Manilla is back, but for how long? Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory
As the Men are playing on one coast, the ladies are clear across the country, about as far away as one can get from Fullerton, visiting Severna Park, Maryland for the 33rd annual Christmas Classic. This event is being held at the venerable Severna Park Racquet club, one the last old-school hold out venues anywhere. The championship court is sunken and features stadium seating, there remains at least 6 functional courts (at least there were the last time I attended an event there), and this 33rd annual event is now one of (if not THE) longest running pro events in the sport.
9 of the top 10 ladies are here, and most of the rest of the top 20 is present as well. We’re missing a couple of veteran regulars, which will give us some interesting doubles teams, but more on that in a moment.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
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In the 32s,
– Erika Manilla returns; the former top 4 player has struggled to get back to form since her hip issue; she faces the Canadian #2 Parent in the opener.
– Synhorts faces the ageless Brandt in the play-in to #2 Mejia.
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round of 16:
– Manilla plays into #1 Vargas: normally this would be a semis-quality match. Vargas holds the career lead 5-1 and seems the favorite to make it 6-1.
– @sheryl Lotts celebrates her career high ranking with a juicy matchup against #8 Centellas: great “show-me” match for Lotts to see if she can make the quarters.
– 5/12 Mendez-York could be upset city.
– Gaby has to play her doubles partner MRR in the opener; hate it when that happens. I once entered an out-of-town event with my partner and roommate at the time @Ben Hale; we both played open singles and open doubles. I called for start times; they forgot to put us in. So the TD gives me a start time … I ask him who i’m playing and he slowly says… Ben Hale. I’m like, “absolutely not. You forgot to put us both in and now have us playing each other in some play-in to a top seed; make the draw right, and make us play someone else.” This is TD 101; never, never have out-of-town doubles partners playing each other in the singles first round. Of course, in teh Pros … its all by points, and this happens all the time.
– Munoz-Laime is a great match in 6/11: both players play classical drive and shoot ball.
– Herrera-Parrilla is a frequently seen matchup both home and abroad
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Projected Qtrs:
– Vargas vs Centellas; doubles partners and Argentina team mates face off. Vargas should cruise here.
– Gaby-Mendez: the Guatemalan shouldn’t have any issues advancing.
– Longoria-Laime: there’s danger here for the GOAT, as Laime has put losses on her in the past. Laime is Jeckyl & Hyde: you just never know if you’re getting someone who can cruise into the finals without breaking a sweat, or a one-and-done loser.
– Mejia-Herrera: more doubles partner action, though Mejia has taken a step forward in this singles rivalry over hte past few years.
Semis: Vargas over Gaby, Longoria over Mejia.
Finals; Vargas over Longoria, though honestly these days on tour any one of the top three ladies can and will win events. If Mejia gets hot, forget it. If Longoria is “on” this weekend, she can’t be stopped.
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Doubles review
Longoria is missing Salas here, so she picked up Manilla, who has no points, and they’re seeded 7th out of 8. Taht means we get Longoria/Manilla vs Mejia/Herrera in the first round. wow. I’ll say it now; whoever wins this, wins the event.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for Timothy Baghurst, Sandy Rios, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!
Can Javier Mar make a deep run? Photo Kevin Savory 2019 US Open
The International Racquetball Tour is back in action, hosting its first full Tier 1 stop since last month’s Mile High Open, with the 2025 SoCal Open. The tour returns to Fullerton for the first time since the 2019 Los Compadres open, and returns to what used to be the Meridian Sports Club and one of the largest (if not the largest) clubs in terms of functional racquetball courts. As of 2023 there were still 24 courts operating at this facility, though the club went under, was taken over by new management, and has apparently repurposed some in the time since we last got information.
We’ll know soon enough, as the tour returns to one of its premier locations, which used to host national events and major pro events in the early 2010s.
draw size, observations; the top 11 on tour are here, but a decent chunk of the 11-20 guys are missing due to this event’s proximity to World Juniors, which kicks off this coming Saturday in the Dominican Republic.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
In the round of 32, there’s only 5 matches because of the smaller draw, but a couple of interesting ones:
– #12 @Thomas Carter is the highest seed that has to do an early round; he goes against relative unknown Mexican Javier Gonzalez , a 16U Junior player from Chihuahua. Sometimes these juniors come out of nowhere and shock regular tour players.
– #14 @Kadim Carrasco has to deal with @Alejandro Bear, who has a few results on tour over the past 5-6 years.
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round of 16:
– The 8/9 is brutal: @Eduardo Portillo versus Alan Natera. Tough draw here; Portillo has been much better than a 9-seed over the past couple of years, while Natera continues to work his way back from a knee issue earlier in 2025.
– In the 6/11: Parrilla vs Manilla. these guys met in the quarters last month, an 11-9 win for Andree. Can Adam flip the script here?
– 7/10: Mar vs Alonso: a great match for the neutrals, two classy tactical players who rely on shot-making versus power. They’ve played twice already this year, both Mar wins, including an 8,0 beatdown in Highland Ranch in August.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 Kane Waselenchuk likely faces off against Lalo Portillo, who played Kane pretty tough in the semis back in early September. Lalo was also on the court with Kane when he blew out his Achilles tendon in sept 2022.
– #4/#5 Moscoso vs Montoya: I love this matchup. Power, athleticism. It’s always close; they’ve played twice this fall already, both 3-game Moscoso wins. But early in their careers, Rodrigo owned him.
– 3/6 Bredenbeck vs Parrilla: it looked for a while in 2022-23 like Jake had really taken the reigns on this h2h matchup, but then Andree beat him for the Boston title in Dec 2023. Jake won their last meeting in Chicago in March, but these two always play tight.
– 2/7; Acuna vs Mar: Mar leads this matchup 4-3 in their careers, but Andres has the last two, including a dominant 9,5 win back at World Singles & Doubles. Can Mar get back the upper hand here? My upset pick is Mar winning here.
Semis:
– Kane over Moscoso: what can Conrrado do to make adjustments and get a win here? He’s got one thing going for him: the qtrs and semis are both on Saturday, so he may be able to get a tired Kane and take advantage from an athleticism perspective. Still, Kane’s the favorite.
– This could go several ways: Acuna and Jake haven’t met in years. Jake and Mar just met in Eugene, a straightforward 10,9 win for Mr. Minnesota. I’m going with jake.
Finals; Kane over Jake. Jake does have two legit h2h win over Kane in his career, bu t has to be playing well to do so. If he gets here, he’ll have been playing well.
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Doubles review; draws not published as of this writing.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!
Racquetball Canada athlete Juliette Parent poses for their headshot on May 24, 2023. Photo by Mike Sudoma/COC *MANDATORY CREDIT*
Racquetball Canada kicked off its 2025-26 National team qualification process this past weekend with the first of three events that will shape the national team composition for 2026-27 season. This event was in Brossard, in the Montreal suburbs.
Click here for the tourney site and draws: https://secure.racquetballcanada.ca/event/fall-national-team-selection-event/1017224/
Congrats to the singles champs this past weekend:
– Men’s Open Singles: Samuel Murray
– Women’s Open Singles: Juliette Parent
Links to the draws in Proracquetballstats.com database:
– Men’s: https://rball.pro/73294e
– Women’s: https://rball.pro/674df8
Here’s a quick recap of the draws.
Men’s: the final came down to the two top players in Canada once again, as Murray took out @Coby Iwaasa in four. Murray gets some revenge from his May 2025 Nationals loss to Iwaasa, and improved to 18-7 over Coby in his National career. The win gives Murray his 21st career Canadian National event win, and extends his reign at #1.
Women’s: in a possible “Changing of the Guard” moment, #2 Parent upended #1 @Frederique Lambert in the final in 5 games. Lambert had not been beaten in a Canadian National event since 2014, and had won the last 18 straight events that she had entered. Bravo to Parent, who wins her first national event title.
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The next Racquetball Canada event will be the Feb 8th 2026 weekend in Burlington, the same weekend as USA Racquetball’s national indoors. Then, the 2025-26 season wraps up with Nationals in late May to crown the 2026-27 national team.
As always, I keep a master major event calendar where this and other upcoming events can be found: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing
Mejia with the double in Denver.
Photo Kevin Savory US Open 2019
I had a bit of fixture congestion personally this week and couldn’t get a preview out for this one. My apologies there. But, here’s the recap. The Ladies pros were back in action for their third singles event of the new season (but, ironically, their first doubles event) in Denver, with hostess and fellow touring pro @erika Manilla in action and running the show.
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Singles: Montse Mejia
– Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alexandra Herrera
The event was missing #1 Longoria, who may have had legislative duties back home, and the absence will do a bit of harm to her chances for finishing #1 on the season based on the results. But Mejia’s win (instead of Vargas) may have helped her keep the pace.
Mejia’s singles win gives her 9 career tier 1 titles now, in 12th place all time. Meanwhile, the Mejia/Herrera doubles win is their 14th professionally, though both remain well behind the Longoria/Salas duo in terms of career LPRT pro doubles wins.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=49237
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/f5eb2b
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In the 32s:
– A great matchup between the legend @Rhonda Rajsich and a player on the comeback trail in Manilla went Erika’s way
– @Susy Acosta, appearing in her 27th season, took out @Maria Renee Rodriguez
in a breaker.
– @Annie Sanchez got a really nice win against the rarely seen but former top 10 Mexican @Nancy Enriquez.
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In the 16s, just one upset by seed:
– #10 @Sheryl Lotts was well ahead of #7 @Cristina Amaya when the Colombian turned Italian had to retire due to injury.
– The only other real close round of 16 match was in the 8/9 spot, as Argentine @Valeria Centellas picked up a solid win over @Jessica Parrilla to move into the quarters.
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In the Quarters
– #1 @maria Jose Vargas had to dig deep to beat her doubles partner Centellas 12,8
– #5 @brenda Laime held serve and beat #4 @Natalia Mendez in a breaker.
– #3 @Gaby Martinez beat #6 Alexandra Herrera in the round’s best matchup of former Tier 1 winners
– #2 @Montse Mejia cruised last Lotts to earn another semis.
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In the Semis
– In a very topsy turvy match, Vargas destroyed Laime in games 1 and 3 to win 1,(7),2 and move into the final. As they say, it only takes 26 to win.
– In a great semi final, Mejia rebounded after a first game loss to beat Gaby (7),7,7 to setup a 1v2 final.
In the Finals, Montse turned the tide and took out Vargas, reversing the trend of her latest match winning streak.
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Points Implications of results
With no Longoria, Vargas, who had already taken back over #1 on tour, extends her lead atop the standings to a more comfortable level. Mejia closes the gap on Longoria for #2 but stays in third. There’s still a huge gap between the top 3 players and the rest of the field, big enough that there’s just no way anyone can catch them at this moment. Elsewhere, Centellas’ result puts her back in the top 10 for the first time in years, Lotts moves up to #11 on tour, while Salas’ absence drops her to #13.
Here’s a link to my rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings.
Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/2a7b95
Mejia got the double on the weekend, grinding her way to a title with long-time partner Herrera without dropping a game. They certainly worked for it, topping the very-good Guatemalan national team in the quarters, Laime/Mendez in the semis, and the Argentine national team in the finals.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
– Lotts beat Synhorst in the Women’s Open singles final
– Yelverton & Amaya took the Mixed Open doubles draw.
– Adam Manilla beat Erik Garcia in the IRT singles exhibition draw
– Yelverton & Garcia beat the legend Woody Clouse and top Texan Craig Clement in the Men’s Open Doubles final.
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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., JTRball, and Tj Baumbaugh
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Stuart Solomon, Richard Eisemann, etc.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors the Manillas for putting this event on!
There’s two different IRT-350s next weekend, one in Boston and one in Tucson. The LPRT will be back the first weekend of December for its long running Christmas Classc in the DC area.
Vargas takes back over #1 on tour with her win in Golden State Open.
Photo via usaracquetballevents.com
Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:
– Men’s Pro Singles: Conrrado Moscoso
– Women’s Pro Singles: Maria Jose Vargas
– Mixed Pro Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & Gaby Martinez
Moscoso wins his 10th career singles title (he’s now 14th all time) and his third straight major Mixed Pro Doubles title (to go along with the 2023 and 2025 World Singles & Doubles titles). Vargas wins her 13th career title, tied for 10th ever, and takes over World #1.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48678
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Men’s Pro Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/42ed4b
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In the 32s:
– @Robbie Collins dropped the first game to @Wayne Antone 15-1, then came back to win 15-10 and 11-0 thereout.
– @DJ Mendoza grabbed the first game against Bolivian vet Carrasco, but couldn’t finish it out, losing in three.
– Bolivian junior debutant Santiago Borja certainly made #2 Javier Mar work for it, losing into 14 & 11. Great showing.
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In the 16s:
– Martell made fast work of Carter 7,3 in the 8/9 seed matchup
– Parrilla came back from a blowout game 1 loss to edge Diego Garcia in three 11-9. This was an upset special for me, but Parrilla held him off.
– Carrasco earned his first career pro IRT tier1 quarterfinal with a walkover injury against Natera. Alan had major knee surgery earlier this year and struggled a bit in his round of 32 match against a junior, and had to step out of this match.
– Alonso squeaked past Gastelum 6,14.
– Moscoso crushed Bolivian native turned Argentine Miranda 0,2.
– Lastly, the big result of the round: #2 Mar, who we already had circled as a potential upset in this match, had to retire after losing the first game to Bolivian phenom Flores.
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In the Quarters, all four matches go breaker:
– Montoya was stretched to three against countryman Martell but advanced.
– Parrilla held off Manilla 11-9 in the third to move into the semis.
– Alonso was pressed by Carrasco, but moved on in a very close 13,(13),8 result.
– Moscoso was pressed all night by Flores, but found an extra gear in the breaker to win 14,(10),6.
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In the Semis, the two top players in the draw (Montoya and Moscoso) cruised into the finals with little trouble; Montoya frustrated his long-time rival Parrilla 8,2 and Moscoso blasted Alonso 4,0 to setup the dream final.
In the Finals, we had two players who seem like they’re a lot closer than they historically have been: Moscoso led the h2h for their careers 9-5, but had won the last 5 meetings to put some separation between them from a period a few years ago where Montoya really seemed to have his number. Rodrigo did his best here to reverse the trend, taking game one 15-13, but Moscoso took over from there, winning games two and three by 15-7, 11-5 margins that weren’t ever really in doubt.
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Points Implications of Men’s Pro results
Moscoso’s win should move him up to #5, which once again in a full draw would put him on a collision course with Kane prior to a final. Montoya moves up one spot and now sits #3, though there’s little separating #2 to #6 (270 total points). Any missed event and a big run from any of the #2 to #6 guys will put them right behind Kane, who despite missing this event still maintains a massive lead atop the rankings.
In other movement: Natera’s injury loss costs him; he drops from 6 to 9. Flores now sits 16th in the rankings, meaning he’s creeping closer to more manageable round of 16s with each passing event; he was the #15 seed as the #19th ranked player this past weekend, moving up 4 spots due to missing players, and that should just continue. Trujillo, a mainstay on tour for the last couple of years, has missed his 3rd straight Tier 1 and may be quietly stepping back from touring for now.
Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.
Let’s review the notable matches in the Women’s Pro Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/300dd0
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In the 32s:
– MRR got a solid win over Mexican junior Gutierrez 13,11 in kind of a trap match.
– Rajsich won her most recent return to LPRT, 6,3 over the elder Perez-Picon sisters.
– Andrea Perez-Picon, the reigning 16U Mexican Jr Champ who has also won US Jr National titles in the past out of the 209 Stockton Jr. factory, got a win over fellow Norcal player Erica Williams to advance.
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In the 16s:
– Centellas got a solid win over Parrilla in the 8/9 matchup, a good sign for the Argentine as she gets back into regular touring.
– Mendez was pressed by MRR before winning in three
– Gaby dominated US National Sanchez 4,2
– Mejia took out former 4-time pro champ Rajsich in two
– Laime was stretched before topping Munoz in three
– Lotts got a career win, topping Amaya in three, earning her 4th career quarter final appearance.
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In the Quarters, all four matches go chalk.
– #1 Longoria was pushed by Centellas 9,10
– #4 Gaby Martinez cruised past Mendez 7,11
– #3 Mejia had a match, going toe to toe with fellow power hitter Laime before advancing 11-8 in the third
– #2 Vargas moved past upset-minded Lotts 6,10
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In the Semis, Longoria was pressed to a breaker by Gaby as she often is, but she persevered after some acrobatic rallies to move into the final. Meanwhile, Vargas-Mejia turned into a smooth win for the Argentine, who is dialed in this weekend and advances 7,9.
In the Finals, Vargas just controlled the match from start to finish, Longoria just couldn’t seem to hit her serves or her lines, and Maria Jose won 8,8 to take her third straight title on tour. As @Steve Castleberry pointed out to me, It has been nearly to the beginning of Longoria’s touring career since she failed to win a tournament one out of four in a row … Vargas has now won the last three events, matching her career best stretch that powered her to her first pro title at the end of 2023.
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Points Implications of Women’s Pro results
The Points are tight at the top, and I may have my XLS calcs wrong, but I believe with this win Vargas takes back over #1 on tour by around 20 points. My sources tell me Longoria may miss the next event due to conflicts with her new career in politics, which could spell trouble for her title defense. Other movements: despite Herrera’s absence she will jump Laime for #6. There should be a wholesale shuffling of the ladies ranked 14th to 18th with Lott’s big win, MRR’s strong return, and York/Synhorst’s absence this weekend.
Here’s a link to my running 2-year+ Women’s ranking worksheet.
Natera’s injury suffered during singles resulted in his wife picking up a last minute sub … and she managed to “find” a suitable replacement in the legendary Alvaro Beltran. Alvi’s inclusion caused a last minute shuffling of the whole mixed draft and actually improved the draw, removing one blatantly too-early matchup and getting neutrals a better draw. Here’s a quick rundown of how the action went:
In the 16s:
– the Parrillas were pushed to an 11-10 limit by Guatemalans MRR and Galicia, a testament to how “back” Maria Renee seems to be based on her results this weekend.
– Last minute sub Beltran got to a breaker, but fell alongside Munoz to the Argentines MIranda and Mendez
– The Manillas, kind of inexplicably seeded 10th despite winning US Nationals Mixed two years ago, “uspet” the #7 seeds Carter & Lotts.
In the quarters:
– Mejia & Mar held off the tough young Flores/Centellas pairing.
– The Parrilla siblings took out the #4 seeds Miranda & Mendez
– Moscoso &Martinez had a great win over Vargas & Garcia in the match of the round.
– The Manilla siblings, seeded 10th, continue to upset and prove the seeding committee wrong with a solid 15,7 win over #2 Montoya/Laime.
Semis: the two favorites advanced, with Mar/Mejia dominating the Parrillas and Moscoso/Martinez crushing the Manillas.
In the final, Moscoso won his 3rd straight major Mixed Pro doubles title with a come-from-behind win over Mar & Mejia (14),10,2.
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Open Singles, Open Doubles, other notable draws
– Texan USA Junior National DJ Mendoza won a stacked Men’s Open singles draw, beating the surprise finalist Alvaro Guillen from Costa Rica
– Mexican former Jr star Ivanna Balderrama won a solid international junior laden Women’s Open/Elite draw, beating fellow Mexican Michelle Gomez in the final.
– Flores & Guillen took the big Men’s Open Doubles draw, getting a walk-over in the final but more than earning their title.
– Guatemalans MRR and Reyes won the small RR Women’s Open Doubles draw.
– Guatemalans continued to shine, taking the Mixed Open doubles draw as Mansilla/Sipac beat Mexicans Martin & Gutierrez in the final.
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Thanks for all the streaming, thanks for the Tourney directors, and the sponsors.
The 10th annual Asia Open Racquetball competition is next weekend in Seoul. After that, there’s an IRT Satellite just announced in the Chicagoland area. November features more IRT events plus a possible IRT/LPRT collab in Denver.
Rhonda Rajsich with a rare pro appearance.
Photo 202 USAR Doubles by Kevin Savory
One of the year’s biggest events is this coming weekend; the 2025 Golden State Open, the brainchild of two former touring pros in @David ” Bobby” Horn and @Adam Manilla, hosted by two of Stockton’s legends @John Ellis and Steve Cook. Both pro tours are onsite at the Bay Club Pleasanton in the East Bay portion of the San Francisco bay area, which means a huge prize purse fundraising effort was done and we get Mixed Pro Doubles for the second time in as many months.
There’s 38 men’s pros and 21 Women’s pros on hand, with fireworks and unexpected results anticipated. By the time you read this play has already started, with the round of 64 on the mens side getting a rare Wednesday evening start.
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Let’s preview the Draws. We’ll do the two singles draws and then the Mixed Pro draw. They’re hosting Open doubles draws for both genders, but the top pros are not entered.
This leaves Rodrigo Montoya to get a #1 seed, a career high. In fact, most of the top 8 at this event are at career high seedings: Mar at #2, Natera at #3, Alonso at #6, and Carter at #8 are all career-best seeds, and the mashed up top 8 is going to give us some new and unexpected head-to-heads here.
More importantly, the absence of Kane in particular historically has been a big indicator that we may get a first time winner.
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In the round of 64 and 32, here’s a few matches to watch for:
– Mauro Rojas vs Emir Martinez: Rojas a former US Junior National champ, and Emir a former top Junior from Mexico. Tough opener, and as it turns out it went three before Rojas fell.
– There’s a few unknown Bolivians who made the trip and who could make waves: Arnez & Borja in particular. Santiago Borja is the two-time defending World 14U junior champion. Both won their openers to face off against top ranked pros in the 32s.
– Sendrey vs Wolfe in the 32s is a solid test for the teenager to see if he can take out a semi-regular IRT touring player.
– Mexican Junior Santiago Castillo, who owns a slew of Mexican Jr National titles including the 2024 16U title, faces off against IRT veteran @Thomas Carter in a match he can’t look past.
– Carrasco-Mendoza in the 14-19 matchup could be close: how much is Mendoza improving versus how quickly is the aging Carrasco’s skills fading?
– If Borja wins his first, he plays into #2 Mar. A good pro debut for the 15yr old.
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Round of 16:
– Martell-Carter in the 8/9 is an interesting matchup; they’ve never met in a top-level event.
– We’re projecting two lefties who both play out of the Bay Area a lot in Collins and Manilla into the 16s.
– Tough draw once again for Parrilla: last week Moscoso played into him early, this week is Garcia, who’s demonstrated his ability to beat nearly anyone on tour.
– Gastelum-Alonso could be close: they met at 2024 Mexican Nationals and Alonso prevailed in three, but Gastelum has come a long way. This is Pineda’s big upset pick.
– the dangerous Miranda meets Moscoso in the 7-10 matchup; this is too bad for Miranda, who has been eyeing a deep run.
– #2 Mar faces off against #15 Flores in a huge trouble area for the Mexican. If Flores plays up to his capabilities, this might be a huge upset.
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Projected Qtrs:
– Montoya over the Carter/Martel winner: Montoya will be favored no matter who comes out here, and has to like his draw this weekend in general. No crazy bolivian junior world champs, no Moscoso seeded 16th, etc.
– Manilla-Garcia: Manilla made a massive run here last year as the host; can he do it again?
– Natera v Alonso: both players are probably looking at each other going, “hey i should win this” and get back to the semis. Could be close
– Moscoso will be favored over whoever comes out of that bottom half, whether its a huge shock like Borja, an upset-minded Flores, or Mar holding serve against two top Bolivian juniors he’s set to face early.
Semis:
– Montoya over Manilla/Garcia winner: Montoya’s only obstacle to the final this week is injury.
– Moscoso over Natera/Alonso winner: this could be over fast.
Finals; I’m calling a Moscoso-Montoya final, with Conrrado taking the title.
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Women’s Pro Singles preview:
Like with the Men’s draw, the ladies draw is missing a few key players. Herrera is out, as is Lawrence and Salas (surgery). So that’s three top 10 ladies missing. What we do have in this draw is a bunch of top Junior Mexicans who we rarely see, including the Perez-Picon sisters. Plus, we get a rare sighting of Rhonda Rajsich, which is awesome to see the future Hall of Famer.
Preview of the draw:
round of 32s to watch for:
– top Mexican U21 player Cynthia Gutierrez makes her LPRT debut and faces Maria Renee Rodriguez-Josey in a tough one for the veteran
– Andrea Perez PIcon, the reigning Mexican 16U champ and finalist at World Juniors last December, faces Norcal’s ERica Williams. Andrea’s older sister Estefania feeds into the Legend Rajsich.
Projected 16s of note:
– The 8/9 between Centellas and Parrilla will be awesome.
– #4 Gaby Martinez projects to play rising USA player Annie Sanchez, who’s played some top players close lately.
– Mejia could face Rhonda in a generational battle of top players
– Munoz-Laime is probably the match of the round.
– Amaya-Lotts will be a battle.
Qtrs on: From here, I see the top four ladies advancing as they typically do: there’s such a gap between Longoria/Mejia/Vargas/Gaby to the rest of the tour right now, it’s hard to predict any upsets. I see Longoria topping Mejia in the final.
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Mixed Pro Doubles
I love Mixed pro doubles: we just have no idea who’s going to win some of these early matches. Normally I look at the two women’s players and try to use that as a determining factor (thinking that the weakest link on the court will get the most shots and will play the biggest part in the match result), but that doesn’t always tell the whole story, and the doubles acumen of the players involved needs to be given more weight. With Salas missing (one of the best mixed doubles players ever) and Longoria skipping out, there’s some new teams and tough matchups.
Here’s some matches to look for and some guesses how this draw will go:
In the 16s, easily the match of the round is the Manilla siblings versus the Argentine mixed national team of Garcia/Vargas: how this is an opening round match is beyond me.
In the quarters:
– Mar/Mejia should advance
– I like Natera/Munoz over the Parrilla sisters
– Moscoso/Martinez should beat whoever comes out of the above 6/11 match, but once again this is the toughest part of the bracket.
– Montoya/Laime is an amazing team and should top Miranda/Mendez.
Semis:
– Mar/Mejia should beat Natera/Munoz … but when these two teams met in the 2023 World Doubles competition it was an 8,9 win for the Chileans. So who knows. I think Munoz is a better doubles player than her counterpart, but Mejia is the harder hitter. Mar-Natera is probably a wash on the left, but Mar is a superior doubles player when he plays with Montoya on the right.
– Moscoso/Gaby over Montoya/Laime, but I have no confidence here. Montoya won the 2025 World Doubles mixed title with Paola in both 2023 and 2025, and Gaby should hold her own as a solid doubles player on the right. But, Laime is no doubles slouch and they could surprise here. Great match.
In the final, i’ll go with the winner of the bottom semi, who i’m thinking is going to be Moscoso/Gaby.
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IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!
Mar with the double on the weekend. Photo Kevin Savory 2019 US Open
The Lomas Racquet club in San Luis Potosi held a solid local event last weekend, which ended up drawing a slew of top touring pros both Male and Female, especially those with ties to the SLP racquetball community, competing in the 2025 Academy open.
Congrats to the winners on the weekend:
– Men’s Open Singles: Javier Mar
– Women’s Open Singles: Paola Longoria
– Men’s Open Doubles: Javier Mar & Rodrigo Montoya
– Women’s Open Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alexandra Herrera
Perhaps the most surprising entrant across the board was 3-time IRT champion @Daniel De La Rosa, who hails from the area and grew up playing on these courts, but who has “retired” from pro racquetball to pursue Pro Pickleball and who last appeared in an IRT event in January 2024. How rusty was DLR and how would he fair against the top Mexican touring pros of today?
Let’s do a quick recap of the Open Draws.
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Men’s Open Singles:
Seeding at FMR events always makes me scratch my head; DLR was seeded 3rd, ahead of Andree Parrilla (currently ranked in the top 8 on tour). I suppose out of respect. Nonetheless, he played to his seed, making the semis before falling to #2 Javier Mar. Mar beat him 10,1,9, probably a fair result and one where DLR showed a ton of rust against a player he normally handles easily. From the top half, #5 @Diego Gastelum upset #4 @Andree Parrilla in the quarters, then fell to top seed #1 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball to setup a 1-vs-2 singles final between doubles partners Mar & Montoya. In the final, Mar got the better of his friend and long-time partner Montoya in four games.
Men’s Open Doubles:
Mar/Montoya and Parrilla/Gastelum took the group stages, forcing DLR/Mendoza to face the favorites in the semis. There they lost, and Mar & Montoya took the title, giving Mar the double for the weekend.
Women’s Open Singles:
Four top-10 LPRT pros headlined the draw and played to their seeds into the semis. #1 Paola Longoria topped Jessica Parrilla in one semi, while Montse Mejia topped Alexandra Herrera in the other. In the final, Mejia cruised to a game one win, then Longoria turned it around and won three straight for the title.
Women’s Open Doubles:
Five teams played a full RR for the title: LPRT #1 teamed with Hollie Scott, who traveled with boyfriend De la Rosa down for the event, and were “upset” in the group stage final by Mejia & Herrera (seeded 2nd despite being the best doubles team in the world for some time now).
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An excellent draw and great competition in SLP, even if we didn’t really get any of the up and coming juniors in Mexico making any noise this weekend. The tourney certainly served as a great tune-up for next Week’s Golden State Open, which we’ll preview in a few days.
Kane wins his 131st career Tier1 title on tour, which now gives him an even 60 more titles than 2nd place Cliff Swain in the known history of the tour.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=50060
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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/43f709
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In the 32s: the two most notable/closest matches involved the two tourney hosts @Charlie Pratt and @Wayne Antone.
– Pratt (a former Tier 1 winner himself) matched up against the former #1 Moscoso as the Bolivian continues his comeback trail from falling out of the top 20 due to injury; Charlie could do little with Moscoso, losing 4,2.
– Antone played touring veteran @Robbie Collins tough in the first game, but eventually fell 12,5 to the hard hitting Hawaiian.
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In the 16s, we saw mostly blow-outs, as there seems to be the beginnings of a gap on tour as the top 8-10 players seem like they’re beginning to separate themselves from the rest of the tour. There were two relatively close matches though and a couple others worth noting:
– #8 @Adam Manilla crushed #9 @Jordy Alonso 2,6, kind of making a statement about where both players truly sit right now. Alonso had a couple of notable events earlier this year, but has struggled to break into the top 10, while Manilla’s injury has him stuck in that dreaded #8/#9 slot that plays into Kane, making it tougher for him to move up.
– #5 @Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball was stretched a bit by @Diego Gastelum 7,12. Gastelum (along with the likes of Garcia, Flores, Hernandez, Trujillo, and Miranda) seems like the next “wave” of players that will be taking over the tour’s middle class, and it’s just a matter of time before we see Diego winning this kind of match.
– #13 Moscoso beat #4 @Andree Parrilla 14,10 in this week’s “top 8 seed who gets beat way too early because Mosocso is on his come back tour” match.
– Mar shellacked Martell 4,4 in a match I thought would be a bit closer.
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In the Quarters
– Manilla certainly made Kane work for it a bit more than in Denver a couple weeks ago, losing 12,6
– In perhaps the tourney’s best match, Moscoso over came match points against in game two before winning in a breaker. final score: (8),14,4
– #3 @Jake Bredenbeck out-controlled Mar’s control game and ground out a 10,9 win to move on.
– #2 @Andres Acuna, the defending event champ, was brought back to earth when he couldn’t convert match point against #7 @alan Natera. Natera moves into the semis for just the second time in his career.
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In the Semis
– Kane beat Moscoso in the longest 4,3 match you’ll ever see, which took 45 minutes and was back and forth 3-shot rallies being traded by the tour’s two hardest hitters. In the end, Kane’s consistency and Moscoso’s error-prone shot making was the difference in this “blowout” that, amazingly, was a lot closer than the score line indicated.
– Jake handled Natera in two close games to get to his 9th career pro final.
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In the Finals, we saw an interesting match for sure. Jake scored the first seven points (as many as Moscoso got in his entire match) and at one point had a 10-1 lead over Kane in game one by serving absolutely lights out to both sides of the court. Kane had little answer for Jake’s pinpoint serve placement to open the match. Kane eventually got back into the game but ran out of time in his comeback, losing Game one 15-11.
Clearly Kane just needed a bit more warm-up time, because from the start of game 2 to the end of the match, it was one-way traffic the other way. Kane blasted Jake off the court 15-2 by flipping the script and himself serving even more effectively than Jake did in the opener, and then Kane didn’t letup until the match was over, winning the match (11),2,2. Kane went down 10-1 in the first game … then won 36 points to Jake’s 8 the rest of the way.
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Points Implications of results
Kane adds to his lead atop the tour: he’s now 1000 points ahead of Acuna in 2nd place, but is now entering a stretch where he’s defending max points for the next six months: he won four straight times between October 2024 and Mar 2025, so any non-win means the tour is catching up to him for a while.
Portillos’ absence and Parrilla’s early loss cost them: they drop from 3 & 4 to 7&8 respectively. Jake ascends to #3 on tour with his finals appearance. Moscoso moves up to #11, Trujillo drops to #15 in the only other significant top-20 player movement.
In a couple week’s time, when Last year’s Spokane event expires, we will see even more movement. We likely will see Mar moving up to a career high as Montoya has more points expiring from mid Oct 2024.
Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.
Can Acuna repeat his feat? Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
First off, if you haven’t seen the Fantasy Fastbreak podcast I do with Brian Pineda before and after every IRT event, then you’re missing out. Go here for us talking through this draft and talking IRT Club Fantasy Racquetball
After a year’s hiatus, the IRT returns to a relatively new spot on the schedule in Eugene, Oregon for the 2025 Track Town Open. Originally the brain child of former US National team members and Pacific Northwest residents @Charlie Pratt Racquetball and Wayne Antone, this tournament brings back the IRT and the full strength of a Tier 1 stop to Oregon once again. Nearby Portland is one of the biggest junior development areas in the world, and we see a ton of former top juniors entered into both the pro draws and the event in general.
The 2023 version of this event represented a couple of really historic moments on tour. It was the last tournament that 3-time tour champion @Daniel De La Rosa ever won, and this win (and an early loss by then-#1 Moscoso) essentially sealed the 2023 title for the soon-to-be-departing Pickleball pro. It was also directly in the wake of this event that Jake Bredenbeck ascended to hold the #1 spot on tour, which he held until the season’s final event.
There’s 23 entrants into the pro singles draw here, as the tourney’s location makes it a tough travel challenge for central and South Americans. The event is missing a couple of top competitors: #3 Lalo Portillo is out, something that I’d guess might be more prevalent now that he’s a fully certified airline pilot. Then, a big chunk of the 11-20 guys are not here, including Miranda, Trujillo, Garcia, Flores, and Sam Bredenbeck. This means on the one hand fewer upsets in the early rounds, and it means opportunity for the top players to book some needed points.
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Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:
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In the 32s:
– Several local players get their IRT pro tour debuts this weekend, including Tony Teach, Sean Brooks, and Travis Haines.
– Oregon native, former touring pro, holder of the 2017 Pelham Memorial Tier 1 title, and former US National team coach @Charlie Pratt gets a rare appearance on tour; he plays #13 Moscoso. If Pratt had played into anyone else in the 9-16 range maybe he has a chance, but Conrrado will cruise past him.
– I like the @Wayne Antone Racquetball / @Robert Collins opener; could go either way.
– Two tour regulars in Carlos Ramirez and Jim Douglas get to play each other for a spot in the main draw.
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round of 16 Notable matches:
– Manilla and Alonso face off in the 8/9; great match. Should go the distance.
– Montoya gets the Gastelum/Spencer winner and needs to keep focused to move on. Gastelum gets a good test against a fellow Mexican.
– @Conrrado Moscoso comes into this event #13 on the back of some newly achieved points; this at least gets him out of a 1-16 matchup with Kane. Instead he plays into the #4 seed in @Andree parrilla, which I’m sure he’s not happy about.
– @Jake Bredenbeck gets the Collins/Antone winner. I don’t think there’s an upset here, but all of these guys are US National team veterans who can get points off of each other.
– top Mexicans Mar and Martell project into each other; I don’t have them meeting in a top-level event since Mexican Nationals in 2019.
– Natera continues to work his way back after ankle surgery earlier this year with a winnable match versus Carter in the 7/10.
– Last event’s champion Acuna starts his march back to the final against the Ramirez/Douglas winner.
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Projected Qtrs:
– #1 @Kane Waselenchuk over Manilla in a rematch of World Doubles lefty on lefty quarters. Hopefully Adam scores a few more points this time.
– we get a possible banger of a match between the two hardest hitters on tour in Moscoso and Montoya. For neutrals, huge fan of this potential matchup.
– Mar vs Bredenbeck rekindles an old rivalry that dates back to their first meeting in early 2016. Mar hasn’t lost to Jake since, including a meeting on tour in Pleasanton last year. Advantage Javi.
– Acuna gets his first test in Natera in the quarters; they met three times in three straight events in late 23-early 24, all three easy Acuna wins, and with Natera perhaps not yet 100% post surgery this should be Acuna moving into the semis for the 4th time in his last 5 events.
Semis:
– Kane and Moscoso project to play in my predictions in the semis, not the 16s as in Denver. And that might workout just fine for the Bolivian, who gets Kane after a couple of rounds of matches instead of fresh and lively on a Thursday. Furthermore, this will be Kane’s 2nd match of Saturday, as the pros will play both quarters and semis on one day. Will it matter? Kane won 5,14 two weeks ago, an interesting result to me in that Moscoso is usually more of a front-runner (meaning, when he loses in two, it’s usually close in the first game and a blow out in the second). I’m thinking this goes breaker, and Kane may be pressed a bit more than he’s used to before advancing.
– Acuna projects to face Mar in this scenario, a player he just waxed in the Denver quarters. I see no reason for a different result here.
Finals; a rematch of Acuna and Kane. Something tells me Kane wants to exact some revenge here and will get plenty of beauty rest Saturday night in order to be ready for a beating Sunday. Look for a two-game statement win from the King.
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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!
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IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!
Tourney Host Sebastian Franco. Photo Kevin Savory 2018 US Open
Hot on the heels of World Singles & Doubles was a quick Satellite event held in the old DMV, my stomping grounds. The DMV Invitational was held last weekend in Severna Park and played host to a slew of international players who stuck around state-side to play another event before heading back home.
This led to a solid 24-man IRT draw and some great action. here’s a quick recap:
Top seed Rodrigo Montoya Racquetball , who had to forfeit out of Denver’s event with an ugly-looking ankle sprain, ground out a couple solid wins to get to the final. He topped two of the best local players in Maryland in order in John Behm and then Ezequiel Subieta, who once made the Bolivian Junior national team before settling in the DC area and dominating DC/MD/VA events. Subieta topped the tourney host and former IRT Tier1 winner @sebastian Franco 7,2 to earn the shot at Montoya. In the semis, Montoya beat Sam Bredenbeck but certainly had to work for it, with Sam pushing Rodrigo 12,11 before falling.
From the bottom half, the player we keep talking about Bolivian 18U champ @Jhonatan Flores had himself a solid event, beating local favorite Zelada in the 16s and then No. 2 seed @javier mar in the quarters. He then fell to former #1 and fellow Bolivian @Conrrado Moscoso in the semis, but it was no blowout (11-7 in the third).
The final we well contested until Montoya had to retire again, losing 15-9 and retiring at 6-6 in the second. Moscoso takes the title in a Bolivia heavy field befitting a DC area event and its large Bolivian population.
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Doubles:
the two top pairs of IRT tour vets and regular partners were the two top seeds, and made their way to the final without much incident. There, the No 1 Montoya/Mar pair had to forfeit out with Rodrigo’s injury, giving hte title to No. 2 Moscoso/Carrasco. This gives Moscoso the double for his troubles.
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Any points are good points to earn for Moscoso right now, and these Satellite points should be enough to move Moscoso up a couple slots on the ranking, perhaps enough to get him out of a 1-16 matchup with Kane next time.
Next up on the calendar: The IRT Tracktown Open in Oregon at the end of the month.
