Category: Doubles

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2025 Canadian Nationals Recap

Huge double gold weekend for Iwaasa. Photo 2015 Portland IRT event by Kevin Savory

This past weekend, Racquetball Canada held its all-encompassing National championships in Burlington, Ontario. National titles and National team spots were handed in in Singles, Doubles, and Juniors. Here’s a quick summary of the winners and a recap of the surprising results in the Adults.

Congrats to your 2025 Canada National Open Singles winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Singles: Coby Iwaasa

– Women’s Singles: Frederique Lambert

Congrats to your 2025 Canada National Open Doubles winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Doubles: Coby Iwaasa and Kurtis Cullen

– Women’s Doubles: Frederique Lambert & Michelle Morissette

Congrats to Iwaasa in particular, getting the double Gold at Nationals for the first time ever. Also props to double-gold winner Lambert, who continues her run atop Canada racquetball despite a full time Medical career.

(Reminder: Canada doesn’t separately compete Mixed Doubles as US & Mexico does, instead selecting the international Mixed partners from the qualified pool)

Congrats to your 2025 Canadian Junior National Singles Champions:

– Boys 21U: Nathan Jauvin

– Boys 18U: Leyton Gouldie

– Boys 16U: Kyrylo Tkach

– Boys 14U: Oren Gouldie

– Girls 21U: Ofelia Wilscam

– Girls 18U: Chloe Jauvin

– Girls 16U: Kaitlyn Couckuyt

– Girls 14U: Talia King

We’ll do some commentary for each of the groups down below.

Trackie Sports App home page for event: https://secure.racquetballcanada.ca/entry-list/matches/1014510/4625/0/F/

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Men’s Open Singles

PRS report: https://rball.pro/a74e99

We had a relatively huge upset in the Men’s Open finals, with long-time #2 @Coby Iwaasa topping #1 Samuel Murray in four games for the title. This is the first time Sam has been dethroned as Canada’s national singles champion since 2017, and its Coby’s first title since 2015. These two have met in the finals of the last 18 straight national-level events in Canada (qualifiers and nationals), and this is just the second time Iwaasa has taken a match from Big Sam in that span (Iwaasa topped Murray for his 2015 title).

Webb & Cullen made the semis as #3 and #5 seeds.

See https://rball.pro/879898 for a list of all Men’s Canada National finals.

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Women’s Open Singles

PRS report: https://rball.pro/5deb35

Dr. Frederique Lambert won her 5th straight Canadian National title, and her 7th overall dating back to 2015, by beating 3-time runner up @Juliette Parent in the final. The women’s field was a bit thin this year, missing a couple of perennial competitors in Keay and Richardson who are normally semis/finals competitors.

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Men’s Doubles:

PRS Report: https://rball.pro/7254d9

The Men’s draw was opened up early by an injury to #1 seeds and 2024 champs Trevor Webb & Christian Pocsai, which opened a pathway for the 2023 champs Iwaasa & Cullen to the throne. This is Iwaasa’s 5th National doubles title and Cullen’s 2nd. They topped 3-time champions the Murray brothers Sam & Tommy in the semis to earn their spot in the final, where they defeated the newbies @Leyton Gouldie and @Asher Pocsai.

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Women’s Doubles:

PRS Report: https://rball.pro/d603c8

Lambert and @Michele Morissette combined to take their fourth straight National title together. Each now owns 6 titles overall (Lambert won two others earlier in her career, and Morissette won two in the late 2010s with Keay. They topped a small round robin group for the title.

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Boys Junior Results.

Matrix report of all Canadian Junior boys champs: https://rball.pro/ny4

Nathan Jauvin took the 21U title, his 8th career Junior title in Canada. He wins 21U in his last year of eligibility to compete a sweep of the five main age groups in his career. Leyton Gouldie tacked on a gold in 18U to his silver in Adult doubles, repeating as champ. Kyrylo Tkach got his first 16U title after winning twice at the 14U level. Lastly. a younger member of the Gouldie family Oren Gouldie repeated as 14U champ.

The Boys 14U draw was, by far, the largest draw at this event, with nearly 20 competitors as compared to the handful of juniors in most other draws. I’m not sure if there was a wave of middle schoolers picking up the sport in Canada or not, but it’s great to see and I hope that class continues.

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Girls Junior Results.

Matrix report of all Canadian Junior boys champs: https://rball.pro/5zu

The 21U awarded a champ for the first time in several years, with Ofelia Wilscam moving up from last year’s 18U title to claim the 21U title over Mercy Coughey. Canada definitely had a weird “gap” in their Girls Junior ranks, skipping 18U and 21U for a couple of years, but they seem “back” now. Chloe Jauvin won her 7th Junior title and she’s won in every age group available so far during her career. Kaitlyn Couckuyt repeated as 16U champ and has now won 3 straight Junior national titles. Talia King is a first-time junior national champ in 14U.

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That’s a wrap for Racquetball Canada Nationals for 2025. We’ll be back next fall with their qualifier.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

There’s an IRT satellite in New Mexico next weekend, then the LPRT has a spot at an old stoping ground of mine in Herndon, VA. Later this month is Outdoor Nationals, which has teamed up with @3wallball this year.

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USAR National Indoors 2025 National Championships Wrap-up

Erika Manilla with two national titles in 2025. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory

Congrats to your US National Team winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Singles: @Daniel De La Rosa over @Jake Bredenbeck

– Women’s Singles: Naomi Ros over Hollie Scott

– Men’s Doubles: @Rocky Carson / @David ” Bobby” Horn

– Women’s Doubles: @Michelle Key / Erika Manilla

– Mixed Doubles: Erik Garcia / Erika Manilla

Exec Summary: Erika Manilla double-qualifies. DLR retains his US National singles title. Michelle Key returns to the team with her doubles win. Horn returns to the time for the first time since 2019, while both Garcia and Ros secure their first ever National team spots.

Lastly, Carson qualifies for what I believe is his 22nd US National team, returning to the team after a three year hiatus. He qualified for his first team in 2000, then was a near annual member for the entirety of the 21st century before semi-retiring from competing two years ago.

The 2025-26 US National team is now set. The winners above along with the singles finalists have first right of refusal for the next set of international events: The World Games in August 2025 in China and the annual PARC tournament next spring in a site TBD (usually Guatemala City).

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=46012

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Let’s review the notable matches in the draws.

Men’s Singles

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/f0e28f

Former IRT touring pro and now pickleball professional returned to racquetball for the first time since Worlds last August to repeat as US National singles champion. Despite being the defending titlist, he was for some reason seeded third here, but eased his way through Ayan Sharma, Sam Bredenbeck, Bobby Horn, and then beating Jake Bredenbeck in a rematch of the 2024 championship.

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Women’s Singles:

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/b7da98

It was great to see long-time US National team member Rhonda Rajsich competing; we havn’t seen her since an LPRT stop in Arizona a couple years ago. She fell to Hollie early. A last minute withdrawal of four-time Nationals finalist Lawrence opened up the bottom half of the draw, and Texan Naomi Ros took full advantage, topping her fellow recently-matriculated junior Annie Sanchez in the semis to secure her first spot on the Adult national team. She didn’t stop there, beating defending national champ Scott in the final to give her both the 18U national title and the Adult team national title simultaneously, something that has only been done twice in the history of the sport (Michelle Gould in 1989 and Jack Huczek in 2001).

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Men’s Doubles:

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/bdb054

Grizzled veteran Rocky Carson teamed with Bobby Horn (playing in his home club) to shock the defending US National doubles champions De La Rosa/Fernandez in the semis, then finished off their title-run by beating the Bredenbeck brothers in the final. It’s the fourth time in the last five years Jake & Sam have been losing national finalists. Horn returns to the team for the first time in 6 years, while Carson makes the team just a few days before he turns 46, a level we havn’t seen on the team since the Ruben Gonzalez glory years.

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Women’s Doubles:

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/7b93c3

Just three teams entered this year’s Women’s US team qualifying, and 2023 champions Manilla & Key held firm to re-qualify for 2025 by beating their two rivals. They certainly had to work for it, with the “final” going 5 games against Scott & York.

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Mixed Doubles:

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/c377cf

As has become tradition, the Mixed Doubles event was the first to play to completion, and it started off with a huge upset. Defending Mixed National champs De La Rosa & Scott were upended by #5 @Robbie Collins and Annie Sanchez (nee Roberts) in the semis in four games. Perhaps DLR’s time away from the sport showed in his play, but they went one-and done. Collins & Sanchez couldn’t complete the deed, falling in the finals to #3 seeds Erika Manilla & Erik Garcia for the title. Manilla recaptures her Mixed title won in 2023 with her brother, while Garcia qualifies for his first ever National team.

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Other notable draws:

– Men’s Open: @Ty Hedalen repeated as Men’s Open champ, beating the visa-less Veronica Sotomayor in the final.

– Women’s Open: 15-yr old Andrea Perez-Picon, who switched to compete in Mexico for the 2024 season, swept through the Women’s Open RR group, defeating her sister Estefania in the final. In case you’re wondering, non-US citizens can compete in non-US Team qualifying at US Nationals … as well as dual citizens.

– Men’s Open Doubles: Rocky didn’t get enough doubles work winning the National title, so he competed in Open Doubles with Charles George and took that title too.

– Women’s Open Doubles: Hometown favorites Angela Grisar and Erica Williams took the Women’s Open Doubles title.

– Mixed Open Doubles; The Perez-Pincon brother/sister team of Alejandro and Andrea out-pointed Mark Frank & Veronica Sotomayor to take the Mixed Open title.

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Thanks to the Tourney Directors from @USA Racquetball for putting together 2025’s National event. Congrats to the Hall of Fame inductees, the others recognized at the annual awards, and for those 175 or so players traveling to compete.

Thanks to the Tourney Sponsors this year, which included WIS International, Gearbox/Rafael Filipini, KWM gutterman/Keith Minor, FixmyRacquet.com, RacquetX, and AGE Solutions/Andy Gomer.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbI…

We have Canadian Nationals next weekend, then a slew of events in June, including a LPRT event in DC, Outdoor Nationals, and US Junior Nationals.

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tags

@USA Racquetball

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2025 Pan American Racquetball Championships Individual Event Recap

The 36th annual Pan American Racquetball Championships tournament (at least the singles and doubles competitions) is in the books. Here’s a recap of the group and knockout action, along with links for the results as entered into the Pro Racquetball Stats database.

Congratulations to the winners:

– Men’s Singles: Diego Garcia Quispe , Argentina

– Women’s Singles: Montse Mejia, Mexico

– Men’s Doubles: @Conrrado Moscoso/@Kadim Carrasco , Bolivia

– Women’s Doubles: @Natalia Mendez/@Valeria Centellas , Argentina

– Mixed Doubles: @Alan Natera / @Carla Muñoz Montesinos

Executive Summary: Argentina showed up big this week, making the finals of four of the five competitions. Garcia wins his and Argentina’s first ever Men’s gold in IRF play. Mejia wins her 2nd career IRF singles title. Natera & Munoz win the first gold for Chile since the 2007 South American games.

Pro Racquetball Stats DB match results. Click on these links to see the match results in the DB:

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/2c0b4e

– Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/a39615

– Men’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/a11b14

– Women’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/f0ea0d

– Mixed Doubles: https://rball.pro/2987af

Team Points Results From Knockouts

PARC now includes a “Team Competition” where the countries compete against each other at the end of the individual competitions, but for decades the “Team Standings” were determined by an algorithm that awarded points based on group stage and knockout performance. I’m unclear whether IRF continues to name “team winners” in this same way, but here’s the team results using the historical methods:

(You can get these “team results” via queries available from the IRF singles page off of proracquetballstats.com for past history)

Combined Team (Overall)

1st – Argentina

2nd – Mexico

3rd – USA

4th — Costa Rica

Summary: four finals will do a lot for your combined team totals, and it was the Women’s Doubles final that made the difference for Argentina’s combined team to finish top. Argentina becomes just the 5th ever country to win a Combined team title at an IRF event.

Men’s Team

1st – Argentina

2nd – Bolivia

3rd – Mexico

4th – USA

Summary: Argentina squeaked past Bolivia for the mens’ title, ironic since both of Argentina’s men were born in Bolivia.

Women’s Team

1st – Mexico

2nd – Argentina

3rd – USA

4th – Chile

Summary: Mexico’s mixed team results made the difference here.

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Let’s run through the individual draws and talk about notable results.

Men’s Singles:

In the group stage, Guatemala’s @Edwin Galicia shocked Argentina’s @Gerson Miranda, which sent the Argentine to the back-draw. Some commentary here: I HATE the splitting of the knockout phase into a “red” and “blue” draw like we do in junior competitions so more kids can get trophies. It eliminates top players who had one bad loss in the group stage like Miranda, and you can see the results: a guy who’s making the quarterfinals of pro events is relegated to a competition with A-players and he just totally bailed, not wanting to waste his energy there. If someone tells me they don’t have “time” to play one more round of a knockout stage, i’ll laugh in your face; these players are in country and onsite for 8 straight days.

Other surprising RR results: Mexico’s #2 @Sebastian Hernandez had an awful event, losing twice in group play to also get relegated to the secondary knockout. Two other interesting group results: Canada’s #1 @Samuel Murray took out Bolivian Carlos Keller; both players are paring down their pro tour schedules lately, but Keller’s always a tough out in international play. Lastly, great win for the DR’s De Leon, beating Ecuadorian veteran Jose Daniel Ugalde to finish second in the group.

In the knockouts, some upsets early as Murray took out Costa Rica’s @Andres Acuna

, who has risen to #2 on tour. The biggest knockout shock was Argentina’s @Diego Garcia , Bolivian born but converted for $$ and opportunity, beating both USA’s #1 @jake Bredenbeck and then Bolivia’s @Conrrado Moscoso to make the singles final. I’ve long espoused about Garcia’s capabilities and he showed up in this event.

In the final, #1 seed Mar had no answer for Garcia’s quickness and power and fell in three close games.

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Women’s Singles:

The shocker of the RR stage was the play of USA #2 @Lexi York, who beat both Lambert and MRR to top her group. Chile’s Carla Munoz held firm against Argentinian Valeria Centellas to claim the top spot, and a great s howing by CRC’s Larissa Faeth to top Canada’s #2 @Juliette Parent.

In the knockouts, former tour champ Mejia ousted Munoz in the quarters, and York continued her run by beating her teammate Michelle Key to make the semis. #1 Mendez got a great win over Mexico’s #1 Herrera to make the final, facing off against Mejia.

In the final, Mejia outclassed her fellow LPRT pro in three games for the gold.

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Men’s Doubles.

Notable group stage results: team USA the Bredenbeck brothers beat Team Mexico (Trujillo/Hernandez) to take the top spot in a solid win. Nothing else notable in the group stage.

In the knockouts, Bolivia beat USA in the semis in an upset, while Argentina’s young guns ousted the top seed Costa Rica to setup an all-Bolivian born final between Garcia/Miranda and Moscoso/Carrasco. In said final, Moscoso (who took a serious injury on the IRT a month ago) salvaged the event and took gold with veteran partner Carrasco by holding off the strong Argentinian team.

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Women’s Doubles:

The two four-team group stage pools went as expected; Mexico, USA, and Argentina were clearly a step ahead of the rest of the field. Curiously Team Guatemala did not feature Gaby & MRR, which severely thinned this field.

In the knockouts, USA (Key & York) couldn’t overcome Argentina (Mendez & Centellas) from the top half, while Mexico (Herrera and Salas) dominated into the final from the bottom half. In the final, the Argentines shocked team Mexico with a dominant 3 game win to defend this title from last year.

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Mixed Doubles

Defending champs Team USA (Sam Bredenbeck & Michelle Key) cruised into the knockouts as the #1 seed. Chile’s husband/wife team of Natera & Munoz shocked team Canada to take the #2 seed, while a group of death saw team Argentina shockingly lose to CRC and head into the knockouts seeded 9th of 9. This proved to be fateful, as Mendez/Miranda took the opener, then shocked team USA in the quarters to send the defending champs home early.

In the bottom half, team Chile did not take their foot off the gas, shocking the presumed top Mixed team in the world Montoya/Salas in the semis to make the final.

In the final, Natera & Munoz held firm against the solid Guatemalan team and outlasted them 11-9 in the fifth for a well-deserved gold.

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Commentary on the State of the PARC and International competitions

2025’s PARC event saw yet more evidence of the changing of financials and the changing of the guard in this sport. Bolivia didn’t bother to send females. Some of the countries didn’t send enough players to field doubles teams. Some teams sent teenagers to compete in the Adult competitions. Many countries didn’t send their top players, so the event was missing the likes of defending World champions DLR, Longoria, Vargas, Scott, etc. Canada’s top doubles team was missing, and its best player didn’t play singles, a continuing trend from Murray & Lambert. Colombia’s Amaya now plays for Italy since her home federation collapsed in corruption. Team USA had to self-fund with gofundme campaigns because USAR has no money.

At least we have places like Guatemala, which has hosted four major IRF events this decade already, willing to fork over the fees to run these events. And, I love how we’re getting golds from outside the top three countries now; that’s great for the development of the game.

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Congrats to the International Racquetball Federation for another successful event. Thanks to the IRT streaming crew, and thanks to @Gary Mazaroff and all his co-announcers for their hard work all week.

Next up on the Racquetball Calendar: USA Nationals at the end of May. Zero pro events for months.

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2025 USA Racquetball Intercollegiates wrap up

A quick post to recap 2025’s Intercollegiates tournament, a 50+ year tradition in the United States.

Congrats to the individual winners:

– Men’s Intercollegiate Singles Champ: Cole Sendrey, Texas A&M

– Women’s Intercollegiate Singles Champ: @Ella Boaz, University of Missouri.

Missouri gets its third Intercollegiates champion, following @John Dowell’s title in 2023 and Hall of Famer @Jerry Hilecher , who won the very first intercollegiate title held in 1973. Sendrey wins Texas A&M’s first ever individual title, defeating 2024’s champion @Benjamin Horner in the final. Chicago legend @Tim Sweeney remains the sole 4-time Intercollegiate champion in the history of the sport, though we’ve had several 3-time winners (Andy Roberts, Jack Huczek, Ben Croft, Barb Faulkenberry, Tammy Brockbank, Kristen Walsh, and most recently @Carla Muñoz .

Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) remains the leader in individual singles titles, with 12 on the Men’s side and 7 on the Women’s side, having dominated the collegiate level of the sport for much of the 70s and 80s.

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In the team competition, Oregon State swept all three team events (Men’s, Women’s, and Combined). This is the first team sweep since Missouri did it in 2022, and is Oregon State’s 2nd such team sweep (they first did the deed in 2013).

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I maintain a list of all the individual and team champs at this Google xls, now updated for 2025:

https://docs.google.com/…/1vDHJFTDyxlKXpaLKn7…/edit…

You can see more about the history of all the Intercollegiate champions (and not just the #1 gold divisions) at this history link at USAR’s website:

https://www.usaracquetball.com/…/Intercollegiate-champions

Congrats to all the individuals and team champions!

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2025 Warhawk Open and World Team Racquetball Event #2 Recap

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.

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2025 EVE Promotions 2025 Beach Bash Recap

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

——————

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.

——————

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.

——————

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.

——————

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.

——————

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.

——————

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.

——————-

tags

USA Racquetball

WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball

3Wall Ball

Posted on

IRT 2025 Shamrock Shootout Recap

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

——————

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.

—————-

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

—————-

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.

——————————–

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.

—————-

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.

—————-

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.

—————

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.

—————-

Points Implications of results

To see the IRT rolling points simulation go here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z6eg6NJT6fjGMfRRyKTNLShAiDoz0TzzmQCt1_SbNBo/edit?usp=sharing

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.

—————-

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.

—————-

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.

—————–

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 up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

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.

——————-

tags

@International Racquetball Tour

Posted on

40th Annual Shamrock Shootout IRT Preview

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.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=47136

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.

——————————

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.

———————

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.

——————————-

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.

——————————

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.

——————————-

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.

———————-

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.

Associations

International Racquetball Tour

Posted on

LPRT 2025 Boston Recap

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

——————

Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/9b76dc

—————-

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.

—————-

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.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16o0aE4YophvlQdezlMVj_dqPRUoDQqwE5-LtsLbOncg/edit?usp=sharing

—————-

Doubles review

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.

—————-

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

—————–

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from the regular LPRT broadcasters

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

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.

————-

LPR T

Posted on

IRT Minnesota Hall of Fame Wrap-up

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

——————

Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/c2d644

—————-

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.

—————-

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

—————-

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.

—————-

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.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z6eg6NJT6fjGMfRRyKTNLShAiDoz0TzzmQCt1_SbNBo/edit?usp=sharing

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Doubles review

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.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

We’ll cover the LPRT Boston event soon, then the IRT is back in action next week in Chicago, which we’ll preview in a couple of days.

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tags

@iInternational Racquetball Tour