2025 Golden State Open Preview

Rhonda Rajsich with a rare pro appearance. Photo 202 USAR Doubles by Kevin Savory

One of the year’s biggest events is this coming weekend; the 2025 Golden State Open, the brainchild of two former touring pros in @David ” Bobby” Horn and @Adam Manilla, hosted by two of Stockton’s legends @John Ellis and Steve Cook. Both pro tours are onsite at the Bay Club Pleasanton in the East Bay portion of the San Francisco bay area, which means a huge prize purse fundraising effort was done and we get Mixed Pro Doubles for the second time in as many months.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48678

There’s 38 men’s pros and 21 Women’s pros on hand, with fireworks and unexpected results anticipated. By the time you read this play has already started, with the round of 64 on the mens side getting a rare Wednesday evening start.

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Let’s preview the Draws. We’ll do the two singles draws and then the Mixed Pro draw. They’re hosting Open doubles draws for both genders, but the top pros are not entered.

Men first: as we covered in our IRTclub Fantasy Fastbreak podcast with @BBrian Pineda (see here for the link if interested: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1590097114629503/?multi_permalinks=3794248374214355&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen ), we are missing the top three ranked players out of this draw and four of the top 10. Kane and Jake both have weddings (separate weddings we believe), Andres had a family commitment, and Lalo is elsewhere along with his girlfriend Herrera.

This leaves Rodrigo Montoya to get a #1 seed, a career high. In fact, most of the top 8 at this event are at career high seedings: Mar at #2, Natera at #3, Alonso at #6, and Carter at #8 are all career-best seeds, and the mashed up top 8 is going to give us some new and unexpected head-to-heads here.

More importantly, the absence of Kane in particular historically has been a big indicator that we may get a first time winner.

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In the round of 64 and 32, here’s a few matches to watch for:

– Mauro Rojas vs Emir Martinez: Rojas a former US Junior National champ, and Emir a former top Junior from Mexico. Tough opener, and as it turns out it went three before Rojas fell.

– There’s a few unknown Bolivians who made the trip and who could make waves: Arnez & Borja in particular. Santiago Borja is the two-time defending World 14U junior champion. Both won their openers to face off against top ranked pros in the 32s.

– Sendrey vs Wolfe in the 32s is a solid test for the teenager to see if he can take out a semi-regular IRT touring player.

– Mexican Junior Santiago Castillo, who owns a slew of Mexican Jr National titles including the 2024 16U title, faces off against IRT veteran @Thomas Carter in a match he can’t look past.

– Carrasco-Mendoza in the 14-19 matchup could be close: how much is Mendoza improving versus how quickly is the aging Carrasco’s skills fading?

– If Borja wins his first, he plays into #2 Mar. A good pro debut for the 15yr old.

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Round of 16:

– Martell-Carter in the 8/9 is an interesting matchup; they’ve never met in a top-level event.

– We’re projecting two lefties who both play out of the Bay Area a lot in Collins and Manilla into the 16s.

– Tough draw once again for Parrilla: last week Moscoso played into him early, this week is Garcia, who’s demonstrated his ability to beat nearly anyone on tour.

– Gastelum-Alonso could be close: they met at 2024 Mexican Nationals and Alonso prevailed in three, but Gastelum has come a long way. This is Pineda’s big upset pick.

– the dangerous Miranda meets Moscoso in the 7-10 matchup; this is too bad for Miranda, who has been eyeing a deep run.

– #2 Mar faces off against #15 Flores in a huge trouble area for the Mexican. If Flores plays up to his capabilities, this might be a huge upset.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Montoya over the Carter/Martel winner: Montoya will be favored no matter who comes out here, and has to like his draw this weekend in general. No crazy bolivian junior world champs, no Moscoso seeded 16th, etc.

– Manilla-Garcia: Manilla made a massive run here last year as the host; can he do it again?

– Natera v Alonso: both players are probably looking at each other going, “hey i should win this” and get back to the semis. Could be close

– Moscoso will be favored over whoever comes out of that bottom half, whether its a huge shock like Borja, an upset-minded Flores, or Mar holding serve against two top Bolivian juniors he’s set to face early.

Semis:

– Montoya over Manilla/Garcia winner: Montoya’s only obstacle to the final this week is injury.

– Moscoso over Natera/Alonso winner: this could be over fast.

Finals; I’m calling a Moscoso-Montoya final, with Conrrado taking the title.

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Women’s Pro Singles preview:

Like with the Men’s draw, the ladies draw is missing a few key players. Herrera is out, as is Lawrence and Salas (surgery). So that’s three top 10 ladies missing. What we do have in this draw is a bunch of top Junior Mexicans who we rarely see, including the Perez-Picon sisters. Plus, we get a rare sighting of Rhonda Rajsich, which is awesome to see the future Hall of Famer.

Preview of the draw:

round of 32s to watch for:

– top Mexican U21 player Cynthia Gutierrez makes her LPRT debut and faces Maria Renee Rodriguez-Josey in a tough one for the veteran

– Andrea Perez PIcon, the reigning Mexican 16U champ and finalist at World Juniors last December, faces Norcal’s ERica Williams. Andrea’s older sister Estefania feeds into the Legend Rajsich.

Projected 16s of note:

– The 8/9 between Centellas and Parrilla will be awesome.

– #4 Gaby Martinez projects to play rising USA player Annie Sanchez, who’s played some top players close lately.

– Mejia could face Rhonda in a generational battle of top players

– Munoz-Laime is probably the match of the round.

– Amaya-Lotts will be a battle.

Qtrs on: From here, I see the top four ladies advancing as they typically do: there’s such a gap between Longoria/Mejia/Vargas/Gaby to the rest of the tour right now, it’s hard to predict any upsets. I see Longoria topping Mejia in the final.

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Mixed Pro Doubles

I love Mixed pro doubles: we just have no idea who’s going to win some of these early matches. Normally I look at the two women’s players and try to use that as a determining factor (thinking that the weakest link on the court will get the most shots and will play the biggest part in the match result), but that doesn’t always tell the whole story, and the doubles acumen of the players involved needs to be given more weight. With Salas missing (one of the best mixed doubles players ever) and Longoria skipping out, there’s some new teams and tough matchups.

Here’s some matches to look for and some guesses how this draw will go:

In the 16s, easily the match of the round is the Manilla siblings versus the Argentine mixed national team of Garcia/Vargas: how this is an opening round match is beyond me.

In the quarters:

– Mar/Mejia should advance

– I like Natera/Munoz over the Parrilla sisters

– Moscoso/Martinez should beat whoever comes out of the above 6/11 match, but once again this is the toughest part of the bracket.

– Montoya/Laime is an amazing team and should top Miranda/Mendez.

Semis:

– Mar/Mejia should beat Natera/Munoz … but when these two teams met in the 2023 World Doubles competition it was an 8,9 win for the Chileans. So who knows. I think Munoz is a better doubles player than her counterpart, but Mejia is the harder hitter. Mar-Natera is probably a wash on the left, but Mar is a superior doubles player when he plays with Montoya on the right.

– Moscoso/Gaby over Montoya/Laime, but I have no confidence here. Montoya won the 2025 World Doubles mixed title with Paola in both 2023 and 2025, and Gaby should hold her own as a solid doubles player on the right. But, Laime is no doubles slouch and they could surprise here. Great match.

In the final, i’ll go with the winner of the bottom semi, who i’m thinking is going to be Moscoso/Gaby.

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IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!

Associations

International Racquetball Tour

LPRT

2025 World Singles and Doubles Recap

Andres Acuna wins his first tier 1 IRT title. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Singles: @Andres Acuna

– Women’s Pro Singles: Maria Jose Vargas

– Mixed Pro Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & Paola Longoria

Acuna becomes the 46th man in the history of the pro tours (dating to Sept 1973) to win a Tier 1 title. Vargas wins her 13th career title and is now in the top 10 all time on the ladies tour. Lastly, Moscoso/Longoria repeat as winners of this event, topping the #15 seeds Carson & Key in an amazing run to the final.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=42889

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

Men’s Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/7a1248

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In the 64s:

– US Junior national team member @DJ Mendoza took a barn burner over DC-area Open player turned Florida Man @Dylan Pruitt, surviving 11-10 to move on. Tough matchup for both, and predictably it went the distance.

– European #1 German @Marcel Leunsmann made his IRT pro debut and pushed the solid @MIguel Angel Arteaga in game one 15-14 before running out of gas 14,4.

– We had a weird situation where a score in R2 was entered then changed; initially Camacho was listed as a winner over Carrasco by the very odd scoreline (0),0,0, indicating a triple donut. Turns out the real scoreline was a 6,(13),10 edge of your seat win for the Bolivian.

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In the 32s:

– Moscoso got a walkover/withdrawal from Carlos Ramirez to setup the anticipated round of 16 against Moscoso

– @Sam Bredenbeck got a really solid win over #12 @Jaime Martell Racquetball , 12,7. This is probably his career best win, certainly by seed of the opponent, but also by talent of the opponent.

– Bolivian 18U champ Flores crushed his fellow rising Junior Gastelum 6,9 to put himself into the 16s.

– Bolivian Vet Carrasco upset @Thomas Carter 13,6. This is a step back for Carter, the kind of matches he’s generally been winning lately has he’s climbed up the rankings.

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In the 16s, we get some big surprises and of course a heavyweight matchup

– In the 1/16, we get basically the two best players in the sport playing thanks to Moscoso’s injuries costing him a ton of ranking points. The two played their typical match; lots of power, great shot making, and a series of streaks that defined each game. Kane jumped out well ahead in game 1, Moscoso fought back briefly, then Kane powered into Game 2. There it was the reverse; Moscoso jumped ahead, Kane fought back, and then it was Kane fighting off game points at the end and taking the gam 15-14 to save a tie-breaker. It was good to see Moscoso not capitulate in game two after a heavy game 1 loss; he’s just 10-26 lifetime on tour when he loses the first game. Hopefully we don’t see another 1-16 like this at the next event.

– @Adam Manilla returned from injury and ground out a great 11-10 win over #8 @alan Natera to move on. Solid win by Adam, who is looking to get back into his lofty 4-5 range.

– @Jake Bredenbeck tamed the young Bolivian phenom @Jhonathan Flores 7,9 against this prognosticator’s predictions both here and on the IRT club podcast. Jake played well and just controlled the youngster.

– Miranda got a walkover against #3 Parrilla, whose back tightened up on him suddenly and wouldn’t release in time to play.

– Montoya was pressed to a breaker by Bolivian Carrasco before advancing, but the effort caused him to roll an ankle, which knocked him out of the next round.

– Mar destroyed Alonso 8,0 in a big time reversal of latest trends.

– In another top round matchup, #2 Acuna stepped up and took out the tough Argentine @dieDiego Garcia 5,6. A two-time international finalist this year, Garcia was thought to be a dark-horse for the semis, but Acuna had other plans.

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In the Quarters

– Kane destroyed Adam 0,2 in a lefty on lefty crime.

– Portillo outlasted Jake in a breaker to get back to the semis once again.

– Miranda gets his second straight walkover, this time over Montoya, to get to the semis without playing for two days.

– Acuna played amazingly well to outclass Mar 9,5. All props here; these were two straight great wins for the costa Rican.

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In the Semis

– Kane took out Lalo 7,12 to get to anther final.

– Acuna looked like he might get upset, as Miranda controlled game one, but he flipped the script to get to the final (7),13,3.

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In the Finals, what looked like a mismatch quickly turned into a battle. Kane from the onset didn’t look as if he was moving at 100%, but still made shots. Acuna’s drive serves were working to the left and to the right and kept in points. The two were neck and neck to 14-14, which is where Kane usually finds some magic to pull wins out of losses … but the pair went back and forth at game point several times before Acuna pulled it out.

This effort seemed to deflate Kane, who got down early fast in game two and started mailing it in. I didn’t see a postgame comment about what might have been the issue, but by match point against Kane wasn’t even trying. I did not see any post match intel on what may have been ailing him, but i’ll make two main points here.

1. Kane is 43. He’s not going to be 100% physically for every match anymore. So a big part of his title pursuit will be mitigating injury and staying healthy long enough on these tough weekends to get to the semis and finals regularly. Now, as we saw in this match, even at 43 he’s still the best player out there, he’s still in a position to crush drive serves on muscle memory and get a lot of free points on 3-shot rallies where his serve is flailed back for a setup. However, on those days where he has to play both a 16 and a quarter, he’s vulnerable. By Sunday, having played hard for three straight days, sometimes you’ll see him stiffen up, tweak something, etc. That’s just part of the story now.

2. I’m not taking anything away from Acuna here. You can talk all you want about how Kane wasn’t 100%, but that ignores how well Acuna has played Kane lately, and it ignores how good Acuna has been playing lately. He didn’t get to #2 in the world by luck, and the last few times he’s played Kane its been closer and closer. Kane beat him 12,14 earlier this year in Minnesota. The time before that it was 10,7 in Spokane. Andres took a game off Kane last year in Sioux Falls. Back in March 2022 Kane was crushing him 3,3 … no longer; now its a battle every time. So all props to Acuna here. I thought he would lose in the 16s and he won the event.

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With this win, Acuna becomes the 46th ever player to win a Tier 1 title. He joins an interesting looking group of 1-title holders on tour that includes a few current players (Portillo, Montoya) a few recently retired players (Mercado, Franco, Pratt), some 90s pros (Guidry, Sweeney, Croft), and some historical guys (Hawkes, Wagner).

see https://rball.pro/q60 for a list of all title holders historically.

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Men’s Points Implication of the results

Kane maintains a massive lead atop the rankings, but with a pivot to fall-to-spring scoring there’s a lot of time to catch up. Portillo moves to #3 with the result, probably a fitting ranking given his performance this season so far. Mar moves up to #7, which is a career high. Miranda will move up to #13 on tour, amazing given that he had barely played any events prior to 2025. Moscoso remains at #17, which runs the risk of another Kane-Conrrado round of 16 unless we have a couple guys miss the next event (which is of course possible, since many are facing long flights from South America). Flores up to #18.

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

Women’s Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/86790d

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In the 32s:

– A meeting between two top Americans turned into a disappointing injury fft, as @michelle key had to withdraw from her first round singles match against reigning US national champ Naomi Ros with injury. Key had just advanced two rounds in Mixed, so hopefully she’s sacrificing one draw for another.

– The legend @Rhonda Rajsich, who had played just two pro events since retiring in June 2022, got a come from behind win over tour regular @Stephanie Synhorst.

– Canadian #2 @Juliette Parent got a nice win over LPRT tour veteran @Maria Renee Rodriguez in three.

– In a showdown between the top U21 players in the world and one of her leading rivals who just matriculated out of Juniors, Bolivian @Camila Rivero topped @Annie Sanchez in two.

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In the 16s:

– Props to Naomi Ros for pushing Longoria to a tie-breaker. Every time Ros takes the court against a top player, she learns valuable take-aways that make her a better player.

– Salas advanced by 11-10 over Centellas, a battle of generational talents.

– @Carla Munoz got one of the better wins of her career with a TB win over #4 Herrera. She missed two events at the end of last season, which sent her ranking plummeting, but wins like this will get her back in no time.

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In the Quarters

– It was mostly chalk, as 1,2,3 top seeds advanced. With Herrera out, #5 Mendez took advantage and Munoz couldn’t beat them both in a row.

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In the Semis

– Mendez shocked Longoria in game 2, winning 15-2 but fell to give Paola another final.

– Vargas and Mejia renewed their rivalry, playing a very close 13,12 match to send Vargas to the final and setup 1v2.

In the Finals, Longoria and Vargas had their typical back and forth battle in the first two games, splitting them to go to yet another tiebreaker in their recent head to head rivalry. There, something happened that has literally never happened to Paola before: she took a donut in a pro match. Vargas topped her 11-0 in the breaker to take the title, giving Paola her first career donut. Not only that, but Longoria had only ever even been held to 1 point in a game four times , all of them before 2010. It’s just a crazy stat.

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Points Implications of results for the Ladies

Vargas makes a big jump up in the standings but still remains #2. She had a bad Denver 2024 event expire (she lost in the qtrs last year) but won, so she is now within 100 points of Paola for the lead. Gaby’s absence once again crushes her in the rankings; she’s now 600 points behind 3rd place. Herrera will drop to #6 with the upset loss. Parrilla will drop to #11 with the absence. Munoz remains #15, while Ros moves into the top 20 for the first time.

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

Note: with the new IRT ownership, the points have changed for IRT events for previous 2025 results and going forward. Here’s a quick overview of the points changes:

– 1st place: 420 (was 400)

– finalist: 280 (was 300): this clearly gives more credit for winning an event now

– semis; 210 (was 220); down a little

– qtrs: 140 (was 150): down a little

– 16s: 70 (was 90): so just making the 16s isn’t as big as it once was

– 32s: 35 (was 40): little change.

men

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

women

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16o0aE4YophvlQdezlMVj_dqPRUoDQqwE5-LtsLbOncg/edit?usp=sharing

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Mixed Pro Doubles review

As predicted in my preview, both in print and on the IRT Fantasy podcast, you could throw the seedings out of the window in the Mixed draw, as the first round gave us a slew of “upsets.”

By the time the round of 16 was over, we’d seen the #2, #5, and #8 seeds vanquished. The most impressive early run was by #15 Carson & Key, who won their opener against Texas juniors Mendoza & Ros, then ousted the defending Mixed Pro finalists Natera & Munoz rather easily to move on. The Manilla siblings, both of whom who have struggled with injury over the last year, shook off some early rust to blast the #5 seeds Parrilla & Mendez to move into the quarters.

In the Mixed qtrs, the top 3 seeds advanced, while Carson & Key kept their I-formation show going and took out 2018 Mixed pro champs Montoya & Salas in a breaker.

In the semis: Longoria/Moscoso advanced over Mar/Mejia in an amazing match, one point shy of the perfect match 14,(14),9. Carson & Key kept the show going with a similarly brutal tiebreaker win over the Herrera/Portillo pair to setup a #1 vs #15 unlikely final.

In the final: Key & Carson took game one, but the top seeds pulled the match out in a 3rd successive tiebreaker to win the title and defend their 2023 win.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Arteaga beat Cole Sendrey in the Open final.

– The all Junior team of Mendez & Flores won the Open Doubles over Team Guatemala (Caceres & Salvatierra)

– Annie Sanchez beat Guatemalan Reyes in the Women’s Open final.

– Sheryl Lotts & Lexi York took the “Pro/Open” doubles title, which had a slew of solid teams.

– Jaime Martell & Chanis Leon took the Mixed Open Doubles draw.

There were a slew of really solid Age group competitions too, with lots of Nationally recognized names present. Bravo to all the people who traveled to this event to play and support it. We may never get another one like it.

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Fantasy Racquetball Competition Wrap-up

The first round of the IRT club Fantasy brackets kicked off, and there’s a 10-way tie for first at the moment. I’m in 12th place, 1 point behind the main crew.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from both pro teams.

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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 National Racquetball day and a slew of shootouts and events around the country. This includes an IRT satellite event in the DMV hosted by Sebastian Franco in Severna Park that’s catching a lot of the South Americans on their way out of town. The next big pro event is the Tracktown Open in Eugene Oregon at the end of the month.

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tags

@iInternational Racquetball Tour

@LPRT

2025 World Singles and Doubles Preview

Can Jhonathan Flores make another run? Photo via IRT IG

Welcome to the fourth edition of Tournament Director Jim Hiser’s World Singles and Doubles tournament in Denver, the biggest pro event we currently have on the Racquetball calendar. Hiser, the former pro tour commissioner and long-time Executive Director of USA Racquetball , devised this event back in 2018 as a doubles-only showcase featuring (for what was believed to be the first time) a Pro Mixed Doubles draw.

Starting in 2021 (after skipping the Covid year), Hiser added in full pro singles draws for both the International Racquetball Tour and the LPRT but keeping the prize money for the Pro Mixed, making this a unique showcase of Mixed doubles talent. Nowhere outside of @International Racquetball Federation – IRF are there really top-level pro mixed draws, and IRF events don’t have nearly the depth that we get on tour thanks to one mixed team per country.

The Pro mixed winners in the past have been:

– 2018: Daniel De La Rosa/Michelle De La Rosa (now Key)

– 2021: Rodrigo Montoya/Samantha Salas

– 2023: Conrrado Moscoso/Paola Longoria

These are perfectly expected winners; what’s been fun has been some of the crazy teams that made the finals. In 2018, the all-Colombian team of Mario Mercado and Adriana Riveros made the final, two pros who don’t even tour anymore. In 2021, it was Sebastian Fernandez and Alexandra Herrera, who topped the DLRs in the quarters before falling in the final. In 2023, the (now) Husband and Wife team of Natera and Munoz shocked King Kane and Michelle Key in the round of 16, then raced to the final before falling. These surprise results are what make Mixed Pro so much fun; the matchups on paper just don’t seem to follow what happens on the court.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=42889

We’ll give abbreviated previews to all three draws (IRT, LPRT, and Mixed) here.

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IRT:

There’s 43 players here, with most of the top 20 on hand. Thanks to injuries last year, @Conrrado Moscoso is seeded 17th and unfortunately plays into #1 @Kane Waselenchuk in the round of 16. A tough pill to swallow; this should have been a semi or final. One good player will be going home super early.

There’s a couple of intriguing round of 64 matches between mostly local players, but the projected 32s could have some shocks. Look for former touring pro and @Formulaflow CEO @Mauricio Zelada to give #9 @Adam Manilla fits if the lefty veteran not fully healthy. Martell-Bredenbeck is a fun one. However the two biggest matches of the round will be Miranda-Sendrey and Flores-Gastelum, matchups of U21 types who are vying to be the future of the Men’s pro sport.

I see some possible big upsets in the 16s: Argentina’s @Diego Garcia has made the finals of the last two international major events and could easily beat #2 @Andres Acuna. The Flores/Gastelum winner may catch #4 @Jake Bredenbeck by surprise if he’s not careful. Lastly Mar-Alonso is a bruiser of a 7-10 matchup that could go either way.

My upset-heavy semis: Kane, Flores, Montoya, and Garcia, with a high-powered Kane-Montoya final.

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LPRT

The Ladies draw is missing its #4 player Gaby, and a couple other regulars in the top 16 or so, which may give us some new matchups. 4-time pro tour champ @Rhonda Rajsich is in Denver and may go a round or two, depending on how much she’s been playing.

In the 16s, look for a fun 8/9 matchup between @valeria Centellas and @Samantha Salas Solis , Amaya-Lotts could be a barn-burner, but the big mis-match is the underseeded @Carla Munoz, who missed a couple of events and is now seeded way down in the mid-teens, having to play @Alexandra Herrera way too early.

My semis are the 4 favorites: Longoria, Herrera, Mejia, and Vargas. My final is a rematch of the World Games final between Longoria and Vargas, with the #1 seed taking it.

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Mixed Doubles Preview

The two top seeds are last year’s finalists, but I’m not sure who is confident that either team will return to the final. This is an absolutely stacked draw. The former USA and reigning 2023 Pan Am Games champions (Adam & Erika Manilla) are the #12 seed. Montoya and Solis, who won this event in 2021, are the #7 seeds. The #2 ladies pro, who just made the World Games Mixed final, is the #9 seed. Two of the greatest doubles players in the history of the sport (Carson and Key) are the #15 seeds. So, suffice it to say, anything can happen here.

I favor Moscoso and Longoria to repeat, if only because they’re the top skilled players in the draw playing together. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them upset in the quarters. Meanwhile, Mar & Mejia are both basically the best doubles players by gender in the world and they’re together, and have a relatively straight forward path into at least the semis. Portillo & Herrera as the #3 seed are both top notch doubles players in their own rights, and as we’ve seen with Natera & Munoz, sometimes a couple off the court can really shine together on the court.

Should be a fun draw!

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Look for Streaming in the normal places you’d expect, on the IRT and LPRT feeds.

Coincidentally if you’re an IRT fan, consider joining the IRT Club; we’re kicking off a new season-long Fantasy Racquetball concept, and to go with it Brian Pineda and i are doing pre- and post-tournament podcasts. We’ll debut this week with our preview of the IRT draw and the Mixed draws here. Here’s our first episode:

2025 World Games Recap

Team USA atop the podium. Photo via USA Racquetball

Congrats to your winners from the 2025 World Games:

– Men’s Singles: Conrrado Moscoso , Bolivia

– Women’s Singles: Maria Jose Vargas , Argentina

– Mixed Doubles: Jake Bredenbeck / Naomi Ros, USA

Pro Racquetball Stats Results links for the three draws:

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/58944b

– Women’s Singles:: https://rball.pro/28cfd0

– Mixed Doubles: https://rball.pro/b3914c

R2sports link for the event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=50215

Recaps of the draws:

Men’s Singles:

The first round was relatively straight-forward, since the structure of this event basically guarantees that the top 8-9 racquetball playing countries would play entrants from less-well known countries in the first knockout rounds. There were a couple of stretched matches: Canada’s @coby Iwaasa was pushed to 5 games by the DR’s @Ramon De Leon. The one “upset” was Guatemala’s @Edwin Galicia upsetting Uruguy veteran @jose daniel ugalde in four games.

The big surprise of the tournament came in the next round, as Galicia took out #1 seed @jaJake Bredenbeck in four shocking games. 2025 PARC champ @Diego Garcia upset the defending World Games winner @Andres Acuna, while title-favorites Moscoso and @Eduardo Portillo won relatively easily to setup a tough Mexico-Bolivia semi.

Garcia continued his run, topping Galicia to get back to the final, while Moscoso went 5 games with Portillo before advancing to setup a rematch of the 2025 PARC men’s semifinal against Garcia. The two played an amazing final, which went to 5 games and which was finally won by Conrrado 14-12 in the fifth game. It’s Moscoso’s 6th career IRF title and he now owns the complete suite of international titles: Worlds, PARC, Pan Am Games, World Games, and South American games.

See this link for every IRF Men’s final in history: https://rball.pro/b2x

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Women’s Singles:

Like with the Men, the first round of the Women’s draw featured mostly blow outs between top racquetball playing countries and lesser-known competitors. There was one big upset though: Costa Rican @Larissa Faeth took out long-time LPRT touring veteran @Christina Amaya (playing for Italy) in four games.

In the quarters, Bolivian #1 @Angelica Barrios beat USA’s reigning national champion Ros in an upset by seeds but probably not really an upset based on capabilities and accomplishment to setup a semi-final round between the top four ladies in the competition.

In the top semi, Barrios played one of the matches of her life, and had top seed and GOAT @Paola Longoria on the ropes, but suffered a catastrophic knee injury that unfortunately forced her out of the event and will sideline her for months. Longoria, winner of the 2009, 2013, and 2022 World Games’ titles, advanced to the final. There she met current LPRT #2 Vargas, who handled the #2 seed and always-dangerous @AnaAna Gabriela Martínez in four games.

The final saw a changing of the guard in some respects internationally, as Vargas held firm against Longoria, and came back after dropping game one to grind out three close games for the title. It’s Vargas’ fourth international title.

See here for a list of all IRF women’s Open finals: https://rball.pro/6fd827

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Mixed Open

Mixed Open was a first at the World Games, and the 2025 Mixed title in China was just the 9th ever Mixed Doubles competition held by an IRF-sanctioned tournament (see https://rball.pro/d26121 for a list of all prior finals). The defending champions of Mixed from earlier this year (Team Chile Natera/Munoz) were not even qualified for the World Games, which meant a new titlist was to be crowned.

The structure of the China event meant that the Mixed teams were not necessarily the “best” teams a country could put forward, since they had to be comprised of the two qualifying singles players, but we still saw some pretty good teams put together and some great results.

Seven of the Eight seeds held in the opening round; the sole upset was team Japan over team South Korea (fitting that these two countries played, since they generally hate each other). The quarters gave us some really surprising results: Team Canada ousted Team Guatemala in four games, team japan got a walkover against Bolivia when Barrios had to retire, and then in a far-too-early pairing, team Argentina (Vargas & Garcia) beat the #2 seeds Team Mexico (Longoria & Portillo) in three straight. I had Mexico-Argentina penciled in as the non-final match of the event… but a 3-game beating of a team with Longoria was surprising.

In the semis, Team USA was stretched to the limit before beating Canada in the 5th, while the Argentines cruised past team japan to setup a solid final. There, in an even bigger surprise, Team USA bowled over Team Argentina 7,9,6 to claim the title. It’s the fourth Mixed IRF title for a USA-based team in the last five events held, giving USA a great history of winning these international competitions.

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Congrats to all winners, and congrats to the World Games for continuing to support racquetball.

@International Racquetball Federation – IRF

The World Games

@USA Racquetball

2025 World Games Preview

Acuna is the defending World Games champion. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

Welcome to the 12th World Games competition, being held for 2025 in Chengdu, China, which is in the Sichuan province well inland. If you’re reading this in North America, you might never have heard of Chengdu before … which is understandable, because China probably has half a dozen cities you’ve never heard of who have populations that dwarf the largest cities in the US. You’d probably be amazed to hear that Chengdu has more than 20 million people and in terms of pure city-based population is one of the largest 4-5 cities in the world.

(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Games for more about the history of the World Games).

This is the 12th iteration of the World Games. The competition debuted in 1981 and was designed to be an Olympic Games-style competition for any and all sports that were not in the Olympics at that point. Racquetball was part of the very first World Games competition, held in Santa Clara in 1981, which was also used by the newly formed International Racquetball Federation to serve as the first ever Racquetball World Championships. The first World Games tournament was very USA-heavy, with American’s comprising 3 of the 4 singles semifinalists for both Men and Women’s singles. Ed Andrews beat Mike Martino for the first WG men’s title, while Cindy Baxter beat Barbara Faulkenberry for the first WG Women’s title.

(see https://rball.pro/583948 for the first World Games Men’s competition and https://rball.pro/57fd2f for the first World Games Women’s Competition results.

Since the 1981 event, racquetball’s inclusion has been sporadic, as the Games have moved all over the world and been hosted in many countries that had no racquetball presence. Racquetball was included in the 2nd and 4th iterations, but then went a dozen years and three events without being competed, as the games were held in cities in Finland, Japan, and Germany which had no courts. Thankfully, we regained some momentum and the sport was re-included in 2013 in Colombia, and of course was in the most recent iteration of the competition, held in 2022 in Birmingham Alabama.

The organizers in Birmingham requested of USAR to install the Portable court to host the competition, and the broadcasts from that event were amazing. I use this event and these broadcasts often to counter internet claims that the sport of racquetball “is too fast for TV” or “can’t be broadcast … when in reality it just needs an all-glass court, high-end cameras, and a professional broadcasting crew to make it look amazing. It is just night and day watching this 2022 World Games broadcast versus our typical streaming solution cameras.

(see

https://dailyracquetball.com/irf-2022-the-world-games…/ for links to the 2022 broadcast and finals)

We did get a peek of the courts to be used in Chengdu thanks to Germany’s Marcel Lünsmann , who posted a shot of the courts upon his arrival in China. See https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02yBthxmj4YyBuA2Q2SjeE2dezRpke38EcStjXuikem7vcnTgBELjTuDjuqzmNQEYol&id=100016504326087 for that image (apologies if this link has permission issues). The organizers have built two side-by-side all-glass court constructs with surrounding seating, which should prove to be excellent for broadcasting and viewing.

Speaking of broadcasts and viewing … unfortunately for racquetball fans used to “free” Facebook-based streaming of all top-level events, the World Games is a major event which sells its broadcasting like any other sporting event, and thus the availability of racquetball online will be limited. Keep an eye out on the regular places/groups where interested parties will post links as they become available.

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Event structure and Qualifying Overview

Initially the field was defined to be 4 countries from Asia, 4 countries from Europe, and then 8 countries from the Americas. The 2024 Worlds competition served as the qualifier for the countries, and at the time a lack of European representation led to a 5th team from Asia initially qualifying in. However, when the field was revealed this week, we see that the host country China technically does not have a team here, which then opened up an extra spot for Ecuador (who didn’t initially qualify).

The 2025 WG added a Mixed Doubles component but cut back on the competitors to just one Man/Woman per country, a change from 2022 where two men/women from the leading countries qualified in. So, the 2025 WG field is comprised of just one Man and one Woman from each country. There’s some fun country representations here: long-time Colombian Cristina Amaya Cassino represents Italy here, and long-time Chilean @Angela Grisar representing Germany.

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Previews

We have not seen the brackets yet, so it’s impossible to do a pure prediction, but here’s the favorites by competition:

Men’s Singles: The Men’s side likely will come down to the top touring pros who are present, namely @Conrrado Moscoso from Bolivia, @Eduardo Portillo Rendon from Mexico, defending champion @Andres Acuna from Costa Rica, and Argentina’s @Diego Garcia, who won the most recent international competition the 2025 PARC event with h2h wins over both Jake and Conrrado in the knockouts. Keep an eye out for @Jake Bredenbeck from USA and Canada’s @Coby Iwaasa , both of whom can pop into any top-level event and get upsets.

I think Moscoso and Garcia are the favorites, but Portillo is a tough out Jake didn’t fly to China to lose in the quarters. Should be fun.

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Women’s Singles:

Despite limitations of one player per country, the WG still have 3 of the current top 4 players in the world in defending champ @Paola Longoria of Mexico, Maria Jose Vargas from Argentina, and @Ana Gabriela Martínez from Guatemala. They’re joined by top competitors Bolivian #1 @Angela Barrios , USA reigning national champ @Naomi Ros, and Canada’s long-time #1 @Frederique Lambert as likely top competitors.

I like Longoria and Vargas in the final, but it kind of depends where Gaby and Barrios line up in the knockout stage, as they can get upsets and surprise.

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Mixed Doubles

There’s four teams i’m looking at primarily in the mixed who will be tough to beat, led by team Mexico (Longoria & Lalo); both of these players are excellent in doubles and Paola swinging on the right side will make them the favorites. Bolivia’s Moscoso & Barrios will be interesting, since Angelica can hold her own on one side while Moscoso’s athleticism will have him flying all over the court. Meanwhile, Vargas/Garcia from Argentina won’t be afraid of anyone, and Jake/Naomi will out hit most of the competition.

Mexico vs Argentina seems to be the favorites before seeing a draw.

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Looking forward to the competition! Stay tuned for more.

International Racquetball Federation – IRF

@iInternational Racquetball Tour

LPRT

@worldgames2025

2025 51st Annual Outdoor Nationals & World Championships Recap

McDonald with three titles this weekend. Photo 2023 Outdoor Nats via Lara

We’ve just finished Outdoor Nationals for 2025, the 51st time this long-running “grand daddy of all Outdoor tournaments” event has been held.

Congrats to your Pro/Open winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Doubles: Kane Waselenchuk and @Chris McDonald

– Women’s Open Doubles: @Victoria Rodriguez and @Katie Neils

– Mixed Open Doubles: @Jack McDonald and @Martha McDonald

– Men’s Pro Singles: @Danny Lavely

– Women’s Pro Singles: not held

Exec summary: Kane wins his second straight pro outdoor nationals title, this time with Florida legend McDonald, who claims his first ever title after decades of competing. Chris ended up with three titles on the weekend, while Martha adds a title nearly 50 years after her first Outdoor Nationals championship. A lack of ladies pros onsite this year led to the womens and mixed divisions being turned into “Open” divisions, though we’ll still load the champions into the database.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=47360

ProRacquetballStats.com Match Reports by Pro division (notification that the results have been loaded to the database):

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/42d82e

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/0eef63

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/a8ebd5

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/c726e6

– Women’s Singles: (not held in 2025)

Triple Crown Reports: (these show the winners of all Pro divisions at all WOR outdoor majors across time)

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/j47

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/2vv

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/y43

– Men’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/86z

– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/x8g

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Lets do a quick recap of the Pro/Open draws.

Men’s Pro Doubles: a small but star-studded draw of past champions whittled down to the two top seeds: Davis & Tucker (the 2018 and 2023 champs) and McDonald & Waselenchuk, who won his first title last year with Rocky. After playing together last year in Vegas and this year in California, Chris & Kane have gelled as a team and blew through the final, winning the title 4,4 to earn the surfboard.

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Women’s Open Doubles:

The ladies in attendance played a combo round robin event, and at the end the two teams who entered “Open” won their groups and met in the final. There, teenager Rodriguez and Arizonia Neils took out Onesti-Warren & Williams for the title.

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Mixed Open Doubles: The legendary @Martha McDonald teamed with younger son Jack to go undefeated in group play and then win the Mixed Open title in a walkover. Martha has been coming to Outdoor Nationals for 50+ years and had singles pro titles back in the 1970s.

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Men’s Singles: HoFamer Greg Solis made the final in his latest attempt to add a pro singles title to his resume, but he couldn’t overcome the top seeded @Danny Lavely.

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Other Major Draws in California:

– CPRT: Kane & Chris got the double win this weekend, taking out the same two teams they beat to win the Pro title to win the CPRT title as well.

– Men’s 75s: The always-tough lefty/righty pair of Patrick Allin and Lou Orosco took the combined 75+ draw.

– Men’s 100/Centurion: Alvaro Beltran & Knox La Rue took out the top seeds St. Clair & Berg in the semis before setting down favorites Hall & Rocky in the final.

– Men’s Open: It was all McDonalds in the Open final, as brothers Jack and Chris powered their way to the win.

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Thanks to the Tourney Directors Geoff Osberg and Jesus Ustarroz for putting this event on, and congratulations on your induction into the WOR Hall of Fame for your decade-plus of service here.

Thanks once again to all the sponsors.

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Next up?

We’ll do all the accounting for the Outdoor Cup series and publish a status of updated standings post Outdoor Nats later this week.

Per our handy master racquetball calendar … https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…

NMRA Masters is next weekend in Colorado Springs; this also serves as the IRF Senior International championships. Then, the last weekend in July is the National Senior Games and Mexican Juniors.

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3Wall Ball

WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball

USAR National Indoors 2025 National Championships Wrap-up

Erika Manilla with two national titles in 2025. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory

Congrats to your US National Team winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Singles: @Daniel De La Rosa over @Jake Bredenbeck

– Women’s Singles: Naomi Ros over Hollie Scott

– Men’s Doubles: @Rocky Carson / @David ” Bobby” Horn

– Women’s Doubles: @Michelle Key / Erika Manilla

– Mixed Doubles: Erik Garcia / Erika Manilla

Exec Summary: Erika Manilla double-qualifies. DLR retains his US National singles title. Michelle Key returns to the team with her doubles win. Horn returns to the time for the first time since 2019, while both Garcia and Ros secure their first ever National team spots.

Lastly, Carson qualifies for what I believe is his 22nd US National team, returning to the team after a three year hiatus. He qualified for his first team in 2000, then was a near annual member for the entirety of the 21st century before semi-retiring from competing two years ago.

The 2025-26 US National team is now set. The winners above along with the singles finalists have first right of refusal for the next set of international events: The World Games in August 2025 in China and the annual PARC tournament next spring in a site TBD (usually Guatemala City).

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=46012

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Let’s review the notable matches in the draws.

Men’s Singles

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/f0e28f

Former IRT touring pro and now pickleball professional returned to racquetball for the first time since Worlds last August to repeat as US National singles champion. Despite being the defending titlist, he was for some reason seeded third here, but eased his way through Ayan Sharma, Sam Bredenbeck, Bobby Horn, and then beating Jake Bredenbeck in a rematch of the 2024 championship.

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Women’s Singles:

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/b7da98

It was great to see long-time US National team member Rhonda Rajsich competing; we havn’t seen her since an LPRT stop in Arizona a couple years ago. She fell to Hollie early. A last minute withdrawal of four-time Nationals finalist Lawrence opened up the bottom half of the draw, and Texan Naomi Ros took full advantage, topping her fellow recently-matriculated junior Annie Sanchez in the semis to secure her first spot on the Adult national team. She didn’t stop there, beating defending national champ Scott in the final to give her both the 18U national title and the Adult team national title simultaneously, something that has only been done twice in the history of the sport (Michelle Gould in 1989 and Jack Huczek in 2001).

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Men’s Doubles:

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/bdb054

Grizzled veteran Rocky Carson teamed with Bobby Horn (playing in his home club) to shock the defending US National doubles champions De La Rosa/Fernandez in the semis, then finished off their title-run by beating the Bredenbeck brothers in the final. It’s the fourth time in the last five years Jake & Sam have been losing national finalists. Horn returns to the team for the first time in 6 years, while Carson makes the team just a few days before he turns 46, a level we havn’t seen on the team since the Ruben Gonzalez glory years.

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Women’s Doubles:

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/7b93c3

Just three teams entered this year’s Women’s US team qualifying, and 2023 champions Manilla & Key held firm to re-qualify for 2025 by beating their two rivals. They certainly had to work for it, with the “final” going 5 games against Scott & York.

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Mixed Doubles:

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/c377cf

As has become tradition, the Mixed Doubles event was the first to play to completion, and it started off with a huge upset. Defending Mixed National champs De La Rosa & Scott were upended by #5 @Robbie Collins and Annie Sanchez (nee Roberts) in the semis in four games. Perhaps DLR’s time away from the sport showed in his play, but they went one-and done. Collins & Sanchez couldn’t complete the deed, falling in the finals to #3 seeds Erika Manilla & Erik Garcia for the title. Manilla recaptures her Mixed title won in 2023 with her brother, while Garcia qualifies for his first ever National team.

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Other notable draws:

– Men’s Open: @Ty Hedalen repeated as Men’s Open champ, beating the visa-less Veronica Sotomayor in the final.

– Women’s Open: 15-yr old Andrea Perez-Picon, who switched to compete in Mexico for the 2024 season, swept through the Women’s Open RR group, defeating her sister Estefania in the final. In case you’re wondering, non-US citizens can compete in non-US Team qualifying at US Nationals … as well as dual citizens.

– Men’s Open Doubles: Rocky didn’t get enough doubles work winning the National title, so he competed in Open Doubles with Charles George and took that title too.

– Women’s Open Doubles: Hometown favorites Angela Grisar and Erica Williams took the Women’s Open Doubles title.

– Mixed Open Doubles; The Perez-Pincon brother/sister team of Alejandro and Andrea out-pointed Mark Frank & Veronica Sotomayor to take the Mixed Open title.

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Thanks to the Tourney Directors from @USA Racquetball for putting together 2025’s National event. Congrats to the Hall of Fame inductees, the others recognized at the annual awards, and for those 175 or so players traveling to compete.

Thanks to the Tourney Sponsors this year, which included WIS International, Gearbox/Rafael Filipini, KWM gutterman/Keith Minor, FixmyRacquet.com, RacquetX, and AGE Solutions/Andy Gomer.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbI…

We have Canadian Nationals next weekend, then a slew of events in June, including a LPRT event in DC, Outdoor Nationals, and US Junior Nationals.

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tags

@USA Racquetball

2025 Pan American Racquetball Championships Individual Event Recap

The 36th annual Pan American Racquetball Championships tournament (at least the singles and doubles competitions) is in the books. Here’s a recap of the group and knockout action, along with links for the results as entered into the Pro Racquetball Stats database.

Congratulations to the winners:

– Men’s Singles: Diego Garcia Quispe , Argentina

– Women’s Singles: Montse Mejia, Mexico

– Men’s Doubles: @Conrrado Moscoso/@Kadim Carrasco , Bolivia

– Women’s Doubles: @Natalia Mendez/@Valeria Centellas , Argentina

– Mixed Doubles: @Alan Natera / @Carla Muñoz Montesinos

Executive Summary: Argentina showed up big this week, making the finals of four of the five competitions. Garcia wins his and Argentina’s first ever Men’s gold in IRF play. Mejia wins her 2nd career IRF singles title. Natera & Munoz win the first gold for Chile since the 2007 South American games.

Pro Racquetball Stats DB match results. Click on these links to see the match results in the DB:

– Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/2c0b4e

– Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/a39615

– Men’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/a11b14

– Women’s Doubles: https://rball.pro/f0ea0d

– Mixed Doubles: https://rball.pro/2987af

Team Points Results From Knockouts

PARC now includes a “Team Competition” where the countries compete against each other at the end of the individual competitions, but for decades the “Team Standings” were determined by an algorithm that awarded points based on group stage and knockout performance. I’m unclear whether IRF continues to name “team winners” in this same way, but here’s the team results using the historical methods:

(You can get these “team results” via queries available from the IRF singles page off of proracquetballstats.com for past history)

Combined Team (Overall)

1st – Argentina

2nd – Mexico

3rd – USA

4th — Costa Rica

Summary: four finals will do a lot for your combined team totals, and it was the Women’s Doubles final that made the difference for Argentina’s combined team to finish top. Argentina becomes just the 5th ever country to win a Combined team title at an IRF event.

Men’s Team

1st – Argentina

2nd – Bolivia

3rd – Mexico

4th – USA

Summary: Argentina squeaked past Bolivia for the mens’ title, ironic since both of Argentina’s men were born in Bolivia.

Women’s Team

1st – Mexico

2nd – Argentina

3rd – USA

4th – Chile

Summary: Mexico’s mixed team results made the difference here.

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Let’s run through the individual draws and talk about notable results.

Men’s Singles:

In the group stage, Guatemala’s @Edwin Galicia shocked Argentina’s @Gerson Miranda, which sent the Argentine to the back-draw. Some commentary here: I HATE the splitting of the knockout phase into a “red” and “blue” draw like we do in junior competitions so more kids can get trophies. It eliminates top players who had one bad loss in the group stage like Miranda, and you can see the results: a guy who’s making the quarterfinals of pro events is relegated to a competition with A-players and he just totally bailed, not wanting to waste his energy there. If someone tells me they don’t have “time” to play one more round of a knockout stage, i’ll laugh in your face; these players are in country and onsite for 8 straight days.

Other surprising RR results: Mexico’s #2 @Sebastian Hernandez had an awful event, losing twice in group play to also get relegated to the secondary knockout. Two other interesting group results: Canada’s #1 @Samuel Murray took out Bolivian Carlos Keller; both players are paring down their pro tour schedules lately, but Keller’s always a tough out in international play. Lastly, great win for the DR’s De Leon, beating Ecuadorian veteran Jose Daniel Ugalde to finish second in the group.

In the knockouts, some upsets early as Murray took out Costa Rica’s @Andres Acuna

, who has risen to #2 on tour. The biggest knockout shock was Argentina’s @Diego Garcia , Bolivian born but converted for $$ and opportunity, beating both USA’s #1 @jake Bredenbeck and then Bolivia’s @Conrrado Moscoso to make the singles final. I’ve long espoused about Garcia’s capabilities and he showed up in this event.

In the final, #1 seed Mar had no answer for Garcia’s quickness and power and fell in three close games.

Women’s Singles:

The shocker of the RR stage was the play of USA #2 @Lexi York, who beat both Lambert and MRR to top her group. Chile’s Carla Munoz held firm against Argentinian Valeria Centellas to claim the top spot, and a great s howing by CRC’s Larissa Faeth to top Canada’s #2 @Juliette Parent.

In the knockouts, former tour champ Mejia ousted Munoz in the quarters, and York continued her run by beating her teammate Michelle Key to make the semis. #1 Mendez got a great win over Mexico’s #1 Herrera to make the final, facing off against Mejia.

In the final, Mejia outclassed her fellow LPRT pro in three games for the gold.

—–

Men’s Doubles.

Notable group stage results: team USA the Bredenbeck brothers beat Team Mexico (Trujillo/Hernandez) to take the top spot in a solid win. Nothing else notable in the group stage.

In the knockouts, Bolivia beat USA in the semis in an upset, while Argentina’s young guns ousted the top seed Costa Rica to setup an all-Bolivian born final between Garcia/Miranda and Moscoso/Carrasco. In said final, Moscoso (who took a serious injury on the IRT a month ago) salvaged the event and took gold with veteran partner Carrasco by holding off the strong Argentinian team.

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Women’s Doubles:

The two four-team group stage pools went as expected; Mexico, USA, and Argentina were clearly a step ahead of the rest of the field. Curiously Team Guatemala did not feature Gaby & MRR, which severely thinned this field.

In the knockouts, USA (Key & York) couldn’t overcome Argentina (Mendez & Centellas) from the top half, while Mexico (Herrera and Salas) dominated into the final from the bottom half. In the final, the Argentines shocked team Mexico with a dominant 3 game win to defend this title from last year.

—-

Mixed Doubles

Defending champs Team USA (Sam Bredenbeck & Michelle Key) cruised into the knockouts as the #1 seed. Chile’s husband/wife team of Natera & Munoz shocked team Canada to take the #2 seed, while a group of death saw team Argentina shockingly lose to CRC and head into the knockouts seeded 9th of 9. This proved to be fateful, as Mendez/Miranda took the opener, then shocked team USA in the quarters to send the defending champs home early.

In the bottom half, team Chile did not take their foot off the gas, shocking the presumed top Mixed team in the world Montoya/Salas in the semis to make the final.

In the final, Natera & Munoz held firm against the solid Guatemalan team and outlasted them 11-9 in the fifth for a well-deserved gold.

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Commentary on the State of the PARC and International competitions

2025’s PARC event saw yet more evidence of the changing of financials and the changing of the guard in this sport. Bolivia didn’t bother to send females. Some of the countries didn’t send enough players to field doubles teams. Some teams sent teenagers to compete in the Adult competitions. Many countries didn’t send their top players, so the event was missing the likes of defending World champions DLR, Longoria, Vargas, Scott, etc. Canada’s top doubles team was missing, and its best player didn’t play singles, a continuing trend from Murray & Lambert. Colombia’s Amaya now plays for Italy since her home federation collapsed in corruption. Team USA had to self-fund with gofundme campaigns because USAR has no money.

At least we have places like Guatemala, which has hosted four major IRF events this decade already, willing to fork over the fees to run these events. And, I love how we’re getting golds from outside the top three countries now; that’s great for the development of the game.

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Congrats to the International Racquetball Federation for another successful event. Thanks to the IRT streaming crew, and thanks to @Gary Mazaroff and all his co-announcers for their hard work all week.

Next up on the Racquetball Calendar: USA Nationals at the end of May. Zero pro events for months.

2025 EVE Promotions 2025 Beach Bash Recap

HoFamer Sostre takes home 3 golds. Photo Steve Fitzsimons 3WB 2020

Hello Racquetball fans. The first Outdoor “Major” of the 2025 season just finished up on the sunny courts of Garfield Street in Hollywood, Florida, and here’s a recap.

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Doubles: McDonald/Sostre

– Women’s Pro Doubles: Key/Maldonado

– Mixed Pro Doubles: Sostre/Maldonado

– Men’s Pro Singles: No event this year.

– Women’s Pro Singles: Michelle Key

Executive Summary: A great showing for NY this weekend, with double pro golds for Sostre & Maldonado. Michelle Key also took home two titles, and Floridian Chris McDonald won his first ever Beach Bash title.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=46008

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Reports on ProRacquetballStats.com:

Match reports for 2025 Beach Bash:

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/fd1c7d

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/04cc18

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/c8e4bf

– Men’s Pro Singles: No event this year

– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/e55d02

Triple Crown Reports for all past WOR major champions:

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/3lj

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/zoa

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/obz

– Men’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/9ey

– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/h27

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Lets run through the draws, recapping the action.

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Men’s Pro Doubles:

So, I’m part of the 3WB seeding team and have helped in the past. Seeding outdoor events is really difficult. There’s practically no points you can really depend on, pros flow in and out year by year, top players who miss an event one year suddenly aren’t ranked at all, while players who happen to live in areas where there’s plenty of sanctioned one-wall events get over-seeded just by virtue of being able to play events. Often times we seed a team 11th, knowing that they’re better than the 11th best team and knowing they’re likely to beat the 6th seeded team, and that ends up being the fairest way to do a draw. Sometimes we tweak seeds slightly so that four players who flew a 1000 miles who are from the same club don’t play in the first round. It isn’t ideal to do these manipulations, and every year it leads to arguments, but there’s too many factors that just can’t be worked around.

Unfortunately, a confluence of events in this draw led to the final being competed by the #7 and #9 seeds. I’m sure some will look at this and talk about how incompetent the TDs are. Well, i’m sure they gave it a lot more thought than you might think, so cut them some slack.

Blatt & Rolon (the 2018 winners and constant presences at the back-end of one-wall major events) were seeded 9th, and, true to form, when they met the #1 seeds Montoya & Mar … not only did we get a quality match, we got an upset in what probably should have been at worst the semi final in the pro draw. Rolon & Blatt then cruised past Morales & Heymann to get to the final.

In the final, The #7 seeds Chris Mcdonald and Robert Sostre (who should have probably been seeded higher but likely placed at #7 knowing that they’d be the favorites over the #2 seeds anyway) ended up topping the #9 seeds in a breaker for the title. It’s McDonald’s first ever one-wall pro title, while Sostre wins his 6th career Beach Bash pro doubles title (fun fact: Sostre has made the final here in 11 of the 15 pro doubles events ever held).

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Women’s Pro Doubles:

Michelle Key and outdoor legend @Anita Maldonado were not threatened as the #1 seeds, cruising to a title. In the final, they topped outdoor specialists Katie Neils and Aimee Roehler.

With the win, Key gets her fourth career Women’s Doubles title here, and extends her amazing collection of Pro Doubles outdoor major titles to 19.

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Mixed Pro Doubles:

Taking advantage of a last minute withdrawal that cost the Mixed draw its #1 seeds, New Yorkers Erika Tinalli & Brian Romero cruised into the final with solid wins over Arizona’s Key/Anderson and fellow NYers Blatt/Guinan. However, they fell in the final to the experienced Sostre/Maldonado team

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Men’s Pro Singles:

There was no Singles event on the men’s side this year, the first time since 2014 that the draw didn’t field enough players to be held. Both of last year’s finalists and the 2023 finalist attended the competing Warhawk Open, 4-time champion DLR is out of the sport, 3-time champ Sostre is north of 50 and saves his body for the four doubles divisions he generally enters. Lets hope we don’t have fixture congestion and can get a full draw in 2026.

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Women’s Pro Singles:

Just three women entered the Pro singles here, with the draw missing a slew of names who typically play here. Munoz, Parrilla, Scott, Laime, Lawrence: all past finalists or semi-finalists.

In the end, @Michelle Key took her first Beach Bash singles title, improving on her finalist finish last year, topping Miami’s @Chanis Leon in the final.

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Other Notable draws:

– CPRT 40+ Doubles: Sostre/Harmon took out McDonald/Miller for the title, Sostre’s 3rd on the weekend.

– Men’s 75+: Rodrigo Montoya teamed with San Antonio’s Phillip Beverly to take the 75+ combined, beating Mar & Perez in the final.

– Men’s 100+: Stratton Woods in the house! Northern Virginia residents Allan Small and Suresh Vemulapalli beat teams that included legends Rocky and Beltran to take the 100+ combined title.

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Some additional commentary here.

Unfortunately, for the second year in a row Beach Bash ended up caught in a bit of a fixture congestion issue with too many racquetball events in March. Last year’s early Easter date pushed up PARC, which caused Beach Bash to be held on the same weekend as the IRT pro stop Shamrock Shootout, which caused all sorts of angst in the industry.

This year the Warhawk Open in Louisiana fell on the exact same date, and then when the new World Team Racquetball concept was added, players who have historically played BB instead flocked to ULM. Beach Bash’ attendance was just 125 players at R2, which is shocking for an event that usually sells out well in advance and pushes past a player cap. A slew of regular ladies tour players were missing, and the draws suffered. It’s unclear why so many of the regular outdoor ladies pros were missing this weekend, but the ladies and mixed draws really suffered for it.

The WTR event’s presence led to some nasty back and forth on social media between major sponsors, stuff that’s becoming all to common in our sport, and stuff that we just can’t afford to happen. Inevitably one guy gets pissed and pulls funding, then suddenly we’re out events and the sport continues to decline.

Could someone have moved their event? Maybe, but remember everyone has to work within the parameters of their host sites. Warhawk is on a college campus with availability set months in advance; Beach Bash is on public courts that have to be arranged with permits months in advance. It’s just a shame that the sport has a bunch of major events inside of a few weeks in March (two IRT events, and LPRT event, HS Nationals, Beach Bash, and Warhawk Open) but basically two events in the next two months (PARC in April, Nationals in May).

We do talk about a fixture scheduling call in the sport, but in the end we always work around what the IRF and USAR does as a default. But, maybe we can try to work together in the future to avoid this stuff.

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Thanks to the Tourney Directors Peggine Tellez , Jen O’Meara , @Mike Coulter, @vic Vic Leibofsky and the entire 3Wall Ball crew for putting this event on and ensuring the legacy of outdoor majors.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

Intercollegiates is next weekend at NC State. Then, PARC in April, USA Nationals (and Canada Nationals) in May. Not much else going on at this stage.

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tags

USA Racquetball

WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball

3Wall Ball

2024 IRF Junior Worlds Recap

One of the biggest tournaments of the year just wrapped up; Junior Worlds 2024, held at the fabulous facility in Guatemala City for the fourth time in out of the last five years. More than 200 Juniors from 14 countries competed there for the last week.

Champions were crowned in Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles in six age groups: 21U, 18U, 16U, 14U, 12U, and 10U, as well as a team competition, meaning that in essence this tournament actually held 30 separate competitions. All 30 competitions are now in the database; If you see any typos, or name corrections, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Reminder: as a practice, Pro Racquetball Stats does not capture full draws for any groups younger than 14yr olds; for the 12s, 10s, and younger we just capture the champions for historical reporting. Junior Doubles only has the gold medal match, not the full draws. If you’d like to see more data than this for juniors in the database, reach out and I’ll guide you on doing data entry.

Congratulations to your champions:

Boys Singles:

– Boys 21U: Jhoel Acha Portugal, Bolivia

– Boys 18U: Jhonathan Flores, Bolivia

– Boys 16U: Sebastian Terrazas, Bolivia

– Boys 14U: Santiago Borja, Bolivia

– Boys 12U: Alejandro Robles Picon, Mexico

– Boys 10U: Vincent Riveros, Bolivia

Bolivia takes 5 of the 6 Boys titles. Not only that, but every single final was lost by either a player from Team Mexico or a fellow Bolivian for a clean sweep of both Gold and Silver across the board.

Girls Singles:

– Girls 21U: Camila Rivero, Bolivia

– Girls 18U: Yanna Salazar, Mexico

– Girls 16U: Miranda Barraza, Mexico

– Girls 14U: Larissa Faeth, Costa Rica

– Girls 12U: Mary Hinojosa Garcia, Mexico

– Girls 10U: Lia Montserrat Gonzalez, Mexico

Mexico takes 4 of the 6 Girls Singles titles. Mexico was also the finalist in 4 of the six draws, showing a real dominance this year.

Team USA had a few of its singles entrants advance to the quarters, but USA did not have a single finalist at this event. The best result in singles for any American was @Annie Sanchez making the semis of U21 and @Naomi Ros making the semis of 18U.

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Boys Doubles:

– Boys 21U: Erick Trujillo/Sebastian Hernandez, Mexico

– Boys 18U: Eder Renteria/Jorge Gutierrez, Mexico

– Boys 16U: Sebastian Ruelas/Nicolas Galindo, Mexico

– Boys 14U: Santiago Castillo/Brian Axel Sanchez, Mexico

– Boys 12U: Alejandro Robles Picon/Max Soto, Mexico

– Boys 10U: Leonardo Zuna Campero/Benjamin Lino Daza, Bolivia

Mexico wins 5 of the 6 doubles titles, losing on the Boys 10U doubles title, where they made the finals. The losing finalists were mostly Bolivians and Team USA, the best result for USA for the event (Sendry/Mendoza losing finalists in 18U and Mangalampalli/Williams making the 14U doubles final).

Girls Doubles:

– Girls 21U: Camila Rivero/Natalia Mendez, Bolivia

– Girls 18U: Adriana Noelia Blacutt/Natalia Mendez, Bolivia

– Girls 16U: Andrea Perez Picon/Miranda Barraza, Mexico

– Girls 14U: Julia Rebello/Angelica Villaroel Garzon, Bolivia

– Girls 12U: Sofia Rocabado/Adriana Bazan, Bolivia

– Girls 10U: Lia Medrano/Lia Montserrat Gonzalez, Mexico

Bolivia takes 4 of the 6 Girls doubles titles, including a doubles double for Natalia Carolina Mendez. Team USA Victoria Rodriguez & Montserrat Tores made the 16U final for our best result.

Mixed Doubles:

– Mixed 21U: Erick Trujillo/Ivanna Balderrama, Mexico

– Mixed 18U: Nicolas Ramiro Iglesias/Florencia Villazon Chalco, Bolivia

– Mixed 16U: Sebastian Ruelas/Andrea Perez Picon, Mexico

– Mixed 14U: Santiago Borja, Valentina Villarroel Garzon, Bolivia

– Mixed 12U: Hermann Racial Gracia/Michelle Gomez, Mexico

– Mixed 10U: Kerman Damian Gracia/Lia Montserrat Gonzalez, Mexico

Mexico takes 4 of the 6 Mixed doubles titles.

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Grand total of Titles won by Country:

– Mexico: 16 of 30

– Bolivia: 13 of 30

– Costa Rica: 1 of 30

There was just one Triple Crown winner on the weekend:

– Girls 10U: Lia Montserrat Gonzalez, Mexico

These players earned two titles:

– 21U Boys: Erick Trujillo, Mexico (2 doubles titles)

– 16U Boys: Sebastian Ruelas, Mexico (2 doubles titles)

– 14U Boys: Santiago Borja, Bolivia (singles and gender doubles)

– 12U Boys: Alejandro Robles Picon, Mexico (singles and gender doubles)

– 21U Girls: Camila Rivero , Bolivia (singles and gender doubles)

– 21U Girls: Natalia Mendez, Bolivia (who won both 21U and 18U doubles)

– 16U Girls: Miranda Barraza, Mexico (singles and gender doubles)

– 16U Girls: Andrea Perez Picon, Mexico (2 doubles)

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Team Winners:

– Boys Team: 1. Mexico, 2 Bolivia, 3 USA, 4 Costa Rica

– Girls Team: 1. Mexico, 2 Bolivia, 3. USA, 4 Guatemala

– Combined Team: 1. Mexico, 2. Bolivia, 3. USA, 4.

– Boys Esprit cup: 1. Bolivia, 2. Mexico, 3 Costa Rica, 4. USA

– Girls Espirit Cup: 1. Bolivia, 2. Mexico, 3. USA, 4. Ecuador

– Combined Espirit Cup: 1. Bolivia, 2. Mexico, 3. USA, 4. Ecuador

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Every singles and doubles draw has a match report in the database that you can run: instead of repeating dozens of links we’ll give some examples here. Surf to www.proracquetballstats.com, click on either Juniors or “Junior Doubles” database, then at the very top you can pull down a match report. You can also run a number of different reports for singles and doubles.

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Singles Draw commentary

Now some quick commentary division by singles division, mostly to recognize winners who have earned multiple Junior World titles over the years, and to provide some commentary on the older divisions with players who have already competed on the pro tours…

I use these “Matrix Reports” constantly; they show all the Junior winners across every age group for all of time. These links are for the Junior Worlds and date to 1989, the first ever Junior Worlds event, but are also available for USA, Canada, and Mexico.

Boys Singles Matrix Report: http://rb.gy/acygod

Girls Singles Matrix Report: http://rb.gy/yfsvqq

Boys 21U: #1 seed Bolivian Jhoel Alexis Acha took the U21 world title, topping current IRT top-10 ranked Erick Trujillo in the semis and Sebastian Hernandez in the final. This immediately makes Acha one of the top 20 players in the world in my personal pecking order, by virtue of the company he’s keeping. One thing Junior Worlds provides is a pathway into the top players in Bolivia, who we never get to hear about other wise.

Boys 18U: Jhonathan Flores repeated as 18U World Junior champ. The only player to get a game off of him the entire tourney was in the semis, when Mexico’s #1 Eder Renteria took him to five games. Flores, for those who forgot, took out Jake, Collins, Ulliman, and Alonso in Chicago’s IRT event in March. He’s legit, and as an 18yr old is probably better than any of the U21 players still juniors-eligible.

Boys 16U: Bolivian Sebastian Terrazas wins his 2nd career junior world title; he took 12U title in 2021 previously. Terrazas did not win his own National title this year, losing to Bismark Pereria (who was upset early here), but took out both of Mexico’s top 16U players in the semis and finals to win.

Boys 14U: Bolivian Santiago Borja repeats as 14U champ, but the story of this draw was the sole South Korean entrant at Junior Worlds: Taein Woo came in and upset Mexico’s Santiago Castillo 12-10 in the fifth to open the event, then made a run to the semis before falling to the eventual champ Borja.

Boys 12U: Alejandro Robles Picon, who made the rare switch from USA to Mexico for the start of 2024, captured his first ever Junior worlds title. He and his sister had huge weekends.

Boys 10U: Bolivian Vincent Riveros starts out his junior career with a win.

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Girls 21U: Camila Rivero, who briefly switched to play for Colombia but who now is back in the Bolivian fold, repeated as U21 champ. Last year she also won the 18U title, meaning she has another two years in the U21s. She’s got a few LPRT results on her resume from a few years back, but her most notable result may be a quarter finals finish at Worlds in San Antonio earlier this year when she played Longoria tough in a loss.

Girls 18U: Yanna Salazar topped America’s best chance for a medal in Naomi Ros in the semis, then beat her country-man Cynthia Gutierrez for her first World title.

Girls 16U: First time singles winner Miranda Barraza topped Andrea Perez Picon in the final to win the all-Mexico gold medal match.

Girls 14U: Costa Rican Larissa Faeth won the sole medal at these competitions not won by someone from either Mexico or Brazil, She moved up to 14U after winning 12U last year and claimed the title in her age 13 season.

Girls 12U: Mary Hinojosa Garcia moved up from 10U to win back to back titles.

Girls 10U: Lia Montserrat Gonzalez, the sole triple crown winner, got started with a singles title.

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Thanks to the International Racquetball Federation for hosting the event, thanks to the great hosts in Guatemala, thanks to all our the coaches and parents who sacrificed to get your kids down there, especially this close to the holiday season, thanks to @Gary Mazaroff for the streaming and broadcasting with partners all tournament.

That’s it for the 2024 Racquetball year. I still owe an IRT season summary article (waiting for the final season rankings to publish), plus I’ll throw together a recap of the calendar year of events before the year is out.

International Racquetball Federation – IRF