Longoria is back on top, both in Maryland and of the tour.
Photo via US Open 2019, Kevin Savory
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Paola Longoria
– Doubles: @Montse Mejia and Brenda Laime Jalil
comments on winner; updated # of tourneys, updated season, etc
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=46046
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/bd7
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In the 32s:
– @Erika Manilla made a winning return to the tour, topping newlywed Maria Renee Rodríguez 11,7 in the opener. She fell to Vargas in the next round, but she’s back on tour, which is the best news following her 10-month injury absence.
– @Frederique Lambert blasted Michelle Key 6,1 in a surprise first round matchup. Key is coming off taking Longoria to a breaker in the last event but was handled easily by the part-time player/ER doctor Lambert.
– @jesJessica Parrilla topped @Laura Brandt 0,4 to move on. Notable only because Brant’s appearance on tour at age 62 was the 3rd oldest known tour appearance in the history of the Ladies pro tour. https://rball.pro/nyi
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In the 16s:
– #9 Carla Muñoz turned the tide on a recent lost to Cristina Amaya Cassino , topping the #8 seed in a breaker. This could be a fun rivalry for a while.
– #3 Mejia was pressed by @Valeria Centellas but moved on 10,14.
– #11 Parrilla got a solid win over #6 @Kelani Lawrence to earn a rare quarter final.
– #7 @Natalia Mendez kept her recent streak alive over #10 @Samantha Salas Solis , going breaker to advance.
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In the Quarters
– #1 @Maria Jose Vargas moved past Munoz 1,11
– #4 @Ana Ana Gabriela Martínez held off #5 Laime in a close 10,12 match.
– #3 Mejia moved past country-woman Parrilla with ease 4,5
– #2 Longoria was not troubled by Mendez, winning 6,8
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In the Semis
– Vargas and Gaby went down to the wire, with Gaby having a match point at 10-10 but was unable to convert. This was just the opening Vargas needed, as she rolled off a couple points 9-10 down to win the semi 11-10 and move on. Heartbreak for the Guatemalan.
– Longoria continued her recent mastery over Mejia on the singles court 13,5 to earn another final.
In the Finals, Vargas and Longoria had another back and forth affair, this time with the long-time #1 coming out on top.
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Points Implications of results
With this win. Longoria should take back over the #1 spot on tour, which she relinquished in December 2023 for the first time since 2008. Munoz and Amaya should switch spots at the 9/10 range. Michelle Key rises to #14, which may be a career high. Lastly, Manilla comes in at #20 and will have her work cut out for her as she regains ranking points here on forward.
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Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/rve
Manilla and her Team USA teammate Michelle Key topped the #2 and #3 seeds to earn a final, but lost to the #1 seeds Mejia & Laime there. Still, a great result.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Women’s Open Singles: Centellas got the title, with a win over MRR in the final. MRR had topped Parrilla in the semis for a solid win.
– Men’s Open Singles: Local IRT veterans @Mario Mercado and MoMo Zelada , co-founders of @Formulaflow and playing out of their home club, met in the final, taken by Zelada in three.
– Mens Open doubles: IRT staff member Samuel Schulze and local Maryland player John Behm shocked Mercado/Zelada in the Open doubles final.
– The Simmons Father/daughter duo took the Mixed Open/Elite doubles title, topping two local players Imani Valentine & Chris Ruano in the final.
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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
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.
the International Racquetball Federation – IRF World juniors event is underway in Guatemala, with group stages going on now. We’ll possibly post a preview of the knockouts based on time this week, otherwise we’ll recap it next week. There’s one big outdoor event happening this weekend, then the year wraps up.
Erika is back for the first time in months. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory
Welcome to the halfway point of the LPRT season, and the final pro event of the 2024 calendar year. It is the long-running DC-area based Christmas Classic, which has been an LPRT stop for years. The event is in its 32nd year, which puts its first iteration in the 1991.
I first helped out with this event, as far as my old files tell me, in the 8th iteration in 1999 when the event was run in at the Tysons club in Tysons Corner (McLean) Virginia. The event has moved around the DC area as clubs were closed or lost enough courts to make hosting impossible; the event has gone from Tysons to Crystal Gateway in Arlington, to Sportfit in Laurel Maryland, and now at the Severna Park Health & Racquet facility in Millersville/Severna Park area closer to Baltimore. LPRT sanctioning began in 2007 and has been consistent ever since, making it one of the longest continually running pro events out there, for either the Ladies or the Men.
There’s 24 players here this weekend. Top players missing include #4 Herrera, #15 Barrios, #19 Ros and #20 Scott.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
In the 32s:
– We have the triumphant return of @Erika Manilla , who comes in at the #16 seed. She’ll face off against another player who’s attendance has been spotty lately , long-time tour player #17 Maria Renee Rodríguez for a shot at #1 Vargas.
– The 24th seed out of 24 is California @Erica Williams, who’s flow 3,000 miles from her home town in the Bay Area to play and watch. Williams is one of the biggest supporters of racquetball on the west coast and its great to see her in the DC area.
– Two top Canadian players are entered this weekend; @Juliette Parent faces off against #12 @Lexi York in what could be a great match. Meanwhile, Frederique Lambert makes a rare appearance coming off her Canadian National selection event win last weekend; she plays into #13 Michelle Key , who’s been on fire lately.
– #12 @Jessica Parrilla faces off against Laura Brandt , who is playing this event in her age 62 season, which has to be close to a record for the LPRT. Hmm; that sounds like a query worth writing: oldest player ever to appear in a pro event? That might be a fun one.
– In the 15/18 we get María Paz Riquelme versus Khyathi Velpuri , a good test for the young Colorado based American.
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Projecting the round of 16:
– #1 @Maria Jose Vargas has to contend with Manilla in her first event back: it may be a bit too early for Erika to take out Vargas, but this is a semis-quality match in the 16s.
– In the 8/9 @Carla Muñoz and Cristina Amaya Cassino face off in the round of 16, in this 8/9 match, for the 4th time since May. Munoz won the first two this year, but Amaya got her two weeks ago in Chicago. Coin flip.
– #4 @Gaby Martinez is here, making a somewhat rare appearance, and she gets the winner of the Lambert/Key match as an opener. Gaby is a threat to win whenever she enters and has three tournament wins in the last four seasons. If she’s to go on a run she’ll have a tough opener to get her started.
– #6 @Kelani Lawrence makes the drive up from Virginia and gets a second ever meeting against @Jessica Parrilla . Kelani beat Leoni in May; can she do it again?
– #7 @Natalia Mendez and #10 @Samantha Salas Solis look to meet for the third time in the round of 16 since June; Mendez has crushed Salas the previous two times.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Vargas over Munoz/Amaya winner; Vargas is 15-1 combined against her two possible opponents career on the LPRT and is coming off a win in Chicago two weeks ago.
– Great potential quarter between #5 Brenda Laime Jalil and #4 Gaby. Laime had Longoria beat two weeks ago in Chicago; I thought she rolled out match point before having it called a skip and then losing 11-10. If she’s playing at that calibre, then she’s going to be tough for Martinez to beat here. These two met in the semis in Denver, a tough TB win for Gaby before she won the title. however, these are Laime’s home courts, and they’re not playing at altitude as they did in Denver (where Gaby lives and trains and had the advantage). I’ll go with Laime in the upset.
– #3 @Montse Mejia versus the Lawrence/Parrilla Winner: Mejia got waxed in the last pro event, and hasn’t made a final since April. She shouldn’t be troubled by either player at this juncture, but can’t look forward to her anticipated semis meeting against Paola.
– #2 Paola Longoria likely faces Mendez, just as she did two weeks ago, and likely moves on with little trouble.
Semis:
– Vargas over Laime. They’ve played 5 times, but most are older results. The last time they met was in June 2023, a tie-breaker win for Vargas. I sense Laime presses Vargas to a breaker but falls.
– Longoria over Mejia; they’ve met 26 times in top-level/non-regional event competitions. After a spell in 2022 when Mejia had her number, Longoria has taken back over the h2h rivalry and should win here.
Finals; I like Vargas over Longoria again to keep her lead atop the rankings.
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Doubles review
The partnerships in DC are crazy this week, with Longoria curiously not playing and Herrera missing. After winning the previous title with Key, Laime picked up Mejia and are the #1 seeds. meanwhile, Key teams with the returning Manilla to form a pretty solid team on paper; all depends on how rusty Manilla is. Team Argentina remains #2, while team Guatemala is #6 and is a real favorite from the bottom half. The two top Canadians are here, but both Lambert and Parent are playing with others (instead of getting cycles playing together for future IRF events). So, interesting draw for s ure.
I’ll go with #1 Laime/Mejia from the top, Rodriguez & Martinez from the bottom, and Laime/Mejia title.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Timothy Baghurst, Sandy Rios, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!
Solid weekend for Laime. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Maria Jose Vargas
– Doubles: Michelle Key & Brenda Laime
Vargas gets back on top with a solid win over her rival Longoria, winning her 11th career title. She’s now nearly into the top 10 all time of tourney wins. Meanwhile, Key & Laime break the strangle hold that Mejia & Herrera have had on the pro doubles circuit with a breakthrough win.
Singles Match report in PRS database: https://rball.pro/d1b
Doubles match report in PRS database: https://rball.pro/46p
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=45473
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In the 32s, nothing too surprising. Great all-USA wins by Lotts and York respectively over younger rivals.
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In the 16s:
– Amaya takes out her close rival in the rankings Munoz in two. Amaya has really rebounded as of late; she went three straight seasons without getting past the round of 16, and now has done it 3 times in the last 10 events.
– Herrera holds off Centellas in a tie-breaker that looked like it’d go the other way for a while.
– Laime is stretched but gets past Parrilla in three
– Mendez blasts Salas once again, the second time in a row she’s had a dominant win over her long time LPRT rival.
– Key takes a game off of #2 Longoria but runs out of gas in the breaker 11-3.
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In the Quarters
– Vargas has to go three to top the resurgent Amaya.
– Herrera holds serve against Lawrence to move on.
– Laime dominates Mejia and wins 6,5, a surprising result. Laime and Mejia have similar game styles, and as we’ve pointed out in teh past Laime usually comes out of nowhere for deep tourney runs.
– Longoria handled Mendez to move into the semis 4,4
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In the Semis
– Vargas cruised past Herrera 7,8 to move into the final.
– Longoria and Laime had themselves a heck of a battle, with it coming down to a 10-10 tiebreaker with all the drama one would expect. At the end of a brutal 2 hour marathon that featured dozens of side outs in each game, Laime cracked out a serve at 9-9 to earn the match point opportunity but Longoria blasted a cross court winner to save match point against. As is typical in these close do or die situations, referee calls loomed large. At 9-10 down, Longoria looked for an avoidable on a passing shot but didn’t get it, even on appeal. Then, Laime got a forehand setup and hit what this observer thought was a simple kill shot; called a skip by the ref and then one-up/one-down from the line judges (a really bad call at that juncture honestly). This led to a heated discussion, a side-out, and of course the inevitable two point swing to Longoria’s favor to win the match. Just a brutal way to lose.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao_HrRCepbQ for the match replay, and 1:53.26 for the shot in question and judge for yourself.
In the Finals, Vargas won games 1 and 3 going away, lost game 2 going away.
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Points Implications of results
– Longoria gains a little but on Vargas but remains #2.
– Despite not playing, Gaby moves up to #5 due to points expiration
– Not much else in terms of movement in the top 10
– Synhorst moves up a few spots, as does Key and Lotts for touring more regularly.
– Former top 4 pro Manilla now sits outside the top 20 and will have a long way back.
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Doubles review
Great win from Key and Laime, both excellent doubles players, for taking out both the #1 and #2 seeds in one event.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Parrilla took the Women’s Open over Ros (who had taken out #1 Munoz in semis)
– Men’s Open was taken in an all-chicago final between winner Thomas carter and Jeremy Dixon
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., JTRball, and Tj Baumbaugh
Kelani gets a career high #5 seed; can she make a run? Photo USAR Singles 2019 via Kevin Savory
LPRT 32nd AnnualTurkey Shoot Preview
The LPRT returns to one of the most iconic courts in the land; the sunken three-glass wall centerpiece of the Glass Court Swim and Fitness club in Lombard, IL. Home of the main movers and shakers of the Chicago-area racquetball scene, this tournament is the brainchild of long-time racquetball benefactor Geoff Peters, who passed away in 2023 but who left a legacy in the sport in addition to bequeathing funds to help keep this event alive.
There’s 23 ladies pros in the singles draw this weekend, about a normal draw size for the ladies tour and typical of one so proximate to a major international event (World juniors in early December).
top20 players missing: #5 Gaby (part-time tour player), #11 Manilla (still recovering from hip surgery), #15 Barrios (school?), #17 Scott (unknown).
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
In the 32s, there’s several solid matches to open the tournament;
– Lotts/Ros in the 16/17 game is a great match between two Team USA players from different generations. Ros is our reigning USA 18U junior champ while Lotts has 18 seasons with a pro result on her resume. Both are solid players and we should get an exciting match as one would expect in the 16/17 seed slot.
– Lexi York / Annie Sanchez is also another tough one between two Team USA players. Sanchez (nee Roberts) is just matriculating out of the juniors, while York has been playing the tour for some time and has been training with the Bredenbecks as of late.
– Argentine Valeria Centellas is back after a long time off; she has near top-10 potential but will have to shake off some tour rust. She makes her season debut against #13 Stephanie Synhorst , who will have her hands full keeping up.
– María Paz Riquelme vs junior team member Velpuri will be a good test for the Colorado native.
– Two frequent outdoor players Michelle Key and Chanis Leon meet indoors, with Key holding the distinct experience advantage.
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Round of 16: Here’s the notable matches to watch for:
– In the 8/9, Carla Muñoz and Cristina Amaya Cassino meet up; they met in the 16s twice earlier this year, both Munoz wins. Amaya had a deep run in an event earlier this year; can she repeat the magic?
– @Kelani Lawrence gets the #5 seed, tying a career high, and starts out her event by taking on the York/Sanchez winner in an all-USA battle.
– #5 @Brenda Laime Jalil projects into #11 @Jessica Parrilla in what could be a close match. Jessica shocked Brenda in San Antonio earlier this year. Laime is hot or cold; she could go one and done or take out the top seed on any given day.
– 7/10 @Samantha Salas Solis versus @Natalia Mendez could be interesting: Salas leads 6-3 head to head, but in their last meeting Mendez crushed Samantha 3,4 in Chesapeake in June.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Maria Jose Vargas over #9 Munoz. They’ve played 15 times: Maria is 14-1
– #4 Alexander Herrera IFBB PRO over #5 Lawrence. They’ve played 11 times: Alexandra is 11-0
– #3 @Monserrat Mejia over #6 Laime; Mejia is 4-2 lifetime here.
– #2 @Paola Longoria over #7 Mendez; Paola is 10-0 lifetime against Mendez.
I see a distinct gap between the top four ladies on tour right now (top-5 including Gaby if she were here) and the rest of the top 10. The best bet for an upset in the quarters in Laime, who runs so hot and cold from event to event.
Semis:
– Vargas over Herrera. Vargas is 14-3 over Herrera lifetime. One of those wins was last June, when a distracted Vargas had just clinched the year end title and lost to Alexandra in Chesapeake. Vargas didn’t have the best opening event in Denver, but should bounce back.
– Longoria over Mejia: I know Mejia just torched Longoria at the San Luis Potosi open last month, but Longoria has a tendency to turn things up when there’s points on the line.
Finals: Longoria over Vargas. I think Longoria is kicking herself for dropping the first final of the season and will take this event.
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Doubles review
There’s 11 teams competing, and we’ve had some interesting movement in the seeds. After many years, the 30-something time champion team of Longoria/Salas is no longer a top-2 seed; they’ve been supplanted for #2 by the Argentine national team of Vargas/Mendez. I still favor them to get to the final from the bottom side.
From the top-half, Herrera & Mejia continue to be the top dogs; they’ll have to contend with the winner of Laime/Key and Parrilla/Lawrence, a fun matchup of excellent doubles players who all have a ton of outdoor experience as well.
Look for Herrera/Mejia over Vargas/Mendez in the final.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for Timothy Baghurst , @Sandy Rios, @Jerry J Josey Jr. , andTj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!
Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on LPRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!
Portillo made a major outdoor statement this weekend in Vegas. Photo from 2022 3WB via Stephen Fitzsimons
The 15th annual 2024 KWM Gutterman 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships are in the books. It was a fun, long weekend in Las Vegas on the grounds of The STRAT Las Vegas . This year featured the introduction of World Team Racquetball and a ton of new champions in the desert.
Congrats to your Pro Racquetball division winners on the weekend:
– Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Alvaro Beltran /Eduardo Portillo Rendon
– Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Michelle Key / Paola Longoria
– Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles: Adam Manilla / Brenda Laime Jalil
– Men’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: Javier Mar / Rodrigo Montoya
– Women’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: Carla Munoz / Brenda Laime
– Mixed Pro 1-wall Doubles: Alexandra Herrera / Eduardo Portillo
Beltran wins his 11th Vegas 3-wall Men’s pro doubles title, with his 4th different partner. He continues to be one of the absolute best outdoor players in the game, even after the end of his indoor touring pro career. He won the first Vegas event with Gies, won a slew of titles with DLR, won four with Rocky, and now with Lalo. Speaking of Lalo, he takes two major titles in Vegas, as does Brenda Laime, who won her second major pro doubles title of the season with Carla.
This week also wrapped up the Outdoor Cup Series; we’ll cover that later in the week.
Also Congrats to the winners of the other major Racquetball divisions held this weekend:
– CPRT Pro Doubles: Kane Waselenchuk / Chris McDonald
– Combined 75+ Men’s Doubles: Patrick Allin / Lou Orosco
– Centurion/Combined 100+ Men’s Doubles; Rocky Carson / Jerry Hall
– Men’s Open Doubles: @Alejandro Barcelo / @Yasmani Perez
– Women’s Open Doubles: Susie Boulanger / Sarah Houghtailing
– Mixed Open Doubles: Kelly Gremley / Jack McDonald
And Here’s the winners of the non-racquetball Pro/Open disciplines competed this weekend
– Paddleball Men’s 3-Wall Pro Doubles: Emmett Coe / Danny Lavely
– Paddleball Mixed 3-Wall Pro Doubles: Emmett Coe / Hollie Scott
– Paddleball Male/combined 1-wall pro doubles: Kathy Guinan / William Rolon:
– Handball 3-wall Big Ball Men’s Doubles: Carlos Marin / Eddie Rocha Jr
– Handball 1-wall Big Ball Men’s Doubles: Anthony Hernandez / John Garcia
– Handball 3-wall Big Ball Men’s Singles: Anthony Hernandez vs Samzon Hernandez
– Handball 1-Wall Big Ball Men’s Singles: Eddie Rocha Jr
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=41864
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Match Reports for the 2024 event in the database by division (racquetball divisions only): if you click on these links, you’ll get the full list of matches in each division for the 2024 event with seeding and home country. This core data feeds to all the other Pro Racquetball Stats reports.
– Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/ivq
– Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/0pa
– Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/3lq
– Men’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/ck2
– Women’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/hxv
– Mixed Pro 1-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/69u
Here’s the Triple Crown reports in the database, showing all the winners of all divisions over the years.
Here’s a recap of the draws. Because of the number of divisions to cover, we’ll run through in narrative format instead of round-by-round.
– Men’s 3-wall Pro Doubles: Beltran and Portillo were stretched to a breaker in all four of their matches, but it was their semi that was most interesting to discuss. Manilla and Riffel may have been the two-time defending finalists, but many thought the power-house pair of Waselenchuk and McDonald would be the favorites here. Their semi versus eventual champs Aliv & Lalo was fascinating in terms of its strategy; after getting shellacked in game one 15-4, the Mexican duo focused a ton of its serving towards the aggressive McDonald in his advanced receiving position, and tried to force their opponents into taking offensive shots from defensive positions. It worked, and they clawed their way back into the match by playing smart and opportunistic ball. The end of the match was marred by a couple of disputed calls, but the final point was one of the better rallies you’ll see in outdoor (go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE8IkVyKxcU and hour/minute 1:10). The final was a slower, tactical game between four players who were certainly trying to “play outdoor” on the outdoor courts, a slog eventually won by Beltran and Lalo.
– Women’s 3-wall Pro Doubles: Longoria wins her 4th Vegas title, nicely spread out amongst the 15 years of the event. She took the first 3-wall pro doubles title in 2010 with Keeley Franks, and won this week with the sport’s most decorated player Key. Michelle meanwhile took her 18th Women’s outdoor pro title with Longoria, though they had to survive an 11-10 thriller in the semis against Mejia/Herrera to do so.
– Mixed 3wall Pro Doubles: Laime and Manilla broke a decade-long stranglehold on the Mixed pro division from the absent DLR, cruising into the final without being seriously challenged, then taking an 11-9 thriller against Mar & Mejia.
– Men’s One wall Pro Doubles; Mar & Montoya battered their way to the One wall pro doubles title, never seriously challenged along the way. They won the final 7,5. Mar continues to establish himself as the preeminent one-wall player in the world, winning his fourth one-wall men’s pro title in the last three seasons.
– Women’s One Wall Pro Doubles: Munoz won her third straight one-wall Vegas title, and her second in a row with Laime. The duo dominated the 2023 Beach Bash champs Lawrence/Scott in the final.
– Mixed One Wall Pro Doubles: The one-wall mixed pro draw was the single most disputed of the seeding issues that we had in Vegas this year, and you can see the results of going purely by points in the results. The draw’s #2, #3, and #4 seeds failed to make the semis, the draw was won by the #10 seed, and one could make a decent argument that the #7-#10 round of 16 match could have been the final. At the end of the day, Lalo took the title with his partner Herrera, capping a fantastic week for him: he took two titles, made the final of a third, and won the WTR MVP.
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Other Rball divisions:
– CPRT Pro Doubles: McDonald and Waselenchuk may have lost in the pro semis, but they came home with a dominant win in the CPRT. The pair destroyed Beltran & Koll in the final 4,3.
– Combined 75+ Men’s Doubles: two solid players from SoCal Allin and “Sweet” Lou took the 75+ division, beating two top players from Naples Florida in the final in Barcelo and Perez.
– Centurion/Combined 100+ Men’s Doubles: Carson teamed with Hall to take out Beltran and Knox LaRue in the 100+ final.
– Men’s Open Doubles: A Florida-heavy Open draw came down to, of course, two teams of Florida players for the title. Barcelo & Perez took out Young & Hansen for the title.
– Women’s Open Doubles: Susie Boulanger & Sarah Houghtailing won their group and then won the winner take all final.
– Mixed Open Doubles: Kelly Gremley / Jack McDonald took down Hansen and Lambert in the final. Not a bid first showing outdoor major for either Timmy or Frederique.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from the LPRT team of Jerry J Josey Jr. JT R Ball , and Tj Baumbaugh along with their many guest commentators like Mike D and Rolon.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors Mc Vegas for putting this event on, as well has his entire 3Wall Ball team. Peggine Tellez , Jen O’Meara , and @Peter McMillan worked tirelessly all weekend, along with dozens of other volunteers at the front desk and behind the scenes to make this tourney happen.
Thanks to the primary Tourney Sponsors @KWM Kwm Gutterman, PROKENNEX , @AGE Age Solutions , @LPL Financial, and others I missed here. Thanks also to the dozen other sponsors who helped either with product or finances. Without you, we do not have a pro sport, and without you we don’t have 3WallBall. Thank for all you do.
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Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing
Next up is the 2024 Inland Empire Pro-Am IRT event in Spokane Washington in a couple of weeks.
Gaby wins the season opener in an 11-10 thriller.
Photo via Gaby
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Ana Gabriela Martínez
– Doubles: @Monserrat Mejia & Brenda Laime
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=42406
Martinez kicks off the new season with two notable results, her 3rd career LPRT win and her putting a very early loss on Vargas.
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/zcr
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In the 32s:
– Michelle Key looked solid downing Sheryl Lotts 10,8. Keep this result in mind when we talk about her round of 16 performance.
– @MariMaria Renee Rodríguez powered past @MMaria Paz Leal Riquelme 4,1 in her “return” to the tour.
-Valeria Centellas struggled in her first game back, but played better in a game 2 loss to @jessical Parrilla 3,12.
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In the 16s:
– Key really pushed the #1 seed Vargas, taking the first game 12 and making the second game close before Vargas pulled away in a tie-breaker. Was this rust on the part of last year’s champion, the rise of Key’s singles game, or a combination of both?
– #9 Gaby Martinez crushed #8 @Carla Munoz 4,7 to setup an intriguing match against #1 Vargas. Gaby, Vargas, Paola, and Mejia form a very closely grouped top 4 in the sport right now, and it seems like anyone of the four could win any given day.
– #6 @Natalia Mendez got a solid win over Parrilla to get back to the quarters.
– #10 Salas edged her way past #7 Amaya in a tie-breaker.
– #2 Paola Longoria faced a much tougher than normal round of 16 opponent in Barrios, and in typical fashion the Bolivian played her frustratingly difficult style, making the game close but not able to come out on top.
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In the Quarters
– #9 Martinez, who has a tendency to roll into pro events without much in the way of ranking points and shaking things up, comprehensively beat Vargas 7,6 to move into the semis and put an immediate shake-down on the season. Martinez looks fit and strong, and Vargas had no answers.
– #4 Laime made it three in a row on the trot against her east coast rival #5 Lawrence, cruising to a 5,3 win to move into the semis.
– #3 Mejia struggled but advanced past #6 Mendez in a breaker.
– #2 Longoria played her doubles partner Salas for the 62nd time on tour, and as they often do went to the breaker before Paola moved on.
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In the Semis
– #9 Martinez saved match points in the second game and advanced over Laime to get to the final.
– #2 Longoria held on to top Mejia for the 8th time in their last 9 meetings. After a nice run where Montse seemed to have Paola figured out … the GOAT has turned the tides.
In the Finals … a pretty incredible match. Longoria came out firing, and destroyed Gaby 15-3 in game one. The Guatemalan returned the favor and nearly reversed the scoreline in game two, holding leads of 10-0 and 14-3 before Paola clawed back a few to make it a little more respectable.
In the tie-breaker, it was back and forth. Martinez jumped up to a 6-3 lead, Paola got it back and got to match point at 10-9 against. They played an amazing rally, with both players hitting passing shots and then defensive shots to stay in the rally. It ended with a cracked out wide angle pass for Gaby to save the match point against and get back in the box. She won a straight forward rally to get to 10-10, then aced Paola to the forehand as she had been doing most of the game for the win. Its Gaby’s 3rd ever LPRT title.
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Points Implications of results
This is the first event of the new season, and for a few weeks these points will just add on to the end of last season’s points. Thanks to Vargas’ very early exit, Longoria should regain #1 on tour until the point where last year’s World singles & Doubles expires … at which point Vargas will regain #1. It should stay that way for the next event’s seeding. With this big win, Gaby will move up to #5. Samantha should move up to #10.
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Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/txk
Lots of tiebreakers in this solid LPRT doubles draw. #1 Mejia/Laime survived a scare in the quarters to eventually take the title, with Montse not missing a beat without her normal partner. They beat team Argentina in the final, who had put a shot early loss on Longoria & Salas in the semis.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Lexi York got a walkover win against Lotts in the Women’s open singles final.
– Michelle Key and new beau Rhys Anderson took the Mixed Open Doubles draw over Velpuri and Ty Hedalen.
– Erik Garcia topped Nick Riffel in the Men’s Open singles final, a draw that featured an appearance from former touring pro and Denver resident Woody Clouse .
– The Men’s Open draw featured two top10 IRT pros, but neither came out on top. The draw was taken by Garcia and @Brady Yelverton , who topped @Rocky Carson
and @Charles George in the final.
Carson also played @Adam Manilla in a pro exhibition for the fans.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., JTRball, and Tj Baumbaugh
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.
Our next big event is Worlds! At the end of the month, the @inteInternational Racquetball Federation – IRF World Championships returns to US soil for the first time in decades. The USAR is looking forward to hosting and putting on a show.
Centellas returns after a long absence; Photo unknown.
Welcome back pro racquetball! It’s the kickoff to the LPRT 2024-25 season. The tour is in Denver for the 2024 Frontline Family Foundation Mile High Open at the Denver Athletic club. The tour was in Denver last year for World Singles and Doubles, but hasn’t had a sanctioned part of this long-running Mile High Open since 2015, so that’s great to see.
The draw is out and it’s healthy with a bunch of familiar names who missed big chunks of the previous season. Players like Lotts, MRR, Centellas, Barrios, and Enriquez are competing this weekend, some for the first time in more than a year, and their inclusion makes for some really interesting first round matches.
We’ve got a couple of key absences: 4th seeded Herrera is not playing, nor is #10 Manilla, who some thought might be ready to give it a try in her home town post hip surgery (she’s one of the tournament directors for the weekend). A couple of players ranked in the teens aren’t here either (Scott and Ros), otherwise a solid top 20 of players.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to in the Singles
In the 32s:
– 16/17 Sheryl Lotts versus Michelle Key should be a fun one. These two havn’t played each other in a top-level competition in nearly a decade. Key continues her return to the singles component of the sport after mostly focusing on doubles for the last decade.
– Newly married and U21 graduated Annie Roberts (now Annie Sanchez-Roberts) is here but has to deal with Guatemala’s Ana Gabriela Martínez to start.
– Nancy Enriquez is entered for the first time since January; she takes on #12 Lexi York in what could be a tough one for the American. Enriquez may not play full time but she’s always a tough out.
– Long-time touring vet Maria Renee Rodríguez is here, having completed her graduate degree from Liberty University (which is in Lynchburg VA, where I lived for several years). She takes on lefty Maria Paz Leal Riquelme in what could be a close one.
– Valeria Centellas is back for the first time since Nov 2023; she takes on #11 Jessica Parrilla in a tough opener for both. Centellas can get wins, as can Parrilla, so anything goes here.
– Susy Acosta is here, ensuring she has an appearance in her 27th straight season on tour, pretty amazing.
– Angelica Barrios is back; she starts off against lefty Chanis Leon from Florida.
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round of 16:
– 8/9 Gaby vs Carla Munoz is a tough draw for Carla, who has seemingly been stuck in that 8-9 range for a while.
– #5 Kelani Lawrence may have to face the tough veteran Nancy Enriquez if she gets past York.
– #6 Natalia Mendez won’t like either opponent she may face in Parrilla or Centellas; both are going to be tough outs for her.
– #7 Cris Amaya is an upset alert when she faces long-time top player Samantha Salas Solis , who may be ranked 10th but was just a few points out of 7th at the end of last season.
– Lastly, #2 Paola Longoria is set to face Barrios, a player who she lost to the last time they played in March 2023. Now, that was right in the midst of Longoria’s distracted 2022-23 season, so I wouldn’t expect a repeat.
A side note: this season will be telling for Longoria and her future in the sport. She did not win the Mexican elections she (and Salas) ran for, but there’s still a chance she represents her home country in the Mexican congress. If that comes to pass, one has to wonder how long she can continue to tour. It also goes without saying that she was recently married; does she wish to start a family soon? We know that isn’t a career-ender (see Vargas, Maria who has toured through three childbirths now) it can be a career-interruption for sure. We’ll see.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Vargas vs Gaby: Martinez topped Vargas at World Singles & Doubles last year in this same city, so watch out for another upset here.
– Lawrence vs Laime: these two face off rather frequently, hailing from neighboring east coast states. Lawrence seems to have the upper hand, but Laime has a tendency to go on sneaky runs.
– #3 Mejia should have no issues advancing past whoever battles their way out of the #6 seed quadrant.
– #2 Longoria should advance past her doubles partner Salas, having played more than 70 times in the past on tour.
Semis:
– Vargas over Lawrence; there’s still a talent gap from Kelani to the top 4-5 players in the world, but she’s clearly narrowing it.
– Longoria over Mejia: Montserrat knows what she needs to do, but I suspect the altitude helps Longoria more than Mejia here.
Finals;
– Longoria over Vargas: I think Paola puts down a statement and opens the season with a win.
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Doubles review
A missing Herrera means that the dominant #1 doubles team is split up; Mejia picks up Laime for this event and is the #1 seed, but there’s solid teams throughout this draw. Barrios & Centellas as #8 will be a challenge for #1, but I still expect Mejia & Laime to move to the final.
From the bottom half, team Guatemala faces off against #2 Salas/Longoria in the opener; this is a doubles team that has gotten h2h wins in the past. However, i th ink #2 advances to the final and eventually tops Mejia & Laime for the win.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for Timothy Baghurst , Sandy Rios, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!
Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on LPRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!
Maria Renee Rodriguez took a big step back touring this year while completing school. Photo 2022 Outdoor Nats via Steve Fitzsimons
In this last part of the 2023-24 season recap, we will highlight notables outside the top 20 and then wrap up with a list of the notable news items from a historical perspective.
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– #22 Sheryl Lotts missed most of the season’s events after moving to Florida, but was a regular training partner there with Sudsy Monchik and Veronica Sotomayor and is seemingly well positioned to return to the tour and regain her mid-teens expectations.
– #25 @Maria Renee Rodriguez, a mainstay on tour for years, took most of this season off while she finished off a master’s degree at Liberty University. She remains on the Guatemalan national team and earns their stipend, but sources tell me she’s career focused going forward and will continue to be stepped back from the tour.
– #26 Martina Katz, just recently matriculating from the U21 ranks, traveled up from Argentina for a couple pro events this year. She’s held her own against the best of her age groups in international competitions for years and would fare quite well if she could join the Vargas/Mendez travel train up and down the Americas.
– #28 Frederique Lambert made it to two events, not bad for a full-time practicing physician. She continues to own the #1 spot for Canada.
– #30 @Valeria Centellas has completely stepped back from touring after being an incredibly promising junior coming out of Bolivia/Argentina. My sources tell me there might be money issues to fund travel for Centellas. My other sources tell me she’s expected to be back for the beginning of the next season.
– #32 @Veronica Sotomayor recently relocated to the Pacific Northwest, which would make it even tougher for her to commit to touring. Many believe her performance in limited appearances would warrant a return to the top 10 if she toured regularly; odds are we’ll never find out.
– #32 @Maricruz Ortiz has gotten great international wins, but has never really made that big of an impression on the pro tour.
– #32 @Adriana Riveros, a stalwart on tour for a decade, played in just one event this year.
– #32 @Victoria Rodriguez is one of the best US juniors to come up in years. The 16yr old just made the US Junior national team, has been a regular in outdoor events for a couple years now, and will be very interesting to see on tour if/when she can.
– #41 @Susana Acosta got one appearance in this year to extend her season streak to 26. She’s played in a pro event every season for 26 years in a row.
– #42 Annie Roberts , the reigning intercollegiate champ and three-time defending U21 champion, could only get to one pro event while going to college full time and getting married this year.
– #42 Lucia Gonzalez , who always seems to get wins against top 8 players at Mexican Nationals, made just one event t his year.
– #47 @Erica Williams , better known for her outdoor exploits and being one of the leading outdoor programming promotors in the sport in her home area of the Bay Area, entered one pro event.
Players who were unranked this season of note:
– Texan @Linda Tyler usually makes a couple events a year but missed this season.
– As noted above, top-ranked Bolivians @Jenny Daza, @Michele Meneses and @Yazmine Sabja missed this season entirely. All are top 15 quality players.
– @Adrienne Haynes failed to play an event this season for the first time in 23 years.
– Top Mexican Ana Laura Flores is reportedly going to Law School and has curtailed training.
– The #1 in Ireland @Aisling Hickey, who got a couple of solid wins last season while working in the US, did not play any pro events this year.
– It was an off year in general for the whole new generation of top Mexican junior girls coming up: where were the likes of Daniela Rico, Angela Veronica Ortega, Cynthia Gutierrez, Maria Gutierrez, Ximena Gonzalez, or the Aguilara clan?
– Quick follow-up from a previous post: Barrios struggled to make events this year because she’s going to medical school. So, that’s awesome for her personal career, but probably a Lambert-like dagger for her racquetball career.
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Lastly, notable LPRT news items for the season,
– 6/21/23: Just ahead of the 2023 Central American & Caribbean championships, an article comes out that seems to indicate that Paola Longoria’s long-simmering conflict with Conade has reached a conclusion in her favor. She implies that the lawsuit that conade filed against the athletes for back payments has been dismissed.
– 10/18/23: Cristina Amaya releases a video ahead of the Pan Am games that details her struggles with the Colombian olympic committee, revealing that she was cut off
of her government salary in November 2022 and that furthermore even though Amaya and Riquelme had qualified for the Pan Am games that their spots were given away. Amaya still traveled to Chile to referee, but her dreams of competing in the Pan am games were shattered. This situation still infuriates me; clearly someone at the IRF allowed these two players, who do a ton for the game, to miss deadlines to enter the Pan Am games, and gave away their slots to other players from other countries. Someone at the IRF could have dropped a dime here to let Amaya/Riquelme know they had to file paperwork, but didn’t. It’s shameful.
– >12/11/23: With her semi-finals loss at the 2023 Xmas Classic, Paola Longoria will drop to #3 on tour. It is believed to be the first time since roughly October 2008 that
Longoria was not ranked #1 or #2 on tour. Vargas takes the event and moves to #2 ahead of Longoria and is now within strikign distance of #1 Mejia, who she’s beaten twice in the last three LPRT events.
– 1/14/24: Maria Jose Vargas wins her third straight tournament in a row, taking a commanding lead in the season to date points ranking.
– 2/11/24: LPRT #4 and USA #1 Erika Manilla is forced to retire the US National singles final due to what was thought to be a back injury at the time. Subsequent test and MRIs show that Erika suffered a hip labrum tear. She goes in for surgery to correct the issue mid March, but the injury costs her several LPRT stops, and she’ll be laid up for 6 months.
– 3/3/24: Despite losing in the semis, Vargas ascends to #1 on tour for the first time in her career. She now leads both the rolling 365 calendar and the season to date points rank and is the odds-on favorite to take the title. Defending tour champ Mejia drops to 2nd on tour, and now sits a distant 3rd in the season to date points race, having failed to win an event this season after her dominant 2022-23.
– 3/3/24: Paola Longoria announces her candidacy for the Mexican Chamber of Deputies (the US Equivalent of the House of Representatives) from District 5/Nuevo Leon. Elections are in June. Salas apparently is also running in teh same election.
– 3/24/24: Erika Manilla is featured in a full-page story in the <a href=”https://www.denverpost.com/2024/03/24/erika-manilla-pro-racquetball-player/”>Denver Post</a>.
– 4/28/24: Maria Jose Vargas wins her 5th event of the season at the Sweet Caroline grand slam, essentially wrapping up the 2023-24 title. It’s her first title, and
she dominated the tour this year. She topped Paola in the final 11-10.
– 4/28/24: After the 11-10 loss, Longoria’s new husband posted accusations on social media in the aftermath, claiming biased refereeing (one of the line judges was Argentine for the final) as the main reason that Paola lost this event. The issue does highlight the difficulties the tour has in finding “unbiased” refs for a group of women who all travel together to the same events. The IRF solves this by spending thousands of dollars flying in referees from a wide variety of countries, but nearly the entire LPRT tour comes from just a few countries, making it difficult sometimes to find neutral refs.
– 6/5/24: Neither Longoria nor Salas, both of whom were running for the Mexican chamber of Deputies, were directly elected in the National elections. They
can still be selected/appointed by the party.
– 6/9/24: Vargas officially wins her first ever pro title by entering the season’s final event in Chesapeake and advancing past the opening rounds. She had a large enough lead on Longoria to essentially have the title wrapped up after Greenville, so this was a formality to complete her dominant season. She becomes the third
Salas missed out on another top 10 finish. Photo US Open 2019 by Kevin Savory
This is Part 2 of my 2023-24 LPRT season in review. In part 1, we did a deep dive into the top 10 players with commentary on each of their seasons. In this part 2, we’ll cover the players who finished ranked 11th-20th, which will for the most part cover the “touring regulars” plus some interesting names.
Part 3 will cover other notable players plus do a news review for the season.
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(note: there was a tie for 10th on tour this year, so we start with the 12th ranked player).
12. Samantha Salas Solis , age 37, 6-7 for the season, 3 quarter finals, 322.50 points.
This is as good of a time to mention this fact as any, but the gap between the 7th ranked player (Mendez, with 393.50 points), to Salas at #12 with 322.50 is just 71 points. 71 points across an entire season is about the amount of points one would get for reaching the quarterfinals of a grand slam event. In other words, there’s not a whole lot separating all the ladies ranked 7th-12th this year on tour.
Salas missed the Sweet Caroline grand slam this year; had she played that event and made the quarters, she’d have finished 7th instead of 12th. Had she entered and lost in the 16s, she would have finished the season ranked 8th. It was a bad event to miss, and ends up costing Salas her first top 10 finish since 2020-21. As it was this season, Salas had relatively the same performance she’s had for several seasons now, making a few quarters when she wins that 7/10 round of 16 match.
Prediction next year: probably around the same #12-14 range.
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#13 Jessica Parrilla , age 33, 5-7 for the season, 1 quarterfinal. 256 points.
There is a gap from Salas to Parrilla in the ranking points, defining kind of a thin line between the 7-12 ranked players and the 13th ranked player. Parrilla made one quarter final this year (when she got a solid win over Laime in the Chesapeake opener last fall), but otherwise was out in the 16s. After three seasons hanging in the 7-8 range, Parrilla’s season represents a big step backwards, one that may be her new norm. It’s hard to identify players ranked in the set of 5-6 above her that you’d argue she can regularly beat now, especially now that she’s entering that magic age where so many pro pickleball players hang ’em up.
Prediction next season: Same 12-14 range.
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#14 Hollie Scott , age 25, 3-7 on the season, six round of 16s, 214.25.
Hollie’s big success this season was her USA nationals triple crown in February. On tour, she consistently ran into top ranked players in the 16s and mostly hung with them, but had no break through wins. She had losses in the 16s this year to Herrera, Laime, Gaby, Vargas, and Mejia. She had a couple of winnable matches that would have jumped up her ranking not go her way, but still improved on her ranking the last couple of seasons.
prediction next season: #13-14 again.
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#15: Lexi York , age 27, 2-8 on the season, three round of 16s, 199.25 points.
York and Scott had similar seasons, always running into top players in the 16s. Scott just had a couple more of them. York’s three round of 16s this season were her career first three, and #15 is a big step up from the last couple of seasons. Her training with Bredenbeck brothers is paying off.
Prediction next season: #13/14 range again.
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#16: @Maria Paz Riquelme , age 36, 3-8 on the season, 4 round of 16s, 183.75 points
Riquelme, who used to play in the same club as I in Arlington Virginia back in the early 2000s, made it to all 8 events and made a handful of round of 16s. The Chilean turned Colombian frequently ran into the #1 or #2 seed in the 16s by virtue of her ranking most of the season, which makes it hard to move on.
Prediction next season: same general area, in the 16-18 range.
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#17: Stephanie Synhorst , age 31, 1-8 on the season, 2 round of 16s, 165.50 points
Synhorst got her first career LPRT win this season, topping Riquelme in San Antonio in April. The 31yr old only started playing pro a few years ago, but made every event and got a ton of open draw experience on top of the LPRT experience.
Prediction next season: 18-20 range.
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#18: @Naomi Ros , age 18, 4-6 on the season, 4 round of 16s. 162.25 points.
Ros, the Texan junior who converted from Mexico to USA in 2021, won Junior Worlds 16U two years ago and is the current reigning USA 18U national champ. As we speak she’s in Pleasanton defending her national 18U title. She had some success on tour this year, getting a couple of wins over York and playing to players tough (she took a game off of Mejia in Greenville). Assuming she plays the tour full time and doesn’t miss events, she’s primed to be ranked higher.
Prediction next season: #13-14 range
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#19: Angela Barrios , age 24, 4-3 in three events this season, 151 points
Barrios, after three years in the top eight, missed most of this season and fell all the way to #19. Her talent level hasn’t changed: she just won the Bolivian National triple crown, but she had little impact this season one year after making 2 semis and a pro final. She remains a dangerous opponent when she does appear. We can only assume that the financial issues that many Bolivian players encounter are behind her sudden drop in touring appearances. There were practically no appearances from any of the Bolivians this year (Barrios, Meneses, Daza, etc).
It’s unclear if t his is just what we’re to expect from Barrios going forward: a source tells me that she’s not even training regularly anymore. So, unfortunately the pro tour looks like its losing one of its better players.
Prediction for next season: out of the sport.
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#20 Michelle Key , age 35, 3-4 on the season, 3 round of 16s, 112.50 points.
After years of only sporadically entering tour events (it had been since 2015-16 since she toured regularly), Key played half the tour’s events this season and qualified for the US National team in February. She represented the US in an international event for the first time in nearly a decade. On the LPRT she got a couple of good wins (Mendez, York) and seems primed to move up the rankings now that it seems like she’s touring more regularly.
Prediction for next season: #16
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That’s it for part 2; next episode we’ll talk about notables outside the top 20 and wrap it up with a review of the season’s news events.
Vargas is the 2023-24 champ.
Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
Hello fans! We’ve finished another Ladies pro season, the 2023-24 season. This post is to give you some links to rankings data as it flows through the Pro Racquetball Stats system and to be the first of a 3-part wrap-up series.
– Part 1 (this post): Year end links at the site and the The top 10
– Part 2: The 11-20th ranked players
– Part 3: 20+ ranked players plus notables, plus a recap of news items from season
For each of the individual players reviewed, we’ll talk about their season and then give a prediction as to where they end up next year.
– Season Summary Report for 2023-24 season (this is one of my favorite reports, bringing a bunch of data together: rank, season W/L, number of wins/finals/semis, etc). http://rb.gy/7ywv9m
– Season Seed Report; this shows how players’ seeds changed over the course of the season: http://rb.gy/apd1jz
– Obviously the story of the season is Vargas’ first title. However, we certainly saw a “consolidation” of the top players on tour this year. All 8 events were won by either Vargas or Longoria; last year’s champ Mejia was shut out. Just 5 distinct players even made a final this year. There was a massive gap between the top 4 players to even the 5th ranked player, and just 70 points separated the 7th ranked player from the 12th ranked player.
– The total “depth” of players on the tour has dropped for the third season in a row. the LPRT has gone from 61 to 54 to 47 distinct players for the season over the past three years. The tour continues to have about the same number of “regulars,” defined as players who played in 75% of the events (16 this year). 12 players made every event.
– The tour had 8 events this year, down from 10 last year. The tour lost the season opening Paola Longoria championship, the US Open, and the Sept Chesapeake event from the previous season, picking up the every other year World Singles & Doubles. This trend likely will continue, as the IRT is struggling to find pro events as well. It’s an indication of the state of our sport.
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Lets review the top 10.
#1 Maria Jose Vargas ; Age 31, 25-3 on the season, 5 titles, 1,502 points.
Vargas captures her first career pro title in her 11th season of playing professionally. And she did it one season after having a kid, one year after missing half of the 2022-23 season, which meant she had to claw her way back as an under seeded player getting crummy draws for months. Most importantly, she completely got over her mental block against her primary rival this season in Longoria. Prior to the 2022-23 season, Vargas was a career 1-31 against Longoria, often losing by heavy score lines. Since February 2023 (when she returned to the maternity leave): Vargas is 5-2 against Paola. Vargas essentially had the title sewn up before the final event, capping off a dominant season.
Prediction for next season: Well positioned to repeat as #1, based on what we’re about to talk about with the next two ladies
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#2 @Paola Longoria, age 34. 24-5 on the season, 3 titles, 1,409.50 points.
Longoria finishes 2nd for the 2nd season in a row after dominating the LPRT for the better part of the last two decades. She eliminated the shocking early round losses she exhibited last season and made the semis or better in all eight of her events this year. Unfortunately, she suffered four semi-final defeats, which ended up costing her the ability to out-point Vargas in the season’s final grand slam in Chesapeake. Her 3 event wins this year bring her career Tier1/Grand Slam total to 113 titles, which when added to her 7 satellite wins give her 120 total pro titles for her career.
Prediction for Next year: either #2 again or retired. Longoria ran for the Mexican Chamber of Deputies and didn’t win outright but could still be selected, which would make it awfully difficult to tour. She also got married last year, and could be thinking of starting a family. Lots up in the air for Longoria going forward. I’ve heard rumors of a possible retirement, but nothing official yet.
#3 Monserrat Mejia , Age 24. 20-8 on the season, 4 finals and 3 semis. 1,093 points.
One year after completely dominating the tour (she won 5 of the 10 events last season), Mejia took a major step back and failed to even get a tourney win this year. It’s not like she took bad losses: her 8 losses were: 4 to Longoria, 3 to Vargas, and one to Herrera in the quarters in Arizona. She just didn’t have it this year. Perhaps it was a loss of focus after getting to the top, or perhaps it was more about Longoria re-focusing after 2022-23 and Vargas’ big step forward. Either way, Mejia needs to reset and get back her mojo from last season.
Prediction for next season: #3 again
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#4 @Alexandra Herrera , age 29. 18-8 on the season, 2 finals, 4 semis. 896 points.
Herrera has definitely taken a back seat to the top three players on tour since finishing 2nd on tour with her first two tournament wins back in 2021-22. We’re a long ways from February of 2022, when she won two straight events (beating Longoria in the finals of both) and had the racquetball world wondering if we were about to see a changing of the guard. She struggled so much this season that she fell in the rankings all the way to #8 at one point (as the #8 seed she beat Mejia in Arizona), but finished strong to return to the top 4. She’s still clearly in a small group of players separated from the rest of the tour by talent, but has she lost out on her chance to win a title given Vargas’ dominance?
Prediction for next season: #4
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#5 Brenda Laime , age 24. 7-8 for the season, one semi. 467.50 points.
The gulf between #4 and #5 is astounding: Herrera had nearly 440 points more than Laime. 440 points is the equivalent of two full tier1 wins and then some. It will be months before Laime or anyone else lower than the top 4 could even think about moving up that far. Laime’s season was up and down, as evidenced by her 7-8 record. She started out strong, with a win over Manilla to make the semis of World Singles. But from there it was inconsistency; she had three round of 16 losses (to Amaya, Parrilla and Mendez) and never got back to the semis. That’s a far cry from her season last year, where she also finished #5 but made three finals and kind of planted her flag as a top player. For next season she has to get back that fighting spirit that gave her big time wins over the top 4 players.
Prediction for next season: #5 or #6
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#6 @Kelani Lawrence : age 30, 9-8 on the season, 6 quarters. 460.00 points.
Lawrence gets a career high finish at #6, and finished the season with a career high seeding of #5 in her home-town Chesapeake event. She missed out on #5 by just 7 points. She showed pretty good consistency all season, making the quarters in 6 of the 8 events, but never further. This has turned into somewhat of a career tripping point for Kelani; in 43 career pro events she’s made the semis just once. However, 2023-24 is a massive step forward for her; her previous career high was #12 and she finished ranked 14th last year. She’s clearly put herself into top 8 territory and should stay here going forward.
Prediction next season: anywhere in the 6-8 range.
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#7 Natalia Mendez , age 27. 7-8 for the season, four quarters. 393.50 points.
After finishing 4th in 2021-22, Mendez slipped badly in 2023-24, falling to 10th as she had a slew of round of 16 one-and-done losses. It looked like perhaps the tour had passed her by, but she rebounded in the latter half of the season, got a couple of solid wins over fellow top-10 pros Laime and Salas, and finished back in the top 8. Mendez’s challenge is that the top tier of players are now her regular quarter final opponents, and she’s a step behind them. I think she’ll struggle to stay in the top 10.
Prediction next season: #10
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#8: Cristina Amaya , age 35. Season record 6-8, 1 semi and 1 qtr. 353.50 points.
Amaya had a fantastic run in the 2nd half of the season to rise from the mid teens back into the top 8 for the first time in five seasons. She never once advanced past the round of 16 last year, but got a quarter and a semi this year with great wins over the likes of Laime, Gaby, Salas, and Lambert. Is this sustainable? She’s seemingly going to continue touring and is one of the tour’s regular refs.
Prediction next season: #14-15
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#9 Carla Munoz , age 32. 5-8 on the season, 2 quarters. 342.50 points.
Munoz spent almost the entire season in the dreaded #8/#9 seed slot. This is a frequent spot of trouble for pro players, who are faced with a very tough round of 16 match against a player ranked right next to you in the rankings and thus presumably someone who’s quite equally matched with you talent wise, and then if you get past that opponent you’re playing the #1 seed, who you have little chance of beating. Munoz ended up having 6 round of 16 losses this season in that tough 8/9 or 7/10 spot (Mendez twice, Salas, Manilla, and Lawrence twice), none of which are “bad” losses.
Prediction for next season: Probably in the same #8-10 range.
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#10-T: @Erika Manilla, age 26, 7-3 on the season. One final and one semi. 333 points.
Manilla, of course, missed almost the entire 2024 slate of events with a torn hip labrum suffered just ahead of US Nationals in February, which required surgery and is set to sideline her for almost the entirety of 2024. It was a tough blow for the team USA representative, who had to forfeit out of US Nationals early and who was on a solid run of form on tour before getting hurt. She was ranked in the 4-5 range prior to the injury and had gotten to a final in Lombard with her first career win over Longoria. She has career h2h wins over all the elite on tour (Vargas, Mejia, Longoria, Herrera), and one has to think a healthy Erika is pushing for a top 4 spot at least. She should have no lingering effects from the soft tissue injury, but may miss events at the beginning of the 2024-25 season, which will make it tough for her to get back into the top 4.
Prediction next season: #10 due to missing events.
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#10T: Gaby Martinez , age 24, 7-5 this season, 5 quarters, 333 points.
Gaby made it to 5 of the 8 events this season, and lost in the quarters all five times. this is a bit of a step back from her last two seasons, both of which she had Tier 1 wins. Her five QF losses were to Herrera, Amaya, Longoria, Mejia, and Herrera again, so really just one “bad” loss. Most of those losses were with Gaby in the #5 seed spot, so she’s playing #4 in the quarters, always a tough match. Martinez continues to tour part-time, regularly missing big chunks of the season, which will always make it challenging for her to push for the top spot.
Prediction next season: Same #9-#10 spot
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That’s it for the top 10. Next post we’ll cover the 11-20 ranked players.
