Category: IRT

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Jake Bredenbeck

– Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball & Javier Mar

Jake comes out on top of a weird, upset-filled event to win his 3rd career Tier 1 title and to retire the Glass Court club in style. Montoya & Mar cruise to the doubles title despite Montoya’s shoulder injury limitations.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=47136

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

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/ac96ab

Before we get started, A quick comment: there were a TON of top U18 and U21 internationals in this draw, and if I wasn’t bearish on the future of pro racquetball I’d be pointing at this event as a sign of the future. Competing in Chicago included:

– 2024 U21 World Champ Acha

– 2024 U21 semi finalists Trujillo and Barrios

– 2024 U21 USA Junior National titlist Horner

– 2024 U18 World Champion Flores

– 2024 U18 USA National team members Sendrey and Mendoza

– 2024 U18 USA Junior Nats quarter finalist Herrera II

– 2023 U21 World Champion Gastelum

– 2019 U18 World champ Miranda

– 2022 U21 World champ Garcia

That’s a lot of players who are all in their early 20s or younger, and they should represent the next big wave of players in this sport. Unfortunately a huge chunk of them are South Americans who can’t just hop a flight to get up here to compete, so I wonder what will come of them in their quest to move up the pro ranks. Perhaps we’ll see more of the likes of Flores, Miranda, Garcia, and Acha given the taste of success they’re having. I hope so.

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In the 64s:

– @Sam Murray kicked off his return to pro racquetball with a pretty dominant win over a tough Bolivian junior opponent in @hector Barrios 5,3

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In the 32s:

– Reigning u21 champ @Jhoel Alexis Acha got the match of a lifetime, playing King Kane and losing 4,6.

– @Sam Bredenbeck let 18U junior Cole Sendrey know just how far he has to go to compete, overpowering the Texan 13,6 to move on.

– Old WRT rivals Martel & Horn had a battle for the ages, with Horn running out of gas in the breaker.

– Thomas Carter destroyed @Kadim Carrasco 2,0 to move into the next round.

– Reigning 18U champ @Jhonathan Flores made a statement in his win over u21 international Diego Gastelum 7,6. I thought this would be closer, and it does not bode well for the collective U21 international crew, many of whom were here this weekend. Flores seems primed to destroy that competition for the next three years.

– Murray cruised past Montoya 11,6. We had a tip from a tour official that Montoya may not even play singles here, so this is not a surprising result necessarily. I did not get a chance to see him this weekend, but his competing through the doubles finals is a good sign.

– Trujillo made fast work of Mendoza, not giving the USA junior national a chance.

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Lastly, My friends at the IRT are not going to like this this take.

Argentine Diego Garcia was forfeited out of this draw because he showed up 12 minutes late to his match. You see, the tour changed the draw Wednesday night to accommodate one more player’s last minute entry, despite a registration deadline days before and most international players’ plans settled weeks before, a change that forced me to re-write much of my preview and to re-do all the match seeds. But this change also changed a bunch of published start times for players, including Garcias from 5pm to 3pm, a change relayed to him via a group text message that he missed. By the time someone told him … he rushed to the club but got there 12 minutes late.

So, to restate this; you have one of the most exciting junior players in the world who flew halfway around the world to play in one of the 7-8 pro racquetball events that will even happen this year, and you forfeit him because he’s sitting in his hotel room 10 minutes away from the club unaware that you’ve changed the draw on him with 12 hours notice. How dumb is that? What if Garcia stops coming up here because of this? You think the tour is better off not having one of the best players in the world investing the time and money to compete? This was an absolutely terrible decision, one that seems like it could have been worked around for the sake of the sport. Its not like there’s another event next week and its no big deal that he got forfeited; it probably cost a month’s wages for him to fly up here and compete.

We can’t afford to lose top players right now because someone was obstinate and refused to be flexible. Not over a hundred dollars of prize money for the winner. Have a player liaison, someone who speaks Spanish and who can help these guys navigate the situation. I thought Garcia had a real solid chance of getting to the quarters here; instead he’s dumbfounded by getting forfeited out of an event because he didn’t get a text message for a draw change that shouldn’t have happened.

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In the 16s:

– Jake solidly got past Martell

– Flores destroyed #4 Natera 9,6. Tough draw for Natera his first time in the top 4, but Flores is the real deal.

– Murray crushed Miranda 5,8 in a match I thought could go the other way due to Murray’s rust. I guess not.

– Mar was in control of his match of Alonso when he retired at the very end of game two. Mar looks dangerous this weekend for sure.

– Portillo made fast work of Trujillo 5,6. Portillo sure looks solid since he started flight school, and he’s now a danger for the semis or better every time he plays.

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In the Quarters

– Jake got a game one win over Kane, then the #1 seed retired. He tweaked something last week, and it was still bugging him, and in the post-game interview Kane said he knew he was going to have to forfeit at some point, and played until he figured he couldn’t go any further without injuring himself more significantly. During the match, Kane definitely seemed to take some awkward lunges at balls that Jake was hitting, as I looked for evidence of a point in time that led to the injury. His mobility was off for sure, and the last couple of points he mailed in before withdrawing.

– Parrilla survived a game against the Bolivian junior phenom Flores 11-10, a match he frankly should not have won. Flores blew him out in game one, then the two played neck and neck racquetball for the rest of game 2 and 3. Flores had match point on his serve and blew a wide-open forehand into the ground to give the ball to Andree, who converted and advanced.

– Mar crushed Murray 5,1 who finally showed some rust and fatigue.

– So much for being #2: Acuna was whitewashed by Portillo 3,0 in a beatdown.

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In the Semis

– Jake and Andree played their typical dogfight, with jake advancing 11,12

– Lalo pulled a rabbit out of his hat, coming back from a deep hole in the tiebreaker to beat Mar 11-9 and move into the final.

In the Finals, I would have put money on Lalo to continue his dominance, but it was jake who blew off the doors of the Mexican, winning 11,3 for his third career pro win.

Jake joins a small group of 3-time winners on tour that includes Parrilla, Strandemo, Ed Andrews, and Alvaro Beltran.

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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.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/3d9832

Montoya & Mar didn’t drop a game en route to their 9th pro doubles title together.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Gastelum beat Barrios in the Open singles final. Sendry & S.Bredenbeck semis

– Team Argentina Miranda & Garcia took Open Doubles, beating the Lazenby brothers form St. Louis in the final.

– Ava Kaiser took the women’s Open RR singles, then teamed with Jake Wilkins to take the Mixed Open Doubles.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Richard Eisemann and Carrie Reitmeire.

Thanks to everyone at the Glass Court facility for the decades of support for Pro Racquetball. This was your swansong, and we will miss you.

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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.

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tags

@International Racquetball Tour

Welcome to the 40th annual iteration of this event, and unfortunately the last iteration, as the Jaskier family has made the difficult decision to close the famed Glass Court Fitness club in Lombard after decades of ownership and operation. The unique “fishbowl court that is surrounded on all sides by viewing areas and sports equipment will host its final pro event, and the tour will lose a mainstay in its schedule. This club closing was followed just this morning with news that Recreation Atlanta will also be closing, another dagger for independent court ownership in our sport.

This is the 40th iteration of the tournament, now sponsored by Papa NIcholas coffee, and for the last 11 it has been associated with the IRT. Chicago as a town has been a major player in the Men’s pro racquetball world, thanks to the likes of Dan Jaskier , Dave Negrete , @Geoff Peters , and the Klimaitis family, who have donated time, money, and attention to the sport for decades. Chicago was the long-time host of the Halloween Classic, held the Motorola Pro Nationals in the mid 2000s, and held a bunch of NRC and Catalina nationals back in the hey dey of the sport late 70s/early 80s.

There’s something in the water specific to the Lombard club too, as we’ve seen all sorts of crazy results here in the last decade on tour. Here’s a sampling:

– in 2024, Jhonathan Flores went on a tear, beating a ton of top pros to make the quarters out of nowhere.

– in 2022, @Rocky Carson went on his last big run, making his last final as a #8 seed by beating then-#1 DLR before falling to Kane.

– in 2021, Jake beat then #1 Landa for one of his best career wins and got to the final.

– in 2018, a crazy tournament resulted in a final between Parrilla and Horn, each vying for their first title. Parrilla won, and it remains the only final Horn ever made on tour.

– in 2017, Parrilla made his first career final as a #14 seed, beating DLR, Landa and Carson along the way.

Despite all these great runs from players not named Waselenchuk, Kane has won 7 of the 10 titles competed here since 2015, and enters its last event as the dominant #1 seed this season and clear favorite to win another title, especially given that his two biggest rivals on tour (Moscoso and Montoya) both took major injuries last week in Minnesota. Moscoso is completely out of the Lombard event with his knee issue, as he hopes it heals up for his Bolivian Nationals later this month and then for PARC in mid April. Meanwhile, Montoya may just go through the motions in Chicago, depending on just how bad he injured his shoulder.

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

There’s 37 entered into the singles draw this weekend (one last minute entry that forced a draw-redo at the final hour and which forced some rewrites of this preview at the last second): having these back-to-back IRT events makes for great draws, as internationals can get two events in for the price of one flight.

Top 20 players missing: #5 Manilla still out with a shoulder tweak from earlier this year, #6 Moscoso as discussed above. The rest of the top 20 is here and playing, and the round of 16 will be stacked. Also returning here for the first time in more than a year is Samuel Murray, who has zero points and gets the #35 seed, and plays right into #3 Montoya .. who may or may not be too hurt to play. Read on.

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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:

In the round of 64, there’s 5 matches with some of them involving our own Jr National team members.

– U21 champ Acha has a winnable match against Mexican De Alba

– US National team member Grant Williams gets a good test against Bolivian @esteban Reque.

– USA juniors Horner and Herrera II meet for a spot in the 32s.

–

– Lastly, long-time touring vet Sam Murray is back on tour after more than a year away. Murray WON his last IRT appearance, thus breaking a number of the queries on the website which assume that a player lost their last match on tour. HE’s back, he has zero points, and is seeded 35th so he gets an opener. He gets the tough junior bolivian Hector Barrios, but should advance.

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In the Round of 32:

– Kane should get his start against reigning U21 champion Acha, a nice touch.

– In the 16/17 matchup, a fun on between the younger Bredenbeck brother Sam and prolific tournament player Cole Sendrey. This should be an interesting test for both players. They’ve never met in a pro or national setting. Sam has more firepower, but Sendrey has the game to beat him.

– Martell-Horn. Wow, is it 2015 on the WRT? These two players met in 2010 in Martell’s IRT debut in San Diego, and the last time of their 10 meetings was in 2019 at the US Open. They’re 5-5 against each other lifetime, but Martell has been more active on tour lately, so advantage Jaime.

– Carter- Carrasco is an interesting matchup of long-time touring pros who don’t get to play that often. Thomas has won their last 3 meetings and should advance here.

– Gastelum vs Flores: wow, this is a potential U21 World final. These two amazingly met last year in this exact same event (in Open, not Pros), a Gastelum win, but Flores has come a long way since, and has significantly better wins. A reminder: Flores made the quarters here last year and took a game off of Kane. Flores might be one of the best 10 players in the world, if only he toured full time.

– Murray-Montoya. If Montoya isn’t 100% (as I suspect he is not), then this is an upset in the making. Does Rodrigo even finish the match? He could barely swing a racquet on Saturday, and now he’s forced to face a Tier1 winner and long-time top 10 player in Murray? I think Sam advances here, and Montoya doesn’t finish the match.

– Trujillo-Mendoza. Well, this is a statement match. Trujillo may be in the top 10 now on the IRT and rising fast, but he keeps taking losses to players in his age group. Lost to Miranda last week, lost to Acha in U21 in December, Lost to Sanchez at Mexican Jr Nats in 2024, lost to Hernandez at MexNats24. But on the flip side, Trujillo has some great adult wins that bolster his current #9 ranking. Meanwhile, Mendoza has not been able to break through in US Junior Nationals, but got a very solid win over Acha last week. Is Mendoza taking a leap forward, or is Trujillo going to plaster him here?

– Acuna vs Castillo: this was set to be Acuna vs Murray until a last minute draw change: now Acuna gets a far, far easier path into this draw as the #2 seed for the first time.

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round of 16:

– Sendrey may get a first meeting against the King, for the wonderful opportunity of losing 2,4.

– Martell vs Jake: Jaime goes from one all-WRT meeting (Horn) to another one with Jake. These two played nearly 10 times on the old pro circuit, with Jake winning nearly all of them (career 10-1 on WRT And IRT). Last time they met was in 2023, a 1,4 beatdown by Jake. However, these two players are going in opposite directions right now. I still think Jake wins, but don’t be surprised if Jaime pulls an upset here.

– For his troubles of getting a career high ranking and seeding at #4, @alan Natera

likely faces off against one of the best Juniors in the world in Flores. And I think he is in jeopardy of losing to Flores, who has the hot hand right now and can get this win.

– Thanks to the presumed inj-fft of Montoya, the #3-#14 matchup opens up and turns into an interesting youth versus veteran matchup of Murray vs Miranda. I think Miranda is hot and can beat Murray, but Sam is also one of the best tacticians on tour. I’ll go with youth over rust and predict the Argentine (who should have been in the semis last week) to advance.

– Mar vs Alonso, a great matchup of tactical experts from Mexico. Both took unexpected upset losses to early 20s South Americans last week and will be looking to rebound. Alonso seems like the fairer bet to move on here. I have no record of these two meeting in a pro or nationals event, but its likely they’ve played at some local tournament over the many years they’ve been competing.

– Portillo-Trujillo; Lalo is the most dangerous 10 seed we’ve seen in a while. If Trujillo gets here, Lalo is just too good.

– Acuna – Garcia: another difficult matchup for the new #2 seed. Garcia beat him at Worlds last year in the group stage, and took a game off him at the Pleasanton pro stop. Garcia is hot, with comprehensive wins over Alonso and Jake last week, and I can see an upset here.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Kane over Martell

– Parrilla over Flores: Andree always plays well at this club and has some sentimentality for the area.

– Miranda over Alonso: playing a hunch

– Lalo over Garcia; Lalo may only be the #10 seed but he’s playing far better than it.

Semis:

– Kane d Parrilla in a rematch of a final here years ago.

– Lalo ends Miranda’s run.

Finals; Kane beats Portillo in a rematch of the Lewis Drug Pro Am. Scores are like 7,10.

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Doubles review

If, as I suspect, Montoya drops out, the #1 Montoya/Mar pair will open up the top-side, likely for last week’s WBF-benefactors Trujillo & Alonso, who are seeded fourth and could cruise into the final from the topside.

From the bottom half, the best matchup may be in the quarters as Parrilla/Portillo have to face Miranda/Garcia, a great Mexico vs Argentina matchup. I like the winner of that to the final, and to eventually win. Lalo is too good on the doubles court and I favor him and Andree to win the title.

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Hope you tune in this weekend, join the new IRT Club to support the tour and get access to more courts, and generally support what looks like it could be a great event with some fresh new faces making noise.

Associations

International Racquetball Tour

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: @Kane Waselenchuk

– Doubles: Erick Trujillo and Jordy Alonso

Well, it was a weird one, but Kane won his record-extending 130th career title while Alonso & Trujillo won their first career doubles titles without taking the court in the semis or the finals. Lets recap the injury and upset-filled weekend in Minneapolis.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=47719

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

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

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In 64s:

– I actually thought DJ Mendoza’s win over Acha was notable. Mendoza struggled at the 18U worlds last December, losing in the RRs twice, but took out the reigning U21 world junior champ in Acha (who had to beat both Trujillo and Hernandez to do so). Great win.

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In the 32s:

– Solid win for Sam Bredenbeck beating Carrasco 11-10.

– @Diego Garcia destroyed Alonso 10,2. I keep predicting a deep run for Garcia and he gets upset early … then when i hedge in the preview, he blasts a top 10 players with ease.

– Bolivian Jhonatan Flores with a match-point saving win over Mar, great win for the reigning 18U world champ. Lets hope he continues to get to travel to the US.

– Another Bolivian international in Miranda gets a top010 win, this time over Trujillo. Probably not entirely an upset even given the seeds, but given their junior histories.

– Sendry gets a nice win over the tour veteran Collins.

– Biggest result of the round: Moscoso tweaks his knee mid-first game against Horn, then stubbornly hobbles around to “complete” the match instead of just forfeiting, giving Horn a 13,0 win and a quarter final appearance for the first time since the 2018-19 season

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In the 16s:

– Garcia with another upset, this time over Jake in his home town event.

– I thought in my prediction that Flores may have a shot against Parrilla in the 16s … and he did, losing 11-10 after not being able to convert match point.

– Miranda continues his run, topping Carter to get to the quarters. Honestly, if Garcia and Miranda lived domestically they’d be top 8 already, and would be mainstays in the quarters.

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In the Quarters

– Kane continues to cruise, setting down the Argentine Garcia 7,4.

– Solid win by Acuna over Parrilla to get back to the semis. We’re going to talk about Acuna later; you’re going to be shocked where he’s ranked after this event is done.

– Montoya pulled a rabbit out of his hat, somehow coming back from 4-10 down in the breaker despite injuring his shoulder and basically hitting patty-cake with the racquetball and keeping it in play. Miranda was in control and had no business losing, but saw the injury and couldn’t capitalize. Amazingly Rodrigo wins 11-10 and then promptly forfeits both singles and doubles.

– Natera gets a career best semis appearance with his win over Horn.

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In the Semis

– Kane was pushed by the tactical Acuna, who took a game from him but couldn’t continue in the breaker with the upset. Sometimes it’s hard to look at Acuna’s game and realize that his steadiness may make him the most likely to put a loss on Kane right now, but time and again he hangs against the King.

– Natera gets his first career final with an injury walkover against Montoya.

In the Finals, with Kane going half-speed, he lost game two but won his 130th career title.

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Points Implications of results

Well, if I have my XLS right (see link below), and this event gives out points like an IRT plus event, then the consistency and steadiness of both Acuna and Natera are going to pay off; i have Andres rising to #2 on tour, leap frogging Moscoso and Montoya, while I have Natera jumping up to #4. Moscoso’s injury here and his missing most of the end of 2024 will continue to conspire against him

Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.

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

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/b3f213

The injuries to Montoya and Moscoso took out the two top doubles teams in this draw. The last team standing ended up being Trujillo & Alonso, who got walkovers in the semis and finals to claim their first title. They did get a very solid win over No 3. seeds Acuna/Natera.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Hector Barrios, who curiously didn’t play Pro singles, took Open singles in a walkover against Gastelum in the final, which would have been a great match.

– Open Doubles: Garcia & Miranda unsurprisingly cruised to a title.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Richard Eisemann and his band of guest speakers.

Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

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

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tags

@iInternational Racquetball Tour

Welcome back to the International Racquetball Tour and the return of Men’s Pro racquetball. The first event of the new year under the new regime was well received, and now the tour is back. They’re in Minnesota, at the University of Minnesota on the same courts that held the last US Open a couple year’s back for the 2025 Minnesota Hall of Fame event. It’s the third straight year for this event, which is great news for the sport to have some continuity.

Ahead of the event, we got some news items:

– the Glass Court club in Lombard is set to close. We’ll talk more about it in our Shamrock preview in a week, but wanted to mention it here.

– The Bredenbeck brothers are coordinating a GoFundMe to finance the Team USA PARC delegation to Guatemala this year. For those who just aren’t familiar with the financial state of the sport now, USA Racquetball is to the point where they can only finance one IRF event per year, and generally speaking its going to be the major events going forward (Worlds, World Games, Pan Am Games). If you’d like to help, here’s the link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-team-usa-represent-in-guatemala

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This tournament is made possible this year by TD @Vallana Perrault , long time fundraising lead Karen Masberg Bredenbeck , and by headlining sponsor @KWM Gutterman and new tour majority owner @Keith Minor. Thanks for everything you do for this event and for the sport in general.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=47719

The singles draw has a solid 39 players. There’s a couple of notable absences in the draw: #4 Adam Manilla is missing and will be out for a while with a shoulder injury he suffered/aggravated in Sioux Falls, a bummer for the lefty who had just reached a career peak. His absence gives both Trujillo and Natera career high seedings in an event. It also guarantees a little bit of a jumbling of the expected matchups we usually see in the 16s and quarters, which is always good. Last event’s finalist Lalo is missing, but the rest of the top 20 is here. Even the Bolivian regulars are present, right on the tail end of their Carnival, so hopefully they got some rest on the plane.

This singles draw features a TON of South Americans coming up, including both top Argentine males, eight players from Bolivia, Colombia’s veteran Cubillos, all the top Guatemalans, plus the rest of the expected international top touring vets. Altogether 9 countries represented.

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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:

In the round of 64, you don’t usually have compelling matchups, but we do here.

– US junior national member Benjamin Horner takes on Guatemalan national team member @Jose Caceres in what should be a good test.

– Reigning U21 world champ Bolivian Jhoel Alexis Acha makes his IRT pro debut, and takes on USA junior National 18U team member @DJ Mendoza. Solid match between two up and coming players.

– @Gerson Miranda faces off against Mexican 14U player Santiago Castillo in his pro tour debut.

– David ” Bobby” Horn , fresh off his APP Sacramento Open pickleball tournament last week, faces off against the tough midwest amateur Lee Meinerz . Could go either way: Meinerz is a tough out if Bobby hasn’t been training.

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In the 32s:

– In the 16/17 match a great meeting between home-town @Sam Bredenbeck

and Bolivian veteran Kadim Carrasco . Should be a good one. I like Sam here.

– @Jordy Alonso has to contend with @Diego Garcia in the opener, and should advance but this is a tough one against a tough international. I’m usually in favor of predicting upsets for the likes of Garcia in these events, but he’s struggled to make an impact outside of international events lately.

– Andree Parrilla , who has been struggling with some health issues, draws the U21 Bolivian champ Acha, and if he doesn’t watch out could take a loss here.

– #12 @Javier Mar gets the tough Bolivian Jhonathan Flores … upset watch here. In case you forgot what Flores can do, last year in Chicago he put losses on Jake, Collins, Ulliman, and Alonso, and then took a game off of Kane in the quarters. He’s the reigning 18U World champ and is set to run the 3-year U21 table.

– Top Midwest amateur @John Goth gets a winnable matchup against #14 Carlos Rodríguez

– For getting his best ever tourney seed, #6 @Erick Trujillo draws Miranda, a guy who can absolutely beat him if he’s not careful.

– the 15/18 is interesting, an all USA matchup between junior national Cole Sendrey, and his Junior National team coach Robby Collins . Can Sendrey get a win here against his coach?

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Round of 16:

– In the 8/9, Alonso vs Jake; great matchup. Jake playing for the home crowd, but Alonso on the hot streak. Tough to predict.

– Parrilla/Mar in the 5/12: brutal start to his tourney for Parrilla, who might not get here and probably falls to Mar, who he’s played dozens of times in his life and wh o matches up well against him, and who is coming off a Mexican Nationals final.

– Trujillo if he gets past Miranda projects to Thomas Carter , a good status check of the current pecking order on tour.

– Natera vs Martell: great matchup that we don’t normally get to see. I like Natera here, but Martell had a solid tourney in South Dakota.

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Projected Qtrs:

– @Kane Waselenchuk over Alonso: Jordy shocked him when they met in Canoga Park last May; there will not be another shocking.

– Mar over @Andres Acuna: seems like Mar is healthy and could go deep here.

– Montoya over Trujillo; the young player from Monterrey isn’t ready to challenge Mexico’s top dog yet,.

– Moscoso over Natera: by late Friday Moscoso should be over his jet lag, recovered from his street dancing gig, and will be rocking.

This is my dream semis by the way: Kane, the two guys who I think have the best shot of beating Kane right now in Moscoso & Montoya, and the classy Mar who has a great game to matchup against the King. We’ll see if it comes to pass. Probably not 🙂

Semis:

– Kane over Mar: we’re years past the US Open where Mar hung with Kane; last time they met it was a beat down in Pleasanton.

– Montoya over Moscoso: Rodrigo won’t be afraid of Conrrado.

Finals: Kane d Montoya in three. I think Montoya can keep it together to take a game, but not a match, off of the King.

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Doubles review

There’s some great round of 16 matches here: Martell/Carter vs Sendrey/Gastelum is one, and Alonso/Trujillo vs Garcia/Miranda (team Argentina) is another. Guatemala’s PARC presumed team is here in Salvatierra/Galicia; they take on IRT tour vets Ramirez & Collins in a solid lefty/righty matchup.

In the end though, I think the two top teams (Mar/Montoya and Carrasco/Moscoso) will be too tough to beat and will meet in the final. I like the Mexicans over team Bolivia once again.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.

Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on IRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!

Associations

International Racquetball Tour

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Kane Waselenchuk

– Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & @Kadim Carrasco

Kane wins his 3rd tourney on the trot, 15-matches in a row since a shock loss to Alonso last May. He extends his own record of being the oldest player to win a Tier 1 on tour. Lastly, he drastically increases his lead atop the tour rankings, and now owns nearly double the points to just the #2 player on tour. Kane continues to be unstoppable.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=46712

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

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/b5e74e

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In the 64s:

– Ortega survived a solid match from Floridian Alejandro Herrera Azcarate , who may have just flamed out after crushing the young Mexican in game one.

– Tour veterans Horn and Franco both had winning results in their return to the tour after so long away.

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Notable matches from the 32s:

– #17 @Diego Gastelum cruised past #16 Robby Collins in the 16/17 match; If Trujillo is in the top 10, then Gastelum should eventually be as well.

– #9 Jake Bredenbeck had probably the hardest round of 32, having to stare down Argentine @Diego Garcia to move on. I thought this would be closer, but Jake handled Garcia 9,9.

– Sam Bredenbeck , back on tour after months away, cruised past #13 CARLOS RAMÍREZ 3,5 in an upset by seed but probably not by talent.

– #3 @Adam Manilla was the unlucky recipient of seeing @Sebastian Franco for his round of 32, but worked his way past the long-time top 10 Colombian to move on.

– #15 @Eduardo Portillo Rendon took out #18 @Kadim Carrasco in a far-too-early match for the former top 6 player, who has seen his ranking dip as he spent much of 2024 missing events to work on his career.

– #2 Rodrigo Montoya defeated his old WRT rival David ” Bobby” Horn in two to end Horn’s comeback early.

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In the 16s, we got seed carnage. Five of the top Eight seeds fell in this round, as the latter part of the draw was littered with opportunistic double digit seeds.

– In the 8/9 match, which @Alan Natera has dominated lately, #9 Jake Bredenbeck crushed the Chilean 7,1 to move into the quarters.

– Jordy Alonso got a wbf-ns walkover against @Andree Parrilla , robbing neutrals of a very anticipated match.

– @Javier Mar is back, and took out #3 Manilla in a breaker.

– #10 Jaime Martell Neri got a well-played win over #7 @Erick Trujillo to move into the quarters.

– In the biggest upset of the night, #15 Portillo destroyed #2 Montoya 6,4 to move into the quarters. Nobody likes to see a top-6 player in the 16s, but all credit to Lalo here controlling Montoya’s power game. He wasn’t done yet either…

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In the Quarters

– #1 Kane dominated Jake, who is one of the few players on tour with a h2h win over the king, 3,8 to move on.

– #4 Moscoso survived the first real test of his comeback from arm injury, and he did so in solid fashion. After falling down early in the first against Alonso, he ran the table to close out game one and then jump to a big lead in game two. Jordy clawed his way back to 10, but the Bolivian advances to setup the dream matchup in the semis 7,10.

– After his big 16s win, Mar couldn’t continue his run and fell to the rising Costa Rican @Andres Acuna in three. Acuna makes his way into another semi and has solidified his spot in deep in the top 8.

– Portillo cruised past Martell 2,10 with his sights on the final.

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In the Semis

– Kane and Moscoso played an interesting, back and forth match that highlighted a salient fact often repeated in this space. The top players on tour can beat Kane … but they have to play three perfect games to do so. Moscoso played one perfect game, game 2, wining 15-10, but it wasn’t enough. After splitting the first two games, Kane stayed consistent while Moscoso floundered and Kane wins 11-6 in the breaker.

– In the other semi, Lalo and Acuna played a tactical close match, with Lalo advancing 11,14 to setup a final few would have predicted.

In the Final, Kane put his USAR Ranking on the line (Kane’s #1 there, but Lalo has a h2h win over him, and a defeat would immediately put Portillo top), but the result was anticlimactic. Kane wins 5,8 and Lalo wasn’t ever really in danger of an upset.

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Points Implications of results

Assuming this is a Tier1+ points event …

Kane drastically extends his lead at top, replacing last year’s semis loss with the Tier1+ points of this year’s win. Moscoso should go to #2, jumping both Montoya and Manilla. Acuna should rise one stop to #5, a career best. Natera should finally get out of the #8 spot and give himself a chance to avoid Kane in the quarters. Alonso’s results should put him in the top 10 for the first time. Portillo should jump from 15 to 12, while Gastelum jumps a bit deeper into the top 16.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/0212c1

Moscoso wins just his third career Pro doubles title, his first with Carrasco, with a well played 11-9 tiebreaker win over the top seeds Montoya/Mar.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Gastelum topped local open favorite Jordan Barth in the Men’s Open final.

– Miranda & Garcia took a very talented Open Doubles draw over Bear & Portillo in the final.

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Fantasy Racquetball Competition Wrap-up

Here were the top 5 rankings from Fantasy Racquetball for the event:

1. JT R Ball / @Daily Racquetball who predicted Lalo to the final.

2. @Mitch Brayley

3. Yours Truly Todd Boss

4. Shawn Watts

5. @Joe Linnell

6. Kurtis Cullen

I guess the Canadians are pretty good at this 🙂

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters @Richard Eisemann and Carrie Wegener Reitmeier

Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

Canada has its second nationals qualifier this coming weekend, then we have Mexican Nationals the last week of February. The next pro stop will be in early march.

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tags

One of the longest running privately run tournaments in the sport is set for its 45th hear. Mark Gibbs is running back the Lewis Drug Pro-Am in Sioux Falls once again, one of the most popular events on tour.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=46712

This is the first Tier 1 of the 2025 season/year, and the first under new tour ownership and involvement. We’ve already seen Adam Manilla ‘s impact, with great social media profiles of players on the IRT’s Facebook page leading up to the event. We may see some interesting change to the tour, its structure, its draws, and whatnot with the new ownership and new commissioner Dave Negrete , but for now its business as usual.

There’s 36 players in South Dakota this weekend, including the top 17 ranked players and 18 of the top 20. There’s some returning names, some well-traveled players from South Africa, and the draw looks like it will give us some great early round matches. This event is the return of Bolivian Conrrado Moscoso, who was #1 on tour most of last year but who suffered an arm injury that cost him the points race and a couple of events late in the season. Is he at 100% we’ll soon see.

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Early round matches to watch for:

There’s just two round of 64s, both of which are interesting:

– top Florida amateur and former touring pro @Alejandro Herrera Azcarate takes on up-and-coming Mexican talent @Guillermo Jesus Ortega in a fun one to fight for the right to play Kane.

– Long-time pro David ” Bobby” Horn returns to the tour; he faces US junior national team member @Benjamin Horner.

– Former top10 regular @Sebastian Franco, who hasn’t played on tour since Feb 2023, is back. He recently took the Kelley brother’s invitational, so we know he’s got some top-level playing as of late, so he should be ready to compete.

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round of 32 matches to watch for:

– #9 @Jake Bredenbeck cannot be happy to see Bolivian turned Argentine Diego Garcia as his opening round opponent. The two met last August at worlds and Jake was stretched to an 11-9 fifth game before advancing. Garcia is an upset-favorite, with multiple prior wins over top 10 players on tour like Acuna, Lalo, Trujillo, Carson, etc. this is a quarter-final’s quality match in the 32s, though the advantage goes to Jake, who only had to drive a few hours to get here.

– #5 Andree Parrilla will have his hands full with U21 star @Gerson Miranda, making a rare state-side appearance.

– #12 @Jordy Alonso , who suddenly has legit aspirations to the semis of every event he plays, has a tough opener against one of the best amateur players in the mid-west in John Goth .

– For his troubles rising to a career best ranking, #3 Adam Manilla has to face off against Franco in the 32s. They’ve met twice in the 2018-19 range and split on tour. Manilla should advance, but Franco is not exactly rusty and could pose some problems.

– In the 15/18, pilot-to-be Eduardo Portillo Rendon takes on Bolivian @Kadim Carrasco . Lalo should advance and cause some trouble in this draw.

– #2 @Rodrigo Montoya projects to face Horn, two long-time rivals who have a playing history going back more than a decade. They were WRT rivals, playing a handful of times there, once internationally, but never on IRT. I’d say that Montoya is the favorite here, but Horn won’t go down without a fight.

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Round of 16:

– #1 Kane Waselenchuk should face Gastelum in a repeat of the 16s from Pleasanton. Kane beat him 2,2 then, probably expects to be a similar score-line this weekend.

– The 8/9 match this weekend projects to be @Alan Natera and the winner of the Jake/Garcia match. Unlike the last few 8/9 matchups, Natera won’t be favored here, and I’d expect either Jake or Diego in the quarters.

– #5 Parrilla vs #12 Alonso. It’s safe to say these guys go back a ways, being a year apart, both hailing from the hotbed of San Luis Potosi in Mexico, and frequently playing in both local events and at Mexican Junior national tournaments growing up. Parrilla has a year’s edge on Jordy, which helped him out in juniors. Now? The two are pretty evenly matched, play a pretty similar game style, and this is a true coin flip for me. I always like rooting for the underdog, so give me Alonso and the points.

– Manilla vs Mar: I’ve always had a soft spot for Mar, who has split his two matchups with Adam (though both were played a while ago). Manilla has been on a roll, Mar has not really been getting the marquee wins he needs lately to keep up his dark-horse fame. I’ll go with Manilla here.

– Trujillo-Martell in the 7/10 is a fun one: I think Erick has the advantage here.

– Montoya-Portillo in the 16s. Again, not the round of 16 that Rodrigo would want, a player who has more than a couple h2h wins against him and who has demonstrated he can handle the pace. Upset watch here.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Kane over Jake: Bredenbeck famously has a career win over a healthy Kane, but the two seem to be going in different directions right now.

– Alonso over Moscoso: We’ll know pretty quickly if Moscoso’s arm is 100% because he’s going to need to hit his lines against Jordy to win. However, if Moscoso is back, this is a tough one for Alonso to win b/c Conrrado has the advantage in power, athleticism, and shot-making. Alonso plays smarter but has to play lights out to win. This is my favorite quarter final if it comes to pass.

– Manilla over Acuna: Adam rides the hot hand and takes out a possibly-still dinged Acuna (who forfeited out of the last event with injury)

– Montoya over Trujillo; they’ve played at this juncture a couple times, and Rodrigo has little difficulty getting past his younger countrymate.

Semis:

– Kane takes out Alonso/Moscoso winner. I think many would like to see Moscoso’s power against Kane’s power … but i have a sneaky suspicion it’ll be the more cerebral Alonso playing here. If they do, Kane will be looking for major revenge after last year’s exit in Canoga Park, where Jordy beat him 11-1 in the breaker. Kane’s more focused, in better shape, and will be in revenge mode here.

– Montoya faces Manilla in a rematch of the surprise upset win by Adam last December at his home tourney in Pleasanton. I was surprised Adam won then, and I’d be surprised if he won here after years of watching him rarely get to the semis. But something has clicked for Adam, and this is danger territory for Rodrigo. I still like Montoya here, but wouldn’t be surprised with an upset.

Finals; I’m projecting another meeting between Kane and the player on tour I think has the best chance of beating Kane; Rodrigo Montoya. Their last meeting was instructive to me: Kane squeaked out a 15-14 game one win, then Montoya rolled him in game 2 15-7. In the breaker, Montoya lost focus on a bad call, let a few points go by in a row, and that was that. Kane is so good at keeping his foot on your throat, he’s so focused on the court, that you cannot give up a mental edge like that. I’m not sure if Montoya can keep it together for three games, but he’s got the current best package of power (to keep Kane from just rolling out service returns), athleticism ( to extend rallies and make Kane hit that one extra shot), and maturity (to be patient on the court, to make adjustments, and to go for the right shots) to beat Kane.

All that said, Kane is the favorite to win.

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Doubles review

There’s 14 teams in pro doubles, with some great matches up and down the draw. I love the Garcia/Miranda team, basically the future of Argentina racquetball, who faces Manilla/Horn in the round of 16. Herrera/Franco is a fun all-Colombian team that will give #3 Parrilla/Portillo some fun.

#1 seeds Montoya & Mar won’t be pushed until the semis, where they project to take out Natera & Acuna (who I think will outlast the rusty Horn & Manilla in the quarters). Meanwhile in the bottom half, I think #3 Portillo/Parrilla can play “keep away” from Moscoso, focusing on Carrasco in their semi against the Bolivians to move into the final.

Final’s prediction: Mar/Montoya outlast Parrilla & Portillo but its a battle.

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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. This weekend both @Richard Eisemann

and Carrie Wegener Reitmeier are on the mike, and I’ll be helping out with data throughout the weekend.

Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, The IRT is using the same site that LPRT uses to do fantasy racquetball. To join the IRT’s “league” and pick a bracket; here’s the instructions:

Can you predict the results of the event, match by match? Give it a try to win some bragging rights!

Go to https://officepoolstop.com/ (or if already logged in: https://officepoolstop.com/Brackets/79031)

Login or create an account

Scroll to the bottom and click on Join

Enter League code: 79031

Enter League password: IRT2025

Click on Join

Click on the player you expect to win each matchup including the finals. 8 ) Scroll back up to the top to enter the combined score of the final game, so if you expect 11-10, enter 21.

Click on Submit Bracket

Associations

International Racquetball Tour

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: @Kane Waselenchuk

– Doubles: @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball & Javier Mar

The comeback is complete. Waselenchuk, who ascended to the #1 spot on tour for the first time in years, secured the 2024 year end title in dominant fashion at this event in Pleasanton. He wins his 128th career pro Tier 1 title, extending his lead over his LPRT counterpart to 15 (Paola Longoria has 113 career Tier 1 titles). More importantly, Kane secures his 15th career year-end pro title, and will do so at the age of 43, which is 4 years older than the previous record-holder. We’ll do a deeper-dive into the year end standings once all of 2023’s points expire, but suffice it to say, we’re seeing something pretty amazing here for any sport.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=45389

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

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/l60

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In the 64s, there were no real upsets of note. We got a ton of international vs international matches for young Bolivians who made the trip.

– American junior DJ Mendoza got a nice win over an up and coming Mexican Junior Sebastian Ruelas

– @gerson Miranda took out veteran international Juan Francisco Cueva .

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In the 32s:

– #21 Mar took out #12 Robbie Collins with ease

– #19 Carson advanced over #14 Carrasco as expected.

– the biggest result of the round was #4 @Andres Acuña holding firm and taking out Argentine Diego Garcia . Acuna dropped the first game but then found another gear and blitzed to a (10),2,3 win. I thought this would go the other way for sure in my preview.

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In the 16s:

– Kane crushed @Diego Gastelum 2,2, a bit of a different vibe than the last time they met.

– Mar upset #5 @Jake Bredenbeck to finish off a pretty disappointing season for the USA top dog.

– #3 Montoya got an injury default against Rocky when he took an awkward step in a rally and tweaked something in his knee.

– Tourney host and #6 Adam Manilla got a really surprising win (to this observer) by taking out the red-hot @Jordy Alonso 10,9. Great win to overcome a guy who’s shown to be a force lately on tour.

– #7 @EErick Trujillo got a walkover against @Jaime Martell Racquetball when Jaime got some really awful news from home and had to fly back immediately. Our thoughts are with Martell and his family during this tough time.

– #2 @Andree Parrilla , who had a very distant shot at maybe possibly catching Kane for #1 … fell in the 16s to his doubles partner and drastically under-seeded #15 Eduardo Portillo Rendon

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In the Quarters

– Kane crushed @Alan Natera for the third tourney running at this juncture

– Mar got an injury walkover against Acuna, one of three WBF-INJ at this event.

– Manilla got a career best win by toppling Rodrigo Montoya in three. He secures just his second ever career pro singles semi final on his home courts.

– Portillo destroyed his younger Mexican rival Trujillo 7,1 to move into the semis.

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In the Semis

– Kane crushed Mar 6,3, showing no mercy this event. Mar once played a famous game against Kane at the US Open when practically no one knew who he was, using his touch to really flummox the champ and keep the game close … today was not one of those days.

– Manilla mounted a fantastic comeback in the breaker, saving match-points against at 7-10 and then rolling off four straight points to win 11-10 and move into his first career final. Both played well enough to win, and when Lalo missed an easy short-hop even Favio on the mike said, “that’s going to cost him.” And it did.

In the Finals, two lefties faced off for a pro title for the first time since a 2009 final in Allentown, PA between Kane and @Mitch Williams (ironically, Mitch’s sole career final). Manilla jumped ahead early, and kept game one close with some off-speed mid-lob Z serves and with great subterfuge on his drives, but as is typical of Kane, he hung in and ground out the game one win. Game two was more fo the same early before Kane just took over for the title 11,8.

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Points Implications of results

In the immediate aftermath of this event, Kane opens up a massive lead atop the standings to #2 Moscoso, one that will grow even more once the last two events expire from the tail end of last year (one of which was a Tier1 Moscoso win). In fact, Moscoco probably will fall to #3 once we get to December 31st. Manilla’s huge event will jump him to #4, just ahead of Parrilla. Jake will take a tumble in the ranks but will maintain top 10 status.

https://irttour.com/rankings/ are now updated for the event this past weekend.

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Doubles review

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

Montoya and Mar maintain their dominance atop the pro doubles tour. Montoya has now made the finals of 12 of the last 14 competed pro doubles events, many of them with Mar, and won seven of them. They topped the field again, this time beating Manilla & Bredenbeck in the final.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Two LPRT talents @Veronica Sotomayor and @Erika Manilla entered the Men’s open singles here. This is Erika’s first event back post hip surgery, while Vero had come down from Washington state with husband Sudsy Monchik to play some ball with their business partner Mark C Frank .

– Both ladies made the Open semis, but both ended falling to the same kid: Bolivian junior Sebastian Terrazas, who is playing in his age 15 season in 2024 and was the 2021 12U world champ. Watch out for this kid.

– The Argentine national Men’s doubles team of Miranda/Garcia took the Open doubles draw filled with junior national doubles teams competing next month at Junior Worlds.

– Andrea Perez-Picon took the Women’s Open RR.

– Perez-Picon also took the Mixed Open doubles draw, a fun draw where she ended up beating her sister Estefania in the finals.

– A star-studded 100+ Men’s doubles was taken by two NorCal locals Derek Chock & Greg Vezey, who got some solid wins.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Steve Schulze, Pablo Fajre, Richard Eisemann and the IRTLive crew

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Manilla and @Bobby Horn for putting this event on!

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

The LPRT is back in action this coming weekend at the Glass Door in Lombard for the annual Turkey shoot event! We’ll be back with a preview later this week.

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tags

International Racquetball Tour