Moscoso gets a dominant win over Kane for his 12th career title. Photo unk from Bolivian IRIS
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Conrrado Moscoso
– Doubles: @Eduardo Portillo & @Andree Parrilla
TL/DR Executive Summary: Moscoso wins his 12th career title in dominant fashion, while Portillo and Parrilla get a solid win in the lead-up to Mexican Nationals in a few weeks.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=51976
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/16c211
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In the 32s:
– Garcia took out Sam Bredenbeck, but needed a breaker to do so.
– Trujillo’s return proved fruitful, taking out Gastelum in the 32s and (as we’ll see later on) winning the Men’s Open title.
– Parrilla was pressed by the Canadian Connell but moved on.
– Carrasco gave Sendrey a setback 11,9.
– Former touring pro Pratt gave Portillo a lot more than he wanted in a round of 32 match but fell in two.
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In the 16s:
– My two favorite players to choose for upset wins early (Garcia and Flores) ended up playing the tourney’s two top seeds, and neither came much close to an upset. Kane beat Garcia 5,9, while Moscoso beat Flores 13,8 to move on. As it turned out, this was the closest match Moscoso would have in South Dakota.
– Natera made a statement against Alonso in the 8/9 game, cruising to a win.
– Trujillo pressed Parrilla but fell 12,13.
– Manilla got a great win, topping Portillo 9,7 to move on.
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In the Quarters
– Kane blew past Natera 5,2
– Parrilla dominated his long-time Rival Montoya 9,6
– Bredenbeck did not seem troubled by Mar 8,7
– Moscoso cruised past Manilla 5,2.
This setup a pure chalk semis.
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In the Semis
– Kane utterly destroyed Parrilla 2,0
– Moscoso wasn’t too troubled by Jake and won 6,9
In the Finals, we got the match most were looking for; 1v2, Kane v Conrrado. Legacy champ versus the up and coming possible replacement. The pair met in the semis of the SoCal Open in December, with Moscoso putting together a comprehensive game one and holding on for dear live to win in two .
On this day, Moscoso looked unstoppable. Game one was close for a while, but instead of Kane pulling away after a long mid-game period of closeness, it was his opponent, who turned a close game into a 15-9 win. In game two, it was one way traffic. Conrrado could do no wrong; he blitzed service returns, he hit his lines, he put away pinch shots, he played great defense, and Kane had no answers. Conrrado won game two 15-3 to take the title. Its Conrrado’s 3rd straight title, 14 match wins in a row, and his 12th in his career, tying him with DLR for 12th all time.
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Points Implications of results
With the win and with Acuna’s missing the event, Moscoso edges a bit closer to Kane and now sits in 2nd place. I’ve got them about 400 points apart, which seems like a lot, but the way the tour is going to determine the 2025-26 champion makes this race a ton closer.
At the end of June, presuming the US Open happens, the tour will have had somewhere in the range of 13-14 Tier 1s in that time along with a bunch of satellites. But, only the best 10 results will contribute to your final ranking. So, Right now Conrrado trails Kane by a ton of points, but their Tier 1 results since Jan 2025 look like this:
– Kane: 3 wins, 2 finals, 1 semi, 1 missed event
– Conrrado: 3 wins, 0 finals, 2 semis, 1 round of 16, 1 round of 32, 1 missed
So, if Conrrado has the opportunity to turn those last three results into a bunch of semis and finals, even if he doesn’t win out between now and June he’s got a ton of opportunity to catch up. This title race may very well come down to the last event.
Elsewhere in the top 10: Jake also jumps Acuna for 3rd, meaning that if i’ve got my spreadsheet estimate right, Acuna plays into Kane in the semis at the next event. Also, Natera now moves into 8th ahead of Lalo, Carrasco is up to 14th, and Gastelum drops down to 16.
Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/6d76e5
This was a super fun draw. Two legends flew up to SD to play in Alvaro Beltran and Rocky Carson and they put on a show. Beltran teamed with the young phenom Flores and nearly took out the Montoya/Mar top pair, losing 11-10 in the quarters. Eventual winners Parrilla/Portillo barely got out of the first round, advancing over the Bredenbeck brothers by 14,14. Meanwhile, the legendary Carson teamed with lefty Adam Manilla and went on a huge run, upsetting the #2 seeds and making the finals before falling 14,7.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– My two favorite youngsters Trujillo and Flores made it to the Open final, where they played a barn burner won by Trujillo 11-7 in the third, a pretty significant win for a player who’s taken some time off, and over a guy who a lot are looking at as the best of the next generation of players.
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Fantasy Racquetball Competition Wrap-up: Sam Murray is back on top after pipping me in the results this weekend.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Steve Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew
We’ve got one big event each weekend this month: Canadian Selection event next weekend, then USAR Nationals, plus Mexican Nationals is sometime in Feb, and then we get another IRT Satellite at the end of the month.
Trujillo back after an extended absence.
Photo US Open 2021 via Kevin Savory
One of the longest running events in the land, and one of the most important and most popular events on the Men’s schedule each year is upon us: the 46th annual Lewis Drug Pro Am in sunny, warm Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
This player favorite provides great hospitality and camaraderie and is always one of the best attended events on the calendar. This year is no different, with 35 singles pros and a slew of legends playing doubles only making their way to Sioux Falls. Thanks as always to tournament director and part IRT owner Mark Gibbs for making this event happen year after year.
top20 players missing include #2 Andres Acuna (out for a travel issue) and #13 Argentine Gerson Miranda. Past that, the entire top 20 and a bunch of the 20-30 ranked players are here, making this a really solid draw top to bottom.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
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In the round of 32:
– Right off the bat, the 16/17 is a banger, with Diego Garcia taking on hard-hitting Sam Bredenbeck. I’m always favoring Garcia to make deep runs in events on account of his international success; lets see if he can take the first step.
– Montoya takes on Emir Martinez, a doubles specialist veteran from Mexico who used to have solid success on the old WRT.
– Erick Trujillo is back after some time away; he’s seen his ranking plummet and he has to face tough countryman Diego Gastelum first round.
– Cole Sendrey, fresh from World Doubles in December, gets veteran Bolivian Kadim Carrasco to start. If Sendrey wants to move up in the rball world, this is the kind of match he needs to win.
– Former Bolivian junior champ and now DC suburb resident Ezekiel Subieta faces off against Javier Mar in a tricky match.
– World 16U junior finalist Santiago Castillo makes his IRT debut against Adam Manilla, who’s been pulling double duty helping with tour operations and trying to play. A distracted Manilla could take a shock loss here.
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round of 16:
– The two players I always favor to get upsets (Diego Garcia and Jhonathan Flores) are routing right into the #1 and #2 seeds here in Kane and Conrrado, which takes away some of the fun. Anyone else in the draw, i’d think about picking an upset, but these two would have to pull a massive upset to move on.
– Alonso/Natera in the 8/9 could be a fun one.
– Parrilla takes on the Gastelum/Trujillo winner.
Otherwise the 16s looks pretty straight forward for the upper seeds this week.
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Projected Qtrs:
– Kane over Alonso: I will say this, as i said on the podcast. If Kane is to lose this weekend, it’ll be highest likelihood in this QF match here, against a guy whose beaten him in the past and in the second of a back to back round day. Kane’s got to win his 16s against a tough opponent in Garcia, then rest, then recover, and then play another guy who can play him tough.
– In the 4/5 Montoya vs Parrilla for about the 1,000th time in their long careers.
– Bredenbeck plays into Mar this event. Mar has a couple wins over Jake, but Jake beat him in Sept, so advantage USA
– Moscoso, if he gets past Flores, has to fend off Portillo in the quarters, a trouble spot versus a player who gets wins every time he shows up.
Semis:
– Kane over Montoya; I just don’t think Montoya has the consistency to beat Kane, despite having the athleticism and power.
– Moscoso over Jake: too much firepower
Finals; So, last time we saw Conrrado-Kane the Bolivian pitched a near perfect game in game one to blow away Kane, then held him off for a win. Can he do it again? We have a new ball in SD that should play faster, plus concrete walls, which could make for some fireworks. Nonetheless, if kane gets here i’m favoring him to win.
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Doubles review
Love seeing Alvi and Rocky in the draw; they’ll shake things up. The top half of the draw is stacked; if Montoya/Mar can get past Alvi and Flores in the quraters, they’ll cruise to the win. On the bottom half, I love what Rocky and Adam might do to the field and like them for the final.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Carrie Reitmeier, Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!
Happy New Year from Pro Racquetball Stats and Todd Boss. It ahs been a tumultuous year for the Men’s Pro tour and the sport in general. Here’s a quick run through the seminal events to this observer of the 2025 year, along with some commentary/Retrospective after the fact.
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– 1/21/25: The World Team Racquetball concept debuted at the 2024 3WB event is officially pulled underneath the IRT umbrella, with the blessing of Mike
Coulter. Mike Kinkin will become the president of the WTR. The group plans WTR events at each of the three outdoor majors in addition to other 2025 spots.
In retrospect, this announcement didn’t have the impact we thought it might at the time. WTR did run an event at the 2025 Warhawk Open, but it was mostly Amateur teams (albeit with fantastic names). That event was overshadowed by fixture congestion that badly impacted the attendance of both the Warhawk Open and the Beach Bash outdoor major, which led to bruised egos amongst the various event directors involved. This problem, coincidentally, returns again in 2026, as the two events will conflict again and will overlap with the first weekend of the Pan Am games. We just have to figure out how to stop this from happening year after year.
– 1/21/25: the new IRT commissioner Dave Negrete wants to revert back to some of the tour rules that were the norm during his time. Most notably, he wants
to return to protected top 8 seeds into the round of 16 and to go back to a fall-to-spring multi-year season. This may end up meaning that the 2025 “season”
is just six months long, comprising just those events that are held between the beginning of the year and the August World Singles and Doubles event.
In retrospect, we have not seen the “top 8 get byes into the 16s” but we have seen the conversion of the schedule to a fall-to-spring. Instead of giving a 2025 half-season champ, they decided to have a super-sized 18-month season to determine the 2025-26 champion this coming June.
– 2/28/25: Dan Jaskier, owner and President of the Glass Door Swim & Fitness club in Lombard, Illinois, announces that the club is closing after 48 years.
The 3/16/25 tournament will be the last major pro stop at the club, ending a decades-long association with both pro tours.
Update: there was a Nov 2025 post on the Glassdoor Facebook page intimating that the club was possibly re-opening. I have no idea if they’ve remodeled the inside, who’s involved, or if there’s the possibility of the return of the Geoff Peters legacy event that was one of the most popular stops on tour. IRT commissioner Negrete lives in the Chicago area, so i’m sure he’s on top of it.
-3/6/25: The IRT introduces the “IRT Club,” a monthly subscription service that gives access to a 2nd stream plus other benefits. https://irttour.com/irt-club/
Notes: this is one of the new ideas from the new IRT ownership group, and is spearheaded by Adam Manilla. They offer fantasy racquetball and a new podcast series hosted by yours truly alongside Brian Pineda. It’s $15/month and also gives access to alternate streaming at IRT events.
– 3/21/25: Months after Swain’s 10/4/24 announcement, the USAR officially announces the 2026 US Open return in June to Missouri State University.
Notes: in the months since, we’ve seen a couple of updates from the organizers, and all organizations are working as if this event is happening. So, make plans to visit Missouri in June 2026.
– 3/23/25: Cliff Swain and Jeff Collins release a new video on the US Open. They’ve confirmed dates (June 10-14th 2026). Details include:
– Portable court is to be used, will be at the Springfield Expo center
– 12 courts at Missouri state University
– all within 5mins of each other; hotel, university, showcourt
– Richard Eisemann onboard as tourney coordinator, Tillbury hospitality/vip liaisons.
– Straight draw; no qualifiers in pros
– going to old-school scoring 3/5 to 11
– Dedicated referee staff on showcase on court; 5 officials planned
– winners ref on amateur side.
– Looking to raise $300k. Gives breakdown of what that revenue goes for: $40k IRT, $40k LPRT purses, $80k court, $50k facility rental
Notes: the transparency and advance planning is refreshing. Putting out these numbers in plain sight for those who have consistently questioned why the portable court isn’t constantly in use should resolve criticism of event planners. It costs a ton to transport, install, configure, tear-down, store, and insure the court.
– 4/18/25: Mike Coulter of 3WB publicly announces that the 3WallBall in Las Vegas has to be “paused” in 2025 due to the drastic rise in costs that the economy has seen in the early parts of 2025. They’re looking for a site in Southern California to host the 2025 version of the event on courts that can be rented, not built.
Retrospect: the writing was on the wall for this announcement for a while; costs and inflation have crushed the country, attendance has dwindled at 3WB for a bit, and it stopped being a viable tournament for Coulter to host. My big worry with something like this is, once Mike loses the spot on the schedule with the hotel, it’s going to be doubly difficult to ever get it back. I hope we haven’t seen the last of 3WB in Vegas, but don’t have high hopes.
– 5/3/25: #5 Alan Natera has a knee operation. Per Natera, he had knee arthroscopy, ACL, and meniscus reconstruction. He had been playing with pain for months and it was time to do it before it got worse. No word on recovery time or how long he’ll be out, but the next scheduled event isn’t until September. Update: Alan plays in the early September 2025 World Singles & Doubles.
This injury/surgery was well timed for Natera, who didn’t miss a ton of events and still is maintaining his top 10 status. He’s taken some tough losses as he’s stuck in the 8/9 seed spot right now, part of which may still be due to him testing out the knee. I’ve had multiple knee operations, and in one case it took me two years to return to the court.
– 5/8/25: Mike Coulter/3WB announces that 2025’s Outdoor Nationals will join forces with 3WB for 2025.
Commentary: for a few weeks this looked like a dagger for the sport’s reputation … but read on for an update in early August.
– 8/7/25: IRT releases its fall/spring slate of events and its massive: there’s nearly 20 full stops and satellites planned, a return to Mexico, and a return to a number of old stops that have lost their sponsors over the years. Great news.
In the months since, the slate has been pared a bit, but there’s still been a ton of IRT-350 satellite events held and the Tier 1 slate is bigger and better than it has been in years. The new ownership group is having a major impact on the tour.
– 8/7/25: Racquetball gets back into the 2027 Pan Am Games! Despite not being included in the original slate of games IRF President Osvaldo Maggi had been working with Pan Am behind the scenes and secured a return of the sport today.
Commentary: initially, the loss of racquetball from the Pan Am games had been predicted for years by insiders, and it would have been a real disappointment for the sport. Peru took over as host from Colombia , and when Lima hosted these same games in 2019 they had Racquetball … but for some reason chose to initially eliminate it this time around. All due credit to Maggi for politicking behind the scenes and making this happen.
This is one of those seminal events that has outsized impact; if we’re out of the Pan Am Games, we as a sport may lose accreditation with our own USOPC, which cuts funding and reduces our legitimacy as a sport. I think we’re well past any pursuit of getting into the Olympics at this point in the sport’s history (and, lets be honest, when the sport was ignored for the 1984 Olympics in LA, and again in 1996 in Atlanta … both big-time racquetball towns and at the absolute height of our sport’s popularity and participation, we should have realized there was never a shot), but the Pan Am games still remained the highest honor we had internationally, and we hold onto participation for one more cycle.
– 8/8/25: Bobby Horn, who attempted a comeback last season, undergoes shoulder surgery
Note: Negrete’s re-involvement brings back a ton of connections he maintained from 20 years ago, and the group is adding new major sponsors like the Black & White and Frank Hotels.
– 10/21/25: Pro Kennex announces that they’re reuniting with long-time PK player Kane Waselenchuk.
Notes: The two parted ways in Sept 2021 when a Pandemic-
afflicted company and Waselenchuk couldn’t come to an agreement on outstanding payments as the tours cancelled events for nearly a year. It bad at the time, but the two sides buried the hatchet and are working together again. Kane was reportedly using a blacked-out Gearbox to compete and now gets his trusty old sticks back.
– 10/29/25: 3-time champ Daniel De la Rosa reportedly has his PPA contract terminated for lack of performance. Will he return to Racquetball?
Notes: this was an ill-kept secret in the pickleball world, but as of this writing we haven’t seen DLR return to any known racquetball stuff. And, in the most recent post on his page he had a ton of hashtags for MLP, so maybe DLR has negotiated his way back to a pay as you go contract with the PPA instead of the salary based one. Either way, he hasn’t played a pro event since Jan 2024, but is the reigning US National singles champion. Will DLR defend his title? Well, there is a PPA event the same weekend as USAR Nationals, so he’d have to skip it … but if he’s not under contract it won’t matter. We’ll see what happens.
– 12/7/25: Erick Trujillo has missed every event for the past 6 months; is he officially stepping back? He’s now a 5.5 DUPR rated pickleball competitive player; could he be making a push towards pro pickleball instead?
comments: Trujillo’s DUPR rating is on the rise, but I don’t see him traveling to any US-based events thus far. It’s also possible that he’s made the very rational decision that losing in the 16s at IRT events isn’t worth the money it takes to get there.
– 12/20/25: Mike Kinkin is named the President of FormulaFlow Racquetball. He joins forces with Mauricio Zelada’s budding racquet manufacturer
Notes: this is an interesting move; FormulaFlow is now one of 3-4 remaining manufacturers in the space. I haven’t had a chance to catch up with Kinkin about the move or what they plan, but it is good to see a brand pushing further into the sport rather than walking away from it.
– 12/29/25: IRT announces that the new ball of the tour is the Formula Flow Blue. This replaces the thicker, slower Gearbox ball.
Notes: no word yet on how the FF ball plays; is it faster, slower, thicker, bouncier? No idea.
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Phew; that’s it. Did I miss any major events worth noting?
A double for Moscoso, and a win over kane. Photo unk from Bolivian IRIS
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: @Conrrado Moscoso
– Doubles: Moscoso & @Kadim Carrasco
TL/DR Executive summary: Moscoso gets a big win over King Kane, then finishes off the event for his 11th career singles title, then gets the upset win over top seeds Montoya/Mar for the double in Fullerton.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=50749
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/8322db
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In the 32s, no real upsets. We had a couple closer games from Gatica and Bear, but otherwise the seeds held.
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In the 16s, a couple of notable results:
– #9 Portillo topped #8 Natera in two closer games; not an upset for me necessarily, as Portillo’s ranking is more about his limited schedule than his talent.
– #7 Mar crushed Alonso 6,5 for another statement win defining the top 8 versus the next 8.
– Biggest match of the round: Thomas Carter gets a career best win over Montoya i11-9 in the breaker.
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In the Quarters
– Waselenchuk was pressed by Lalo in game one, then cruised to win 10,1
– Moscoso destroyed the elated to be there Carter 5,2
– Parrilla dominated Jake 7,4 to move into the semis; this was a pretty solid win for Andree, something he followed up on in the next round, and is part of a pattern for the SLP product of having spurts of success on tour.
– the best match of the round was Mar-Acuna, which was back and forth and featured some really fun rallies especially at the end, as Acuna pulled it out 11-9 to move on.
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In the Semis
– The match of the event was Kane vs Conrrado, and the Bolivian put on a show. He ran of 12-straight points unanswered in game one, with 4 service winners and another 6 3-point rally kill shots wherein he missed just one first serve. Kane had no answers, either getting handcuffed on the serves or flailing them to the ceiling defensively. Kane did a better job in game two and looked to be pushing towards a breaker, but Moscoso held firm, and got a come from behind win 15-14 to advance. It’s awfully hard to beat someone who’s hitting 160mph bullet first serves on concrete without ever missing, and that’s what we saw all weekend from Conrrado.
– Parrilla improved to 5-2 lifetime against Acuna on tour to move into the final.
In the Finals, Conrrado picked up where he left off, giving Andree a rare finals donut in game one before taking the title with ease.
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Points Implications of results
With the win, Conrrado moves into #2 on tour. Other top players will move down a spot, while Montoya’s early loss dumps him to #6. No other real movement of import amongst the top 16, even given all the missing junior players here.
Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/5542be
It’s been a minute since we had a real Pro doubles draw; not since March in Lombard has the tour done one, mostly because all the events in the interim have been combined events where the prize money that would have gone to doubles ended up going to the ladies, or to Mixed pro.
Moscoso, clearly feeling his oats this weekend, carried partner Carrasco over the top seeds Montoya & Mar to claim the title.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Diego Gastelum topped fellow round of 32 loser Gatica for the Open title, taking the big RR event.
– Bear & Alonso took out top SoCal outdoor team Myers & St. Clair for the Open Doubles title.
– Arizona’s Damien Zamora took the 35-50+
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Fantasy Racquetball Competition Wrap-up
We don’t know the results of the IRT Club Fantasy FastBreak competition this past wekeend, but yours truly (who was in 2nd place) definitely took Moscoso to win, so i’m expecting big things.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, Thanks to the tourney sponsors, and thanks to the players for supporting tournament racquetball.
Can Javier Mar make a deep run? Photo Kevin Savory 2019 US Open
The International Racquetball Tour is back in action, hosting its first full Tier 1 stop since last month’s Mile High Open, with the 2025 SoCal Open. The tour returns to Fullerton for the first time since the 2019 Los Compadres open, and returns to what used to be the Meridian Sports Club and one of the largest (if not the largest) clubs in terms of functional racquetball courts. As of 2023 there were still 24 courts operating at this facility, though the club went under, was taken over by new management, and has apparently repurposed some in the time since we last got information.
We’ll know soon enough, as the tour returns to one of its premier locations, which used to host national events and major pro events in the early 2010s.
draw size, observations; the top 11 on tour are here, but a decent chunk of the 11-20 guys are missing due to this event’s proximity to World Juniors, which kicks off this coming Saturday in the Dominican Republic.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
In the round of 32, there’s only 5 matches because of the smaller draw, but a couple of interesting ones:
– #12 @Thomas Carter is the highest seed that has to do an early round; he goes against relative unknown Mexican Javier Gonzalez , a 16U Junior player from Chihuahua. Sometimes these juniors come out of nowhere and shock regular tour players.
– #14 @Kadim Carrasco has to deal with @Alejandro Bear, who has a few results on tour over the past 5-6 years.
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round of 16:
– The 8/9 is brutal: @Eduardo Portillo versus Alan Natera. Tough draw here; Portillo has been much better than a 9-seed over the past couple of years, while Natera continues to work his way back from a knee issue earlier in 2025.
– In the 6/11: Parrilla vs Manilla. these guys met in the quarters last month, an 11-9 win for Andree. Can Adam flip the script here?
– 7/10: Mar vs Alonso: a great match for the neutrals, two classy tactical players who rely on shot-making versus power. They’ve played twice already this year, both Mar wins, including an 8,0 beatdown in Highland Ranch in August.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Kane Waselenchuk likely faces off against Lalo Portillo, who played Kane pretty tough in the semis back in early September. Lalo was also on the court with Kane when he blew out his Achilles tendon in sept 2022.
– #4/#5 Moscoso vs Montoya: I love this matchup. Power, athleticism. It’s always close; they’ve played twice this fall already, both 3-game Moscoso wins. But early in their careers, Rodrigo owned him.
– 3/6 Bredenbeck vs Parrilla: it looked for a while in 2022-23 like Jake had really taken the reigns on this h2h matchup, but then Andree beat him for the Boston title in Dec 2023. Jake won their last meeting in Chicago in March, but these two always play tight.
– 2/7; Acuna vs Mar: Mar leads this matchup 4-3 in their careers, but Andres has the last two, including a dominant 9,5 win back at World Singles & Doubles. Can Mar get back the upper hand here? My upset pick is Mar winning here.
Semis:
– Kane over Moscoso: what can Conrrado do to make adjustments and get a win here? He’s got one thing going for him: the qtrs and semis are both on Saturday, so he may be able to get a tired Kane and take advantage from an athleticism perspective. Still, Kane’s the favorite.
– This could go several ways: Acuna and Jake haven’t met in years. Jake and Mar just met in Eugene, a straightforward 10,9 win for Mr. Minnesota. I’m going with jake.
Finals; Kane over Jake. Jake does have two legit h2h win over Kane in his career, bu t has to be playing well to do so. If he gets here, he’ll have been playing well.
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Doubles review; draws not published as of this writing.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!
Vargas takes back over #1 on tour with her win in Golden State Open.
Photo via usaracquetballevents.com
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Men’s Pro Singles: Conrrado Moscoso
– Women’s Pro Singles: Maria Jose Vargas
– Mixed Pro Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & Gaby Martinez
Moscoso wins his 10th career singles title (he’s now 14th all time) and his third straight major Mixed Pro Doubles title (to go along with the 2023 and 2025 World Singles & Doubles titles). Vargas wins her 13th career title, tied for 10th ever, and takes over World #1.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48678
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Men’s Pro Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/42ed4b
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In the 32s:
– @Robbie Collins dropped the first game to @Wayne Antone 15-1, then came back to win 15-10 and 11-0 thereout.
– @DJ Mendoza grabbed the first game against Bolivian vet Carrasco, but couldn’t finish it out, losing in three.
– Bolivian junior debutant Santiago Borja certainly made #2 Javier Mar work for it, losing into 14 & 11. Great showing.
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In the 16s:
– Martell made fast work of Carter 7,3 in the 8/9 seed matchup
– Parrilla came back from a blowout game 1 loss to edge Diego Garcia in three 11-9. This was an upset special for me, but Parrilla held him off.
– Carrasco earned his first career pro IRT tier1 quarterfinal with a walkover injury against Natera. Alan had major knee surgery earlier this year and struggled a bit in his round of 32 match against a junior, and had to step out of this match.
– Alonso squeaked past Gastelum 6,14.
– Moscoso crushed Bolivian native turned Argentine Miranda 0,2.
– Lastly, the big result of the round: #2 Mar, who we already had circled as a potential upset in this match, had to retire after losing the first game to Bolivian phenom Flores.
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In the Quarters, all four matches go breaker:
– Montoya was stretched to three against countryman Martell but advanced.
– Parrilla held off Manilla 11-9 in the third to move into the semis.
– Alonso was pressed by Carrasco, but moved on in a very close 13,(13),8 result.
– Moscoso was pressed all night by Flores, but found an extra gear in the breaker to win 14,(10),6.
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In the Semis, the two top players in the draw (Montoya and Moscoso) cruised into the finals with little trouble; Montoya frustrated his long-time rival Parrilla 8,2 and Moscoso blasted Alonso 4,0 to setup the dream final.
In the Finals, we had two players who seem like they’re a lot closer than they historically have been: Moscoso led the h2h for their careers 9-5, but had won the last 5 meetings to put some separation between them from a period a few years ago where Montoya really seemed to have his number. Rodrigo did his best here to reverse the trend, taking game one 15-13, but Moscoso took over from there, winning games two and three by 15-7, 11-5 margins that weren’t ever really in doubt.
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Points Implications of Men’s Pro results
Moscoso’s win should move him up to #5, which once again in a full draw would put him on a collision course with Kane prior to a final. Montoya moves up one spot and now sits #3, though there’s little separating #2 to #6 (270 total points). Any missed event and a big run from any of the #2 to #6 guys will put them right behind Kane, who despite missing this event still maintains a massive lead atop the rankings.
In other movement: Natera’s injury loss costs him; he drops from 6 to 9. Flores now sits 16th in the rankings, meaning he’s creeping closer to more manageable round of 16s with each passing event; he was the #15 seed as the #19th ranked player this past weekend, moving up 4 spots due to missing players, and that should just continue. Trujillo, a mainstay on tour for the last couple of years, has missed his 3rd straight Tier 1 and may be quietly stepping back from touring for now.
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.
Let’s review the notable matches in the Women’s Pro Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/300dd0
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In the 32s:
– MRR got a solid win over Mexican junior Gutierrez 13,11 in kind of a trap match.
– Rajsich won her most recent return to LPRT, 6,3 over the elder Perez-Picon sisters.
– Andrea Perez-Picon, the reigning 16U Mexican Jr Champ who has also won US Jr National titles in the past out of the 209 Stockton Jr. factory, got a win over fellow Norcal player Erica Williams to advance.
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In the 16s:
– Centellas got a solid win over Parrilla in the 8/9 matchup, a good sign for the Argentine as she gets back into regular touring.
– Mendez was pressed by MRR before winning in three
– Gaby dominated US National Sanchez 4,2
– Mejia took out former 4-time pro champ Rajsich in two
– Laime was stretched before topping Munoz in three
– Lotts got a career win, topping Amaya in three, earning her 4th career quarter final appearance.
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In the Quarters, all four matches go chalk.
– #1 Longoria was pushed by Centellas 9,10
– #4 Gaby Martinez cruised past Mendez 7,11
– #3 Mejia had a match, going toe to toe with fellow power hitter Laime before advancing 11-8 in the third
– #2 Vargas moved past upset-minded Lotts 6,10
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In the Semis, Longoria was pressed to a breaker by Gaby as she often is, but she persevered after some acrobatic rallies to move into the final. Meanwhile, Vargas-Mejia turned into a smooth win for the Argentine, who is dialed in this weekend and advances 7,9.
In the Finals, Vargas just controlled the match from start to finish, Longoria just couldn’t seem to hit her serves or her lines, and Maria Jose won 8,8 to take her third straight title on tour. As @Steve Castleberry pointed out to me, It has been nearly to the beginning of Longoria’s touring career since she failed to win a tournament one out of four in a row … Vargas has now won the last three events, matching her career best stretch that powered her to her first pro title at the end of 2023.
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Points Implications of Women’s Pro results
The Points are tight at the top, and I may have my XLS calcs wrong, but I believe with this win Vargas takes back over #1 on tour by around 20 points. My sources tell me Longoria may miss the next event due to conflicts with her new career in politics, which could spell trouble for her title defense. Other movements: despite Herrera’s absence she will jump Laime for #6. There should be a wholesale shuffling of the ladies ranked 14th to 18th with Lott’s big win, MRR’s strong return, and York/Synhorst’s absence this weekend.
Here’s a link to my running 2-year+ Women’s ranking worksheet.
Natera’s injury suffered during singles resulted in his wife picking up a last minute sub … and she managed to “find” a suitable replacement in the legendary Alvaro Beltran. Alvi’s inclusion caused a last minute shuffling of the whole mixed draft and actually improved the draw, removing one blatantly too-early matchup and getting neutrals a better draw. Here’s a quick rundown of how the action went:
In the 16s:
– the Parrillas were pushed to an 11-10 limit by Guatemalans MRR and Galicia, a testament to how “back” Maria Renee seems to be based on her results this weekend.
– Last minute sub Beltran got to a breaker, but fell alongside Munoz to the Argentines MIranda and Mendez
– The Manillas, kind of inexplicably seeded 10th despite winning US Nationals Mixed two years ago, “uspet” the #7 seeds Carter & Lotts.
In the quarters:
– Mejia & Mar held off the tough young Flores/Centellas pairing.
– The Parrilla siblings took out the #4 seeds Miranda & Mendez
– Moscoso &Martinez had a great win over Vargas & Garcia in the match of the round.
– The Manilla siblings, seeded 10th, continue to upset and prove the seeding committee wrong with a solid 15,7 win over #2 Montoya/Laime.
Semis: the two favorites advanced, with Mar/Mejia dominating the Parrillas and Moscoso/Martinez crushing the Manillas.
In the final, Moscoso won his 3rd straight major Mixed Pro doubles title with a come-from-behind win over Mar & Mejia (14),10,2.
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Open Singles, Open Doubles, other notable draws
– Texan USA Junior National DJ Mendoza won a stacked Men’s Open singles draw, beating the surprise finalist Alvaro Guillen from Costa Rica
– Mexican former Jr star Ivanna Balderrama won a solid international junior laden Women’s Open/Elite draw, beating fellow Mexican Michelle Gomez in the final.
– Flores & Guillen took the big Men’s Open Doubles draw, getting a walk-over in the final but more than earning their title.
– Guatemalans MRR and Reyes won the small RR Women’s Open Doubles draw.
– Guatemalans continued to shine, taking the Mixed Open doubles draw as Mansilla/Sipac beat Mexicans Martin & Gutierrez in the final.
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Thanks for all the streaming, thanks for the Tourney directors, and the sponsors.
The 10th annual Asia Open Racquetball competition is next weekend in Seoul. After that, there’s an IRT Satellite just announced in the Chicagoland area. November features more IRT events plus a possible IRT/LPRT collab in Denver.
Rhonda Rajsich with a rare pro appearance.
Photo 202 USAR Doubles by Kevin Savory
One of the year’s biggest events is this coming weekend; the 2025 Golden State Open, the brainchild of two former touring pros in @David ” Bobby” Horn and @Adam Manilla, hosted by two of Stockton’s legends @John Ellis and Steve Cook. Both pro tours are onsite at the Bay Club Pleasanton in the East Bay portion of the San Francisco bay area, which means a huge prize purse fundraising effort was done and we get Mixed Pro Doubles for the second time in as many months.
There’s 38 men’s pros and 21 Women’s pros on hand, with fireworks and unexpected results anticipated. By the time you read this play has already started, with the round of 64 on the mens side getting a rare Wednesday evening start.
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Let’s preview the Draws. We’ll do the two singles draws and then the Mixed Pro draw. They’re hosting Open doubles draws for both genders, but the top pros are not entered.
This leaves Rodrigo Montoya to get a #1 seed, a career high. In fact, most of the top 8 at this event are at career high seedings: Mar at #2, Natera at #3, Alonso at #6, and Carter at #8 are all career-best seeds, and the mashed up top 8 is going to give us some new and unexpected head-to-heads here.
More importantly, the absence of Kane in particular historically has been a big indicator that we may get a first time winner.
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In the round of 64 and 32, here’s a few matches to watch for:
– Mauro Rojas vs Emir Martinez: Rojas a former US Junior National champ, and Emir a former top Junior from Mexico. Tough opener, and as it turns out it went three before Rojas fell.
– There’s a few unknown Bolivians who made the trip and who could make waves: Arnez & Borja in particular. Santiago Borja is the two-time defending World 14U junior champion. Both won their openers to face off against top ranked pros in the 32s.
– Sendrey vs Wolfe in the 32s is a solid test for the teenager to see if he can take out a semi-regular IRT touring player.
– Mexican Junior Santiago Castillo, who owns a slew of Mexican Jr National titles including the 2024 16U title, faces off against IRT veteran @Thomas Carter in a match he can’t look past.
– Carrasco-Mendoza in the 14-19 matchup could be close: how much is Mendoza improving versus how quickly is the aging Carrasco’s skills fading?
– If Borja wins his first, he plays into #2 Mar. A good pro debut for the 15yr old.
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Round of 16:
– Martell-Carter in the 8/9 is an interesting matchup; they’ve never met in a top-level event.
– We’re projecting two lefties who both play out of the Bay Area a lot in Collins and Manilla into the 16s.
– Tough draw once again for Parrilla: last week Moscoso played into him early, this week is Garcia, who’s demonstrated his ability to beat nearly anyone on tour.
– Gastelum-Alonso could be close: they met at 2024 Mexican Nationals and Alonso prevailed in three, but Gastelum has come a long way. This is Pineda’s big upset pick.
– the dangerous Miranda meets Moscoso in the 7-10 matchup; this is too bad for Miranda, who has been eyeing a deep run.
– #2 Mar faces off against #15 Flores in a huge trouble area for the Mexican. If Flores plays up to his capabilities, this might be a huge upset.
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Projected Qtrs:
– Montoya over the Carter/Martel winner: Montoya will be favored no matter who comes out here, and has to like his draw this weekend in general. No crazy bolivian junior world champs, no Moscoso seeded 16th, etc.
– Manilla-Garcia: Manilla made a massive run here last year as the host; can he do it again?
– Natera v Alonso: both players are probably looking at each other going, “hey i should win this” and get back to the semis. Could be close
– Moscoso will be favored over whoever comes out of that bottom half, whether its a huge shock like Borja, an upset-minded Flores, or Mar holding serve against two top Bolivian juniors he’s set to face early.
Semis:
– Montoya over Manilla/Garcia winner: Montoya’s only obstacle to the final this week is injury.
– Moscoso over Natera/Alonso winner: this could be over fast.
Finals; I’m calling a Moscoso-Montoya final, with Conrrado taking the title.
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Women’s Pro Singles preview:
Like with the Men’s draw, the ladies draw is missing a few key players. Herrera is out, as is Lawrence and Salas (surgery). So that’s three top 10 ladies missing. What we do have in this draw is a bunch of top Junior Mexicans who we rarely see, including the Perez-Picon sisters. Plus, we get a rare sighting of Rhonda Rajsich, which is awesome to see the future Hall of Famer.
Preview of the draw:
round of 32s to watch for:
– top Mexican U21 player Cynthia Gutierrez makes her LPRT debut and faces Maria Renee Rodriguez-Josey in a tough one for the veteran
– Andrea Perez PIcon, the reigning Mexican 16U champ and finalist at World Juniors last December, faces Norcal’s ERica Williams. Andrea’s older sister Estefania feeds into the Legend Rajsich.
Projected 16s of note:
– The 8/9 between Centellas and Parrilla will be awesome.
– #4 Gaby Martinez projects to play rising USA player Annie Sanchez, who’s played some top players close lately.
– Mejia could face Rhonda in a generational battle of top players
– Munoz-Laime is probably the match of the round.
– Amaya-Lotts will be a battle.
Qtrs on: From here, I see the top four ladies advancing as they typically do: there’s such a gap between Longoria/Mejia/Vargas/Gaby to the rest of the tour right now, it’s hard to predict any upsets. I see Longoria topping Mejia in the final.
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Mixed Pro Doubles
I love Mixed pro doubles: we just have no idea who’s going to win some of these early matches. Normally I look at the two women’s players and try to use that as a determining factor (thinking that the weakest link on the court will get the most shots and will play the biggest part in the match result), but that doesn’t always tell the whole story, and the doubles acumen of the players involved needs to be given more weight. With Salas missing (one of the best mixed doubles players ever) and Longoria skipping out, there’s some new teams and tough matchups.
Here’s some matches to look for and some guesses how this draw will go:
In the 16s, easily the match of the round is the Manilla siblings versus the Argentine mixed national team of Garcia/Vargas: how this is an opening round match is beyond me.
In the quarters:
– Mar/Mejia should advance
– I like Natera/Munoz over the Parrilla sisters
– Moscoso/Martinez should beat whoever comes out of the above 6/11 match, but once again this is the toughest part of the bracket.
– Montoya/Laime is an amazing team and should top Miranda/Mendez.
Semis:
– Mar/Mejia should beat Natera/Munoz … but when these two teams met in the 2023 World Doubles competition it was an 8,9 win for the Chileans. So who knows. I think Munoz is a better doubles player than her counterpart, but Mejia is the harder hitter. Mar-Natera is probably a wash on the left, but Mar is a superior doubles player when he plays with Montoya on the right.
– Moscoso/Gaby over Montoya/Laime, but I have no confidence here. Montoya won the 2025 World Doubles mixed title with Paola in both 2023 and 2025, and Gaby should hold her own as a solid doubles player on the right. But, Laime is no doubles slouch and they could surprise here. Great match.
In the final, i’ll go with the winner of the bottom semi, who i’m thinking is going to be Moscoso/Gaby.
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IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!
Kane wins his 131st career Tier1 title on tour, which now gives him an even 60 more titles than 2nd place Cliff Swain in the known history of the tour.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=50060
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/43f709
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In the 32s: the two most notable/closest matches involved the two tourney hosts @Charlie Pratt and @Wayne Antone.
– Pratt (a former Tier 1 winner himself) matched up against the former #1 Moscoso as the Bolivian continues his comeback trail from falling out of the top 20 due to injury; Charlie could do little with Moscoso, losing 4,2.
– Antone played touring veteran @Robbie Collins tough in the first game, but eventually fell 12,5 to the hard hitting Hawaiian.
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In the 16s, we saw mostly blow-outs, as there seems to be the beginnings of a gap on tour as the top 8-10 players seem like they’re beginning to separate themselves from the rest of the tour. There were two relatively close matches though and a couple others worth noting:
– #8 @Adam Manilla crushed #9 @Jordy Alonso 2,6, kind of making a statement about where both players truly sit right now. Alonso had a couple of notable events earlier this year, but has struggled to break into the top 10, while Manilla’s injury has him stuck in that dreaded #8/#9 slot that plays into Kane, making it tougher for him to move up.
– #5 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball was stretched a bit by @Diego Gastelum 7,12. Gastelum (along with the likes of Garcia, Flores, Hernandez, Trujillo, and Miranda) seems like the next “wave” of players that will be taking over the tour’s middle class, and it’s just a matter of time before we see Diego winning this kind of match.
– #13 Moscoso beat #4 @Andree Parrilla 14,10 in this week’s “top 8 seed who gets beat way too early because Mosocso is on his come back tour” match.
– Mar shellacked Martell 4,4 in a match I thought would be a bit closer.
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In the Quarters
– Manilla certainly made Kane work for it a bit more than in Denver a couple weeks ago, losing 12,6
– In perhaps the tourney’s best match, Moscoso over came match points against in game two before winning in a breaker. final score: (8),14,4
– #3 @Jake Bredenbeck out-controlled Mar’s control game and ground out a 10,9 win to move on.
– #2 @Andres Acuna, the defending event champ, was brought back to earth when he couldn’t convert match point against #7 @alan Natera. Natera moves into the semis for just the second time in his career.
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In the Semis
– Kane beat Moscoso in the longest 4,3 match you’ll ever see, which took 45 minutes and was back and forth 3-shot rallies being traded by the tour’s two hardest hitters. In the end, Kane’s consistency and Moscoso’s error-prone shot making was the difference in this “blowout” that, amazingly, was a lot closer than the score line indicated.
– Jake handled Natera in two close games to get to his 9th career pro final.
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In the Finals, we saw an interesting match for sure. Jake scored the first seven points (as many as Moscoso got in his entire match) and at one point had a 10-1 lead over Kane in game one by serving absolutely lights out to both sides of the court. Kane had little answer for Jake’s pinpoint serve placement to open the match. Kane eventually got back into the game but ran out of time in his comeback, losing Game one 15-11.
Clearly Kane just needed a bit more warm-up time, because from the start of game 2 to the end of the match, it was one-way traffic the other way. Kane blasted Jake off the court 15-2 by flipping the script and himself serving even more effectively than Jake did in the opener, and then Kane didn’t letup until the match was over, winning the match (11),2,2. Kane went down 10-1 in the first game … then won 36 points to Jake’s 8 the rest of the way.
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Points Implications of results
Kane adds to his lead atop the tour: he’s now 1000 points ahead of Acuna in 2nd place, but is now entering a stretch where he’s defending max points for the next six months: he won four straight times between October 2024 and Mar 2025, so any non-win means the tour is catching up to him for a while.
Portillos’ absence and Parrilla’s early loss cost them: they drop from 3 & 4 to 7&8 respectively. Jake ascends to #3 on tour with his finals appearance. Moscoso moves up to #11, Trujillo drops to #15 in the only other significant top-20 player movement.
In a couple week’s time, when Last year’s Spokane event expires, we will see even more movement. We likely will see Mar moving up to a career high as Montoya has more points expiring from mid Oct 2024.
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.
Can Acuna repeat his feat? Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
First off, if you haven’t seen the Fantasy Fastbreak podcast I do with Brian Pineda before and after every IRT event, then you’re missing out. Go here for us talking through this draft and talking IRT Club Fantasy Racquetball
After a year’s hiatus, the IRT returns to a relatively new spot on the schedule in Eugene, Oregon for the 2025 Track Town Open. Originally the brain child of former US National team members and Pacific Northwest residents @Charlie Pratt Racquetball and Wayne Antone, this tournament brings back the IRT and the full strength of a Tier 1 stop to Oregon once again. Nearby Portland is one of the biggest junior development areas in the world, and we see a ton of former top juniors entered into both the pro draws and the event in general.
The 2023 version of this event represented a couple of really historic moments on tour. It was the last tournament that 3-time tour champion @Daniel De La Rosa ever won, and this win (and an early loss by then-#1 Moscoso) essentially sealed the 2023 title for the soon-to-be-departing Pickleball pro. It was also directly in the wake of this event that Jake Bredenbeck ascended to hold the #1 spot on tour, which he held until the season’s final event.
There’s 23 entrants into the pro singles draw here, as the tourney’s location makes it a tough travel challenge for central and South Americans. The event is missing a couple of top competitors: #3 Lalo Portillo is out, something that I’d guess might be more prevalent now that he’s a fully certified airline pilot. Then, a big chunk of the 11-20 guys are not here, including Miranda, Trujillo, Garcia, Flores, and Sam Bredenbeck. This means on the one hand fewer upsets in the early rounds, and it means opportunity for the top players to book some needed points.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
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In the 32s:
– Several local players get their IRT pro tour debuts this weekend, including Tony Teach, Sean Brooks, and Travis Haines.
– Oregon native, former touring pro, holder of the 2017 Pelham Memorial Tier 1 title, and former US National team coach @Charlie Pratt gets a rare appearance on tour; he plays #13 Moscoso. If Pratt had played into anyone else in the 9-16 range maybe he has a chance, but Conrrado will cruise past him.
– I like the @Wayne Antone Racquetball / @Robert Collins opener; could go either way.
– Two tour regulars in Carlos Ramirez and Jim Douglas get to play each other for a spot in the main draw.
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round of 16 Notable matches:
– Manilla and Alonso face off in the 8/9; great match. Should go the distance.
– Montoya gets the Gastelum/Spencer winner and needs to keep focused to move on. Gastelum gets a good test against a fellow Mexican.
– @Conrrado Moscoso comes into this event #13 on the back of some newly achieved points; this at least gets him out of a 1-16 matchup with Kane. Instead he plays into the #4 seed in @Andree parrilla, which I’m sure he’s not happy about.
– @Jake Bredenbeck gets the Collins/Antone winner. I don’t think there’s an upset here, but all of these guys are US National team veterans who can get points off of each other.
– top Mexicans Mar and Martell project into each other; I don’t have them meeting in a top-level event since Mexican Nationals in 2019.
– Natera continues to work his way back after ankle surgery earlier this year with a winnable match versus Carter in the 7/10.
– Last event’s champion Acuna starts his march back to the final against the Ramirez/Douglas winner.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 @Kane Waselenchuk over Manilla in a rematch of World Doubles lefty on lefty quarters. Hopefully Adam scores a few more points this time.
– we get a possible banger of a match between the two hardest hitters on tour in Moscoso and Montoya. For neutrals, huge fan of this potential matchup.
– Mar vs Bredenbeck rekindles an old rivalry that dates back to their first meeting in early 2016. Mar hasn’t lost to Jake since, including a meeting on tour in Pleasanton last year. Advantage Javi.
– Acuna gets his first test in Natera in the quarters; they met three times in three straight events in late 23-early 24, all three easy Acuna wins, and with Natera perhaps not yet 100% post surgery this should be Acuna moving into the semis for the 4th time in his last 5 events.
Semis:
– Kane and Moscoso project to play in my predictions in the semis, not the 16s as in Denver. And that might workout just fine for the Bolivian, who gets Kane after a couple of rounds of matches instead of fresh and lively on a Thursday. Furthermore, this will be Kane’s 2nd match of Saturday, as the pros will play both quarters and semis on one day. Will it matter? Kane won 5,14 two weeks ago, an interesting result to me in that Moscoso is usually more of a front-runner (meaning, when he loses in two, it’s usually close in the first game and a blow out in the second). I’m thinking this goes breaker, and Kane may be pressed a bit more than he’s used to before advancing.
– Acuna projects to face Mar in this scenario, a player he just waxed in the Denver quarters. I see no reason for a different result here.
Finals; a rematch of Acuna and Kane. Something tells me Kane wants to exact some revenge here and will get plenty of beauty rest Saturday night in order to be ready for a beating Sunday. Look for a two-game statement win from the King.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
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Tourney Host Sebastian Franco. Photo Kevin Savory 2018 US Open
Hot on the heels of World Singles & Doubles was a quick Satellite event held in the old DMV, my stomping grounds. The DMV Invitational was held last weekend in Severna Park and played host to a slew of international players who stuck around state-side to play another event before heading back home.
This led to a solid 24-man IRT draw and some great action. here’s a quick recap:
Top seed Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball , who had to forfeit out of Denver’s event with an ugly-looking ankle sprain, ground out a couple solid wins to get to the final. He topped two of the best local players in Maryland in order in John Behm and then Ezequiel Subieta, who once made the Bolivian Junior national team before settling in the DC area and dominating DC/MD/VA events. Subieta topped the tourney host and former IRT Tier1 winner @sebastian Franco 7,2 to earn the shot at Montoya. In the semis, Montoya beat Sam Bredenbeck but certainly had to work for it, with Sam pushing Rodrigo 12,11 before falling.
From the bottom half, the player we keep talking about Bolivian 18U champ @Jhonatan Flores had himself a solid event, beating local favorite Zelada in the 16s and then No. 2 seed @javier mar in the quarters. He then fell to former #1 and fellow Bolivian @Conrrado Moscoso in the semis, but it was no blowout (11-7 in the third).
The final we well contested until Montoya had to retire again, losing 15-9 and retiring at 6-6 in the second. Moscoso takes the title in a Bolivia heavy field befitting a DC area event and its large Bolivian population.
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Doubles:
the two top pairs of IRT tour vets and regular partners were the two top seeds, and made their way to the final without much incident. There, the No 1 Montoya/Mar pair had to forfeit out with Rodrigo’s injury, giving hte title to No. 2 Moscoso/Carrasco. This gives Moscoso the double for his troubles.
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Any points are good points to earn for Moscoso right now, and these Satellite points should be enough to move Moscoso up a couple slots on the ranking, perhaps enough to get him out of a 1-16 matchup with Kane next time.
Next up on the calendar: The IRT Tracktown Open in Oregon at the end of the month.
