Joe Kelley with the double on the weekend on his home court. Photo via Ken fife
Last weekend the Kelley Brothers invited out some of the best talent on the East Coast to their home #4 court for the 6th Annual Average Joe’s Tournament. Here’s a quick recap of the action.
I have to admit, I didn’t even know this was going on this year, despite posting recaps on it every year since its inception. I’m lucky to have seen some of the live streams pop up from players I’m friend with on FB.
Singles recap:
The top 8 seeds went (in order): Jeremy Dixon, Cole Sendrey, Ezekiel Subieta, Victor Migliore, Joe Kelley, Dylan Pruitt, Jose Flores, and Sam Kelley. There was a full round of 16 and play-ins to there, meaning there were nearly two dozen players hanging out on the Kelley property this weekend.
In the quarters, top seed Dixon held off the host Sam Kelley, the 2023 champion, enabling Sam to work on hospitality the rest of the way. Host Joe Kelley and 2021 champ upset Ohio-native Migliore, who is a two-time finalist here exiting early. Bolivian U21 star Ezekiel Subieta took out his former Maryland-neighbor Dylan Pruitt, and lastly 2024 champ Sendrey, fresh off a trip to World Juniors last month, took out top NE player Jose Flores to move on.
In the semis, Joe Kelley kept up the upset run, taking out Dixon with a dominant show of drive serving. From the bottom half, Cole took out Subieta to get back to the final. In the final though, Kelley was on fire, bombing more drive serves against his young Texas rival and took the title 10,4. He wins the title on his home court for the second time.
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Doubles recap
Joe Kelley teamed up with Ezequiel Subiata to make it a double on the weekend. From the #3 seed, they upset Jeremy Dizon & Jose Flores in the semis, then took out the top seeds Dylan Pruitt & Cole Sendrey 14,13.
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These champions join the following honor roll of past champs in this event:
Singles:
– 1st Annual 2021: Joe Kelley over Austin Cunningham
– 2nd Annual 2022: Kyle Ulliman over Victor Migliore
– 3rd Annual 2023: Sam Kelley over Victor Migliore
– 4th Annual 2024: Cole Sendrey over Kyle Ulliman
– 5th Annual 2025: Jake Bredenbeck over Sebastian Franco
– 6th Annual 2026: Joe Kelley over Cole Sendrey
Doubles:
– 2021: (no doubles event)
– 2022: (no doubles event)
– 2023: Pruitt/Bleyer
– 2024: Pruitt/Cunningham
– 2025: Bredenbeck/Bredenbeck
– 2026: J.Kelly/Subieta
That’s it for the 2026 Average Joe’s/Kelley Invitational.
TL/DR Executive Summary: Vargas extends her lead atop the LPRT rankings with a solid win in singles, while the world’s top doubles team wins another.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=51202
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/3f08be
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In the 32s, just a handful of matches as just 19 ladies entered this event. The tour was definitely missing some of its younger competitors, away at Junior Worlds, but the tour is also missing several touring regulars from the recent years past who seem to have either stepped away due to injury or priorities.
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In the 16s:
– In the 8/9, Lotts pressed Centellas but fell.
– Laime crushed Munoz 2,5 in the 6/11 matchup
– Herrera held on against veteran Parrilla, winning 9,12
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In the Quarters
– The big s hock was Mendez taking out Gaby Martinez 13,11; that’s a solid win for Mendez.
– Vargas was pressed by her Argentine teammate Centellas but won 11,11
– Mejia had to go breaker to beat her doubles partner Herrera.
– Longoria cruised past Laime 1,6, perhaps looking to make a statement against a player who’s beaten her in the past.
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In the Semis
– Vargas took out Mendez , but not before dropping the first game 15-2 in a crazy scoreline.
– Longoria got some revenge against Mejia from the last event, winning 7,9.
In the Finals, Vargas won with relative ease 6,12 to claim her 14th career LPRT title. She’s now in 10th place all time.
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Points Implications of results
Despite making the finals over Mejia, Montse leapfrogged Paola for #2 on tour for the time being, as points expiration from last year conspired against the GOAT. No other major movement in the top 10 other than Kelani Lawrence continuing to fall; she’s apparently quiet retired.
Here’s a link to my LPRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.
A double for Moscoso, and a win over kane. Photo unk from Bolivian IRIS
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: @Conrrado Moscoso
– Doubles: Moscoso & @Kadim Carrasco
TL/DR Executive summary: Moscoso gets a big win over King Kane, then finishes off the event for his 11th career singles title, then gets the upset win over top seeds Montoya/Mar for the double in Fullerton.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=50749
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/8322db
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In the 32s, no real upsets. We had a couple closer games from Gatica and Bear, but otherwise the seeds held.
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In the 16s, a couple of notable results:
– #9 Portillo topped #8 Natera in two closer games; not an upset for me necessarily, as Portillo’s ranking is more about his limited schedule than his talent.
– #7 Mar crushed Alonso 6,5 for another statement win defining the top 8 versus the next 8.
– Biggest match of the round: Thomas Carter gets a career best win over Montoya i11-9 in the breaker.
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In the Quarters
– Waselenchuk was pressed by Lalo in game one, then cruised to win 10,1
– Moscoso destroyed the elated to be there Carter 5,2
– Parrilla dominated Jake 7,4 to move into the semis; this was a pretty solid win for Andree, something he followed up on in the next round, and is part of a pattern for the SLP product of having spurts of success on tour.
– the best match of the round was Mar-Acuna, which was back and forth and featured some really fun rallies especially at the end, as Acuna pulled it out 11-9 to move on.
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In the Semis
– The match of the event was Kane vs Conrrado, and the Bolivian put on a show. He ran of 12-straight points unanswered in game one, with 4 service winners and another 6 3-point rally kill shots wherein he missed just one first serve. Kane had no answers, either getting handcuffed on the serves or flailing them to the ceiling defensively. Kane did a better job in game two and looked to be pushing towards a breaker, but Moscoso held firm, and got a come from behind win 15-14 to advance. It’s awfully hard to beat someone who’s hitting 160mph bullet first serves on concrete without ever missing, and that’s what we saw all weekend from Conrrado.
– Parrilla improved to 5-2 lifetime against Acuna on tour to move into the final.
In the Finals, Conrrado picked up where he left off, giving Andree a rare finals donut in game one before taking the title with ease.
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Points Implications of results
With the win, Conrrado moves into #2 on tour. Other top players will move down a spot, while Montoya’s early loss dumps him to #6. No other real movement of import amongst the top 16, even given all the missing junior players here.
Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/5542be
It’s been a minute since we had a real Pro doubles draw; not since March in Lombard has the tour done one, mostly because all the events in the interim have been combined events where the prize money that would have gone to doubles ended up going to the ladies, or to Mixed pro.
Moscoso, clearly feeling his oats this weekend, carried partner Carrasco over the top seeds Montoya & Mar to claim the title.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Diego Gastelum topped fellow round of 32 loser Gatica for the Open title, taking the big RR event.
– Bear & Alonso took out top SoCal outdoor team Myers & St. Clair for the Open Doubles title.
– Arizona’s Damien Zamora took the 35-50+
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Fantasy Racquetball Competition Wrap-up
We don’t know the results of the IRT Club Fantasy FastBreak competition this past wekeend, but yours truly (who was in 2nd place) definitely took Moscoso to win, so i’m expecting big things.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, Thanks to the tourney sponsors, and thanks to the players for supporting tournament racquetball.
Manilla is back, but for how long? Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory
As the Men are playing on one coast, the ladies are clear across the country, about as far away as one can get from Fullerton, visiting Severna Park, Maryland for the 33rd annual Christmas Classic. This event is being held at the venerable Severna Park Racquet club, one the last old-school hold out venues anywhere. The championship court is sunken and features stadium seating, there remains at least 6 functional courts (at least there were the last time I attended an event there), and this 33rd annual event is now one of (if not THE) longest running pro events in the sport.
9 of the top 10 ladies are here, and most of the rest of the top 20 is present as well. We’re missing a couple of veteran regulars, which will give us some interesting doubles teams, but more on that in a moment.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
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In the 32s,
– Erika Manilla returns; the former top 4 player has struggled to get back to form since her hip issue; she faces the Canadian #2 Parent in the opener.
– Synhorts faces the ageless Brandt in the play-in to #2 Mejia.
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round of 16:
– Manilla plays into #1 Vargas: normally this would be a semis-quality match. Vargas holds the career lead 5-1 and seems the favorite to make it 6-1.
– @sheryl Lotts celebrates her career high ranking with a juicy matchup against #8 Centellas: great “show-me” match for Lotts to see if she can make the quarters.
– 5/12 Mendez-York could be upset city.
– Gaby has to play her doubles partner MRR in the opener; hate it when that happens. I once entered an out-of-town event with my partner and roommate at the time @Ben Hale; we both played open singles and open doubles. I called for start times; they forgot to put us in. So the TD gives me a start time … I ask him who i’m playing and he slowly says… Ben Hale. I’m like, “absolutely not. You forgot to put us both in and now have us playing each other in some play-in to a top seed; make the draw right, and make us play someone else.” This is TD 101; never, never have out-of-town doubles partners playing each other in the singles first round. Of course, in teh Pros … its all by points, and this happens all the time.
– Munoz-Laime is a great match in 6/11: both players play classical drive and shoot ball.
– Herrera-Parrilla is a frequently seen matchup both home and abroad
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Projected Qtrs:
– Vargas vs Centellas; doubles partners and Argentina team mates face off. Vargas should cruise here.
– Gaby-Mendez: the Guatemalan shouldn’t have any issues advancing.
– Longoria-Laime: there’s danger here for the GOAT, as Laime has put losses on her in the past. Laime is Jeckyl & Hyde: you just never know if you’re getting someone who can cruise into the finals without breaking a sweat, or a one-and-done loser.
– Mejia-Herrera: more doubles partner action, though Mejia has taken a step forward in this singles rivalry over hte past few years.
Semis: Vargas over Gaby, Longoria over Mejia.
Finals; Vargas over Longoria, though honestly these days on tour any one of the top three ladies can and will win events. If Mejia gets hot, forget it. If Longoria is “on” this weekend, she can’t be stopped.
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Doubles review
Longoria is missing Salas here, so she picked up Manilla, who has no points, and they’re seeded 7th out of 8. Taht means we get Longoria/Manilla vs Mejia/Herrera in the first round. wow. I’ll say it now; whoever wins this, wins the event.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for Timothy Baghurst, Sandy Rios, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!
Can Javier Mar make a deep run? Photo Kevin Savory 2019 US Open
The International Racquetball Tour is back in action, hosting its first full Tier 1 stop since last month’s Mile High Open, with the 2025 SoCal Open. The tour returns to Fullerton for the first time since the 2019 Los Compadres open, and returns to what used to be the Meridian Sports Club and one of the largest (if not the largest) clubs in terms of functional racquetball courts. As of 2023 there were still 24 courts operating at this facility, though the club went under, was taken over by new management, and has apparently repurposed some in the time since we last got information.
We’ll know soon enough, as the tour returns to one of its premier locations, which used to host national events and major pro events in the early 2010s.
draw size, observations; the top 11 on tour are here, but a decent chunk of the 11-20 guys are missing due to this event’s proximity to World Juniors, which kicks off this coming Saturday in the Dominican Republic.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
In the round of 32, there’s only 5 matches because of the smaller draw, but a couple of interesting ones:
– #12 @Thomas Carter is the highest seed that has to do an early round; he goes against relative unknown Mexican Javier Gonzalez , a 16U Junior player from Chihuahua. Sometimes these juniors come out of nowhere and shock regular tour players.
– #14 @Kadim Carrasco has to deal with @Alejandro Bear, who has a few results on tour over the past 5-6 years.
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round of 16:
– The 8/9 is brutal: @Eduardo Portillo versus Alan Natera. Tough draw here; Portillo has been much better than a 9-seed over the past couple of years, while Natera continues to work his way back from a knee issue earlier in 2025.
– In the 6/11: Parrilla vs Manilla. these guys met in the quarters last month, an 11-9 win for Andree. Can Adam flip the script here?
– 7/10: Mar vs Alonso: a great match for the neutrals, two classy tactical players who rely on shot-making versus power. They’ve played twice already this year, both Mar wins, including an 8,0 beatdown in Highland Ranch in August.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Kane Waselenchuk likely faces off against Lalo Portillo, who played Kane pretty tough in the semis back in early September. Lalo was also on the court with Kane when he blew out his Achilles tendon in sept 2022.
– #4/#5 Moscoso vs Montoya: I love this matchup. Power, athleticism. It’s always close; they’ve played twice this fall already, both 3-game Moscoso wins. But early in their careers, Rodrigo owned him.
– 3/6 Bredenbeck vs Parrilla: it looked for a while in 2022-23 like Jake had really taken the reigns on this h2h matchup, but then Andree beat him for the Boston title in Dec 2023. Jake won their last meeting in Chicago in March, but these two always play tight.
– 2/7; Acuna vs Mar: Mar leads this matchup 4-3 in their careers, but Andres has the last two, including a dominant 9,5 win back at World Singles & Doubles. Can Mar get back the upper hand here? My upset pick is Mar winning here.
Semis:
– Kane over Moscoso: what can Conrrado do to make adjustments and get a win here? He’s got one thing going for him: the qtrs and semis are both on Saturday, so he may be able to get a tired Kane and take advantage from an athleticism perspective. Still, Kane’s the favorite.
– This could go several ways: Acuna and Jake haven’t met in years. Jake and Mar just met in Eugene, a straightforward 10,9 win for Mr. Minnesota. I’m going with jake.
Finals; Kane over Jake. Jake does have two legit h2h win over Kane in his career, bu t has to be playing well to do so. If he gets here, he’ll have been playing well.
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Doubles review; draws not published as of this writing.
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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!
IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!
Mejia with the double in Denver.
Photo Kevin Savory US Open 2019
I had a bit of fixture congestion personally this week and couldn’t get a preview out for this one. My apologies there. But, here’s the recap. The Ladies pros were back in action for their third singles event of the new season (but, ironically, their first doubles event) in Denver, with hostess and fellow touring pro @erika Manilla in action and running the show.
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Montse Mejia
– Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alexandra Herrera
The event was missing #1 Longoria, who may have had legislative duties back home, and the absence will do a bit of harm to her chances for finishing #1 on the season based on the results. But Mejia’s win (instead of Vargas) may have helped her keep the pace.
Mejia’s singles win gives her 9 career tier 1 titles now, in 12th place all time. Meanwhile, the Mejia/Herrera doubles win is their 14th professionally, though both remain well behind the Longoria/Salas duo in terms of career LPRT pro doubles wins.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=49237
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/f5eb2b
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In the 32s:
– A great matchup between the legend @Rhonda Rajsich and a player on the comeback trail in Manilla went Erika’s way
– @Susy Acosta, appearing in her 27th season, took out @Maria Renee Rodriguez
in a breaker.
– @Annie Sanchez got a really nice win against the rarely seen but former top 10 Mexican @Nancy Enriquez.
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In the 16s, just one upset by seed:
– #10 @Sheryl Lotts was well ahead of #7 @Cristina Amaya when the Colombian turned Italian had to retire due to injury.
– The only other real close round of 16 match was in the 8/9 spot, as Argentine @Valeria Centellas picked up a solid win over @Jessica Parrilla to move into the quarters.
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In the Quarters
– #1 @maria Jose Vargas had to dig deep to beat her doubles partner Centellas 12,8
– #5 @brenda Laime held serve and beat #4 @Natalia Mendez in a breaker.
– #3 @Gaby Martinez beat #6 Alexandra Herrera in the round’s best matchup of former Tier 1 winners
– #2 @Montse Mejia cruised last Lotts to earn another semis.
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In the Semis
– In a very topsy turvy match, Vargas destroyed Laime in games 1 and 3 to win 1,(7),2 and move into the final. As they say, it only takes 26 to win.
– In a great semi final, Mejia rebounded after a first game loss to beat Gaby (7),7,7 to setup a 1v2 final.
In the Finals, Montse turned the tide and took out Vargas, reversing the trend of her latest match winning streak.
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Points Implications of results
With no Longoria, Vargas, who had already taken back over #1 on tour, extends her lead atop the standings to a more comfortable level. Mejia closes the gap on Longoria for #2 but stays in third. There’s still a huge gap between the top 3 players and the rest of the field, big enough that there’s just no way anyone can catch them at this moment. Elsewhere, Centellas’ result puts her back in the top 10 for the first time in years, Lotts moves up to #11 on tour, while Salas’ absence drops her to #13.
Here’s a link to my rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings.
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/2a7b95
Mejia got the double on the weekend, grinding her way to a title with long-time partner Herrera without dropping a game. They certainly worked for it, topping the very-good Guatemalan national team in the quarters, Laime/Mendez in the semis, and the Argentine national team in the finals.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Lotts beat Synhorst in the Women’s Open singles final
– Yelverton & Amaya took the Mixed Open doubles draw.
– Adam Manilla beat Erik Garcia in the IRT singles exhibition draw
– Yelverton & Garcia beat the legend Woody Clouse and top Texan Craig Clement in the Men’s Open Doubles final.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., JTRball, and Tj Baumbaugh
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Stuart Solomon, Richard Eisemann, etc.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors the Manillas for putting this event on!
There’s two different IRT-350s next weekend, one in Boston and one in Tucson. The LPRT will be back the first weekend of December for its long running Christmas Classc in the DC area.
Rhonda Rajsich with a rare pro appearance.
Photo 202 USAR Doubles by Kevin Savory
One of the year’s biggest events is this coming weekend; the 2025 Golden State Open, the brainchild of two former touring pros in @David ” Bobby” Horn and @Adam Manilla, hosted by two of Stockton’s legends @John Ellis and Steve Cook. Both pro tours are onsite at the Bay Club Pleasanton in the East Bay portion of the San Francisco bay area, which means a huge prize purse fundraising effort was done and we get Mixed Pro Doubles for the second time in as many months.
There’s 38 men’s pros and 21 Women’s pros on hand, with fireworks and unexpected results anticipated. By the time you read this play has already started, with the round of 64 on the mens side getting a rare Wednesday evening start.
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Let’s preview the Draws. We’ll do the two singles draws and then the Mixed Pro draw. They’re hosting Open doubles draws for both genders, but the top pros are not entered.
This leaves Rodrigo Montoya to get a #1 seed, a career high. In fact, most of the top 8 at this event are at career high seedings: Mar at #2, Natera at #3, Alonso at #6, and Carter at #8 are all career-best seeds, and the mashed up top 8 is going to give us some new and unexpected head-to-heads here.
More importantly, the absence of Kane in particular historically has been a big indicator that we may get a first time winner.
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In the round of 64 and 32, here’s a few matches to watch for:
– Mauro Rojas vs Emir Martinez: Rojas a former US Junior National champ, and Emir a former top Junior from Mexico. Tough opener, and as it turns out it went three before Rojas fell.
– There’s a few unknown Bolivians who made the trip and who could make waves: Arnez & Borja in particular. Santiago Borja is the two-time defending World 14U junior champion. Both won their openers to face off against top ranked pros in the 32s.
– Sendrey vs Wolfe in the 32s is a solid test for the teenager to see if he can take out a semi-regular IRT touring player.
– Mexican Junior Santiago Castillo, who owns a slew of Mexican Jr National titles including the 2024 16U title, faces off against IRT veteran @Thomas Carter in a match he can’t look past.
– Carrasco-Mendoza in the 14-19 matchup could be close: how much is Mendoza improving versus how quickly is the aging Carrasco’s skills fading?
– If Borja wins his first, he plays into #2 Mar. A good pro debut for the 15yr old.
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Round of 16:
– Martell-Carter in the 8/9 is an interesting matchup; they’ve never met in a top-level event.
– We’re projecting two lefties who both play out of the Bay Area a lot in Collins and Manilla into the 16s.
– Tough draw once again for Parrilla: last week Moscoso played into him early, this week is Garcia, who’s demonstrated his ability to beat nearly anyone on tour.
– Gastelum-Alonso could be close: they met at 2024 Mexican Nationals and Alonso prevailed in three, but Gastelum has come a long way. This is Pineda’s big upset pick.
– the dangerous Miranda meets Moscoso in the 7-10 matchup; this is too bad for Miranda, who has been eyeing a deep run.
– #2 Mar faces off against #15 Flores in a huge trouble area for the Mexican. If Flores plays up to his capabilities, this might be a huge upset.
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Projected Qtrs:
– Montoya over the Carter/Martel winner: Montoya will be favored no matter who comes out here, and has to like his draw this weekend in general. No crazy bolivian junior world champs, no Moscoso seeded 16th, etc.
– Manilla-Garcia: Manilla made a massive run here last year as the host; can he do it again?
– Natera v Alonso: both players are probably looking at each other going, “hey i should win this” and get back to the semis. Could be close
– Moscoso will be favored over whoever comes out of that bottom half, whether its a huge shock like Borja, an upset-minded Flores, or Mar holding serve against two top Bolivian juniors he’s set to face early.
Semis:
– Montoya over Manilla/Garcia winner: Montoya’s only obstacle to the final this week is injury.
– Moscoso over Natera/Alonso winner: this could be over fast.
Finals; I’m calling a Moscoso-Montoya final, with Conrrado taking the title.
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Women’s Pro Singles preview:
Like with the Men’s draw, the ladies draw is missing a few key players. Herrera is out, as is Lawrence and Salas (surgery). So that’s three top 10 ladies missing. What we do have in this draw is a bunch of top Junior Mexicans who we rarely see, including the Perez-Picon sisters. Plus, we get a rare sighting of Rhonda Rajsich, which is awesome to see the future Hall of Famer.
Preview of the draw:
round of 32s to watch for:
– top Mexican U21 player Cynthia Gutierrez makes her LPRT debut and faces Maria Renee Rodriguez-Josey in a tough one for the veteran
– Andrea Perez PIcon, the reigning Mexican 16U champ and finalist at World Juniors last December, faces Norcal’s ERica Williams. Andrea’s older sister Estefania feeds into the Legend Rajsich.
Projected 16s of note:
– The 8/9 between Centellas and Parrilla will be awesome.
– #4 Gaby Martinez projects to play rising USA player Annie Sanchez, who’s played some top players close lately.
– Mejia could face Rhonda in a generational battle of top players
– Munoz-Laime is probably the match of the round.
– Amaya-Lotts will be a battle.
Qtrs on: From here, I see the top four ladies advancing as they typically do: there’s such a gap between Longoria/Mejia/Vargas/Gaby to the rest of the tour right now, it’s hard to predict any upsets. I see Longoria topping Mejia in the final.
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Mixed Pro Doubles
I love Mixed pro doubles: we just have no idea who’s going to win some of these early matches. Normally I look at the two women’s players and try to use that as a determining factor (thinking that the weakest link on the court will get the most shots and will play the biggest part in the match result), but that doesn’t always tell the whole story, and the doubles acumen of the players involved needs to be given more weight. With Salas missing (one of the best mixed doubles players ever) and Longoria skipping out, there’s some new teams and tough matchups.
Here’s some matches to look for and some guesses how this draw will go:
In the 16s, easily the match of the round is the Manilla siblings versus the Argentine mixed national team of Garcia/Vargas: how this is an opening round match is beyond me.
In the quarters:
– Mar/Mejia should advance
– I like Natera/Munoz over the Parrilla sisters
– Moscoso/Martinez should beat whoever comes out of the above 6/11 match, but once again this is the toughest part of the bracket.
– Montoya/Laime is an amazing team and should top Miranda/Mendez.
Semis:
– Mar/Mejia should beat Natera/Munoz … but when these two teams met in the 2023 World Doubles competition it was an 8,9 win for the Chileans. So who knows. I think Munoz is a better doubles player than her counterpart, but Mejia is the harder hitter. Mar-Natera is probably a wash on the left, but Mar is a superior doubles player when he plays with Montoya on the right.
– Moscoso/Gaby over Montoya/Laime, but I have no confidence here. Montoya won the 2025 World Doubles mixed title with Paola in both 2023 and 2025, and Gaby should hold her own as a solid doubles player on the right. But, Laime is no doubles slouch and they could surprise here. Great match.
In the final, i’ll go with the winner of the bottom semi, who i’m thinking is going to be Moscoso/Gaby.
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IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!
Mar with the double on the weekend. Photo Kevin Savory 2019 US Open
The Lomas Racquet club in San Luis Potosi held a solid local event last weekend, which ended up drawing a slew of top touring pros both Male and Female, especially those with ties to the SLP racquetball community, competing in the 2025 Academy open.
Congrats to the winners on the weekend:
– Men’s Open Singles: Javier Mar
– Women’s Open Singles: Paola Longoria
– Men’s Open Doubles: Javier Mar & Rodrigo Montoya
– Women’s Open Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alexandra Herrera
Perhaps the most surprising entrant across the board was 3-time IRT champion @Daniel De La Rosa, who hails from the area and grew up playing on these courts, but who has “retired” from pro racquetball to pursue Pro Pickleball and who last appeared in an IRT event in January 2024. How rusty was DLR and how would he fair against the top Mexican touring pros of today?
Let’s do a quick recap of the Open Draws.
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Men’s Open Singles:
Seeding at FMR events always makes me scratch my head; DLR was seeded 3rd, ahead of Andree Parrilla (currently ranked in the top 8 on tour). I suppose out of respect. Nonetheless, he played to his seed, making the semis before falling to #2 Javier Mar. Mar beat him 10,1,9, probably a fair result and one where DLR showed a ton of rust against a player he normally handles easily. From the top half, #5 @Diego Gastelum upset #4 @Andree Parrilla in the quarters, then fell to top seed #1 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball to setup a 1-vs-2 singles final between doubles partners Mar & Montoya. In the final, Mar got the better of his friend and long-time partner Montoya in four games.
Men’s Open Doubles:
Mar/Montoya and Parrilla/Gastelum took the group stages, forcing DLR/Mendoza to face the favorites in the semis. There they lost, and Mar & Montoya took the title, giving Mar the double for the weekend.
Women’s Open Singles:
Four top-10 LPRT pros headlined the draw and played to their seeds into the semis. #1 Paola Longoria topped Jessica Parrilla in one semi, while Montse Mejia topped Alexandra Herrera in the other. In the final, Mejia cruised to a game one win, then Longoria turned it around and won three straight for the title.
Women’s Open Doubles:
Five teams played a full RR for the title: LPRT #1 teamed with Hollie Scott, who traveled with boyfriend De la Rosa down for the event, and were “upset” in the group stage final by Mejia & Herrera (seeded 2nd despite being the best doubles team in the world for some time now).
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An excellent draw and great competition in SLP, even if we didn’t really get any of the up and coming juniors in Mexico making any noise this weekend. The tourney certainly served as a great tune-up for next Week’s Golden State Open, which we’ll preview in a few days.
Can Acuna repeat his feat? Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
First off, if you haven’t seen the Fantasy Fastbreak podcast I do with Brian Pineda before and after every IRT event, then you’re missing out. Go here for us talking through this draft and talking IRT Club Fantasy Racquetball
After a year’s hiatus, the IRT returns to a relatively new spot on the schedule in Eugene, Oregon for the 2025 Track Town Open. Originally the brain child of former US National team members and Pacific Northwest residents @Charlie Pratt Racquetball and Wayne Antone, this tournament brings back the IRT and the full strength of a Tier 1 stop to Oregon once again. Nearby Portland is one of the biggest junior development areas in the world, and we see a ton of former top juniors entered into both the pro draws and the event in general.
The 2023 version of this event represented a couple of really historic moments on tour. It was the last tournament that 3-time tour champion @Daniel De La Rosa ever won, and this win (and an early loss by then-#1 Moscoso) essentially sealed the 2023 title for the soon-to-be-departing Pickleball pro. It was also directly in the wake of this event that Jake Bredenbeck ascended to hold the #1 spot on tour, which he held until the season’s final event.
There’s 23 entrants into the pro singles draw here, as the tourney’s location makes it a tough travel challenge for central and South Americans. The event is missing a couple of top competitors: #3 Lalo Portillo is out, something that I’d guess might be more prevalent now that he’s a fully certified airline pilot. Then, a big chunk of the 11-20 guys are not here, including Miranda, Trujillo, Garcia, Flores, and Sam Bredenbeck. This means on the one hand fewer upsets in the early rounds, and it means opportunity for the top players to book some needed points.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
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In the 32s:
– Several local players get their IRT pro tour debuts this weekend, including Tony Teach, Sean Brooks, and Travis Haines.
– Oregon native, former touring pro, holder of the 2017 Pelham Memorial Tier 1 title, and former US National team coach @Charlie Pratt gets a rare appearance on tour; he plays #13 Moscoso. If Pratt had played into anyone else in the 9-16 range maybe he has a chance, but Conrrado will cruise past him.
– I like the @Wayne Antone Racquetball / @Robert Collins opener; could go either way.
– Two tour regulars in Carlos Ramirez and Jim Douglas get to play each other for a spot in the main draw.
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round of 16 Notable matches:
– Manilla and Alonso face off in the 8/9; great match. Should go the distance.
– Montoya gets the Gastelum/Spencer winner and needs to keep focused to move on. Gastelum gets a good test against a fellow Mexican.
– @Conrrado Moscoso comes into this event #13 on the back of some newly achieved points; this at least gets him out of a 1-16 matchup with Kane. Instead he plays into the #4 seed in @Andree parrilla, which I’m sure he’s not happy about.
– @Jake Bredenbeck gets the Collins/Antone winner. I don’t think there’s an upset here, but all of these guys are US National team veterans who can get points off of each other.
– top Mexicans Mar and Martell project into each other; I don’t have them meeting in a top-level event since Mexican Nationals in 2019.
– Natera continues to work his way back after ankle surgery earlier this year with a winnable match versus Carter in the 7/10.
– Last event’s champion Acuna starts his march back to the final against the Ramirez/Douglas winner.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 @Kane Waselenchuk over Manilla in a rematch of World Doubles lefty on lefty quarters. Hopefully Adam scores a few more points this time.
– we get a possible banger of a match between the two hardest hitters on tour in Moscoso and Montoya. For neutrals, huge fan of this potential matchup.
– Mar vs Bredenbeck rekindles an old rivalry that dates back to their first meeting in early 2016. Mar hasn’t lost to Jake since, including a meeting on tour in Pleasanton last year. Advantage Javi.
– Acuna gets his first test in Natera in the quarters; they met three times in three straight events in late 23-early 24, all three easy Acuna wins, and with Natera perhaps not yet 100% post surgery this should be Acuna moving into the semis for the 4th time in his last 5 events.
Semis:
– Kane and Moscoso project to play in my predictions in the semis, not the 16s as in Denver. And that might workout just fine for the Bolivian, who gets Kane after a couple of rounds of matches instead of fresh and lively on a Thursday. Furthermore, this will be Kane’s 2nd match of Saturday, as the pros will play both quarters and semis on one day. Will it matter? Kane won 5,14 two weeks ago, an interesting result to me in that Moscoso is usually more of a front-runner (meaning, when he loses in two, it’s usually close in the first game and a blow out in the second). I’m thinking this goes breaker, and Kane may be pressed a bit more than he’s used to before advancing.
– Acuna projects to face Mar in this scenario, a player he just waxed in the Denver quarters. I see no reason for a different result here.
Finals; a rematch of Acuna and Kane. Something tells me Kane wants to exact some revenge here and will get plenty of beauty rest Saturday night in order to be ready for a beating Sunday. Look for a two-game statement win from the King.
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Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
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Tourney Host Sebastian Franco. Photo Kevin Savory 2018 US Open
Hot on the heels of World Singles & Doubles was a quick Satellite event held in the old DMV, my stomping grounds. The DMV Invitational was held last weekend in Severna Park and played host to a slew of international players who stuck around state-side to play another event before heading back home.
This led to a solid 24-man IRT draw and some great action. here’s a quick recap:
Top seed Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball , who had to forfeit out of Denver’s event with an ugly-looking ankle sprain, ground out a couple solid wins to get to the final. He topped two of the best local players in Maryland in order in John Behm and then Ezequiel Subieta, who once made the Bolivian Junior national team before settling in the DC area and dominating DC/MD/VA events. Subieta topped the tourney host and former IRT Tier1 winner @sebastian Franco 7,2 to earn the shot at Montoya. In the semis, Montoya beat Sam Bredenbeck but certainly had to work for it, with Sam pushing Rodrigo 12,11 before falling.
From the bottom half, the player we keep talking about Bolivian 18U champ @Jhonatan Flores had himself a solid event, beating local favorite Zelada in the 16s and then No. 2 seed @javier mar in the quarters. He then fell to former #1 and fellow Bolivian @Conrrado Moscoso in the semis, but it was no blowout (11-7 in the third).
The final we well contested until Montoya had to retire again, losing 15-9 and retiring at 6-6 in the second. Moscoso takes the title in a Bolivia heavy field befitting a DC area event and its large Bolivian population.
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Doubles:
the two top pairs of IRT tour vets and regular partners were the two top seeds, and made their way to the final without much incident. There, the No 1 Montoya/Mar pair had to forfeit out with Rodrigo’s injury, giving hte title to No. 2 Moscoso/Carrasco. This gives Moscoso the double for his troubles.
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Any points are good points to earn for Moscoso right now, and these Satellite points should be enough to move Moscoso up a couple slots on the ranking, perhaps enough to get him out of a 1-16 matchup with Kane next time.
Next up on the calendar: The IRT Tracktown Open in Oregon at the end of the month.
