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IRT 2024 Season Recap Part 1: the Top 10

Another title for Kane. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

Hello Racquetball Fans! Welcome to my annual tradition of recapping the results of the Men’s pro International Racquetball Tour season. This annual set of posts is to notify the community of the final season rankings now being loaded and live in the database, to publish some useful links wrapping up the season, and then to talk about the players.

We’ll do 3 parts:

– Part 1: Top 10 ranked players and master links

– Part 2: Players ranked 11-20

– Part 3: Notable Players ranked outside the top 20 and commentary about the state of the sport.

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First, here’s some quick links for the 2024 rankings and how they present in the database:

– 2024 Rankings, from 1-77: https://rball.pro/lwj

– 2024 Season Summary Report for all 2024 players: https://rball.pro/hx0

The season-ending ranks for each player also flow to their personal Season Summary Reports for their careers. For example, here’s Adam Manilla’s Career Season Summary report, showing his year-end rankings per season: https://rball.pro/r8k

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Now, lets run through the year’s top 10.

1. Kane Waselenchuk , He wins 4 of the 6 events for the year after missing an entire year due to his blown Achilles heel injury. He breaks several age-based records in tour history: he’s now the oldest to finish #1 by 4+ years (besting Rocky’s 2018 accomplishment) and is now oldest to win a tournament (besting Ruben’s long standing 1993 record). He wins the tour title by more than 800 points (that’s two tier 1 wins) thanks to ill-timed injuries to his strongest competitor, and things will get worse for the rest of the tour before it gets better: his first 2024 tournament to expire was a semis loss, so he’s favored to replace that result with a win to increase his lead to start the 2025 season. Some will call his 2024 performance an indictment of the depth of the tour, others will continue to see Kane for what he is: one of the most dominant individual athletes in the history of sports.

Prognosis for 2025: Honestly, I see no reason he can’t repeat as #1. The two players who can really challenge him regularly (Montoya and Moscoso) still can’t seem to put together a complete match to beat him. Kane may be 43, but he still has pinpoint accuracy on his serves and can power nearly everyone off the court without expending a ton of energy. He’s most vulnerable in events where he has to play twice in a day, or against players who can get him off-balance with the serve consistently; that’s a short list in the pro game right now. Prediction for 2025: Repeats as #1.

See https://rball.pro/4oa for more age-based records.

2. Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball : Montoya had a career season, finishing ranked #2 on tour, the highest he’s ever been ranked. He didn’t find the winner’s podium this year, but did make a final (losing 11-10 in January to Murray) and three semis along the way . After years of promise and part-time touring, he’s finally seized his spot amongst the tour elite. He also remains the #1 doubles player in the world, finishing atop the IRT Pro Doubles ranking list.

Prognosis for 2025: Montoya played every event in a season for the first time in his career, but he has a full time non-rball career that may cost him appearances here and there. I think he slips down behind Moscoso for next year. Prediction for 2025: #3.

3. Adam Manilla jumped his year-end ranking from a 2023-emulating #6 to a career-best #3 with a surprise run to the finals of the season’s final event (which awarded Grand Slam points due to the total prize purse). Manilla has toured for years now at age 29 and has generally been a “quarters” ceiling kind of player, but got a career-best win in his home event over Montoya to make his first career final and jump his ranking to #3. This was all the more impressive because, as anyone who’s run a tournament knows, running an event and trying to play in it can be really difficult.

Prognosis for next year: With all due respect to his finals run, Manilla is hitting in rarified air right now. He’s got 58 career events and has made it past the quarters just twice. I think he’ll continue to make quarter finals regularly and will finish in the 5-6 range like he did in 2023. Prediction for 2025: #6

4. Conrrado Moscoso ; Many thought 2024 would be Moscoso’s year; he ascended to #1 early in the season with DLR’s January upset and subsequent leaving the tour, and held the #1 ranking until he got hurt. Just ahead of the October 2024 Inland Empire event, Moscoso announced an arm injury and subsequent surgery for a condition that was called “periostitis.” Googling that term, we discover sometimes called “Tennis Elbow” and is a repetitive use injury. Conrrado missed the last two events of the season and slipped to 4th in the standings. As of this writing, we’re assuming he’s back and healthy for the start of the 2025 season. But time is now officially running out for Moscoso to make his mark; he’s 29, has been touring for years, and has missed a couple of real opportunities to finish #1 on tour. Interestingly though … I don’t sense that’s his real priority; based on conversations with tour insiders, Conrrado is far more interested in international titles than he is in winning a tour title. I’m sure he likes the money though that comes with IRT titles; a dollar here is worth seven Bolivanos, which makes for a great payday if he cashes cheks here.

Prognosis for 2025: assuming he’s healthy, he’ll have his work cut out for him early; being the #4 seed means he plays into #1 Kane in the semis and will struggle to defend his early 2024 results. But, if he can get himself back to the #3 slot on tour, he’ll favor his chances when he faces #2 Montoya (8-2 in their last 10 meetings). He also seems to now be free of a couple of players who have had success against him on tour (Sam Murray has 6 tour wins over Moscoso since 2018), which will clear the path for him into the later stages of events. But, I still don’t see him supplanting Kane when they meet up. Prediction for 2025: #2,

– #5 @Andree Parrilla : Another up and down season for Parrilla, who finishes 100 points behind #3 Manilla but had a better season on paper with 1 final and 2 semis reached. Still, its his sixth straight season in the top 5 on tour, but he seems mired in the 4-5 spot on tour, always coming up short against the top players on tour. Well, now one of those top players is out of the picture in DLR, so there’s room for the SLP product to move back up. He missed an event, then had an unlucky draw in Pleasanton (losing in the 16s to Lalo), else he may have easily finished 3rd this year.

Prognosis for 2025: Parrilla’s big challenge will be when running into Moscoso in the quarters in the 4/5 quarter, but once that gets cleared up Andree has owned the career h2h versus Manilla and should be favored to gradually pull ahead in the poitns race throughout 2025. Generally the only players he’s losing to right now are Moscoso & Kane. He always plays Montoya tough, if he can work his way up to force that as a regular matchup, which may help him finish high. I think though, he settles back into his regular 4/5 spot at season’s end: Prediction for 2025: #4.

#6: Andres Acuña finished around 100 points back of Parrilla for 6th, his career high finish and the sixth straight season he has improved on his season-ending ranking. He made 2 semis, 2 quarters, and had 2 round of 16 losses this year (once to Kane, once an 11-10 heart-breaker to Martell). He probably should have finished higher. Nonetheless; 2 semis are his career best, and he had a couple of really impressive results this year (a win over Montoya, plus a win over the red-hot Alonso). Acuna couldn’t stay away from Kane this year, losing to him four times in 6 events.

Prognosis for next year: If the only person you lose to is Kane, you’re going to do well on tour. Acuna is at his peak age (29) and can build on some momentum. I think he continues to get some solid wins and stays right in that 5-6 range next year. Prediction for 2025: #6

#7 Erick Trujillo finished around 100 points below Acuna and is the first player we’ve encountered in these rankings that i’d call the “new generation” of players. Every one of the following players is either 28 or 29 right now: Moscoso, Montoya, Parrilla, Manilla, Acuna, Mar, Natera, Carter. Of the regular touring players who get results, really only Trujillo and Portillo are at an age where they’re still improving as opposed to being at or near peak age 28-29. This season, Trujillo definitely had some consistency and made the quarters in 5 of 6 events (hence the #7 ranking). he had some solid wins; he beat Jake this year, has wins over Natera and Martell. He had some success at Mexican Nationals but lost to a relative unknown Acha in World Juniors.

Prognosis for next year: He should continue to make quarters, but at #7 and without the flip seeding of yester-year, he’ll continue to run into a #2 seed and lose at the quarter final stage unless he can break through with a big win and change the story. I’d like to see him with a win over Montoya or Moscoso before believing he can improve on a 7-8 range finish. he also is in jeopardy of getting passed by a couple of players who finished in the teens but who are better players. Prediction for 2025: #9.

#8 @Alan Natera showed real improvement in 2024 over past seasons, making the quarters in 4 of 6 events (versus just 2 of 9 events in 2023), but only saw his ranking rise one from the prior seasons.

Prognosis for 2025: #8/#9 can be tricky; you’re always faced with a similarly skilled opponent in the round of 16 only to face off against the top seed a round later with little hope of advancing. Natera solved these 8/9 matchups in 2025, but then would get waxed in the quarters by either Kane or Moscoso. It’s hard to break out of this spot, and for that reason I think he stays right in this general area again in 2025 save an injury above him. Prediction for 2025: #10

#9 @Jake Bredenbeck is at a career cross roads; he’s now hit age 33, which has proven to be a critical year for pro racquetball players historically. There’s dozens of examples of pro players who retired right in the 32-33 age range because they face the same problem Jake does: the tour may be passing him by. A year after he had a win and three finals, Jake failed to get even to the semis of any event this year and took four losses in the 16s or 32s (Trujillo, Flores, Alonso, and Mar). A couple of these were certainly unlucky matchups, and he can improve on his ranking for sure, but is this what he wants to keep doing?

Prognosis for 2025: He’s had some success against Natera, who he’ll run into in the 16s now, and I think he’ll be able to replace some 16s with some qtr losses. He’ll favor his chances if he’s playing Trujillo at the same junction. He can push Kane/Conrrado in a 1/8 quarter but will struggle to get to a semi going forward. At some point he may face the same question many before him have: is it worth it to tour and spend money flying around in order to get round of 16/quarter final money at best when you’re in your mid-30s and are starting to wear down physically and may be thinking about your future? I think he hangs around for one more season but time is running out. Prediction for 2025: #8.

#10T: Jaime Martell Neri and Thomas Carter . Amazingly Martell and Carter finished with identical points for the season, each making one QF and other wise losing in the 16s. I say this is amazing because players get fractional point credits for losing in three games versus two, making it really difficult to tie across an entire season. Martell achieves his first ever top 10 finish on tour after barely touring until 2017 and then not having a single IRT result for three seasons. He’s a solid player who can certainly get wins, and is dangerous if he gets hot . His quarterfinal this season was achieved with an 11-10 win over Acuna.

Meanwhile, Carter also achieves a career first top 10 and got his one quarter final this year with a solid win over Carrasco. He’s very consistent in his career: 33 round of 16 finishes across a decade of competing, with five total QFs spread across five different seasons.

Outlook for next year: I think Martell is better positioned to keep a hold of a top-10 ranking; Carter faced off against Natera in the last three events of the season in the 8/9 spot and lost each time; those have to turn into wins for Carter to move up. I’m sensing though that a couple of guys who played part time in 2024 will jump them both for the top 10 in 2025, something we’ll talk about in part 2 of this series.

Prediction for 2025: Martell #11, Carter #13.

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That’s it for Part 1. Tune in tomorrow to talk about the 11-20 ranked players for the season.

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Racquetball 2024 Year in Review

Here’s a collection of the notable/seminal moments in the sport this year, primarily focusing on those events that impacted the pro game. As I could think of them, I threw in other events of note, though I’m sure one could argue I’m missing items.

– 1/14/24: @Maria Jose Vargas wins her third straight LPRT tournament in a row, taking a commanding lead in the season to date points rankings for the 2023-24 LPRT season.

– 1/28/24: On the IRT at the season’s first event, 3-time defending champ Daniel De La Rosa is soundly defeated by Kane Waselenchuk in the round of 16 as the #1 seed,

which immediately puts a huge dagger into DLR’s fleeting chances at retaining #1 on tour for 2024. He had already announced he will not be playing a full slate of 2024 events, but losing in the 16s makes it even that much tougher. As it turned out, this was the sole IRT event DLR played on the year, with his pro pickleball commitments turning into a full time job.

– 2/1/24: Conrrado Moscoso ascends officially to #1 on the IRT for the first time, a seminal moment for the sport. This is the first time a non-north American

has held the #1 spot on tour.

– 2/11/24: LPRT #4 and USA #1Erika Manilla is forced to retire the US National singles final due to what was thought to be a back injury at the time. Subsequent tests and MRIs show that Erika suffered a hip labrum tear. She goes in for surgery to correct the issue mid March. She doesn’t return for fully 10 months, costing her huge portions of both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons as well as multiple international tournaments representing Team USA.

– 3/1/24: During the Minnesota Pro/Am, Mark Gibbs of the IRT ownership group discloses publicly that the the IRT ownership group has opened discussions

related to attempting to resurrect the US Open. This information leaks on KRG, as someone publishes the zoom link that preliminary discussions were held on without the knowledge or permission of the people on the call. Eventual discussions with the USAR board go nowhere due to the planned proximity of the US Open to 3WallBall, and the project is dropped.

– 3/3/24: Kane tops Moscoso to take the IRT Minnesota Hall of Fame event, and in doing so wins his first Tier 1 event in nearly two years. His last win was March of 2022, and he clearly showed emotions on the court after finishing off his final’s win over new IRT #1 Moscoso. With the win, he becomes the oldest player to win a Tier 1

at 42yrs, 114 days, breaking a 30-year old record held by Ruben Gonzalez.

– 3/3/24: Despite losing in the semis of the weekend’s LPRT event, Vargas ascends to #1 on tour for the first time in her career. She now leads both the rolling 365 calendar and the season to date points rank and is the odds-on favorite to take the 2023-24 title.

– 3/3/24:Paola Longoria announces her candidacy for the Mexican Chamber of Deputies (the US Equivalent of the House of Representatives) from District 5/Nuevo Leon. Elections are in June. @Samantha Salas Solis, who has family connections to Mexican politics, also runs.

– 3/24/24: Erika Manilla is featured in a full-page story in the Denver Post.

– 3/30/24: Team USA wins its first Combined Team championship in several years at the 2024 Pan Am Racquetball Championships in Guatemala.

– 4/2/24: IRT #1 Bolivian Conrrado Moscoso is chosen to light

the flame at the semi-annual Bolivarian Youth Games.

– 4/28/24: Maria Jose Vargas wins her 5th event of the season at the Sweet Caroline grand slam, essentially wrapping up the 2023-24 title. It’s her first pro title, and

she dominated the tour this year. She topped Paola in the final 11-10, and Longoria’s husband posted ugly rants on social media in the aftermath, claiming biased

refereeing (one of the line judges was Argentine for the final) as the main reason that Paola lost and has been losing all season.

– 5/25/24: Kane Waselenchuk is upset in the first round (round of 32) at the 2024 SoCal Open by Jordy Alonso . It’s the earliest defeat of his career. He had one

round of 64 forfeit from mid 2023, but otherwise he had never been defeated in any qualifying round before the 16s, even during his tour debut. As it turned out, this blip on Kane’s comeback meant little, but it propelled Alonso to make a deep run at this event and others throughout the rest of the season.

– 5/29/24: Racquetball Warehouse announces in an email to its customers that it will be closing its doors, selling itself to RacquetWorld. This is a very long-running, well known name in the industry.

– 6/5/24: Neither Longoria nor Salas, both of whom were running for the Mexican chamber of Deputies, were directly elected in the National elections. They

can still be selected/appointed by the party.

– 6/9/24: Vargas officially wins her first ever pro title by entering the season’s final event in Chesapeake and advancing past the opening rounds. She had a large enough lead on Longoria to essentially have the title wrapped up after Greenville, so this was a formality to complete her dominant season. She becomes the third

different pro to win the last three LPRT seasons.

– 8/3/24: after missing basically the entire 2023-24 season, Valeria Centellas is back and committed for the new season.

– 8/31/24: IRF Worlds are completed in San Antonio; its the first time the US has hosted a PARC or Worlds in nearly 30 years. De La Rosa wins two titles (Singles and Mixed) for team USA to power them to a #2 overall team standing behind Mexico, but then USA wins the team knockout competition to give Daniela 3-gold weekend.

– 9/1/24: Word comes out that Longoria has been selected by her party (Movimiento Ciudadano, or Citizens’ Movement, abbreviated MC) to serve in the 66th Legislature

of the Mexican Congress. This has the likelihood of restricting her travel flexibility and could impact the 2024-25 title race.

– 9/25/24: the first ever World Team Racquetball event is competed on the Las Vegas 3Wall courts. The event features four teams of players competing in doubles for a price purse. Team Dovetail wins.

– 10/4/24: Cliff Swain and Jeff Collins announce preliminary plans to bring the US open to SW Missouri State University in June 2026. They apparently

do this and publish a video before talking to the USAR board. As i can attest, being on the board for the March 2024 discussions with the IRT group, there’s a lot of steps involved with this property before it can just be handed over. I’ll certainly be curious to see how this project evolves over the next 1.5 years.

– 10/10/24: IRT #1 Conrrado Moscoso withdraws from the Inland Empire Pro/Am with an arm injury. Two days later he has surgery to treat what is described

as “periostitis” in his right arm. Then, days later the IRT issues a press release that says that the injury was “more serious than expected” and that Moscoso is now out for the rest of 2024. Moscoso’s missing the remaining events almost certainly locks up the 2024 #1 spot for Kane Waselenchuk.

– >10/13/24: Kane wins the Inland Empire event over Parrilla in a final that was marred by cross-talk between the players that spilled over into social media in the days following. More importantly, Kane regains the #1 ranking on tour for the first time since the 2021 US Open and is now the clear favorite to win the year end title at the age of 43.

– 10/20/24: In a one week period, three former IRT touring pros were all inducted into local Hall of Fames. Mike Ceresia was inducted into the Ontario Sports hall of fame, Scott Oliver was inducted into the Stockton Athletic

Hall of Fame, and Andy Roberts was inducted into the Memphis Sports Hall of Fame. Congrats to all.

– 10/31/24: young up and coming Bolivian Micaela Meneses Cuellar announces her intentions to leave the sport due to a lack of financial support from the Bolivian ministry of Health and sports and a lack of recognition to the Bicentennial Dream program. This seems to be a common refrain from Bolivian athletes, more than a dozen of whom have switched away from their home country to compete internationally for other South American countries (usually Colombia or Argentina).

– 11/5/24: Erika Manilla does a FB live session giving updates on her playing status, hip rehab, etc. She’s going to play her first tournament back at the IRT Golden State Open to test out fitness, hip, recovery, etc.

– 11/18/24: Kane Waselenchuk wins the final event of the IRT 2024 season, the Golden State Open, and with it secures his 15th career pro title. He wins in dominant

fashion, never seriously challenged, and will end up winning the year end title by more than 800 points. It is an amazing accomplishment for the 43-yr old.

After the final, he gave a heart-felt, emotional, and classy speech thanking his sponsors the tournament hosts, and his life partner for all their support in his journey back to the top from injury.

– 12/6/24: Manilla makes her return to the tour, seeded 16th at the Xmas classic. She won her opener but fell to #1 Vargas 4,8 in the round of 16. The injury ends

up costing her 10 months of the tour and she’ll have her work cut out for her to get back to the top 10 by season’s end.

– 12/9/24: Longoria re-takes #1 on tour for the first time since Dec 2023 with a win at the Xmas Classic. She’s now halfway to another pro title after two seasons of losing out to her rivals Vargas and M ejia.

– 12/15/24: IRF’s World Juniors finishes in Guatemala, with players from Mexico and Bolivia winning 29 of the 30 junior titles. Team USA had just a handful of players even making event finals and finished a distant third in the team rankings.

– Dec 2024: sources noted that Head/Penn will not renew its ball contracts that remain with any organization (they already lost the IRT contract some time ago after putting in a non-competitive bid) and sources say that Head is leaving the racquetball R&D space altogether. This would remove one of the major racquet manufacturers from the industry.

– 12/31/24: as has been known for some time, USAR’s Mike Grisz steps down from his volunteer stewardship of the role of Executive Director. Grisz’s legacy as ED will be the saving of the sport financially in the wake of the 2022 US Open financial debacle, and his championing the return of Worlds to the US in 2024.

– Dec 2024: Sudsy’s Florida based Treasure Coast series finishes for the season, having held14 events this year. It’s the only such series in the country and proof that tournament racquetball can still be successful. Monchick, who has relocated to the Pacific Northwest for work, is planning to continue the series in his new home area.

– 12/20/24: Major News in the pro sport: the IRT has reorganized and installed Keith Minor as the new majority shareholder. Minor has brought in a new leadership team and shaken up the existing organizational structure. Former IRT owner/commissioner (he was the commissioner from 2001-2009) Dave Negrete returns as the President of the tour and returns as its new Commissioner. Former Commissioner Pablo Fajre drops to be the Deputy Commissioner but retains the title of Head of Media. Pro player Adam Manilla is installed as the VP and Secretary of the tour. Immediately, there’s action taken on the months-dormant IRT website, with four new events announced for the first quarter of 2024.

– 12/21/24: USAR announces the “Office of the Executive Director” as the replacement for Mike Grisz. A three-woman team of Karen Grisz, Cheryl Kirk, and Kristin Wattz will share the executive duties of the sport on a volunteer basis going forward.

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Tags

International Racquetball Tour

LPRT

USA Racquetball

International Racquetball Federation – IRF

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2024 Outdoor Cup Series Final Standings and Analysis

With the end of the 2024 3Wall Ball championships also comes the conclusion of the 2024 Outdoor Cup series for the season. The cup series, which are sponsored by KWM Gutterman Inc. on the Men’s side and by @LPL Financial for the women, are a year-long competition for pro players who compete in all three outdoor “Majors” (which are Beach Bash in March, Outdoor Nationals in July, and Vegas 3WB in Sept).

Here’s a recap of the final standings.

Men’s Outdoor Cup Final top 5:

1. Eduardo Portillo Rendon , 1332 points

2. Kane Waselenchuk , 1281 points

3. Chris McDonald, 1153 points

4. Robert Sostre , 1015 points

5. Alvaro Beltran , 1015 points.

Top 5 finisher discussion: usually the winner of these cup competitions is the player who did the best across all three competitions, rewarding consistency across 1-wall in Florida, then big-court 3-wall in Huntington Beach, and then 40×20 3-wall plus 1-wall in Vegas. This year though, we saw all top 5 finishers do all their damage in just two of the three events, pipping those who did manage to play all three in the end.

This competition went to the very end; if Lalo hadn’t won the pro doubles final, Kane would have taken the cup. Winner Portillo took home 3 titles this year; singles at OutdoorNats, the big 3-wall doubles title with Alvi in Vegas, plus the one-wall mixed title with Herrera. He alos had a one-wall doubles final and made the semis of every other pro division he entered. He’s put his name out there as the next big thing in Outdoor for sure. 2nd place Kane left Huntington Beach in 2nd place after his two titles there, but a couple of early exits in Vegas cost him the points he needed to win despite his and 3rd place finisher McDonald’s dominant Vegas CPRT win. Floridian and 3rd place McDonald probably could have won this cup if he had any results in his home-state Beach Bash, but he still leaves 2024 with a slew of titles. 4th place finisher Iceman Sostre was tied for 1st after a two-title beach bash performance, but had to miss Outdoor Nationals and suffered a couple of very early upsets in Vegas. Lastly, 5th place Alvi probably is more happy with a Vegas pro doubles title than a cup title, but his win in Vegas propelled him from 19th after HB to 5th here.

Notables in the 6-12 range: Rocky Carson was in 1st place after HB and should have been a shoe-in, but he only played two of the points-earning divisions in Vegas and suffered an uncharacteristic round of 16 upset loss in Men’s Pro Doubles to seal his fate in this competition. @Javier Mar finished 7th despite only playing in Vegas; he won men’s doubles, made the final of both Men’s and Mixed 3-wall doubles, and for me is now the best one-wall player in the world. @Benny Goldenberg was tied for 1st after a two-win Beach Bash, but suffered a couple of exits in the 16s in Vegas. #9 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball only played in Vegas and is a relative outdoor newbie, but did team with Mar to take one-wall doubles. Lastly #10 DJ Mendoza , the Beach Bash Singles winner, played all three events this year, the highest ranking player to do so, but failed to have the doubles impact he needed along the way to push for this title. #11 @Thomas Gerhardt played in all three events with solid results, and #12 @Adam Manilla was the lowest-cup ranked event winner with his Vegas mixed title.

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Women’s Cup Top 5

1. Brenda Laime Jalil , 1088 points

2. Michelle Key , 1070 points

3. Carla Muñoz , 913 points

4. Kelani Lawrence , 746 points

5. @Alexandra Herrera , 600 points

Discussion: Like with the men, we didn’t know who was going to take the Cup until the end of Sunday in Vegas. Laime was in two sunday finals and only had to win one of them to claim the cup, and that’s exactly what she did, winning the Mixed 3-wall with Manilla to also claim the cup. Manilla also took Women’s doubles in California plus the 1-wall women’s doubles title in Vegas this year and really made a statement about the pecking order of outdoor players. 2022 Cup winner Key just missed out on the title, winning a title in each of the three majors but suffering early upsets in most of the Vegas events to cost her the points she needed. Key was 2nd after Beach Bash and 1st after Outdoor Nationals, but was caught by Laime in the end. 3rd place Munoz just couldn’t overcome missing Beach Bash this year, but still took three titles between California and Vegas. Lawrence took home a title in Florida and was in 1st place in the Cup standings after Beach Bash, but her two finals in Vegas weren’t enough to move her further up the chain.

Notables outside of top 5: #6 Katie Neils took home her 3rd major doubles title in Florida and made the finals in California . #7 @Montse Mejia only played in Vegas but made the Mixed final and two semis. #8 @Paola Longoria won the Vegas women’s doubles with partner Key, enough to power her into the top 10. California junior @Victoria Rodriguez finished 9th, and last year’s cup winner @Hollie Scott made the one-wall final in Vegas to slip into the top 10.

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The top finishers of both cups won $1000 plus a suite-stay at The STRAT Las Vegas . 2nd place won $250 and some additional merch.

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Here’s links to the full points worksheets in Google XLS:

– Men: https://rball.pro/c5y or

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YkLkhbbgY3pNjW5YRb12fXHAI_LnVNFx/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102402795225850924380&rtpof=true&sd=true

– Women: https://rball.pro/zvw

or

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gpMyYigsDvwwP5Hk-X3BEiyVZaKjL4X1RhB5UjByXv4/edit?usp=sharing

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In Memory: Dr. Richard “Dick” Krinsky

Dr Krinsky was the long-time coach of the Colorado State University – Pueblo (formerly known as the University of Southern Colorado), and was one of the most successful and decorated college coaches in the sport’s history. CSU-Pueblo is a standard bearer for collegiate programs in this country, and has competed against bigger and more well-funded schools for decades. Krinsky’s accomplishments earned him entry into his school’s athletic hall of fame in 2015, an amazing achievement for a racquetball-affiliated person. He deserves consideration for the USA Hall of Fame for his contributions to collegiate racquetball and to his home program.

After a battle with cancer, Dr. Krinsky passed away on 9/10/24.

Achievements:

– 5-time Overall National Champion: Dominated as the overall national champion in the years 1998-2000, 2018, and 2019.

– 14-time Men’s Team Title: Led the men’s team to 9 consecutive titles from 2004 to 2012.

– 1-time Women’s Team Title: Guided the women’s team to their first title in 2019.

– 118 Individual Titles: Secured 118 individual titles across men’s and women’s singles and doubles events.

Honors:

– CSU-Pueblo Athletics 2015 Hall of Fame Inductee: Recognized for exceptional contributions to sports as a special contributor. See https://gothunderwolves.com/honors/csu-pueblo-athletics-hall-of-fame/dr-richard-krinsky/58 for CSU Pueblo Athletics Hall of Fame page.

Contributions:

– Recruitment: Successfully recruited numerous student-athletes from both the US and internationally, enhancing the team’s talent and diversity.

– Fundraising and Development: Led fundraising efforts resulting in the construction of the only squash courts south of Colorado Springs, significantly boosting the local sports infrastructure. This record of achievement and contribution demonstrates an exceptional career deserving of hall of fame recognition.

Thanks to @jJeremy Mcglothin for the information contained herein.

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Dr. Bud Muehleisen (10/9/31 – 9/8/24)

One of the legends of our sport is no longer with us. Dr. Bud Muehleisen passed away early morning on 9/8/24 from a stroke in Fridley, Minnesota.

Dr. Bud, as he was known, was one of the very first champions of Racquetball, winning the 1969 US National title after pivoting from paddleball (where he had taken the 1966 and 1968 National titles). Once he began playing racquetball, he paired with the other top paddleball champion-convert to racquetball in Charlie Brumfield to form the most dominant doubles team of the early era. The pair, who both lived in Southern California, were instrumental in the early 1970s growth of pro racquetball, and were also the first outdoor national champions in 1974.

Dr. Bud was already in his mid 30s when he pivoted to racquetball and retired from pro play in early 1977 to focus on his career and volunteerism in the sport. He still played amateur divisions and won dozens of national titles along the way. He served on the IRA board for years (IRA was the precursor to the modern day USA Racquetball organization), helped define the rules of the sport, worked with manufacturers during the sport’s 1970s boom, was a frequent contributor to National Racquetball Magazine, and was a coach/mentor for years. To this day, the “Bud Muehleisen Award” is given out every year to the best male age group player of the year.

The “Doctor” of “Dr. Bud” was for dentistry, and he practiced for decades in La Mesa, a suburb of San Diego. He never forgot his roots though, and was a frequent visitor at the US Open and other major events.

He was in the inaugural inductee class to the USAR Hall of Fame in 1974 along with Joe Sobek, who invented the sport.

There are excellent tributes to Dr. Bud in Classic Racquetball from Chelsea George, who knew him well and was of the era. His HoF bio and his wikipedia page also give great details.

Borrowing from @Sudsy Monchik’s post: Condolences can be sent to Shannon Wright and family here (506 Rice Creek Terrace, Fridley MN 55432).

  • USA Racquetball Hall of Fame: https://www.usaracquetball.com/about/hall-of-fame
  • Bud Muehleisen award: https://www.usaracquetball.com/about/annual-awards
  • Paddleball Nat’l champs: https://paddleball.org/pdf/singles.pdf
  • USA Amateur Nat’l Champs: https://rball.pro/85i
  • Outdoor Nationals Doubles champs: https://rball.pro/9fk
  • Dr’ Bud’s career Pro/National match record: https://rball.pro/mt8
  • Dr Bud’s wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Muehleisen
  • Chelsea’s Classic Racquetball remembrance post: https://www.facebook.com/groups/917996761894504/permalink/2229475790746588

Thanks Dr. Bud for everything you did for our sport.

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IRF Worlds Team Competition Wrap-up

Final report from San Antonio; a quick word about the Team Competition (not to be confused with the Team ranks created by summing up points from the individual competitions).

All 16 countries who had enough players to field a full team (Italy, Denmark, and Eritrea had individuals competing but not enough for a team) participated in the Davis Cup style competition, which had two rounds of singles and then a doubles match to break the tie. There were both men and women’s competitions, which added together to name a Combined winner as well.

Here were the results.

Men’s Team: USA topped Canada in the final to claim the Men’s team title and finish off a 3-gold weekend for Daniel De La Rosa . Canada upset both #2 Mexico and #3 Bolivia to get to the finals in a great showing from Samuel Murray and Coby Iwaasa .

Men’s Results:

1. USA

2. Canada

3rd: Mexico and Costa Rica

Women’s Team: #1 Mexico completed the perfectly-chalk draw by topping #2 Argentina in the final. Mexico was pressed in the quarters with a shock defeat of @Paola Longoria by former LPRT touring pro-turned ER physician Frederique Lambert , but the Mexican doubles team prevailed to move on.

Women’s Results:

1. Mexico

2. Argentina

3rd: USA and Bolivia

When adding Men’s and Women’s results together to declare a combined team winner, USA and Mexico tied at the top … and Mexico won the tie-breaker to claim the Combined title.

Combined Results:

1. Mexico

2. USA

3rd: Canada and Argentina.

——————–

Impact for the 2025 World Games.

These 2024 worlds served as a qualifier for the 2025 World Games. You can read their release here: https://www.internationalracquetball.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IRF-Qualification-TWG2025s.pdf

Per this release, the “The final results of the Overall Combined Racquetball Championships San Antonio 2025 will be the qualifying event for The World Games Chengdu 2025.” We also know from the release that the available slots are divided/reserved for groups of countries as follows:

– Asia (including the host country China): 4 teams

– Europe: 4 teams

– The Americas: 8 teams

So, based on the final Combined results, who qualified and who didn’t? Here’s the exact results of the Combined Team play:

1. Mexico: Americas #1

2. USA: Americas #2

3. Canada: Americas #3

4. Argentina: Americas #4

5. Bolivia: Americas #5

6. Costa Rica: Americas #6

7. Guatemala: Americas #7

Now, here’s where it gets tricky. Three Countries, all from the Americas, tied for 8th in Combined: Chile, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. How will the 8th team be selected? I have no idea. Chile had better individual results in the individual play stage, but that may not be the tie-breaker used.

8t: Chile: America’s #8

8t: Ecuador: Americas 1st Alternate

8t: Dominican Republic: Americas 2nd alternate

11t: South Korea: Asia #2 (China as host is Asia #1)

11t: Japan: Asias #3

11t: Ireland: Europe #1

14t: India: Asia #4

14t: Colombia: Americas 3rd alternate

14t: Germany: Europe #2

Two other European teams competed at Worlds (Italy and Denmark) but they did NOT compete in the team event due to lack of personnel. Do they get Europe’s #3 and #4 spots? I don’t know.

So, assuming I’ve got this all right, here’s the 16 teams that have first right of refusal for the World Games in 2025:

– Asia: China, Japan, South Korea, India

– Europe: Ireland, Germany, Italy, Denmark

– Americas: Mexico, USA, Canada, Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Chile.

The eventual SEEDING once WG2025 starts will be determined (as is pointed out on the 2nd page of the above PDF link) by the finish in the individual events Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, and Mixed. So that’ll mean (factoring in tiebreakers in the 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8 spots):

Men’s Singles: USA, Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Guatemala, India

Women’s Singles: Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, USA, Bolivia, Italy, Canada

Mixed Doubles: USA, Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, South Korea, Canada.

I could be wrong here; take this with a grain of salt. At least we have racquetball at the 2025 World Games!

Congrats again to all the winners, congrats to the IRF and USAR and all the San Antonio racquetball supporters who made this happen, including the Sudsy Monchik-led team that did a Centurion fundraiser.

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New Report at Pro Racquetball Stats: Most Seasons for a player

While writing the content for this past weekend’s LPRT event, I made mention of the fact that @Susy Acosta was in the draw, and that this would be her 27th season with at least one appearance. I knew it was 27 because I counted the lines on my screen from her Season Summary report. However, I didn’t know whether that was a record or not because … i never have written a query or report to answer that question.

Now I have.

And the answer is … with this appearance, Acosta is now tied with Cheryl Gudinas for having played in 27 different pro seasons, the most all time on the LPRT.

Here’s that new query, available on the report selection page of the ProRacquetballStats.com page in the bottom/General section titled “Most Seasons.”

Here’s a link to the Women’s report: https://rball.pro/nqd

And here’s the link for the Men: https://rball.pro/uvo

(Before you click on the reports, try to guess the top 5 for each as a fun exercise).

The report will also work in other databases like Juniors, Amateurs, WOR, etc. So you could get a list of how many times a certain player has played their country’s nationals or international competitions (run the one for Amateur singles and all the players with the most seasons are Canadians).

Enjoy!

I’m always open to report suggestions by the way, if you think of something you’d like to see in racquetball match data.

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2024 Mexican Junior Nationals Recap

This past weekend featured the 2024 Mexican Junior National tournament in Monterrey, Mexico. Mexico is the last of the “big 3” North American countries to hold its Junior Nationals, and the results of these events determine the national team members that will represent their country at the upcoming World Juniors in Guatemala in Late November/Early December.

Here’s a quick recap of the qualifiers and some commentary.

Mexican Junior tournament and qualification goes as follows: the entrants play a double elimination draw; the winner of the winner’s bracket is the champion and Junior National titlist, while the winner of the loser’s bracket is the 2nd player to join the delegation. This consolation bracket champ often is not the winner’s bracket finalist, and the format gives players hope of getting back on the team even with an early loss (read down for more). Mexico does not play any official doubles competitions at its junior nationals; the singles qualifiers will form the doubles teams at Worlds (unless something’s changed this year, because they played a full set of Mixed doubles divisions but not gender doubles.).

R2 site for 2024 Mexican Jr Nationals: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=42398

Congrats to the following Boys singles finalists for team Mexico:

(click here https://rball.pro/olf for a Matrix of all Mexican boy’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)

– Boys 21U: Sebastian Hernandez & Erick Trujillo.

– Boys 18U: Jorge Gutierrez & Eder Renteria

– Boys 16U: Nicholas Galindo & Sebastian Ruelas

– Boys 14U: Brian Axel Sanchez & Santiago Castillo

– Boys 12U: Max Soto & Alejandro Robles Picon

– Boys 10U: Kerman Damian Gracia & Santiago Gullen

– Boys 8U: Daniel Alejandro Ayala & Yacu Hernandez

– Boys 8Udb: Enrique Rivera & Massimo Loretto Bustillo

Commentary on the older divisions:

Boys 21U gave us a big surprise early, as #2 seed and 10th ranked IRT player @Erick Trujillo was shocked by little-known @Christhian Sanchez in the opening round, knocking him from title contention. Sanchez then topped Luis Renteria (who was on the 18U team last year) to open some eyes before falling to Hernandez. Last year’s champion and #1 seed Diego Gastelum cruised to the final but was topped by 2022 18U champ @Sebastian Hernandez. Gastelum then got knocked out by Trujillo for the second team spot in the consolation final; Trujillo won 7 straight loser’s bracket matches to secure his spot in Guatemala.

Boys 18U featured a repeat winner in @Jorge Gutierrez, who did not drop a game and won the final 2,4,2. It’s the fourth straight junior national title for Jorge, to go along with several junior world titles. Gutierrez might be better than any of the 21U players right now, but has just one IRT appearance (in 2022 as a 16yr old). Lets hope he can find his way to some pro events soon. Eder Renteria , who owns 6 mexican junior titles himself. secured the 2nd national team spot as he moves up to 18U.

Boys 16U’s champ Nicholas Galindo hadn’t won a junior title in Mexico since 2016, but lived up to his seeding and knocked off last year’s champ and #1 seed

Sebastian Alejandro Ruelas in the final. Ruelas salvaged the second national team spot by taking the consolation bracket.

Bryan Axle Sanchez repeated in 14U. In 12U, Max Soto moved up from 12U to take the crown. Interestingly, four-time USA junior national champ Alejandro Robles Picon competed in Mexico and secured the second 12U national team spot. He won USA’s 12U last year. In 10U, Kerman Damian Gracia wins his 2nd junior title. New winners were had in both 8U and 8Udb.

—-

Congrats to the following Girls Singles finalists for team Mexico:

(click here: https://rball.pro/qcm for a Matrix of all Mexican Girls’s titlists loaded into the database currently, dating to 2012)

– Girls 21U: Ivanna Balderama & Angela Veronica Ortega

– Girls 18U: Yanna Salazar & Cynthia Gutierrez

– Girls 16U: Miranda Bazzara & Andrea Perez Picon

– Girls 14U: Danna Portillo & Danna Hernandez

– Girls 12U: Grissel Gómez Rubio & Michelle Gomez

– Girls 10U: Lia Montserrat Gonzalez Perez & Lia Medrano

– Girls 8Udb: Jocelyn_Dominguez_Chavez & Andrea_Carrasco

Commentary on the older divisions:

21U sees a changing of the guard, as 2-time defending champ Maria Gutierrez ahs aged out, and last year’s finalist and #1 seed Leonela Osorio failed to secure one of the two spots. Instead they go to @Ivanna Balderrama , who moved up to 21U for the first time this year and who hadn’t won a junior title since 2019. The 2nd spot goes to frequent LPRT tour player @AAngela Veronica Vera Ortega .

In 18U, defending champ Cynthia Gutierrez was upset by rising 17yr old @Yanna Salazar , runner-up last year in 16U. Salazar topped Gutierrez both in the round robin stage and then again for the title. Last year’s 16U title winner Trujillo failed to secure a team spot as she moved up to the competitive 18U division.

In 16U, Miranda Bazzara, the 14U titlist two years ago, took the division as the #1 seed. In the semis she took out last year’s 14U champ Farias, and then in the final, she topped Andrea Perez Picon, who like her brother is switching to represent Mexico for now, or for this year (if they have dual citizenship, they can continue to play for/represent either country I believe).

in 14U, last year’s finalist Danna Portillo went a step further and secured the title. In 12U, Grissel Gomez Rubio dethroned the defending champ Michelle Gomez. Lastly we got new winners in 10U and 8U divisions for Mexico.

———————–

Congrats to all the Mexican Junior National title winners for 2024, and congrats to the National team qualifiers as well.

Congrats to Favio Soto for another successful Mexican national tournament.

International Racquetball Tour

@LPRT

Federación Mexicana de Raquetbol

International Racquetball Federation – IRF

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2024 Outdoor Cup Series Standings post Outdoor Nationals.

Carson takes over the lead in the Outdoor Cup for 2024. Photo by Rick Bernstein, 2022 Beach Bash

Now that the 50th annual Outdoor Nationals is in the rear-view mirror, here’s an update on the standings for the 2024 Outdoor Cups, brought to you by LPL Financial (for the Women) and KWM Gutterman Inc. for the Men.

For those not familiar, the Outdoor Cup series calculates points earned by players in pro divisions at all three Outdoor “Majors” (Beach Bash, Outdoor Nationals, and 3WallBall in Vegas) and gives awards to the top finishers.

Here’s where we stand after the second major of the 2024 season.

—————————————–

Men’s Cup Series:

Full Standings xls: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YkLkhbbgY3pNjW5YRb12fXHAI_LnVNFx/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102402795225850924380&rtpof=true&sd=true

1. With a big tournament in Huntington Beach, @Rocky Carson has jumped from #6 after Beach Bash to be in 1st place by a fair margin of the Outdoor cup standings after Outdoor Nationals. He won the pro doubles and made the final of the CPRT. Had he entered singles or mixed, he might be even further ahead.

2. King Kane Waselenchuk vaults up to #2 in the standings after winning Men’s Pro and CPRT doubles in California.

3. Chris McDonald, who did not play Beach Bash despite it being drive-able from his home in Gainesville, jumps to 3rd place in the standings with a stupendous showing in California last weekend. He won CPRT with Kane, won Mixed with @Michelle Key, won a third division with his brother, and made the quarters before an injury to his partner forced his team out of pro doubles. He’s committed already to Vegas and his partnership with Kane looks quite fruitful; it will be interesting to see who Kane chooses to play Pro Doubles with at 3WB.

4. The two leaders post Beach Bash (Robert Sostre and @Benny Goldenberg) remain tied for 4th in the standings. Both are Vegas regulars and could push for the top 3 with good showings, but both are also inarguably one-wall guys which will make things tough.

Notables in the 6-10 range: DJ Mendoza , the Beach Bash winner, had a quiet HB events but remains in 6th place. @Eduardo Portillo , who missed the Beach Bash, took Outdoor Nationals singles and made the semis in both Men’s and Mixed doubles and sits in 7th place. Thomas Gerhardt and Walter Ramos sit 8th and 10th respectively with solid showings across the board at both majors so far. @Josh Tucker lost in the final of Pro Doubles and retains 9th place on the rankings.

—————————————–

Women’s Cup Series:

Full Standings xls: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gpMyYigsDvwwP5Hk-X3BEiyVZaKjL4X1RhB5UjByXv4/edit?usp=sharing

1. Michelle Key got a win and a final in California and took over #1 in the rankings after doing the same in Beach Bash earlier this year. She has a pretty sizeable lead and probably cannot be caught for the 2024 title unless she misses 3WB.

2. @Carla muñoz had about as good of an event as one could hope for in California, winning two pro titles and making the final of the third. This is enough to vault her into 2nd place despite missing the Beach Bash event altogether.

2. Arizona’s @Katie Neils sits tied for 2nd with Munoz on the strength of a finals appearance in California and the Beach Bash pro title, both earned with fellow Arizona resident Key. She’ll have her work cut out for her to break into the top 2 in Vegas.

4. @Kelani Lawrence , who was in the lead post Beach Bash, has slipped to 4th after having to miss Outdoor Nationals this year.

5. Brenda Laime ‘s strong Outdoor Nats event (a win, a final, and the Mixed semis) was enough to push her to 5th place. She only trails 2nd place by 90 points though, which can be attained with a solid showing in Vegas.

Notables in the 6-10 range: Jessica Parrilla and @Veronica Sotomayor were both in the top 5 post BB but now sit 6th and 7th respectively. Leoni is a Vegas favorite but Vero hasn’t (to my knowledge) ever played Vegas, so we’ll see what happens. Vero and @Sudsy Monchik recently relocated to the Pacific Northwest, which might make a Vegas trip more attainable though. 16-yr old @Victoria Rodriguez got a couple of semis in HB and now sits 8th. Two Floridians who were top10 post Beach Bash (@Delia Silva and @Chanis Leon hold on to their top 10 spots for now.

———————–

We’ll revisit the Outdoor Cup after the year’s last major, that being 3Wall Ball to be held in late September in Vegas.

@World Outdoor Racquetball

@USA Racquetball

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LPRT 2023-24 Season in Review Part 3

Maria Renee Rodriguez took a big step back touring this year while completing school. Photo 2022 Outdoor Nats via Steve Fitzsimons

In this last part of the 2023-24 season recap, we will highlight notables outside the top 20 and then wrap up with a list of the notable news items from a historical perspective.

—

– #22 Sheryl Lotts missed most of the season’s events after moving to Florida, but was a regular training partner there with Sudsy Monchik and Veronica Sotomayor and is seemingly well positioned to return to the tour and regain her mid-teens expectations.

– #25 @Maria Renee Rodriguez, a mainstay on tour for years, took most of this season off while she finished off a master’s degree at Liberty University. She remains on the Guatemalan national team and earns their stipend, but sources tell me she’s career focused going forward and will continue to be stepped back from the tour.

– #26 Martina Katz, just recently matriculating from the U21 ranks, traveled up from Argentina for a couple pro events this year. She’s held her own against the best of her age groups in international competitions for years and would fare quite well if she could join the Vargas/Mendez travel train up and down the Americas.

– #28 Frederique Lambert made it to two events, not bad for a full-time practicing physician. She continues to own the #1 spot for Canada.

– #30 @Valeria Centellas has completely stepped back from touring after being an incredibly promising junior coming out of Bolivia/Argentina. My sources tell me there might be money issues to fund travel for Centellas. My other sources tell me she’s expected to be back for the beginning of the next season.

– #32 @Veronica Sotomayor recently relocated to the Pacific Northwest, which would make it even tougher for her to commit to touring. Many believe her performance in limited appearances would warrant a return to the top 10 if she toured regularly; odds are we’ll never find out.

– #32 @Maricruz Ortiz has gotten great international wins, but has never really made that big of an impression on the pro tour.

– #32 @Adriana Riveros, a stalwart on tour for a decade, played in just one event this year.

– #32 @Victoria Rodriguez is one of the best US juniors to come up in years. The 16yr old just made the US Junior national team, has been a regular in outdoor events for a couple years now, and will be very interesting to see on tour if/when she can.

– #41 @Susana Acosta got one appearance in this year to extend her season streak to 26. She’s played in a pro event every season for 26 years in a row.

– #42 Annie Roberts , the reigning intercollegiate champ and three-time defending U21 champion, could only get to one pro event while going to college full time and getting married this year.

– #42 Lucia Gonzalez , who always seems to get wins against top 8 players at Mexican Nationals, made just one event t his year.

– #47 @Erica Williams , better known for her outdoor exploits and being one of the leading outdoor programming promotors in the sport in her home area of the Bay Area, entered one pro event.

Players who were unranked this season of note:

– Texan @Linda Tyler usually makes a couple events a year but missed this season.

– As noted above, top-ranked Bolivians @Jenny Daza, @Michele Meneses and @Yazmine Sabja missed this season entirely. All are top 15 quality players.

– @Adrienne Haynes failed to play an event this season for the first time in 23 years.

– Top Mexican Ana Laura Flores is reportedly going to Law School and has curtailed training.

– The #1 in Ireland @Aisling Hickey, who got a couple of solid wins last season while working in the US, did not play any pro events this year.

– It was an off year in general for the whole new generation of top Mexican junior girls coming up: where were the likes of Daniela Rico, Angela Veronica Ortega, Cynthia Gutierrez, Maria Gutierrez, Ximena Gonzalez, or the Aguilara clan?

– Quick follow-up from a previous post: Barrios struggled to make events this year because she’s going to medical school. So, that’s awesome for her personal career, but probably a Lambert-like dagger for her racquetball career.

—–

Lastly, notable LPRT news items for the season,

– 6/21/23: Just ahead of the 2023 Central American & Caribbean championships, an article comes out that seems to indicate that Paola Longoria’s long-simmering conflict with Conade has reached a conclusion in her favor. She implies that the lawsuit that conade filed against the athletes for back payments has been dismissed.

– 10/18/23: Cristina Amaya releases a video ahead of the Pan Am games that details her struggles with the Colombian olympic committee, revealing that she was cut off

of her government salary in November 2022 and that furthermore even though Amaya and Riquelme had qualified for the Pan Am games that their spots were given away. Amaya still traveled to Chile to referee, but her dreams of competing in the Pan am games were shattered. This situation still infuriates me; clearly someone at the IRF allowed these two players, who do a ton for the game, to miss deadlines to enter the Pan Am games, and gave away their slots to other players from other countries. Someone at the IRF could have dropped a dime here to let Amaya/Riquelme know they had to file paperwork, but didn’t. It’s shameful.

– >12/11/23: With her semi-finals loss at the 2023 Xmas Classic, Paola Longoria will drop to #3 on tour. It is believed to be the first time since roughly October 2008 that

Longoria was not ranked #1 or #2 on tour. Vargas takes the event and moves to #2 ahead of Longoria and is now within strikign distance of #1 Mejia, who she’s beaten twice in the last three LPRT events.

– 1/14/24: Maria Jose Vargas wins her third straight tournament in a row, taking a commanding lead in the season to date points ranking.

– 2/11/24: LPRT #4 and USA #1 Erika Manilla is forced to retire the US National singles final due to what was thought to be a back injury at the time. Subsequent test and MRIs show that Erika suffered a hip labrum tear. She goes in for surgery to correct the issue mid March, but the injury costs her several LPRT stops, and she’ll be laid up for 6 months.

– 3/3/24: Despite losing in the semis, Vargas ascends to #1 on tour for the first time in her career. She now leads both the rolling 365 calendar and the season to date points rank and is the odds-on favorite to take the title. Defending tour champ Mejia drops to 2nd on tour, and now sits a distant 3rd in the season to date points race, having failed to win an event this season after her dominant 2022-23.

– 3/3/24: Paola Longoria announces her candidacy for the Mexican Chamber of Deputies (the US Equivalent of the House of Representatives) from District 5/Nuevo Leon. Elections are in June. Salas apparently is also running in teh same election.

– 3/24/24: Erika Manilla is featured in a full-page story in the <a href=”https://www.denverpost.com/2024/03/24/erika-manilla-pro-racquetball-player/”>Denver Post</a>.

– 4/28/24: Maria Jose Vargas wins her 5th event of the season at the Sweet Caroline grand slam, essentially wrapping up the 2023-24 title. It’s her first title, and

she dominated the tour this year. She topped Paola in the final 11-10.

– 4/28/24: After the 11-10 loss, Longoria’s new husband posted accusations on social media in the aftermath, claiming biased refereeing (one of the line judges was Argentine for the final) as the main reason that Paola lost this event. The issue does highlight the difficulties the tour has in finding “unbiased” refs for a group of women who all travel together to the same events. The IRF solves this by spending thousands of dollars flying in referees from a wide variety of countries, but nearly the entire LPRT tour comes from just a few countries, making it difficult sometimes to find neutral refs.

– 6/5/24: Neither Longoria nor Salas, both of whom were running for the Mexican chamber of Deputies, were directly elected in the National elections. They

can still be selected/appointed by the party.

– 6/9/24: Vargas officially wins her first ever pro title by entering the season’s final event in Chesapeake and advancing past the opening rounds. She had a large enough lead on Longoria to essentially have the title wrapped up after Greenville, so this was a formality to complete her dominant season. She becomes the third

different pro to win the last three LPRT seasons.