Category: Mixed

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PARC Knockout Stages Preview

Can Keller 3-peat? Photo US Open19 via Kevin Savory


We’re through the group stage at the 33rd annual Pan American Racquetball championships, being held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and have whittled the field down to just the top finishers per group for the knockout stage.


Here’s a preview/prediction of each bracket plus some quick observations about the group stage results.

r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=39092

For streaming, follow the IRF on Facebook and sign up for live video notifications.

Men’s Singles
Group Stage thoughts: No surprises for me in the first four groups, as the top 4 seeds advance with relative ease, and the “expected” players finished in second place.
Group 5 and 6 though had some shockers. In group 5, #5 pre-tourney seed @Rodrigo Montoya topped the group, but in a shock IRT top 10 player and Nov 2021 IRT tourney winner Mario Mercado was taken out by Argentina’s recently matriculated junior @Diego Garcia and failed to advance to the knockouts. Garcia represented Bolivia until his age 17 season, then converted to Argentina and had to sit out a couple years. But he’s back, and he’s quite good. He could be a regular representative for Argentina for the next 15 years, and we hope to start seeing more of him on the IRT.
Group 6’s shock was at the top, when IRT top10 player @Samuel Murray was dominated by Mexico’s #2 Elias Nieto 13,3,(3),7 to fall to 2nd place in the group. Nieto tops the group and grabs the #6 seed in the knockouts.
Here’s how I see the knockouts going:

  • In the 16s, Nieto’s #6 seed gets him #11 @AndAAndres Acuna , a really tough draw and a likely upset.
    In the quarters:
  • #1 Conrrado Moscoso over #8 Garcia; they met in 2021 Worlds and Moscoso crushed him, but it will be a good all South American test.
  • #4 @Jake Bredenbeck over #5 @Rodrigo Montoya . This will be close, as both hard hitters can make deep runs in tournaments. Jake has topped Rodrigo the last three times they’ve played and I think he’ll do it again.
  • #3 @CarloCarlos Keller over #11 Acuna. They have not played in years (last meeting 2017), and both players have improved significantly over the past year. Keller made the finals at the 2021 US Open, Acuna made the finals at 2021 Worlds. Keller always seems to rise to the occasion at this event (and, lest we forget, is the 2-time defending PARC champ, having won in both 2018 and 2019), and is playing on home soil so we’ll go with the Bolivian here.
  • #2 @AlAlejandro Landa gets his pro doubles playing partner @Samuel Murray , who he has traded results back and forth with on the singles court recently. However, Landa is here to win. Landa in 3.
    Semis prediction:
  • #1 Moscoso over #4 Jake; I just think Conrrado is too good on these courts.
  • #3 Keller over Landa. They’ve only met 3 times, but its been years since they’ve played and they’ve never played internationally. I think Keller’s familiarity on these courts gets him the win over the mercurial Landa, who has a tendency to start slow in his matches and that might mean the difference in a rally scoring match where every point counts.
  • Final: Moscoso over Keller in an all-Bolivia final that will have the crowd pulsating.

Women’s Singles
Group stage review: No real surprises in the group stage for me; The top seed in group 4 should have been one of the top Mexican pros, but instead the seed went to Chile’s @CCarla Munoz , who topped USA’s @Kelani Lawrence in a 5-game thriller on the competition’s opening day to claim the 4th seed in the knockouts. The best player to not advance is Cris Amaya, who finished 3rd of 3 in the group of Death, falling to two top-10 LPRT pros.
Knockout predictions:
In the 16s, a really tough matchup between #7 @Kelani Lawrence and #10 Angelica Barrios looms; Advantage Barrios here.
Quarters prediction:

  • #1 @MariMaria Jose Vargas over #8 Micaela Meneses . Meneses is pulling triple duty here as a junior but doesn’t yet have the firepower to topple Vargas.
  • #5 @Rhonda Rajsich over #4 Munoz: on paper Munoz is the better player right now, but Rhonda always plays “up” at these competitions.
  • #3 Natalia Mendes over #6 @Ana Gabriela Martinez ; Gaby may have the world title, but Mendez is the one on her native soil (she grew up in Bolivia before converting to represent Argentina). Plus, Mendez has topped Gaby 2 out of their last 3 meetings.
  • #2 @Alexandra Herrera over the Barrios/Kelani winner. There’s no easy matches from the quarters on, so Herrera will get a top 10 touring pro from here on out despite being the #2 seed#1s
    Semis prediction:
  • #1 Vargas over #5 Rajsich
  • #2 Herrera over #3 Mendez
  • Final: Vargas tops Herrera on her native soil. She may represent Argentina, but Vargas was born in Santa Cruz and will take the title in her hometown.

Men’s Doubles
Group stage thoughts: Great win by the Bredenbeck’s to take the #1 seed in their group of death. Likewise, really solid win by the Costa Ricans to seize the #2 seed over the Mexicans.
Knockout round preview:

  • Unfortunately, 3 of the 4 best teams are in the upper bracket so we’re going to get what should be the final in the semis. Look for #4 Canada (Murray and @CoCoby Iwaasa ) to take out #1 Team USA to make the final.
  • From the bottom, I think the Bolivians (Keller and @Kadim Carrasco ) will bounce back on home soil to advance to the final as the #6 seed.
  • Final: Canada over Bolivia.

Women’s Doubles:
Pool play reaction: no surprises for this observer, despite the seeding not going as expected. The top LPRT pros in both groups rose to the top.
Knockout predictions:

  • Mexico over Bolivia in one semi. I like the Herrera/ @Samantha Salas Solis team to cruise past the @Yazmine Sabja Aliss and Meneses team, though the home town will cheer them to at least one game win.
  • Argentina over USA in the other semi. I just think the two native Bolivians (Mendez and Vargas) are too good on the court together, despite the international heroics of @RRhonda Rajsich and @ErikErika Manila .
  • Final: Mexico over Argentina: Herrera/Salas are just too good at Doubles to lose here.

Mixed Doubles
Pool play reactions: Chalk in Group A, but a huge win for Team USA (Landa and Manilla) to upset my pre-tourney favorite Team Mexico (Montoya/Salas) to claim the #2 seed. I was slightly surprised to see team Colombia (Mercado and Amaya) finish 3rd in their group, being the solid doubles players they both are.
Knockout predictions:

  • From the top half, Team Bolivia (Moscoso and Meneses) seem like they have the easier path to the final and may have a harder quarter vs Colombia than semis versus Argentina (Valeria Centellas and Diego Garcia).
  • From the Bottom half, we probably get a rematch of the group stage Mexico vs USA … and I like the passion of Landa/Manilla to advance. They beat them once, they can do it again.
  • In the final? I think the Bolivia – USA matchup favors the Americans. Landa can hang with Moscoso, while Manilla would out-perform Meneses on the right hand side. USA for the inaugural international Mixed title.

Should be great matches this week. Can’t wait.

Pan American Racquetball Confederation – PARC
International Racquetball Federation
International Racquetball Federation

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33rd PARC Tourney and Group Stage previews

Landa is set to defend his 2021 World title in Bolviia. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory


The 33rd annual Pan American Racquetball Championships kicks off this weekend with a slew of singles round robins, new rules, and new divisions.
It is back after two years of cancellations due to Covid.
We’ll hold off until the RRs are competed and the knockout brackets are determined to do predictions, but did want to highlight some interesting items at this juncture.

  • First off, the IRF has FINALLY FINALLY decided to use R2sports.com to coordinate the tournament. For years (decades?) they’ve depended on hand creating PDFs and uploading them to Dropbox, but could never seem to keep the results updated in a timely manner mid-tournament, and the Dropbox links constantly change so I can’t embed sources for tournaments … So everyone can be happy that this tournament will be in the same platform as every other racquetball tournament.
  • R2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=39092
  • Rally scoring is now in play. A reminder that the IRF went to rally scoring because they claimed it would shorten matches (it doesn’t), or that its because they want to be presentable to TV (a TV contract they don’t have), or so they can hold team events (which they’ve always been able to do). Other than that … yay! can’t wait for rally scoring so that we can not have any epic comebacks or fantastic back-and-forth tiebreakers or any semblance of a match that doesn’t look like its being competed in a rush because the participants are late for a dinner reservation….
  • Reminder on seeding: the seeding is done based on the COUNTRY, not the PLAYER. So, you might have someone like a top 10 touring pro (Mario Mercado) seeded below someone ranked outside the top 1000 in the world thanks to the prior success (or lack thereof) by their countrymen in previous IRF events.
  • New event here: Mixed Doubles. Should be fun. The Mexican Nationals mixed event was great, and i’m sure this one will be fun too.
  • They have junior divisions here, including an U21 division. They seem to be competed basically by Mexican players and South American players. This is not an official IRF junior international event, so only countries that can afford to send players are doing so.

Now for some thoughts on each main draw:

Men’s Singles:

  • there’s 22 players competing. A bit light as compared to past PARC events (in 2019 they had 30 men competing)
  • There is a definitely has a “Group of Death” so to speak, with defending Pan Am games gold medalist @Rodrigo Montoya , top IRT pro @Mario Mercado , and dangerous argentine young player @DDiego Garcia all joined by Canadian #2 @Trevor Webb in one RR group. Wow; i’m not sure i’ve seen such a strong international group stage collection in a while.
  • The draw overall is good: there’s some solid players here; the quarter finals will be epic here if they play out to seeds in that eight regular touring players are present, many of whom have won IRT events.
  • Mexico’s #2 player is a name maybe not as well known to fans in Elias Nieto. He earned this spot by making the semis in last June’s Mexican Nationals event, an event won by Montoya over Parrilla in the final, and with Portillo topping Nieto in the 3rd place game. With both Parrilla and Lalo begging out of the event, the slot went to Nieto.
    Women’s Singles:
  • 17 players entered, also a light draw. 25 entered the 2019 version of the PARC.
  • Shockingly … no Paola Longoria, who lives for these international competitions to add to her astounding count of titles (21 at current). I’ll have to get some insight as to why she’s not here.
  • Clearly Mexico had some issues filling the spot, because the Mexican #2 female is junior Angela Ortega, who is competing in her age 17 season and who has never appeared on the LPRT. Very odd, in that there’s probably 10 other Mexican touring pros who would have been a more competitive entrant here (just off the top of my head …. Mejia, Parrilla, Enriquez, Salas, Lucia Gonzalez, Flores, Groves, Acosta, Perez, Rico, or Aguilar). Interesting. Salas is here, but already competing in both doubles events, and adding a third event probably was a non-starter.
  • In fact, I might be wrong, but it doesn’t seem like any player is playing in all 3 events; maybe that was a purposeful limitation on the entrants.
  • The group of death seems to be Group A, with @Maria Jose Vargas, @AmAmaya C , and @Angelica Barrios. A top 3, top 10 and top 15 player.
  • Despite no #1 Longoria, 6 of the top 10 are in the singles draw plus another 3 from the top 20.
  • – Another notable absence; no @Maria Renee Rodriguez from Guatemala, who has been a mainstay at these events for the better part of a decade representing her country alongside Gaby Martinez.

Men’s Doubles:

  • There’s 10 teams/countries represented here.
  • Interestingly Moscoso is NOT playing with his typical doubles partner Roland Keller; instead its Carrasco and Carlos Keller representing Bolivia.
  • The Bredenbeck brothers are representing the USA, which should be fun.
  • Acuna is not playing with his regular partner Camacho from Costa Rica.

I think your two early favorites here are Canada (Murray and Iwaasa are tough) and USA (the Bredenbecks have played together a lot).

Women’s Doubles

  • 8 teams here, split into two RR groups to start.
  • Group A is stacked, with three teams I think could win this all together (Bolivia, Mexico and USA).
  • Group B is … well, significantly weaker than Group A, and its 4th seed is clearly the best team in Argentina. They’ll get a cakewalk into the #2 seed in knockouts.
  • I just don’t see how these groups/seedings make sense: you have clearly the top four racquetball playing countries (USA, Canada, Mexico, and Bolivia) in one group, then Columbia, Guatemala, Chile, and Argentina in the other. That just doesn’t seem balanced at all. Even if the past results support it.

I think your favorites are clearly Mexico (Herrera/Salas), but Argentina (Vargas/Mendez) have been playing together regularly for most of the last few LPRT seasons and should make it a compelling final if they get there.

Mixed Open

  • A first time through for Mixed and we have some intriguing teams for sure.
  • 10 teams here and it seems like players have prioritized Mixed over Gender doubles; the better players are here.
  • – My early favorites are Mexico (Montoya and Salas, who just won Mexican Mixed), USA (Landa and Manilla are both great doubles players), and Colombia (Mercado and Amaya are both highly experienced doubles teams). Don’t sleep on Bolivia, who has Moscoso hitting bombs on the right hand side, always a challenge in doubles.

Streaming apparently doesn’t start until next week. But maybe we’ll get some of the players streaming their matches in the interim.
More to come next week on this event when we get to the knockouts.

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Mexican Nationals Recap

Beltran wins the Men’s doubles title in Mexico; is it his last? Photo US Open 2019 via Photographer Kevin Savory


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Men’s Singles: Daniel De La Rosa
  • Women’s Singles: Paola Longoria
  • Men’s Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa/Alvaro Beltran
  • Women’s Doubles: Paola Longoria/Samantha Salas
  • Mixed Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya/Samantha Salas

    Very successful weekends for Longoria, De La rosa, and Salas, each of whom come home with two titles. Montoya wins Mixed and makes the final of Singles, double qualifying for the team.

    Here’s some quick “Category” reports showing all Mexican National finals in the database:
  • Men’s Singles: http://rball.pro/13D7D4
  • Women’s Singles: http://rball.pro/D13492
  • Men’s Doubles: http://rball.pro/7F4C52
  • Women’s Doubles: http://rball.pro/7B5D25
  • Mixed Doubles: http://rball.pro/7E4470 (this is a brand new query!)

    These winners shall represent Mexico starting with international events AFTER next month’s PARC: the winners of last June’s Mexican Nationals are the representatives for Mexico in Bolivia (as we learned with the little kerfuffle a couple of weeks ago when the FMR attempted to reneg on the original plan to send the 3rd/4th place finishers from June 2021 as the PARC doubles team as opposed to the two-time defending IRF champion team of Montoya/Mar).

    Reminder: rally scoring here, so the scoring format is games to 15, win by one, and if it gets to a fifth game it goes to 11, win by 2.

    R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38926

Lets review the notable matches from the Event.
Men’s Open Singles

Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/C33ED1

In the 32s and 16s:

  • The only round of 32 between notable/known IRT touring pros was a win for #7 Sebastian Fernandez over #26 Erick Cuevas 11,14,8
    We saw just a couple of upsets in the 16s:
  • #21 @Rodolfo Esparza got his second upset in a row, taking out #7 Emir Martinez 13,9,9 to move into the quarters. Great tourney for Esparza, who is in his mid 20s and has never appeared in an IRT event.
  • Wily Veteran #20 Polo Gutierrez , who missed a chunk of time with an elbow injury, is clearly back playing in his home town and cruised by #4 Erick Trujillo in three close games 13,10,12. The draw opens up for Polo to make a deep run, and he poses a danger to all he plays. He was a 2014 Mexican open finalist and has made the weekend in many pro events in his career.
  • No other upsets really: your quarters are seeds 1,8,21,20 from the top and chalk 3,6,7,2 from the bottom half.

In the Quarters

  • #1 @Rodrigo Montoya won over #8 @AAlejandro Cardon … but he had to work for it. After going 2 games up, Cardona took the next to for a 5th game breaker. In the breaker, Rodrigo caught fire and rolled to an 11-4 win.
  • #20 Polo took out #21 Esparza in three quick games to move into the semis as expected.
  • #6 @Daniel De La Rosa took out #3 @Javier Mar in three solid games 13,10,6. DLR is just a step ahead in quality than Mar right now and it showed on the court. This was a rematch of the Beach Bash final just one day ago, but the result was the same.
  • – In the match of the tournament so far, #2 @Andree Parrilla took down #7 @Sebastian Fernandez in a battle of two of Mexico’s up and coming pros … and it went the distance. Final score: 14,11,(9),(14),9. Can’t get much closer than that.

In the Semis

  • #1 Montoya overpowered the veteran #20 Polo 5,7,13 to move into the final.
  • #6 DLR ground out a win over his IRT rival #2 Parrilla in four close games to return to the final for the first time in two years.
  • In the Finals, we had a rematch of the 2018 final, won by Montoya. The final was even better than the semi, with DLR rushing out to a 2-game lead and Montoya coming storming back to force the 5th game tiebreaker. After jumping out to a small lead, DLR ran off a slew of points to make a comeback nearly impossible and took the breaker 11-7. This is DLR’s 3rd Mexican National title since 2014.

Women’s Singles recap


Match Report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/AA60BE


The Women’s draw went completely chalk to the quarters, but that included for me a big upset win for #5 @DaniDaniela Rico over an under-seeded and under-rated #12 @Lucia Gonzalez in the 16s. Rico, who is the reigning Mexican 18U junior champ and still has a year of junior eligibility, got a career win over Lucia 12-10 in the fifth.
In the quarters…

  • #1 Longoria dominated #8 @JJessica Parrill , winning 9,5,3 in a match where Leoni got increasingly frustrated as the day went on.
  • #4 @Nancy Enriquez took out the upset minded Rico in four very close games 14,(13),13,14. Can’t get much closer than that in rally scoring.
  • #6 @Alexandra Herrera went the distance against her doubles partner #3 @Montse Mejia before advancing. A tough draw for both players but the champion of the last two LPRT events moves on.
  • #2 @Samantha Salas dominated against her long-time Mexican RivalSusy Acosta , winning 1,6,9.
    In the semis:
  • Longoria cruised into another final, topping Enriquez 2,7,7 in dominant fashion.
  • Herrera held serve against her veteran Mexican rival Salas, winning in four close games.

  • In the final, we get a rematch of the last two LPRT finals (both won by Herrera). Longoria makes her 9th straight final (and probably many more since our database of Mexican results only goes back to 2014) while we get a first time finalist in Herrera. The top to LPRT pros split the first two games 14 and (13), but then Longoria found a new gear and cruised to win the next two games comfortably 15-8, 15-8 to take the title.

Men’s Doubles
PRS report: http://rball.pro/B9F23A
The top 4 seeds held to the semis without any really notable matches in the early stages. Lets pick up the action from there.
In the semis: both top seeds advanced to the finals in hard fought four game matches. #1 Montoya/Mar topped #4 Parrilla/Fernandez from the top side, while the veterans #2 DLR/Beltran held off the youngsters #3 Trujillo/Hernandez in the bottom side.

In the final, we get a frequent matchup; this is a rematch of the 2021, 2020, and 2018 National final, and a frequent match seen on the IRT pro tour. However, unlike for the last few matchups in Mexican Nationals, the veterans topped the newcomers, with DLR/Beltran winning the final in 3 straight games to return to the winner’s circle for the first time since 2018 and vanquishing the current reigning World Champions.

Women’s Doubles
PRS report: http://rball.pro/FFC344
As with the men, the top 4 seeds held to the semis without any really notable matches in the early stages. Lets pick up the action from there.
From the top, #1 Longoria/Salas were not troubled in their semi against #4 Aguilar/Lucia Gonzalez, winning in three games in dominant fashion. The bottom semi was closer, but #2 Herrera/Mejia held off the Parrilla/Ximena Gonzalez pairing in four.
In the final … a frequent rematch. This was the 2019 and 2020 Mexican Nationals final. These are also inarguably the top two teams on the LPRT right now and a frequently seen final (mostly won by the Longoria/Salas pairing save for a famous 2019 Open win by the younger pair).

The four top LPRT pros played a very spirited, passionate match. The 15-time champions took the first two games, but their younger rivals stormed back to take games 3 and 4. In the breaker, a number of arguable calls led to a back and forth affair, but a pair of long rallies wen the way of Longoria & Salas and they eked out the win 11-7 in the fifth.

Mixed Doubles
PRS report: http://rball.pro/6C0361
Mexican Nationals was the first major Mixed tournament to be competed, and it was a fun one.
The Semis were chalk with the top 4 seeds advancing, but the early rounds were not without some interesting matches.
From the top side, #5 @Alvaro Beltran and @Montse Mejia topped the veteran team of #12 @Polo Gutierrez andSusy Acosta in the 16s but fell to the Parrilla brother/sister combo in the quarters.
On the bottom side, the third seeded pairing of the two current pro #1s @DaniDaniel de la Rosa and @Paola Longoria played a dominant match to take out the dangerous looking team of Cardona/Lucia in the quarters 4,6,9.
In the semis…

  • #1 Montoya/Salas dropped the first game against the Parrillas, but held on for the win.
  • #3 DLR/Longoria split the first two with the Fernandez/Herrera team before turning on the pressure and taking the next two games to move into the final.
  • In the final…Both Longoria and De la Rosa were competing in their third final in a row … and frankly ran out of gas. After winning the first game, Montoya/Salas won the next three games to give them the inaugural Mixed title for their country. They prevent both #1 players from a historic treble on the weekend.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from the Rkt and @Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol

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

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

Its the 33rd annual Pan American Racquetball Championships! Live from Bolivia, this is the annual international competition that will run over the next two weekends!

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Campeonato Nacional Selectivo Mexico 2022 Preview Part 2: Doubles

Fernandez and his mixed partner Herrera are a favorite this weekend at Mexican Nationals. Photo unk


Part 1 (published yesterday) previewed the Mexican National singles draws.
Part 2 today covers the three doubles draws: Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed.

r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38926

Men’s Doubles
13 Teams are here, highlighted by the top two seeded teams of #1 @Javier Mar and @Rodrigo Montoya and #2 @Daniel de la Rosa & @Alvaro Beltran. These two teams have met on plenty of occasions as of late:

  • the 2021 Mexican Nationals final (Mar/Montoya win)
  • 2021 US Open Semis (DLR/Beltran win)
  • 2021 Shamrock Shootout Semis (DLR/Beltran win)
  • 2020 Shamrock final (DLR/Beltran win)
  • 2020 Mexican Nationals final (Mar/Montoya win)
  • 2020 Lewis Drug Final (DLR/Beltran win).

    So, the two wins for the Mar/Montoya team were … in the Mexican Nationals finals, which then opened a pathway for them to represent their country at the last few international events, where they have had great success. They’re the current reigning 2019 Pan Am Games champs and the 2021 World Champs.

    So, can anyone stop either team on the way to another finals rematch?
    The only other team I’d be fearful of here is the #4 seeded team of @Sebastian Fernandez and Andres Parrilla ; they’ll give Montoya/Mar a run for the money in the semis. DLR and Beltran should cruise to the final.
  • My prediction? Another Montoya/Mar defeat of DLR/Beltran. I think Alvaro is dinged up right now, not getting any younger, and as a team they’ve gotten upset early in the last few events they’ve entered.

Women’s Doubles Preview:
Nine teams here, highlighted (like the Men’s draw) by two powerhouse teams at #1 and #2 seeds. #1 @Paola Longoria and @Samantha Salas Solis continue their partnership, which now includes 36 pro titles together, somewhere in the range of 15 Mexican national titles, and 19 International titles together. Amazing. But the #2 team of @Montse Mejia and @Alexandra Herrera is coming up fast on the veteran team’s heels. They’ve beaten Longoria/Salas in a couple of significant pro events recently ( the 2019 US Open being most memorable) and have several pro titles together. But they’ve yet to take a National doubles title.

Is this the weekend?

Like on the men’s side, it is difficult to see anyone standing in the way of a 1-2 final. In that final, I’m going to predict a changing of the guard with the Mejia/Herrera team topping Longoria and Salas to take their first national title together.

Mixed Doubles preview.
Today marks a new day for Pro Racquetball Stats: the beginning of what seems like it will be a sustained movement of regular mixed doubles competition at both the National and International level. For the nearly 20 years I’ve run this site, we’ve never had anything other than a couple of one-off Mixed pro events when the two tours just happened to be in the same spot (World Doubles in Denver, the Syosset Open, Arizona Pro-am to name a few over the past few years). But now we have Mixed to add to both the Amateur and International database and report code.
Lets preview the first National mixed doubles draw.
There are 15 Mixed Doubles teams competing here; lets go through with some predictions.
Matches to watch for in the 16s (which happened yesterday so this is old news)

  • #5 Beltran/Mejia were done no favors having to play #12 Polo/Acosta. A lefty righty pair will present some interesting choices for Beltran and Mejia. Polo is always hard to beat. In the end though, Beltran/Mejia advanced rather easily 10,4,9
    QF matches to look for
  • The 4/5 of Beltran/Mejia versus the Parrilla/Parrilla brother/sister combo could be great. Andree is a great doubles player and will push this matchup. I think there’s an interesting balance of talent here; Parrilla is a better player than Beltran right now, while Mejia is a better than Jessica. But, the key for me is the fact that Beltran plays almost entirely on the right hand side when he plays doubles with DLR in mens; here he’ll have to play the left hand side, where I think Parrilla has the advantage. I see the Bro/Sis pairing advancing.
  • I like the 3/6 matchup between DLR/Longoria and Cardona/Lucia. It might be odd to think that a pairing of the two currently ranked #1 pro players in the world is seeded third (hey, Mexican national seeding), but chemistry is important in doubles pairings, especially in mixed. Cardona will bang it out on the right side with DLR, while Longoria could overwhelm Lucia on the left.
    Projected Semis:
  • #1 Montoya/Salas, who won the 2021 World Doubles mixed pro title with relative ease, are set to face the Parrillas.
  • #2 Fernandez/Herrera, who made the 2021 World doubles final (perhaps this is the tourney they used to seed this draw) are set to face the #1/#1 team of DLR/Longoria. What makes this matchup interesting is the lefty/righty pairing. Herrera will be on the left, meaning DLR will be serving to her. DLR is not hitting photons at 160mph … but he does hit with pace and can place his “walking drive serve” with an accuracy and depth that Herrera is not used to seeing. On the flip side, Patata can blast serves at Paola’s forehand, but probably will choose to either hit wallpapers or hard Zs. Either way, for whatever reason Longoria has not fared well in past Mixed pro matches and I think they’ll lose again here to setup 1v2.

In the final, I like a rematch of the Denver World doubles final from 2021, where Montoya/Salas crushed Fernandez/Herrera 12,6. I think we’ll see a closer match but a similar result. #1 seeds to win.

Streaming has started: follow RKT on Facebook to get live notifications. The tournament runs through Sunday early afternoon. Juarez is Mountain time, so 2 hours later than EST for your planning purposes.

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2022 Beach Bash Preview

Benny Goldenberg is the defending Beach Bash pro doubles champ with Ryan Lopez; can they repeat? Photo from 2021 Stratton Woods by Ken Fife

After a 2 year hiatus, Beach Bash is back! The best one-wall players in the land are descending as we speak to South Florida to join the Spring Breakers and to play some racquetball on the historic Garfield Street courts, right off the Boardwalk in Hollywood, Florida.


This will be the 14th iteration of what was first called “Beach Bash for Cash,” which started in 2007. It was the follow-on tournament to the seminal 2004 WOR One-Wall National Doubles Championships held on these same courts, which was a formative event in the history of WOR and Outdoor Racquetball in this country in general.
It is great to have this tournament back … and judging by the talent of players entered, so is the community at large.


A huge number of regular “indoor” touring pros are entered this week, including 5 of the current top 10 on the IRT and a slew of regular touring LPRT pros. They are joined by a literal who’s who of top one-wall outdoor players from DC, NY, and FL to compete for the pro titles. This weekend’s event shall be great.
Further adding to the import of the year’s first outdoor “major” is the inclusion of the new Outdoor Cup Series for 2022. Winners here this weekend will have a big leg-up on the competition for the “Road to Vegas” year-long cup series.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=31509

Lets preview the draws. There’s a ton of pro draws, singles and doubles, so we’ll run through them with some thoughts given in each competition.

Men’s Pro Doubles


A stacked Men’s pro doubles draw is headlined by the #1 seeds and defending champs Ryan Lopez and @Benny Goldenberg. Seeded #2 is the top outdoor doubles team of @Daniel de la Rosa and @Alvaro Beltran , who together have won six Major outdoor pro doubles titles, including the last five straight Vegas 3-wall pro titles. But, Beltran injured his hip in the IRT event last weekend … and this is one-wall, not three-wall (where all their titles together are), so DLR/Beltran may not be the favorites here.
The rest of the draw is littered with top pairs with past titles. The top half features @David Blatt and William Rolon as the #4 seeds (they were the 2018 Beach Bash champs), the hard hitting #5 seeded team of @Sebastian Franco and @Joe Young (the 2015 Beach Bash champs), the 2021 Vegas one-wall pro doubles champs as a #12 seed (that being @Adam Manilla and @Nick Riffel ), and then we throw in top outdoor one-wall player @Rick Koll playing with perhaps the land’s best paddleball player in @Emmitt Coe.
That’s a stacked draw … and its just the top half of this bracket.
Challenging DLR/Beltran from the bottom half include the #3 seeded team of Sostre and David Horn (Sostre has 4 Beach Bash titles and another 4 finals), teams comprised of top IRT touring players like Conrrado Moscoso , Mario Mercado , and @Javier Mar, and long-time outdoor player @Tito Montanez playing with the legend himself Ruben González. Lastly there’s #6 seeded team of @Nelsen Dieda and @Richie Miller … Miller and Dieda together made 5 straight Beach Bash pro doubles finals between 2013 and 2018, winning three of them, and Miller himself made the final of every Beach Bash pro doubles event for 8 straight years.
Whoever comes out of the bottom will have more than earned it.

Predictions? I like Lopez/Benny from the top to beat Franco/Young in the semis. From the bottom, whoever wins the 3/6 matchup between Sostre/Horn and Miller/Deida runs to the title. I’m leaning Miller/Deida, but wouldn’t be surprised if the strength of Iceman on the one-wall court pulls them to the final.

Women’s Pro Doubles
There’s several tough teams in this Women’s pro doubles draw, each of whom you could make an argument for winning. Scott (the 2018 winner) is playing with the most decorated women’s outdoor doubles player in the land in @Michelle De La Rosa: they’re the #1 seed. But they have to get by the Zerega-veteran team of Ramos/Guinan to make the final.
On the bottom half two-time Beach Bash champ and outdoor legend @Anita Maldonado is playing with three-time winner @Jasmine Suarez ; they’ll likely face the very tough doubles team of Hall of Famer Aimee Roehler and LPRT touring pro @MasieMasiel Rivera in the bottom half.

Great matches ahead; my money is on Roehler/Rivera to top mDLR/Scott in the final.

Mixed Pro Doubles


Its tough not to look at this draw and immediately predict a #1 vs #2 final, given who is there and how they generally fare in these events. #1 Seeds and defending champs the De La Rosa husband/wife pair
will be pushed in the semis by 2015 Mixed pro champs Maldonado/Deida, while the #2 seeded team of Sostre/Rivera will face a gauntlet of interesting pairings of experienced outdoor players playing with solid indoor-only partners (teams such as Portillo/Scott, or Riffel/Neils, or Pagan/Roehler, or even the Manilla bro/sis combo).

At the end of the day though, i’m going chalk to the finals with another title for the De La Rosas.

Men’s Pro Singles:

19 players are entered into Men’s pro singles, trying to dethrone the two favorites and two top seeds in 2019’s finalists @Daniel de la Rosa and @Robert Sostre. DLR took out IceMan in the 2019 singles final, breaking Sostre’s streak of four straight titles in the event.


From the top side of the draw, DLR will face an immediate threat from a seasoned one-wall expert in @Tito Montanez in the 16s, before having to navigate possibly against 2019 semi finalist @William Rolon in the semis. That’s if Rolon can get past the winner of @Thomas Gerhardt and Conrrado Moscoso , who is playing one-wall for the first time and could be a dark-horse thanks to his extensive experience playing Fronton in his native Bolivia.
From the bottom side, #2 Sostre may face a heavy challenge in the quarters from #7 @Andres Acuna , who topped two excellent outdoor singles players in 2019 en route to the 3WB outdoor final. Otherwise, the projection would be for Iceman to meet his long-time doubles partner Freddy Ramirez in the semis for a shot at the title.

Despite all the talent in the draw, look for a rematch of the 2019 final when all is said and done and for DLR to retain the title. He’s just too strong on the outdoor courts and is in the peak of his playing years.

Women’s Pro Singles .


Two time defending Beach Bash pro singles winner Hollie Scott is here to defend her title. She’ll take on a round robin of fellow LPRT touring pros and Outdoor veterans, trying to dethrone her.

My prediction: Scott rolls to another pro title.

Look for Streaming on the LPRT feed for the weekend, with JT R Ball flying into town from Southern California to man the mike with a series of guest stars all weekend.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors @Peggine Tellez and the @3WallBall Outdoor World Championships team (Mike Coulter) for putting this event on! Thanks to @Abel Perez and the title sponsor of Apcon/MZ Companies for your patronage.
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2022 IRT Wintergreen Classic Wrap-Up

DLR wins the 2022 Wintergreen classic as a tune up for Atlanta. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

Congrats to your major division winners on the weekend:
– Pro Singles: Daniel De La Rosa
– Open Men’s Singles; Alan Natera
– Open Doubles; Eduardo Portillo & Sebastian Franco
– Mixed Doubles: Erika Manilla & Mario Mercado

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38089

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

The Men’s Pro draw basically went chalk in the round of 32 and 16. #9 @Jaime Martell upset #8 @Mauricio Zelada as the only upset by seed, but Martell might be the best player in the world who does not regularly feature on the IRT, so this is no surprise to regular followers of the sport. #4 @Sebastian Franco was pushed to a breaker in his round of 16 match by Ohio-based up and coming player @Victor Migliore but persevered 11-7 in the breaker to move into the quarters.

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In the Quarters
– It looked for a hot second like #1 @Daniel De La Rosa was going to get upset by Martell, losing the second game 15-14 and then going down early in the tie-breaker, but he flipped the script in an instant and cruised to the 11-4 breaker win.
– #5 @Andres Acuna got a solid win against #4 Franco in two games. This is another excellent example of why Acuna is a player to watch going forward; he’s beating the players he should beat, and is starting to get top-8 wins.
– #3 @Mario Mercado cruised past #6 @Alan Natera 11,7
– #2 @Lalo Portillo took out #7 Bolivian @Kadim Carrasco in two 9,8.

In the Semis, a couple of interesting results.
– #1 DLR labored to get past Acuna in a breaker 11-6. Perhaps its still just a bit of rust for the #1 player, or perhaps its another sign that Acuna is a player to be reckoned with. Or perhaps its a bit of both.
– #3 Mercado continued his hot streak of late, dispatching #2 Portillo with a streaky score line of 2,,(8),2. A really nice win for Mercado.

In the Finals, Mercado took the first game and was up big in the second game, and the broadcasters & viewers were wondering if DLR would even *score* in the second game. Well, not only did he score, he basically stopped Mario in his tracks and took game two 15-10 (going on a 15-2 run to do so), then took the tie-breaker to claim the title. Never count out the #1 player in the world. DLR takes the win here as a great tune-up for next week’s Grand Slam in Atlanta.

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Men’s Open Singles review

The Open Singles had 20 players, including one touring LPRT pro in @Erika Manila . Here’s a recap of the action.

From the top side, #1 seed Martell cruised into the final without dropping a game. He topped Migliore in the semis. Victor had topped Thomas Gerhardt in the quarters, a solid win for him.

In the bottom Half, an under-seeded Manilla took out New Yorker @Anthony Armaneuse in the round of 32 opener, then upset #3 seed @Kyle Ulliman in the next round. She couldn’t move forward though, losing a nail-biting 11-10 breaker in the quarters to Maryland local open player @Dylan Pruitt. But it was #2 Natera who advanced to the final, beating NY junior @Josh Shea and then Pruitt in the semis.

In the final, Natera had a nice run to finish off a game 1 win that looked for a while like it was lost, then blew away Martell in game two to take the title 12,6. Natera wins the open draw without dropping a game.

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Men’s Open Doubles review

The 13-team Men’s Open draw went completely chalk to the semis. From the top side of the draw, #1 Portillo/Franco took out #4 Natera/Acuna, while on the bottom #3 home-town favorites Mercado/Zelada took out the Bolivians Keller/Carrasco to move into the final.

In the final… Franco/Portillo drove the action and dominated play against the Maryland-based FormulaFlow brothers, and won going away 9,4 to take the title.

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Mixed Open Draw

The Mixed open draw was mostly competed on Sunday, and featured a 5-team RR draw of top competitors mostly with DC-area ties. And, unfortunately, the looming snow storm took a toll on this draw, as the traveling NY-team forfeited to get a jump on the weather, and a couple hours later the Junkin/Weinberg team did the same.

In the end though, the top two seeds ended up going undefeated and met in the Sunday final, with the #1 seeded pairing of Erika Manilla & Mario Mercado squeaking out game one over #2 Brenda Laime & Zelada and advancing to the title 14,9.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Dean Baer and Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew, who braved the weather forecast to travel into the area this weekend.

Thanks to the Tourney Director @slemo Warigon for putting this event on and for your continued patronage of the sport.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9S…/

Next weekend is a big one: the 2022 Suivant Consulting IRT Grand Slam in Atlanta. The draws look fantastic and it should be a barn burner. And, by the time you read this we may have a big-time announcement related to the IRT draw. How’s that for a teaser?

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2022 Wintergreen Classic Preview

Zelada competes on home soil this weekend at the Wintergreen. Photo from US Doubles 2020 via Kevin Savory

The first appearance of the top IRT pros of the new year is set to happen this coming weekend, at the annual Wintergreen classic held in Severna Park, located halfway between Baltimore and Washington in Maryland. This year’s event, run by long-time racquetball benefactor and IRT investor Slemo Warigon , has been upgraded to be a tier 3 event for the first time, which has attracted a slew of top IRT regulars for a solid draw.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38089

Lets review the major draws on the weekend, which will feature some solid women’s draws, fun doubles matchups, and even some pro-level mixed doubles.

———————————
IRT Pro Singles

There are 20 players entered, including three top-10 players, another 5-6 regular touring players ranked in the teens, and a slew of top east coast open players. It should be a fun draw.

Fun round of 32 and 16s to look for:
– #8/#9 is MoMo Zelada versus @Jaime Martel Neri , in what should be a very interesting match. Zelada has been playing regularly and has some good wins, while Jaime rarely travels outside his native Mexico but has been known to make noise when he does play. Look for Martel to upset Zelada here (they met in 2015 and Jaime won in 3 easy games).
– #6/#11 Alan Natera takes on NY junior @Josh Shea in what could be a closer match than Natera may want. Shea has been improving his results lately and has been facing better and better competition.
– #7/#10 Bolivian vet @Kadim Carrasco takes on Maryland’s own Dylan Pruitt in what should be a stiff test for the local player playing on courts he knows pretty well.

projected quarters.
– #1 Daniel de la Rosa faces the winner of the Martell/Zelada match, but should have no problems moving on.
– #4 Sebastian Franco projects to face #5 @Andres Acuña , an interesting matchup of mid-teens IRT regulars. Franco is 3-0 lifetime against Acuna, never really being pushed, but all their past meetings are in the 2016-18 range. Acuna is a different player right now, and I sense an upset here, even though these courts are well known to the long-time Maryland resident Franco.
– #3 @Mario Mercado versus #6 Natera. Mercado is fresh off a tier 1 win late last year and an excellent showing at Worlds. He beat Natera twice heads up on tour last year, but both times were really close. I expect Mercado, a long-time DC area native who is quite familiar with this club, to advance in a close match again.
– #2 @Lalo Portillo projects to face #7 Carrasco. They have played once; in 2017, when Lalo was a shell of the player he is now. Portillo moves on in two.

Projected Semis and Finals:
– DLR over Acuna
– Lalo over Mercado

Final: Lalo upsets DLR, but not without DLR putting up a fight. He didn’t fly here from Arizona to not get the top prize. Lalo took the IRT component at this tourney last summer, taking out Franco and Zelada along the way, so he is not unfamiliar with the courts. And Lalo upset DLR in Sarasota last November, so he’s got a playbook for winning. How motivated is DLR in his first tourney back? We’ll see.

———————————
Men’s Open doubles

13 teams are entered into Open doubles, and the top four seeded teams are all touring regulars, which should make for some great semi finals action.

From the top half, look for #1 seeds Portillo/Franco to advance to the final, vanquishing teams that include top Maryland amateur @Dylan Pruitt playing with top junior from New York @Josh Shea, the #4 seeds Acuna/Natera, and the voice of the IRT Dean Baer , playing with fellow New Yorker @Anthony Armanuse.

From the bottom half, I like the #3 seeded team of @FormulaFlow players Zelada & Mercado to upset the #2 seeds from Bolivia Keller/Carasco to make the final. They’ll advance out of a quadrant that includes top teams from Virginia (Peter Appel and Ross Weinberg), Texas (@Richard Eisemann and @Cole Sendry), and frequent east coast tourney players @Brent Walters and Thomas Gerhardt.

In the final, Lalo/Franco win to give Lalo a double on the weekend and some serious confidence heading into the 2022 season.

———————————
Mixed Open doubles features five teams and some top women’s players. @Erika Manila is in town; she’s teamed up with the excellent mixed doubles player Mercado as the #1 seed in the RR draw. They’ll be challenged by fellow LPRT touring pro Brenda Laime at the #2 spot (teamed with house-mate and fellow FormulaFlow player Zelada) for the title. Also competing are two top-level Virginia mixed pairings in Kristin Junkin & Weinberg and two outdoor regulars @Aime Brewer and Gerhardt.

I like the draw to play out chalk; with Manilla/Mercado taking the title.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Dean Baer and Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!

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LPRT 29th Xmas Classic Wrap-Up

Erika Manilla is really starting to make a name for herself on tour. Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory


Congrats to Paola Longoria, who was the double pro winner on the weekend yet again. She adds to her already amazing pro title history; this is her 105th pro Tier 1 singles title and her 49th Pro Doubles title since we started tracking pro doubles on the women’s tour in Aug 2014.
Paola won the doubles title this weekend with Maria Jose Vargas Parada, and not her regular doubles partner Salas (who was absent this week).


Singles Match report: http://rball.pro/5819A5
Doubles match report: http://rball.pro/6AAF40

Here’s a quick run-through the notable singles matches this weekend for me:

  • Great win for Erika Manilla in the 16s, controlling the powerful Mexican player Montse Mejia in two games. Mejia won a grand slam earlier this year, but has several head scratching losses since. Not to take anything away from Manilla, whose US Open performance and subsequent playing has her firmly in my world top 8 right now.
  • Also a great win for Carla Muñoz Montesinos in the 16s, taking out #9 Valeria Centellas in the round of 16 with ease. Munoz is close to breaking back into the top 10 and this was a solid win that will help cement her return.
  • Kelani Lawrence got another win over her American rival Rhonda Rajsich, and had to come back from a game down to do so.
  • Maria Renee Rodríguez took #6 Jessica Parrilla to a breaker after a somewhat disappointing Worlds showing.
    The seeds held from the quarters onward, with the draw going perfectly chalk. But there were some closer games and matches.
  • Lawrence nearly took game one in the quarters from #2 Vargas before losing 14,6
  • Herrera could not repeat the feat of downing Vargas twice in a row and fell in the semis in a breaker 7,(13),8. However, it does seem like we’re starting to see a real rivalry for the #2 spot on tour, which means great projected semi finals each week.
  • #4 Natalia Mendez Erlwein cooled the hot Manilla in the quarters to play to her seed once again.
  • In the final, Vargas really pushed Longoria in game one 15-13 before falling. Would like to see some consistent competition for the #1 player.

On the doubles draw, the #1 seeds of Alexandra Herrera and Mejia advanced to the final as expected, where they faced the tough Vargas/Longoria pairing. The two top teams split games before Longoria/Vargas blew away their young Mexican counter parts in the breaker to take the title.

In Mixed doubles, we had some excellent play. A number of the top LPRT pros teamed up with the pros and top amateurs playing to give the draw a really solid mixed feel.
The semis featured Lalo Portillo and Alexandra Herrera taking out two local players in Ben Bleyer and Masiel Rivera Oporto, while on the bottom Mario Mercado and Erika Manilla made for a formidable pairing and topped Lawrence, playing with lefty North Carolinian Jacob Matthews.

In the final though, Mercado/Manilla could not overtake the excellent doubles players in Lalo/Herrera and lost in two.

Men’s Open draw
A healthy 17 player draw featured four top pros who held to their seeds and advanced into the quarters.

Local amateurs Josh Shea (NY), Joe Kelley (PA), Austin Cunningham (GA) and Dylan Pruitt (MD) advanced into the quarters and put up good fights against the top touring pros; indeed, three of the four quarters went to breaker. However, the top seeds advanced to the semis for some quality late-round pro action. At the top, Portillo cruised past local favorite MoMo Zelada 11,0, while at the bottom Mario Mercado​ lost a Worlds quarterfinal rematch against USA’s Jake Bredenbeck, but then was given an inj fft into the final. Unfortunately, no final was held; Mercado got the walkover win despite losing the semi.

Great last tournament of the 2021 from all involved; thanks to the Grisz clan Karen Grisz and Mike Grisz for running the 29th version of this long-running tournament.

What’s next?
After an incredibly busy month, the ladies get a break. The next scheduled pro stop on the LPRT isn’t until mid February, when Sudsy Monchik is hosting the tour in Vero Beach, FL. We hope for a January event for the ladies pros.

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Arizona Open LPRT and Mixed recap

Longoria wins again. Photo 2020 3WB by Steve Fitzsimons


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Women’s pro Singles: Paola Longoria
  • Mixed Doubles; Longoria and Alex Landa
  • Women’s Open: Angelica Barrios
  • Women’s Open/Elite Doubles: Diaz/Ros

R2 Sports App home page for event:https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37835

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/FBCB63

In the 32s: some fun matches and some upsets

  • #16/#17 went tie-breaker, because of course it did. #17 Erika Manilla took out her country-woman Sheryl Lotts in a breaker to setup an anticipated rematch with Longoria.
  • #8 Valeria Centellas took out #25 Naomi Ros, notable because Ros is playing in her age 15 season (!). Ros recently moved to San Antonio after winning a couple of junior titles for Mexico in the late 2010s.
  • #12 Carla Muñoz Montesinos was pushed by the young Mexican Daniela Rico but advanced. Rico is another young player to watch for going forward.
  • #6 Angelica Barrios was pushed in game one by Michelle De La Rosa but then cruised to a two game win 13,3
  • Ireland #1 Aisling Hickey continues to impress, taking a game off of #7 Jessica Parrilla before falling in a breaker. If I’m reading the r2sports profile correctly, Hickey is now living in California, so we should be seeing a lot more of her on the tour.
  • The #15/18 match was as close as the 16/17, with #15 Maria Renee Rodríguez advancing past Erin Slutzky in a breaker.

In the 16s:

  • Well, if you thought you’d see another close one between #1 Paola Longoria and Manilla … Paola had other plans. She put a statement out there with an utter domination, beating Erika 0,1. Manilla did not score until it was 0-9 in the second game. Between singles and her doubles performances so far, Longoria looks as locked in as I’ve seen her in a while.
  • #9 Rhonda Rajsich got an excellent win over #8 Centellas in the breaker to move on to the quarters.
  • #4 and #5 Natalia Mendez Erlwein and Gaby Martinez each cruised past LPRT regulars Carla Muñoz Montesinos and Amaya Cris to get to their expected quarter final matchup.
  • #3 Alexandra Herrera faced a common foe in Kelani Lawrence, and each time they play it seems to get closer. This time around, Kelani took a game from the top Mexican lefty before Alexandra fought back for the 11-9 breaker win.
  • #6 and #7 Angelica Barrios and Parrilla each cruised past LPRT veterans in Brenda Laime Jalil and Nancy Enriquez. Laime was not able to build on her US Open momentum … but also ran into a player in Barrios who has made multiple pro finals.
  • #2 Maria Jose Vargas Parada was pressed in game one by LPRT vet MRR, but advanced 10,2

In the Quarters

  • #1 Longoria downed her longest rival Rajsich, but was pressed to do so like no other player in this draw.
  • #4 Martinez took out #5 Mendez with a well played 10,12 win.
  • #3 Herrera held serve against the young Bolivian Barrios, who had topped her the last time they met.
  • #2 Vargas fought off a match point against against #7 Parrilla to move on. A tough break for Leoni, who has STILL yet to advance to a pro semi since her knee injury 3 years ago.

In the Semis

  • #1 Longoria blew out #4 Gaby 6,5 to move to the final. She continues to play lights out ball this weekend.
  • #2 Vargas held serve against #3 Herrera 10,6 to setup a 1-2 final

In the Finals, Longoria continued her complete dominance over the tour at present, topping the #2 player Vargas 7,3 to take her 103rd career LPRT Tier1 title. She now has more than a 1,000 point lead atop the LPRT rankings, a gulf that could take quite a while for even the #2 to overcome.

Mixed Pro Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: none. I have the data captured locally but there’s so few mixed pro doubles matches that we have not build out a section off of www.proracquetballstats.com.
Here’s a recap of some of the fun Mixed pro matches:

  • #1 Longoria/Landa came out configured interestingly against #16 Patrick Allin/Katie Neils, with Longoria on her backhand side. It seemed to flummox Allin and Neils, who switched back and forth to try to stem the flow of points against. In the end, the two top pro players advanced with ease 4,2.
  • #8 Jake Bredenbeck/Lawrence went tiebreaker to advance past the husband/wife pair of Alan Natera Chavez and Munoz.
  • #12 Andres Acuña/Vargas, with Acuna stepping in for original partner Moscoso, helped power the team to an “upset” over Lalo Portillo and MRR in a breaker.
  • The #4 bro/sis Parrilla team destroyed team Formulaflow ( MoMo Zelada and Laime) 5,9.
  • The biggest upset and shock of the round was the utter domination by the Manilla brother/sister team over #1 Samuel Murray/Gaby Martinez. The Manillas completely outplayed both sides of the top doubles pair and cruised to an 11,5 win.
  • the underseeded #11 De La Rosa team upset #6 Carlos Keller Vargas and Centellas 10,11 to move into the quarters.
  • The also-underseeded #10 team of Sebastian Fernandez and Herrera (who made the mixed pro doubles final in Denver), cruised past the #7 seeded team of Mario Mercado and Amaya.
  • #2 Alvaro Beltran fought off an injury sustained earlier in the evening to move into the quarters with Mendez with a close win over Jake Bredenbeck and Lexi York.

Quarter final review:

#1 Landa/Longoria continued to dominate, winning 1,10 over Bredenbeck/Lawrence. They’re going to be tough to beat.

#12 Acuna/Vargas upset the Parrilla bro/sis team in two straight to move on.

The #11 DLRs cooled the red-hot Manilla team to move on.

#10 Fernandez/Herrera upset #2 Beltran/Mendez.
So your quarters are #!, #10, #11, and #12. Which goes to show you why its so hard to predict Mixed pro doubles, or to seed it based on player rankings.
In the semis:

#1 Longoria/Landa dominated the Acuna/Vargas team to move into the final. They’re going to be tough to beat.

The DLRs got a solid comeback win, topping the Denver Finalists Fernandez/Herrera to return to the final of a mixed pro doubles major.

In the final, Longoria/Landa blew out the DLRs in game one, then hung on to take the title 3,13.

Women’s Open Singles:
The top 4 seeds advanced to the semis as expected; all four are regular LPRT touring pros.
In the semis, #1 Barrios edged #4 Munoz 11-10, while Enriquez took out #2 Centellas in a breaker. In the final, Barrios took a tight two game win over the veteran Mexican.
Women’s Open/Elite Doubles:

The San Antonio based junior pair of Shane Diaz and Naomi Ros cruised through the 5-team RR to take the title.

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

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

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

IRT is in Sarasota, LPRT is in Chicago next Weekend!

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Arizona Open LPRT & Mixed Previews


Welcome to the big Arizona Open, hosted by the one and only Jim Winterton on the grounds of Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ.
This weekend is a rarity in pro racquetball; a combined tour event with both Men and Women that features a major Mixed Pro doubles draw! Today we’ll preview the women and mixed doubles, tomorrow the IRT.
We don’t get to see mixed pro doubles much; the only tourneys i have tracked are from 2018 in Denver (won by the De La Rosas), 2019 in San Antonio (won by Natera/Mejia), 2019 in Syosset (won by DLR and Salas), and 2021 in Denver earlier this year (won by Montoya/Salas). But it is back, and we have a fantastic draw for the weekend.
We also have a full Women’s pro singles draw (31 players) and a full Men’s pro draw (with 46 players), so get ready for some great racquetball this weekend.
R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37835
top20 players missing on the women’s side: just 3 of the top 20.

Women’s top 20 players missing: #5 Mejia, #19 Riveros, and #20 Scott.

Women’s LPRT Singles.
We have nearly a full 32 here; only #1 Paola Longoria gets a bye into the 16s. Here’s some round of 32s to watch for:

  • #16/#17 should be great: two top Americans in Erika Manilla and Sheryl Lotts battle it out for a shot at #1. Look for Manilla to move on; she’ll build on her US Open finish.
  • #9/#24 features two more Americans duking it out with Rhonda Rajsich facing Lexi York.
  • Amaya Cris and María Paz Riquelme have an intra-household battle, as they have to face off on the court for the first time.
  • Kelani Lawrence takes on veteran Susy Acosta, competing in her 24th pro season.
  • #6 Angelica Barrios has a tough 1st rounder against part time tour player Michelle De La Rosa.
  • #7 Jessica Parrilla has her hands full against Ireland’s Aisling Hickey, who turned some heads with her play in Minneapolis.
  • Like with the 16/17 match, the 15/18 between Maria Renee Rodríguez and Erin Slutzky could be tight.
    projecting the 16s:
  • As if karma was making the draw, we seem set to get a rematch between #1 Longoria and #16 Manilla. Lest anyone forget, these two met in a contentious semi in Minneapolis, marred by Longoria taking a reckless shot that hit Manilla in the side of the head. All eyes will be on this match to gauge the temperature early.
  • I like the possibility of a tiebreaker between #5 Natalia Mendez Erlwein and #12 Carla Muñoz Montesinos.
  • #3 Alexandra Herrera and #14 Kelani Lawrence always play tight matches, and this should not be any different.
  • #6 Angelica Barrios and #11 Brenda Laime Jalil will have a battle; they met in the quarters in Minnesota, with Barrios ending Laime’s run, but the Colombian will be looking for revenge.
  • #7 v #10 is a classic battle of Mexican veterans in Jessica Parrilla and Nancy Enriquez. They have traded off wins back and forth, but Jessica is in better form right now.
    Projecting the Quarters:
  • #1 Longoria over #8 Centellas; The Argentine took a game off the champ in 2019 PARC, but otherwise it has been smooth sailing for the #1.
  • #4 Martinez over #5 Mendez: Mendez has toppled Gaby the last two times they have played … but Martinez seems on a mission to live up to her seeding here.
  • #6 Barrios over #3 Herrera: Barrios is too tough to beat here, and beat the lefty the only other time they played.
  • #2 Vargas over #7 Parrilla: Parrilla can’t hang with Vargas game, which is all the way back to her pre-pregnancy state.
    Semis:
  • #1 Longoria outclasses #4 Martinez. Gaby still trying to get her second win over the top player in the world (she topped Paola for the 2018 world title).
  • #2 Vargas over #6 Barrios: This is a rematch of the US Open semi, where Barrios cruised to the first game then collapsed under the weight of Vargas’ power. Expect a similar result here.
  • Final: Longoria over Vargas

Mixed Pro doubles.
There are 17 teams here this weekend, and the seeding may leave some people grumbling. But the seeding exactly matches the pro doubles rankings for the teams, so there is a methodology. Unfortunately, this method underseeded several really strong teams, which could lead to a very wide-open draw. I feel there’s at least 5 or 6 teams here that can win it. It seems like it will come down to match-ups.
In the play in, I like the outdoor specialists Patrick Allin and Katie Neils to remember how to play with a back wall and advance to face the #1 seeds.
Projecting the 16s:

  • #1 Landa/Longoria present a formidable team and should move on initially.
  • #9 Moscoso/Vargas seem under-seeded, especially since she’s the #2 player in the world and Moscoso has major doubles titles to his credit (2019 PARC, 2019 Bolvian Grand slam). They move on.
  • Another underseeded team is the De La Rosa husband/wife pair, seeded 12th. They get the upset over #5 Portillo/MRR to move on.
  • The #4 Brother/Sister Parrilla team should topple team Formulaflow Zelada/Laime.
  • #3 Murray/Martinez are my team to beat here; they start out by handling the lefty-righty brother-sister Manillas.
  • #11 features the finalists from Denver in Sebastian Fernandez and Herrera; they should “upset” #6 Keller/Centellas, though it will be very close. Centellas has long been a doubles pro, winning the 2018 worlds as a 16yr old.
  • Husband/Wife pair #10 Natera/Munoz should handle Mercado & Amaya, even though Mercado has proven how good a doubles player he can be.
  • #2 Beltran/Mendez get their tourney started by topping the younger Bredenbeck brother playing with York.
    Quarters:
  • The #1 vs #9 could be the final; it features the top two Women’s singles players and two of the top six men’s players in the world. I like the upset here; I think Moscoso will play with some passion, and I think Vargas can hang with Longoria on the forehand side. Landa regularly plays the forehand side when he plays Nationals with Sudsy Monchik or pros with Murray, and Moscoso can out shoot him on the backhand side.
  • I like the Parrillas to take out the De La Rosas in an upset. While DLR can take over a match (as we saw in Vegas), Jessica can outhit Michelle on the forehand side. It will be a close one, but look for the bro/sis to move on.
  • Murray/Martinez lost to Fernandez/Herrera in the semis in Denver 14,10. They get a rematch here, but I like the same result. If they both play forehands, the Patata/Alexandra team creates a serious strategic issue for opponents. Do they drive serve to her forehand and attempt to steal points with Gaby serving the powerful Patata on his forehand? Do they mix it up and force Gaby to play her backhand against Alexandra’s forehand?
  • #2 Beltran/Mendez are too experienced to lose to the newlyweds Natera/Munoz at this juncture; both the #2 seeds are incrementally better than their opponents and the result will show through in the score.
    Semis:
  • Moscoso/Vargas will over power the Parrillas on both sides of the ball.
  • Patata/Herrera’s matchup problems will take out Beltran/Mendez.
  • Final Herrera can’t hang with Vargas’ power, and Moscoso the shooter puts away pinch after pinch to win it for the South Americans.

Look for Men’s Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Dean DeAngelo Baer, @Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
Look for Women’s Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for @ [554433128:2048:Timothy Baghurst], Jerry J Josey Jr., JP Edwards and @ [1254655965:2048:Tj Baumbaugh] on the mike, calling the shots!
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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it.
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