Category: LPRT

The LPRT is back in Boston for the 2023 Frontline Boston Open Presented by ARK Behavioral Health.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=40583

There’s 25 players in Boston, and the draw shakes out to give us a ton of really compelling matchups. The round of 16 here is going to be awesome.

Top20 players missing: #2 Herrera is not here, giving Mejia the #2 seed and a cleaner run to the finals to go after her fourth straight win. The next highest missing player is #15 Lotts. Ironman Maria Renee Rodriguez misses just her 3rd event in five years, as does her Guatemalan partner Gaby Martinez. Lastly #20 Rajsich remains on touring hiatus.

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

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In the 32s, there’s some good starters:

– Last week’s surprise finalist Vargas goes against Costa Rican’ top junior Maricruz Ortiz, a bummer of a draw for Ortiz, who has been training with Sudsy “Rocky Balboa” Monchik in Florida.

– In an all-Argentine youngster matchup, #13 Valeria Centellas goes up against lefty Martina Katz .

– USA U21 junior Annie Roberts gets a close match with veteran LPRT Colombian @Cris Amaya .

– Lastly , two Canadian juniors in Juliette and Marjolaine Parent make their LPRT debuts. Their mom, Monique Parent , is a former Canadian national singles champ and last appeared on the Ladies pro tour in 1985 at the DP event in …. Boston.

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round of 16: there are going to be some barn burners here.

– 8/9: Laime vs Barrios. Right now its advantage Barrios on the strength of her win over Herrera in AZ. But these two are neck and neck and couldn’t have a different gamestyle.

– Vargas plays into Parrilla, a bummer for Leoni to get an early round matchup against a top 4 player despite her lofty seed.

– The winner of the all-Argentina playin between Centellas & Katz plays … the #4 seed Argentine Mendez. I guess we really wanted to ensure all the players from La Albiceleste were gone early.

– Scott vs Munoz. these two are also neck and neck in terms of world talent rankings and this could go either way. Scott topped Munoz at the 2021 US Open, but that was just their 2nd ever meeting (first in 2016, which Munoz took). Edge to Scott.

– Lawrence vs Salas: another gut check for an up and coming player, to see if they can take out a veteran. Salas is 3-0 lifetime and took out Kelani at the World Games last fall and has the slight edge here.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Longoria over Barrios. If it was Laime, i’d give her a slight edge, but i just don’t think Barrios’ game style can ever beat Paola.

– Vargas over Mendez: the last of the all-Argentine meetings in this quarter, and two long-time doubles partners meet.

– Manilla over Scott: USA vs USA but Manilla has the advantage here.

– Mejia over Salas; Mejia is on a roll and isn’t losing to Samantha here.

Semis:

– Longoria over Vargas: Vargas was playing without pressure last week; now there’s expectations and I think Longoria has the better mindset.

– Mejia over Manilla; Erika beat Montse twice in a row in late 2019 they never met prior or since. Lots has changed since then, not the least of which is Mejia being on a 3-tournament winning streak. This is setup to be an awesome match but I think Montse is taking a step ahead of the rest of the tour right now.

Finals; Montse over Longoria to take her 4th straight event. Longoria looking in the mirror and wondering if this is the inevitable changing of the guard.

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Doubles review

No Herrera this weekend, so Mejia teams up with Manilla (who also is missing her newly minted championship partner from US Nationals. Regular teams Centellas/Mendez and Scott/Lawrence form the rest of the top 4 seeds.

In the end, I like Manilla/Mejia to get to the final, but to lose to Longoria & Salas.

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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, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Thanks to the Tourney Director and @USA Racquetball President Stuart Solomon for putting this event on!

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

Associations

LPRT

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Montse Mejia

– Doubles: Paola Longoria and Rhonda Rajsich

Mejia wins her 3rd straight LPRT event and has a 12-match winning streak on tour (see https://rball.pro/qx5 for longest LPRT winning streaks). In doubles, Longoria teams with Rajsich for the first time since 2016 and wins the title again, improving her pro doubles record to 6-0 with her long-time rival (see https://rball.pro/i0s for Longoria’s full LPRT doubles match history)

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=39119

Interestingly, the entire LPRT stop was played out by early Saturday afternoon. I cannot recall seeing a pro event that ended before at the earliest Saturday Night. This took me by surprise when the ladies started on Thursday (normally they don’t kick into gear until Friday morning).

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

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

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In the 32s: a tale of two kinds of qualifiers. Several of the round of 32s were complete blowouts: three of the scores were of the “1 and 0” variety. But then there were several interesting matches:

– Both players were gone a while; but only one could advance. #16 Maria José Vargas took out @Rhonda Rajsich in a breaker to earn a shot at Longoria.

– #12 Valeria Centellas was definitely pressed by USA’s Lexi York , going 11-8 in the breaker before advancing.

– I was expecting a bit more from Lucia Gonzalez against #9 Kelani Lawrence ; after losing the first game 11, the American turned on the guns and raced to an 11,3 win.

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In the 16s, an absolute shock.

– Vargas upset #1 Longoria with a well earned tie-breaker win. Vargas came back big in both the first and third games and just played better than Longoria. This is the earliest exit for Longoria in an LPRT event since January of 2007, and she now has more losses so far this season (four) than she had in the prior four seasons combined, and we still have several stops to go (Longoria career W/L here: https://rball.pro/z2i, and see here for Longoria’s losses on tour https://rball.pro/v2p.). Bravo to Vargas for this win, but the storyline has to be this: are we looking at the potential fall of the long-time #1?

Other Round of 16 observations:

– #9 @Kelani Lawrence with a great win over #8 Brenda Laime .

– #6 Jessica Parrilla with a solid win over #11 Hollie Scott ; these two are very closely matched.

– #2 Alexandra Herrera held off Gaby Martinez in two tight games in a round of 16 that should have been a semi (not unlike Vargas-Longoria). Solid win for Herrera to avoid a possible upset here.

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In the Quarters, more crazy results.

– Vargas continues her run by taking out USA’s Lawrence in a breaker. This could have been a huge emotional letdown for a player to have to come back after toppling #1, but Vargas held serve in a match she should win, despite just coming back from months off.

– #5 Natalia Mendez continues her dominance over #4 Erika Manilla by winning in a breaker and donutting the American #1 11-0 along the way. Mendez has never lost to Manilla in a match tracked by PRS, dating back to their junior days.

– #3 Mejia reversed the result against Parrilla from Mexican Nationals last week, winning easily to move on.

– #2 Herrera was taken out in two closer games by #7 Angelica Barrios 12,11. The Bolivian champ improves to 3-2 lifetime over Herrera.

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In the Semis

– Vargas continues her run, downing her long-time doubles partner Mendez to make the final as a #16 seed. Its the 4th highest seed to ever make a final in the known seeding history of the tour.

– Mejia crushed Barrios 6,5 to return to the final for the 3rd straight event, and for the fourth time this season.

In the Finals, Vargas took game one 15-12 but (finally) ran out of gas and Mejia cruised the rest of the way, winning (12),2,4 to take her third straight title.

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Points Implications of results

– Around this time last year, we were asking if Herrera was the heir apparent after two straight wins over Longoria. Well, Mejia now has won three straight events and should overtake Herrera for #2 on tour if My math is correct.

– Longoria remains #1 still though by a sizeable margin (nearly 600 points) and it will take a number of additional early round upsets for Mejia to overtake her for the title, especially by season’s end.

– Barrios’ result jumps her up from #11 to #8

– Laime’s upset will drop her 3 spots from #8 to #11.

– Vargas’ return and run to the final will jump her from #15 to #12, and she’s in a good position to continue to rise.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/79b

Longoria and Rajsich race to the title, beating the reigning US champs Michelle Key and Erika Manilla in a breaker along the way. Not a good result for team USA, who could not focus on Rajsich enough to take a winnable match.

Team Argentina (Valeria CentellasValeria CentellasValeria Centellas and Mendez) had a great run to the final, in a solid tuneup for upcoming international events.

The story of the tourney though was the shock early round loss of the reigning Mexican champs and #1 seeds Herrera/Mejia, who were upset in the quarters by Barrios & Laime. Now, Barrios is no doubles slouch; she’s a world champ in fact and just won Bolivian doubles … nor is Laime, who has proven to be a heck of a doubles player in the last year, but this is still a shocking loss.

The ladies doubles competition at the upcoming PARC is going to be wide open.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters JT R Ball , @jJerry Josey , Timothy Baghurst and others who got on the mike and helped out (@Richard Eiseman )

Thanks to the Tourney Director Jim Winterton and to the RPAA for putting this event on!

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Next up?

We’ll recap the IRT event and publish tomorrow.

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Next weekend is a IRT satellite event in Montana and the non-sanctioned Xelani open in Miami, which should be interesting to watch since its a non-pro event with big money and limits on the entrants.

LPRT is back in action the weekend following, returning to Boston.

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tags

LPRT

Big props to @Jim Winterton and all of Arizona Racquetball (known as the Racquetball Players Association of Arizona or RPAA for putting on a full blown ladies pro stop in conjunction with their state doubles event. Official title of this event: “023 Arizona State Doubles Championships w\ LPRT hosted by RPAA,” held at the same facility at Arizona State that two weeks ago hosted National Doubles.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=39119

Big news this weekend; the return of several big names on tour from the last few years. First off, 4-time LPRT champ and future Hall of Famer Rhonda Rajsich is in the pro draw for the first time since she “quiet quit” the tour after last year’s Kansas City grand slam. The Arizona resident didn’t have to go far to enter this event, likely a factor for her entry. Also back this weekend off of maternity leave is former #2 player on tour Maria José Vargas . Unfortunately for all parties, Rajsich and Vargas have to play first round. Lastly, former World champion Ana Gabriela Martínez is entered for just the third time this season; she’s seen her ranking plummet and will have to fight her way back up.

Top-20 players missing: just two: #8 Salas, likely taking a break after nationals. #17 Enriquez is not here, also likely taking a break after Mexican Nationals.

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

– #16/17 Vargas vs Rajsich. I have no idea who’s been playing, or how much. Rhonda was at US Nationals two weeks ago and finished in 3rd. But Vargas is closer to her prime and is the favorite here.

– #9 Kelani Lawrence gets the always dangerous Lucia Gonzalez in the first and is a prime upset watch.

– #12 Valeria Centellas faces off against #21 Lexi York in what could be an interesting first rounder.

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round of 16:

– #1 Paola Longoria versus Vargas: wow; a year ago this would have been a final. Now its a round of 16. I’m guessing Vargas is not nearly in playing shape to challenge Paola right now.

– #8/#9: If Lawrence can get past Lucia, she projects into Brenda Laime in a good old-fashioned Mid-Atlantic showdown. Advantage Laime here, who can’t quite get out of the #8 seed and a Longoria quarter.

– #5-12 is an all-Argentine affair with Natalia Mendez and Centellas facing off.

– #6 Jessica Parrilla versus #11 Hollie Scott : tough one: Scott beat Jessica the last time they met but it was 11-10. Parrilla just topped both Herrera and Mejia to qualify at Mexican Nationals and is on fire. Advantage Leoni.

– #10 Angelica Barrios , fresh off her triple crown at Bolivian Nationals, faces #7 @Carla Munoz . Advantage Barrios, who is 3-1 lifetime against the Chilean.

– #15 Martinez over #2 Alexandra Herrera : what an awful matchup for Herrera, who is #2 on tour but yet is just 1-5 lifetime against Gaby. Practically any other play-in and you’d favor the lefty, but she is the underdog here.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Longoria over #8 Laime: after one shock loss, Paola won’t look past the Colombian again. It still likely goes breaker.

– #4 Erika Manilla over #5 Mendez: Manilla is focused and won’t look past the challenging Mendez.

– #3 Mejia over #6 Parrilla: I know this is a reverse of what just happened in Juarez, but Mejia will see the draw opened up and will pounce.

– #15 Gaby over #10 Barrios: Angelica has a win over Gaby, but it was on home soil internationally. Gaby’s the better player.

Semis:

– Longoria over Manilla: Erika got a game off Paola at the US Open but then collapsed. What did she learn, and what can she do to take the next step? I expect another breaker, closer in the breaker.

– Mejia over Martinez: Montse has topped Gaby the last four times they’ve played, and will do it again.

Finals; Mejia over Longoria.

Montse has beaten Paola twice in a row on the LPRT, the last time handily, and should do it again. Yes, Paola just destroyed Montse at Mexican Nationals … something’s different about Nationals versus pros for Longoria right now. A year ago we were asking whether Alexandra was the new heir-apparent … now I think we know who is.

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Doubles review

We don’t normally preview in detail pro doubles, but there’s a ton of interesting storylines in Arizona.

First off, Mejia and Herrera are back together; after splitting up for a couple of events and not really being happy with the move, they’re back together, the #1 seeds, and the clear favorites. They just took out Longoria/Salas to take Mexican Nationals together and break something like a 15-year streak of those two winning the title in mexico.

But there’s a ton of good teams from the top half to contend with. Team Argentina (Mendez/Centellas) is here, along with the former team Argentine Vargas (playing here with Munoz). USA’s vanquished former national champs Scott/Lawrence are the #5 seeds, and two very dangerous doubles players in Barrios/Laime are the #8 seeds.

In the bottom half … Longoria’s regular partner Salas is not here, so she’s teamed with Rajsich as the #3 seed, but I can’t see them getting past the newly crowned USA champs Manilla and Michelle Key. I see Manilla/Key taking out both the Longoria team and then the #2 Guatemalan team of Martinez/Rodriguez before losing to the Mexican champs 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, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Associations

LPRT

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Montse Mejia

– Doubles; @Samantha Salas Solis and @Alexandra Herrera

Mejia wins her third career title, and 2nd in a row, with a dominant final’s win over Longoria. She now has 3 career titles, the same number of titles as current LPRT players Salas, Herrera, and Vargas. (see http://rb.gy/vdajxp ).

In Mejia’s last four pro events entered, she’s lost 14,10 in the final of the Team Root Super Max event to Longoria, lost 11-10 in the Aguascalientes final (unable to convert on match point) to Longoria, then won the Chicago event (beating #1 and #2 en route), then this weekend also beats #1 and #2 to win in Maryland. That’s a nice run.

Earlier this year, after Herrera won two straight tourneys, we were wondering if she was the heir apparent. Now we’re wondering if we were premature, in that we have a player in Mejia who routinely beats Herrera and is now topping the world #1 8,7 in finals.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37908

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rb.gy/by5ykr

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In the 32s:

-Susy Acosta stretched MRR to 11-9 before losing.

– Ana Gabriela Martinez , after missing most of the fall slate and seeing her ranking drop nearly out of the top 16, tops Nancy Enriquez to move forward.

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In the 16s:

– #1 Longoria handled Gaby 8,8 to move on in a stern round of 16 test.

– Kelani Lawrence got a very solid win over #8 @Brenda Laime, playing on essentially her home courts.

– Natalia Mendez reversed last event’s upset loss to Lotts, topping her in two.

– The big talking point and big upset of the round was #13 Valeria Centellas mounting a fantastic comeback from 5-10 down in the breaker to upset #4 @Erika Manilla . Lots of online chatter about bad calls at the expense of Manilla, but this observer didn’t really see anything to be that upset about. There were two calls in particular (a cross court side-out winner that Manilla thought skipped but Centellas immediately walked to the box for and which sounded just fine), then a “cut backhand” slice shot Manilla hit for what she presumed was a winner but which sounded funny on the front wall and was called a skip. Tough loss either way.

– @Hollie Scott got a very solid win, beating #6 @Jessica Parrilla 11-10 to move on.

– In a continuing rivalry that keeps popping up this season, @Carla Munoz took the latest episode over Samantha Salas in a tight one.

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In the Quarters, chalk

– #1 Longoria over #9 Lawrence, but not after dropping the first game.

– #4 Mendez had her best tourney for a while, getting to the semis with a solid 10,9 win over fellow Argentine Centellas.

– #3 Mejia went breaker against upset-minded Scott but moved on.

– #2 Herrera was pushed 11-9 by Munoz before advancing.

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In the Semis

– #1 Longoria in two straight over #4 Mendez.

– #2 Mejia in a breaker, once again, to top #2 Herrera.

Then in the final … a dominant 8,7 win for Mejia as discussed.

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Points Implications of results

Not too much: I don’t see any changes in the top 7, but I do see some severe tightening at the top of the race. Longoria had an 1100 point lead after winning her namesake grand slam in August; that lead is now lower than 500 points. She has two finals and two wins to defend from the last half of last season, but without a KC Supermax commitment and (at this point) things could get a little dicey if Longoria wants to maintain her #1 streak.

Elsewhere further down in the rankings:

– Laime missed this event last year so she moves up to #8 despite the early loss.

– Same with Salas; she didn’t play last year and only gains points: she moves up to #10.

– Vargas takes a dive, from #8 to #15, which means everyone above her moves up one slot.

– Gaby remains mired outside the top 16 and will need a huge run to move up at this point.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: http://rb.gy/ieneht

Salas and Herrera won a weird looking match, taking the first game 15-0 before Mejia/Longoria made a match of it. Still no official word why these two long-time pairs split up, but i’m sure we’ll get the 411 at some point.

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Women’s Open, other draws

– Centellas got a walkover win in the Women’s open final over Amaya, who got a great win in the semis over Enriquez.

– the Men’s Open was won by Dylan Pruitt , who took out Virginia’s Justin Carpenter in the final.

– Carpet baggers @Damian Zamorano and Craig Clement took the Men’s Open draw.

– Carpenter and Kelani (both Chesapeake VA natives) took the small Mixed Pro Doubles draw over teams that included Parrilla, Centellas, and tour commissioner @Tj Baumbaugh .

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., and @Tj Baumbaugh]

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Karen Grisz for putting this event on!

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 …

The last remaining event on the 2022 calendar of note is the 2nd annual Beach Battle in Hollywood, FL next weekend. Then its happy new year and the first big event on the 2023 slate will be the IRT Longhorn Open.

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tags

LPRT is back in action, and back in my hometown, for the last pro event of this calendar year 2022.

Quick History lesson on this event, for those who are interested:

This is the 30th iteration of this event, which puts its first occurrence way back in 1991 (it missed a year for Covid like everything else). It was originally the brain child of long-time DC-area racquetball promoter Ed Willis II, who ran tournaments for more than a decade in the area and was briefly the LPRT tour commissioner.

When I moved to Arlington VA in late 1997, i hooked up with Team Ed to help them with tournament prep; I dug into my old files for when I was working with Team Ed and I have a file dated Dec 1999 with start times for the 8th annual event. Top seeds in the Men’s Open draw of the 1999 event? Dan Fowler , Daniel F Llacera , Mike Porter, David Day, Dave White, Stan Davis, Ben Hale, Jamal Harris . If I had to guess i’d say Fowler took Llacera in the final, with Porter and Day making the semis. The Women’s open was a bit smaller but featured Doreen Fowler and … current LPRT commissioner @TJ Baumbaugh as the top seeds.

The event used to be run at the historic Crystal City Sport & Health, which hosted pro stops for decades dating to the 1980s, before moving to the Tysons Club, then moving around the area as the Sport & Health chain in the area systematically eliminated courts throughout the chain. Today i’m not sure there’s a single racquetball court inside the beltway, where as for decades the DC area had a massive community of players, both club and tournament. A shame.

The tourney (and Team Ed’s portfolio) was eventually was taken over by Karen Grisz , who took over when Ed stepped out of racquetball promotion, and the tournament moved to Sportfit Laurel for a time before settling where it is today: at one of the last clubs in the DC/Baltimore area with enough courts to hold anything more than a shootout; Severna Park.

R2 Sports App link:https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37908

This weekend’s event features 22 Ladies pros and has a pretty good talent level despite the smaller draw. 9 of the top 10 are here (only missing the new mom Vargas), and then 8 of the next top 10 ranked players are here (missing only Barrios, who is at World Juniors, and the recently retired Rajsich). So, a solid 17 of the top 20 present.

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

In the 32s,

– watch for Ana Gabriela Martinez , who returns to the tour for the first time in months and gets a #17 seed for her troubles. She faces off against #16 Nancy Enriquez and is favored to move on.

– I like Lotts vs Lexi York as a play-in to the main draw; Lotts has been playing well lately and should move on.

– #14 Maria Renee Rodriguez will have a good test against long-time tour player @Susy Acosta

– For the 2nd event in a row, the two traveling Colombians, and doubles partners @Maria Paz Riquelme and @Cristina Amaya have to face off. Maybe we tweak the seeding next time? These two also may very well face off in the 2nd round of Women’s Open.

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round of 16:

– #1 Paola Longoria gets the absolute worst case round of 16 match she could ask for, projecting to face Gaby. At the end of the day, Longoria holds a dominant career h2h against the Guatemalan, but Gaby has toppled Paola in the past.

– #8 Kelani Lawrence vs #9 Brenda Laime Jalil . Great match; hope we get this streamed. Two very close players, MD vs VA. I favor Laime to move on and set up another qtr against Paola.

– #5 Natalia Mendez vs #12 Lotts: ironically a rematch of Lott’s huge upset win over Mendez in Chicago. Can she do it again?

– #6 Jessica Parrilla vs #11 @Hollie Scott : this is a very even matchup, and the kind of match Scott needs to win if she wants to break into the top 10.

– #7 @Carla Munoz vs #10 Samantha Salas Solis: these two keep running into each other; they met in August and again at the US Open. They’ve split those two meetings … who comes out on top this time? Salas seems to have found a second win lately and could pull the upset.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Longoria v #9 Laime, again. this would be the 4th meeting of the season. Laime shocked the #1 in Chesapeake; can she do it again on essentially home soil?

– #4 Erika Manilla vs #5 Mendez; assuming no upsets, Manilla gets a challenging match to get back to the semis.

– #3 Montse Mejía vs the Parrilla/Scott winner: Mejia would be favored either way.

– #2 Alexandra Herrera vs the Salas/Munoz winner: Herrera favored either way.

Semis:

– Longoria over Manilla: Paola is 7-0 lifetime over Erika, but the American #1 improving. Erika has gone from losing 0,1 to Longoria in Nov 2021 to taking a game off of her at the US Open in October. She projects to get another shot here.

– Mejia over Herrera; Montse is 6-3 lifetime over Herrera, including the last two meetings.

Finals: Mejia over Longoria. Montse beat her in Chicago, has a couple other wins over Paola, and won’t be intimidated. After Longoria labors through what arguably could be called the most difficult possible draw she could have … she runs out of gas in the final.

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Doubles review

Once again, we see the long-time partnership of Longoria/Salas split up … as we do with the long-time partnership of Herrera/Mejia. These players have paired up with each other, and we should see all four in the final.

Longoria/Mejia is a more formidable doubles pairing than even Longoria/Salas and is my favorite to 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, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Mike Grisz , Karen Grisz, and Bill Milbach for putting this event on! Since its Severna Park, I know Slemo Warigon will be involved too.

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!

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Montse Mejia

– Doubles: Alexandra Herrera & Samantha Salas

Match Reports in the ProRacquetballStats database:

– Singles: https://rball.pro/4tc

– Doubles: https://rball.pro/vcf

Mejia wins her 2nd career singles title, defeating #1 and #2 on tour to do so. Salas teams up with a new partner to win her 37th pro doubles title since we started tracking them.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39960

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/4tc

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No surprises in the 32s: Annie Roberts played well in taking MRR to 9,9, and Argentine junior Martina Katz played Lawrence well in game one before losing big in game two.

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In the 16s, four upsets by seeds to talk about:

– #9 Brenda Laime with a solid win over #8 Angelica Barrios 11-6 in the breaker. These are the kinds of tough wins you have to continually get when you’re in the 9-16 range in order to move up.

– #13 @Sheryl Lotts got her best career win, topping #4 Natalia Mendez 11-9.

– #11 Samantha Salas showed that she’s not done yet on tour, topping fellow Mexican veteran #6 @Jessica Parrill 11-8.

– #10 @Kelani Lawrence met #7 @Carla Munoz for the first time on the pro tour (they’ve met 4 times internationally) and got the win 11-7. A solid win between two players that are neck and neck in terms of talent.

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In the Quarters

– #1 Paola Longoria had to work for it, but she beat down the challenge from Laime (who had beaten her earlier this season). 11-8 in the breaker.

– #5 Montse Mejía made fast work of the Cinderella #13 seed Lotts, 13,2.

– #3 Erika Manilla held serve against the tough veteran Samantha Salas , moving into the semis in two close games 13,11

– #2 Alexandra Herrera dominated American Lawrence to move on 3,11.

A great set of semi-finalists; for me the best four players in the world.

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In the Semis

– #1 Longoria was beaten again, this time by Mejia in a breaker. Mejia was down big in each game but clawed back each time.

Longoria fought back in game 2 to force a tie-breaker, saving multiple match points against, but Mejia left no doubt by jumping out to a huge lead in the breaker to win going away 11-3.

– #2 Herrera demonstrated why there’s still a gulf between #2 and #3, crushing Manilla 7,4 to move into the final. Herrera makes her 6th final out of the last 10 pro events.

In the Finals … the two long-time doubles partners (who have seemingly split) went to battle, and it looked for a time like Mejia was not going to compete. She took a bad injury in the doubles match the night before and looked sluggish in game one, losing 15-2. But she battled back, grinding out game 2 15-12 before taking the breaker after running out to a huge lead. Inspired play from Mejia.

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Points Implications of results.

This tournament sees off two Nov 2021 events (Arizona and this same event in Chicago), both won by Paola, and neither of which Montse played in, so she gets a HUGE jump in the rankings as a result.

The top 2 remain the same, and despite her recent upsets Paola still has a commanding lead for #1, just as Alexandra has a commanding lead for #2. But Montse now sits at #3 on tour, jumping over several ladies in the process.

Elsewhere on tour, Munoz moves up to #7, jumping over Vargas, who slips from #3 to #8 by virtue of losing points in essentially three events. Barrios, who has been ranked as high as #4, will slip outside the top 10 for the first time in quite a while. Lotts with her big win moves up to #14, and the absent Rajsich now slips nearly out of the top 20.

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Doubles review

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

The new pairing of Herrera & Salas proved too dominant, cruising into the final from the top half. From the bottom half, the seemingly dominant Longoria/Mejia team nearly was upset in the quarters by Laime/Barrios, having to save match points before advancing. They then lost to Manilla/Mendez in the semis (Mendez choosing not to play with fellow Argentine Centellas, who instead matched up with Parrilla and got crushed in the quarters).

In the final, the two excellent doubles players Herrera/Salas outlasted the improving Manilla/Mendez team, winning 13,14.

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Other Draws:

– Lawrence cruised through the Women’s Open draw, never giving up more than 8 points in a game while topping Maldonado, Amaya, and Centellas to win.

– @Thomas Carter took the 10-man Men’s Open draw, topping fellow IRT tour veteran @Mario Mercado in the final after beating fellow lefty Rodrigo Rodriguez in the semis.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., and @Tj Baumbaugh]

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

We have Thanksgiving this coming weekend, then the first weekend in December sees the IRT visiting Portland for the Live Like John Pelham memorial. We also see the kick off of World Juniors 2022 in Guatemala.

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Welcome to the 30th Annual Turkey Shoot, presented in 2022 by Platt Hill Nursery and hosted at the famous Glass Court Swim and Fitness club in Lombard, IL. Home of the famous “fishbowl” sunken 3-wall glass court, this club is a regular host to both pro tours.

Last year’s LPRT event featured a fantastic 11-9 final between #1 Longoria and then #3 Herrera as well as a couple of double-digit seeds into the quarters, shaking up the draw. See https://rball.pro/vxh for last year’s results … what does 2022 have in store for us?

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39960

There are 24 LPRT women’s pros in Chicago-land this weekend competing.

Top 20 players missing this weekend include @Maria Jose Vargas , who has now dropped to #7 while on maternity leave; she may be back early next year. #13 Hollie Scott misses the event; curious as she has been traveling a lot for events lately. #14 Rhonda Rajsich continues her absence on tour; she has not played since the season ending event in June. Lastly Gaby Martinez , who won a major last year, has now dropped to #20 on tour; when she returns someone’s going to have an awfully hard opening round match.

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

Round of 32:

– #14 Maria Renee Rodriguez has a fun match against USA U-21 and current Intercollegiate champ @Annie Roberts to open the tourney.

– #11 Samantha Salas Solis has an interesting one against USA’s Lexi York , who has been training with the Bredenbeck boys in Minnesota and could be tough.

– In the #15/18 match we get Colombian-on-Colombian crime, as partners Cristina Amaya and @Maria Paz Riquelme are forced to play.

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round of 16:

– 8/9, tough as always: Brenda Laime versus Angelica Barrios . Both Bolivian born, both extremely tough to beat. Two contrasting styles; the classical flair of Laime versus the control grinding of Barrios. I see Laime upsetting the #8 seed to push for another Longoria meeting.

– 5/12: Montse Mejía and @Valeria Centella , who have been meeting since Juniors, meet again. They went breaker at the US OPen; can Centellas get an upset here?

– #6 @Jessica Parrill versus possibly Salas; two long-time Mexican top players set to battle once again.

– 7.10 projects to be Carla Munoz versus Kelani Lawrence , a total battle. I have them neck and neck in my personal world rankings, with Munoz slightly ahead. Expect a tiebreaker here.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 @PaPaola Longo versus Laime: third time they will meet in the last three tourneys; Laime famously topped Paola in Virginia before Paola completely crushed Brenda at the US Open 1,8. What happens here? I don’t think Paola is going to look past Laime again, so expect a win for the #1.

– #5 Mejia over #4 Natalia Mendez : Mejia is the better player, the more complete racquetball player, but has been known to drop games to fellow friends on tour like Mendez.

– #3 Erika Manilla over #6 Parrilla: Erika has handled Leoni the last couple times they’ve met, and Manilla has her eyes on #2 on tour. She’ll be focused here.

– #2 @Alexandra Herrera vs Munoz: Carla is 0-6 lifetime against the lefty, and this would be the 3rd straight event they play. Alexandra is just too strong for Carla right now.

Semis:

– Longoria over Mejia: I know Mejia has topped Paola in the past, and it isn’t out of the realm of possible, but is she prepared? Mejia hasn’t played an LPRT event since mid August, having missed Worlds, Virginia, and the US Open. Longoria hasn’t missed anything.

– Manilla over Herrera: they just met in Minn; a 6,6 dominant win for Erika, staking her claim to be the #2 player in the world. Can she repeat?

Finals;

Longoria over Manilla in a US Open final rematch. Manilla took game one in Minn before getting wiped out 5,3 in games 2,3. Can she make it closer here?

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Doubles review

Some interesting team machinations going on in Chicago: The clear #1 pro team of Longoria/Salas .. are not playing with each other for the first time that I can recall. And, long-time #2 team Herrera/Mejia have split up too, jumbling partners so that Herrera/Salas are taking on Longoria/Mejia. Weird.

From the top I like Herrera/Salas versus Munoz/MRR, while from the bottom i like Longora/Mejia over Manilla/Mendez.

Longoria and Mejia to 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 , Jerry J Josey Jr. ., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Thanks to the Tourney Director @DaniDaniel Jay for putting this event on!

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

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

Associations: LPRT

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

• Singles: @Alexandra Herrera
• Doubles; Kelani Lawrence and Hollie Rae Scott
  It was an interesting weekend in Chesapeake. Lets read on for some thoughts.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=32188

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/o32

In the 16s:

• #8 Brenda Laime crushed #9 Scott 3,9, a result that portended the rest of the weekend.
• #4 Erika Manilla needed a breaker to get past the veteran tour player Cris Amaya .

– In the 7/10 match-up, home town fans were rewarded with a solid win by Kelani Lawrence , who got an excellent win over Argentinian Valeria Centellas

In the Quarters

• #8 Laime sent shockwaves across the landscape by upsetting #1 Paola Longoria 11-10 in the breaker. Laime’s classical game has gotten her big wins in the past (she has career wins over multiple top-4 players in the past couple of seasons), but never as big of a win as this. Longoria’s quarter-final loss was the first time she’s lost that early in a pro event since February of 2008, a pretty amazing feat.
• #4 Manilla outlasted #5 Jessica Parrilla in a breaker. After losing 14 in the first, she cruised to a 15-2, 11-3 win.
• #6 Carla Munoz upset #3 Mendez and returned to the pro semis for the first time since April of 2017 with a solid 11,14 two game win.

– #2 Herrera squeaked out a 15-14, 15-14 two game win over Lawrence. Not much between these two players on the day.

In the Semis

• Laime rebounded from a first game let-down to move past Manilla in a breaker to get to the final. This tournament represents the first time Laime has advanced to the semis in her career, and now its the first time she’s made a pro final.
• Herrera cruised past Munoz 6,7 to get to the final.

In the Finals, Herrera took her 3rd career title by topping Laime 7,12.

Points Implications of results
There are no 2021 points to expire, so there’s not a ton of changes with these results.

• #2 Herrera closes the gap a bit on #1 Longoria, thanks to her early loss. She still leads by nearly 1,000 ranking points at the top.
• Mendez and Mejia switch places at 4/5, with Mejia missing the event.
• Parrilla and Barrios switch places at 7/8, again with Barrios missing the event.
• Lawrence moves into the top 10 I believe for the first time.

– Laime bumps up her ranking from 13 to 11 with the finals appearance.

Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/7gv

A small pro doubles draw was taken by USA reigning national champs Scott and Lawrence, a first pro doubles title for Scott and second for Kelani. They crushed Longoria/Centellas 1,12 in the final.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst , Jerry J Josey Jr. ., and Tj Baumbaugh
Thanks to the Tourney Director @Malia Bailey for putting this event on!

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.

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
Next weekend, the pro tour moves slightly north from Virginia Beach to Severna Park (outside of Baltimore) for the first IRT pro stop of the new season, and the first time we’ve seen the Men’s pros since May. There’s 42 pros entered into the Singles draw as of this writing, so it’ll be a big tourney.

Yours truly will be onsite, probably on the mike for some of the Saturday action.

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LPRT