Welcome to the annual season-ending series of posts recapping the season ending standings. We’ll split this post into 4 parts, since its so long and, well, lets be honest, I don’t write short articles
Part 1: reference links to various year-end resources of note. (this post)
Part 2: the top 10
Part 3: 11-20
Part 4: notables ranked 21st and above
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This will be a bullet point post of all sorts of IRT and Pro Racquetball Stats references that you may or may not know about. Enjoy!
– The 2022 season ending standings were finalized at the end of the final event of the 2022 season, the John Pelham Memorial in Portland. Those rankings are here https://irttour.com/rankings/ .
We’ve captured the year end rankings to the database now, and the rankings now flow to Seasonal and Player reports.
– Here’s the 2022 season ending rankings persisted into the database: https://rball.pro/4gr .
– Here’s the Season Summary report for the tour, showing players and their year end ranking. https://rball.pro/y7h
– Here is the Season Seed report, showing all the players and their seeds as they changed throughout the nine tournaments this season: https://rball.pro/jg4
– This is a listing of every player who appeared this season, along with their Player Profile data (all the demographic data I have on the player). https://rball.pro/zz4 .
If you see your name on this report and i have bad or missing data, please DM me corrections and updates!
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At the bottom of the main Report page for the IRT, I have a slew of text files that i’ve maintained for more than 20 years now. These links often go over looked but I thought i’d do a quick run through them here:
– Detailed Season by Season Narratives: this is a very detailed document where I keep a running list of “tour news” about players and the sport. I’ve been able to keep this going for more than 15 years now and hope it serves as a great history read of tour happenings over the years.
A text-based list of all “majors” in the sport’s history. You can also get this out of the database, but this text file organizes the majors by their names.
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Stay tuned for part 2 of this season recap; a review of the top 10 players.
De La Rosa wins the 2022 LPL Financial cup.
Photo 2022 Outdoor Nats via Fitzsimons
The final Outdoor Major of the year, the 2022 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships which finished off a week ago Sunday in Las Vegas, also marked the culmination of the year-long Outdoor cup series competitions.
De La Rosa led the competition from start to finish and removed any doubt of her Outdoor dominance by winning three titles in Las Vegas. Scott was ranked 5th after Beach Bash but reached all three finals at Outdoor Nationals and secured the One-Wall Mixed title in Vegas to clinch 2nd place. Munoz finished 3rd despite missing the Beach Bash event entirely; her four pro titles trail only De La Rosa for the most of any outdoor player in 2022.
The rest of the top 10 players with their 2022 outdoor highlights:
4. @Katie Neil , who won the Beach Bash women’s pro doubles title and made two one-wall semis in Vegas.
5. @Kelani Lawrence , who made the Outdoor Nationals pro doubles final with her frequent partner Scott.
6. Brenda Laime , who finishes 6th despite only playing in Vegas. She made the final of both 3-wall pro doubles events (Women’s and Mixed) in Vegas and was a break-out star.
7. Erika Manilla , who won Beach Bash doubles with Neils but who missed Outdoor Nationals during her hectic travel summer representing USA as our reigning National singles champ.
8. Alexandra Herrera , the LPRT #2 who played outdoor for the first time ever in Vegas and made three pro finals in her first foray into the outdoor game.
9. Janel Tisinger , who won Vegas 3-wall doubles with mDLR and made the singles final but who missed the other two outdoor majors.
10. Jessica Parrilla , who had solid results at both Outdoor Nats and Vegas.
De La Rosa completes a dominant showing in the Cup Series and was in first place after all three Outdoor Majors. He finishes the year with five outdoor pro titles. Portillo improved his standing to 2nd place by virtue of his 3WallBall Pro doubles title and a strong showing at Outdoor Nationals. Sostre was ranked 7th after Beach Bash, but two strong results in Las Vegas (winning the CPRT title and making the final of 1-wall Pro Doubles allowed Sostre to edge Mercado and Mar, who finished 4th and 5th respectively.
Rounding out the top 10:
4. Javier Mar was just pipped for 3rd by the Ice Man; Mar won both the Beach Bash and Vegas 1-wall pro doubles titles with Mercado. He was also the losing finalist in BB singles.
5. Mario Mercado , the double 1-wall winner with Mar, also made the Mixed 3-wall final in Vegas. Both Mar and Mercado likely would have been in the money had they made the trip to Huntington Beach.
6. @AAndres Acuña was in 2nd place in these standings after Outdoor Nats, but an early round Men’s pro doubles loss in Vegas couldn’t overcome his singles success and he drops to 6th on the year.
7. Alvaro Beltran ‘s Vegas performance was marred by his event-ending injury, which knocked him out of the pro semis (where he was favored), the CPRT finals, and a combined 100+ final.
8. Rocky Carson ‘s Vegas 3-wall pro doubles title couldn’t overcome a slew of early exits at the other two events.
9. Solis Greg took both the Outdoor Nats and Vegas CPRT titles, enough for a spot in the top 10.
10. Jason Geis’s Outdoor Nationals pro doubles title was enough to get him into the top 10.
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For the full 2022 standings, use the following two Google Spreadsheet links:
Thanks to all the pro players who competed in one of the three outdoor pro competitions this year (more than 100 men and more than 30 women). We look forward to 2023!
Michelle De La Rosa adds to her lead atop the LPL financial cup standings. Photo 2022 Outdoor Nationals from Stephen Fitzsimons
Hello Outdoor Racquetball Fans! With Outdoor Nationals in the books, the second leg of the three-leg Outdoor Cup Series for 2022 is in the books. This post is to give you an update on the cup standings for outdoor Men and Women pros and publish the full standings.
(If you want to read the standings after Beach Bash, published in Late March, click here: https://blog.proracquetballstats.com/…/outdoor-cup…/)
LPL Financial Women’s Outdoor Cup Series Click here: https://rball.pro/uvy for the updated standings after Outdoor Nationals. Top 5 Women after Outdoor Nats:
Michelle De La Rosa : 855 pts
Hollie Scott : 598.75 pts
Carla Munoz : 437.5 pts
Kelani Lawrence : 325 pts
Katherine,neils : 321.875 pts Michelle De La Rosa extends her lead at the top with two 1st place finishes at Outdoor Nationals, and will be very difficult to catch in Vegas for the top prize. Hollie moves up from 5th place after Beach Bash to #2 on the back of three 2nd place finishes in three divisions in Huntington Beach. Munoz, who missed Beach Bash due to previous commitments, roars into the top 3 thanks to two titles in California. Kelani and Katie remain in contention, but it looks like the prize money will come down to the current top 3 ladies.
6-10 goes Masiel Rivera , @Erika Manilla , Jessica Parrilla , and then tied for 9th are @AAngela Veronica Vera Ortega and @VicVictoria Rodriguez .
KWM Gutterman Men’s Outdoor Cup series Click here: https://rball.pro/br0 for the updated Men’s cup standings after Outdoor Nationals. Top 5 Men after Outdoor Nationals:
Daniel de la Rosa : 1081.25 pts
Andres Acuna : 613.125 pts
Eduardo Portillo : 600.625 pts
Javier Mar: 510 pts
@Alvaro Beltran : 504.68 pts Daniel, unsurprisingly, has a massive lead atop the standings thanks to two titles in Florida and another in California; he likely has sewn up the cup title unless he misses Vegas altogether. Acuna, who was not in the top 5 after Beach Bash, roars into 2nd place thanks to his singles title in California. Lalo moves up to 3rd from 6th place thanks to his 2nd place finish in Mixed Doubles in Huntington Beach. Mar and Beltran remain in the hunt, but Mar’s absence in California prevents him from building on his fantastic Beach Bash results.
6-10 goes Robert Sostre , Josh Tucker , Jason Geis , Micah Rich, and @Greg Solis .
As always, thanks greatly to 3Wall Ball and Mike Coulter for organizing the cup series, thanks to LPL Financial and Kwm Gutterman for underwriting the cups for both the Women and the Men, and thanks to the players for making outdoor majors as much fun as they are. See you in Vegas! WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball @USA Racquetball
This post highlights some of the noteworthy news items for the LPRT this year. I periodically publish these items to this link: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/…/lprt_tour_history…
So, if you want a trip down memory lane for the LPRT you can read that page from the top down. It isn’t comprehensive to the beginning of the tour in the detail captured recently … but it is built out pretty decently.
Here’s a quick summary of items of interest that happened on tour this year, to the tour itself or to its players. If you think I’m missing something, by all means let me know. This was a subjectively collected list of “news” items and I may have missed something worth capturing.
7/11/21: LPRT #1 Paola Longoria is heading to the Tokyo Olympics as a Sports Commentator for TUDN. She ends up doing sports broadcasting for the whole of the Olympics and misses the season opening tournament in Denver as a result.
8/23/21: Mattel Latin America included LPRT’s #1 Paola Longoria as one of three Latin American athletes to create Barbie doll likenesses for, in order to recognize Latin American athletes. Paola’s place in the landscape of sports media in Mexico continues to be strong.
10/2/21: Argentinian Natalia Mendez signs an agreement with Nike. It isn’t often we hear about our athletes signing with such a major brand.
10/11/21: Longoria takes her 11th US Open title, but not before an upset-laden tournament results in multiple top-8 seeds taken out in the 32s and 16s. Erika Manilla is the biggest shock, advancing out of qualifiers and into the semis despite never making a round of 16 previously.
1/17/22: Rhonda Rajsich is named the Mark Bingham Athlete of the Year for 2022.
3/6/22: Alexandra Herrera tops Longoria for the second final in a row, the first time Longoria has lost two finals in a row since Sept 2010. Is this the start of a new rivalry on tour?
4/10/22: PARC 2022 kicks off without a slew of major pro names, not the least of which was #1 Paola Longoria, who misses a “major” IRF event for the first time since 2014. Her absences are referred to vaguely as being due to a “lack of support” by the Mexican federation, and led to a significantly weaker Mexican team. The women’s singles is eventually won by Bolivian #5 Angelica Barrios over #3 Vargas in the final.
4/22/22: In the latest incident of Bolivian-born players lamenting the lack of support from their Ministry of sport, newly crowned PARC champion Angelica Barrios heavily criticizes the Bolivian organizations for promising and then reneging on financial support for Barrios, yet continuing to use photographs of her accomplishments with their logo attached. This comes hot on the heels of the Men’s PARC 2022 champion Conrrado Moscoso also criticizing the lack of support and possibly considering a switch to another country.
5/15/22: Longoria holds off Herrera in the final of the Sweet Caroline Grand Slam to reverse the trend of the last two events, and to seal the 2021-22 year end title, her 13th.
6/1/22: Herrera posts on social media herself in a walking boot: turns out she had a grade 2 ankle strain a couple weeks back but still traveled to Kansas City to compete in the Super Max. She forfeited out of singles early, but still managed to win the Doubles draw with Erika Manilla serving as a roving player. Herrera misses an opportunity to move up in the rankings ahead of the beginning of next season, but is still well positioned to challenge Longoria at the top in 2022-23.
6/10/22: Sunshine Arterburn makes history, becoming the first known transgender woman to compete on the LPRT. Arterburn previously competed as Michael Arterburn on the IRT as recently as Sept 2019, then began the transition process. She lost in the first round in both the pro and Open draws in Kansas City, both times ostensibly withdrawing with an injury.
6/11/22: Maria Jose Vargas plays the final event of the season 4.5 months pregnant. She takes an uncharacteristic loss early in the singles, but the bigger news will be her likely missing a good chunk of the 2022-23 season due to her expecting her 3rd child in the fall. This will have significant ramifications to the top of the tour, opening up some pathways for the current #3 ranked player.
6/11/22: Thanks to some major upsets at the SuperMax, three American women advance to the quarter finals for the first time since 2016.
6/12/22: Longoria wins the Kansas City Super Max 14,10 over Mejia, a rematch of last year’s final/upset win for Montse. It was a close match, with Mejia looking comfortable against the GOAT, but Paola ground out a win. This closes the book on the 2021-22 season.
Meneses finished just outside the top 20; how will she fare next season? Photo Severna park 2021 via Ken Fife
We recapped the top 10 LPRT finishers first, then the players ranked 11th-20th, now here’s some commentary on the players who finished 21st or higher. This will be a selection of the players; I’m not going to write up every player from 21-60+. We’ll focus on the notables, regular tour players, and the like.
#21: Michaela Meneses the 18U reigning world junior champ from Bolivia, came in ranked #21 after showing some impressive results early in the season. She had wins over Lotts, MRR, and Enriquez. But then she collapsed at season’s end, losing multiple matches by donut scores (or close to it). Apparently she’s going through some swing mechanical changes, and should recover for the beginning of the next pro season and in time for her to defend her 18U title. She’s got promise, can hang with seasoned players, and looks like a future top10 Bolivian star like Barrios and Centellas before her. Projected Rank next season: 15-16 range.
#23 Jenny Daza only played 3 events, but upset C.Munoz and got a walkover against Parrilla to get to the Vero Beach quarters. A couple of years ago she beat Vargas at the US Open. She can get solid wins … but lives 4,000 miles away and cannot travel to every stop. So, she’ll remain a player to watch out for when she plays. Projected Rank next season: mid 20s.
24 Veronica Sotomayor recently relocated to the US, living in Vero Beach, and made it to three events. She’s a former top 10 ranked player who just turned 30 and who trains every day with one of the best players who ever lived in husband @Sudsy Monchik , and can still play. She’s a threat whenever she plays, but cannot commit to playing full time. She’ll remain the wildcard “player nobody wants to have feed into them” in draws she enters, and she’ll hope to pick off wins here and there.
Projected Rank next season: low-to-mid 20s unless she decides to commit to the tour full time, then we’re talking top 10.
#27 @Annie Roberts is in college now, matriculated from juniors, and keeps running into Laime in pro draws (her last three round of 32 matches were all against the Colombian). She continues to show power improvements, and she’s eventually going to play someone besides Brenda to get a shot at a round of 16 matchup against a top 8 seed. Her college commitments will keep her from touring full time presumably, meaning her rank will remain in the 20s. Projected Rank next season: mid 20s.
#27 Susy Acosta played the tour about half-time, which is what she’s basically done since turning 40, but continues to compete. This was her 24th season with pro results and her lefty-ness will continue to get her partners in the doubles side for some time to come. Projected Rank next season: upper 20s.
#29 Naomi Ros is one to keep an eye on; she’s the reigning US 16U junior national champ, meaning she’s still got two years of junior racquetball remaining, but is already making half the LPRT events now that she’s relocated from Mexico to south Texas. She’s still looking for a signature pro win, but has hung with veterans and it’s just a matter of time before she starts getting wins. Projected rank next season: low to mid 20s.
36 @Daniela Rico is another 18u junior who can put some good results on the board; she only played a couple of LPRT events this year (going one-and done in Vero Beach and Boston) but made the semis of 18U world juniors and put a loss on a very under-rated Lucia Gonzalez at Mexican Nationals earlier this year. Another in a long line of Mexican junior women to watch going forward.
Projected rank: still mid 30s.
37 Ireland’s @Aisling Hickey made some noise in a couple of events she entered and has relocated to California, which could open up a pathway for her to play more events. We’ll see; we didn’t see her in any of the spring events, so perhaps moving to the US wasn’t the springboard for her to play m ore LPRT events.
Projected rank next season: low-to-mid 30s.
43 @martina Katz made her pro debut at the season’s final event; she’s an Argentine 18U champ who could start to feature for the Argentinian national team soon.
Projected rank next season: 30s-40s.
Phew, that’s it for recapping the season! One more post after this to point out some milestones I tracked on the “tour history page” as a look back at the season that was.
We recapped the top 10 LPRT finishers first in a post from last Friday. Now here’s some commentary on the players who finished 11-20.
11 @Carla Munoz finished 11th on season, pipped for the top 10 by just 30 points (by way of comparison; LPRT players get 25 points for making the round of 16 in a regular tier 1 event. Munoz had some unlucky early round matchups (a round of 32 meeting with Scott at the US Open and a tough loss in the 32s to Jenny Daza in Vero Beach), but also had some really solid wins on the season (defeats of Salas, Centellas, Vargas, and Manilla). She’s definitely poised to rocket into the top 10 if she can replace a US Open round of 32 loss with a better finish later this year.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #9/#10; i think she can gain a little ground on the players just ahead of her.
12: Kelani Lawrence comes in 12th, her career best. She’s incrementally improved her pro ranking each season she’s played the tour full time, moving from 22nd, to 15th, to 12th. She missed out on #11 by just 5 ranking points; just one more result puts her in the top 10. Lawrence made her first pro semi this season and had marquee wins over Mendez and Vargas.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #9/#10: I can see her competing with Munoz for that last top 10 spot.
13: Brenda Laime Jalil came in 13th, right in line where she’s been ranked for the past few seasons. She made 4 quarters and missed 2 events; those two events cost her a top 10 spot this season. What’s interesting about Laime this season is her results: she had a number of big wins: Mejia, Herrera, and Parrilla. She definitely has the capability of moving into the top 10.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: Just outside top 10; perhaps increasing a couple of slots until she shows she can play 100% of events.
14: Samantha Salas Solis saw her ranking slip to the lowest point of her career in an non-injury season. She missed a few events but had a massive showing in Kansas City, making her sole semi of the season and topping both Mendez and Gaby. So the talent is still there; she just needs to focus it at the right times to get back to her lofty ranking of yesteryear.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #10-#11: Her rank now has her running into top 4 players in the 16s, and that’s gonna make it tough for her to get back into the top 10.
15: Valeria Centellas has definitely taken a tumble from her top 10 ranking two seasons ago; she just cannot repeat her international success on the tour. Her best win on tour this year was over Rhonda … but Rhonda also beat her twice at the same tournament junctures (round of 16).
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #14-15: around the same as this year, unless she can make some major changes to her game.
16: @Hollie Scott improves her year end ranking for the 5th successive season and really her first playing the tour full time. She had some solid wins and didn’t take any “bad” losses, so I can see her moving up.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: Just outside the top 10, in the 10-12 range.
17: @MarMaria Renee Rodriguez finished in basically the same spot she has finished the last three years running. She’s consistently getting to the round of 16, but no further (which is in line with finishing 17th on tour). She needs some marquee wins over top10 players to get much further up the rankings.
Predicted Rank next season: same range, #16-#17.
18: @Sheryl Lotts’ season is a lot like MRRs: her results split between round of 16 and round of 32 losses. Perhaps her best win of the season was a h2h meeting with MRR in the most recent event (in the 16/17 round of 32 match), which inevitably led to a round of 16 loss to top-seeded Longoria. Lotts has been in this range for a bit now, and it is hard to get out of without a shock upset win.
Predicted Rank next season: #16-#17 range along with MRR.
19: @Nancy Enriquez has been seeing her ranking fall year after year for 5 years now. She seems to be stepping back a bit from touring, missing 3 events this season, which has contributed to her ranking fall. When she has played, she’s taking early round losses (3 round of 32 upsets). It looks like she may continue to step back.
Predicted Rank next season: Mid 20s.
20: Cristina Amaya Cris Amaya ‘s ranking has fallen to a career low 20th, thanks in part to her missing three events on the season. When she has played though, she has made the 16s (4 of her 6 tournaments saw her advance to the 16s), and she’s not terribly removed from a time when she was making the quarters on a regular basis. She needs to get healthy and commit to the tour full time to turn things around.
Predicted Rank next season: #13-15 range if she plays full time.
In part 3 we’ll cover the rest of the tour, those of note who finished ranked in the 20s or further down.
Longoria wraps up her 13th pro title.
Photo via US Open 2019, Kevin Savory
The Kansas City SuperMax last week also marked the official end of the 2021-22 season. After a covid-ravaged season, the LPRT ended up this season with 9 events, including three majors.
The final season rankings have been updated to the website: see https://www.lprtour.com/lprt-singles-rankings for the year end standings. We have captured the standings and uploaded them to the proracquetballstats.com website, where they will now be picked up in all year end rankings queries as appropriate. For example, click here http://rb.gy/x0t9jz for the year end singles standings in the database, and click here http://rb.gy/ysxyi8 to see how they flow into the Season Summary report.
Here’s some commentary on the LPRT finishers. We’ll break this post into four posts; in this post we’ll talk about the top 10, then talk about 11-20, then the rest, then list notable news items that happened this season to finish it off.
Paola Longoria : finishes #1 for the 13th time (see here for a list of all LPRT year end title winners: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/…/lprt_year_end… . She now has nearly double the next closest player, that being Michelle Gould with 7 year end titles. Longoria won 6 of the 8 events she entered, but showed a chink in the armor with two successive tourney final losses to #2 Herrera. She ends the season with a 600 point lead at the top; by way of comparison she ended last season leading the tour by nearly 1,000 ranking points. Still, her dominance this season should not be overlooked; finishing a season 31-2 is no mean feat. We have a tendency to focus on the losses for our two GOATS of the sport, not the wins. She’s still the #1 until someone takes it from her. Predicted Rank next season: #1 again.
2 Alexandra Herrera ; she finishes #2 for the second year in a row, but this #2 finish seems meaningful. For me, she has clearly taken over the title of “Best player not named Paola,” a title owned by Vargas for the past couple of years, and then Salas for a few years prior to that. Herrera found a way to beat Paola, and will be thinking she can continue the trend.
The beginning of next season should be rather interesting, as Herrera has a good chance of really narrowing that points gap and putting Longoria’s reign at #1 in jeopardy. Predicted Rank next season’s end: #2 again.
3 Maria Jose Vargas finishes #3, having made three finals and three semis, but took some earlier-than-expected losses this season. She is also 4 months pregnant, which puts her childbirth right in the middle of the fall section of the LPRT schedule, meaning she’s likely to miss significant time next season. She missed an entire season earlier in her career after having one child and she missed half a season in 2017-18 around the birth of her second kid. So we’ll see how much she can factor in next year. Suffice it to say, there likely will be a new #3 next year.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: outside the top 20
4 Natalia Mendez improved to a year end ranking of #4, her career best, by playing consistently and generally playing up to her seeds. She made three semis, three quarters, and had three first round upset losses on the year. She’s a good ways behind Vargas for #3, and the players who finished 4-5-6 are relatively tightly packed and could see some shuffling into next season.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #5 or #6: i think she gets bumped down.
5 Gaby Martinez managed to finish ranked 5th on tour (and missed out on 4th by less than 30 points) this season despite missing 4 of the 9 events played, quite a feat. She did this by becoming the 31st player ever to win a LPRT tier 1 event back in August in Denver, when she took the World Singles & Doubles title as the #10 seed. This powered her to a huge jump in ranking (she finished last season ranked #11).
It wasn’t too long ago (March 2019) that Gaby announced she was “retiring.” Since then, she’s managed to play more than half the pro events. If she played 100%, one has to wonder if she’s be pushing Herrera for #2. Predicted Rank next season’s end: #4/#5 if she plays enough events.
6 @Erika Manilla is the clear Player of the Year on tour. After playing just 9 pro events in her career, she played all 9 this season and vaulted herself from a ranking in the upper 30s to the #6 spot on tour. She had wins this year over Gaby, Mejia, Barrios, and Parrilla, and earned her first US National singles title. Quite the season. She’s within striking distance of #3 on tour (as are several players in this range), so the fall of 2022 could be super interesting.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #3. I think Manilla will continue to rise up and take Vargas’ place at #3.
7 Angelica Barrios finishes the season ranked 7th, a one-spot improvement from last year. She made 3 semis and was upset in the 16s three times (by Manilla, Gaby, and Rhonda), so kind of an up and down pro season. Of course, Barrios’ major accomplishment this year was taking the PARC title on home soil, beating four top players in a row (Lawrence, Herrera, Gaby, and Vargas) to do so.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #5 or #6; incremental update, but not enough to press the top 4.
8 Jessica Parrilla may have dropped back a spot from last season’s finish, but she accomplished something this season that she hadn’t since Jan 2018: she advanced to a Pro semi final. Since badly injuring her knee in June of 2018, Leoni has endeavored to get back to her rankings peak (she finished 2017-18 at #3 on tour), and this was a big first step. She needs to get out of the 8-9 spot though, which plays into #1 every quarter, in order to have a chance to really move up.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #7 /#8: i think she’s right in the same range again next season.
9 @Rhonda Rajsich finishes #9 on the year, missing out on #8 by a scant 5.5 points, and finishes in the LPRT top 10 for an amazing 22nd consecutive season. She made four quarters out of nine events and got some really solid wins along the way. Additionally, Rhonda had solid results at both international events this year, and qualified for the US Team for the 20th time.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: just outside top 10: I think father time is catching up.
10: Montse Mejía finishes 10th despite going into the season’s final event as the #6 seed and reaching the final. Three missed tournaments and a couple of shaky early round losses conspired against Montse this season, and even a grand slam final couldn’t make up the difference. Mejia is one of the more talented players on tour, with a classical style and athleticism to beat any player she faces, and the new season setups better for her to make an impact.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #4, assuming she continues to miss events and not play full time.
Players 7-10 were very tightly bunched; Less than 30 points separated them at season’s end. To put that in context, players get 25 ranking points for making just the round of 16 in a normal tour stop. So, suffice it to say, the 7-10th players will quickly switch places next season as play picks back up.
Check back in for Part 2, where we cover the players who finished 11-20.
While the “team competition” is underway now, the PARC Team competition (as determined by the sum of all the finishes by all the participants) has finished.
Here’s how the standings shook out (these are unofficial numbers based on the worksheet seen here, but are consistent with past scoring methods and should be accurate unless the IRF has made a change without widely announcing it).
Men’s Team: Bolivia, Costa Rica, USA.
This is the 3rd time in the last 4 IRF events that the Bolivian men have taken 1st in this competition. Costa Rica eked out a 4-point win over USA to claim 2nd: this is by far Costa Rica’s best ever team finish; the only other time they placed was in 1990’s regional competition. Amazingly, Mexico did not place; they had won 5 of the 6 Men’s team competitions prior to 2019 (Bolivia’s first Men’s title).
Women’s Team: Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico.
Argentina gets 1st in doubles, 2nd in singles and easily wins the women’s competition, their first ever Team Women’s win in any IRF competition. Mexico falls to 3rd, their lowest team finish since 2010 worlds. No USA on the podium; team USA women have not won an IRF competition since 2010 (which is basically when Paola Longoria started regularly representing Mexico).
Combined/Overall Team: Bolivia, Argentina, USA.
Bolivia runs away with the combined title, with a singles win and a finals mixed appearance. This is the first ever combined/overall Team title for Bolivia. Argentina’s 2nd place is their best ever combined finish. After winning the combined title by a hair in the 2021 Worlds event (a result that had more than a few people questioning the scoring), USA fades to third here. Mexico finishes 4th despite taking the Mixed title and one has to wonder how these results would have gone had Mexico #1 Longoria played; Mexico won 7 straight Combined IRF titles, taking every IRF event held between 2015-2019 inclusive.
Click here for a worksheet of the 2022 PARC Team standings point totals: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rmqPcjrrgYkCMb8kcQDeM5kNdXYe_NliFlBLaElFN_Y/edit?usp=sharing
The first Outdoor “major” is in the books. Beach Bash was a hit, and was well attended by one-wall specialists from the east coast, outdoor specialists from all-over, and by touring pros on both sides.
This was also the first of the three tournaments that will determine the winner of the 2022 Outdoor Cups. The Ladies cup series is sponsored by LPL Financial and the Men’s is sponsored by Kwm Gutterman , both companies run by huge racquetball enthusiasts and we thank them for their patronage.
Here’s the Cup standings after Beach Bash.
Women’s LPL Financial Cup Standings:
1st: Michelle De La Rosa, 355 pts
2nd: Masiel Rivera, 245 pts
3t. @Katie Neils, 212.5 pts
3t. @Erika Manilla , 212.5 pts
Hollie Scott , 205 pts.
Michelle De La Rosa, who would have won this competition last year if it existed, rightfully takes over the lead on the back of her Mixed Doubles title and finals finish in Pro Doubles. Rivera’s two second place finishes (in Singles and in Mixed) push her to 2nd place. Doubles partners Neils/Manilla, who took the Pro doubles title in an upset, tie for third place. Hollie Scott, despite winning the Singles draw, comes in fifth based on the small draw size in her win.
Also In the running after the first event in 6-10th place include @Kelani Lawrence , @AAnita Maldonado , @Susan Stephen , @KKathy Guinan , and Aimee Roehler .
LPRT full cup standings Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/…/1gUgDx40hqxGPJydLNyUR…/edit…
The Men’s competitions at Beach Bash included more than 50 potential players who competed in one of Singles, Doubles, Mixed, or CPRT. After the first set of competitions, here’s the top 5:
DLR, as expected, takes two titles and opens up a lead at the top. He’ll be tough to beat as long as he continues to dominate Mixed with his wife. But, a chink in the armor on the pro doubles side as he and @Alvaro Beltran took an early upset. Javier Mar had an astounding re-introduction to outdoor, winning pro doubles with 3rd place Mercado and racing to the singles final. Mercado continues to show why he’s one of the best doubles players in the land and may be kicking himself for not entering mixed (where he always does well). Faro and Iggy may not be long for this leader board once Outdoor Nationals rolls around as one-wall Florida-based specialists, but they had a solid weekend, taking the CPRT draw. Rounding out the top 10 include Eduardo Portillo , @Robert Sostre, @Andres Acuna , Sebastian Franco , and then a tie for 10th by the CPRT finalists @MaxMax Heyman and @Seran Ramkissoon. So, lots of players lurking who will definitely be at the next two majors.
Men’s Full cup standings Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/…/1HBH6v9KhPIuUkwYjjWlI…/edit…
Next stop, Outdoor Nationals for the second leg of the “Road to Vegas.” the R2site for Outdoor Nationals is live now and signups have begun! @World Outdoor Racquetball @3WallBall Outdoor World Championships @3Wall Ball @Mino Keith @MC Vegas
Acuna got two solid wins against top 10 opponents to take the Minnesota Hall of Fame event. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
In addition to the LPRT Boston Open, there were a slew of other events this past weekend worthy of mention. Here’s a quick run through of what was a very busy weekend globally for racquetball.
US High School Nationals.
r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38151 One of the biggest tournaments of the year (by pure attendance) was held last weekend: the 2022 @USA Racquetball High School Nationals event, held at the Vetta Sports clubs in St. Louis.
Nearly 350 High School players from around the country were in St. Louis to compete for singles, doubles, and team competitions. Here’s a recap of the #1/Gold competitions on the weekend…
Boys #1 Gold Singles: #1 @Josh Shea from New York topped #2 @AnAndrew Gleason from Iowa. In a likely precursor to the 18U Junior Nationals final later this year, Shea won the first HS title for a New Yorker since … @sSudsy Monchik won in 1991.
Girls #1 Gold Singles: #2 @Naomi Ros from San Antonio upset #1 seed @Heather Mahoney. Ros recently relocated from Mexico and topped Mahoney in the 2021 Junior Nationals, setting up a rivalry that is set to run for a couple more years on the US junior national scene. She becomes the first ever titlist from a Texas HS on the girl’s side.
Boys #1 Doubles: Jacob Schmidt / Gabe Collins from Christian Brothers College High School in St Louis cruised to the title as the #1 seed.
Girls #1 Doubles: Heather Mahoney / Ava Naworski from Casa Grande High School outside of Santa Rosa HS took the title as the #3 seeds.
Mixed #1 Doubles: Ros teamed with DJ Mendoza (the #4 seed in Boys #1 gold) to cruise to the Mixed doubles title. The team competition was dominated by Missouri/St Louis area high schools:
Boys’ Team: St. Louis University HS
Girl’s Team: Lafayette HS
Overall Team: Kirkwood HS
Congrats to everyone who played, organized and participated. Thanks to @LLeo Vasque ‘s tireless work on the stream all weekend.
LPRT Boston Open Draws r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38579
Connecticut’s top player @Jose Flores upset the #1 seeded @John Behm to take the 24-man Open draw from Boston this weekend.
Women’s Open: as noted in the LPRT wrap-up, Micaela Meneses had a great women’s Open tournament, topping LPRT regulars Lotts, Lawrence and Munoz to take the title.
PAC Pueblo Athletic Shootout IRT recap r2sports: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38852 Several IRT touring regulars traveled to Colorado to compete in the PAC shootout. The four IRT regulars all advanced to the singles semis as expected. From there, #1 Andree Parrilla topped #4 @NNick Riff while @David Horn took out his colleague @Adam Manilla in the other semi to setup an All-WRT alumni final. In that final, Parrilla cruised to the title, topping Horn 2,5.
In doubles, Horn and Manilla were unstoppable, cruising to the pro doubles title over #2 seeds Riffel and @Mike O’Brien in the final.
Minnesota Hall of Fame IRT Tier 3 r2sports: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38807 A solid mid-western flair draw of top players descended to Fridley over the weekend for the Hall of Fame tournament. This included the IRT broadcast team of @DeDDean Baer and @PFPablo Fajre , who made friends with a local kangaroo and called some matches. r2sports site: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38807 Congrats to local open amateurs @John Goth , Blake Hansen , and Lee Meinerz , who joined the 5 touring pros in the pro quarters. From there, Canadian #1 @Samuel Murray topped #5 Jordy Alonso in one semi, while #3 @Andres Acuña upset home-town favorite @Jake Bredenbeck in the other semi. In the singles final…Acuna played solid ball to top Murray 10,7 to take the singles title.
In the Doubles draw, the Bredenbeck brothers took out Murray playing with Canadian Ledu Michael in the final.
Lastly, several countries have been holding Nationals events or National team selection events ahead of next month’s Pan American Racquetball Championships. Results are a little hard to come by since no international countries use r2sports outside of the “big 3” … but here’s what we’ve been able to glean from various Facebook Posts:
Costa Rica held their men’s championships last weekend; in the men’s final: Andres Acuna d Gabriel Garcia 6,7,5. This is somewhat of a changing of the guard, as @FelipFelipe Camacho has represented the country for many, many years.
Colombia held a Men’s Selection event in Pereia, COL over the weekend.
Guatemala held their Men’s Selection event this past week and weekend (Women’s will be next weekend). The 4 semi finalists competed (presumably) in a RR draw; here was the results:
@EdwEdwin Galicia
@Juan Jose Salvatierra
Christian Wer
Geovani Mendoza
The top 3 will represent Guatemala, with Mendoza as the alternate.
