DLR can lock up the 2023 title in Boston. Maybe.
Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
After months away, the IRT is back in action, heading to Boston for the 2023 Rally for our Warriors. The LPRT was at the same club (Wayside Athletic in Marlborough) back in March, but it has been some time since the Men’s pros were in the Boston area. You have to go all the way back to March of 2007, for the Red Swain Memorial for the last time the IRT was in Massachusetts, so congrats to Stuart Solomon for putting this together.
The draw is a bit diminished for this event (22 pros are in town, probably a side effect of the expense of the Pan Am games and other travel this summer), but the stakes couldn’t be higher. With just this event, the satellite in Portland, and then the season finisher in Pleasanton, there’s very little time to settle the 2023 year end title. Assuming that this event and Pleasanton are regular Tier1 tour stops, #1 seed @Daniel De La Rosa can secure the year end title with a win here in Boston. however, #2 Jake Bredenbeck and #3 Conrrado Moscoso can both really put a monkey wrench into those plans with winning performances here.
Also interesting: none other than Kane Waselenchuk is in this draw. He turns 42 today. We havn’t seen Kane in singles since his Achilles injury in Sept 2022. Will he compete? He entered singles in Denver but withdrew, so it remains to be seen. If he competes, he’s seeded 22nd out of 22 by virtue of having expired all his previous rankings points, and is scheduled to play #11 Robert collins at 4pm EST. If he wins, he plays into #6 Adam Manilla and then to #3 Moscoso, so that’d be a heck of a test for him.
——————————
Lets preview the draw. Only the singles draw has been released as of this writing.
Two top 10 players are absent: Portillo and Landa. this slightly changes the projected round of 16 matches for the top 3 players, which could play into the year end standings heavily.
——————————-
In the 32s, some notable matches:
– Should be fun to see what Mexican Axel Barojas can do against the Chilean national Rafael Gatica
– Kane should have a decent shot against Collins in a battle of veteran pro lefties.
– top New England player @JoJose Flores should move on against IRT regular @Jim Douglas
——————————-
round of 16:
– The 8/9 matchup between Alan Natera and Andres Acuña could be great. Natera has been on fire lately and could push the Costa Rican here.
– #4 Rodrigo Montoya will get an early test against Erick Trujillo , who has seen his progress stall a bit after some eye opening early results.
– If he plays, and if he advances, all eyes would be on #22 Kane versus #6 Adam Manilla in this round. It’d be another matchup of lefties, but a different battle for Kane. Manilla is fresh off a gold medal in Chile in Mixed, and has been getting some pretty solid results lately. He beat Diego Garcia in Chile, he’s got pro wins over Murray and Acuna this season, and he took out Jake at USA Nationals. This would be a great litmus test for Kane’s comeback, but I suspect Adam would be too much for him.
——————————
Projected Qtrs:
– #1 DLR over the Natera/Acuna winner. I don’t think either player has what it takes to take out Daniel right now.
– #4 Montoya over #5 @Andree Parrilla ; these long-time adversaries are now settling into the realization that Montoya has the upper hand in their rivalry.
– #3 Moscoso versus the Kane/Manilla winner. Well, I’m certain that neutrals (myself included) would love to see Kane versus Conrrado. It would certainly put and end to the social media campaign that believes that Kane still would beat anyone who he plays. Many believe that, even if he got by Manilla, Kane would be overpowered at this juncture against a player who is probably the most talented in the world.
– #2 @Jake Bredenbeck over Big Canada #7 Samuel Murray
Semis:
– DLR over Montoya. Montoya does have a handful of wins against DLR in their careers. I also think DLR knows precisely what he needs to do to secure the title and will be rather motivated here.
– Moscoso over Jake; Jake may be seeded #2, and Jake may have beaten Conrrado in their last meeting in Chicago, but Conrrado’s the better player.
Finals;
– Moscoso over DLR. Moscoso is on a run, fresh off Pan Am gold, and looks unstoppable. He wins Boston to force Pleasanton to count.
——————————-
Doubles review: no draws as of this publishing.
———————————
Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
Moscoso wins his 4th major IRF title in the last two years and establishes himself as the best international player in the world.
Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
Racquetball’s highest international honor, the Pan American Games, has completed its singles and doubles competitions. Here’s a recap of the winners:
Congratulations to the individual winners:
– Men’s Singles: Conrrado Moscoso: Bolivia
– Women’s Singles: Paola Longoria: Mexico
– Men’s Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya & Javier Mar: Mexico
– Women’s Doubles: Gaby Martinez & Maria Renee Rodriguez, Guatemala
– Mixed Doubles: Adam Manilla & Erika Manilla, USA
Five events and four different countries represented in the winner’s circle, a great testament to the spread of the sport and talent throughout the two continents.
I’ve run out of URL shorteners in my account for the month, so for the Doubles just got to www.proracquetballstats.com, click on IRF Doubles, then pull down for these three events.
– Men’s Doubles:
– Women’s Doubles:
– Mixed Doubles:
——————
Here’s a run-through of the notable results for me in each draw.
Men’s Singles:
In the 16s, three interesting results for me. Andres Acuña handled Canadian Coby Iwaasa in three straight, a solid win for the Costa Rican over a tough player in Iwaasa who we rarely see on tour. Mexico’s Eduardo Portillo was stretched to five games before advancing over Ecuador’s Jose Daniel Ugalde. Lastly, the toughest match of the round was USA’s Adam Manilla advancing over Argentina’s Diego Garcia in five games. Garcia regularly gets upset wins whenever he can get to a pro event, and this was a very solid win for Manilla despite the seeds.
In the quarters: #1 seed @Conrrado Moscoso handled Acuna as expected, but USA’s top player Daniel De La Rosa fell in five games to Portillo in a huge upset. Portillo won 13-11 in the fifth, with the final call being a disputed service return skip. The courts in Santiago unfortunately were constructed with a small gap between the floor and the front wall, and to this observer it looked as if DLR hit a perfect return that would have rolled out on a normal court but which “popped up” on this court; the call stood and Lalo had his win. On the other side, Manilla game Mexico’s Rodrigo Montoya a run for his money but fell in five. Lastly, the #2 seed Carlos Keller Vargas held serve against Big Canada Samuel Murray to move on.
In the semis: Moscoso blitzed Lalo, while Keller shocked Montoya (the 2019 Pan Am games gold medalist) with a 5-game win to make it an all-Bolivia final.
In the final, Moscoso and Keller, who annually seem to play for the Bolivian National singles title and who have gone back and forth for years, played another in their series. This time around, Moscoso came out on top in three games. Conrrado wins his fourth straight major IRF title (2023 PARC, 2022 Worlds, and 2022 PARC; Bolivia did not send teams to the 2022 World Games) and has really solidified his place at the top of the Men’s international game.
———————–
Women’s Singles
The 32s and 16s went basically as expected. A couple notable round of 16 matches included Costa Rica’s Maricruz Ortiz topping Guatemala’s @Maria Renee Rodriguez by the score line of 9,7,17. third game: 19-17. The match of the round though was the 2-15 seeds Carla Muñoz and Maria Jose Vargas , who went the distance with the Argentine coming from 2-1 games down to win.
In the quarters, Ortiz continued to impress, topping the draw’s #1 seed Natalia Mendez 12-10 in the fifth to move on and secure a medal. Current LPRT #1 @Montse Mejia took out the 2022 PARC champ Angelica Barrios in three. Three-time defending champ Paola Longoria moved past USA’s Erika Manilla in three, and Vargas rebounded from her near-upset loss to grind out a great 3-game win over 2018 World Champ and 7-time IRF singles finalist Ana Gabriela Martinez to move on.
In the semis, the two Mexicans held serve, with Mejia shutting down Ortiz in three, while Longoria reversed a recent trend of losses to Vargas on tour with a solid 4-game win to set up an all Mexico Final.
In the final, Longoria won her 25th IRF singles title of her career, and her fourth straight Pan American gold, with a 3-game win over her new rival.
—————–
Men’s Doubles
The clear-cut #1 Men’s Doubles team in the world Rodrigo Montoya and @Javier Mar cruised to the title, dropping just one game along the way.
The quarter finals featured two major results: the #2 seeded Bolivian team of Moscoso and @Kadim Carrasco was shocked by the Guatemalan team of @Juan Jose Salvatierra and @Edwin Galicia. Bolivia was the finalist earlier this year at PARC, but they were one-and-done here. Meanwhile, the battle of heavyweights in the quarters was team USA versus team Canada. Murray and Iwaasa won the 2022 PARC event together and are a very experienced team, and they pulled the 5-game “upset” over De La Rosa and @Alejandro Landa to send the US team home one-and done. Canada ran to the final to face team Mexico and took game one before falling.
—————–
Women’s Doubles
The Guatemalan pair of Martinez and Rodriguez finally broke through at a major and took the title, topping the surprise finalists from Argentina Mendez an Vargas. Gaby and MRR have been playing together for a decade and have made a slew of major international Women’s Doubles finals but have always fallen short of winning. Not on the day today, as they played the veteran Argentine team tough and outslugged them for the gold medal.
Vargas and Mendez were in the final by virtue of a shocking upset of the #1 seeds and heavily favored team from Mexico Mejia and Alexandra Herrera . Team USA fell to the Argentines in the quarters, while team Bolivia (Barrios and Daza) lost to the Guatemalans in four close games in the other semi.
—————–
Mixed Doubles
There’s not a long history of Mixed Doubles in IRF events, but the few that have been held have been dominated by Mexico. They’ve won 3 of the 4 such events and were the losing finalist to Bolivia in the other. So when both Mexico and Bolivia were upset in the semis, it sent some shock waves across the sport.
Team Argentina took out team Bolivia (Moscoso & Barrios) in one five-game semifinal triumph, while team USA shocked team Mexico (Portillo & Longoria) in the other, to guarantee a first-time winner in the final.
There, the Manilla’s took over and dominated, winning the Gold medal 4,4,6 with a great game plan of having Adam range over to cherry pick balls and Erika out-hitting fellow power-swinger Vargas along the right.
—————–
Team Standings.
At the end of the five bracket competitions, the conventional IRF points tally was tabulated to determine the overall Team standings. This is different from the Team competition that followed all the individual draws, an event that seems to have been added on to make the trip more worthwhile to the players. These are unofficial standings and are not generally done for events that don’t feature group stages.
Overall Team Standings:
1. Mexico 760
2. Bolivia 540
3. Argentina 440
4. USA 380
5. Guatemala 370
Mexico cruised to the combined title thanks primarily to the Bolivian’s poor Women’s showing. Only the Mixed gold saved USA from being in 5th place behind Guatemala, a country that literally only has one facility in their entire nation.
Men’s Team Standings:
1. Bolivia 360
1T. Mexico 360
3. USA 200
3T Canada 200
5. Costa Rica 150
Mexico won doubles, Bolivia won singles, so perhaps the tiebreaker is Bolivia having the better runner’s up performances.
Women’s Team Standings:
1. Mexico 400
2. Argentina 300
3. Guatemala 240
4. Bolivia 180
4. USA 180
Bolivia would win a TB by virtue of better Doubles performance over USA, if we were awarding team medals.
—————–
As was well discussed during the event, streaming/broadcasting was non-existent officially until the finals, and even then just the doubles was broadcast on the https://panamsportschannel.org/ channel. It is what it is; racquetball fans are just not used to participating in an event where the broadcast rights are sold as a package and free streaming is readily available. We did get some guerrilla streams from parents and players, which kept us satiated here at home.
However, during the doubles final, the streaming was magnificent. High quality cameras showed crisp, crystal clear images of the sport. If only we could get this quality week in/week out. That was a treat.
Longoria is the 3-time defending Pan American Games gold medalist. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
This weekend, the sport of racquetball competes in the Pan American Games. The 19th annual Pan American Games is being hosted by Chile, who built a fantastic new racquetball complex to host this competition. Absent the sport ever being put into the Olympics, this quadriennal competition featuring all the countries in the two American continents is the absolute highest level the sport currently competes.
Racquetball first appeared in the Pan Am games in 1995, in Buenos Aires. In that tournament, John Ellis topped Michael Bronfield in an 11-10 final to cap off his amateur career before turning pro, with Derek Robinson and Canadian Sherman Greenfeld making the semis. On the Women’s side, two legendary female hall of famers from the USA battled in the final, with Michelle Wolf (at the time, Michelle Gould) topping Cheryl Gudinas for the title.
Making it into the Pan Am games was a seminal moment for the sport; it meant we were finally to be recognized as an “Olympic-level sport” in the eyes of the USOPC and IOC (since Pan Am games rises to that level), and it led to an official relationship with the highest US sports organization that lasts to this day.
Racquetball has now been competed in 6 Pan Am Games, missing only one event since the 1995 event (that being Brazil in 2007, when no courts were built). On the Men’s singles side, players from the USA won the first 5 Pan Am golds, with Rodrigo Montoya topping Alvaro Beltran in the 2019 final in Peru to break that streak. See http://rb.gy/gjl3f . For those who remember this famous match, Beltran was ahead in the second game when he dove for a ball and shattered the back glass door, covering himself in shards of glass. He was on a roll but ended up losing the match.
On the women’s singles side, Paola Longoria has dominated the last three events as expected, and is in Chile to pursue a 4th straight. See http://rb.gy/0cav6 .
They play singles, doubles, mixed and a team competition. We’ll do a quick preview of the draws with some predictions.
As is normally the case in International events, the seeding is not as fans of the game would expect. That’s because the seeds are done by country (not player), and the country performance for several past events is taken into consideration. Furthermore the #1 and #2 seeds per country are driven by National results. It means we’ll have matchups of top pros way too early as always, and unbalanced brackets … as we have with practically every IRF competition.
Men’s Singles
Thanks to poor recent performances, team USA is the 3rd ranked country, meaning its representatives (Daniel De la Rosa and Adam Manilla ) are seeded 5th and 6th. DLR will have to face Mexican #2 @Eduardo Portillo in the quarters to get a shot at #1 overall seed Conrrado Moscoso in the semis.
In the bottom half, Manilla gets dark-horse #11 Diego Garcia in his opener and could be looking at a quick exit. Defending champ Rodrigo Montoya probably has to contend with Garcia and then the winner of the Carlos Keller Vargas – @Samuel Murray winner to get back to the final. Still, the top half is heavily weighted.
Usually when I look at a possible Moscoso-DLR match, i take into account the elevation, the ball, and the court construction. IRF uses the Gearbox black (slow), and Santiago is at a decent elevation (1,800 feet). I don’t know the court construction but can guess its panel. These factors seem to cancel each other out, but the slower the game plays, the better the advantage for DLR will be. DLR is healthy, has the game plan, and the patience that Moscoso doesn’t have. Meanwhile, Moscoso has won the last three major IRF events (2023 PARC, 2022 Worlds, 2022 PARC) … but has yet to have to contend with DLR in these competitions.
I’ll predict DLR takes Moscoso out in the semis and then tops Montoya in the final. DLR didn’t switch sides to fly all the way down here to lose.
————————
Women’s Singles
Lots of top-10 LPRT matchups early on in this bracket, as Argentine Natalia Mendez gets a #1 overall seed but has to contend with former #2 LPRT pro Frederique Lambert in the 16s. If she can get past the Canadian, she may have to contend with Costa Rican dark-horse Maricruz Ortiz. Meanwhile, the following four players are all in the same quadrant: #1 LPRT pro @Montse Mejia, 2022 PARC champ Angelica Barrios, former top10 touring pro Veronica Sotomayor , and USA’s @Michelle key . Just a brutal draw for all involved, but its hard to see anyone but Mejia coming out from the top.
The bottom half features five of the top 10 on the LPRT tour right now, including several recent tourney winners. @MarMaria José Vargas is the #2 seed, but last time she faced #7 @AAna Gabriela Martinez she got beat 9,12. 3-time defending champ Longoria is seeded #3 (by virtue of her win over Mejia at Mexican Nationals earlier this year) and is set to face top American Erika Manilla in the quarters, a player she’s dropped games to but never lost to. I see Gaby taking out Vargas, then losing to Longoria in the semis.
I sense Longoria vs Mejia in the final, and even though Mejia is #1 in the rankings, Longoria is #1 in international play and wins her 4th PanAm gold.
—————-
Men’s Doubles:
There are great doubles matches all over this draw, with all the top teams present. #1 Montoya/Mar will barely sweat before making the final, while the bottom half will be a dogfight. USA (DLR & Alejandro Landa ) vs Canada (@Coby Iwaasa & Samuel Murray ) will be a tough one, but the winner here will be favored over #2 Bolivia (Moscoso playing with @Kadim Carrasco ). In the final though I favor Montoya & Mar to defend their Pan Am gold from 2019.
——————
Women’s Doubles:
The #1 team of Longoria & Mejia is the clear favorite. Team USA (Manilla & Key) will have a tough quarter against team Argentina (Mendez & Vargas) to then take a crack at #1 seeds. From the bottom, the long-time Guatemalan pair of @Maria Renee Rodriguez and Gaby will be favored to get to the final, but will be tested by #3 Bolivia (Barrios and @Jenny Daza Navia ). Look for Mexico to win.
—————–
Mixed Doubles:
#1 Moscoso & Barrios won the 2023 PARC event over Montoya & Longoria; now Mexico is represented by Portillo & Longoria and I think Bolivia is an even bigger favorite to win. #4 Argentina (Vargas & Garcia) will be tough, as will #3 USA (Manilla and Manilla), but I expect this to go chalk.
———————————
After the individual events, all the players get together for a team competition. Those draws will come out later on, but its the individual matches that matter.
———————————
A comment; i’m sure fans of the sport have seen the video put out by @Cristina Amaya this week, talking about what happened and why she and teammate @Maria Paz Riquelme were excluded from the competition. The pair finished 6th in Women’s rankings at the 2023 PARC and should have qualified, but (if I’m understanding the situation) their defunct/bankrupted national federation did not file the paperwork to include their delegation, and thus their spots were given away. This all apparently happened in May but was only found out recently by the understandably crushed Colombian players. What a sh*tty thing to happen, and honestly someone should have notified them or made an exception. It’s not Amaya and Maria paz’ fault their federation collapsed due to corruption and greed. Their two spots (apparently) went to the next team in line, which was Cuba (it also looks like the Dominican Republic snuck two players in thanks to two of the countries ahead of them giving up female spots). Its a shame, and a situation that should have been avoided.
———————————
Streaming outlook: it looks grim for streaming options, in that this event (unlike practically every other racquetball tournament) features broadcast rights that have been sold elsewhere. I’m sure we’ll see guerrilla streams here and there, but don’t hold your breath for 100% coverage.
With the completion of the 2023 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships in Las Vegas two weekends ago, the year-long Outdoor Cup Series have completed. Here’s a recap of the winners and the narrative of how the results changed over the course of the season.
The LPL Financial Women’s Cup and the Kwm Gutterman Men’s Cup both awarded cash prizes and other benefits to the top 2 finishers across the three outdoor majors this year (Beach Bash, Outdoor Nationals, and 3WB).
Scott took the title wire to wire in 2023, winning two titles at Beach Bash (Women’s Doubles and Mixed) along with making the singles final. From there she took another title at Outdoor Nationals, plus two more in Vegas, and won the cup with a commanding lead. 2nd place finisher Mejia missed Beach Bash but took her LPRT #1 talents to outdoor starting in Huntington Beach, where she took the singles title in her first ever outdoor appearance. She followed that up with a singles/doubles double in Vegas to just squeak past 3rd place Munoz for the money position. Carla just missed out on 2nd place for the second year in a row, taking the one-wall Pro doubles in Vegas and the Women’s pro doubles title in California. The only other touring pro to compete in all three majors was 4th place finisher Lawrence, who took the Beach Bash doubles title with Scott and had several other finals in the three wall competitions the rest of the way.
Future Hall of Famer Tisinger-Ledkins missed Beach Bash but took a title in Outdoor Nationals and came in 5th. LPRT #5 Herrera came in 6th, despite missing Outdoor Nationals. She took the Women’s doubles title in Vegas with Mejia and had two other finals along the way. Last year’s winner Key struggled with injuries and missed the first two events, but played well in Vegas and made both Mixed finals with partner Kane Waselenchuk to finish in 7th place. LPRT #6 Manilla made a slew of semi finals but never advanced any deeper, finishing in 8th place. Current LPRT #3 Laime took the one-wall pro title in Vegas, but struggled in the doubles events other wise in Vegas as compared to last year to finish in 9th place. Rounding out the top 10 was USA Racquetball Hall of Famer Roehler, who was a finalist in Florida in March in doubles and had a slew of results in Vegas to finish in 10th place.
Other notable finishers include:
– Teen-ager Victoria Rodriguez , who finished 12th and who competed in all three competitions and took a Paddleball title in Vegas.
– new mom Erica Williams bowed out of pro events in Vegas but played all three majors this year to finish 14th.
– Veronica Sotomayor was in 2nd place after Beach Bash, where she took a title and a final. However she could not travel to either of the subsequent majors to compete for the crown.
——————–
Now lets talk about how the Men finished. Here’s the final top 10 standings:
1. Daniel De La Rosa
2. Rocky Carson
3. Rick “Soda Man” Koll
4. Eduardo Portillo
5. Benny Goldenberg
6. Robert Sostre “Ice Man”
7. Alejandro Landa
8. Greg Solis
9. Alvaro Beltran
10. Kane Waselenchuk
Like his partner Scott, De La Rosa (DLR) went wire-to-wire for this title, winning 7 of the 8 titles he competed in this year. The sole blemish on his outdoor major resume this year was in the Men’s Pro Doubles final in Huntington Beach, where he and Landa lost to @Josh Tucker and newlywed Brandon Davis in the final. Daniel now holds 29 major Outdoor titles to go along with his likely 3rd straight International Racquetball Tour pro title this year. He’s already on the short list for best outdoor player of all time; is he also on the short list for best indoor/outdoor combo player of all time? A player firmly in these same outdoor GOAT conversations is certainly Carson, who finished 2nd in this cup series competition on the back of his excellent CPRT results all year. He won CPRT in Florida with Sudsy Monchik , lost in the semis in California with regular partner @Jesus Ustarroz , and went to the final with Ustarroz in Vegas.
Long-time 3WB sponsor Soda Man came in 3rd in the cup competition this year, powered by a great CPRT win with Beltran over Carson/Ustarroz in Vegas. Portillo, who finished 2nd in last year’s cup, had to miss Outdoor Nationals this year but still took the 1-wall pro doubles final in Vegas to finish 4th. Portillo’s winning doubles partner in Vegas Goldenberg also made the final in Florida and finished 5th in the standings in the end despite focusing primarily on 1-wall competitions.
Benny’s beach bash finalist partner and WOR Hall of Famer Sostre finished right behind Benny in 6th; he and William Rolon were 1-wall pro doubles finalists in Vegas. Landa teamed up with DLR and was able to net enough points playing with the top player to finish 7th nearly on his pro doubles results in two events. Hall of Famer Greg Solis came in 8th; he took the Outdoor Nationals CPRT title with Josh Tucker and made the Vegas 3-wall singles final, losing to Alan Natera . The legendary Alvaro Beltran came in 9th in the Cup standings, taking CPRT in Vegas while missing Beach Bash while recovering from his dislocated elbow suffered last year. Finally, coming in 10th is none other than the 13-time IRT champ Waselenchuk, who has discovered one-wall and is loving it apparently, and powered his team to both Pro Mixed doubles finals in Vegas.
Other notable men:
– Brandon Davis’ wedding took out a ton of top Southern California talent from 3WB, and cost a number of the attendees (including Davis himself) at a higher spot in the standings.
– Josh Tucker stood in 2nd place after two Doubles titles in July; he finished 11th overall by only playing one of the Outdoor majors this year.
– Micah Rich and Jason Geis both sat in the top 10 after Outdoor Nationals, but fell to 16th and 20th overall by missing Vegas.
– Javier Mar was 2nd overall after a great Beach Bash, but fell to 22nd.
——
That’s it for the Outdoor Cup Series.
next up? The 2023 Pan Am Games! We’ll do a knockout round preview once the round robins are done.
DLR enters 4, wins 4 divisions in Vegas.
PHoto from 2019 Outdoor Nationals by Mike Augustin
The 2023 Kwm Gutterman 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships are in the books. It was a fun, long weekend in Las Vegas on the grounds of The STRAT Hotel, Casino and Skypod , with players from all over the country competing in Racquetball, Paddleball, and Handball.
Congrats to your Pro racquetball division winners on the weekend:
– Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Daniel De la Rosa & Alejandro Landa
– Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Monserrat Mejia & Alexandra Herrera
– Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles: De La Rosa & Hollie Rae Scott
– Men’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: Eduardo Portillo & Benny Goldenberg
A big weekend for De La Rosa, who entered 4/won 4 divisions (3 pro racquetball divisions plus a paddleball division too). DLR teamed with Scott to win both
Mixed pro titles and, for the first time ever, do a clean sweep of all four mixed pro titles from the three outdoor majors. A fantastic achievement. Mejia took
the 3-wall singles/doubles double, her second straight 3-wall outdoor singles title.
Also Congrats to the winners of the other major Racquetball divisions held this weekend:
– CPRT Pro Doubles: Alvaro Beltran & Rick “Soda Man” Koll
– Combined 75+ Men’s Doubles: Cesar Chavez & Landa
– Centurion/Combined 100+ Men’s Doubles; Tony Burg & Scott St. Clair
– Men’s Open Doubles: Chavez & Emmett Coe
– Women’s Open Doubles: Sonja Septon (competed as a King of the Court)
– Mixed Open Doubles: Mike Harmon & Sarah Noye
– King of the Court Legends competition: Keith Minor
And Here’s the winners of the non-racquetball disciplines competed this weekend
– Paddleball Men’s Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa/ Emmett Coe
– Paddleball Mixed Doubles: Victoria Rodriguez/ Emmett Coe
– Handball 3-wall Big Ball Men’s Doubles: Anthony Hernandez / Tywan Cook
– Handball 1-wall Big Ball Men’s Doubles: Tywan Cook / Michael Christopher:
– Handball 3-wall Big Ball Men’s Singles: Anthony Hernandez
– Handball 1-Wall Big Ball Men’s Singles: Tywan Cook
A triple crown for Brooklyn’s Cook, and a double Paddleball title for Coe, which should be no surprise given the number of national titles he holds.
Here’s a recap of the draws. Because of the number of divisions to cover, we’ll run through in narrative format instead of round-by-round.
– Men’s 3-wall Pro Doubles: De La Rosa won this title for the 6th time in 7 years, teaming this year with the very improved Alex Landa to take the title over last year’s finalists Manilla & Riffel. Adam and Nick, as they did last year, rolled into the final playing smart, tactical racquetball and were not seriously challenged until the final. DLR continues to show why he’s the best all-around player in the world, killing everything in his reach and leading his team to victory.
There were a couple of notable early round matches. In the opener, #13 seeds Chris & Jack McDonald absolutely pulverized the #4 seeds Waselenchuk & Beltran 8 & 4, surprising the crowd who turned out to watch two legends of the sport. Chris (who has made the pro final in Men’s doubles three times in his career) was just lights out and the brother-brother team created a tactical nightmare for the IRT veterans, who had no answers for McDonald’s pace and aggression. In the quarters, 1-wall specialists Sostre & Goldenberg faced the 3-wall veterans Solis & Allin and played a fantastic, brutal 11,(11),10 match in the 95-degree sun. There was little between the teams on the day, and the crowd was treated to an awesome match.
– Women’s 3-wall Pro Doubles: 10 of the currently ranked top 17 LPRT pros were in Las Vegas, and the pro draws were littered with the sport’s top females mixing it up with outdoor veterans. In the pro doubles, current #1 Mejia, relatively new to outdoor, continues to impress, taking her first outdoor pro doubles title with the improving Herrera. They topped Scott & Lawrence in a tightly-contested 11-8 final.
– Mixed 3wall Pro Doubles: the final pro match competed at the event lived up to its billing as the highly anticipated rematch of DLR/Scott & Kane/Key (full of all sorts of interpersonal overtones) became a highlight show of shot-making from all parties. DLR and Scott ground out a 15-10 win in game one, then ran away with it in game 4 as DLR finger-wagged his way through one kill shot after another. Nonetheless, Kane and Key were an impressive team, and Kane will only improve in the 3-wall discipline going forward. It’s fantastic having the 13-time IRT pro champ here, and I hope he continues to play the outdoor majors.
– Men’s One wall Pro Doubles; The ever improving Lalo Portillo joined forces with NY-one wall veteran Goldenberg to grind out a title over the #1 seeds and multi-time champions of this event Sostre & Rolon in a slugfest on the show-court.
– Women’s One Wall Pro Doubles: Munoz won her second straight Vegas One-wall pro ladies doubles title, teaming with Laime to take a strange final over the eventual 3-wall champs Herrera & Mejia. After edging them 11-10 in game one, they blew out the two top LPRT pros 11-1 in game two for the win. This was a great division, with each of the 6 teams featuring a past pro doubles outdoor champion.
– Mixed One Wall Pro Doubles: The semis of the Mixed one-wall pro doubles tournament featured men who had combined for a grand total of 20 year end IRT #1 titles (between Kane, Cliff Swain , and DLR). The action on the court bore that out. Waselenchuk, who recently relocated to San Antonio and who has been playing with the big one-wall community there, showed just how quickly he’s picking up the discipline, but the more experienced outdoor player DLR drove his team to the win.
—————–
Other Rball divisions:
– CPRT Pro Doubles: Alvaro Beltran & Rick “Soda Man” Koll outlasted Rocky Carson and Jesus Ustarroz in the CPRT final, with the two veteran IRT champions battling it out on one side while the west coast outdoor specialists battled it on on the other.
– Combined 75+ Men’s Doubles: Cesar Chavez & Landa: Chavez and Landa ground out a tough win over the Gainesville-based McDonald brothers Chris & Jack in one of the very last matches played on Sunday.
– Centurion/Combined 100+ Men’s Doubles; @Tony Burg & Scott St. Clair, who are tough enough in 40+ or 75+, cruised to the 100+ win.
– Men’s Open Doubles: Chavez & Emmett Coe: SoCal’s Chavez got the double, pairing with Coe to take the Open title. They topped Dj Mendoza & Rhys Andersen in the final.
– Women’s Open Doubles: Sonja Septon took the Open Doubles title … how did she do that by herself you ask? Well, because the competitors played it as a “King of the Court” style where each of the 6 entrants played a full doubles match paired with each of the other 5. It gives everyone a ton of play. LPRT commissioner @TTj Baumbaugh came in 2nd.
– Mixed Open Doubles: Mike Harmon & Sarah Noyes from Florida took the 4-team mixed open draw, with NorCal’s @Walter Ramos and Erica Williams coming in 2nd.
– King of the Court Legends competition: Keith Minor topped the IRT legends-heavy King of the Court division and won the “Belt” for next year. It was awesome to see all the KOTC competitors all weekend.
—————–
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from both pro tours, especially the work all weekend from broadcasters Favio Soto and @Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew, as well as Jerry J Josey Jr. JT R Ball , and Tj Baumbaugh and guest stars on the LPRT feed.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Mc Vegas for putting this event on, as well has his entire 3Wall Ball team. Peggine Tellez , Jen O’Meara , and especially @Peter McMillan worked tirelessly all weekend, along with dozens of other volunteers at the front desk and behind the scenes to make this tourney happen.
Thanks to the primary Tourney Sponsors @KWM Kwm Gutterman, PROKENNEX , @AGE Age Solutions , @LPL Financial, and Randy Root . Thanks also to the dozen other sponsors who helped either with product or finances. Without you, we do not have a pro sport, and without you we don’t have 3WallBall. Thank for all you do.
We have a break in the action for most of October, then the sport’s biggest international stages is here in the Pan Am Games. The top representatives from every country will bein Chile from 10/21 to 10/26 to compete.
Kane is back at 3WB playing some outdoor! Photo via 2020 Vegas/Mike Augustin
Hello racquetball fans. Its time for the big daddy of outdoor, the 2023 14th annual 3WallBall championships. More than 350 players are here in Las Vegas, ready to pound it out on the powder blue courts.
Yours truly is here, and I’ll be teaming up with Pablo Fajre and Favio Soto all weekend to broadcast on the IRT stream. We’ll pull in special guests along the way, but we’re looking forward to the event!
Here’s a direct link to the Media Guide/Broadcast binder, a big book of player profiles I publish every year for these events: https://3wallball.org/…/3WallBall-2023-Broadcast-Binder… . As always (as I was reminded last night when i got into Vegas) if you have corrections or updates please DM me and I’ll make them at least on the electronic version for next time.
—————–
Previews: I’ve already written a couple of previews for this event, published on teh USA Racquetball feed.
I got a sneak preview of the seeds for these events, and this year was especially tough to seed. I”m sure there are some looking at the seeds and saying, “well that’s wrong.” These draws are deep and unpredictable this year, as a number of top males in particular are missing the event for Brandon Davis’ wedding, and the female pros have all jumbled partners from years’ past.
Here’s some quick thoughts on the pro draws:
– Men’s 3-Wall Pro Doubles: I like the top 4 seeds to prevail to the semis, though Kane/Alvi may have trouble in the opener against the McDonald brothers and have a tough projected qtr against Natera/Lalo. I think Landa/DLR are the favorites, despite Landa’s outdoor inexperience, simply b/c of how dominant DLR can be.
– Women’s 3-Wall Pro Doubles: You could make a case for 4 or 5 of the 7 teams here to win. Mejia/Herrera as a 4th seed is brutal for the top seeds Munoz/Janel. Whoever wins that, wins the draw.
– Mixed 3-Wall Pro Doubles: just a completely stacked draw. Munoz for example, is one of the top Women’s doubles pros out there and is only seeded 9th. Laime made the mixed final last year with a different partner and is only seeded 10th. So look for bigtime upsets here. It will be tough to beat DLR & Scott, but look for a great semi between Kane/Key and the Manilla siblings.
– Men’s One-Wall Pro Doubles: lots of heavy hitters here, but Sostre/Rolon will be tough to top. I can’t wait to watch Chris McDonald in this format, with his “toes on the line” receiving strategy.
– Women’s One-Wall Pro Doubles: Lawrence & Scott won Beach Bash, but Herrera & Mejia are better players. Will that translate to a win on the court?
– Mixed One-Wall Pro Doubles: a really fun draw, with a ton of great names, all gunning to top DLR & Scott, who have yet to lose as a mixed doubles partnership.
—————–
Streaming: both the IRT and LPRT streaming teams are here as always; follow both tours and sign up for live feed notifications.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Peggine Tellez , @Mike Coulter and Jen O’Meara for putting this event on! Thanks to our main sponsors Kwm Gutterman , @prPROKENNEX and Age Solutions , @lplfLPLFinancial and Randy Root . It goes without saying that without you and your support, we don’t have a sport.
Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.
This event has been an IRT satellite event in the past, but this year was just a solid “local” Mexico tournament where at ton of the top players from that country traveled and competed in honor of @Alex Landa , who recently announced his retirement from active touring.
Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
All the regular touring pros who appeared advanced into the quarters as expected. The toughest round of 16 match was former WRT #1 Alejandro Cardona pushing 4th seed Alan Natera but ultimately falling.
Champion Parrilla topped Natera in one semi, while the namesake Landa topped his long-time pro and international nemesis Andres Acuña in the other. In the final, Andree took a close two-game victory 13,10 to claim the title.
—————-
Doubles review
Long-time rivals and teammates Parrilla & Montoya took out the top seeds and veteran Mexican players Landa and @Alvaro Beltran in the final 12,9.
Its 3WallBall time@ @3Wall Ball starts this coming Thursday, the biggest outdoor event of the year. Players are already starting to arrive in Vegas, and I’ll be getting there Wednesday night. I’ll be commentating on the IRT feed, primarily broadcasting the 3wall Men’s Pro matches.
This past weekend featured the 2023 Mexican Junior National tournament in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The results of these events determine the national team members that will represent their country at the upcoming World Juniors in Bolivia in Late November. Here’s a quick recap of the qualifiers and some commentary.
Mexican Junior tournament and qualification goes as follows: the entrants play a double elimination draw; the winner of the winner’s bracket is the champion and Junior National titlist, while the winner of the loser’s bracket is the 2nd player to join the delegation. This consolation bracket champ often is not the winner’s bracket finalist, and the format gives players hope of getting back on the team even with an early loss. Mexico does not play any doubles; the singles qualifiers will form the doubles teams at Worlds.
Congrats to the following Boys singles finalists for team Mexico:
(click here https://rball.pro/olf for a Matrix of all Mexican boy’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)
– Boys 21U: Diego Gastelum & Elias Nieto
– Boys 18U: Jorge Gutierrez & Luis Renteria
– Boys 16U: Sebastian Ruelas & Eder Renteria
– Boys 14U: Brian Axel Sanchez & Emilio Jurardo
– Boys 12U: Elias Medrano & Elias Garcia
– Boys 10U: Max Soto & Hermann Gracia
– Boys 8U: Isaac Soto & Mateo Zaala
– Boys 6Umb: Jose Maria De Alba & Enrique Rivera
Commentary on the older divisions:
The Mexico U21 division is stacked right now, and has several names that you should know about. IRT fans know the name Erick Trujillo , who tours regularly and was the 2021 18U Mexican Junior national champ, but Trujillo did not win this draw. He was beaten in the winner’s bracket final by Gastelum in 3, then lost to Nieto to miss out on the Jr. worlds team. Nieto took out last year’s 18U champ Sebastian Hernandez and IRT regular Erick Cuevas before falling to Trujillo in the winner’s bracket semis … but avenged the loss in the consolation final to qualify.
None of these players was the #1 seed/defending champion Jose Ramos (aka “Pepe”), who fell in the semis to Gastelum, then was topped by Nieto in the consolation semis. Nieto, in case you forgot, beat Murray at the Parc 2022, then went to World Singles & Doubles a few months ago and beat Castro, Sam Bredenbeck and Alan Natera before falling to Montoya in a tie-breaker. But none of these guys could touch Gastelum in this event (Gastelum also was in Denver; he was the guy who nearly took a game off of Jake before falling 14,4).
As good as the U21 players are, the 18U champ may be even better. Jorge Gutierrez (playing in his age 17 season) is the 2-time defending Mexico and Junior world 16U champ, and moved on up to 18U with no issues. He also has h2h wins over both Gastelum and Trujillo in amateur events recently. He’s only got one IRT appearance when he was 15; we hope to see more of him.
In the 16U, the last two champions of the 14U (Sebastian Ruelas in 2022 and Eder Renteria in 2021) faced off in the winner’s bracket final, with Ruelas winning. Renteria then took the consolation bracket to qualify and guarantee that both he and his older brother Luis were heading to Bolivia.
In the 14U, last year’s 12U finalist Brian Axel Sanchez moved up and took his first Junior National title, topping fellow newcomer Emilio Jurardo in the final.
—-
Congrats to the following Girls Singles finalists for team Mexico:
(click here: https://rball.pro/qcm for a Matrix of all Mexican Girls’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)
– Girls 10U: Maria Jose Jurado & Lia Montserrat Gonzalez
Commentary on the older divisions:
21U’s Maria Gutierrez repeated as 21U Mexican champ with a 5-game win over Osorio. Gutierrez made the finals of JrWorlds 21U last December, losing to Barrios, but she’s never made an appearance on the LPRT.
18U’s Cynthia Gutierrez, Ivanna Balderrama, and last year’s 18U champ Angela Veronica Ortega all finished the RR stage 3-1, with no h2h winner, so the draw came down to points, with Gutierrez finishing atop the standings for her first Junior title. Balderrama (the 2019 14U champ) finished second, leaving Ortega on the outside looking in. Of these three, only Ortega has even played an LPRT event, losing in the opening round of the 2022 US Open.
In 16U, defending champ Yanna Salazar was upset in the final by 2021 14U champ Mariafernanda Trujillo, moving up to compete in 16U for the first time. This is Trujillo’s 4th junior national title.
in 14U, Lily Farias won her second junior national title by topping the 7-person bracket.
———————–
Congrats to all the Mexican Junior National title winners for 2023, and congrats to the National team qualifiers as well.
Congrats to Favio Soto for another successful Mexican national tournament.
A double on the weekend for DLR, which couldn’t come at a better time as the 2023 season nears its close and he tries to go for a 3rd straight pro title.
In the 32s, the only real notable match was the strong return to the singles court of @Alvaro Beltran , who took out #13 Robert collins with ease 2,11. While we’ve seen Alvi play some doubles since his shock elbow injury last October, this is the first time he’s taken the singles court on the IRT since last October.
—————-
In the 16s:
– In the always close 8/9 match, @Samuel Murray took out Alex Landa in a battle of former top 4 players who have both slipped down the rankings as of late.
– #5 Eduardo Portillo had to dig deep to top the red-hot #12 @Alan Natera in a breaker.
– #3 DLR was surprisingly taken to a breaker by his young Mexican rival Erick Cuevas before moving on.
– #7 Adam Manilla got a tie-breaker win over #10 Andres Acuña to move on and solidify his ranking on tour.
—————-
In the Quarters
– #9 Murray continued his years-long mastery of #1 Conrrado Moscoso ‘s game, topping him 12,13 to move on and put a serious dent in Moscoso’s chance of winning the year end title. Murray is now 5-4 lifetime against Moscoso across competitions dating to 2018.
– #4 Rodrigo Montoya and Portillo played a close one, with Montoya taking the breaker 11-9 to move on.
– #3 DLR advanced past Parrilla by the closest of margins, winning 13,14.
– #2 Jake Bredenbeck avenged a US National team qualifying loss to Manilla, winning in a tie-breaker.
—————
In the Semis
– Montoya improved to 4-2 lifetime over Murray with a straightforward 12,9 win.
– DLR made it two in a row over Jake, winning in a tie-breaker to move into the final.
In the Finals, DLR made relatively fast work of Montoya, improving to 9-4 lifetime across competitions with the 2,11 win.
—————-
Points Implications of results
During the tournament, I confirmed that the IRT remains on an 11-tournament rolling schedule for its rankings, having flirted with the idea of pivoting to a 365-day calendar earlier this year but ultimately staying with the same system that was put in place in mid 2020 during Covid. By the end of 2023, it won’t matter, because there will be exactly 11 events in the calendar year (assuming no more cancellations of the 3 remaining events on the books).
What i’m not sure about is the mechanism for counting these last 11 events; is it cumulative last 11 or is it “last 11, dropping the lowest.” Because in the short term, that’ll make a huge difference as to what happens at the very top of the tour rankings as soon as this event is put in. By my records, if all 11 tournaments are counted w/o dropping the lowest score, Jake Bredenbeck will ascend to #1 by the slimmest of margins over #2 DLR, with Conrrado falling to #3. However, if its “top 11 drop the lowest” then DLR will drop a zero-point score and ascend back to #1, with Moscoso #2 and Jake #3.
Either way, The Tracktown dropped the 2022 US Open, which costs Moscoso 600 points, but two of the next three events to drop were events towards the end of 2022 that DLR missed, meaning everyone else likely is playing for 2nd place unless DLR takes some shock early losses in the last couple of events.
Does DLR’s Pickleball commitments play a role here? Maybe. The 3 remaining events on the IRT schedule are:
– 11/12 in Boston
– 12/3 in Portland
– 12/10 in Pleasanton.
Pickleball events on the schedule for those weekends?
– 11/12: USAP Nationals, a huge event underwritten by the PPA
– 12/3: San Clemente PPA season finals.
– 12/10: MLP Season 3, event 3; the last event of the 2023 MLP season.
Wow. So DLR has a MLP event the same weekend as the IRT event in Pleasanton that could decide the tour. Phew. Something’s gotta give there.
Former #1 Kane Waselenchuk was in Eugene this weekend, but only playing doubles. He and fellow 40-something Beltran teamed up and won a round, but fell in the quarters to the #1 seeds Manilla/Parrilla.
In a testament to how close these doubles teams are, every match in the quarters and semis went to tie-breaker as the top two seeds advanced to the final.
#2 DLR/Landa, the US National team for Chile’s Pan Am games, topped the likely Bolivian doubles team Moscoso/Kadim Carrasco in one semi, then took out Manilla/Parrilla for the title.
—————-
Open Singles, other notable draws
– Victor Camacho took out Texas junior @Cole Sendrey for the Men’s Open title.
– SoCal players @Iain Dunn and Paul Saraceno took out @Israel Torres and @Steve Lewis in the Men’s Open Doubles final.
—————–
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew
Thanks to the Tourney Director Wayne Antone for putting this event on with such short notice. It was great to see a new event on the schedule and I hope you can make it an annual one.
Unless we get another event on the books last minute, the next big thing is 3WallBall in Las Vegas the first week of October! I’ll be there, on the mike and covering the event. Maybe even playing (hah, probably not).
Can Moscoso make it 2 in a row and keep the pressure on for the 2023 title? Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory
Welcome to the business end of the 2023 IRT season. After a fun event in Denver (thanks again Jim Hiser !) the IRT is back in action at an event just recently added to the schedule. The IRT has this event, a Boston stop in November, a satellite event in Portland, and then Bobby Horn/Adam Manilla’s Pleasanton stop in early December and that’s it for the season. Every points counts.
Thanks to the hard work of Oregonian Wayne Antone , US National doubles finalist earlier this year, along with Portland native and resident Charlie Pratt , longtime US National team member, touring pro, USA Racquetball board member and former US Junior National team coach, we have the IRT visiting Eugene for the very first time.
Eugene, of course, is the home-town of Nike, hence the name of the event “Track town.” Racquetball has an interesting tie-in to Nike and the running world; Linda Prefontaine, sister of the famous runner Steve, was a top racquetball player in the late 70s/early 80s and competed in multiple pro events. See https://rball.pro/yku for her career record.
I’m a little late to the preview, so the draw has already started. So i’ll do a quicker summary than normal.
——————————
Lets preview the singles Draw
– Murray-Landa in the 8/9 spot used to be in the 4/5 spot; both players are slipping down the rankings tourney by tourney. Landa was sick and missed Colorado, and has had one thing or another bug him for a while.
– Natera looked great in Denver; can he turn that into performance in Eugene?
– Manilla-Acuna in the 16s is tough.
– Beltran is back and topped Collins in the 32s with ease. Great to see.
– DLR-Parrilla quarter will be a test, as will Jake-Manilla. Adam took out jake at US National singles, basically eliminating Jake from the team for Pan Am games, so we know he can win, but Jake’s #2 for a reason.
– Its hard to see anything other than a repeat of the semis from Denver, as we now have a real separation between the top 4 guys (Moscoso, Jake, DLR, Montoya) and the rest of the tour.
– I think we see another DLR-Moscoso final, and this time a non-injured DLR may very well take it.
——————————-
Doubles review
– Waselenchuk is here, but only playing doubles. He and Alvi won their opener and have a good shot at #1 Manilla/Parrilla based on Beltran’s form and the fact that neither 40-something pro has to cover the whole court
– The 2/3 semi on the bottom could be great: Jake/Murray vs DLR/Landa. Two power hitters versus two control players who also happen to be your US National doubles team at the Pan Am Games.
– I like Montoya and Natera to get to the final, but to then lose to DLR/Landa.
———————————
Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.
