Category: Amateur

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USA and Canada Nationals previews

Can Erika make it a triple of US titles in Chicago? She already holds Doubles and Mixed from February. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory

It has been a minute since we last published in this space. But we’re to the end of May, which every year means Nationals time.

This year, the USA Racquetball did something a little different with its qualification, having doubles in February on its normal course then having just a National team qualifier at the Glass court club in Chicago land. The reasons behind this were partly financial in nature: National singles has struggled in attendance and in revenue for the last few years, so a combined event going forward seems inevitable. This weekend in Chicago there’s a small shootout in conjunction with the 15 top US nationals competing in a win-or-go-home singles competition for the National team slots.

r2sports link for USA: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=41063

Here’s a quick preview of USA competitions.

USA Men:

The Seedings for singles, in a change to some years’ past, is done by the USA Rankings as of the time of seeding. As a result, you may be somewhat surprised by the seeding. Jake Bredenbeck gets the #1 seed over two-time defending IRT pro champ @Daniel De La Rosa . The other slight surprise is probably Thomas Carter pipping Adam Manilla for the 4th seed despite their current IRT rankings being reversed. Otherwise the draw is probably as you’d expect. 2022’s champion Rocky Carson has fallen all the way to 6th as he’s essentially retired from IRT competition.

In the quarters:

– Jake advances past Indiana amateur James Black.

– Manilla should advance past Carter in a battle of lefties.

– In a rematch of the 2022 final, Carson takes on Alejandro Landa . It may look curious that the two finalists from last year are seeded 3rd and 6th, but that’s where the rankings fall and they’re probably a fair representation of the talent level right now. It is tough to know where Landa’s game is week in and week out, while Carson no longer tours and may be rusty against top competition. I’ll predict Carson in an upset.

– De la Rosa likely takes out @Sam Bredenbeck , who should advance past Texan amateur Limonciello in the play-in.

Semis:

– Jake over Adam: amazingly these two have managed to avoid each other in all top competitions since 2017. Jake has never lost to Adam, and is playing better than ever, and should advance.

– DLR over Rocky; Rocky did get a h2h win over DLR back in march 2022 on these exact courts, but otherwise DLR has owned Rocky since mid 2019. DLR is qualified already for the team by virtue of his doubles win earlier in the year, but doesn’t want to leave anything to chance.

Finals: Playing for pride, as the two finalists are on the team, but I suspect Jake is more interested in owning a US national title than DLR. I think jake wins.

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National team impact if these results hold. Right now the team is:

– Men’s Doubles: DLR and Landa

– Mixed Doubles: Manilla

– Men’s Singles projection: Jake and DLR.

(Note: post publishing i deleted in accurate claim that there’s Worlds in august. There’s World SENIORS in august, not regular worlds).

This would make for 4 players for 3 Pan Am Games slots, and would make for a difficult selection between Landa and Manilla for the third slot. Unless there’s other circumstances that arise, someone with a national title will be disappointed for the Pan Am games roster.

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USA Women:

Just 5 players in Chicago, and like with Rocky above, we see the impact of the non-protected seeds on the essentially retired @Rhonda Rajsich , a finalist in 2022. Thanks to her inactivity playing, she’s dropped behind all the top USA women competitors and is seeded 4th here.

Kelani Lawrence gets the #1 seed despite being well behind Erika Manilla in the LPRT points standings right now, seemingly by virtue of a couple of h2h wins over Brenda Laime recently, who has now shot up to #2 overall.

Predictions.

in the quarters, Lexi York has a shot at topping Rajsich, but we’ll go with the legend to advance. She always comes to play in Nationals.

In the semis:

– Lawrence should advance past the winner of York/Rajsich, though Rhonda has had a lot of success beating Kelani in USA national events. They’ve met in this event every year since 2016 save one, and Rajsich has beaten Kelani in every year save one. So, Kelani has her work cut out for her; the winner here gets on the team, the loser is out.

– In the 2/3 seed semi, @Erika Manila faces a familiar foe in Hollie Scott , who she keeps running into on the pro side as well. Manilla has handled Hollie multiple times in the past year and has only lost to the Washington native once in 7 known meetings. Manilla moves on.

In the final, i’d expect Manilla to win over Lawrence if seeds hold; these two have very little history playing each other, kind of surprising given that the top of the US women’s pool has been the same four players for years.

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National team impact if these results hold. Right now the team is:

– Women’s Doubles: Erika and Michelle Key

– Mixed: Erika

– Singles projection: Erika and Kelani

So, if these results hold, it’d be three women qualified for the team for the Pan Am Games … but we only get 2 spots thanks to our team’s poor finish at the 2023 PARC. See https://www.santiago2023.org/descargas/en/Racquetball.pdf for the team qualifications to Pan Am games: host nation plus top 3 countries at PARC get 3 players, the rest two.

Erika triple-qualifying would make one decision pretty easy, but how would you decide between Key and Kelani for the 2nd spot? And, what if we get a surprise singles finalist (Scott or Rhonda?) That’d throw a huge monkey wrench into the team selection procedures.

I don’t envy the US National team committee, who will have to make some tough decisiosn on who to send to the sport’s marquee event later this year.

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Canada Preview

Trackie site for the event: https://www.trackie.com/online…/entry-list/matches/486924/

Why does Canada use Trackie instead of R2sports? Because of new regulations in Canada that require personal information of Canadian citizens to be kept in Canada.

Canada is having their Nationals this week and weekend as well, but they’re stretching this into an all week affair and holding Singles, Doubles and Mixed all at once. Lots of playing for the top guns, with round robins all week feeding into single elimination draws this weekend.

On the Men’s singles side, 11 straight Canada national selection events/nationals tournaments have come down to the same two guys in the final: Samuel Murray and @Coby Iwaasa . With all due respect to the rest of the Canadian men right now, its hard not to think this weekend will be anything other than the 12th. Mostly its Murray taking the titles, but their last meeting went 12-10 in the fifth, and Iwaasa can play. I’m predicting Murray over Iwaasa in another barn burner.

Women’s Singles:

Frederique Lambert is in the draw, which usually means everyone else is playing for 2nd place. Lambert has just ONE loss in Canadian nationals in the last decade, a finals loss to Jen Saunders (now the sporting director for Racquetball Canada) in May of 2014.

So, we’ll go out on a limb and say that Frederique will take this championship. The next four seeds in Christine Keay , Michele Morissette , and Parent Julienne will jocky for 2nd place.

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Canadian Doubles:

Men’s Doubles: They’re already to the semis by the time you’re reading this, and the #1 seeded Murray brothers are still the favorites. With Canada only getting two Pan Am games spots, likely we’ll see Murray play with Iwaasa at the Pan Ams like he normally does internationally.

Women’s Doubles: Lambert is teamed up with Morissette to be the formidable #1 seed, and only Keay/Prentice seem like they have a shot to unseat them.

Mixed Doubles: none of the singles favorites are playing in Mixed, so the draw is wide open. Four teams are playing, which means we’re going to likely have a brand new international rep for Canada at the next PARC event in the spring of 2024.

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Streaming at @usUSA Racquetball or Racquetball Canada Facebook pages; JT R Ball and Timothy Baghurst are in Canada doing the streaming and broadcasting for Canada, while the IRT’s Pablo Fajre is in Chicago with the IRT team handling the streaming.

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USA Racquetball Intercollegiates Recap

Congrats to John Dowell of the University of Missouri and to Annie Roberts of the University of the Pacific for taking Gold #1 Intercollegiate titles this past weekend at the 2023 USA Racquetball Intercollegiates championships.

This was the 49th edition of this event, dating back to 1973. Jerry Hilecher won the very first intercollegiate title, playing out of the same University of Missouri that Dowell does.

In the team competition, Oregon State was able to reclaim their overall title from Missouri, and thus tied Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) with 12 overall team titles in the competition’s history. Oregon State also took the Men’s title, while Missouri took the Women’s title.

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USAR High School Nationals recap

r2sports: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=40258

Congrats to the 231 HS entrants who traveled to Portland to compete in this year’s USA Racquetball High School championships. This was the 35th iteration of the tournament, held every year (save for Covid) since 1988.

Here’s a quick run-through of your Gold division winners:

– Boys Singles Gold #1: Benjamin Horner from Iowa takes the crown; its the first time a player from Iowa has won a HS national. He defeat’s Texas’ DJ Mendoza in the final.

– Girls Singles Gold #1: @Naomi Ros repeats as Prep champion out of Douglas MacArthur HS in San Antonio. @George Bustos ‘s program continues to churn out top junior talent.

– Boys #1 Doubles: Luke Dannegger & Nicholas Heinlein out of St. Louis University HS in Missouri take the crown, going wire to wire as the #1 seeds.

– Girls #1 Doubles: Avery Oppermann & Gabbie Roseman out of Kirkwood High in Missouri also take the crown as the #1 seed, continuing St. Louis’ dominance.

– Mixed #1 Doubles was taken by Ros & Mendoza, giving Ros the weekend double.

In the team competition:

– Overall Team: Kirkwood HS in St. Louis, who repeat as overall Team Champions and win their 5th ever Combined National title.

– Boys Team: St. Louis University HS from St. Louis: this boys-only school wins for the 12th consecutive time and 16th overall. SLUH has now won 16 of the 30 Boys titles competed since High School Nationals started in 1988.

– Girls Team: Kirkwood also took the Girls title here, which powered them to the overall title. This is their first ever Girls title.

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The Missouri High School Association maintains the best historical site for results i’ve seen of basically any racquetball organization: see this page for a full list of team winners: https://www.mohsrball.com/national-champion-teams

Congrats to all our National HS players!

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Montana IRT Satellite and Xelani Open Recap

Natera wins in Montana. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

No Tier 1s or major events on the calendar last week, but we did have a couple of interesting pro-level competitions going on. Here’s a quick recap of two events that had some pros and internationals competing.

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First up; the Montana Winter Classic, an IRT-500 (which means basically players get $500 per round won from the quarters onward). This tournament drew a handful of regular touring pros and some top Canadian players.

r2sports page: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=40488

Pro finals: Alan Natera Chavez took out Thomas Carter . Semi finalists included recently crowned National Singles Open champion Ty Hedalen

Open doubles: won by LPRT #4 Erika Manilla and Matthew Ivar Majxner , who topped the all-Canada pairing of Lee Connell and @Tanner Prentice .

Men’s Open singles: also won by Manilla in a small RR group.

Bravo to the Montana crew, Andrew Weber , Majxner, and others who made this tournament possible.

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Xelani Open

https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=40450

the brainchild of top Florida amateur Alex Zamudio , this tournament featured an old-school open only draw; big money to enter, winner takes all style competition.

25 Pros from around the country and around the world entered the singles (34 together for 17 teams in the doubles), and here’s how the action went down.

Pro singles:

The story of the tourney had to be Mexico 21U player Diego Gastelum , who upset Ecuador international Juan Francisco Cueva in the 16s, then Guatemala’s Edwin Galicia in the quarters, then the #1 seed and easy tournament favorite @aAlejandro Herrera in the semis to make the finals as an #12 seed.

From the bottom side, Ecuador’s longtime veteran @Jose Daniel Ugalde worked his way th rough the draw, upset #2 @Nolsen Jimenez

in the semis, then took out Gastelum in the final to claim the big prize.

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The Doubles draw was wide open, with top seeds falling early on both sides. The #1 seeded team of Zamudio & Morales was taken out by Gastelum & Gomez in the quarters, while the #2 seeds (Team Ecuador Ugalde/Cueva) was upset by the legendary Sudsy Monchik playing with Charles George . Neither of these upset-minded pairings could go much further though.

In the end, the Floridians rose to the top, with Herrera (paired with Bolivian Fronton veteran @Marcelo Vargas Aguilar ) taking on Jimenez and Mike Harmon from the bottom half. Jimenez and Harmon blew it up in the final, winning 6,6 to take the title.

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Next up, we have a busy weekend.

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Next weekend we have HS Nationals, IRT in Minnesota, and the LPRT in Boston.

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Nationals Weekend Wrap-up

Adam Manilla makes his first ever National team with sister Erika, winning the Mixed USA National title. Photographer Kevin Savory

Here’s a re-cap of the big Nationals weekend! USA Racquetball , Racquetball Canada , Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol and Bolivia all had National level events this weekend that we regularly cover and load into the database.

USAR had National doubles team qualifying (along with amateur singles), Mexico hosted National Singles and Doubles (though they didn’t play Mixed), and Canada had their Winter 2022-23 season Singles only qualifier.

Congrats to the Open/National team winners on the weekend:

USA:

– Men’s Doubles: @aAlejandro Lang and Daniel De La Rosa

– Women’s Doubles: Erika Manilla and Michelle De La Rosa

– Mixed Doubles: Adam Manilla and @Erika Manilla

Mexico:

– Men’s Singles: Rodrigo Montoya , Eduardo Portillo runner-up

– Women’s Singles: Paola Longoria , Jessica Parrilla runner-up

– Men’s Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya & Javier Mar

– Women’s Doubles: Alexandra Herrera & Montse Mejia

Canada:

– Men’s Singles: Samuel Murray

– Women’s Singles: Michele Morrissette

Bolivia

– Men’s Doubles: Moscoso/Carrasco

– Women’s Doubles: Barrios/Daza

For USA, Mexico and Bolivia, these winners (and singles finalists) now qualify to represent their country in the 2023 IRF events.

– PARC in April in Guatemala City

– Central American & Caribbean Games in July in the DR (Mexico Only)

– The big one: The 2023 Pan American Games in Chile in October (though qualifying for Pan Am games depends on performances in PARC, and not all national team members from each country are automatically qualified).

Note: different countries use different rules: the PARC representatives for the USA will be the existing 2022 team and these winners “terms” start July 1. I’m not sure what Mexico will do for its 2023 PARC team at this point, and Canada’s actual Nationals are in May to determine the Worlds/Pan Am games team.

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Links to tourney sites:

– USA: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39974

– Mexico: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=40588

– Canada: https://www.trackie.com/…/northern…/484898/…

– Bolivia: n/a

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PRS links:

USA:

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

– Women’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/lg7

– Mixed Doubles: https://rball.pro/9h8

Mexico:

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/83p

– Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/sp6

– Men’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/9pd

– Women’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/o10

Canada:

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/bpr

– Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/8o5

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Lets recap the action.

USA:

These players qualify for the US National team with terms starting on 7/1/23. See this link for a history of US National team members: https://docs.google.com/…/1DSwDofrH12MCVotKvLb9…/edit…

– USA Men’s Doubles Recap:

Newly switched De La Rosa paired with another former Mexican national in Landa to capture the Men’s Doubles title. They were pushed to a 5th by the Bredenbeck brothers, but blew them away 11-2 in the breaker. From the top side, defending national champs Rocky Carson and @Charlie Pratt were taken out by the surprise pairing of Adam Manilla and amateur Wayne Antone . Manilla and Antone couldn’t do much against two top-5 IRT pros in the final, losing in three straight.

– USA Women’s Doubles:

@Erika Manilla and Michelle De La Rosa dethroned the defending champs Scott & Lawrence in four games to take the title. mDLR makes her 3rd National team while Erika makes her 4th straight.

– USA Mixed Doubles:

The Manilla siblings took down two-time IRT champ De La Rosa and Scott to claim the MIxed title. This is the first time Adam has qualified to represent the USA in an international competition.

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Mexico:

– Men’s Singles:

In a massive draw, #1 seed Montoya held serve and ran a gauntlet of tough players to take the title. It is his 3rd National singles title since 2018 and his 4th time qualifying for Singles.

He certainly earned it: by virtue of FMR’s weird seeding, a slew of better-than-their-ranking players were drastically under-seeded and played into top players early. Montoya defeated, in order, Eduardo Garay in the 32s, 7-time Junior national champ Jose Carlos Ramos in the 16s, then rising star Trujillo in the quarters, his doubles partner Mar in the semis, and then current top-4 IRT player Portillo in the winner’s bracket final. Phew.

Portillo dropped to the loser’s bracket and topped Parrilla for the second time in two days to finish in 2nd place and secure his first ever Mexican National team spot.

– Women’s Singles

Even though she’s faltered a bit lately, Longoria crushed the competition this weekend, beating Parrilla 4,2,6 in the semis and Mejia 2,3,8 to win yet another Mexican National title. Our records only go back to 2014, but it is believed that Paola has won every singles title save for one since 2007.

– Men’s Doubles

Mar/Montoya won their 4th National title in 5 years by taking an 11-9 5th game thriller over Portillo/Parrilla. Fun fact: Montoya has been in every single Mexican National doubles final since 2016.

– Women’s Doubles

It finally happened: Longoria & Salas were beaten in a Mexican Nationals event. The 15-time defending champions (that’s every single tournament since 2007) were toppled by Mejia/Herrera in a 5-game showdown. It didn’t look like it would be close, with the two long-time veterans taking the first two games. however, the lefty/righty pair stormed back to take the next three games and cruise in the 5th 11-6 for their first Mexican National title.

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Canada:

– Men’s Singles

Samuel Murray shook off an injury that has vexed him for months and outlasted #2 Coby Iwaasa in five tight games. It couldn’t be any closer, with Sam winning in the 5th 12-10 to take yet another Canadian National event. The two players split the selection events and will remain the top 2 seeds at Canadian Nationals in May.

– Women’s Singles

Michele Morrisette took her 2nd career Canadian National event title, defeating the #4 seed Danielle Ramsay in the final. Ramsay had topped #1 seed Christine Keay in a big upset and was the first time she had advanced to a National level final.

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Bolivian National Doubles:

From what we can glean from Facebook posts, Barrios & Daza took Bolivian Doubles over Sabja and an unknown partner.

For the men, it was four familiar names in the final, but they were teamed up in an unexpected manner. Moscoso teamed with Carrasco, while Moscoso’s regular partner @Roland Keller teamed with his brother @Carlos Keller Vargas. In a hard hitting final, Moscoso and Carrasco came out on top.

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Phew. Lots to recap.

Next up on the schedule? Per https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbI… we have a week break then both the International Racquetball Tour and the LPRT are back in action; IRT in Georgia for a Grand Slam, LPRT in Arizona.

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Nationals Preview: USA, Mexico, and Canada

DLR switching to represent USA is the big storyline this weekend. Photo 2019 outdoor Nationals by Mike Augustin

It is a big week for Amateur racquetball! All three original O.G. countries (USA, Mexico, and Canada) are having National level events to some extent or another this week. Let’s do a quick preview of all three, highlighting some storylines. I’ll abandon my typical round by round previews in the interest of time (my own time; i moved this week and i can’t find half my office in the stonehenge mound of boxes I have in our new home).

As always, all tourney links are at the Master Calendar I maintain, and all brackets are at said tourney home pages: https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

USA National Doubles Team Qualfying

R2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39974

USAR is in Tempe AZ for the tournament titled “National Doubles and Singles Championships.” Due to financial factors (and the losses we took last year on these two events being held separately), USAR combined the two events for 2023, cancelling the typical May singles-only event. However, in the interests of not burning national team qualifiers out with too many matches, “National Team Singles Qualifying” will be held as a one-off event sometime in May (likely in Chicago during Memorial day). All Doubles National team qualifying (Men’s, Women’s and Mixed) will be t his weekend, along with all amateur doubles and all other amateur singles.

US Men’s Doubles: the big story line for the weekend is the switching of countries by the 2-time defending IRT pro tour champ Daniel De La Rosa . A dual passport holder by virtue of living in the USA for so long (and being married to an American), DLR made the switch thanks to the ongoing funding issues FMR is having, and he senses an opportunity to get onto the US national team and reap the benefits that it offers as a national player. This is the 2nd time in 3 years that a top Mexican dual citizen has switched, though the reasons behind @AAlejandro Lanús ‘s switch were a bit different.

Nonetheless, DLR’s presence certainly complicates the pathway onto the team for the rest of the players. DLR is teamed with Landa and are seeded third. They’ll project to play the Bredenbeck brothers in the semis if seeds hold, and they’d play the two-time defending champions @Rocky Carson and Charlie Pratt in the finals.

It is hard not to see DLR/Landa winning this; DLR is among the best doubles players in the world and Landa prefers the right side.

US Women’s Doubles: Scott/Lawrence are #1 seeds and defending champs, but have a possible semis upset watch playing two of the most decorated doubles players in history in @Aimee Roehler and Janel Tisinger-Ledkins . On the bottom side, Rhonda Rajsich is back, and is the #2 seed with @SSheryl Lott but seem likely to get beat by the powerful Manilla/De La Rosa pair.

Manilla made the final last year playing with Roehler, but now will play the backhand side with an excellent doubles player in mDLR on the forehand, and I think they’ll upset Scott/Lawrence for the title.

US Mixed Doubles: all eyes will be on the upper half semis, as long time doubles partners Daniel and Michelle De La Rosa have split ways and are set to face each other. Daniel has teamed up with Scott, while Michelle is playing with Alex, and fireworks are sure to fly. Advantage DLR here, and I see the #4 seeds advancing to the final.

Its hard to see anyone but the bro-sis Manilla team advancing to the final from the bottom half, but the question will be whether they can out-hit a DLR/Scott team.

My prediction: DLR doesn’t lose this weekend and is the double winner.

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Mexico Nationals preview.

r2 link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=40588

Ironically DLR is prominently featured on the Mexican home page, even though he entered the USA event weeks ago.

As usual, the draws are massive for Mexican Nationals, and by the time you read this they’ll have already played a couple of rounds. Here’s some predictions:

Men’s Singles: #1 @Rodrigo Montoya probably isn’t troubled until the semis, when he projects to face his doubles partner Javier Mar. The bottom half likely is a showdown in the semis between Portillo and Parrilla, assuming Lalo can get by the #3 seeded veteran Polo Gutierrez . There’s a ton of other players in this draw to watch for, guys who may become household names in the future, but it seems to be playing out as Montoya-Parrilla for the title. Advantage Montoya.

Women’s Singles: The back end of the Women’s open is projecting just like the LPRT is right now: Longoria from the top with little stopping her from a final, and the semis from the bottom likely coming down to another Mejia-Herrera battle.

Longoria covets these titles, so even though she’s stumbled against Mejia and Herrera lately, whoever makes the final will lose so that Paola can add another championship to her collection.

Men’s Doubles: The gulf between Montoya/Mar as #1 seeds and any other team in this draw is huge. Look for some fun matches in the bottom half (especially with the Garay cousins and Lalo/Andree teaming up again), but without the regular DLR/Beltran pairing the champion seems pre-ordained.

Women’s doubles: Well … here we are at Mexican Nationals and Longoria/Salas are back together after taking a 2-tournament break. Maybe its because Longoria’s camp realized they needed Salas. But only 4 teams here and expect a huge battle between Longoria/Salas and Mejia/Herrera. I like the lefty/righty pair to win.

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Canadian Winter qualification event

trackie link: https://www.trackie.com/…/northern…/484898/…

Unlike Mexico and USA, Canada is having a national event, but not THE nationals (which still happen in May). This is the second of two qualifiers team Canada plays in order to seed for Nationals.

Here’s a quick overview of the competitions:

Men’s Singles: Samuel Murray is here, but he’s been hurt and has forfeited out of the last two IRT events. Is he healthy? Every single Canadian national men’s final in the last 10 events has come down to Murray and Iwaasa, so no reason for me to predict anything else. But if Sam isn’t 100%, is he at risk? I’m going to predict Iwaasa wins the event, either by forfeit in the final like last time or by defeating whoever tops Sam earlier on.

Women’s Singles: No Lambert this time, so @CChristine Keay (nee Richardson) gets the 1 seed. I favor #2 Michelle Morissette though to make the final, as she’s made the last 3 singles finals in Canadian national events.

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Phew! Lots of racquetball going on this weekend, lots of streaming, and lots of excitement.

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3rd Average Joe’s tournament Recap, hosted by the Kelley brothers

Sam Kelley joined his brother as past winners of their namesake tourney. Photo Ken Fife Sept 2021

The Kelley brothers hosted 26 of their closest friends this past weekend for the third installment of the “Average Joes” event, held at their private court on the grounds of their New Jersey Estate.

They got the regular East Coast and New England crew that traveled for the event, but they also got players from far and wide, from Ohio to Texas. A fun time all weekend.

Past results and re-caps:

– 1st annual in March 2021: https://rball.pro/7i4 . Won by Joe Kelley

– 2nd event in Oct 2021: https://rball.pro/ts0 . Won by Kyle Ulliman

Here’s a recap of the action from the 3rd installment:

In the Singles…

The top half featured a big upset early, as #1 seeded Ben Bleyer was taken out by Connecticut #1 and 9th seed here Jose Flores Jr in the quarters. Flores couldn’t capitalize on the big win though, falling in the semis to #5 seed and host @Samuel Kelley. Kelley had gotten his own big upset, topping former Massachusetts #1 and now a new Washington DC area resident John Behm in the quarters before advancing past Flores to get to the final.

From the bottom half, the draw went mostly chalk, with #3 seed and co-host @Joe Kelley advancing over NY junior phenom @Josh Shea (aka “Baby S”) to meet top Ohio player @Victor Migliore in the other semi. Victor advanced to face S.Kelly in the final.

Kelley and Migliore battled it out in the final, and Sam took the title at his namesake “Average Joe” event.

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This year’s event featured Doubles for the first time. Here’s a recap of the Doubles draw:

It was a 14-team draw, straight up single elimination.

From the top half, the draw went chalk, as #1 seeds the Kelley brothers used their Lefty/Righty combination to top #4 seeded Derek Ott and Texas junior @Cole Sendrey

to make the final.

From the bottom half, #3 seeds team Maryland Dylan Pruitt and Bleyer upset the 2nd seeded team of Josh Shea and @anthony Armanouse (aka “Moose”) to make the final.

In the final, Team Maryland topped the #1 seeds and hosts to take the title.

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A 28-person draw finishing both a Singles and a Doubles draw in a 3-day weekend is awesome, and lays out a blueprint for a possible future pro event on the grounds. Hey, we can dream right?

Congrats to the players and the winners.

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Racquetball Canada 2022 Fall National Qualifier Recap

Iwaasa takes the Men’s title, his first since 2015. Photo 2015 Portland IRT event by Kevin Savory

Last weekend, @Racquetball Canada had their first qualifier of the 2022-23 season in Brossarc, QC, Can. Here’s a quick recap.

home page for the event and brackets (reminder: Canada has moved away from R2sports for Canadian privacy reasons for its players):

https://www.trackie.com/…/racquetball-canada…/483052/…

Match Reports in PRS database:

– Men’s : https://rball.pro/10m

– Women’s: https://rball.pro/vg4

Congrats to Coby Iwaasa and Frederique Lambert for taking the two Singles qualifiers this past weekend.

Iwaasa wins his first Canadian National event since May of 2015. He had faced off against finalist @Samuel Murray in the last 10 straight Canadian national event finals and got the win by virtue of an injury related walkover. It is Iwaasa’s 3rd overall title (1 National title, 2 qualifier titles).

Lambert wins her 4th straight Canadian national event, and her 14th overall with the win. She now owns 4 National titles and another 10 National qualifying tournament titles. She has not been defeated in Canadian competition since May of 2014, though her participation is understandably spotty thanks to her day job of being a Medical professional. She defeated Michele Morissette in the final, the third straight time these two have met in a Canadian national event final.

The Canadian Amateurs will presumably play another qualifier in the winter months before competing for their 2023 National title next May.

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Canadian Nationals

Murray captures both the singles and doubles title. Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Men’s Singles: Sam Murray over Coby Iwaasa
  • Men’s Doubles; Samuel Murray/Tommy Murray
  • Women’s Singles: Frederique Lambert
  • Women’s Doubles : Frederique Lambert/Michele Morissette
  • Mixed Doubles:David Serra/Disney Linares
    The Canadian Nationals also had Junior nationals, awarding the following Junior titlists:
  • Girls 21U: Cassie Prentice
  • Girls 16U: Ofelia Wilscam
  • Girls 14U: Lahni Buller
  • Boys 18U: Nathan Jauvin
  • Boys 16U: Asher Pocsai

Trackie home page for event: https://www.trackie.com/…/racquetball-canada…/476421/…

Lets do some quick commentary on each draw.

  • Men’s Singles: PRS event report: http://rball.pro/CF063C
    No real surprises here; #1 @Samuel Murray topped #2 @Coby Iwaasa for the fourth straight time. The Men’s draw was missing some regulars (Castro, the Landeryou brothers, Bousquets), but featured the expected names at the back end.
  • Men’s Doubles; PRS report: http://rball.pro/5F5739
    The Murray brothers secure their third straight Canadian men’s doubles title together, and Sam gets his 6th for his career, by topping Iwaasa and Kurtis Cullen in the final.
  • Women’s Singles: PRS report: http://rball.pro/EEB08C
    Former LPRT #2 Dr. @Frederique Lambert won her fourth national singles title, defeating her doubles partner Michele Morissette in the final.
  • Women’s Doubles: PRS Report: http://rball.pro/7B7355
    Lambert gets the double on the weekend, winning both Singles and Doubles. Frederique wins her 3rd career national doubles title, Morissette her 3rd as well, but their first together.
  • Mixed Doubles: PRS Report: http://rball.pro/9685AF

David Serra and Disney Linares took the first ever Canadian Mixed doubles title and bring some fresh new faces to the National team, winning a small 3-team round robin event.

Junior events

  • Girls 21U: Cassie Prentice
  • Girls 16U: Ofelia Wilscam
  • Girls 14U: Lahni Buller
  • Boys 18U: Nathan Jauvin
  • Boys 16U: Asher Pocsai

There was some junior competitions at the event but some divisions went un-competed. We’ll have to adjust the junior matrix for the new U21 division.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from Racquetball Canada, who brought in Timothy Baghurst and JT R Ball to do the streaming on the weekend. Always helps when you bring in the pros.

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Capital City WOR, then LPRT Supermax in mid June in Kansas City.

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USA Nationals Wrap-Up

Carson has a huge weekend, winning both his draws. Photo Portland 2019 via Kevin Savory


Congrats to your winners and US National team qualifiers on the weekend:

  • Men’s Singles: Rocky Carson over Alex Landa
  • Women’s Singles: Erika Manilla over Rhonda Rajsich
  • Men’s Doubles; Rocky Carson/Charlie Pratt
  • Women’s Doubles: Holly Scott/Kelani Lawrence
  • Mixed Doubles: Alex Landa/Michelle De La Rosa

    These players qualify to represent the USA at the upcoming 2022 World Games in August in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and at the 2023 Pan American Racquetball Championships (PARC) to be held in April 2023 at a site yet to be announced. (Note: the 2022 World Games participants were determined from the finishes of last year’s Worlds).

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38797

Lets review the draws and give out the direct links into the database for the full draws of results.
Men’s Singles Recap:
PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/F7A26D
Seeds held to the quarters (though #6 seed Thomas Carter was a no-show), with only one close match in the 16s, that being #7 Sam Bredenbeck going the distance to take out #10 Danny Lavely in five.
In the quarters, no real surprises as the top 3 seeds advanced. #5 Manilla got a mid-game injury retirement after #4 Horn pulled something in his leg.
In the semis; chalk. Manilla kept it close but #1 Carson won in three, while #2 Landa dominated #3 Bredenbeck to return to the US National team.

In the final, Carson secured his 9th ever US National title, most ever for American Men, by topping Landa in 4. Click here http://rball.pro/455001 for a list of all National title winners across all countries.

Women’s Singles:
PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/173522
7 of the top 8 seeds advanced to the quarters without dropping a game; the sole upset by seed was #10 @Shane Diaz, who took out #7 seed @Graci Wargo in three.
In the quarters, chalk, as only one top four seed was extended by a game. Up and coming junior @Annie Roberts took a game off of Manilla, otherwise the top US women cruised into the semis as expected.
In the semis, Manilla was taken to 4 games but advanced past Scott, who continues to look for her first US title. On the bottom side, a big upset as #2 Lawrence (who had made the final of the last three nationals) was taken out by #3 Rajsich. These two had met as recently as the last LPRT stop, where Kelani dominated Rhonda, but the tables were turned today.
In the final, Manilla finished her official ascension to the top of US racquetball with her first National title, a dominant 7,8,1 win over Rhonda.
See here http://rball.pro/8C6DC2 for a list of all US national titles.

Rajsich made her 13th national singles final, and guaranteed making the team yet again.

Men’s Doubles:
PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/92C865
The top 4 seeds advanced to the semis without dropping a game.
In the semis….chalk, but not without some excitement. #1 Carson/Pratt advanced in four over Manilla/Horn at the top, while #2 Bredenbecks’ staved off three match points in games 4 and 5 to shock the 2020 National titlists and tournament favorites Landa/Monchik 13-11 in the fifth.
In the final, the veterans dropped the first game but took the next three to repeat as champions, take their 3rd title together, and for Rocky secure his 13th US doubles title.

Click here for a list of all USA Men’s Doubles champs, dating to 1968: http://rball.pro/589110

Women’s Doubles:
PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/B31897
Seeded teams 1,2,3, and 5 advanced into the semis; the sole upset in the opening round was #5 @Lexi York/@Michelle De la Rosa taking out the #4 seeded U21 team of @Annie Roberts/@Alondra Canchola in four games.
In the semis, the #3 seeds scored a mini upset when the 2020 champions @Aimee roehler and @Erika Manilla upset the #2 seeds @Rhonda Rajsich/@Sheryl Lotts. The #1 seeded team of Scott/Lawrence, who eneted the event ranked #1 and #2 in USA Women’s doubles, dropped a game but advanced over York and De La Rosa.
In the final, #1 took out #3 in four games, giving Scott her first ever National doubles title.

Click here http://rball.pro/8F8065 for a list of all USA Women’s Doubles champs dating to 1972.

Mixed Doubles:
PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/04FD8B
Seeded teams 1,2 and 4 advanced to the semis with relative ease, but a big upset in the 3/6 quarter final, as my pre-tournament favorites #3 @Sudsy Monchik and @Kelani Lawrence were upset 11-9 in the fifth by #6 @Sam Bredenbeck and @Lexi York.

In the semis and finals, seeds held to form as #1 Landa/De La Rosa took out the Manilla siblings to claim the first ever Mixed doubles USA crown.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters @Tony Prater and newly elected USAR Board President @Stuart Soloman , plus Team Dovetail’s @Kyle Artzman, who streamed the secondary court for us at home all weekend, plus a shoutout to everyone else who broadcast live off their phones.
Thanks to the Tourney Director and USAR National events coordinator Connor Shane 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 Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
Next weekend is the big Capital City WOR championships in Stratton Woods outside of DC, and then the week after is the big Supermax LPRT Grand Slam in Kansas City, the final event of the 2021-22 LPRT season.

We’ll recap Canadian Nationals tomorrow!

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