Dylan Pruitt took the singles title and played well in the team events. Photo 2022 Beach Bash via Rick Bernstein
The Louisiana crew in Monroe held their annual Warhawk Open last wekeend, a well-attended event that draws from all over the southeast every year and continues to host IRT touring pros annually. This year, in a fun twist, the organizing group got with World Team Racquetball’s head Mike Kinkin to host an the 2nd iteration of the WTR team racquetball competition with some dignitaries on hand to watch and participate.
Two of the alumni teams from last year’s inaugural event were on hand: the Dovetail Thunderbolts and the KWM Gutterman Kingz, and they were joined by four new teams with increasingly awesome logos: the Texas Outlaws, the Culligan Waterboys, the Louisiana Lasers, and the Mississippi River Hogs. There were two competitions: a Pro version and an Amateur version.
Here were the team rosters (pulled from https://www.worldteamracquetball.com/ along with Kinkin’s help)
4 Pro teams:
KWM:
– Jaime Martell Racquetball
– Austin Cunningham
– @Naomi Ros
Coach: Kane Waselenchuk
Dovetail:
– Eduardo Portillo Rendon (hurt)
– @Maria Renee Rodríguez
– @jordan Walters
Culligan Waterboys
– Robby Collins
– Dylan Pruitt
– Annie Sanchez (last minute replacement for Erika)
Louisiana Lasers
– Cristina Amaya Cassino
– Maurice Miller
– Troy Warigon
Additionally, 6 amateur teams competed:
Texas Outlaws (amateur)
– Marcus Zuniga
– David Mendoza
– DJ Mendoza (coach)
– William J. Craig
Mississippi River Hogs (amateur)
– @Tim Risler (coach)
– Bradnado Turnquest
– Bob Jackson
– Michael Yourell
Culligan Waterboys (amateur)
– David Kerr Jr.
– @Blake Lockwood
– Craig Clement
Kings (amateur)
– @David Anastasio (coach)
– Raymond Flowers
– Chris Kendrick
– Matt Ray
Dovetail (amateur)
– Mike Kinkin
– David Graves
– Joey Limocello
– Steve Semones (coach)
Lasers (amateur)
– Brian Acuna (coach)
– Al Schof
– Kip Atwell
– Shawn Dedebant
(apologies for any typos here)
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Lets recap the Team events and then the conventional divisions.
Pro Team event:
– In the top semi, #1 seed Dovetail took down the Louisiana Lasers, while the #2 seeds KWM ousted the pink-clad Culligan Waterboys.
In the final, KWM took advantage of a hobbled Portillo (nursing an arm injury he got in Chicago) to take the title.
Amateur Team Event:
– The Texas Outlaws squeaked by the Waterboys 11-10 to earn the final from the top-side, while KWM’s amateur team tried to emulate their pro counterparts with a solid win over Dovetail’s amateur side in the other semi.
– In the final, KWM made it two for two on the weekend with an 10,10 win over Texas.
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Men’s Open/Pro Singles:
– #1 seed Pruitt held serve, topping USA Junior national DJ Mendoza in one semi.
– #2 Robbie Collins took out former IRT touring pro Maurice Miller in the other semi.
In the final, Pruitt got a very solid win over the #15 ranked IRT pro Collins, winning an 11-9 tiebreaker thriller for the singles title.
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Men’s Open Doubles:
– Mendoza teamed with his junior national coach Collins to form a solid lefty/righty pair, and delivered the title. In the final they beat the top amateur team of Pruitt & Austin Cunningham in a breaker.
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Bravo to all the team owners and those who participated. Can’t wait to see the next iteration, and I can only hope we get the same quality team names and logos as we got here.
HoFamer Sostre takes home 3 golds. Photo Steve Fitzsimons 3WB 2020
Hello Racquetball fans. The first Outdoor “Major” of the 2025 season just finished up on the sunny courts of Garfield Street in Hollywood, Florida, and here’s a recap.
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Men’s Pro Doubles: McDonald/Sostre
– Women’s Pro Doubles: Key/Maldonado
– Mixed Pro Doubles: Sostre/Maldonado
– Men’s Pro Singles: No event this year.
– Women’s Pro Singles: Michelle Key
Executive Summary: A great showing for NY this weekend, with double pro golds for Sostre & Maldonado. Michelle Key also took home two titles, and Floridian Chris McDonald won his first ever Beach Bash title.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=46008
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Reports on ProRacquetballStats.com:
Match reports for 2025 Beach Bash:
– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/fd1c7d
– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/04cc18
– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/c8e4bf
– Men’s Pro Singles: No event this year
– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/e55d02
Triple Crown Reports for all past WOR major champions:
– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/3lj
– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/zoa
– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/obz
– Men’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/9ey
– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/h27
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Lets run through the draws, recapping the action.
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Men’s Pro Doubles:
So, I’m part of the 3WB seeding team and have helped in the past. Seeding outdoor events is really difficult. There’s practically no points you can really depend on, pros flow in and out year by year, top players who miss an event one year suddenly aren’t ranked at all, while players who happen to live in areas where there’s plenty of sanctioned one-wall events get over-seeded just by virtue of being able to play events. Often times we seed a team 11th, knowing that they’re better than the 11th best team and knowing they’re likely to beat the 6th seeded team, and that ends up being the fairest way to do a draw. Sometimes we tweak seeds slightly so that four players who flew a 1000 miles who are from the same club don’t play in the first round. It isn’t ideal to do these manipulations, and every year it leads to arguments, but there’s too many factors that just can’t be worked around.
Unfortunately, a confluence of events in this draw led to the final being competed by the #7 and #9 seeds. I’m sure some will look at this and talk about how incompetent the TDs are. Well, i’m sure they gave it a lot more thought than you might think, so cut them some slack.
Blatt & Rolon (the 2018 winners and constant presences at the back-end of one-wall major events) were seeded 9th, and, true to form, when they met the #1 seeds Montoya & Mar … not only did we get a quality match, we got an upset in what probably should have been at worst the semi final in the pro draw. Rolon & Blatt then cruised past Morales & Heymann to get to the final.
In the final, The #7 seeds Chris Mcdonald and Robert Sostre (who should have probably been seeded higher but likely placed at #7 knowing that they’d be the favorites over the #2 seeds anyway) ended up topping the #9 seeds in a breaker for the title. It’s McDonald’s first ever one-wall pro title, while Sostre wins his 6th career Beach Bash pro doubles title (fun fact: Sostre has made the final here in 11 of the 15 pro doubles events ever held).
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Women’s Pro Doubles:
Michelle Key and outdoor legend @Anita Maldonado were not threatened as the #1 seeds, cruising to a title. In the final, they topped outdoor specialists Katie Neils and Aimee Roehler.
With the win, Key gets her fourth career Women’s Doubles title here, and extends her amazing collection of Pro Doubles outdoor major titles to 19.
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Mixed Pro Doubles:
Taking advantage of a last minute withdrawal that cost the Mixed draw its #1 seeds, New Yorkers Erika Tinalli & Brian Romero cruised into the final with solid wins over Arizona’s Key/Anderson and fellow NYers Blatt/Guinan. However, they fell in the final to the experienced Sostre/Maldonado team
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Men’s Pro Singles:
There was no Singles event on the men’s side this year, the first time since 2014 that the draw didn’t field enough players to be held. Both of last year’s finalists and the 2023 finalist attended the competing Warhawk Open, 4-time champion DLR is out of the sport, 3-time champ Sostre is north of 50 and saves his body for the four doubles divisions he generally enters. Lets hope we don’t have fixture congestion and can get a full draw in 2026.
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Women’s Pro Singles:
Just three women entered the Pro singles here, with the draw missing a slew of names who typically play here. Munoz, Parrilla, Scott, Laime, Lawrence: all past finalists or semi-finalists.
In the end, @Michelle Key took her first Beach Bash singles title, improving on her finalist finish last year, topping Miami’s @Chanis Leon in the final.
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Other Notable draws:
– CPRT 40+ Doubles: Sostre/Harmon took out McDonald/Miller for the title, Sostre’s 3rd on the weekend.
– Men’s 75+: Rodrigo Montoya teamed with San Antonio’s Phillip Beverly to take the 75+ combined, beating Mar & Perez in the final.
– Men’s 100+: Stratton Woods in the house! Northern Virginia residents Allan Small and Suresh Vemulapalli beat teams that included legends Rocky and Beltran to take the 100+ combined title.
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Some additional commentary here.
Unfortunately, for the second year in a row Beach Bash ended up caught in a bit of a fixture congestion issue with too many racquetball events in March. Last year’s early Easter date pushed up PARC, which caused Beach Bash to be held on the same weekend as the IRT pro stop Shamrock Shootout, which caused all sorts of angst in the industry.
This year the Warhawk Open in Louisiana fell on the exact same date, and then when the new World Team Racquetball concept was added, players who have historically played BB instead flocked to ULM. Beach Bash’ attendance was just 125 players at R2, which is shocking for an event that usually sells out well in advance and pushes past a player cap. A slew of regular ladies tour players were missing, and the draws suffered. It’s unclear why so many of the regular outdoor ladies pros were missing this weekend, but the ladies and mixed draws really suffered for it.
The WTR event’s presence led to some nasty back and forth on social media between major sponsors, stuff that’s becoming all to common in our sport, and stuff that we just can’t afford to happen. Inevitably one guy gets pissed and pulls funding, then suddenly we’re out events and the sport continues to decline.
Could someone have moved their event? Maybe, but remember everyone has to work within the parameters of their host sites. Warhawk is on a college campus with availability set months in advance; Beach Bash is on public courts that have to be arranged with permits months in advance. It’s just a shame that the sport has a bunch of major events inside of a few weeks in March (two IRT events, and LPRT event, HS Nationals, Beach Bash, and Warhawk Open) but basically two events in the next two months (PARC in April, Nationals in May).
We do talk about a fixture scheduling call in the sport, but in the end we always work around what the IRF and USAR does as a default. But, maybe we can try to work together in the future to avoid this stuff.
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Thanks to the Tourney Directors Peggine Tellez , Jen O’Meara , @Mike Coulter, @vic Vic Leibofsky and the entire 3Wall Ball crew for putting this event on and ensuring the legacy of outdoor majors.
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Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing
Intercollegiates is next weekend at NC State. Then, PARC in April, USA Nationals (and Canada Nationals) in May. Not much else going on at this stage.
Jake wins his third.
Photo Kevin Savory 2020 USAR national doubles
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Jake Bredenbeck
– Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball & Javier Mar
Jake comes out on top of a weird, upset-filled event to win his 3rd career Tier 1 title and to retire the Glass Court club in style. Montoya & Mar cruise to the doubles title despite Montoya’s shoulder injury limitations.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=47136
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/ac96ab
Before we get started, A quick comment: there were a TON of top U18 and U21 internationals in this draw, and if I wasn’t bearish on the future of pro racquetball I’d be pointing at this event as a sign of the future. Competing in Chicago included:
– 2024 U21 World Champ Acha
– 2024 U21 semi finalists Trujillo and Barrios
– 2024 U21 USA Junior National titlist Horner
– 2024 U18 World Champion Flores
– 2024 U18 USA National team members Sendrey and Mendoza
– 2024 U18 USA Junior Nats quarter finalist Herrera II
– 2023 U21 World Champion Gastelum
– 2019 U18 World champ Miranda
– 2022 U21 World champ Garcia
That’s a lot of players who are all in their early 20s or younger, and they should represent the next big wave of players in this sport. Unfortunately a huge chunk of them are South Americans who can’t just hop a flight to get up here to compete, so I wonder what will come of them in their quest to move up the pro ranks. Perhaps we’ll see more of the likes of Flores, Miranda, Garcia, and Acha given the taste of success they’re having. I hope so.
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In the 64s:
– @Sam Murray kicked off his return to pro racquetball with a pretty dominant win over a tough Bolivian junior opponent in @hector Barrios 5,3
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In the 32s:
– Reigning u21 champ @Jhoel Alexis Acha got the match of a lifetime, playing King Kane and losing 4,6.
– @Sam Bredenbeck let 18U junior Cole Sendrey know just how far he has to go to compete, overpowering the Texan 13,6 to move on.
– Old WRT rivals Martel & Horn had a battle for the ages, with Horn running out of gas in the breaker.
– Thomas Carter destroyed @Kadim Carrasco 2,0 to move into the next round.
– Reigning 18U champ @Jhonathan Flores made a statement in his win over u21 international Diego Gastelum 7,6. I thought this would be closer, and it does not bode well for the collective U21 international crew, many of whom were here this weekend. Flores seems primed to destroy that competition for the next three years.
– Murray cruised past Montoya 11,6. We had a tip from a tour official that Montoya may not even play singles here, so this is not a surprising result necessarily. I did not get a chance to see him this weekend, but his competing through the doubles finals is a good sign.
– Trujillo made fast work of Mendoza, not giving the USA junior national a chance.
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Lastly, My friends at the IRT are not going to like this this take.
Argentine Diego Garcia was forfeited out of this draw because he showed up 12 minutes late to his match. You see, the tour changed the draw Wednesday night to accommodate one more player’s last minute entry, despite a registration deadline days before and most international players’ plans settled weeks before, a change that forced me to re-write much of my preview and to re-do all the match seeds. But this change also changed a bunch of published start times for players, including Garcias from 5pm to 3pm, a change relayed to him via a group text message that he missed. By the time someone told him … he rushed to the club but got there 12 minutes late.
So, to restate this; you have one of the most exciting junior players in the world who flew halfway around the world to play in one of the 7-8 pro racquetball events that will even happen this year, and you forfeit him because he’s sitting in his hotel room 10 minutes away from the club unaware that you’ve changed the draw on him with 12 hours notice. How dumb is that? What if Garcia stops coming up here because of this? You think the tour is better off not having one of the best players in the world investing the time and money to compete? This was an absolutely terrible decision, one that seems like it could have been worked around for the sake of the sport. Its not like there’s another event next week and its no big deal that he got forfeited; it probably cost a month’s wages for him to fly up here and compete.
We can’t afford to lose top players right now because someone was obstinate and refused to be flexible. Not over a hundred dollars of prize money for the winner. Have a player liaison, someone who speaks Spanish and who can help these guys navigate the situation. I thought Garcia had a real solid chance of getting to the quarters here; instead he’s dumbfounded by getting forfeited out of an event because he didn’t get a text message for a draw change that shouldn’t have happened.
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In the 16s:
– Jake solidly got past Martell
– Flores destroyed #4 Natera 9,6. Tough draw for Natera his first time in the top 4, but Flores is the real deal.
– Murray crushed Miranda 5,8 in a match I thought could go the other way due to Murray’s rust. I guess not.
– Mar was in control of his match of Alonso when he retired at the very end of game two. Mar looks dangerous this weekend for sure.
– Portillo made fast work of Trujillo 5,6. Portillo sure looks solid since he started flight school, and he’s now a danger for the semis or better every time he plays.
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In the Quarters
– Jake got a game one win over Kane, then the #1 seed retired. He tweaked something last week, and it was still bugging him, and in the post-game interview Kane said he knew he was going to have to forfeit at some point, and played until he figured he couldn’t go any further without injuring himself more significantly. During the match, Kane definitely seemed to take some awkward lunges at balls that Jake was hitting, as I looked for evidence of a point in time that led to the injury. His mobility was off for sure, and the last couple of points he mailed in before withdrawing.
– Parrilla survived a game against the Bolivian junior phenom Flores 11-10, a match he frankly should not have won. Flores blew him out in game one, then the two played neck and neck racquetball for the rest of game 2 and 3. Flores had match point on his serve and blew a wide-open forehand into the ground to give the ball to Andree, who converted and advanced.
– Mar crushed Murray 5,1 who finally showed some rust and fatigue.
– So much for being #2: Acuna was whitewashed by Portillo 3,0 in a beatdown.
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In the Semis
– Jake and Andree played their typical dogfight, with jake advancing 11,12
– Lalo pulled a rabbit out of his hat, coming back from a deep hole in the tiebreaker to beat Mar 11-9 and move into the final.
In the Finals, I would have put money on Lalo to continue his dominance, but it was jake who blew off the doors of the Mexican, winning 11,3 for his third career pro win.
Jake joins a small group of 3-time winners on tour that includes Parrilla, Strandemo, Ed Andrews, and Alvaro Beltran.
With the win, Jake will catapult himself up to #3 on tour, still behind Kane and Acuna. Lalo has moved up to #7, and Alonso up to #9. Mar now sits at #10 which may be a career high for him as he never plays a full schedule.
Meanwhile, Manilla’s injury costs him; he’s down to #8. But Moscoso is getting crushed; the knee injury that caused him to miss this week now has him all the way down at #14.
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Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/3d9832
Montoya & Mar didn’t drop a game en route to their 9th pro doubles title together.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Gastelum beat Barrios in the Open singles final. Sendry & S.Bredenbeck semis
– Team Argentina Miranda & Garcia took Open Doubles, beating the Lazenby brothers form St. Louis in the final.
– Ava Kaiser took the women’s Open RR singles, then teamed with Jake Wilkins to take the Mixed Open Doubles.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Richard Eisemann and Carrie Reitmeire.
Thanks to everyone at the Glass Court facility for the decades of support for Pro Racquetball. This was your swansong, and we will miss you.
Next week we get the first Outdoor Major of 2025, the Beach Bash in Hollywood Fl. We also get the WTR doing an event at the Warhawk Open, and the Bolivians will compete in the 2nd leg of their two-leg event series to determine its national champions and international representatives.
Murray returns to the IRT after more than a year away. Photo via us2019 Kevin Savory
Welcome to the 40th annual iteration of this event, and unfortunately the last iteration, as the Jaskier family has made the difficult decision to close the famed Glass Court Fitness club in Lombard after decades of ownership and operation. The unique “fishbowl court that is surrounded on all sides by viewing areas and sports equipment will host its final pro event, and the tour will lose a mainstay in its schedule. This club closing was followed just this morning with news that Recreation Atlanta will also be closing, another dagger for independent court ownership in our sport.
This is the 40th iteration of the tournament, now sponsored by Papa NIcholas coffee, and for the last 11 it has been associated with the IRT. Chicago as a town has been a major player in the Men’s pro racquetball world, thanks to the likes of Dan Jaskier , Dave Negrete , @Geoff Peters , and the Klimaitis family, who have donated time, money, and attention to the sport for decades. Chicago was the long-time host of the Halloween Classic, held the Motorola Pro Nationals in the mid 2000s, and held a bunch of NRC and Catalina nationals back in the hey dey of the sport late 70s/early 80s.
There’s something in the water specific to the Lombard club too, as we’ve seen all sorts of crazy results here in the last decade on tour. Here’s a sampling:
– in 2024, Jhonathan Flores went on a tear, beating a ton of top pros to make the quarters out of nowhere.
– in 2022, @Rocky Carson went on his last big run, making his last final as a #8 seed by beating then-#1 DLR before falling to Kane.
– in 2021, Jake beat then #1 Landa for one of his best career wins and got to the final.
– in 2018, a crazy tournament resulted in a final between Parrilla and Horn, each vying for their first title. Parrilla won, and it remains the only final Horn ever made on tour.
– in 2017, Parrilla made his first career final as a #14 seed, beating DLR, Landa and Carson along the way.
Despite all these great runs from players not named Waselenchuk, Kane has won 7 of the 10 titles competed here since 2015, and enters its last event as the dominant #1 seed this season and clear favorite to win another title, especially given that his two biggest rivals on tour (Moscoso and Montoya) both took major injuries last week in Minnesota. Moscoso is completely out of the Lombard event with his knee issue, as he hopes it heals up for his Bolivian Nationals later this month and then for PARC in mid April. Meanwhile, Montoya may just go through the motions in Chicago, depending on just how bad he injured his shoulder.
There’s 37 entered into the singles draw this weekend (one last minute entry that forced a draw-redo at the final hour and which forced some rewrites of this preview at the last second): having these back-to-back IRT events makes for great draws, as internationals can get two events in for the price of one flight.
Top 20 players missing: #5 Manilla still out with a shoulder tweak from earlier this year, #6 Moscoso as discussed above. The rest of the top 20 is here and playing, and the round of 16 will be stacked. Also returning here for the first time in more than a year is Samuel Murray, who has zero points and gets the #35 seed, and plays right into #3 Montoya .. who may or may not be too hurt to play. Read on.
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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 64, there’s 5 matches with some of them involving our own Jr National team members.
– U21 champ Acha has a winnable match against Mexican De Alba
– US National team member Grant Williams gets a good test against Bolivian @esteban Reque.
– USA juniors Horner and Herrera II meet for a spot in the 32s.
–
– Lastly, long-time touring vet Sam Murray is back on tour after more than a year away. Murray WON his last IRT appearance, thus breaking a number of the queries on the website which assume that a player lost their last match on tour. HE’s back, he has zero points, and is seeded 35th so he gets an opener. He gets the tough junior bolivian Hector Barrios, but should advance.
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In the Round of 32:
– Kane should get his start against reigning U21 champion Acha, a nice touch.
– In the 16/17 matchup, a fun on between the younger Bredenbeck brother Sam and prolific tournament player Cole Sendrey. This should be an interesting test for both players. They’ve never met in a pro or national setting. Sam has more firepower, but Sendrey has the game to beat him.
– Martell-Horn. Wow, is it 2015 on the WRT? These two players met in 2010 in Martell’s IRT debut in San Diego, and the last time of their 10 meetings was in 2019 at the US Open. They’re 5-5 against each other lifetime, but Martell has been more active on tour lately, so advantage Jaime.
– Carter- Carrasco is an interesting matchup of long-time touring pros who don’t get to play that often. Thomas has won their last 3 meetings and should advance here.
– Gastelum vs Flores: wow, this is a potential U21 World final. These two amazingly met last year in this exact same event (in Open, not Pros), a Gastelum win, but Flores has come a long way since, and has significantly better wins. A reminder: Flores made the quarters here last year and took a game off of Kane. Flores might be one of the best 10 players in the world, if only he toured full time.
– Murray-Montoya. If Montoya isn’t 100% (as I suspect he is not), then this is an upset in the making. Does Rodrigo even finish the match? He could barely swing a racquet on Saturday, and now he’s forced to face a Tier1 winner and long-time top 10 player in Murray? I think Sam advances here, and Montoya doesn’t finish the match.
– Trujillo-Mendoza. Well, this is a statement match. Trujillo may be in the top 10 now on the IRT and rising fast, but he keeps taking losses to players in his age group. Lost to Miranda last week, lost to Acha in U21 in December, Lost to Sanchez at Mexican Jr Nats in 2024, lost to Hernandez at MexNats24. But on the flip side, Trujillo has some great adult wins that bolster his current #9 ranking. Meanwhile, Mendoza has not been able to break through in US Junior Nationals, but got a very solid win over Acha last week. Is Mendoza taking a leap forward, or is Trujillo going to plaster him here?
– Acuna vs Castillo: this was set to be Acuna vs Murray until a last minute draw change: now Acuna gets a far, far easier path into this draw as the #2 seed for the first time.
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round of 16:
– Sendrey may get a first meeting against the King, for the wonderful opportunity of losing 2,4.
– Martell vs Jake: Jaime goes from one all-WRT meeting (Horn) to another one with Jake. These two played nearly 10 times on the old pro circuit, with Jake winning nearly all of them (career 10-1 on WRT And IRT). Last time they met was in 2023, a 1,4 beatdown by Jake. However, these two players are going in opposite directions right now. I still think Jake wins, but don’t be surprised if Jaime pulls an upset here.
– For his troubles of getting a career high ranking and seeding at #4, @alan Natera
likely faces off against one of the best Juniors in the world in Flores. And I think he is in jeopardy of losing to Flores, who has the hot hand right now and can get this win.
– Thanks to the presumed inj-fft of Montoya, the #3-#14 matchup opens up and turns into an interesting youth versus veteran matchup of Murray vs Miranda. I think Miranda is hot and can beat Murray, but Sam is also one of the best tacticians on tour. I’ll go with youth over rust and predict the Argentine (who should have been in the semis last week) to advance.
– Mar vs Alonso, a great matchup of tactical experts from Mexico. Both took unexpected upset losses to early 20s South Americans last week and will be looking to rebound. Alonso seems like the fairer bet to move on here. I have no record of these two meeting in a pro or nationals event, but its likely they’ve played at some local tournament over the many years they’ve been competing.
– Portillo-Trujillo; Lalo is the most dangerous 10 seed we’ve seen in a while. If Trujillo gets here, Lalo is just too good.
– Acuna – Garcia: another difficult matchup for the new #2 seed. Garcia beat him at Worlds last year in the group stage, and took a game off him at the Pleasanton pro stop. Garcia is hot, with comprehensive wins over Alonso and Jake last week, and I can see an upset here.
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Projected Qtrs:
– Kane over Martell
– Parrilla over Flores: Andree always plays well at this club and has some sentimentality for the area.
– Miranda over Alonso: playing a hunch
– Lalo over Garcia; Lalo may only be the #10 seed but he’s playing far better than it.
Semis:
– Kane d Parrilla in a rematch of a final here years ago.
– Lalo ends Miranda’s run.
Finals; Kane beats Portillo in a rematch of the Lewis Drug Pro Am. Scores are like 7,10.
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Doubles review
If, as I suspect, Montoya drops out, the #1 Montoya/Mar pair will open up the top-side, likely for last week’s WBF-benefactors Trujillo & Alonso, who are seeded fourth and could cruise into the final from the topside.
From the bottom half, the best matchup may be in the quarters as Parrilla/Portillo have to face Miranda/Garcia, a great Mexico vs Argentina matchup. I like the winner of that to the final, and to eventually win. Lalo is too good on the doubles court and I favor him and Andree to win the title.
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Hope you tune in this weekend, join the new IRT Club to support the tour and get access to more courts, and generally support what looks like it could be a great event with some fresh new faces making noise.
Annie (Roberts) Sanchez with her best career pro result.
Photo 2019 Junior Nationals, photographer Kevin Savory
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Paola Longoria
– Doubles: Montse Mejia and Alexandra Herrrera
Longoria pulls a rabbit out of her hat to win the singles final, and in doing so wins her 115th career Tier1 title. Mejia and Herrera take advantage of a Longoria-less doubles draw to cruise to another title.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=47428
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/9b76dc
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In the 32s:
– Bolivian Junior national champion Camila Rivero provided the biggest upset of the first round, topping #9 Carla Muñoz in three close games. Rivero has dominated World Juniors the last two years, winning both 18U and 21U in 2023 and then following it up with another win in Guatemala last December. She’s also now representing the country in Adults, though she either missed or didn’t place in the Feb 2025 qualifier in Auroro.
– Hollie Scott cruised past Lexi York in an upset by seed
– Annie Sanchez got the best win of her career with a toppling of long-time tour veteran Jessica Parrilla in three.
– Canadian #2 Juliette Parent pressed Amaya to three games but fell.
– Lastly, another great win for @Sheryl Lotts, downing Valeria Centellas 11,11.
In the 16s:
– Longoria had to face the tricky Barrios to move on, and was stretched 13,11. Not the round of 16 she wanted, but she got the job done.
– Rivero couldn’t follow up her big win and got crushed by fellow Bolivian (at least by birth) @Natalia Mendez 4,7
– Sanchez continued playing well and pushed #6 Lawrence to 14,12 before falling. Is Annie taking a step forward professionally?
– Lotts took a game off of #2 Vargas before falling, testament to how well she’s been playing lately.
Lots of great results out of unexpected places this event. Great to see the mid-teen players who have been putting in the work get results.
In the Quarters:
– Longoria cruised past Natalia 1,10
– Herrera got a great win over Gaby 11-6 in the breaker to give her some solid confidence heading into the rest of the season. After getting wins a few seasons ago she’s been passed by Vargas in terms of player interest, but she’s still out there.
– Mejia cruised past Lawrence 5,4
– Vargas held firm against Laime, winning two close ones 14,13.
In the semis:
– Longoria blitzed Herrera 9,0 to make a statement.
– Mejia wasn’t terribly troubled by Vargas, winning 8,9
In the final, we got a rematch of the last event in Arizona, which was a close Longoria win. Mejia had other ideas this weekend, fighting back after a first game 15-12 loss to win 15-8 and took firm control of the tiebreaker. She was up 10-5, missed a sitter, then…. the mental game kicked in. Longoria got the serve back, ground out points after points … suddenly it was an 11-10 win. A complete collapse from Mejia here to give Longoria the title.
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Points Implications of results
The big movement in the rankings should be Gaby taking over #4 on tour. Alexandra, despite beating her h2h here, will fall below her and continue to play her in the quarters. Mendez’ great run of form pushes her back up to #7.
A bit further down: Riquelme up to #14, Lotts up to #16, Centellas up to #19.
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, which the tour does a couple days after each event. Sometimes I have to go back and adjust points b/c a Tier 1 turns out to be a Tier1+ or a “mini grand slam” based on points. But, it goes back years if you’re interested.
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/470ca2
Eventual winners Mejia & Herrera had their toughest match in their opener, playing Team Guatemala and winning 14,13. From there, smooth sailing, including a 12,5 win in the final over team Argentina.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Ros defeated Sanchez in an all-USA Jr national team final.
– The Kelley brothers ended up playing for the Men’s Open final; JKelley d SKelley.
– Sam Kelley made it a double with a win in Open Doubles with Flores
– Jolene_Sullivan_/_Tony_Prater took the Mixed Open title
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from the regular LPRT broadcasters
The IRT is right back in action with all the traveling internationals in what will be the last pro event at the Glass Door facility. Preview coming on Thursday.
Natera with a career best singles result in Minnesota. Photo unk
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: @Kane Waselenchuk
– Doubles: Erick Trujillo and Jordy Alonso
Well, it was a weird one, but Kane won his record-extending 130th career title while Alonso & Trujillo won their first career doubles titles without taking the court in the semis or the finals. Lets recap the injury and upset-filled weekend in Minneapolis.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=47719
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/c2d644
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In 64s:
– I actually thought DJ Mendoza’s win over Acha was notable. Mendoza struggled at the 18U worlds last December, losing in the RRs twice, but took out the reigning U21 world junior champ in Acha (who had to beat both Trujillo and Hernandez to do so). Great win.
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In the 32s:
– Solid win for Sam Bredenbeck beating Carrasco 11-10.
– @Diego Garcia destroyed Alonso 10,2. I keep predicting a deep run for Garcia and he gets upset early … then when i hedge in the preview, he blasts a top 10 players with ease.
– Bolivian Jhonatan Flores with a match-point saving win over Mar, great win for the reigning 18U world champ. Lets hope he continues to get to travel to the US.
– Another Bolivian international in Miranda gets a top010 win, this time over Trujillo. Probably not entirely an upset even given the seeds, but given their junior histories.
– Sendry gets a nice win over the tour veteran Collins.
– Biggest result of the round: Moscoso tweaks his knee mid-first game against Horn, then stubbornly hobbles around to “complete” the match instead of just forfeiting, giving Horn a 13,0 win and a quarter final appearance for the first time since the 2018-19 season
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In the 16s:
– Garcia with another upset, this time over Jake in his home town event.
– I thought in my prediction that Flores may have a shot against Parrilla in the 16s … and he did, losing 11-10 after not being able to convert match point.
– Miranda continues his run, topping Carter to get to the quarters. Honestly, if Garcia and Miranda lived domestically they’d be top 8 already, and would be mainstays in the quarters.
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In the Quarters
– Kane continues to cruise, setting down the Argentine Garcia 7,4.
– Solid win by Acuna over Parrilla to get back to the semis. We’re going to talk about Acuna later; you’re going to be shocked where he’s ranked after this event is done.
– Montoya pulled a rabbit out of his hat, somehow coming back from 4-10 down in the breaker despite injuring his shoulder and basically hitting patty-cake with the racquetball and keeping it in play. Miranda was in control and had no business losing, but saw the injury and couldn’t capitalize. Amazingly Rodrigo wins 11-10 and then promptly forfeits both singles and doubles.
– Natera gets a career best semis appearance with his win over Horn.
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In the Semis
– Kane was pushed by the tactical Acuna, who took a game from him but couldn’t continue in the breaker with the upset. Sometimes it’s hard to look at Acuna’s game and realize that his steadiness may make him the most likely to put a loss on Kane right now, but time and again he hangs against the King.
– Natera gets his first career final with an injury walkover against Montoya.
In the Finals, with Kane going half-speed, he lost game two but won his 130th career title.
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Points Implications of results
Well, if I have my XLS right (see link below), and this event gives out points like an IRT plus event, then the consistency and steadiness of both Acuna and Natera are going to pay off; i have Andres rising to #2 on tour, leap frogging Moscoso and Montoya, while I have Natera jumping up to #4. Moscoso’s injury here and his missing most of the end of 2024 will continue to conspire against him
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/b3f213
The injuries to Montoya and Moscoso took out the two top doubles teams in this draw. The last team standing ended up being Trujillo & Alonso, who got walkovers in the semis and finals to claim their first title. They did get a very solid win over No 3. seeds Acuna/Natera.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Hector Barrios, who curiously didn’t play Pro singles, took Open singles in a walkover against Gastelum in the final, which would have been a great match.
– Open Doubles: Garcia & Miranda unsurprisingly cruised to a title.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Richard Eisemann and his band of guest speakers.
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.
Barrios got a win over Longoria last time she was in Boston; can she do it again? Photo via Barrios’ facebook page.
A busy weekend, and a busy month on the global racquetball calendar, sees the @LPRT returning to Boston, one of its longer running stops. The Boston Open has been run by Stewart Solomon for the benefit of the @Frontline Family Foundation annually since 2016.
27 of the best ladies in the world are in Massachusetts this weekend to battle it out. The draw is strong, with the whole top 10 present and only a couple of players from the 11-20 range out (Solis, Key) not present.
Like with the Men, a slew of internationals are here, especially from South America, to get in last minute reps for the upcoming PARC event in Guatemala, which only strengthens this draw and makes for some fun matchups.
Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable matches that i’m looking forward to:
Round of 32s:
– Bolivian #1 @Angelica Barrios has fallen so far down the rankings that she’s in the 16/17 match. This is a player who finished in the top 8 three years running. Tough opener for USA junior @Naomi Ros here.
– Rising star Bolivian Junior @Camila Rivero is here; she’s the 2-time defending 21U junior champion and now becoming a mainstay on the adult national team. She faces #9 Carla Muñoz , who doesn’t normally see such a tough round of 32. Upset watch here.
– Two team USA players in Scott and York have to meet in the opener. Even though Lexi York is the #12 seed, I think @Hollie Rae Scott is favored here.
– Team Canada in the house! We get rare LPRT appearances from @Ofelia Wilscam, @chloe Jauvin, and @Juliette parent, all pushing for @Racquetball Canada team slots. Juliette has the best chances of advancing, going against Racquetball TV’s Cristina Amaya Cassino .
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round of 16:
– #1 @Paola Longoria starts off her tournament with Barrios … who she’s 10-1 against lifetime … but that one loss? It was two years ago here in Boston. Interesting. I don’t think Barrios has the reps lately to press Paola, but crazier things have happened.
– In the 8/9 we project @Natalia Mendez and Munoz, if she can get by Rivero. Carla and Natalia have played a dozen times over the years, a lot internationally, and while Mendez owns the h2h Munoz has won the last couple. toss-up here.
– In the 6/11 we project @Kelani Lawrence and @Jessica Parrilla, who vets who will battle it out. Advantage Kelani.
– In the 2/15 we get two Bolivians turned Argentines in Vargas and Centellas. It’s always a little tough with doubles partner dynamics on the singles court, but Vargas shouldn’t falter here.
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Projected Qtrs:
– Longoria over Mendez. Paola is 12-0 lifetime against Natalia, and they’ve met three times in the last calendar year.
– Martinez over Herrera: neither player has a tough draw to this point, but then should have a battle. They’ve met 10 times; Gaby is 6-4 lifetime, and dominated in January 8,4 when they met at the Arizona Open.
– Mejia over Lawrence; they also met in AZ; a 0,4 beat-down for Montse.
– Vargas vs Laime: this is the toughest one to predict. On the one hand, Vargas is 5-0 against Brenda lifetime, so the prediction should be easy. But, Laime has a habit of getting out of nowhere wins, and plays a very similar game style to Vargas. If Brenda is hitting the ball, she can win this. I’ll go Vargas but in a breaker.
Semis:
– Longoria over Gaby. they’ve met 29 times across their storied careers: Gaby now has 3 wins, all three of them significant. It can happen, but the odds are against it. They usually play close, tough matches, but this time at sea level the advantage goes to Longoria (2 of Gaby’s 3 wins were at altitude, where she trains in Guatemala and has a distinct advantage).
– Mejia over Vargas. Vargas had Montse’s number for a while, but then Montse handled her in Arizona in January. I think she’s back.
Finals; Longoria over Mejia. Montse is playing well, but not well enough to beat Paola right now.
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Doubles review
There’s definitely some interesting teams and interesting draw developments here.
– Amaya and Riquelme are not playing together for the first time I can remember.
– The Guatemalan national team of Gaby & MRR is seeded 8th, which will give them an early test against Herrera & Mejia.
– With no Salas at the event, Longoria chose not to play doubles at all.
– Vargas has clearly dropped Mendez for Centellas in the Argentine pecking order; they’re #3 seeds.
– Reigning Team USA champions Scott & Lawrence are together, they’re the #5 seed.
– Mendez is teamed with Munoz and has enough points for the #2 seed, but won’t be favored to get to the final.
Prediction: #1 Herrera/Mejia vs #3 Vargas/Centellas in the final, with the Mexicans winning.
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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!
Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on LPRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!
how far can Jake go in his home-town event?
Photo Kevin Savory 2020 USAR national doubles
Welcome back to the International Racquetball Tour and the return of Men’s Pro racquetball. The first event of the new year under the new regime was well received, and now the tour is back. They’re in Minnesota, at the University of Minnesota on the same courts that held the last US Open a couple year’s back for the 2025 Minnesota Hall of Fame event. It’s the third straight year for this event, which is great news for the sport to have some continuity.
Ahead of the event, we got some news items:
– the Glass Court club in Lombard is set to close. We’ll talk more about it in our Shamrock preview in a week, but wanted to mention it here.
– The Bredenbeck brothers are coordinating a GoFundMe to finance the Team USA PARC delegation to Guatemala this year. For those who just aren’t familiar with the financial state of the sport now, USA Racquetball is to the point where they can only finance one IRF event per year, and generally speaking its going to be the major events going forward (Worlds, World Games, Pan Am Games). If you’d like to help, here’s the link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-team-usa-represent-in-guatemala
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This tournament is made possible this year by TD @Vallana Perrault , long time fundraising lead Karen Masberg Bredenbeck , and by headlining sponsor @KWM Gutterman and new tour majority owner @Keith Minor. Thanks for everything you do for this event and for the sport in general.
The singles draw has a solid 39 players. There’s a couple of notable absences in the draw: #4 Adam Manilla is missing and will be out for a while with a shoulder injury he suffered/aggravated in Sioux Falls, a bummer for the lefty who had just reached a career peak. His absence gives both Trujillo and Natera career high seedings in an event. It also guarantees a little bit of a jumbling of the expected matchups we usually see in the 16s and quarters, which is always good. Last event’s finalist Lalo is missing, but the rest of the top 20 is here. Even the Bolivian regulars are present, right on the tail end of their Carnival, so hopefully they got some rest on the plane.
This singles draw features a TON of South Americans coming up, including both top Argentine males, eight players from Bolivia, Colombia’s veteran Cubillos, all the top Guatemalans, plus the rest of the expected international top touring vets. Altogether 9 countries represented.
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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 64, you don’t usually have compelling matchups, but we do here.
– US junior national member Benjamin Horner takes on Guatemalan national team member @Jose Caceres in what should be a good test.
– Reigning U21 world champ Bolivian Jhoel Alexis Acha makes his IRT pro debut, and takes on USA junior National 18U team member @DJ Mendoza. Solid match between two up and coming players.
– @Gerson Miranda faces off against Mexican 14U player Santiago Castillo in his pro tour debut.
– David ” Bobby” Horn , fresh off his APP Sacramento Open pickleball tournament last week, faces off against the tough midwest amateur Lee Meinerz . Could go either way: Meinerz is a tough out if Bobby hasn’t been training.
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In the 32s:
– In the 16/17 match a great meeting between home-town @Sam Bredenbeck
and Bolivian veteran Kadim Carrasco . Should be a good one. I like Sam here.
– @Jordy Alonso has to contend with @Diego Garcia in the opener, and should advance but this is a tough one against a tough international. I’m usually in favor of predicting upsets for the likes of Garcia in these events, but he’s struggled to make an impact outside of international events lately.
– Andree Parrilla , who has been struggling with some health issues, draws the U21 Bolivian champ Acha, and if he doesn’t watch out could take a loss here.
– #12 @Javier Mar gets the tough Bolivian Jhonathan Flores … upset watch here. In case you forgot what Flores can do, last year in Chicago he put losses on Jake, Collins, Ulliman, and Alonso, and then took a game off of Kane in the quarters. He’s the reigning 18U World champ and is set to run the 3-year U21 table.
– Top Midwest amateur @John Goth gets a winnable matchup against #14 Carlos Rodríguez
– For getting his best ever tourney seed, #6 @Erick Trujillo draws Miranda, a guy who can absolutely beat him if he’s not careful.
– the 15/18 is interesting, an all USA matchup between junior national Cole Sendrey, and his Junior National team coach Robby Collins . Can Sendrey get a win here against his coach?
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Round of 16:
– In the 8/9, Alonso vs Jake; great matchup. Jake playing for the home crowd, but Alonso on the hot streak. Tough to predict.
– Parrilla/Mar in the 5/12: brutal start to his tourney for Parrilla, who might not get here and probably falls to Mar, who he’s played dozens of times in his life and wh o matches up well against him, and who is coming off a Mexican Nationals final.
– Trujillo if he gets past Miranda projects to Thomas Carter , a good status check of the current pecking order on tour.
– Natera vs Martell: great matchup that we don’t normally get to see. I like Natera here, but Martell had a solid tourney in South Dakota.
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Projected Qtrs:
– @Kane Waselenchuk over Alonso: Jordy shocked him when they met in Canoga Park last May; there will not be another shocking.
– Mar over @Andres Acuna: seems like Mar is healthy and could go deep here.
– Montoya over Trujillo; the young player from Monterrey isn’t ready to challenge Mexico’s top dog yet,.
– Moscoso over Natera: by late Friday Moscoso should be over his jet lag, recovered from his street dancing gig, and will be rocking.
This is my dream semis by the way: Kane, the two guys who I think have the best shot of beating Kane right now in Moscoso & Montoya, and the classy Mar who has a great game to matchup against the King. We’ll see if it comes to pass. Probably not
Semis:
– Kane over Mar: we’re years past the US Open where Mar hung with Kane; last time they met it was a beat down in Pleasanton.
– Montoya over Moscoso: Rodrigo won’t be afraid of Conrrado.
Finals: Kane d Montoya in three. I think Montoya can keep it together to take a game, but not a match, off of the King.
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Doubles review
There’s some great round of 16 matches here: Martell/Carter vs Sendrey/Gastelum is one, and Alonso/Trujillo vs Garcia/Miranda (team Argentina) is another. Guatemala’s PARC presumed team is here in Salvatierra/Galicia; they take on IRT tour vets Ramirez & Collins in a solid lefty/righty matchup.
In the end though, I think the two top teams (Mar/Montoya and Carrasco/Moscoso) will be too tough to beat and will meet in the final. I like the Mexicans over team Bolivia once again.
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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.
Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on IRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!
Last weekend, the 37th annual @USA Racquetball High School Nationals were held at the legendary Multnomah club in Portland. Here’s a quick recap with some historical stats.
Note: the Pro Racquetball Stats database does not store this information, but I do have it in a big XLS that i’ll link to here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1esBFXB4YrQNorKH6peEMJfAmCgenqev9TCyOE3IFlpk/edit?usp=sharing
Singles Winners:
Boys Singles/#1 Gold: Eli McCulley from Lindbergh HS (St. Louis, MO) took out #1 seed and USA Junior National team member Grant Williams for the title.
Girls Singles/#1 Gold: Andrea Perez-Picon from Sierra HS (Mantcea, CA) repeated as High School champ, topping SoCal’s Victoria Rodriguez in the final.
Doubles Winners:
– Boys: Charlie Vonder Bruegge & Harry Bogatko from Kirkwood HS in St. Louis took the title from the top seed spot.
– Girls: Rebecca Christopher & Margaret McPheeters, also from Kirkwood, took the Girls #1 title.
– Mixed: Eli McCulley & Stella Ortwerth prevented a Kirkwood clean sweep of doubles and gave McCully a double-gold for the weekend with their Mixed title.
Team Winners:
– Overall Team: Kirkwood HS, St. Louis, MO
– Boys Team: Kirkwood HS, St. Louis, MO
– Girls Team: Kirkwood HS, St. Louis, MO
For the second year in a row, Kirkwood has run the table, winning all three team events.
Go here for the complete team standings for the 2025 event; https://www.mohsrball.com/_files/ugd/c50405_5c0d7137eb514cdbb8f977aee53edaf3.pdf
Congrats to all parties for another awesome HS nationals event, and thanks to everyone who keeps the Missouri and Portland-area HS leagues so well run. You’re doing a massive part to keeping grass roots racquetball alive in this country.
Trujillo teamed with Hernandez to win his first Adult national title.
Photo Kevin Savory/US Open 2021
The FMR, aka the @federacion Mexicana de Raquetbol, held its 2025 National championships at the famous FitMax courts that have defined the Chihuahua racquetball scene for decades. This event serves to select the Mexican National team that will compete for this year’s slate of International Racquetball Federation – IRF events that Mexico is eligible for, namely the upcoming PARC event in Guatemala.
Interestingly, the federation already decided its two participants for the upcoming 2025 World Games, discussed with the team that played in Worlds last fall and determined to be the male and female who advanced the furthest in Singles. That ended up being 13-time pro champ Paola Longoria (who won) and @Eduardo Portillo Rendon (who made the semis ahead of his teammate Parrilla).
That may have played a part in the smaller draws here, and some missing top names. Defending champ Parrilla was not present; per a source he has been battling an injury and had a trip already planned that ended up conflicting with the event once the FMR settled on a date. Also missing from this event on the Men’s this year were long-time competitors DLR (converted to USA), Landa (retired), Beltran (retired), Alonso, Natera (converted to Chile), Garay and Estrada (stepped back), Polo Gutierrez (stepped back), former top juniors like Gutierrez & Sanchez, Christian Longoria (only played doubles), and a slew of frequent IRT players like Nieto, Valadez, Erick Cuevas Fernandez, Arteaga, and a few other lesser known players. All these guys used to make this a full round of 32 draw and would result in crazy results.
Lets recap what happened in Chihuahua for those that did come.
Men’s Open Singles Recap.
PRS report: https://rball.pro/077f23
Tourney director @Favio Soto predicted that the home court would play a role here, and it definitely did, with 5 of the 8 quarterfinalists hailing from this area, 3 of the 4 semi-finalists, and both finalists. #12 seed @Javier Mar, who never seems to rate a top seed at these events, cruised past fellow IRT touring pros Carlos Ramirez and Erick Trujiollo in the first two rounds before downing #1 seed @Eduardo Portillo
in the semis to make the final from the top-side
The bottom half of the draw was appreciably thinned for #2 seed Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball , who handled Martell in the quarters and then U21 starlet Javi Sebastian Hernandez in the semis who setup a final against his long-time doubles partner. In the final, Montoya took three close games over the classy Mar to claim the National title, his 3rd.
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Women’s Open Singles Recap:
PRS Report: https://rball.pro/98caa3
Unlike with the men, where home-town players From Chihuahua dominated play, the top four ladies all currently live in the same place: Monterrey. The top four seeds, all top-8 players on the @LPRT tour, advanced as expected to the semis.
Longoria topped her doubles partner Salas in one semi, while Mejia topped her doubles partner Herrera in the other, to setup the third straight meeting between Montse and Paola for the National title. And, like the previous two meetings, Longoria came through with the win, claiming her 11th title in the last 12 years and what is probably her 13th or 14th career title (our records only go back 2008).
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Men’s Doubles Recap:
PRS report: https://rball.pro/4841f8
The u21 team of Trujillo & Hernandez overcame Portillo/Martell to make the final from the bottom side, then shocked the #1 seeds Montoya & Mar, who were making their 8th straight final but who got upended by their youthful rivals for their first title.
Women’s Doubles Recap:
PRS Report: https://rball.pro/22ebc2
Only four teams entered, and we got the same final that we normally get on tour: Longoria & Salas vs Mejia & Herrera. Longoria & Salas reversed the trend from the last two years this time around and secured the title, earning Longoria a double on the weekend. It is (I believe) their 16th national title together.
(Note: Mexico doesn’t hold mixed doubles competitions like the USA; they select their mixed team from the qualified players ahead of each event).
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Congrats to all 2025’s Mexican National champs.
Next up on the racquetball calendar? Next weekend features @USA Racquetball High School Nationals in Portland as well as an @International Racquetball Tour satellite event in New Mexico.
