Andree Parrilla with the win on home soil.
Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory
The first IRT event of the season* (more on that in a moment) was held last weekend in Mexican racquetball hotbed San Luis Potosi, and it featured a solid draw of locals competing for IRT Satellite points. Here’s a quick recap. No r2sports link, so we had to draw inferences on some of the results, but here we go:
* you may notice that I said first event of the season, even though we’re in August. That’s right; the IRT’s new leadership has decided to go back to the fall-to-spring schedule instead of the Jan-Dec schedule adopted during the Covid mess. So, we declared a 2024 season champion, and then we’ll declare a 2025-26 season champion next June after the US Open. This was considered more ideal than just declaring a “2025” champ based on the 3 events held in Feb and March of this year.
Here’s how this weekend’s event went down:
The top four seeds were, in order, Andrés Parrilla , @Erick Trujillo , @jordy alonso, and Diego Gastelum , all four regular IRT touring pros. However, the rest of the draw featured a slew of solid up and coming players from Mexico and the southwest, including US Junior National team member @DJ Mendoza, @Elias Neito, and 2-time defending Mexican U21 champ @Sebastian Hernandez.
When the semis hit thought, the top four seeds had advanced to face off. In the top half, Parrillao advanced past Gastelum, while from the bottom half Trujillo got a solid win over Alonso to setup a 1-vs-2 final.
In the final, Parrilla topped Trujillo in a battle of two IRT top 10 players 7,9 to take the title on his home court.
It’s a new International Racquetball Tour world, with new blood and new ownership, and this is the first of a possible 20-event slate. Great to see.
This past weekend featured the 2025 Mexican Junior National tournament in the Mexican racquetball hotbed of Chihuahua, Mexico. Mexico is the last of the “big 3” North American countries to hold its Junior Nationals, and the results of these events determine the national team members that will represent their country at the upcoming World Juniors in the Dominican Republic in mid December later this year.
Here’s a quick recap of the qualifiers and some commentary.
Mexican Junior tournament and qualification goes as follows: the entrants play a double elimination draw; the winner of the winner’s bracket is the champion and Junior National titlist, while the winner of the loser’s bracket is the 2nd player to join the delegation. This consolation bracket champ often is not the winner’s bracket finalist, and the format gives players hope of getting back on the team even with an early loss. Mexico does not play any official doubles competitions at its junior nationals; the singles qualifiers will form the doubles teams at Worlds.
R2 site for 2025 Mexican Jr Nationals: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48744
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Congrats to the following Boys Singles winners and finalists for team Mexico (each has the winner’s bracket titlist listed first, then the consolation bracket champion and second national team representative second)
(click here https://rball.pro/olf for a Matrix of all Mexican boy’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)
– Boys 21U: Sebastian Hernandez, Jorge Gutierrez
– Boys 18U: Eder Renteria, Diego Romano
– Boys 16U: Santiago Castillo, Emilio Jurado
– Boys 14U: Elias Medrano, Alejandro Perez Picon
– Boys 12U: Max Soto, Hermann Gracia Castro
– Boys 10U: Kerman Gracia Castro, Isaac Soto
– Boys 10Udb: Jose Enrique Caro, Diego Diaz
– Boys 8U: Angel Perez, Esteban Sandoval
– Boys 8Udb: Luis Enrique Rivera, Esteban Sandoval
– Boys 6Umb: Angel Perez, Alex Nunez
Commentary on the divisions:
Hernandez repeats as U21 champ, but has still yet to appear in an IRT event. Eder Renteria wins his first Jr title since 2018. Santiago Castillo also returns to the title-holders club after a few years off, having been shut out of the entire 14U cycle. Medrano wins his 2nd title in three years. Soto wins his 3rd title in three years and is setup to plow through the Mexican Juniors. Kerman Damian Gracia repeats as 10U champ and gets his 3rd overall title. Lastly, newcomer Angel Perez wins both the 6U and 8U multi bounce competitions to start off his junior career with a bang.
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Congrats to the following Girls Singles finalists for team Mexico:
(click here: https://rball.pro/qcm for a Matrix of all Mexican Girls’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)
– Girls 10U: Jocelyn dominguez Chavez, Ana Paula De la Riva
– Girls 10Udb: Ana Paula De la Riva, Andrea Carrasco
– Girls 8Udb: Maria Rivera, Areai Maldonado
Commentary on the Girls divisions:
Ortega gets back on top, adding her 5th career Junior title to her bookshelf with one year of eligibility left. Trujillo claims her 5th title and now has one in each of the 5 traditional age slots (10,12,14,16,18). Former USA national Andrea Perez Picon wins her first Mexican junior title as the #1 seed in 16s. Michelle Gomez returns to the winner’s circle after a year off. 12U champ Jurado earns her 3rd career title.
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Congrats to all the Mexican Junior National title winners and National team qualifiers for 2025.
Naomi Ros with the triple crown at Junior Nationals. Photo via Ken fife
USA Racquetball held its 52nd annual Junior Nationals event last week on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and the event drew a solid field of top juniors from St Louis, San Antonio, Portland, Stockton, and other junior racquetball hot beds around the country.
The event has been held every year since 1974, save for the Covid year in 2020, and is one of the longest running events in the sport.
With this post, is official notification that the Junior Nationals results have been entered into the ProRacquetballStats.com database. For Juniors, we upload full bracket results for 21s,18s,16s, and 14s, but just load up winners and finalists for all age groups younger than 14U. For doubles, we load up just the finalists.
The best way to see Junior Singles winners is with the cross-year/cross-age group Matrix reports built into the site. They show all the winners for all age divisions going back to 1974. Here’s direct links for each Matrix report:
– Boys USA Junior National Singles Champion Matrix: https://rball.pro/mey
– Girls USA Junior National Singles Champion Matrix: https://rball.pro/cpf
Each full division draw can be accessed from the “event” pulldown after you enter either the Juniors or the Junior Doubles section. One Junior Nationals results in 18-20 singles draws plus another 15 doubles draws being entered into the database, so there’s a lot of new data here this week.
R2sports home page for the event, with all the full brackets: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=46099
(Apologies for any typos: these were hand typed into this post)
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Note: there are some combined divisions at 2025 nationals, especially in the 10s, 8s and 6s. I determined the champions when age groups were combined by looking at head to head results to “name” an age group champion. In some cases there are uncontested winners for younger entrants who competed with the next higher age group.
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Here’s some quick commentary on the Singles champions by grouping.
Boys Singles;
In 21U, Mendoza held off Sendrey in a battle of Texas junior IRT regulars to give Mendoza his first Junior title. The GOAT @Kane Waselenchuk was on hand to cheer on his pupil. in 18U Eshan Ali took his 6th career junior title. Vaishant Mangalampalli moved up as the reigning 14U champ and took 16U in his first shot. Ayan Sharma returned to the winner’s circle for the first time since 2018. Both the 10U and 12U winners were first timers; congrats to Michael Glenn and Ryan Joeckel. Jasur Pridatko repeated as 8U champ. Lastly the two multi/double bounce champs were first timers as well: Elijah Machado in 10UDB and then Gorthy, Saharsh in 8UMB.
Special recognition to Ash Murphy, who made the final in 8U, 8Umb and 10Udb. Also a shoutout to David Rada in 14U, who came in as the #30 seed out of a 32 player draw and made a run to the final as a complete unknown. They often say that in Junior draws, the hardest matches are the first round and the final, since kids show up out of nowhere and make huge runs quite frequently.
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Girls Singles quick recaps.
Reigning US Adult and 2024 18U champ Naomi Ros moved up to 21s and took the title, setting the stage for the possibility of 7 straight junior titles for Ros since her naturalization in the US. Sonya Shetty took 18U, her 5th national title. Aanshi Thakur repeated as 16U junior titleist. We had first time winners in both 14U and 12U in Shreya Chandel and Aaradhya Raja respectively. Marivada Sloka took 10U, her 3rd junior title. Sylvie Hatcher-Ross took both the 10Udb and the 8U title. Sasha Rai, 2-time defending 6Umb champ, moved up to take the 8Umb title. Lastly newcomer Almira Pridatko won the 6Umb.
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Multi-title winners
The following players took home the coveted “Triple Crown,” winning singles, gender doubles, and mixed doubles this year:
– Eshan Ali (18U)
– Ayan Sharma (14U)
– Michael Glenn (10U)
– Naomi Ros (21U)
– Sonya Shetty (18U)
– Aaradhya Raja (12U)
– Sloka Marivada (10U)
The following players took home the “double,” winning both Singles and a Doubles title in their age groups:
– DJ Mendoza (21U)
– Aanshi Thakur (16U)
– Shreya Chandel (14U)
These players took the “Double Double,” winning both Gender and Mixed doubles titles.
– Vaishant Mangalampalli (16U)
– Shreya Chandel
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Phew. that’s it for Junior Nationals. Congrats to all the 2025 winners. The National team includes the two singles finalists and the doubles winners in each division; those players have first right of refusal to represent Team USA at Junior Worlds later this year in the Dominican Republic.
Next up on the racquetball calendar? 2025 Outdoor Nationals, teaming with 3WallBall this year in Huntington Beach! We’ll preview and recap that event as we always do.
Trujillo teamed with Hernandez to win his first Adult national title.
Photo Kevin Savory/US Open 2021
The FMR, aka the @federacion Mexicana de Raquetbol, held its 2025 National championships at the famous FitMax courts that have defined the Chihuahua racquetball scene for decades. This event serves to select the Mexican National team that will compete for this year’s slate of International Racquetball Federation – IRF events that Mexico is eligible for, namely the upcoming PARC event in Guatemala.
Interestingly, the federation already decided its two participants for the upcoming 2025 World Games, discussed with the team that played in Worlds last fall and determined to be the male and female who advanced the furthest in Singles. That ended up being 13-time pro champ Paola Longoria (who won) and @Eduardo Portillo Rendon (who made the semis ahead of his teammate Parrilla).
That may have played a part in the smaller draws here, and some missing top names. Defending champ Parrilla was not present; per a source he has been battling an injury and had a trip already planned that ended up conflicting with the event once the FMR settled on a date. Also missing from this event on the Men’s this year were long-time competitors DLR (converted to USA), Landa (retired), Beltran (retired), Alonso, Natera (converted to Chile), Garay and Estrada (stepped back), Polo Gutierrez (stepped back), former top juniors like Gutierrez & Sanchez, Christian Longoria (only played doubles), and a slew of frequent IRT players like Nieto, Valadez, Erick Cuevas Fernandez, Arteaga, and a few other lesser known players. All these guys used to make this a full round of 32 draw and would result in crazy results.
Lets recap what happened in Chihuahua for those that did come.
Men’s Open Singles Recap.
PRS report: https://rball.pro/077f23
Tourney director @Favio Soto predicted that the home court would play a role here, and it definitely did, with 5 of the 8 quarterfinalists hailing from this area, 3 of the 4 semi-finalists, and both finalists. #12 seed @Javier Mar, who never seems to rate a top seed at these events, cruised past fellow IRT touring pros Carlos Ramirez and Erick Trujiollo in the first two rounds before downing #1 seed @Eduardo Portillo
in the semis to make the final from the top-side
The bottom half of the draw was appreciably thinned for #2 seed Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball , who handled Martell in the quarters and then U21 starlet Javi Sebastian Hernandez in the semis who setup a final against his long-time doubles partner. In the final, Montoya took three close games over the classy Mar to claim the National title, his 3rd.
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Women’s Open Singles Recap:
PRS Report: https://rball.pro/98caa3
Unlike with the men, where home-town players From Chihuahua dominated play, the top four ladies all currently live in the same place: Monterrey. The top four seeds, all top-8 players on the @LPRT tour, advanced as expected to the semis.
Longoria topped her doubles partner Salas in one semi, while Mejia topped her doubles partner Herrera in the other, to setup the third straight meeting between Montse and Paola for the National title. And, like the previous two meetings, Longoria came through with the win, claiming her 11th title in the last 12 years and what is probably her 13th or 14th career title (our records only go back 2008).
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Men’s Doubles Recap:
PRS report: https://rball.pro/4841f8
The u21 team of Trujillo & Hernandez overcame Portillo/Martell to make the final from the bottom side, then shocked the #1 seeds Montoya & Mar, who were making their 8th straight final but who got upended by their youthful rivals for their first title.
Women’s Doubles Recap:
PRS Report: https://rball.pro/22ebc2
Only four teams entered, and we got the same final that we normally get on tour: Longoria & Salas vs Mejia & Herrera. Longoria & Salas reversed the trend from the last two years this time around and secured the title, earning Longoria a double on the weekend. It is (I believe) their 16th national title together.
(Note: Mexico doesn’t hold mixed doubles competitions like the USA; they select their mixed team from the qualified players ahead of each event).
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Congrats to all 2025’s Mexican National champs.
Next up on the racquetball calendar? Next weekend features @USA Racquetball High School Nationals in Portland as well as an @International Racquetball Tour satellite event in New Mexico.
Trujillo took out three tough IRT pros to take the SLP Open. Photo Kevin Savory/US Open 2021
There was another big-time non-sanctioned pro event last weekend, featuring a ton of top-level talent in the Mexican racquetball hotbed of San Luis Potosi; the 2024 San Luis Open. The pro draws were solid and we saw some big-time matchups last weekend. Here’s a run down of the action.
Nearly all top 10 seeds are now household names to regular followers of the Men’s Pro game, and included a couple of players who have made huge impacts this season. The seeds held to the quarters, then we saw some fireworks.
– #1 @Andree Parrilla downed @Oscar Elias Nieto in the first QF with ease.
– In the second QF, #5 Erick Trujillo shocked #4 Jordy Alonso in four close games (they were playing international scoring rules). Alonso of course had made deep runs in both IRT events he’s entered, while Trujillo has been grinding his way into the top 8 and this is a solid win for the youngster.
– #6 Andres Acuña , probably underseeded, topped #3 Sebastian Hernandez in a five game thriller. Hernandez is no slouch: he was the 2022 18U world c hamp and is the reigning 21U Mexican champion, but has never played an IRT event.
– #2 Eduardo Portillo Rendon downed SLP local @Emir Martinez in three.
In the semis:
– Trujillo took out #1 Parrilla in four tight games, all of which went 11-9 one way or the other. A great win for Trujillo to build on.
– In the other semi, Portillo eased past Acuna as one might expect based on their h2h history.
In the final, Trujillo finished the job and took out Lalo for the title. Quite an event for Trujillo, beating Alonso, Parrilla, and Portillo in succession.
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Women’s Open
Just a ho-hum local open draw: four top-10 LPRT pros plus the 2024 U21 and 2023 u18 Mexican champs. How did it play out?
In the quarters, the two junior champs fell to the touring pros, leaving us with an all-LPRT semis. In the first semi, #1 Paola Longoria cruised past #4 Jessica Parrilla in three straight games, while from the lower side #2 Montse Mejia took out her doubles partner #3 @Alexandra Herrera in four.
In the final, Mejia reversed a recent losing trend to Paola and won a 5-game thriller for the title.
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Men’s Doubles:
Portillo & Parrilla teamed up to take the doubles title, beating Alonso & Acuna in the final.
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Next up, Golden State Open! we’ll preview the draw ahead of the thursday kickoff.
Florida’s Chris McDonald is the top seed in multiple pro draws this weekend in Vegas. Photo 2023 Outdoor Nats via Lara
Hello racquetball fans. Its time for the big daddy of outdoor tournaments, the 2024 14th annual 3WallBall championships. More than 375 participants are in Vegas for the weekend to play, watch, and socialize on the grounds of The STRAT Las Vegas hotel.
Each year I publish a Media guide for this event; here’s a direct link to that guide for 2024. It has bios and pictures for nearly 100% of the players in pro draws, along with player profile information, career indoor accomplishments, and career outdoor achievements.
If anyone in the community has corrections or updates please DM me and I’ll make them at least on the electronic version for next time.
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Draw Previews: Here’s a quick run through of the pro draws. Disclosure: I helped the team with seeding this year, as we found that the WOR points system combined with the abnormally high number of non-regular outdoor players resulted in the need to do some manual seeding this year versus 100% depending on the points system.
Also notably this year; not enough players signed up for either singles divisions, so we’ll have no Pro 3Wall Singles champs in Vegas for 2024.
Here’s some quick thoughts on the pro draws:
– Men’s 3-Wall Pro Doubles: We’ll have a new champion this year, as last year’s champs are not defending their title. Two-time defending finalists Adam Manilla and @Nick Riffel are the #1 seeds, rightfully so after earning the final two years in a row as the underdogs. They’ll likely face a gauntlet of tough teams to get back to this year’s final, which could include Natera/Acuna in the quarters and the top doubles team in the world Mar/Montoya in the semis.
The bottom half features quite the dangerous team in @kaKane Waselenchuk and Chris MacDonald as the #2 seeds. McDonald made the finals in Vegas in 2019, the closest he’s come to a Men’s pro outdoor doubles title in his long career. Kane is coming off an Outdoor Nationals title. They’ll probably face grizzled SoCal vets Allin/Orosco in the quarters, and then will get a massive test from the winner of the 3/6 seeds Beltran/Lalo and Carson/Ustarroz, both teams of which are multi-pro champs in their history.
Prediction: Look for Manilla/Riffel to silence the doubters and beat Chris/Kane in the final.
– Women’s 3-Wall Pro Doubles: Munoz and Laime just won Outdoor Nationals, but are seeded 3rd here thanks to the two defending finalists returning intact and earning the #1 and #2 seeds. This will make for a heck of a semi on the bottom side, and I think they’ll take out #2 Scott/Lawrence here to get into the final. The top half semi should also be one for the ages, as Key/Longoria (who I think edge Tisinger/Roehler in a tantalizing quarterfinal) should take out the defending champs Herrera/Mejia to get to the final. We just saw in WTR a straight-forward win for Longoria/Key over Munoz/Laime and I think we see that again in the final
– Mixed 3-Wall Pro Doubles: This was one of the most difficult draws to seed. I could make a case for more than half the draw to be a top 4 seed. If you’re reading this and questioning why one team is seeded X and another Y and you think it should be the reverse, keep in mind we tried to make the eventual quarter finals as fair as possible. So it’s less about who’s (say) #7 and who is #2 versus what the matchup will be. I like #1 McDonald & Key to get to the semis with relative ease, topping whichever one-wall specialist team gets out of the round of 16 ahead of them, and I like McDonald/Key’s chances to top whichever indoor-heavy team comes out of the 4/5 quarter will be 50/50 at best; Longoria is a tough out in any format, but she’s alongside an outdoor newbie in Montoya. Meanwhile Mar has shown he’s nearly unbeatable in one wall, but less so in three wall. That’ll be an interesting quarter for sure. From the bottom half, I like Manilla/Laime’s chances to move on here to the final, but they have to get by Natera/Munoz first. I think whoever wins that gets past Lalo/Herrera in the bottom semi. McDonald/Key for the win.
(Caveat to one-wall brackets: these brackets and seedings may change from the brackets used for these predictions; if the brackets are changed prior to the start of the draws on Friday 9am PST, my apologies).
– Men’s One-Wall Pro Doubles: Javier Mar has two Beach Bash titles and is a dangerous #2 seed here, but they’ll have to play past William Rolon , owner of four 1-wall major titles to get to the final. The top-side features #1 Lalo/Acuna, but watch out for #5 @DJ Mendoza and Waselenchuk; Mendoza won Beach Bash singles and Kane’s game is tailor made for one-wall. I see DJ/Kane taking out #1 and then winning the title in a slug-fest over Mar/Montoya.
– Women’s One-Wall Pro Doubles: Phew; there’s 8 teams here and I think 5-6 are thinking right now that they’re winning this thing. #1 Munoz/Laime won this in Vegas last year, but they’ll have to get past 2023 beach bash champs Scott/Lawrence in the semis to repeat. Key won beach bash this year with Katie Neils; they’ll face each other in the quarters on opposite teams as Key picks up Longoria. I think Key/Longoria will get past Tisinger/Roehler in the semi and will tak out Laime/Munoz in the final.
– Mixed One-Wall Pro Doubles: Sostre/Lawrence were your 2024 Beach Bash champs and will be tough to beat as the #2 seeds here; on and off-the court partners Lalo & Herrera will give a challenge in the semis … that is if they can get past NY one wall giants Goldenberg & Roehler in the quarters. From the top-side, McDonald is less known for his one-wall exploits, but he’s paired with Key and have a decent path into the semis. They’ll face a pair of touring pros with solid one-wall experience there, likely the husband-wife pair of Natera & Munoz. Look for an upset in the semis but for the Beach Bash mixed one-wall champs Sostre/Lawrence to get the 2024 one-wall pro double.
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– CPRT 40+ is nearly as deep as the Men’s Pro draw, with a high likelihood of a pro semis rematch to occur in the semis here between Waslenechuk/McDonald and Carson/Ustarroz to play for the title. #1 Beltran/Koll likely faces the lefty/righty legends Orosco/Solis in the semis to play for the title. I predict the winner of the bottom semi wins the title.
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Streaming: the @LPRT streaming team is in Vegas and is leading the way. Follow LPRT, sign up for live feed notifications, subscribe to their YouTube channel.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors @Peggine Tellez , @Mike Coulter and Jen O’Meara for putting this event on! Thanks to our main sponsors @KWM Gutterman Inc. , ProKennex Racquetball , @Team DOVETAIL , Abel Perez, LPL Financial and others I may have forgotten here . It goes without saying that without you and your support, we don’t have a sport.
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.
Mar gets the double in Juarez last weekend.
Photo via PK
Last weekend, there was as small non-sanctioned event in Juarez that featured a number of top Mexican players held in honor of the retiring Alejandro Landa and the current #2 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball Here’s a recap of the top divisions.
The top six seeds are regulars on the pro tour. The 8/9 match was between two top Mexican juniors in Sebastian Hernandez (who just won Mexican 21U junior nationals) and @Eder Renteria (who made the finals of 16U Junior worlds last November and the semis of Mexican 18U last month). Hernandez handled Renteria as expected to face off against #1 Montoya.
In the quarters:
– Montoya needed to go breaker to take down the Mexican 21U champ Hernandez but moved on.
– Long-time top Mexican player @Javier Mar, who’s been bedeviled with injuries the last couple of years, taking out Guatemala’s #1 Juan Salvatierra
– #3 @Jaime Martell topped Guatemalan veteran Edwin Galicia in two.
– #2 Alan Natera topped Mexican open player Mario Zamora .
In the semis, an upset. Mar took out his long-time doubles partner Montoya in two relatively easy games 5,12, while Natera eased past Martell 11,2.
In the final, Mar continued his run and topped Natera 12,12 for the title.
Side note: Natera recently converted to represent Chile, eligible by virtue of his marriage to long-time Chilean representative Carla Munoz , and recently claimed the Chilean national title and secured a berth at Worlds in San Antonio later this month.
There was a 3-team doubles competition that came down to the two top seeds for the final. There, #1 Montoya/Mar topped Chihuahua-based team of Natera/Hernandez 9,(13),5.
Congrats Mar for the double on the weekend, and for Montoya for winning his namesake event.
ps: thanks to Natera for giving me the results … the r2 site never got the singles final nor the doubles knockouts updated online but Alan provided the data.
This past weekend featured the 2024 Mexican Junior National tournament in Monterrey, Mexico. Mexico is the last of the “big 3” North American countries to hold its Junior Nationals, and the results of these events determine the national team members that will represent their country at the upcoming World Juniors in Guatemala in Late November/Early December.
Here’s a quick recap of the qualifiers and some commentary.
Mexican Junior tournament and qualification goes as follows: the entrants play a double elimination draw; the winner of the winner’s bracket is the champion and Junior National titlist, while the winner of the loser’s bracket is the 2nd player to join the delegation. This consolation bracket champ often is not the winner’s bracket finalist, and the format gives players hope of getting back on the team even with an early loss (read down for more). Mexico does not play any official doubles competitions at its junior nationals; the singles qualifiers will form the doubles teams at Worlds (unless something’s changed this year, because they played a full set of Mixed doubles divisions but not gender doubles.).
R2 site for 2024 Mexican Jr Nationals: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=42398
Congrats to the following Boys singles finalists for team Mexico:
(click here https://rball.pro/olf for a Matrix of all Mexican boy’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)
– Boys 21U: Sebastian Hernandez & Erick Trujillo.
– Boys 18U: Jorge Gutierrez & Eder Renteria
– Boys 16U: Nicholas Galindo & Sebastian Ruelas
– Boys 14U: Brian Axel Sanchez & Santiago Castillo
– Boys 12U: Max Soto & Alejandro Robles Picon
– Boys 10U: Kerman Damian Gracia & Santiago Gullen
– Boys 8U: Daniel Alejandro Ayala & Yacu Hernandez
– Boys 8Udb: Enrique Rivera & Massimo Loretto Bustillo
Commentary on the older divisions:
Boys 21U gave us a big surprise early, as #2 seed and 10th ranked IRT player @Erick Trujillo was shocked by little-known @Christhian Sanchez in the opening round, knocking him from title contention. Sanchez then topped Luis Renteria (who was on the 18U team last year) to open some eyes before falling to Hernandez. Last year’s champion and #1 seed Diego Gastelum cruised to the final but was topped by 2022 18U champ @Sebastian Hernandez. Gastelum then got knocked out by Trujillo for the second team spot in the consolation final; Trujillo won 7 straight loser’s bracket matches to secure his spot in Guatemala.
Boys 18U featured a repeat winner in @Jorge Gutierrez, who did not drop a game and won the final 2,4,2. It’s the fourth straight junior national title for Jorge, to go along with several junior world titles. Gutierrez might be better than any of the 21U players right now, but has just one IRT appearance (in 2022 as a 16yr old). Lets hope he can find his way to some pro events soon. Eder Renteria , who owns 6 mexican junior titles himself. secured the 2nd national team spot as he moves up to 18U.
Boys 16U’s champ Nicholas Galindo hadn’t won a junior title in Mexico since 2016, but lived up to his seeding and knocked off last year’s champ and #1 seed
Sebastian Alejandro Ruelas in the final. Ruelas salvaged the second national team spot by taking the consolation bracket.
Bryan Axle Sanchez repeated in 14U. In 12U, Max Soto moved up from 12U to take the crown. Interestingly, four-time USA junior national champ Alejandro Robles Picon competed in Mexico and secured the second 12U national team spot. He won USA’s 12U last year. In 10U, Kerman Damian Gracia wins his 2nd junior title. New winners were had in both 8U and 8Udb.
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Congrats to the following Girls Singles finalists for team Mexico:
(click here: https://rball.pro/qcm for a Matrix of all Mexican Girls’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)
21U sees a changing of the guard, as 2-time defending champ Maria Gutierrez ahs aged out, and last year’s finalist and #1 seed Leonela Osorio failed to secure one of the two spots. Instead they go to @Ivanna Balderrama , who moved up to 21U for the first time this year and who hadn’t won a junior title since 2019. The 2nd spot goes to frequent LPRT tour player @AAngela Veronica Vera Ortega .
In 18U, defending champ Cynthia Gutierrez was upset by rising 17yr old @Yanna Salazar , runner-up last year in 16U. Salazar topped Gutierrez both in the round robin stage and then again for the title. Last year’s 16U title winner Trujillo failed to secure a team spot as she moved up to the competitive 18U division.
In 16U, Miranda Bazzara, the 14U titlist two years ago, took the division as the #1 seed. In the semis she took out last year’s 14U champ Farias, and then in the final, she topped Andrea Perez Picon, who like her brother is switching to represent Mexico for now, or for this year (if they have dual citizenship, they can continue to play for/represent either country I believe).
in 14U, last year’s finalist Danna Portillo went a step further and secured the title. In 12U, Grissel Gomez Rubio dethroned the defending champ Michelle Gomez. Lastly we got new winners in 10U and 8U divisions for Mexico.
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Congrats to all the Mexican Junior National title winners for 2024, and congrats to the National team qualifiers as well.
Congrats to Favio Soto for another successful Mexican national tournament.
Mejia may have lost the singles title, but she triple-qualified this weekend. Photo via LPRT
Hot on the heels of the USA Racquetball nationals/Canadian qualifier events last weekend, this past weekend we had the Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol (or FMR)’s nationals, held in the Mexican hotbed of racquetball San Luis Potosi, SL, Mexico. It looks like mid-February is going to be “North American Nationals” period going forward, which is great for the pros planning out their schedules.
Congrats to your National title winners on the weekend:
– Women’s Doubles: Monserrat Mejia and Alexandra Herrera
– Mixed Doubles: Javier Mar and Monserrat Mejia
The winners of the three doubles competitions form the Mexican National team for those events. The winners of the two singles titles, along with the winner’s of the consolation bracket form the two-person Singles teams that represent Mexico. This is a distinction from the way that USA, Canada, and others qualify; they take the two finalists of the single-elimination singles bracket to form the team, but in Mexico the losing finalist has to play one more match, which often times leaves them out of the team. More on that in the recap.
These players all qualify to represent Mexico in the upcoming cycle of International events, starting (I believe) with PARC 2024 next month in Guatemala City but certainly for the 2024 Worlds to be held in San Antonio in August plus any regional events on the schedule for this summer.
The Singles draw for Nationals was way down from prior years, with just 20 players. Last year they had 37 by way of comparison. It could be a one-off, or it could be acknowledgement of a passing of the guard so to speak. Missing out of the draw in 2024 were a couple of defections to the USA (DLR And Landa), and a slew of long-time veterans such as Beltran, Polo, and Cardona. Mar did not play singles as he continues to battle injury, and then there were curious absences like Natera, Martel, and Renteria. This also seems tacit admission that players like Garay, Gerardo Franco, Estrada, and Ochoa, none of whom we’ve seen at an IRT event in some time, may be through playing racquetball at a top level, which is a blow to the depth of the sport in Mexico for sure.
Luckily, there’s a slew of up-and-coming Mexican Junior players who are not terribly well known in the USA yet, but who can play, and many of them advanced into the quarters of nationals. Keep an eye out for players like @Sebastian Hernandez , @Jose Carlos Ramos, and of course for players who have already made impacts like @Erick Trujillo , @elElias Neto , and Diego Gastelum .
As for the draw, the top four seeds and the main IRT touring pro regulars all advanced into the semis as expected. Trujillo was stretched by the always dangerous @Jordy Alonso in the 4/5 quarter, but held on, further evidence of his continuing improvement that we saw recently with his win over #2 Bredenbeck on tour. Defending Mexican champ Rodrigo Montoya topped Trujillo in one semi, while #2 @Andree Parrilla held off @Eduardo Portillo in the other to advance to the final.
Parrilla has had tough luck in this event, having made the semis five times in the last decade but with only one final and zero titles to show for it, but he turned the tides on home soil at this event. But it was a nail biter final: Andree took the first two games and had multiple match points in the fourth, but Montoya forced a fifth game. After the letdown of letting the fourth game go, it would have been understandable if Parrilla lost the final to his long-time rival, but he dominated game 5 11-6 for his first Adult Mexican national title.
In the loser’s bracket, losing semi-finalist Portillo took out Sebastian Hernandez and Alonso to force a consolation final against Montoya for the second spot on the team. This is exactly what happened to Lalo last year and he took the consolation final to make the team. And this year, Lalo did it again, shocking Montoya in 3 games to claim the 2nd national team spot. Amazingly, Montoya is shut out of the Mexican National team despite being its most decorated male over the past 6 years, and despite being the #1 seed in all three draws. Pretty amazing.
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Women’s Singles:
It was a top-heavy draw, with four of the current top 10 ladies pros playing (Longoria, Mejia, Herrera, and Salas) along the #2 seeded Parrilla, who’s slipped to #14 on tour but retains a top seed here by virtue of her performance in 2023.
#5 Samantha Salas got things started with an upset of #4 Alexandra Herrera in the 4/5 match, turning back the clock to grind out a five game win. Salas then managed to take a game off her doubles partner Longoria, but fell in four in the semis. From the bottom half, #3 seed @Monserrat Mejia took care of business, taking out #2 Parrilla in four games in the semis to setup a rematch of last year’s final. In the winner’s bracket final, Longoria was not to be denied, topping Mejia in four to claim her 10th title in 11 years, and what I believe is either her 16th or 17th national title. Our records only go back to 2014, but I believe Longoria swept the ladies titles from 2008 onwards. Amazing feat.
There was still work to be done though; last year saw a huge upset in the consolation bracket final to send a surprise second singles player … could we see more fireworks. The Loser’s bracket now had Salas, Herrera, Parrilla, and Mejia all battling it out for one spot on the team. Herrera made a statement with a 3-game win over Parrilla, ending her chances at returning to the team early. Salas got a walkover against rising junior talent Angela Veronica Vera Ortega to face off against Herrera for a shot against Mejia, but could not top her lefty rival.
The second singles spot came down to two friends and doubles partners; Herrera vs Mejia. They know each other’s game so well, and often there’s “weird” results between the two as a result. On this day though, Mejia cruised to a 3 game win to claim the consolation bracket and the 2nd national team spot. Mejia, despite losing the singles final, triple-qualified on the weekend and will play a big part in returning Mexico to team glory over Bolivia at the next international competitions.
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Men’s Doubles
It seemed like a fait accomplis for the two top teams to make the final, and they did, giving us a final featuring four tour regulars and four of the best doubles players in the world. #1 Mar/Montoya, who are also #1 on tour and have claimed multiple major and international titles together, faced off against #2 Portillo & Parrilla, who have become somewhat of a regular doubles pair on the IRT and are gaining familiarity with each other.
In the final, we got a rematch of 2023’s final, and we got a fantastic back and forth match for the neutrals. After going down two games to one, the defending champs Montoya & Mar came out on the right side of a grueling 17-15 game four win, which may have been demoralizing for some teams, but Lalo/Andree fought back and took game 5 11-7 to claim their first ever Mexican National title. It capped off a amazing weekend for the SLP based pro Parrilla, who won both singles and doubles after having never won a Mexican adult title before. Same for Portillo, who also double qualified on the weekend by virtue of his big win over Montoya in the singles consolation final.
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Women’s Doubles
Only four teams competed in Women’s Doubles, and there was little doubt that the final would be between Mejia/Herrera and Longoria/Salas. They’re the top two seeds here, they’re the top two seeds regularly meeting in LPRT finals right now, and they have been trading back and forth both pro and National titles for the last few years. They both advanced as expected to compete in the Saturday final.
In the final, the two familiar teams played a barn burner. The match went five games, with Herrera/Mejia on the wrong side of two nail-biting 15-13 games before running away with the final 11-5 to claim the title. Herrera & Mejia repeat as Mexican national champions, and it’s hard not to look at this as the official passing of the baton in Mexican history.
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Mixed Doubles
After curiously not competing Mixed doubles at the 2023 FMR nationals, the event was back on the slate for 2024, and the draw was small but stacked. Five of the six teams were comprised of touring pros, and it was anyone’s tourney to win. The #5 seeds Mar & Mejia seemed like a dark horse, in that Mar is one of the most accomplished doubles players in the world and Mejia is the current LPRT #1, and they did not disappoint. Mar & Mejia topped #4 Portillo & Herrera (no doubles slouches themselves) in the opener, then upset the last team to win a Mixed title in #1 Montoya & Salas in the semis.
The bottom semi featured two brother/sister pairs competing, with the Parrillas outlasting the Longorias in five games to make the final. In the final though, it was three straight for Mar & Mejia to claim the title.
This event has been an IRT satellite event in the past, but this year was just a solid “local” Mexico tournament where at ton of the top players from that country traveled and competed in honor of @Alex Landa , who recently announced his retirement from active touring.
Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
All the regular touring pros who appeared advanced into the quarters as expected. The toughest round of 16 match was former WRT #1 Alejandro Cardona pushing 4th seed Alan Natera but ultimately falling.
Champion Parrilla topped Natera in one semi, while the namesake Landa topped his long-time pro and international nemesis Andres Acuña in the other. In the final, Andree took a close two-game victory 13,10 to claim the title.
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Doubles review
Long-time rivals and teammates Parrilla & Montoya took out the top seeds and veteran Mexican players Landa and @Alvaro Beltran in the final 12,9.
Its 3WallBall time@ @3Wall Ball starts this coming Thursday, the biggest outdoor event of the year. Players are already starting to arrive in Vegas, and I’ll be getting there Wednesday night. I’ll be commentating on the IRT feed, primarily broadcasting the 3wall Men’s Pro matches.
