Author: Todd Boss

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2019 Bay Club Open IRT Tier 4 Wrap-up

Horn captures the title at his home club. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

r2sports home page:

https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=31326

In the wake of the massive 2019 US Open, Reaching Your Dream Foundation helped fund a lower tier IRT event this past weekend in Northern California (Pleasanton in particular), close enough to the “209” to get a good crew of Stockton players and a healthy Men’s singles pro draw of 21 players.

Here’s a quick review of the Singles draw.

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In the 32s.

– #21 Mitchell Forrest Jr. took out former Outdoor champion #12 Luis R Avila in two games, a solid win for Forrest, who honestly I have almost no results for in the national databases.

– Junior #20 Vedant Chauhan took out the 13th seeded Kalyan Kosetty 8,7. Chauhan is just *14 years old* this year, and made it to the final of USA Junior Nationals 14U earlier this year.

– Another California junior national champ #22 Nikhil Prasad defeated Chilean international #11 Johan Igor in two. Think Chauhan is young? Prasad won the World 12U juniors last year, defeated Chauhan in the 14U final this year and is playing in his age 13 season.

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In the 16s; some surprises and some great matches

– #5 Adam Manilla ended Forrest’s run 5,3.

– #4 Robert Collins was played tough by junior Chauhan but advanced 7,12. Chauhan certainly did not play like a 14yr old in this match, pressing Collins and making shots. He’s one to watch for.

– In the match I immediately looked at upon seeing this draw … former top 8 touring pro #14 seed Markie Rojas met up with up and coming pro #3 Sebastian Fernandez and the match did not disappoint. Rojas advanced 12,(9),10 to move on. Rojas, if he were playing full time, would probably be the favorite in this draw despite the presence of several top 20 pros; it should be interesting to see how far he goes.

– #6 Charlie Pratt ended junior Prasad’s run 7,10. Pratt is another guy to watch for in this draw; he only plays the tour part time but always seems to make noise when he enters tournaments. And, a solid showing for a 13yr old in a pro draw.

– #7 Bolivian 18U Diego Garcia Quispe, still hanging out state-side after traveling up for the US Open, took on another traveling South American in #10 Francisco Troncoso and beat his elder 7,11 to move on. Garcia is going to be a tough out in this fall’s Junior Worlds.

– #2 Jose Diaz ousted 4,4 the Chilean 18U player and #18 seed Rafael Gatica Negroni. I was thrown
for a loop here initially; they posted Gatica as the initial winner on r2sports and was getting ready to talk about what an upset it was. 🙂

So, two upsets by seed in the 16s, with the #9 over #8 and #14 over #3 (though the #14 wasn’t exactly a normal 14 seed).

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Qtrs:

– #1 David ” Bobby” Horn dominated the Mexican international #9 Christian Longoria 2,8 to advance to the semis.

– In a rare battle of lefties, #5 Adam Manilla got the upset-by-seed over #4 Robert Collins in a tiebreaker.

– #6 Pratt took advantage of a possibly spent Rojas and advanced 10,6 into the semis.

– #7 Garcia played two solid games but could not beat #2 Diaz, falling 12,11.

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Semis and Final:

– #1 Horn outlasted #5 Manilla 13,11 to move into the final.

– #6 Pratt advanced in two games over #2 Diaz 12,6.

In the final: Horn got a very solid win over Pratt, winning the title in two 13,11. Solid win for Horn over a solid field.

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Consolations: Avila and Troncoso made it to the consolation final after early round upsets, and Troncoso stomped Avila 11,4 to take the title.

In the Open/Elite doubles, a large/fast round robin draw played Sunday afternoon featuring no less than 15 teams. The four teams who made the semis were Diaz & Harold Jagoda, Collins & Tyrone E Snipes, Avila and Will Reynolds, and Rojas with RYDF patron Michael Lippitt.

Avila/Reynolds topped Collins/Snipes in the final

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Nice little tournament! I’ll wrap up another small tourney that went on this weekend in Chihuahua next, then we have a small break until a busy Halloween weekend of events that includes the next IRT Tier 1 in Arizona.

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Paola Longoria’s 100th win Facts

Here’s some additional fun facts and a data discussion related to Paola Longoria‘s 100th pro win.

– She wins her 100th title in her 125th Tier 1/Grand Slam appearance.

– She improves her career W/L to 451-31, a .936 career winning percentage.

– She becomes just the second pro in the history of our game to win 100 titles.

– Kane Waselenchuk also won his 100th tourney at the US Open … he accomplished the feat when he won the 2016 title.

– Kane was 35yrs, 11mos when he won his 100th.. Paola won 100th tournament in 2019 at age of 30yrs, 3 mos.

Consider this fact. Kane’s the GOAT on the Men’s side … but Paola seems like she’s in a position to shatter any records that Kane sets. She’s got more than 5 years head start at a time where she’s just as dominant in her tour as Kane is in his. You can’t predict the future of course; not with injuries, life events, etc. But another 8-10 seasons of Longoria dominance could really put some big numbers into the history books.

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Now for a Data discussion; Why does Pro Racquetball Stats database only have 93 career titles for Paola, if she’s just won her 100th?

The racquetball world and the Mexican media celebrated her 100th career professional win this past week, which happened to happen on our sport’s biggest Stage, the US Open., but the database of record only has her with 93 tournament wins. (see http://rball.pro/FD0529 ) . Why the discrepancy? We get asked this question often, and now’s as good of a time as any to discuss.

Here’s the answer.

Pro Racquetball Stats only tracks Tier 1 (or higher) events in its database. Over the years covering Longoria’s career, there have been a slew of non-Tier 1 Ladies Professional events that have occurred that she’s won, and these satellite or lower tier LPRT events are counted in her professional career win total. They were sanctioned pro events by the LPRT or its predecessors WPRO and LPRA and are counted as pro wins by the Longoria camp.

We have not had too many non-Tier 1 events in recent memory; the last known one was in Bolivia in June 2016. Before that, the LPRT gave Tier 5 status to the 3-Wall event in Vegas and to an event in Arizona in 2015. But ten years ago, they were much more common. In fact, in the 2009-10 season there were nearly as many Satellite events as there were full-money tour events. Longoria won a few, Rhonda Rajsich won a slew of them herself in this time-frame.

PRS has gone back and attempted to find the 7 “missing titles,” after much discussions with Longoria’s media relations team (which does not have a full list of her 100 tournaments). We’ve found most of them:
– Nov 2009: Chihuahua Open in Chihuahua, MEX
– Mar 2011: Terrapin Shootout in Laurel, MD
– Jan 2012: Wilson Tour for Hope, Cincinnati, OH
– May 2012: 2012 US National Singles Pro draw, Fullerton, CA
– June 2013: Suncoast Open, Sarasota, FL.

We’re assuming the remaining two titles were Satellite events that may not have gotten onto the official LPRT calendar in the 2007-2010 range. Hopefully in time we’ll find them for a complete record of Paola’s accomplishments.

but, that’s the reason. Fyi.

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Congrats on 100 pro titles to Paola Longoria!

LPRT
Fran Davis
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
RKT
HEAD Penn Racquetball

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US Open LPRT Pro Singles Wrap-Up

Longoria wins her 10th US Open and 100th Pro title. Photo via US Open Facebook/Kevin Savory

Congrats to Paola Longoria on her win at the 2019 US Open.

With this win, Paola reaches two pretty incredible milestones:
– her 10th US Open title
– more importantly, her 100th LPRT win.

Generally speaking:
– she improves to 65-7 at the US Open
– she increases her lead at the top of the LPRT rankings to more than 800 points (which is 4 tier one victories).

We’ll have a separate post about the 100 tourney wins later this week.

PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/A34644

Lets review the Q/SF after the last post ran through the qualifiers, 32s and 16s:

In the Quarters:

– #1 Paola Longoria battled close with #9 Masiel Rivera Oporto for good chunks of the first game and then kept her at bay in the second for a two game win and one step closer to her 100th title.

– #12 Montse Mejia looked like she’d blow away #4 seed and doubles partner Alexandra Herrera after a 15-3 first game win, but Alexandra dominated the second in similar fashion to force the breaker. There, Mejia cruised to the 3-game win.

– #3 Maria Jose Vargas continued her dominance over her doubles partner and country-woman #6 Natalia Mendez Erlwein, winning 13,2. This is now the 6th time they’ve met in the quarters of a major event since March, and Vargas is 6-0.

– #2 Samantha Salas Solis advanced in two games over country-mate #7 Nancy Enriquez 9,9. This has also proven to be a frequent quarterfinals match-up; this is their 5th pro quarters meeting this calendar year.

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In the Semis:

– #1 Longoria was focused and on fire, downing her young Mexican rival #12 Mejia 5,6. Many observers think Mejia may be the heir apparent … but on this day, Longoria reminded everyone why she’s the GOAT. Mejia will move into the tour’s top 10 with this win.

– #3 Vargas topped #2 Salas for the second time in as many meetings this season, splitting the first two games before dominating the tiebreaker 11-1 to move into the finals. Vargas is on the cusp of taking over #2 on tour now from Salas, who made the finals in every event she played last season, but now has failed to make a final in any of the events so far this season.

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In the Finals:

Anyone thinking there would be a repeat of the Chesapeake final (a Vargas upset) was quickly corrected; Longoria put on a serving clinic and improved to 24-1 career on the LPRT over her Argentina rival Vargas, winning the title dominantly 5,7.

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LPRT
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships
US OPEN Racquetball
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
Asociación Argentina de Racquetball
Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora
USA Racquetball

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US Open IRT Pro Singles Wrap-Up

Kane wins his 15th US Open. Photo via US Open RB facebookfeed/Kevin Savory

Congrats to Kane Waselenchuk on his win at the 2019 US Open. He continues an unbelievable reign of dominance at this event, and over the sport in general. With this win:

– his 118th career pro title
– his 15th US Open title … in a row
– He improves his career W/L to 558-53 for a .917 winning pct
– He extends his lead at the top of the IRT rankings due to Carson’s early round upset.
– He improves his US Open W/L record to an astounding 90-3

Lets review the Q/S/F after the last post ran through the 32s and 16s.

PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/B79567

In the Quarters:

– #1 Kane Waselenchuk played solidly to take out the talented #24 seed Javier Mar 5,3. These two have met a couple times in the last year and its a testament to Kane’s greatness how effortlessly he plays against a guy like Mar. With this result, Mar jumps up a few spots in the rankings, but not nearly enough to avoid qualification issues in future events.

– #4 Alex Landa topped his countryman #5 Álvaro Beltrán in two games 9,12. Landa was in control and Beltran kept it close, but never close enough that you thought he had a chance to win this one. With this result, Beltran will jump Parrilla for #4 on tour.

– #6 Daniel De La Rosa upset #3 Andree Parrilla in a tiebreaker; this is a solid showing for DLR after he’s spent most of the last two seasons slowly dripping down the rankings. He’ll have as good of a chance as he could hope for to return to the final with the upset of Rocky Carson. Despite making the quarters, Andree loses points from last year’s event (where he made the semis) and will drop down to 5th.

#15 Conra Moscoso Ortiz made short work of the 18U phenom Sebastian Fernandez 4,4. Moscoso’s got his eye on just one thing; a shot at the finals with Kane, and he did well not to look past the up and coming Fernandez. With this result, Sebastian will make a huge jump in the rankings, from #23 all the way up to #16.

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In the Semis:

– #1 Waselenchuk absolutely destroyed #4 Landa 1,2. No looking past Landa here; Kane could do no wrong. This is one of the worst defeats in the Q/S/F in tour history. Nonetheless, thanks to his result here Landa will return to #3 on tour for the next event.

– #15 Moscoso continues his great run, taking out #6 DLR in two close games 11,11. These two athletes put on a heck of a show, both diving all over the court and making fantastic shots. A match-up of two true-and-true shooters was taken in the end by the Bolivian, who moves into the final. With this win, Moscoso will jump into the IRT’s top 8 (specifically #7), an interesting fact given that he has results in just a few events. It does make you wonder where he’d rank if he played the tour full time.

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In the final:

Game one was really entertaining, as the shooter in Moscoso really came out firing. It was neck and neck for most of game 1 before Kane pulled away. In game 2, Kane’s relentless pressure wore down the young Bolivian and he took the game easily. Final score: 12,5.

My takeaway from the match is this: There might not be a more skilled power shooter in the world than Moscoso (except for Kane of course) … and make no mistake Moscoso put away a ton of balls and had spectacular returns of serve in this match. But Kane doesn’t make mistakes at the same rate as other players, and time and time again Moscoso would fail to put a ball away and then the next swing would be a Kane winner. Again and Again. You just cannot make mistakes against Kane; to beat him you have to play a perfect match, and as we’ve basically seen now for years, nobody has really been successful in putting together a long enough streak of perfection to take him down.

Also, we have to mention … Moscoso really needs to work on his foot work during his serves; we lost count how many foot faults he triggered in the final.

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International Racquetball Tour
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships
US OPEN Racquetball
USA Racquetball
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora
Racquetball Canada
International Racquetball Federation – IRF

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US Open LPRT Pro Doubles Wrap-Up

Mejia/Herrera take their first US Open title. Photo via US Open FB page/Kevin Savory

Congrats to Alexandra Herrera and Monserrat Mejia on their win at the 2019 US Open.

Lets review the Q/SF after the last post ran through the 32s and 16s.

PRS match report: http://rball.pro/835FD7

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Quarters wrap-up:

– #1 Paola Longoria / Samantha Salas Solis dominated the #8 team of Michelle De La Rosa and Kelani Lawrence to move into the semis.

– #4 seeded Masiel Rivera Oporto and Brenda Laime Jalil outlasted the #12 seeded Lexi York and Hollie Rae Scott combo to advance.

– #3 Montse Mejia and Alexandra Herrera, the sometimes Mexican national team representatives, were pushed to the limit by the strong #6 Guatemalan national team of Ana Gabriela Martínez and Maria Renee Rodríguez before advancing 11-8.

– #7 Jessica Parrilla / Nancy Enriquez surprised the #2 seeded Argentinian national team of Maria Jose Vargas and Natalia Mendez Erlwein, dropping the first before running away with the match 15-6, 11-1 to finish it off.

Still on track for the all-Mexican final, which we’ve seen multiple times on tour, including last year’s 2018 US Open final.

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In the semis:

– the #1 team blitzed Rivera/Laime 6,4 to move to the final.
– the #3 team destroyed the upset-minded #7 team Parrilla/Enriquez to move to the final.

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In the finals, we got the match-up most had predicted. Longoria/Salas versus Mejia/Herrera is a rematch of multiple finals throughout the last couple of seasons. These two pairings met in the finals of the 2016 US Open, multiple pro finals in the 2017-18 season, the 2018 Mexican Worlds selection event, 2018 World Doubles, the 2018 US Open, 2019 Mexican Nationals, and at the SLP pro stop earlier this season.

It did not disappoint. The younger Mexican pairing won two closely contested games to vanquish the top-ranked veteran pairing to capture their first US Open title 13,12.

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LPRT
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships
US OPEN Racquetball
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
USA Racquetball
Racquetball Canada
Federacion Boliviana Tiro Deportivo
Asociación Argentina de Racquetball
Jugadores Racquetbol Guatemala
International Racquetball Federation – IRF

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US Open IRT Pro doubles Wrap-Up

Kane and Ben win 3rd US open title. Photo via US Open FB page/Kevin Savory

Congrats to Kane Waselenchuk and Ben Croft on their win at the 2019 US Open.

here’s a quick wrap-up of the Quarters onward:

PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/2D3D74

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In the qtrs:

– #1 seeds Daniel De La Rosa and Alvaro Beltran put an end to the geezer renaissance, ousting Cliff Swain and Rocky Carson (combined age: 93) in two.

– The #4 seed Colombian national team of Sebastian Franco & Mario Mercado Valenzuela were taken out by the Bolivian qualifiers #12 Carlos Keller Vargas & Kadim Carrasco in a tight tiebreaker.

– #3 seeds Alex Landa and Samuel Murray who have been playing solidly together for a while now, took out the experienced Bolivian national team pairing of Conrrado kevin Moscoso Ortiz Racquetball and Roland Keller in two easy games. Moscoso/Keller won the Bolivian Grand slam and the 2019 Pan American Racquetball Championships, and were losing finalists to Rodrigo Montoya Solis and Javier Mar at the 2019 Pan Am games and were a worthy qualifier here.

– #2 Kane Waselenchuk and Ben Croft cruised past Ernesto Ochoa and Javier Estrada in two. We hope to see more of Ochoa and Estrada on tour going forward.

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In the semis.

#1 DLR/Beltran defeated the upstart Bolivian team of Keller/Carrasco team (which had defeated the heavily favored #5 team of Jose Diaz and Jake Bredenbeck in qualifiers) in two.

#2 Kane/Croft played a complete match to down the very solid #3 Landa/Murray team 7,7.

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In the final, we got the two teams we wanted. This is a rematch of the last two US Open finals and the 2018 World Doubles final. The 2017 US Open doubles final was considered to be among the finest matches ever played on the pro circuit, a come from behind win for Kane/Croft. DLR/Beltran turned the tide in the 2018 US Open and dominated for a win. The World Doubles final was controversy filled, with the Mexican team walking off the court at match point against. What would we get here?

As it turned out, we got a solid match and a return to the winner’s circle for the now 3-time US Open champion team of Kane and Ben, who won the title 11,8. They’re now 28-5 as a team on the pro circuit with 7 titles since 2014.

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International Racquetball Tour
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships
US OPEN Racquetball
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
USA Racquetball
Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora
Fecoracquet Fecoracquet
Racquetball Canada
International Racquetball Federation – IRF

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LPRT Pro Doubles qualifying and Quarters wrap

Here’s a quick wrap of the Ladies pro doubles qualifying and Qtrs, which featured some tough international-quality matches.

In the Qualifying, notable matches for me:

– #12 seeded Lexi York and Hollie Rae Scott won their play-in match then took out #5 seeded Carla Muñoz Montesinos and Sheryl Lotts in two games.

– #8 Michelle De La Rosa and Kelani Lawrence beat a solid Bolivian doubles pairing of Jenny Daza Navia and Angelica Barrios in a tie-breaker to move on.

– In a battle of international doubles teams, #11 seeded Guatemalan national team of Ana Gabriela Martínez and Maria Renee Rodriguez took out the #6 Colombian national team of Adriana Riveros Racquetball and Amaya Cristina in a tie-breaker. Team Guatemala regrouped after dropping game one to dominated the 2nd and 3rd games.

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Quarters wrap-up:

– #1 Paola Longoria/ Samantha Salas Solis dominated the #8 team of mDLR/Lawrence to move into the semis.

– #4 seeded Masiel Rivera Oporto and Brenda Laime Jalil outlasted the #12 seeded York/Scott combo to advance.

– #3 Montse Mejia and Alexandra Herrera, the sometimes Mexican national team representatives, were pushed to the limit by the strong #6 Guatemalan national team of Martinez/MRR before advancing 11-8.

– #7 Jessica Parrilla / Nancy Enriquez surprised the #2 seeded Argentinian national team of Maria Jose Vargas and Natalia Mendez Erlwein, dropping the first before running away with the match 15-6, 11-1 to finish it off.

Still on track for the all-Mexican final, which we’ve seen multiple times on tour, including last year’s 2018 US Open final.
————

LPRT
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
Jugadores Racquetbol Guatemala
Asociación Argentina de Racquetball
Fecoracquet Fecoracquet
Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora

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US Open LPRT Women’s Pro Singles round of 32 and 16s review

Mejia an upset winner into the quarters of the US Open. Photo unk.

we’re catching up on the LPRT action from yesterday; here’s a review of the 32s and 16s.

In the 32s, here was the notable results for me:

– #17 Adrienne Fisher Haynes took out #16 Sheryl Lotts in a tie-breaker for a surprising result (for me). Haynes turns the tide on Lotts from the last time they played at the 2018 Nationals and moves on.

– #9 Masiel Rivera Oporto made a statement with a dominant win over #24 Jessica Parrilla 8,4. I thought this was an upset special; instead it was a dominant performance by Rivera, who continues to impress this season and is racing up the LPRT rankings.

– Big upset by #25 Erin Rivera who took out #8 Amaya Cris in two close games 13,13.

– #12 Montse Mejia defeated #21 Maria Renee Rodriguez 12,4 to move on. Credit to MRR for staying in game one against a tough opponent, but Mejia ran away in game two.

– #20 Carla Muñoz Montesinos got a great result, topping #13 Ana Laura Flores Saavedra in a tie-breaker to move on. She’ll get her second lefty in a row later this afternoon in the 16s.

– #14 Frédérique Lambert vs #19 Angelica Barrios went as close as it could go, with Lambert squeaking by in two games over the Bolivian youngster 14,13.

– #6 Natalia Mendez Erlwein dominated #27 Bolivian Jenny Daza Navia 4,3 to move on. No hiccup here for Mendez; she kept the pressure on Daza relentlessly and controlled the match from the start.

– #11 Adriana Riveros Racquetball dominated #22 Kelani Lawrence 6,12 in a somewhat surprising result to me. Lawrence played Vargas really tight in Chesapeake but couldn’t get anything going against the Colombian on this day.

– #7 Nancy Enriquez took on #26 Hollie Rae Scott in a tense, contested match that was tight all the way through. Enriquez fought off game-point against in game two when it was looking like this might go tie-breaker and won 12,14 to advance. Not much between these two players on the day.

– #10 Brenda Laime Jalil was taken out in two straight forward games by #23 Michelle De La Rosa.

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16s Review

– #1 Paola Longoria dominated #17 Haynes to move into the quarters.

– #9 Rivera held on and ousted upset-minded #25 Groves in a tie-breaker to move into just her fifth ever career quarter final.

– #12 Mejia wiped out #5 Rhonda Rajsich 6,8 in a match that seemed to take about 15 minutes. Mejia showed the whole arsenal today; power drive serves, touch in the front court, rally control, and Rhonda couldn’t get anything going. Mejia plays fast, Rhonda couldn’t slow her down and she looks pretty focused for this event.

– #4 Alexandra Herrera ended #20 Munoz’ run, taking a close first game then moving on in two 13,8.

– #3 Maria Jose Vargas dominated former world number two and #14 seed Lambert 4,9; we heard during the match that Lambert was working in the ER til 2am on the day of hte match, caught a same-day flight then played two pro matches. Yeah; i think we understand why she may have lost to one of the best players in the world.

– #6 Mendez showed some mettle and outlasted #11 Riveros in a tiebreaker to setup yet another showdown in the quarters of a pro event against her doubles partner Vargas.

– #7 Enriquez got a solid win over outdoor specialist #23 Michelle De la Rosa, who pushed her to 11-7 in the breaker but held on.

– In the dominant performance of the day, #2 Samantha Salas Solis made a statement by downing 2018 world champ #18 Ana Gabriela Martínez12,4. Salas has been “upset” early in both pro events so far this season and faced a stiff challenge here, but she made a statement in this win.

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16s seed review: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 (seven of the top eight), then 9,11,12,14,17,18,20,23 … only one qualifier in #25 Groves into the 16s.

Then, the seeds into the qtrs: 1,9,12,4,3,6,7,2; mostly chalk, with #9 and #12 breaking in.

Quarters Nationalities represented: 5 mexicans, 2 Argentinians, 1 Bolivian.

Same question for the men; is this the first time a US Open has not featured a single American into the quarters? here’s the QSF report by Nationality for LPRT: http://rball.pro/032ACA

Answer: yes it is the first time the US Open has not featured an American into at least the qtrs. It has happened multiple times before though (a LPRT event w/o an American into the quarters) before this; first time was Nov 2016 in Monterrey.

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LPRT
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships
USA Racquetball
Racquetball Canada
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball
Asociación Argentina de Racquetball

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US Open Men’s IRT Round of 16 review

Moscoso upsets Carson again in the 16s of the US Open. Photo unk.

Man, the matches come fast at US Open on Wednesday and Thursday. Here’s a review of the 2nd half of Thursday’s matches, the round of 16. There were some big time results.

– #1 Kane Waselenchuk dominated #16 Gerardo Franco Gonzalez to move into the quarters. I feel like Kane’s path this year has been more straight-forward than last year, though he gets a tough player in Mar (who he beat 12,10 in the 16s last year) next.

– #24 Javier Mar outlasted #25 Carlos Keller Vargas in a tiebreaker, dropping the first then cruising in games 2 and 3.: Mar had about 20 minutes to get ready for this match after a marathon win over his doubles partner Rodrigo Montoya Solis in the earlier round. Despite their seeds, these two players would both be pushing for the top 10 if they played the tour regularly.

– #5 Álvaro Beltrán dominated the upset-minded #21 Thomas Carter, advancing in two quick games.

– #4 Alex Landa was pushed by long-time WRT rival David ” Bobby” Horn, and had some “disagreements” on the court at times, but advanced in 2 straight to setup a rematch of the 2019 Mexican national singles final in the qtrs with Beltran. This sets up a rematch between these two long rivals, who met for the 2019 Mexican Nationals final and in the final of the 2018 Florida pro-am just after Beltran had beaten Kane.

– #3 Andree Parrilla dominated his younger doubles partner #14 Lalo Portillo 5,4. Portillo keeps making incremental moves forward on tour.

– #6 Daniel De La Rosa held serve and took out #11 Jake Bredenbeck in two.

– #23 Sebastian Fernandezwon me an ice cream cone from Brian Pineda by defeating #26 Adam Manilla in two games.

– In the upset of the round, #15 Conrrado kevin Moscoso Ortiz Racquetball defeated #2 Rocky Carson for the second time in as many meetings in Grand Slam events 13,5. This was a dominant performance from Moscoso, much more-so than his win in Bolivia, where he was in real jeopardy of losing in two quick games before catching fire. This could open up a path for him to the finals; if he can beat Carson, he can beat anyone not named Kane in this draw.

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So, the 16s were comprised of these seeds:
1,2,3,4,5,6 of top top seeds, then 11,13,14,15,16 from the next set, and then 21,23,24,25,26 seeds of qualifiers.

Now, your quarter finalists are 1,3,4,5,6,15,23,24.26. So two qualifiers remain to the quarters, but 5 of the top 8 seeds are through.

Nationalities in the quarters: 6 Mexicans, 1 Canadian and 1 Bolivian. No Americans. Someone asked yesterday if this was a first? Here’s a Q/S/F report by nationality to help: http://rball.pro/F834D0

Answer: Yes this is the first time a US Open has not featured at least one American in the quarters of the Men’s draw. In 2007, 7 of the 8 quarter finalists were from the USA … now its nearly reversed to have 6 of the 8 be from Mexico.

But not only is this the first time an American has not made at least the quarters of the US Open … this is the first time in the history of the IRT that an American has not made a pro quarter … ever.

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Quarters start today at 10am CDT. All four should be streamed.

International Racquetball Tour
UnitedHealthcare US OPEN Racquetball Championships
USA Racquetball
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
Federación Boliviana de Racquetball
Racquetball Canada

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IRT Pro Doubles Qualifying Wrap-up

Here’s a wrap-up of the Pro Doubles qualifying, which had some pretty amazing matches.

Before we get into it though, a bit of opining.

– 27 total teams entered, so that means 23 teams were competing for 4 spots in the main draw? I think the tour has to fix this going forward. That’s just too much of an advantage to the four teams that got byes into the quarters. At the very least it should have been 23 whittled to 8 spots in a round of 16. This would have given main draw exposure to one of several teams that ended up getting eliminated at the qualifying stage.

– Why did seeding for the Pro doubles deviate from the IRT pro doubles rankings? It looks like the doubles draw utilized the typical USAR method of automatically seeding last year’s finalists 1 and 2. On the one hand, yeah I think Kane/Croft deserve a top 2 seed b/c, well, I think they’re one of the two best teams. However, what I “think” shouldn’t be a factor; that’s why you have a ranking system and it should have been used irrespective of where the teams landed. Jose Diaz has a point.

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Here’s the notable qualifying matches on the Men’s doubles side:

In the 64s:

– #20 Alan Natera Chavez and Rodrigo Garay R took out the young #21 team of Sebastian Fernandez and Diego Garcia Quispe (combined age; 35) in a tiebreaker

– East Coasters #14 Maurice Miller and Troy Warigon were taken to the limit by the Mexican junior pairing #27 seeded Manuel Moncada and Guillermo Ortega 11-10.

– The “old guy” pairing #17 seeded Rocky Carson and Cliff Swain (combined age; 93) got their tourney started with a solid win over two tough Florida-based players in Mike Harmon and Alejandro Herrera Azcarate 5,10.

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In the 32s:

– #5 seeds and team most immediately affected by the a-formentioned seeding issue Jake Bredenbeck and Jose Diaz got going with a solid 11,11 win over Natera/Garay.

– #16 Charlie Pratt and Dylan Reid took a solid game over an excellent doubles pairing of the Costa Rican national team and #9 seeded Andres Acuña / Felipe Camacho in a tiebreaker.

– Carson/Swain pulled a rabbit out of their hat by saving a slew of match-points in both game 2 and the tie-breaker to advance (9),14,10 over #8 Andree Parrilla and Lalo Portillo

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In the 16s

– #5 Jake/Diaz were upset by #13 seeded Bolivian pairing of Carlos Keller Vargas and Kadim Carrasco 11-8 in the breaker.

– In a rematch of the 2019 Pan Am Games final, #11 seeds Bolivians Conrrado kevin Moscoso Ortiz Racquetball and Roland Keller took out the Pan Am champs, Mexican #6 seeds Javier Mar and Rodrigo Montoya Solís in a tiebreaker. This is just too good of a match to happen this early, as these are clearly two of the best teams in the world and have demonstrated it on multiple occasions.

– the “old guys” continued their run, with Swain/Carson taking out Pratt/Reid to move on to face the top seeds.

– Estrada/Ochoa took care of business and advanced into the main draw; they’ll be dangerous in the next round.

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Great Pro doubles quarterfinals set to go for thursday night!