Category: Amateur

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Campeonato Nacional Selectivo Mexico 2022 Preview Part 1: Singles

Montoya the #1 seed in both Singles and doubles this weekend. Photo Gearbox promotional


Welcome to one of my favorite tournaments to cover every year; its the 2022 Mexican Nationals Selection event. This year features both Singles and Doubles in one event and will feature the best of all the top Mexican players and pros. A new fun feature this year is the inclusion of Mixed Open Doubles, thanks to the IRF adding Mixed as a competitive event, so we’ll preview that event and the interesting pairings we will see.


I’ll preview Singles today and Doubles tomorrow.


You’ll see rally scoring this weekend, since IRF has adopted it and thus confederations will play it going forward so as to prepare t heir athletes.

This tournament started on Wednesday morning thanks to the huge draws, so we’re a bit behind on this preview (some of the first round of Men’s has already been played), but here goes.

r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38926

Men’s Singles
There’s some notable absences at this event. Current IRT #7 Eduardo Portillo is missing despite playing last weekend at the Beach Bash. Also missing was the other semi finalist from 2021 in @Elias Nieto. Curious why they’re not here, though word has it that a bit of a kerfuffle about the PARC Mexican doubles team was resolved by Mar/Montoya backing out and giving their spots to Lalo/Nieto (as was apparently promised to them last Summer, when the FMR said the 2022 PARC team would be comprised of the singles semi finalists, not the Doubles winners from the Worlds selection event later in the fall).
Also not here are top Mexicans such as Eduardo Garay (perhaps still not converted back to Mexico from Colombia), Javier Estrada , Alan Natera , @GeraGerardo Franco (who may be retired at this point), @Jaime Martel , @Ernesto Ochoa, Jordy Alonso (who’s had some recent success on tour), Rodrigo Rodriguez, or frequent competitor @Christian Longoria . So, as deep as this draw is it could have been better. Also not playing singles but here playing doubles is @Alvaro Beltran, prioritizing his health and skipping the demanding singles draw to focus on doubles.


But, there’s some notable players present who we don’t always get to see playing. Former WRT #1s @Alejandro Cardona and @Polo Gutierrez are entered in the draw (probably because they’re both residents of Juarez and its an easy commute). Both are top notch players and are dark horses as the #8 and #20 seeds respectively.


Also, a general word about the seeding. The seeds at this event always seem curious to me, depending on what seems to be a random calculation of past events and personal opinion. Daniel De la Rosa, for example, is the #1 player in the world and has been for some time, but is seeded 6th in the Singles draw (he missed the 2021 Nationals event and finished 3rd in the 2019 event, so i guess that adds up to the 6th seed). It makes for some curious early round matches sometimes that we’ll note as we go.

If you were asking me to seed this ignoring last year’s results (not that you were of course), i’d seed it: DLR, Parrilla, Montoya, Mar, Fernandez, Cardona, Trujillo, and Polo.
There’s 31 players in the singles draw, with the top seeds driven by last year’s finals. Here’s a preview of matches to look for.


In the 32s:

  • #5 @Emir Martinez faces #28 @Luis Renteria in what could be an interesting match. Renteria is one of the more decorated Mexican Juniors in history but is in his age 17 season.
  • #7 @Sebastian Fernandez takes on fellow IRT touring pro @ErErick Fernanado Cuevas in the round of 32, perhaps a round too early for such a meeting.
  • – Another decorated Mexican junior recently matriculated in Jose Ramos is entered as a #23 seed; he’ll take on #10 seed Angel Camacho in the opener.

Projecting the 16s, here’s some fun ones

  • #4 @EErick Trujillo , who has been making waves on tour, may face Polo at this stage. Polo has a unique game style that stymies veteran pros all the time; can the younger Trujillo make the adjustments? Upset watch here.
  • – #7 Patata versus the upset-minded junior #23 Ramos: Fernandez should advance but if Ramos gets by round one he’ll have some confidence.

Quarters: here’s where the rubber meets the road, with a set of projected quarter final players all with tour experience.

  • #1 @Rodrigo Montoya versus #8 Cardona: a good old fashioned WRT matchup between two hard hitters. Cardona leads career h2h 4-2, but they havn’t played in 5 years. Advantage Montoya to move on.
  • The winner of Trujillo/Polo has the advantage over #5 @Emir Martinez, who has zero IRT experience and is seeded 5th (ahead of DLR, lets we forget) on the back of his 2021 run to the quarters.
  • #6 @Daniel de la Rosa takes on #3 @Javier Mar in a match worthy of a final, but which happens in the quarters thanks to the ridiculous seeding. Mar has been on the singles sidelines for months as he recovered from a hernia, but competed well last weekend in Florida. DLR missed the Nationals last year for the first time in a decade, but has made the semis or better in the last 6 Mexican Nationals that he’s played. Mar won this title in 2017 and made the 2020 semis … so this will be a tightly fought match. Advantage DLR just based on world rankings.
  • #2 @Andree Parrilla projects to take on Patata in another fun match. They have not met since 2019, but Andree is 4-0 lifetime against Fernandez. This is a solid IRT round of 16 quality match and Parrilla should advance.
    My projected Semis:
  • #1 Montoya over #4 Trujillo; power will rise to the top here.
  • #6 DLR over #2 Parrilla; Though Andree beat him in their last meeting (Atlanta pro semis in January en route to his 11-10 win over Kane in the final) DLR is still 7-2 lifetime over his younger countryman. DLR in 5 games.
  • Projected Final: Montoya over DLR. This would be a rematch of the 2018 final, when DLR seemed to just kind of go through the motions and lost 3,12 to Montoya. See, once you have the final determined, both players are on “the team” and the winner is more about bragging rights and title collection than anything else. Will DLR push to win another actual title or is he just interested in ensuring his spot on the team for future IRF competitions?

Women’s Singles Review
No real notable missing names from the Singles draw for the Women: the top 7-8 women in my book are all here and will make for some great quarters onward. Second tier pros like @Ana Laura Flores, Erin (Rivera) Groves, and Montserrat Perez are not here, nor are some of the top up and coming Mexican junior girls, but the draw is solid.
Here’s a preview of what to look for.
In the 16s:

  • #12 @Lucia Gonzalez, who has had enough past success that players know not to call her a “dark horse” any longer, should advance past #5 @DanielDaniela Rica .
  • #3 @Montse Mejia faces a tough challenge from @Delia Aguilar to start
    In the quarters:
  • #1 @Paola Longoria , looking for what should be something like her 15th national singles title (our records are not complete), gets a tough quarterfinal opponent in #8 @Jessica Parrilla. Longoria moves on but not without getting pushed a bit.
  • #12 Gonzalez is my pick to upset #4 @Nancy Enriquez here. She’s done it before and should do it again.
  • The match of the round is #3 Mejia versus the criminally under-seeded #6 @Alexandra Herrera, winner of the last two LPRT stops. These two doubles partners are good friends of course, and know each other’s game all too well, but Herrera’s form is spot on right now. Six month’s ago i’d have favored Mejia here, but now its Herrera’s match to lose.
  • #2 @Samantha Salas should breeze into the semis with a win over veteran @Susy Acosta.
    In the semis:
  • Longoria should dominate against Lucia.
  • Herrera should top Salas.

Final: for the third major tournament in a row its Longoria versus Herrera in the final. Will the tournament category matter here? Longoria needs to find a winning strategy and fast, because Alexandra has proven for two events in a row she can make drive serves, play clean, error-free racquetball and get wins. My gut says Longoria wins this, just because the National titles are so important to her.

Streaming: it remains to be seen who will do the streaming down in Juarez. I’d follow FMR and RKT for now, to see if we can get some live streaming.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors @Favio Soto for putting this event on!
Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.
Associations
@International Racquetball Tour
@LPRT
Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol
Rkt
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

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USAR Intercollegiates Re-cap

Annie Roberts gets her first Intercollegiates title. Photo 2019 Juniors via Kevin Savory


In addition to two other major events this past weekend, USA Racquetball hosted its Intercollegiates tournament for the first time in two years. After having 2020 cancelled last minute due to the fast rising Covid issue, then not even attempting to organize for 2021, we’re back for 2022.


The host this year was, for the first time since 2017, not technically a University. To avoid any last minute mask mandate policy changes, USAR kept the tournament in Tucson (where the University of Arizona was intended to be the host), but moved the event to the beautiful Tucson Racquet & Fitness Center.


r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38237
Here’s a recap of the events
Congrats to your winners:

  • Men’s #1 Singles: Ariel Tito, CSU-Pueblo
  • Women’s #1 Singles: Annie Roberts , University of the Pacific
  • Men’s #1 Doubles: @Arthur Schmeiser and @Ben Baron , Northern Arizona
  • Women’s #1 Doubles: Roberts & @Alondra Canche , University of the Pacific
  • Men’s Team: Missouri
  • Women’s Team: Missouri
  • – Overall Team: Missouri

Comments on the results with some fun facts.


Thanks to a two year gap in competition, we were guaranteed two new Singles champions. The reigning champions from 2019 (Erik Garcia and @Hollie Scott have both matriculated from college. This opens up the door for a brand new set of competitors in both main singles draws, and some familiar names from recent USA Junior competitions were in the mix.
In the Boys #1, Bolivian Junior Ariel Tito, now attending the racquetball mecca of Colorado State University at Pueblo, made a big statement this weekend, beating three higher seeded players as the #6 seed to take the final over #2 Ben Baron. Tito’s only previous IRT experience was in a PAC shootout lower tier event last year, and he’ll see his USA Ranking rocket up after his comprehensive win in the final 9,3.
In the Girls #1, the final was competed by two familiar faces to those who watch the LPRT. There, former Junior national champ @Annie Robert cruised to the title, never giving up more than 6 points in a game. In the final she topped Texas-native @Shane Diaz 6,4 to take her first intercollegiates title.

This win represents the 9th ever Men’s singles #1 win for a player from CSU Pueblo; they are gaining ground win by win on the leader, that being Memphis State (now U of Memphis). This is the first ever Women’s #1 title for a player from the U of the Pacific (2nd overall, as @Marco Rojas won the 2016 men’s #1 while playing for that university).

In the Men’s #1 Doubles, it was a rematch of teams featuring the two singles finalists, but NAU’s Baron teamed with Schmeiser to top Tito and his partner @Samuel Lazcano
to take the title.

In the Women’s #1 Doubles, Roberts teamed with Canchola to take the title. They topped Missouri’s Kate Zawalski / Abby Lachance in the final.

In the team competition…Missouri made a clean sweep of the team event, winning all three team competitions. Your team results top 3 in each category:
Men’s: Missouri, BYU, Northern Arizona (nau)
Women’s: Missouri, Pacific, BYU
Overall: MIssouri, BYU, Oregon State
This represents the first team title of any kind for Missouri in the 48-year history of intercollegiates. Its also the first time we’ve had a clean sweep by a college since Oregon State in 2013.


Congrats to all the participants and to USA Racquetball and @Shane Conner for tournament direction. Thanks to Leo Vazquez for streaming all weekend.

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Weekend Event Wrap-up

Acuna got two solid wins against top 10 opponents to take the Minnesota Hall of Fame event. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

In addition to the LPRT Boston Open, there were a slew of other events this past weekend worthy of mention. Here’s a quick run through of what was a very busy weekend globally for racquetball.

US High School Nationals.


r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38151
One of the biggest tournaments of the year (by pure attendance) was held last weekend: the 2022 @USA Racquetball High School Nationals event, held at the Vetta Sports clubs in St. Louis.


Nearly 350 High School players from around the country were in St. Louis to compete for singles, doubles, and team competitions. Here’s a recap of the #1/Gold competitions on the weekend…

  • Boys #1 Gold Singles: #1 @Josh Shea from New York topped #2 @AnAndrew Gleason from Iowa. In a likely precursor to the 18U Junior Nationals final later this year, Shea won the first HS title for a New Yorker since … @sSudsy Monchik won in 1991.
  • Girls #1 Gold Singles: #2 @Naomi Ros from San Antonio upset #1 seed @Heather Mahoney. Ros recently relocated from Mexico and topped Mahoney in the 2021 Junior Nationals, setting up a rivalry that is set to run for a couple more years on the US junior national scene. She becomes the first ever titlist from a Texas HS on the girl’s side.
  • Boys #1 Doubles: Jacob Schmidt / Gabe Collins from Christian Brothers College High School in St Louis cruised to the title as the #1 seed.
  • Girls #1 Doubles: Heather Mahoney / Ava Naworski from Casa Grande High School outside of Santa Rosa HS took the title as the #3 seeds.
  • Mixed #1 Doubles: Ros teamed with DJ Mendoza (the #4 seed in Boys #1 gold) to cruise to the Mixed doubles title.
    The team competition was dominated by Missouri/St Louis area high schools:
  • Boys’ Team: St. Louis University HS
  • Girl’s Team: Lafayette HS
  • Overall Team: Kirkwood HS

Congrats to everyone who played, organized and participated. Thanks to @LLeo Vasque ‘s tireless work on the stream all weekend.

LPRT Boston Open Draws
r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38579


Connecticut’s top player @Jose Flores upset the #1 seeded @John Behm to take the 24-man Open draw from Boston this weekend.

Women’s Open: as noted in the LPRT wrap-up, Micaela Meneses had a great women’s Open tournament, topping LPRT regulars Lotts, Lawrence and Munoz to take the title.

PAC Pueblo Athletic Shootout IRT recap
r2sports: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38852
Several IRT touring regulars traveled to Colorado to compete in the PAC shootout.
The four IRT regulars all advanced to the singles semis as expected. From there, #1 Andree Parrilla topped #4 @NNick Riff while @David Horn took out his colleague @Adam Manilla in the other semi to setup an All-WRT alumni final.
In that final, Parrilla cruised to the title, topping Horn 2,5.

In doubles, Horn and Manilla were unstoppable, cruising to the pro doubles title over #2 seeds Riffel and @Mike O’Brien in the final.

Minnesota Hall of Fame IRT Tier 3
r2sports: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38807
A solid mid-western flair draw of top players descended to Fridley over the weekend for the Hall of Fame tournament. This included the IRT broadcast team of @DeDDean Baer and @PFPablo Fajre , who made friends with a local kangaroo and called some matches.
r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38807
Congrats to local open amateurs @John Goth , Blake Hansen , and Lee Meinerz , who joined the 5 touring pros in the pro quarters.
From there, Canadian #1 @Samuel Murray topped #5 Jordy Alonso in one semi, while #3 @Andres Acuña upset home-town favorite @Jake Bredenbeck in the other semi.
In the singles final…Acuna played solid ball to top Murray 10,7 to take the singles title.

In the Doubles draw, the Bredenbeck brothers took out Murray playing with Canadian Ledu Michael in the final.

Lastly, several countries have been holding Nationals events or National team selection events ahead of next month’s Pan American Racquetball Championships. Results are a little hard to come by since no international countries use r2sports outside of the “big 3” … but here’s what we’ve been able to glean from various Facebook Posts:

  • Costa Rica held their men’s championships last weekend; in the men’s final: Andres Acuna d Gabriel Garcia 6,7,5. This is somewhat of a changing of the guard, as @FelipFelipe Camacho has represented the country for many, many years.
  • Colombia held a Men’s Selection event in Pereia, COL over the weekend.
  • Guatemala held their Men’s Selection event this past week and weekend (Women’s will be next weekend). The 4 semi finalists competed (presumably) in a RR draw; here was the results:
  1. @EdwEdwin Galicia
  2. @Juan Jose Salvatierra
  3. Christian Wer
  4. Geovani Mendoza

The top 3 will represent Guatemala, with Mendoza as the alternate.

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Racquetball Canada Winter Selection Event recap

Murray wins his 10th straight Canadian national team event. Photo via us2019 Kevin Savory


For the first time since February 2020, Racquetball Canada hosted a selection event. Normally, Canada hosts two of these events each season (usually, in late November and then again in early February) to determine seeding for its eventual Nationals (held in May). But, thanks to Covid, we hadn’t seen one of these tournaments since right before the Pandemic took grip of society.
Trackie.com site for the event: https://www.trackie.com/…/racquetball-canada…/474684/…
Lets do a quick recap of the results.
Note: thanks to IRF’s decision to go to rally scoring, this tournament was played with the rally scoring rules. Three out of Five games to 15, win by one.
In Men’s Open, #1 Samuel Murray and #2 Coby Iwaasa met up in the final for the eight successive Canadian Nationals or Selection event, with Murray taking the title over his countryman for the 8th successive time. Murray’s 10th straight Canadian national tournament title came with the scores of 8,11,14.
click here for the Match report: http://rball.pro/F20E68

Click here for a list of all Canadian Men’s National event finals dating to 1975; http://rball.pro/2CB02F

In Women’s Open, #1 @Frederique Lambert continued her dominance over Canadian Racquetball (when she can play, given her medical residence requirements) by taking out #2 @Michele Morisset in the final (😎,10,6,10. The draw was missing @Christine (Keay) Richardson, who had made the final of the previous five Canadian national tournaments.
click here for the Match report: http://rball.pro/DCDEDE

Click here for a list of all Canadian Women’s National event finals dating to 1975; http://rball.pro/AF9A18

Murray and Lambert retain their #1 positions in Canada heading into May’s Canadian Nationals, and should be representing their country at the upcoming PARC event in Mid April In Bolivia.

@Racquetball Canada

This coming weekend is a busy one on the racquetball calendar

  • USA Racquetball High School Nationals is in St. Louis
  • the LPRT is in Boston
  • there’s an IRT Tier 3 in Findley, Minnesota that has a handful of touring pros attending.
  • there’s an IRT Tier 4 or 5 in Pueblo, Colorado, also with a few IRT regulars in the field.
    Click here for my running Racquetball “major” event tracker:
    https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
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Court Wars Wrap up

Bredenbeck helped his team to victory at the Court Wars PPV. Photo Kevin Savory 2020 USAR national doubles

The first ever Court Wars PPV racquetball event, held a the Bay Club in Pleasanton, CA, is in the books; here’s a wrap-up of the action.

In the first match, two NorCal juniors (well, near juniors) Antonio Rojas and Nikhil Prasad battled it out.

Prasad looked to me like he’s grown 6 inches since we last saw him, and he came out firing. Rojas came out quite cold and got smoked in the first game 11-2. Tatoe rebounded, found his game, and took the second game 11-7. In the breaker, Rojas seemed to tire a bit, and tried to keep it close, but Nik pulled away to take the match. Final score: 2,(7),7.

In Match #2…Mercado came out on fire, and won a crisp first game 11-4. Parrilla rebounded and played smarter shorts in game two and reversed the score, winning 11-4. After flipping a coin for the serve in the breaker, Mario ran out to a 4-1 win and was looking good … then Parrilla turned it on, went on a 10-0 run and took the breaker. Final score: (4),4,4

In Match #3, the two ladies pros battled out a back and forth match. In game one, Parrilla cruised to an 11-6 win. Erika came roaring back and raced to an 11-1 game two win. In the breaker, Erika got rolling in the service box, won a fantastic rally at 9-5, got a service winner on an iffy-maybe-it-was-a-screen-serve, then got a clear winner to take the 11th point and the match. Final score: (6),1,5.

Match #4 was perhaps the most anticipated “fun” match of the evening, featuring a couple of players who we know would “talk” their way through the match. Rojas showed a bit more rust than was expected, and Diaz was clearly frustrated by the calls, and the Bredenbeck’s won in two.

Match #5 was an interesting one: a rematch of The World’s final from just a week ago. Acuna came out hot and just blasted Landa, who looked like he was nursing an injury. But whatever was bugging Alex loosened up, and he cruised to game 2 and 3 wins.

—-
An excellent job by all parties, pulling this off for the first time.

Thanks to all the sponsors who made this possible including @Donald Williams and Williams Accounting & Consulting, Suivant Consulting , Dovetail/Mike Kinkead , plus all the other sponsors. Congrats to Adam Manilla , Erika Manilla and @Manilla Athletics for the great idea and for putting it on. Thanks to Wayne Antone for reffing, @Bobby Horn and @Elli John and Brian Pineda for all their announcing work.

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Court Wars 2021 Preview

Marco Rojas comes out of retirement for the Manilla Court Wars. Photo Kevin Savory

For the first time in years, perhaps dating to the old Hogan-Yellen winner-take-all matches in the late 1980s, a racquetball promoter has put together a pay-for-play exhibition and its happening this coming weekend.


The Manilla Athletics Court Wars 2021 is set to happen on 12/18/21, live on pay per view and available at this website:
https://manillaathletics.com/courtwars-info

Consider supporting this endeavor and buying your tickets. I’ve got mine. We need more of this kind of out-of-the-box thinking, not less, in our sport.


Title sponsors include the two owners of Manilla Athletics (that being pro players and team USA members Adam Manilla and Erika Manilla) as well as two of the leading sponsors of racquetball in the Atlanta area, Williams Consulting and Suivant Consulting.

There’s already a great preview at https://manillaathletics.com/courtwars-info of each of the 5 matches (which I highly recommend to go read) but here’s my preview and prediction for the five matches in the event.

Match #1: Antonio Rojas versus Nikhil Prasad.
First up is an all Junior (well, nearly junior) event, featuring two of the more decorated Junior competitors the USA has ever seen. Both players hail from northern California (Rojas from Stockton, and Prasad from Fremont). Rojas finished his junior career with 8 junior national titles and simultaneously held the 16U and 18U titles in 2019 (a rare feat: it has only been done by two other males, that being Jose Rojas and Jack Huczek). Prasad is still going, is the reigning 16U junior national champion as we speak and holds six junior national titles, with a chance to sweep the 18Us in the next two years to match Tatoe’s accomplishments.
Neither player has yet to debut on the pro tour (though Tatoe did play in a WRT event when he was quite young).

Prediction: I think age wins out here: Prasad is an excellent player and clearly the best 16U player in the land, but Rojas was winning 18U titles when he was Prasad’s age, and at this young age, a couple of years of experience and strength means a ton.

Match #2: Mario Mercado versus Andree Parrilla
Match #2 features two IRT touring pros, the currently ranked #4 and #10 players on tour. Both are experienced international players, and both represented their home countries at the recent World championships (Parrilla playing for Mexico, Mercado playing for Colombia).
They’ve met 5 times professionally, all on the IRT. Parrilla leads h2h 3-2. Their last meeting was at this year’s US Open, a two game 11,8 win for Andree. But, Mercado is coming off a strong run of form; he won the Arizona pro-am IRT event in November and made it to the semis of Worlds, where he dropped an 11-9 thriller to Acuna to miss out on the finals.
They play a somewhat contrasting style: Mercado is inarguably a shooter, going for bottom boards and pinch shot rollouts at every opportunity. Parrilla is more of a grinder, a defender who relies on accuracy more than power. This match could come down to who is sharper, and despite the run of form lately I give the edge to the higher ranked pro:

Prediction: Parrilla in a breaker.

Match #3: Erika Manilla versus Jessica Parrilla
I love this matchup, especially right now, because Manilla has had a great run of form and is looking like she merits a spot in the top 10 on tour. Meanwhile, Parrilla IS in the top 10 on tour right now, meaning this could be a very evenly matched contest.
They’ve only met once: way back in 2017 at the US Open, an easy 3-game win for Parrilla when Erika was barely out of juniors. But so much has happened since then: Parrilla suffered an awful knee injury and missed an entire year on tour, and really is still working her way back. Manilla finished college and has now been able to focus more fully on playing, and her results show. She had a great run at the US Open (making the pro semis and really pushing #1 Longoria), and she made the doubles final at Worlds with Rhonda Rajsich. She continues to get solid wins on tour.
The key to this match will be emotions. As in, who can manage theirs better. Both players play with their emotions plainly on their sleeves; a missed shot results in gesticulation, while a made shot results in exaltation. Sometimes playing with emotion can be good, other times it can be blinding to proper game management. Look for plenty of “Come on!” and “Vamos” from the competitors as they battle this one out.

Prediction: Parrilla in a close breaker.

Match #4: Doubles: Jose Diaz & Marco Rojas versus Jake Bredenbeck and Sam Bredenbeck
A fun doubles exhibition, featuring two of the best doubles players in America and long-time double partners Diaz and Jake. Diaz and Jake made the finals of the 2014 Pan American sports Festival, the Finals of the 2015 US Open, a bunch of Pro doubles finals, and the 2020 US national doubles finals.
But now times have changed: Jake played 2021 US nationals with his brother Sam and seems to have taken his brother on as a permanent doubles partner, likely due to Diaz stepping back from playing. How will these two fare on the court facing each other for the first time in years?
Meanwhile, some newer fans of the sport may not “remember” just how good Rojas was on tour. He was in the top 10 for four years in the mid 2010s, a constant presence in the back-ends of tournaments, and maintains to this day winning h2h records against a slew of top players (Landa, DLR, Pratt, Murray, Horn, and Diaz). A victim of the financial issues in our sport, Rojas quit the tour in May of 2017 to focus on getting a “real job,” which he’s been doing ever since.
But now he’s back, and he’s part of what promises to be a very vocal “209” pairing, going against the Minnesota farm hand brother-brother pairing. There is no lack of confidence coming from the Rojas/Diaz pairing, and they’ll be sure to let everyone know as the game moves on.
Generally when i predict doubles matches, I look at the strongest and weakest players on the court as the determining factors. I’m assuming Rojas will get some practice time in, but will his rustiness be a factor? Meanwhile, Jake projects to be the most dominant player on the court; can he carry the team? Of the four players, Sam is the least accomplished player; will that be the determining factor?

Prediction: Diaz/Rojas eke it out.

Match #5: Alex Landa versus Andres Acuña
Well, you couldn’t ask for a better match here. This is an immediate rematch of the 2021 World final, won in dominant fashion by Landa 6,6.
I won’t rehash the “history” between these two; it is well documented elsewhere. What I will point out is this: these guys have played each other, a lot, this year. This will be the fifth meeting between these two players since August. Landa won the first three (all round of 16 matches in pro events), before Acuna took out the mentally fatigued Landa in Sarasota, a huge upset and a marquee win for Acuna’s career. Then Acuna played fantastic ball all week in Guatemala to earn a well-merited spot in the gold medal game.
On paper, this is World #2 versus World #16, and you wouldn’t think it would be that close. But in reality, these are players moving in opposite directions. Acuna is up and coming, has added pace and is starting to get notable wins left and right. Landa is now 33, kind of a “witching hour” age for pro racquetball players where they generally lose a step or two, lose a few MPH on their fastballs, and suddenly go from top dogs to upset-fodder. Not to mention … at some point you have to “grow up” and realize you can’t play rball forever. Is this where Landa sits right now, career wise? His recent results (outside of winning Worlds) certainly show this; he has not made a final since March of 2020, and he’s taking first-time losses to a number of up and coming players.
The big question for this match will be; is Landa’s heart going to be into it? If he’s not getting up for pro tournaments, can he get up for an exhibition? Meanwhile, Acuna plays to win; he doesn’t take matches off; he can’t afford to right now. Every win for him is more important than the last and he’s hungry.

Prediction: Acuna wins.

Tune in 12/18/21 at 11am PST/2pm EST.

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IRF Junior Worlds Wrap-up

Erick Trujillo finishes off his juniors career with a world title. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory


Congrats to all the newly crowned Junior Worlds singles champions:

  • Boys 18U: Erick Trujillo, Mexico
  • Boys 16U: Jorge Gutierrez, Mexico
  • Boys 14U Eder Renteria, Mexico
  • Boys 12U: Sebastian Terrazas, Bolivia
  • Boys 10U: Gustavo Cordova, Bolivia


    Click here; http://rball.pro/043BA8 for a matrix of all Junior Worlds Boys champions for all of time.

    Comments on the draws:
    Boys 18U:
    A first (and only) junior world championship for Trujillo, who graduates from Juniors with a win at the highest level. We look forward to his continuing to compete on the IRT, as he’s had a decent debut so far. He topped fellow Mexican Sebastián Longoria in the final.
    Boys 16U
    Mexican champion Jorge Gutierrez topped Bolivian’s #1 Ezequiel Subieta in a competitive final that featured all Bolivia/Mexican semis. This is Gutierrez’s first ever world title.
    Boys 14U:
    Renteria captures his third ever Junior World Title in his age 13 season, winning the final over countryman Sebastian Ruelas in a rematch of the Mexican 14U final earlier this year.
    Boys 12U
    Terrazas wins his first junior world title in a draw dominated by Bolivians: all three entered advanced to the semis.
    Boys 10U
  • Cordova won an all-Bolivian final over countryman Matias Garabito.
  • Girls 18U: Micaela Meneses Cuellar, Bolivia
  • Girls 16U: Krystin Salinas, Bolivia
  • Girls 14U: Natalia Mendez (no relation), Bolivia
  • Girls 12U: Jamileth Sipec, Guatemala
  • Girls 10U: Michelle Gomez, Mexico
    Click here: https://rball.pro/BCE571 for a matrix of all Junior Worlds winners for all of time.
    Comments on the victors:
    Girls 18U
    Bolivia’s Meneses finishes a grueling two weeks in Guatemala, having also represented her country in the Adult competition. She finished in 13th place, just outside of the guaranteed spots for World Games 2022, but would be first in line if one of the top 12 drops out. She wins junior worlds in her age 17 season in dominant fashion, winning the final 5,2 and still has a year to go. She’s already a regular on the LPRT and we look forward to more from the young Bolivian. She tops the promising lefty Argentine Martina Katz in the final, who impressed all weekend.
    Girls 16U
    After a nail-biting semi win over Mexico’s #2 player @Angela Ortega, Salinas crushed Mexican’s #1 @Cynthia Gutierrez 3,5 to win her first ever Junior World title.
    Girls 14U
    Bolivian Natalia Mendez (no relation to the LPRT touring player Natalia Mendez Erlwein) captured her first ever Junior World title, topping Mexican champ and #1 seed Maria Fernanda Trujillo in the final.
    Girls 12U:
    Sipec broke the Bolivian stronghold on girls titles by vanquishing both Mexican top seeded players en route to the title.
    Girls 10U
  • Gomez avenged a loss to Costa Rica’s Larissa Faeth in the group stage by topping her for the 10U title.

Doubles: We have captured the doubles champions into the database; see http://rball.pro/943497 for a complete list of all Junior worlds doubles champions from 2021 and going back in time.

We have not seen team results posted officially, but it seems that Mexico just beat out Bolivia for the team competition. No idea who might have come in third.

Thus ends a long two weeks of competition in Guatemala. Congrats to all players, to all who competed. Thanks to the IRT broadcasting crew who spent the better part of two weeks in Guatemala City broadcasting. Dean DeAngelo Baer and Pablo Fajre should get some well-deserved rest.


Next up for IRF? The Pan American Racquetball Championships next april in, hopefully , Bolivia!
International Racquetball Federation – IRF

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IRF 20th World Championships Wrap up

Landa wins Worlds. Photo from 2020 USAR National doubles by Kevin Savory


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Men’s Singles: Alex Landa
  • Men’s Doubles; Rodrigo Montoya/Javier Mar
  • Women’s Singles: Paola Longoria
  • Women’s Doubles: Paola Longoria/Samantha Salas
  • Team: USA

All four draws have been loaded to the database (the official Team results are pending). Here’s those links:

Men’s Singles: http://rball.pro/5E56AA

Men’s Doubles; http://rball.pro/6A670B

Women’s Singles: http://rball.pro/F31645

Women’s Doubles: http://rball.pro/8F6654

Home page for the event: https://www.internationalracquetball.com/xx-world…/

Here’s some commentary and observations on the four draws.


Men’s Singles:
Alex Landa wins his second “major” IRF event (he previously won the 2017 PARC event in San Jose, Costa Rica) by cruising through the group stage as the #1 seed entering the event. In the knockouts, he overcame a first game 15-3 blow-out loss to my pre-tournament favorite Conrrado Moscoso to win that semi with relative ease the rest of the way (3),8,6. A great adjustment by Landa to get to the final form the top-half. Moscoso had taken a close quarter final against #4 seed Andree Parrilla to get to the semis.
From the bottom half, Andres Acuña entered the event as the #13 seed in the round robins before blowing out pre-tournament #2 seed Rodrigo Montoya Solis 5,4 to seize hold of the #2 seed in the knockout stages. But the bottom half was stacked with talent and the touring pros all beat each other up to make the final. USA’s Jake Bredenbeck got a great win over Montoya to vanquish him in the 16s, but then Jake fell to Colombia’s #6 Mario Mercado in the quarters. Mercado and Acuna played an absolutely fantastic match in the semis, a back and forth excellent display of shot making and cliff hangers before Acuna put Mario away to earn a spot in the final.

The final was anticlimactic, especially given all the “history” between Landa and Acuna. This is a frequent matchup as of late; the two have met in the 16s four times in the last five IRT pro events, with Acuna finally taking a match from Alex in Sarasota in the last event prior to Worlds. But the final turned into a route, as Landa played like the Landa we know from 2019-20, the one who took over the #1 spot in the world. Landa wins 6,6 to take the title and make his country switch all the more meaningful.

Women’s Singles

1 Paola Longoria blew through the draw, never dropping a game and only getting stretched to double digits twice, in winning the singles title. This title is her 21st international singles title overall; 4 Worlds, 3 Pan American Games, 8 PARCs, 2 World Games, and the rest regional titles.

The gulf between Paola and the rest of the professionals playing continues to be large. The current #2, #4, #5, #6, #8 and #10 ranked players on tour were all in Guatemala … and none of them even made the final to challenge Paola. That challenger was the surprising Kelani Lawrence, who got a couple of really solid wins over fellow touring pros Carla Muñoz Montesinos, Angelica Barrios and then against her fellow teammate Rhonda Rajsich in the semis to earn her spot in the finals. There, Paola cruised 6,1 to win the title.

Rajsich had a great tourney, rebounding from a 3rd place finish in the RRs and a #15 seeding in the group stage to oust #2 overall seed Maria Jose Vargas Parada in the 16s, then crush home-town favorite Maria Renee Rodríguez in the quarters to make the semis.

Men’s Doubles
The Mexican pairing of Montoya & Mar has now won three straight Mexican national doubles titles, twice beating the presumed #1 doubles team of Daniel De La Rosa and Alvaro Beltran in the final. And now they’ve won the last two IRF competitions together, both times vanquishing the top Bolivian pair of Moscoso and Roland Keller in the final. They’re a young pairing, but they clearly are making their mark on international racquetball.
Women’s Doubles

Longoria and Samantha Salas Solis continue to add to their amazing collection of titles by cruising through the draw and topping team USA in the final 14,6. This 2021 Worlds title is their 15th international title together as a team (4 worlds, 3 Pan Am games, 7 PARCs, and one regional title), to go along with 35 pro doubles titles since 2014 and somewhere in the range of 14-15 Mexican National doubles titles. Just amazing.

Team competition.
Despite taking 3 of the 4 titles, team Mexico was pipped at the top of the team rankings on the strength of Landa’s singles win, two finals appearances and the early round upsets by two Mexican men’s singles players. Bolivia was a distant third.

This is the first time team USA has taken a combined team win since the 2014 Worlds, breaking a streak of 7 straight team wins by Mexico.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from the IRTlive broadcasting team Dean DeAngelo Baer, !Gary Ga Mazaroff, and Pablo Fajre.

Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it.

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

  • IRF World Juniors has already started and overlapped with the end of Worlds in Guatemala City; that tournament will run through the weekend.
  • Next weekend, the LPRT heads to my old stomping grounds in Severna Park for the last pro event of the season.
  • There’s also a lower-tier IRT event in Atlanta the weekend of the 12th.
  • then, two fun events for the 12/19 weekend: one is the return of racquetball to the outdoor courts in Hollywood Florida, the other is Court Wars, hosted by the Manillas and featuring a number of compelling matches, including a rematch of the World men’s singles final.
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2021 Mexican National Doubles recap

Mar takes his 3rd straight national doubles title with Montoya. Photo via PK

The 2021 Campeonato Nactional Selectivo Dobles for Mexico was held this past weekend in racquetball hotbed San Luis Potosi, SL, Mexico. Here’s a recap
Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Men’s Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya/Javier Mar
  • Women’s Doubles: Paola Longoria/Samantha Salas

    This is the 3rd straight National doubles title for Montoya/Mar. This is the 7th National title for Longoria/Salas since 2014 (the extent of our current Mexican records), but likely represents something like their 12th or 13th title together once we get all records input.
    These teams qualify to represent Mexico at the next few international events, namely Worlds in Guatemala in December (if it happens), and then PARC next April in Bolivia.
    R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37831

    PRS Match Report links:
  • Men’s Doubles: http://rball.pro/4FDC8F
  • Women’s Doubles: http://rball.pro/8B09C7

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

Despite the tourney being held in racquetball hotbed San Luis Potosi, there was a distinct lack of depth in this draw, on both sides. The Men’s draw was missing top IRT pair Parrilla/Portillo, the regular competing team of Natera/Estrada was missing, the Longoria brothers were not present, nor was a slew of downballot Mexican players who usually compete.
Seeds held to the semis, though #2 Daniel De La Rosa and Alvaro Beltran were pushed to a tiebreaker in the quarters by the relatively young team of Oscar Nieto and Elias Nieto Zedalav.
In the semis:

  • #1 seeds and defending champs Rodrigo Montoya Solis and Javier Mar were pushed to the bring by 18U players Erick Trujillo and Sebastian Hernandez, but scraped by with an 11-10 win.
  • #2 seeds DLR/Beltran cruised into the final with a 2- game win over IRT semi-regulars Jordy Alonso and Erick Cuevas.

    In the Finals, I would have thought it was advantage DLR/Beltran, who were just coming off a win in Vegas and who had the easier time of it in the semis. but it was the defending champs who were energized for the win and who ran away with the tie-breaker after splitting the first two games. Final score: 8,(9),4.

Lets Review the matches in the Women’s Doubles review

Also an odd draw; Herrera was missing her regular partner Montse Mejia, a slew of LPRT regular touring pros were not present, and the draw was small enough to go round robin. After the expected teams advanced to the knock out semis, here’s the recap:

  • #1 seeds Paola Longoria and Samantha Salas Solis cruised past 18U challenges Daniela Rico and Ximena Martinez.
  • #3 seeds Jessica Parrilla and Montserrat Pérez advanced past #2 seeds Alexandra Herrera and Diana Aguilar.

In the final, the lefty-righty pair of Parrilla/Perez cruised in game one, but the champions fought back to take a close game two and eventually the breaker. Longoria and Salas win the hotly contested match.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from players onsite and from FMR, the Federacion Mexicana de Raquetbol.
Thanks to the Tourney Director Favio Soto for putting this event on!

Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it.

Next up? According to our master calendar
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
Next up:

  • Florida Long Wall championships in Davie, FL
  • an IRT tier 4 Long Island Open in NY

The next big pro event is the dual IRT/LPRT Arizona Open two weekends from now in Tempe.

tags
@federacion mexicana de racquetbol
@mexico racquetball

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2nd Average Joes Kelley invitational recap

Ulliman with the win. Photo courtesy of Kyle via r2sports home page

While some of us were in Vegas, others in Atlanta … the Kelley brothers had 20 of their closest east coast (and beyond) friends up in Jersey for a quick two-day shootout. Here’s the results.


In the play ins:

  • PA’s Simon Totive took out fellow PA native Glenn Sincovich
  • CT’s Tony Prater took out Jersey’s Matt Mertz Plumbing, Inc.
  • Jamie Ferrera took out NY’s Abraham Mercado
  • Jersey’s Julio Infante upset NY’s Aaron Dardani.


    In the 16s:
  • #1 Kyle Ulliman took out Totive.
  • #9 Josh Shea with the upset over #8 Jersey native David Austin (who in the preview I mistakenly thought was Austin Cunningham: apologies to both).
  • #12 host Sam Kelley with the upset win over #5 Brennen Jennings, showing that home court advantage does exist.
  • #4 Dylan Pruitt cruised past qualifier Prater 4,0
  • #3 Victor Migliore advanced past qualifier Ferrera
  • #6 Alex zamudio got a solid win over NY veteran #11 Jason Silvester
  • #7 Ben Bleyer held serve against CT veteran #10 Jose Flores Jr.
  • #2 co-host Joe Kelley cruised past qualifier Infante.
    So, two upsets in the opening round, and some top level talent moving on.


    In the quarters:
  • #1 Ulliman took out the junior from NY Shea
  • #4 Pruitt held serve against his host Sam to move on
  • #3 Migliore took out the Floridian Zamudio
  • #7 Bleyer had the big upset of the round, taking out his host and defending champ Joe Kelley.


    In the semis, it was Ohio versus Maryland in both matches:
  • #1 Ulliman defeated Pruitt
  • #3 Migliore over Bleyer.


    In the final, #1 Kyle lived up to his seeding and defeated Migliore in an all-Ohio final.
    Congrats to the Kelley brothers once again for putting on a fun event.