Category: Doubles

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LPRT Northern Virginia Invitational Preview

Mejia is still in the hunt but needs big results. Photo Kevin Savory US Open 2019

Welcome to the penultimate LPRT event of the season, the 2025 Northern Virginia Invitational, being held at the Worldgate club in Herndon, VA. Worldgate is right down the road from Dulles Airport in the DC suburbs and was a flagship health club in the DC area for years, with a large indoor racquet sports presence (the club also has or had indoor tennis and had hosted Squash pro tournaments in the past).

It was bought by a large chain in the DC area called Sport & Health, whose owners acquired most of the major racquetball playing clubs in the 1990s and early 2000s and then systematically destroyed the racquetball culture of the area by removing dozens of courts or outright closing racquetball-centric clubs (such as the one where I was the club pro at for a decade). Now they’ve rebranded as a new club name and sold off some assets like Worldgate, who regained their independence and continue on with a handful of courts, some of the few remaining in the DC area.

The LPRT hasn’t been in Northern Virginia for nearly a decade, having last held an event in Arlington in Dec 2015 (the historic Crystal Gateway club, which was gutted to make way for an indoor rock climbing gym). The last time they were in Herndon was in May 2015, which is crazy to think of since long-time LPRT commissioner @TJTj Baumbaugh not only lives down the road from Worldgate but who remains employed by the Sport & Health chain as a master Personal Trainer. You can’t make club executives support the sport, as it turns out, even when you demonstrate programming is healthy and active.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48794

We’re getting down to the tail end of the season. The Ladies haven’t been in action for more than 3 months; last event was in March in Boston. We’ve been waiting since that time to see how the rest of the season would shake out; now we seem to have our answer. We have this tier 1 and then the final event of the season, the Sweet Caroline event that’s being played in Charlotte this year as a regular Tier 1 event as well (not its typical Grand Slam points). That generally means 240 points to the winner as the most points that a player may gain per event.

Heading into this event, #1 Longoria holds a bit more than a 400 point season to date advantage over Vargas at #2, so while she hasn’t sewed up the year end title just yet, the odds are she can put herself out of reach with a sufficiently deep enough run this weekend. Vargas or Mejia would have to make the finals here and in the last event of the season, win one of them, and have Longoria forfeit out of both events to have any shot at the title.

That being said, lets preview the draw. There’s 20 ladies here but the entire top 10 is present and a big chunk of the 11-20. There’s basically zero rookies or first timers here.

In the 32s:

– Sanchez- MRR is a nice test for Annie to see how she’s progressing.

– Acosta-Synhort as well.

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round of 16:

– How far has Sanchez come as a player? She’s gotten some impressive wins lately; now she gets a test against the #1 Longoria

– Herrera-York could be interesting: Lexi continues to improve

– Parrilla-Laime may be the best match of the round

– Mendez-Salas in the 7/10 matchup will be a battle of two players who have seen each other for years.

– Vargas may have to play new National team doubles partner Centellas in the 16s.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Longoria-Lawrence; Kelani continues to run into Paola, and continues to edge closer.

– Martinez-Herrera: two former tier1 winners clash in the quarters. Gaby might be ranked #2 on tour had she made the season opening Grand Slam.

– Mejia-Laime; two bashers bring their power game in a drive serving feast.

– Vargas-Mendez: all the Argentines in one quarter.

Semis:

– Longoria over Gaby

– Mejia over Vargas

Finals; Longoria sews up the title with a win over Mejia.

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Doubles review

The doubles seeding is a little interesting: thanks to some missed events this year long-time #1 Longoria & Salas are now the #4 seeds. Laime & Mendez together are #2 despite very little time together, and Vargas’ new Argentine partner Centellas is the #3 seed. Mejia & Herrera remain #1 but will now have to face their long-time rivals in the semis, not the final. I still see Mejia & Herrera 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!

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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2025 Costa Rica Open Preview

This weekend’s #1 seed is also the host, playing out of his home club. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

Hello Racquetball fans. It’s been a while since we saw either pro tour in action, and suddenly we’re in Mid June and we have two pro events on the same weekend! We’ll preview the Costa Rica Open today and the LPRT ‘s Northern Virginia Invitational tomorrow.

The Costa Rica Open has been an IRT satellite event for years now, which means we have been “covering” it but it doesn’t end up in the database. That’s because historically satellite events have limits on the number of top 8 pros who can enter, so It never seemed “fair” to equate a win in a tier 2 or Tier 3 event with that from a full-strength tour event. However, the landscape of pro racquetball is shifting dramatically, as is the landscape for the rest of our sport, and this weekend’s event is a great example. Four of the top 8 players are in CRC this weekend, and then a huge chunk of the players ranked 9-20 are also there, making this a very solid draw. There’s also a huge number of internationals here, as this is one of the few remaining top level events prior to players playing the World Games later this year.

Missing out of the top 8 are Kane, Lalo, Jake, and Natera, leaving the top four seeds as (in order) Acuna, Parrilla, Montoya, and Mar.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=49239

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here’s a quick preview. Singles play runs from Wednesday 6/11 to Saturday 6/14.

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round of 32s: lots of decent matches to follow

– top Mexican Junior @Sebastian Hernandez battles Ecuadorian vet Jose Daniel Ugalde Albornoz

– Bolivian wunderkid Jhonatan Flores Vega takes on long-time IRT touring pro Costa Rican Felipe Camacho

– CRC’s current #2 @Gabriel Garcia battles top Guatemalan @Juan Jose Salvatierra

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Projecting the Round of 16:

– Hernandez plays into top seed @andres Acuna. I don’t think its an upset right off the bat, but Hernandez may make for some trouble.

– 8/9 is Giranda vs Gastelum, two players who both have some major scalps on their resumes. Great match.

– Flores plays into #5 Trujillo; ouch, very tough matchup for the IRT regular.

– #6 @Jordy Alonso projects to play Argentine @Diego Garcia. Another upset watch here, as Garcia has a ton of top-level wins recently.

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My Projected Qtrs:

– Acuna over Miranda, barely.

– Flores over Mar. I think Flores is already a top 8 players globally and will only improve, and he topped Mar in Minnesota earlier this year.

– Montoya over Garcia: Rodrigo overpowers him.

– Parrilla over Carter in a regular IRT quarter final matchup.

Semis and Finals; I think Flores takes out Acuna, who’s had a brutal draw just to get to the semis, while Montoya tops Parrilla in the latest of dozens of career top-level meetings for these two members of the same Mexican Cohort. In the final, Montoya finally tames Flores … though don’t be surprised if Flores makes this an 11-9 thriller.

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Doubles review

There’s some great doubles teams here: including multiple National team representative teams from Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala, Argentina, and Costa Rica. It’ll be hard to beat the top Mexican teams, including Montoya/Mar at #1

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Streaming? We’ll have to see what we get … perhaps Pablo Fajre flew to CR to broadcast, or maybe we have to depend on cell phones of players.

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.

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!

Associations

@International Racquetball Tour

International Racquetball Tou r

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Charlie Brumfield; the sport’s first GOAT. 6/9/48 – 6/1/25

RIP Brumfield, the original GOAT.

Charlie Brumfield, the sports first dominant champion, passed away earlier this week on June 1st. He was a few days shy of his 78th birthday.

Brumfield was Racquetball’s first GOAT. He was a top-level Paddleball player in the late 1960s, won the National Paddleball Association’s Open Singles title in both 1969 and 1970, and partnered with fellow San Diego resident Dr. Bud Muehleisen to take the Open Doubles titles in 1968 and 1969.

(see https://npa.paddleball.org/tournaments-2/national-champions/ for the NPA’s list of champions historically).

Soon, like many of his Paddleball colleagues, he pivoted to Racquetball and was a dominant force in Racquetball’s early days. He brought his dominant paddleball control game to Racquetball, but also incorporated the speed that stringed racquets enabled in the sport. Brumfield made the National Racquetball Singles final in both 1969 and 1970, then won it in both 1972 and 1973 during a time that predated any professional tournaments in the sport. He also claimed three Amateur National Doubles titles in the early 1970s before moving completely to the pro game.

(see https://rball.pro/85i for US Nationals singles titlists, https://rball.pro/a2ef0b for US Nationals Amateur Doubles titles).

Pro racquetball really got its start in 1974, and Brumfield was a force early. By the time the 1974-75 season rolled around, Brumfield was the clear #1 on tour. He won the first two Pro Nationals titles (the equivalent of a “Pro Title” in the early days) held in 1975 by competing pro entities IRA and NRC, then won the 1976 DP/Leach Nationals on home soil in San Diego to get his fifth career “National Title” in singles (three pro, two amateur). He topped Marty Hogan in June 1976 for the title, a significant win because it would mark a changing of the guard in the sport. After dominating Hogan for much of 1975 and 1976, Hogan flipped the table and went on a tear in 1976-77 season. Brumfield would win just one more title after his 76 Nationals win as Hogan took the upper hand in their years-long rivalry.

( see https://www.proracquetballstats.com/irt/year_end_titles.html and https://rball.pro/000f20 for a list of all Finals on tour).

Brumfield continue to tour mostly full time for the rest of the decade, but the introduction of power to the game and Brumfield’s rising age led to him retiring from the pro game after the 1980-81 season at the age of 32. He retired with 16 official career pro wins on the NRC/IRA (still good for 11th of all time) and a W/L record of 185-48, good for a W/L percentage of .794, which sits 4th all time in the history of the sport behind just Kane, Marty, and Sudsy.

(see https://rball.pro/96a384 for his Career Pro Summary page, https://rball.pro/d590ca for a ranking of tourney winners, and https://rball.pro/da9ff5 for Career W/L rankings)

Brumfield was also instrumental to the early days of Outdoor Racquetball, and participated in the first two iterations of Outdoor Nationals, giving the event credence and helping to convince his fellow “indoor” pros to play it as well. He won the first two Pro Outdoor singles titles in 1974 and 1975, winning the Doubles title in the inaugural event with Dr. Bud in 74, and losing in the final of 1975 before “retiring” from outdoor pro. Nonetheless, his importance to outdoor earned him a place in the 2nd ever WOR Hall of Fame class.

(see https://rball.pro/91u for Outdoor Nationals historical singles winners, and here https://rball.pro/9fk for Outdoor Nationals historical doubles winners).

Brumfield’s home in San Diego was also home to a custom-built court that resembles a historical archive of the sport. Dubbed the “Pacific Paddleball Association” the club has hosted both racquetball and paddleball competitions for decades. See https://www.pacificpaddleball.com/ for more.

Brumfield’s exploits have earned him multiple Hall of Fame inductions:

– Paddleball: 2014 (3rd ever person inducted)

– USA Racquetball: 1988 (6th ever person inducted)

– USA Lifetime Achievement recognition in 2013

– WOR Outdoor Racquetball: 2013 (2nd ever person inducted)

(see these links for Hall of Fame bios: NPA: https://npa.paddleball.org/npa-info/hall-of-fame/, USAR: https://www.usaracquetball.com/programs/hall-of-fame/inductees/1988 , and WOR: https://www.usaracquetball.com/wor-hall-of-fame-inductees/charlie-brumfield )

During the duration of his early playing career, Brumfield was also attending his hometown University of San Diego, where he earned a BS and a Law degree in 1973. He delayed the start of his career for years after his Law School graduation due to the simple fact that he was out-earning lawyers during his time playing for money on the courts (and, as he noted, it was a lot more fun). He eventually had a long career in the law, retiring as an in-house counsel to a Biotech firm.

Brumfield is known for being an absolute fierce opponent on the court, combining his fitness and skill with a level of physicality that would shock today’s tender, avoidable-seeking players. It was not unusual for players of the mid 1970s to give each other elbows mid-rally, or to hip-check a player out of the way. Brumfield and Hogan’s matches were legendary, as were his matches against other colorful contemporaries of the day. By the time yours truly got a chance to meet him, he was retired, gregarious, hilarious, and could spin yarn about the sport for hours on end. I enjoyed a couple of dinners with Brum in the last few years at 3WB in Vegas, and I’m completely grateful to have had the opportunity to meet him and talk to him.

RIP Brumfield; you will be missed.

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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.

—–

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.

—-

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.

—-

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.

——

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.

——

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.

Posted on

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.

———————–

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!

Posted on

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)

——————–

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.

———————–

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.

———————–

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.

———————–

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.

Posted on

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

——————

Lets run through the draws, recapping the action.

——————

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).

——————

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.

——————

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