizonian Katie Neils came the closest to taking out Munoz, stretching her to 14 in one game and finishing in 2nd place in the group.

Other Notable Draws:

  • Men’s 100/Centurion Doubles, the largest draw of the event, featured a ton of outdoor racquetball legends competing. In the final #2 outdoor legends Scott St. Clair & Tony Burg topped Rocky playing with @jerry Hall in an 11-10 bruiser.
  • Men’s 75+ Doubles: De La Rosa, playing with HoFamer Mike Peters, cruised to the finals of 75+ doubles, where they got a walkover against #8 Thomas Gerhardt and Benny Goldenberg in the final.
  • CPRT 40+: Tucker & Solis avenged their loss in the pro doubles by taking the stacked 40+ draw, topping Carson & Ustarroz in the final.
  • Mixed Centurion Doubles featured the legends Greg & Martha McDonald competing in their 46th outdoor Nationals event; that’s right; they were at the very first one in 1974 and have missed just one in their careers (missed in the early 1980s for the birth of one of their sons). However, they ended up coming in 2nd place in the mixed 100+ doubles, getting edged by Butch Fish playing with Laura Morin.

Congrats on a successful return to Huntington each to tournament directors Geoff Osberg & Jesus Ustarroz, who have been running the event for years together and did a fantastic job getting sponsors, promoting the event and running the tournament all weekend.

Thanks to all those who streamed on the weekend. Racquetball social media promoter JT R Ball first and foremost, for setting up early, getting great drone/aerial shots, and streaming/commentating all weekend. Thanks also to personal feeds from people like Erica Williams, Ranulfo Alvarez, Frank Biehl, Ruben Antilla, and many others.

Thanks to all 2021 Outdoor National sponsors, listed here https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-sponsors.asp….
A big thanks to the title sponsor Randy Root and his teamroot.com enterprise; Randy continues to be the biggest sponsor of the sport. Major thanks to presenting sponsor Pro Kennex and Mike Martinez, who continue to be a leading voice in the sport and in outdoor.
Thanks to the gold sponsors, including Melissa’s restaurant, Gearbox (the official ball of the tournament), Coca-Cola, RH enterprises, 3WallBall, Splathead, Roundabout Entertainment, KWM Gutterman and Keith Minor. Thanks to all silver sponsors including Dale (Valentine) & Todd (Entrikin)’s WTF Racquetball series, Rogue Gallery, (Mark) Bloom Injury Law, the (Rocky) Carson Real Estate Team, and Ustarroz Construction. Thanks to all bronze sponsors including the IRT, the LPRT, the Comfort Inn and Suites, the Springhill Suites of Huntington Beach, Dogz Bar & Grill, Los Compadres Auto Sales (and thanks for all you guys do for the sport yourselves), RYDF, and Alberto’s.

Thanks for all the sponsors and all you do; without you, we would not have racquetball events.

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?
Next week, in Des Moines Iowa is National Team Qualifying and Junior Nationals. The draws are up here and play starts on Wednesday.. https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=37673

tags/Sponsor links
@International Racquetball Tour
LPRT
WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
USA Racquetball
Reaching Your Dream Foundation
Splathead Sportsgear
3Wall Ball
team root/Randy Root
KWM Gutterman Inc./Keith Minor
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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2021 47th Annual Outdoor Nationals Preview

DLR will look to defend both his 2019 titles. Photo 2019 outdoor Nationals by Mike Augustin

Welcome back Huntington Beach! After a year off thanks to Covid-19, outdoor National is back at Marina Park to host the 2021 Team Root Outdoor Nationals Racquetball Championships presented by Pro Kennex.

A solid draw of 140+ players is in Southern California to compete, and the draw includes a slew of the best outdoor players in the land.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=31967

Lets do some quick draw previews.

In the Men’s Pro Doubles… the big daddy draw, with Defending champs Alvaro Beltran and Daniel De La Rosa seeded 1st and favored to win again. But there’s a ton of talented teams here.

In the opening round, i’m looking at close matches in the 5/12 match-up (Emmitt Coe/Rick Koll versus NorCal top pairing of Walter Ramos and Israel Torres) and in the 6/11 match-up (New York one-wall specialists Freddy Ramirez and Benny Goldenberg versus Thomas Gerhardt and Daniel Lavely), but otherwise expect chalk.

In the quarters, I’m projecting a couple of really solid matches but for the top four seeds to advance. I like the #4 Micah Rich/ Jason Newberg team to top the Coe/Koll team in a close one, and i do think #3 Greg Solis and Josh Tucker will outlast the challenge from Ramirez/Goldenberg.

In the semis, i’m predicting Beltran/DLR to outlast Rich/Geis, while i’m predicting an upset in the bottom-half, with Solis/Tucker taking out #2 seeds Rocky Carson and Jesus Ustarroz.

In the final: Beltran/DLR defend their title over fellow so-cal outdoor top players Solis/Tucker.

In the Women’s Pro Doubles … Michelle De La Rosa and Carla Muñoz Montesinos are the #1 seeds and defending champs, and should defend their title on the weekend. there are 5 teams entered, and they’ll play round robin matchups all weekend to determine the winner. Their toughest competition will come from #2 seeds Amie LeBrun Brewer and Jessica Chen, two traveling players from Washington (DC) and Washington (State) respectively.

In the Mixed Pro Doubles, defending champs/husband wife De La Rosa team will face off against last year’s finalists once again in the Munoz/ Robert Sostre team, but a 5-team round-robin competition that features some NorCal flavor in Erica Williams, Walter Ramos, Israel Torres and Jazmin Trevino will spice the mixed draw up all weekend.

In the Men’s Singles … the search continues for the successor to the domination of Brian Hawkes and Rocky Carson on the big Huntington Beach courts. Four different players have won the last four Men’s pro singles title, and this year i’m predicting a 5th straight winner.
8 players are entered, and I think we get chalk to the semis. There, former IRT touring pro Jose Diaz will give Hall of Famer Greg Solis a run for his money, but I think Solis advances. On the bottom, #2 seed and 2018 singles champ Luis Avila projects to face “Sweet” Lou Orosco for a spot in the final.

I’m predicting Solis, who has never won a singles title, will finally add this title to his resume and take the Men’s pro singles title.

In the Women’s pro singles, after not having a top-level singles draw for several years there are 5 women entered into the Pro/Open singles draw. They are headlined by LPRT touring pro and heavy favorite here Carla Munoz, who will play RR competition against several competitors for the title. I’m predicting Munoz finishes the weekend unvanquished and adds an Outdoor Singles title to her collection of trophies.

Other Notable draws: the biggest draw on the weekend is the Men’s Centurion (100+) division, with 19 teams competing. A slew of hall of famers and former touring pros are entered into this event, and it should be fun. Look for HoFer Mike Peters to make some noise, get a chance to watch former IRT touring pro Todd O’Neil, and especially watch for the McDonald crew (@greg mcdonald and his son Jack), who are here (along with Martha McDonald) to support the tournament from Florida as they’ve done nearly every year since 1974.

Look for Streaming this weekend from JT R Ball and in the various outdoor racquetball groups. If you’re not a member, consider following pages/groups like the main WOR page or groups like Underground Racquetball, which covers SoCal outdoor.

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Geoff Osberg and Jesus Ustarroz for putting this event on! This is the culmination of months of hard work for Geoff and Jay and I wanted to commend them for making the return to HB a success.

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/Sponsor links
@international racquetball tour
LPRT
WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
USA Racquetball
3WallBall Outdoor World Championships
@Reaching Your Dream Foundation
Splathead Sportsgear
Randy Root
KWM Gutterman Inc.
Keith Minor
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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2021 TeamRoot SuperMax Wrap-Up

Mejia captures her first ever pro tournament, doing the double along with it. Photo Kevin Savory US Open 2019

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Pro Singles: Montse Mejia
  • Pro Doubles; Mejia & Alexandra Herrera​

Mejia gets just her second ever win over Longoria to take her first ever pro title. She becomes the 28th person ever to win a Tier 1 women’s pro event. She also breaks Longoria’s 39-match winning streak, the 7th longest in the history of the sport on the women’s side.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37491

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Match report in PRS: http://rball.pro/DD7F6B

In the 64s, some surprises starting right at 8am Friday:

  • Solid win for Colombian María Paz Riquelme, taking out the junior upstart from Bolivia Natalia Mita. Fun fact about Riquelme; she got her start playing racquetball when she lived in Arlington Va, and she used to play in the leagues that I ran as a club pro there in the 2006-2007 time frame. I don’t think i can take all the credit for her success though 🙂
  • Annie Roberts had a great turn-around to notch her first LPRT win, storming back from a 15-8 first game loss to take the second game 15-0 and then hold on for the 11-10 tie-breaker win over Colombian junior Camila Rivero
  • Erika Manilla took a close one from fellow American Michelle De La Rosa3,11 to move on.

In the 32s, the notable results

  • #16 Adriana Riveros dominated #17 @Maria Maria Renee Rodríguez 4,11 to move on. I would have expected this to be closer; a solid win by Riveros.
  • #8 Angelica Barrios​ made quick work of #25 Daniela Rico​ 10,2; they had gone deep into a tie-breaker in the last event when they met.
  • #12 @Carla Carla Muñoz Montesinos and #21 Masiel Rivera Oporto (a former top10 player herself) played it as close as you could, with Munoz edging out the Bolivian-American 11-10 in a fantastic back and forth, tense match.
  • #11 Nancy Enriquez​ dominated the tough Ana Laura Flores​ 6,6 in the opener.
  • #20 Brenda Laime Jalil​ got the biggest upset of the round, topping Colombian veteran Amaya Cris in two.
  • #10 Montse Mejia​ cruised past Bolivian junior @Micaela Micaela Meneses Cuellar​ 8,4 to start off her tournament.
  • In the most talent-laden opening round match, #7 Valeria Centellas played very solid racquetball to move past the criminally under-seeded #26 Lucia Gonzalez 12,7.
  • #15 Kelani Lawrence​ and fellow American Sheryl Lotts played it as close as they could, with Kelani taking an 11-10 tie-breaker.
  • #2 Alexandra Herrera was given a stiff challenge, advancing by 10,14 in two close games against Manilla.

In the 16s:

  • #1 Paola Longoria​ cruised past #16 Riveros to move on.
  • #8 Barrios took care of business against the veteran #9 Rhonda Rajsich,9.
  • #5 Samantha Salas Solis​ left no room for an upset over #12 Munoz, who has challenged her (and beaten her) in the past. She moves on 7,7
  • #4 Natalia Mendez​ handled the upstart #20 Laime, controlling the match and moving on.
  • #14 Gabriela Martinez​ took out #3 @Maria Maria Jose Vargas Parada with relative ease 3,7. This was a tough round of 16 for Vargas, just coming back after a break, having to go against the under-seeded Gaby. This sets up some possibly very compelling matches later on in the bottom half.
  • #6 Jessica Parrilla​ turned the tides on the surging #11 Enriquez, and showed some serious mettle in coming back to win game two and the match. She moves on 7,14
  • #10 Mejia got a solid win over #7 Centellas 9,8, in a match of two of the better young players on tour.
  • #2 Herrera withstood a tough opening game, then cruised to the win 14,1 over Lawrence.

In the Quarters

  • Barrios got her points and definitely played better than the last time she met #1 Longoria, but Paola persevered and moved on 8,10.
  • #5 Salas got a great win over #4 Mendez, turning the tide from their last meeting in South Carolina and buldling on her solid showing at Mexican Nationals. Is Salas back? This win should put her back to #4 on tour going into the next event.
  • #14 Martinez continued her pathway through the draw, topping #6 Parrilla in two relatively in-control games. Is Martinez back? Clearly she’s one of the top 4-5 players in the world, and the tour would be better with her on it full time.
  • #10 Mejia held serve against her doubles partner and moved into the semis over #2 Herrera in two closer games. Its always tough to play your doubles partner, and the two know each other’s games intimately. Mejia moves on for a compelling semi final.

In the Semis

  • Longoria improved to an amazing 52-3 against her long-time rival Salas, topping her 7,6 to move into the finals of the 25th consecutive LPRT event.
  • Mejia topped Martinez 8,6 for the fourth successive time in major/pro competitions to move into just her second ever pro final.

In the Finals, which some pundits (ahem, me) predicted, Mejia took it to Longoria in a way she hadn’t done since her sole previous victory over the #1, and kept up the pressure all game for the two-game win.

Points Implications of results:

The big move, of course, is Mejia, who should move from #10 to #3 with this big win. That is assuming that there’s no rolling expiration of points going on and we’re just adding existing points to the current totals for each player. It will be the first time Mejia has been anywhere close to the top of the LPRT rankings, where she really belongs based on her talent level.

Other minor moves in the rankings that i’m projecting include:

  • Mendez dropping from 4 to 6
  • Centellas dropping out of the top 8.
  • Martinez moving up from 13 to 11.
  • Laime moving up 2 spots to 18.

Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/27A5B6

Round of 16: two minor upsets in the 8/9 and 7/10 matches, other wise seeds held.

In the quarters, all four top seeds held serve, but it wasn’t easy; three of the four matches went to tie-breaker and the top seeds were stretched 9,10 by the American duo of Lawrence & Scott.

In the semis; a shot across the bow of ladies pro doubles; the Guatemalan national team of Martinez & Rodriguez handled the #1 Longoria/Salas team to move into their first pro doubles final as a team. On the bottom-half, Mejia & Herrera moved into the final as well, easily handling the Argentine duo of Mendez/Centellas.

In the final: the Mexican duo made quick work of the Guatemalans in game one, then held on 15-14 in game two to give Mejia the shock double on the weekend. Final score 1,14.

Women’s Open draw

There was a very solid women’s open draw on the weekend as well, which featured 18 players and was headlined by #7 and #8 players Barrios and Centellas as well as several former top 10 pro players.

The semis nearly went chalk, with 4 of the top 5 seeds advancing, all regular LPRT touring pros. Erin Slutzky had the biggest upset of the early rounds, taking out #4 Amaya Cris 11-10 before falling to #5 Enriquez easily in the quarters.

In the semis, four countries represented: Bolivia, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. A very international semis.

  • Barrios got a solid tiebreaker win over Enriquez.
  • Munoz got one of the better wins of her career by topping Centellas in 2.

In the final, Munoz finished off Barrios in two to capture the crown and finish off a significant weekend of results. She finishes atop the open draw with a series of wins over top 8 players and wins a draw that included at least 4 current or very recent top 10 players. Great weekend for the Chilean.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst​, Jerry J Josey Jr.​., and Tj Baumbaugh​. Thanks to Leo Ray Vasquez​ for his weekend broadcast work as well. Lastly thanks to Sudsy Monchik​, who was in KC with his wife for the event and who did a great job broadcasting as always. I’d like to say that the streaming video quality looked really amazing this weekend, more “high def” than I’d seen it before, and the broadcast team did a great job of live action camera switching. Bravo and kudos to the entire tech team of LPRT.

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 on the Racquetball Calendar?

  • Next weekend there’s an RKT event in Chihuahua.
  • The next big tournament is the Outdoor Nationals in Huntington Beach, CA the weekend of 7/11/21.
  • The weekend after that will be the US Team Qualifying plus Junior Nationals in Des Moines.
  • The next known LPRT event is the combo IRT/LPRT World Doubles event in mid-august in Denver.

tags

LPRT​
International Racquetball Federation – IRF​
USA Racquetball​
@Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
RKT​
Raquetbol Bolivia​
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball​ de Racquetball
Racquetball Colombia​
@Federación Chilena de Racquetball
@Racquetball Rancagua, Chile
@ASOCIACION DE RAQUETBOL DE GUATEMALA
Reaching Your Dream Foundation​oundation
Randy Root​

Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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TeamRoot SuperMax Preview

The LPRT is back in action, and back in Kansas City for the fourth time in three years. Thanks to major LPRT benefactor Randy Root and Teamroot.com for running his 4th grand slam and for his ongoing support of the sport (both pros and outdoor).

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37491

36 of the top women’s pros from around the world are here competing representing 7 different countries.

Top20 players missing: None. For the first time that I can think of writing these previews, there’s not a single top20 ranked player missing from a pro event. The highest ranked players missing are #22 Erin Nocam Rivera and #23 Susy Acosta, neither of whom are full time tour players at this point. So this should be a fantastic draw.

Big news: the return of #3 Maria Jose Vargas Parada, who took time off the tour for the birth of her second child. She’s back, and it should be interesting to see how rusty she is when it comes to competing in the back-end of this event.

Round of 64
36 players means a round of 32 in Overland park; here’s a quick look at the compelling play-in matches:

  • #32/33 Linda Tyler versus Montserrat Pérez; Tyler got a great win in the last LPRT event opener; this matchup projects to be a bit tougher.
  • A couple of international juniors have flown in to make their pro debuts. Bolivia’s Natalia Mita and Colombia’s Camila Rivero are both 16U players and will provide tough matchups for María Paz Riquelme and Annie Roberts respectively.

– The 31/34 match is a bruiser; 2020 US National team qualifier Erika Manilla is set to face former touring pro and current top outdoor specialist Michelle De La Rosa. One top American will bow out quite early here, and I suspect it will be Manilla.

Round of 32 matches to watch for: Here’s some of the openers that I think will be compelling:

  • 16/17 features two touring veterans in Adriana Riveros and @maria renee rodriguez, who have only managed to face off once before in a top-level event despite both competing on tour for years. Riveros topped MRR in 2016, but things are a lot closer between them now. I still slightly favor Riveros here, but MRR should push for the win.
  • #8 Angelica Barrios vs #25 Daniela Rico: these two managed to play in the first round just a few weeks ago, with Rico pushing Barrios to a breaker. No reason not to think it could happen again.
  • #13 Amaya Cris will have her hands full with #20 Brenda Laime Jalil; upset watch here.
  • #14 @ana gabriela martinez vs #19 Hollie Scott; these two played a barn burner in December, with Scott pushing the former World Champ to a breaker before falling. Lets see if the USA #1 can push the Guatemalan #1 here, in the kind of international matchup that Scott will be seeing later this year at Worlds.
  • #7 Valeria Centellas vs #26 Lucia Gonzalez; another repeat of a 1st rounder from early may, where Centellas topped the dangerous Lucia in two solid games. Gonzalez skipped Mexican Nationals last week, perhaps to rest up for the super max. Despite the seedings of both players, these are (in my estimation) 2 of the top 6-7 players in the world, and this is the best round of 32 in terms of talent.
  • #10 Montse Mejia vs #23 Micaela Meneses Cuellar; a tough draw for the young Bolivan, running into perhaps the 2nd or 3rd best player in the world right now in Mejia.
  • #15 Kelani Lawrence vs #18 @sheryl lotts; another USA vs USA match, with Lawrence favored to down her some-times doubles partner.

– #2 Alexandra Herrera vs mDLR: if Michelle advances, Herrera has a far more difficult round of 32 than she may like. These two played a 12-10 5th game at the US Open a couple years ago, and mDLR can push the lefty. Herrera should advance, but will have to work for it.

Round of 16 projections.
-#1 Paola Longoria should dominate the veteran Riveros.

  • I see #8 Barrios taking out #9 veteran Rhonda Rajsich.
  • After several years entrenched at #2 on tour, Samantha Salas Solis has fallen to #5, but had a great run at Mexican Nationals last week, getting wins over several tough compatriots, and will look to build on that here. She gets an opponent in #12 Carla Muñoz Montesinos who upset Salas in Dec 2019, so she has the playbook to win, but i like the way Salas is trending. Samantha to advance.
  • #4 Natalia Mendez over Laime.
  • #3 Vargas projects to play #14 Martinez in a really tough round of 16, especially given her time off. Based on talent levels, this should be a close one for Vargas, but she could be rusty from the layoff. I like the winner of this match to make a deep run.
  • #11 Nancy Enriquez just beat #6 Jessica Parrilla last week at Mexican Nationals handily, and I think she does it again here.
  • #10 Mejia over #7 Centellas; man this quarter is tough; Centellas, Lucia Gonzalez and Mejia are basically 3 of the top 6 players in my personal rankings, and they all play into one quadrant of one quarter in this draw. Mejia has not lost to Valeria before and should advance here.

– #2 Herrera over #15 Lawrence: Herrera takes out her second successive American.

Projected Qtrs:

  • #1 Longoria over #8 Barrios; a rematch of the shock final in the Dec 2020 supermax event, which rocketed Angelica to the top 8 on tour. Paola makes quick work of the young Bolivian player here.
  • #4 Mendez over #5 Salas: these two met in the quarters of the Sweet Caroline and Natalia dominated. Despite Salas’ excellent run in Mexico, Mendez is playing too tough right now and advances.
  • #11 Enriquez loses to Vargas, despite playing in top form.
  • #10 Mejia tops #2 Herrera to give Alexandra her earliest exit for a while. I think Mejia is either the 2nd or 3rd best player in the world, and she’ll get a chance to prove it here.
    Semis:
  • #1 Longoria over #4 Mendez; Paola is 5-0 lifetime over the Argentine.
  • #10 Mejia over #3 Vargas; at full strength i give Vargas the edge here, but with the layoff, Mejia gets the edge
    Finals;

– Longoria takes out Mejia once again in the final of a big event for the title.

Doubles review
16 teams competing in a full 16 draw. the #1 team of Longoria/Salas has won dozens of titles together now; they should advance to the final from the top bracket over the Guatemalan team of Martinez/MRR, who have been playing amazingly well together as of late. Don’t count out the US national doubles champ team of Lawrence/Scott, or the Colombian national team of Amaya/Riveros though.
From the bottom, somehow despite constantly making pro finals, Herrera/Mejia are still not seeded 2nd. No matter; the bottom half of this draw is not nearly as stacked as the top half, and the Mexicans should meet and beat the Argentine national doubles team of Mendez/Centellas in the semis to make for another all-Mexican final.

Look for Longoria/Salas to win and give Paola another double.

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 Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!
Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on 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
International Racquetball Federation – IRF
USA Racquetball
@Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
@Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball de Racquetball
Racquetball Colombia
@Federacion Colombiana de Racquetball
@Asociación Argentina de Racquetball
@federación Chilena Racquetball
Racquetball Rancagua, Chile
@ASOCIACION DE RAQUETBOL DE GUATEMALA
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #worTeamRTeamr

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Mexico Campeonato Nacional Wrap-up

Montoya returns to the top of Mexican Racquetball for the first time since 2018. Photo Gearbox promotional

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Men’s Singles: Rodrigo Montoya
  • Women’s Singles: Paola Longoria
    And, congrats to all the players who made the Mexican National team for 2021 (all semi finalists).

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=36616

Lets review the notable matches in the Men’s Open draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: tbd (having tech issues this week)

In the 32s, a couple of upsets by seed or notable results:

  • #24 Elias Nieto took out #9 Daniel Diaz in two games 11,9. Nieto used his length to take control over Diaz and move on.
  • #25 Rodolfo Esparza took out #8 semi-regular IRT touring pro Erick Cuevas in a tie-breaker for the biggest upset of the round.

– #21 Carlos Esparza upset #12 Alex Bear 6,12 to setup a meeting with the reigning world champ Montoya.

In the 16s:

  • The first match of the 16s was also the biggest upset of the weekend: #1 seed and favorite to advance at least to the semis Sebastian Fernandez was upset in two games 13,10 by his junior cohort team member Emir Martinez. Fernandez and Martinez last met in a top-level tournament in the finals of Mexican 18U in 2019, an 1,3 dominant victory for Patata, but the tables were turned today. Fernandez played loose, left balls up and Martinez took advantage. Huge upset and the upper half is really opened up now for Montoya to return to the finals.
  • #2 Javier Mar avoided the same fate as #1 Patata, but had to really work to advance past #15 Jose Ramos. Ramos took game one 15-14, and the tiebreaker was 11-8.
  • #6 Erick Trujillo went the distance to down #11 Juan Loreto 11-9.
  • #20 Jordy Alonso continued his hot streak and took out #4 Christian Longoria in a tie breaker.

– the other top touring pros (#7 Andree Parrilla, #3 Lalo Portillo and #5 Rodrigo Montoya Solis all advanced in two dominant games.

In the Quarters:

  • #24 Nieto took out #16 Martinez to earn a shock semi-finals appearance.
  • #5 Montoya absolutely dominated #20 Alonso to move into the semis. Montoya donuted Jordy in the first, and was threatening to do so in the second before Alonso went on a run of points at the death to make it respectable.
  • #3 Portillo was not troubled by #6 Trujillo (who is also competing in the 18U here this weekend) and moved on with ease 5,6.

– The match of the night though, and the surprise of the night, was in the 2/7 game. #7 Parrilla absolutely dominated #2 Mar throughout the match, running up big leads in both games by playing smart, conservative racquetball, and blitzed into the semis with a 5,4 win. Parrilla looked crisp in his shots, putting balls away with ease and kept the pressure on Mar, who just couldn’t get anything going. Great win by Parrilla.

In the Semis

  • #5 Montoya ended Elias’ run, dominating his younger countryman 3,10 to move onto the final.
  • Another barn burner for Parrilla in the bottom semi, as he dug deep to take out #3 Portillo in a tie-breaker. This was a tough win, as Portillo has been improving steadily.
    In the Finals, Parrilla and Montoya face off for the next version of a very long-running series. The two players are just a few weeks apart in age and frequently met in the finals of junior nationals and junior worlds tournaments growing up. They traded titles for years, and then traded titles professionally. I don’t have them meeting in a top-level tourney since Mexican Nationals in 2018, but clearly Montoya has had the upper hand post-juniors. And the same happened in the 2021 final. Parrilla raced to a 15-4 first game win, but couldn’t close it out in game 2 and then Rodrigo dominated the tie-breaker to take his 2nd Mexican National title (he also won in 2018)

(Lalo took out Elias for 3rd)

Women’s Open review
Match report in the PRS database: tbd (having tech issues this week)
In the 16s:

  • no major upsets and mostly dominant 2-game wins for the top seeds.
  • #2 Jessica Parrilla was taken to a tiebreaker by 18U player Leonela Osorio, dropping the first game 15-14 before bearing down and cruising to a TB win.
  • #5 Susy Acosta was stretched by Delia Aguilar but advanced in two close games.
    In the Quarters, we got some heavyweight LPRT matchups and a couple of surprising results.
  • #1 Paola Longoria got her title defense started with a quick win over #9 and 18U competitor Daniela Rico 2,4.
  • #4 Montse Mejia served up a double donut against #5 veteran Acosta, winning 0,0.
  • #3 Samantha Salas Solis got a great win, topping #6 Alexandra Herrera in an 11-9 tiebreaker. Salas has seen her pro rankings slip lately, having been overtaken for the #2 spot on tour by Herrera, but she kept her career record perfect against Alexandra in top-level events, improving to 9-0.
  • #7 Nancy Enriquez gets a solid win over #2 Parrilla 10,9. An upset by seed, but in reality a really solid win for Enriquez, who has been playing on fire as of late.
    In the Semis:
  • #1 Longoria continued her dominance over her erstwhile younger rival Mejia, dominating the first then holding on for the win 4,11 to move to the final.
  • #3 Salas continued her great run this weekend, crushing her frequent LPRT rival Enriquez 7,4 to return to the Mexican Nationals final for the first time since 2018.

In the final, Longoria topped her frequent doubles partner Salas 11,3 to win her 7th title in the last 8 years.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from the players and from RKT.
Thanks to the Tourney Director Favio Soto 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.

Next up?

LPRT’s Team Root; Follow LPRT and tuen into their 6/15/21 bracket release show on facebook live!

tags
International Racquetball Tour
LPRT
International Racquetball Federation – IRF
@Pan American Racquetball Confederation – PARC
@Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
RKT
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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Mexico Campeonato Nacional Preview

Sebastian Fernandez is the #1 seed at Mexican Nationals 2021; can he capitalize? Photo unk

This week and coming weekend features the Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol (FMR)’s Campeonato Nacional (National Championships), being played in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

This tournament was one of the few to get in before Covid shut down the sport in 2020; it is normally competed in February, and is one of my favorite tournaments to cover, usually filled with amazing upsets and names not well known to the global rball fanbase making big runs (though, more and more these players are becoming household names).

This year will be a bit different for FMR Nationals: they have comparable draw sizes in both the Men’s and Women’s draws to last year, but the men’s draw in particular is missing a TON of big-time names this year. The two finalists from last year are not present ( Alvaro Beltran and Daniel De La Rosa ). Also missing are top names like Alan Natera Chavez and @Gerardo Gerardo Franco Gonzalez and Alex Cardona. No @Eduardo Eduardo Garay Rodriguez, who is I hear is returning to the Mexican fold. No Javier Estrada to make a deep run. No Eduardo Ochoa or Jaime Martell Neri to get big time wins. Lastly, no Alejandro Landa, who is entered into USA’s nationals in a month’s time after leaving the Mexican federation over some rather short-sighted decisions related to the Pan Am Games roster selection.

So that’s too bad …. but it also illustrates just how deep the Mexican player pool is, because the top 8-10 players who are here are solid.

R2 Sports App link:https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=36616

Lets preview the Men’s Open draw first:

The 32s kick off the event on Tuesday; there shouldn’t be too many surprises in the 32s, and most of the top seeds are getting byes. However, some of the below predictions may already be obsolete if we see round of 32 upsets played before you read this…

Matches to look for in the round of 16:

  • I like 8/9s and I like Daniel Diaz to take out #8 Erick Cuevas in a slight upset. Diaz has been playing a ton of Texas tourneys and should have the chops to take out Cuevas.
  • #4 Christian Longoria may have his hands full with an under-seeded #20 Jordy Alonso, who I expect to advance here. Alonso beat Lalo Portillo in a local tournament in April, a pretty significant win, and i predict him to build on that victory here.

– #2 Javier Mar versus #15 Jose Ramos, recently graduated out of the juniors. Ramos made the semis of 2019 World Junior 18U, losing a heartbreaker 11-10 to close out his junior career; now he’s gotta compete with the pros.

Projected Qtrs: here’s where the rubber meets the road.

  • #1 Sebastian Fernandez, who gets the #1 seed by virtue of being the highest finisher actually present from the Feb 2020 event, projects to face #9 Diaz. Patata has stepped back from racquetball a bit, but still is a major player and should advance here.
  • #5 @Rodrigo Rodrigo Montoya Solis vs #20 Alonso: how is reigning World champ and reigning Pan Am games champ only seeded 5th? Well, he got beat early last year (by Portillo) and they re-seed every year based on last year’s finish. Agree or disagree, it always lends itself to some fun early matchups. Montoya moves on here.
  • #3 Lalo Portillo projecting against #6 Erick Trujillo; Portillo has been on a big-time roll lately, kickstarted at this event last year with his run to the semis. He moves on here.
  • #7 Andree Parrilla vs #2 Mar; two of the best seven or eight players in the world right now face off way too early in the quarters here. These two have generally split their matchups, but Mar took their most recent pro meeting at the 2020 Lewis Drug pro-am. I like Mar here.
    Semis:
  • I think #5 Montoya takes out Patata here; just too much firepower for Fernandez to handle.
  • #3 Portillo over #2 Mar: this is an upset by seeding, and an upset by my personal rankings, but Portillo is trending well right now. He just finished off an event where he topped multiple touring pros to win the IRT Tier 5 in Severna Park, and the last time these two played in a top-level event was in 2017. Lots has changed since. Lalo to move on.
    Finals;

– i’m going with Lalo over Montoya (just as he beat Rodrigo in last year’s Mexican Nationals) to climb to the top of Mexican racquetball. Mar beats Fernandez for 3rd.

Women’s Open preview:
15 women entered, headlined by the top 6-7 Mexican touring pros and then a slew of younger players. Most of the expected names are present, but we are missing a couple of names that usually shake the draw up ( Lucia Gonzalez in particular, but also Ana Laura Flores, Erin Nocamroves Rivera, etc.
Round of 16 matches to watch for: I see no jeopardy of any upsets in the opening round, with maybe the 8/9 being a toss-up.
Projected Quarters:

  • #1 Paola Longoria vs the winner of Rico/Ortega: should be quick work for the GOAT.
  • #4 Montse Mejia should make quick work of #5 Susy Acosta, who continues to compete at a high level after more than 20 years of playing professionally.
  • #6 Alexandra Herrera should start to get her Mexican rankings back in line with where her pro rankings are by taking out #3 Samantha Salas Solis
  • #2 Jessica Parrilla has a suddenly harder-than-it-looks match against #7 Nancy Enriquez. I think Enriquez looked awesome at the last LPRT tournament and is favored to beat Parrilla.
    Semis:
  • Longoria over Mejia: once again, seedings betray the two best players in Mexico and force them to play one or two rounds early. This should be the final, and was the final a couple years ago when Mejia stunned Longoria to take the 2019 Mexican title. But that’s the only time Montse has really threatened Paola, who should win and advance here.
  • Herrera over Enriquez: there’s a reason Alexandra has moved to #2 on tour, and its because she’s been getting wins in situations like this; tough wins against fellow top players over and again. She’s been consistently in the semis or finals on tour, and will be here as well.

Finals: Longoria over Herrera.

There’s only singles this weekend; Mexican doubles either doesn’t happen this year (with a FMR-named team) or is yet to be announced. The Juniors are playing … but as far as I know this is NOT junior nationals for Mexico 2021.

Streaming: i’m sure we’ll have personal streaming; follow FMR, RKT and the players all week and weekend.
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
International Racquetball Tour
LPRT
International Racquetball Federation – IRF
Pan American Racquetball Confederation – PARC
@Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
RKT
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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Capital City WOR Classic Recap

Hall of Famer Sostre dominates in DC. Photo 3WB 2020 by Steven Fitzsimons

Congrats to everyone who played in DC this past weekend!

It was a sunny and hot weekend, with the music blaring all day on the Stratton Woods courts. One-wall, 3-wall long wall and one-wall paddleball on display for the duration. Here’s a look at how the big draws played out.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37467

Here’s a quick recap of the notable matches in the top-level draws.

Three-Wall Doubles Draws:

  • Three-Wall Men’s Pro: the stacked draw full of visiting pros from NY and Fla all were vanquished by two home-grown teams who met in the final. There, the #6 seeded team of Dylan Pruitt​ / Thomas Gerhardt topped MoMo Zelada​ and Sergio Rivera in the final.
  • Three-Wall Men’s 75+: #1 seeded Robert Sostre​ and Benny Goldenberg took out two experienced players in Greg Lewerenz​ and Rob Mijares​ in final.
  • Three-Wall Women’s Pro Doubles: Abril Prado​ and Masiel Rivera Oporto​ took the 3-team RR Pro doubles draw in a Bolivia-heavy final against @Veronica Veronica Nogales Tellez​ and Paola Nunez​.
  • Three-Wall Mixed Pro Doubles: Carrie Handfinger Hoeft​ and Roy Hernandez​ held serve as the top seeds and took out #7 seeds Joe Young​ and Kathy Guinan in the final.

One-Wall doubles divisions:

  • One-Wall Men’s Pro doubles: It was a very New York final, and there top seeds Sostre/ Benny Goldenberg​ made it a double on the weekend, topping #3 seeds Rolon/Young in the final.
  • One-Wall Women’s Pro doubles: The two group winners were Masiel Rivera / Aimee Roehler Ruiz​ in Group A, and Nogales/Nunez in Group B. The two teams met in the final with unknown results.
  • One-Wall Mixed Pro doubles: #2 seeds Goldenberg and Delia Silva took out the #4 team of Rolon/Guinan in an all New York final.

Singles Draws:

  • One-Wall Men’s Pro Singles: Pruitt earned his outdoor creds this weekend, taking the 3-wall pro title by defeating top Florida outdoor pro Alejandro Barcelo in the semis then his doubles partner Gerhardt in the final. Gerhardt had taken out NYC top one-wall player William Rolon​ in the semis to make the final as the #2 seed.

Paddleball Exhibition

With so many New Yorkers onsite, the TDs added an impromptu Mixed Pro Paddleball division. In the final Jasmine India Suarez and her partner took out the two pro tour commissioners (and two USAR board members) Mike Grisz​ and Tj Baumbaugh​ in the final.

Thanks for all those who streamed live on the weekend. This is probably not a canonical list but I saw streams from Thao Le, Joey Logan​ (who i didn’t even know was flying into town!), Amie LeBrun Brewer​, Maddie Melendez, Ruben Pagan​ & OneWallBall, and others.

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Amie Brewer, Carrie Handfinger Hoeft, Maddie Melendez and Thao Le 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.

Next up?

Mexican Nationals is next weekend, in Monterrey. This is always one of my favorite events to cover, since the draws are so full of talent. The weekend after that is the LPRT Team Root supermax in Kansas City, a grand slam that should draw all the top women from around the globe.

tags

International Racquetball Tour​
LPRT​
3WallBall Outdoor World Championships​
Mid-Atlantic World Outdoor Racquetball​
USA Racquetball​
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball​
Reaching Your Dream Foundation​
Formulaflow​
Splathead Sportsgear​
onewallball.com​

Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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Capital City WOR Championships Preview

One of the bigger non-major outdoor events on the schedule is happening this weekend, more than 90 players descending on the Nation’s capital from all over the eastern seaboard and states far and wide to compete in the annual Capital City WOR championships at the Stratton Woods park in Herndon, VA.

Stratton Woods is great example of the opportunity out there for outdoor racquetball, an example of new construction (it was built and dedicated in May 2015) that has created a community of players where there was really none before. It features four 3-wall/long-wall courts on one side of the structure and then three 1-wall courts on the other, thus attracting two unique sets of players to its tournaments from far and wide (in addition to the great local interest from the DC area community). The plans and effort was spearheaded by long-time dc area player Bill Bouie, and the plans (if you’re thinking of building your own outdoor courts) are available from USA Racquetball.

As a result of the unique facility construction, we have a ton of top one-wall players from both New York and from Florida who have made the trip to compete, plus we have a set of long-wall specialists from Michigan who have traveled in. The one-wall brackets in particular are stacked with some of the best talent out there, and the 3-wall brackets feature a great combination of local players, traveling pros and IRT touring pros who will hold their own.
It should be a great event all weekend.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37467

Here’s a quick preview of all the top-level pro draws, with some observations and predictions.


Three-Wall Doubles Draws:

  • Three-Wall Men’s Pro: 9 teams, and all nine of them have deep tournament quals. Even the 8/9 play-in will be tough, with an IRT touring pro in each team. I like the top seeds to hold to the semis, with #1 Gravier/Hernandez versus #4 Greg Lewerenz/ Nathan Tucker and #2 Sostre/Goldberg vs #3 Tommy Medina /Young. From there, i’m going with two upsets and for the Medina/Young team to take the final over the Michigan long-wall specialists.
  • Three-Wall Men’s 75+: nearly as stacked as the 3-wall pros draw, I’m projecting Sostre/Goldenberg versus Lewerenz/Mijares in the final, with the long-wall specialist Lewerenz’s team winning.
  • Three-Wall Women’s Pro Doubles: three teams of locals to battle it out; I’m liking the two tourney directors Brewer/Hoeft to take the title.
  • Three-Wall Mixed Pro Doubles: Hernandez teams with Carrie Handfinger Hoeft as the #1 seed, but they’ll have their hands full to make the final. From the bottom half I like the #2 seeds Aime Brewer and Gerhardt to make a finals run and take the draw.

One-Wall doubles divisions:

  • One-Wall Men’s Pro doubles: 13 teams entered, headlined by the all-world one-wall team at #1 from NYC, Hall of Famer Robert Sostre teamed with one of the best one-wall players out there in Benny Goldberg. If seeds hold and they can get past a tough possible quarter that could include Sebastian Franco, they project to face top Florida team Marcos Gravier/ Roy Hernandez in the top semis.
    The bottom half is stacked. #2 seeds Dylan Pruitt/ Thomas Gerhardt likely face a very tough quarter final against MoMo Zelada playing with Sergio Rivera . Meanwhile, the #3/#6 projected quarter features two of the best one-wall teams in William Rolon / Joe Young taking on Alejandro Barcelo teamed with Mario Mercado . I have no idea who’s coming out of this group, but I like the Barcelo/Mercado team.
    In the final i’ll go with Sostre/Goldberg over Barcelo/Mercado.
  • One-Wall Men’s Elite Doubles: the top two seeds are out-of-towners, the Michigan-based duo of Cyrus Chinoy/Luis Romero are top seeds and seem like a good bet to make the final. In the bottom half, #2 seeded Floridians Seran Ramkissoon/ Michael Medina may ahve t heir hands full with a pair of New Yorkers in the opener and possibly the sneaky solid #3 seeded team of Angel Rosa / Craig Powell . I like the Michigan duo over Rosa/Powell in the final, but upsets could abound here.
  • One-Wall Women’s Pro doubles: Eight teams competing with a great collection of NYC and DC area talent. It’s hard not to like the two top seeded teams ( Masiel Rivera Oporto and Ruiz from one bracket, and NYC’s Jasmine India Suarez and Delia Silva in the other) to advance out of the RR stage and meet in the final. I like Suarez/Silva as one-wall specialists to prevail.

– One-Wall Mixed Pro doubles: Eight teams here, with some fun teams that don’t normally play outdoor. The #1 team of Ruben Pagan and HoFamer Aimee Roehler Ruiz seems like a good bet, but they likely face two tough NYC one-wall specialists in Rolon and @kathy Guinan in the semis. In the bottom half i like Goldberg and Delia Silva to advance to the final and take the title.

Singles Draws:

– One-Wall Men’s Pro Singles: local Pruitt is the #1 seed, but this draw features multiple players who have taken one-wall majors in the past. I like Pruitt vs Barcelo in one semi, Rolon vs Gerhardt in the other, and Gerhardt taking out Barcelo in the final.

Streaming: no official streaming that I know of, but follow the Mid-Atlantic Outdoor racquetball group and i’m sure all individual streamers will share their feeds there.

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Amie LeBrun Brewer, Carrie Handfinger Hoeft, Maddie Melendez and Thao Le 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
Sponsor links
3WallBall Outdoor World Championships
Mid-Atlantic World Outdoor Racquetball
WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
Formulaflow
Splathead Sportsgear
onewallball.com
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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2021 Wintergreen Wrapup

Wintergreen 2021 Wrap-up
Congrats to your winners on the weekend:
• Pro Singles: Lalo Portillo
• Men’s Open Singles: Juan Pablo Rodriguez Castrillon
• Open Doubles: Eduardo Garay Rodriguez / Sebastian Franco
• Women’s Open: Micaela Meneses Cuellar
• Mixed Doubles: Juan Pablo Rodriguez/Micaela Meneses

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37546

A fun weekend tournament and a return for yours truly to the Severna Park Racquet club in Millersville. I was onsite saturday helping to broadcast and had a blast on the stream all day.

Lets review the IRT pro draw:
In the 16s:
• #1 Eduardo Portillo handled #16 Pennsylvanian Josh Pearl to move on.
• #8 Joe Kelley took out fellow lefty #9 David Austin
• #5 Maurice Miller handled Colombian junior Juan Pablo Rodriguez 5,4.
• #4 Eduardo Garay won in two straight over #13 Abraham Peña.
• #3 Mario Mercado cruised past #14 Brian Acuña in two.
• #6 MoMo Zelada had no problems moving past #11 Leland Rupp.
• #2 Sebastian Franco had to dig deep to move past the underseeded #15 North Carolinian lefty Jordan Walters 2,14.

But the match of the night was the social media grudge match between #7 Troy Warigon and #10 Dylan Pruitt. The IRT crew got setup early friday night and streamed the match live, and viewers/spectators were not disappointed. The younger Pruitt took the first game 12, then Warigon fought back to win 9 and force the breaker. In the tie-breaker, the two edged up towards 11 evenly, with the trash talk escalating on the court as the pressure rose. The two traded side-outs back and forth several times at 8-8, but Pruitt was able to edge his way upwards to 10. A time-out was called, with Warigon trying to get into Pruitt’s head … Pruitt reportedly said, “Don’t let me get back in the box.” Well, he did get back into the box, and served out the match with an Ace. It was quite a spirited match and well worth the rewatch on the IRT live stream feed.

In the Quarters

  • #1 Portillo handled #8 Joe Kelley in two quick games 4,4. This was the first broadcast match of the day, and Portillo put on a clinical display of shot placement and court control to advance past the New Jersey native.
  • #4 Garay advanced past #5 Miller 9,1. After a closer first game, Garay turned it on in a 15-1 second game domination. Garay’s power was evident and he overcame Miller’s court coverage.
  • #2 Franco came back from a huge game 2 deficit to beat local favorite #10 Pruit 7,13.
    The match of the quarters though was the match between #3 Mercado and #6 Zelada. These two close friends, business partners and doubles partners have met multiple times on tour in the past, with Mercado generally advancing with little trouble. But Zelada came out absolutely on fire, with a game plan to take it to Mercado and he executed without error. Mercado attempted to break his streaks and concentration, but this match was quickly over. Zelada gets one of the best wins of his career in shocking fashion, 15-1, 15-4.

In the Semis

  • #1 Portillo withstood an onslaught of power in game two and found a new gear in the tie-breaker to advance past #4 Garay 12,(3),2. Game one featured a back and forth battle between these two contrasting styles, with Portillo winning out. Garay came out firing in game two, getting points on his drive serve with ease, forcing the breaker. In the tie-breaker, Portillo shook off the game 2 struggles, played solid ball, took points where he could get them and quietly rattled off enough points to put the match on ice.
  • #2 Franco battled with #6 Zelada in game one, racing to a 9-0 lead. Zelada showed excellent mid-game adjustment and pulled all the way back to 9-9, and then the battle was on. Franco ended up on top in game one, but the hour-long battle was decided by just a couple of rallies. The efforts of the day seemed to weigh on Zelada in game 2, as he looked fatigued and couldn’t keep up with Franco’s power to stop him from advancing. Final score 15-13, 15-7

In the Finals

#1 Portillo survived a battle against fellow top-10 IRT touring pro #2 Franco to take the title in a close tie-breaker 9,(12),9.

Men’s Open, other draws

  • In the Men’s Open Singles: Juan Pablo Rodriguez, the 16yr old Colombian phenom, took out Dylan Pruitt in the semis then ended the cinderella run of #9 seed Josh Pearl in the final to take the Men’s open singles draw.
  • In Open Doubles: Eduardo Garay/Sebastian Franco teamed up to take a stacked draw, defeating Zelada/Mercado in a late-night Saturday brawl that didn’t end until nearly midnight, then topping the all-Mexican pairing of Portillo/Pena in a tie-breaker final.
  • In the 4-person Women’s Open draw: Bolivian junior Micaela Meneses (in her 17U season) topped the group for the title.
  • In the Mixed Doubles: Juan Pablo Rodriguez/Micaela Meneses combined to show some considerable junior fire-power to take the Mixed draw over several teams of veteran players.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Dean DeAngelo Baer, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew
hanks to the Tourney Directors Slemo Warigonnd his whole Maryland crew who shows up for every event (hello Bill Milbach!) 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.

Tags
Sponsor links
International Racquetball Tour
USA Racquetball
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball De Raquetbol – Febora
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball
Racquetball Colombia
@Federacion Colombiana de Racquetball
Reaching Your Dream Foundation
Formulaflow
Zurek Construction, LLC
Francisco Fajardo-Raquetball

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2021 Wintergreen Classic Preview

Wintergreen is an annual tradition, an east-coast classic tournament, dating back to at least 1988 and up until Covid always held at the Sportfit Laurel club in Laurel MD. The famous Laurel club was forced to close due to the pandemic, so the Peak Racquetball guys and @slemo warigon just moved it a bit east to the Severna Park racquet club, located in Millersville on I-97 about halfway between Baltimore and Annapolis. It’s being held a bit later than it normally is in 2021, but should return to its normal MLK weekend date in 2022.

The 2021 Wintergreen event is the 33rd annual instance of the tournament, and this year features a tier-5 IRT draw of 17 pros that has attracted a decent amount of east-coast talent and should be pretty entertaining. Additionally, the full Colombian national team is on site with coach @francisco Fajardo to get some work in ahead of international dates later this year, which should make for an excellent draw.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37546
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Lets preview the IRT pro draw first. There’s one play-in match, so lets start with the round of 16:

  • #1 @eduardo Portillo, currently ranked 9th on tour, is your headliner. He’ll start off friday night against the play-in winner between @roger subieta and @josh pearl.
  • The #8/#9 will match-up two long-time friends from the upper PA/lower NJ area in @david austin and @joe kelley. I favor the lefty here to advance.
  • #5 @maurice miller gets an intriguing match against junior Colombian phenom #12 @juan pablo rodriguez. Rodriguez has been playing out of Bradenton, FL and has made some noise in local tournaments, taking out some talented players despite playing in his age 17 season. Miller is an experienced touring pro at this point and should advance, but this is no cakewalk.
  • #4 @eduardo garay takes on former Mexican national team member @abraham pena in what should be a fun match to watch. Pena can still bring it, but Garay should advance. Garay is making his claim to the Colombian national team right now, having switched from Mexico, and the more success he has in front of the coach the better.
  • #3 @mario mercado, back in the DC area after living there for many years, gets his start against WashDC’s @brian acuna.
  • #6 @mauricio zelada, also playing on basically home turf, gets his start against Virginia amateur @leland rupp.
  • #7 @troy warigon versus #10 @dylan pruitt; well, the long-promised “grudge match” finally occurs. Are we cynical and believe the tournament staff made this match-up happen, or was it just happen chance that these two players get to play and compete after months of dancing around each other for a “money match” on facebook earlier this year? Either way, Friday night 7pm should be interesting. I’m sure there will be some streaming by someone. I’m going with Warigon to advance.
  • #2 @sebastian franco, playing out of his home club. starts off with a solid NC player in lefty #15 @jordan walters.

I think i’m predicting chalk to advance, which I never do. But, there definitely seems to be a top tier of players here and I don’t see much room for upsets. Lets move to the quarters

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Projected Qtrs: Here’s how I see the quarters playing out:

  • #1 Portillo over #8 Kelly: Portillo has been really dominant on the court lately, and it’ll take a solid performance to beat him.
  • #4 Garay over #5 Miller: I’ve always been a Garay fan, and I expect him to advance over Miller here. Both players cover the court well, but Garay has more power and should wear down Miller in the end.
  • #3 Mercado over #6 Zelada; these two know each other quite well from their time in the DC area, so I’d expect a closer match. Mercado is 4-0 lifetime over MoMo in Tier1 events, and they played in January’s Tier 1 in Atlanta. I’d expect a two-game win for Mario.
  • #2 Franco over #7 Warigon; another matchup between two guys who know each other’s game quite well. I show just two tier1 meetings between the two, both occurring several years ago and resulting in straight-game wins for Franco. I expect the same here. Franco has slipped to #11 on tour after 5 straight season in the top 10 (mostly due to scheduling, not losses) and will look to build back this weekend.

Again, i’m predicting chalk to the semis.

Semis:

  • #1 Portillo over #4 Garay; I show zero meetings in tier1 events between these two, which means this should be an interesting one to watch. Portillo plays a methodical; in fact if you were uninitiated you might almost think he wasn’t trying on the court at times. But when he has an offensive opportunity he can accelerate his mechanics and really generate unexpected power. Garay is a power player, with the pace to get easy points on his serve if he can stay in control. Portillo has plenty of experience handling significant power at this point and should move on.
  • #2 Franco over #3 Mercado: amazingly, despite these two both being top10 players together for years, both representing the same country internationally and both living in the DC area … i have zero meetings between these players in tier1 events. On my global power rankings I have Franco well ahead of Mercado, but we’ve seen Mercado get surprise wins over and over on tour over the past decade. Mercado beat both Portillo and Landa en route to the Lou Bradley final in 2020, for example. So nothing is out of the realm of expected here. I’ll go with gut and give Franco the win

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In the finals though, irrespective of who advances I favor Portillo for the win. I think Mercado has more recent success against Lalo, but both Franco and Mercado are trending the wrong way in terms of power rankings, while Portillo seems like he’s at the precipice of breaking into the very top tier of the sport.
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Doubles review

Eight solid teams are competing in the Men’s open doubles draw, headlined by the #1 Colombian doubles team of Franco/Garay. They should advance to the final over Mercado/Zelada from the top.

In the bottom half, I like the Pena/Portillo team, but i’m not sure they can get past the Warigon/Miller team. I’ll go with #2 seeds to advance to the final, but for the #1 seeds to win.

There’s a small but fun Women’s open draw, with four solid women’s players competing in Micaela Meneses, Masiel Rivera, Graci Wargo, and Megan Shelton. An interesting combination of international and domestic, junior and veteran competing together.

The IRT streaming crew is coming into town to broadcast all weekend, so ; follow the IRT on facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.Look for Dean Baer, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots! I also hear LPRT’s Jerry Josey is coming into town to help out as well.

Thanks to the Tourney Director Slemo Warigon for putting this event on!


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