Category: Singles

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IRT 2022 Year End Standings Review – Part 2; the top 10

DLR finishes #1 in 2022; can he do it again in 2023? Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

Welcome to Part 2 of our season recap: a discussion of the top 10.

Part 1: reference links to various year-end resources of note.

Part 2: the top 10 (this post)

Part 3: 11-20

Part 4: notables ranked 21st and above

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Lets dive into the top 10. For these previews I’ll generally talk about how the player did last year to this year, make some comments, and then make a prediction for their 2023 ranking.

#1. Daniel De La Rosa . De La Rosa (or DLR as I most often refer to him) finished atop the IRT standings for the second straight year. After running away with the tour in 2022 (winning the year end title by more than 900 points), DLR missed several events in 2022, under performed at the US Open (losing in the 16s), and barely edged #2 Parrilla for the 2022 title. DLR’s title was certainly buttressed by the temporary rolling 11-tournament ranking structure, which kept the 2021 US Open points on everyone’s resume for the year end 2022 rankings (a tourney DLR won).

DLR’s continued presence on the racquetball pro tour was in jeopardy for a bit (and could still be) as he is also a top-ranked Pickleball Player and has gotten some notice on the pro pickleball tours. Certainly there’s more money in Pickleball right now … but DLR’s not currently competitive enough to be pushing for the back ends of these tournaments. His PB career was also thrown for a short term loop by not being selected in the big 2023 MLP draft. However, one thing to watch in 2023 is whether or not DLR makes a decision to focus less on Rball and more on Pball going forward.

He will be helped by the eventual pivot back to 365-rolling day rankings; under the current system his missed events in 2022 would have badly hampered his ability to keep the title in 2023 … but now he can re-commit to the 2023 slate and be in a position (especially in Oct/Nov/Dec) to radically see his ranking rise as his poor US Open expires and his missing 2022 Portland results are replaced with his points earned in the 2023 version.

That being said, I suspect we’ll be seeing a new champ in 2023. I predict DLR slips to #2 or #3 on tour next year. Last time we saw DLR th ough, h e was in serious shape (Vegas) and was hitting with a new buzz. Maybe he’s hearing the footsteps and won’t relinquish his crown so easily.

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#2 Andree Parrilla . Parrilla rose from #4 in 2021 to #2 on tour this year, earned a couple of #1 seeds when DLR missed events, got a famous 11-10 win over Kane in the Atlanta Grand Slam, and rode these results to the #2 ranking on tour for the season.

However, Andree has some chinks in the armor that he must clean up if he wants to ascend to and stay at #1. He lost in the 16s twice this season and he lost to players outside the top 10 multiple times. #1 players don’t do that; they show consistency in making the weekend tourney after tourney. Part of this issue in 2022 was bad match-ups for Andree, running into “better than their ranking” players like Mar and Montoya at inopportune times. But losses to Mercado and Bredenbeck (with all due respect) cannot happen for Andree to move to #1.

For 2023, I suspect we’ll see Parrilla drop a slot or two on tour, just based on true talent levels of players right now. Look for him to finish #3 or #4 in 2023.

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#3 Conrrado Moscoso . His highest finish yet on tour, really competing full time for the first time, after finishing #7 last year. Moscoso got two wins on the season, including his famous US Open domination in October. He finished the season on a serious roll, winning 11 straight between Minneapolis, Pleasanton and Sarasota before an unfortunate concussion-protocol injury forfeit in the semis of the Dovetail. He has shown a propensity to be taken out by a superior game plan (two losses to Murray mid-season), but has also showed that he can truly take over a tournament like nobody since Kane.

He managed to make 8 of the 9 events, a difficult feat being based in Bolivia, and only missed the 9th when it was clear that it would have no real meaning for the year ending standings. He even traveled to the US for outdoor events and made his mark there this year.

For 2023 … I think Moscoso will overtake DLR and will finish #1. In terms of pure talent, Conrrado is the best player in the world not named Kane. My new year wish is to get a bunch of Moscoso-DLR finals to settle the argument.

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#4 Eduardo Portillo finished 5th last year and incrementally moved up a slot to #4 this year. He was one of the 6 players to win a tournament this year on tour, taking advantage of Kane’s injury to win in Virginia. He struggled with injury this season: a knee injury in January cost him performances really until May, then he forfeited out of another tournament in Sarasota (that was illness, not a physical injury).

Lalo got some solid wins, but also took some curious losses on the year. He needs to continue to be successful in those 4vs5 quarter final matchups in the quarters, then look opportunistic in the semis to continue to push for a top 4 spot.

As for 2023, he’s healthy and played well making the final of the Portland event. But I don’t think he can overtake the players ahead of him right now and is destined to stick in this 4-6 range for a bit. I think he slips to #5 in 2023, depending on how much play a couple of other players get that we’ll talk about soon. He’s the youngest regular touring player by a decent margin (he’s in his age 23 year, 3 years younger than anyone else who is regularly touring) and is in a great position to improve on his craft, but he has his work cut out for him if he wants to move up.

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#5 Alejandro Landa saw his ranking slip from #2 last season to #5 this year. This despite a year where he made 5 semi-finals, which you’d think would be good enough to keep him in the top 4. The problem was … Landa never went any further than these semi finals, when he got there. Nine players on tour this year made a final; Landa wasn’t one of them.

Almost from the moment he ascended to #1 on tour in January 2020, Landa has struggled to maintain the consistency he needs to stay there. He has made just ONE pro final since January 2020 (in Chicago in March of 2020 before Covid shut everything down). He has definitely had career moments, like his seminal win at Worlds in December 2021, but mostly has failed to play to his rank. This has been partly due to a lingering back injury that caused him grief for months, and partly due to the distractions (family and career) that come with players as the get into their 30s. Landa is now a few months from turning 35, and the 33-34 age window is usually a critical turning point for players on tour. We’ve been spoiled recently by the likes of Kane, Rocky, and Alvaro playing into their 40s, but for the most part the 33-34 window is where we see players step back.

I predict Landa will start to curtail his touring as he struggles to get past the quarters, making these trips less sense financially, and we’ll see him perhaps in the 8-10 range by season’s end in 2023.

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#6 Samuel Murray slipped back to #6 on tour this year after getting a huge Grand Slam win bump to elevate him to his career high #3 finish in 2021. #6 seems about right for Murray, who prior to 2021 had finished (in descending order) 7th, 7th and 8th the three previous seasons. He made three semis, three quarters, and lost in the 16s three times this season.

Murray, by virtue of being a fixture in the Canadian National team, has financial support to continue to tour going forward, so there’s no reason to think he won’t do exactly the same in 2023 that he did in 2022. He’s a steady practitioner of the sport, who sometimes gets some great wins and sometimes takes some upset losses. He topped Moscoso twice in 2022; two excellent wins. He took a couple of upset losses in the 16s (twice to Montoya; no shame there), but for the most part spent the season beating he should have beaten an losing to who he should have lost to.

For 2023, I expect Murray to be right in this same range, in the 6-7 range, and to continue to be a steady quarter finals entrant.

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#7 Jake Bredenbeck . 2022 was a career year for Jake, who made the Pleasanton final and then won the last event of the season in Portland, with three great wins over top-8 players Murray, Parrilla, and Portillo in a row to take his first title. This was his first career IRT win for Jake, and was a great validation for the improvements we’ve been seeing in his game over the past couple of seasons.

In 2022, he improved on his #9 finish from last season and finished 7th. He was just a few points out of #6, getting pipped by Murray by a scant 15 points. He suffered two round of 32 losses on the season (Alonso in Chicago and then Horn in NY), which ended up making the difference. After the summer break, Jake came back strong in the last half of the season to enter 2023 with momentum.

Those two round of 32 losses loom large for 2023, as they seem likely to get replaced by at least QF appearances at this point. He’s a protected seed, meaning he’s not facing a match until the 16s anyway (unless the IRT puts in a radical scheduling change to go with the anticipated point system change to start the new year). Which means … Jake will see his ranking rise in the first half of the year. If he can hold on, I see him improving on his #7 finish for 2022. I’m not sure he can catch the top 5 players above him, but I can see him finishing 6th.

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#8 Kane Waselenchuk was well on his way to returning to the throne, after having relinquished the IRT title in 2021. In contrast to the 2021 season, Kane was on track to play the tour full time in 2022, and by September had worked his way back up to #2 in the rankings. Rumors abounded about his plans … would he play and win the US Open and then walk away (Pete Sampras style?) Would he play the tour full time in 2022 and then walk away with one last title? Both career-ending stories made sense to this observer … but they were thrown for a serious loop by a serious injury suffered in Maryland. A full tear of his Achilles heel on a non-contact play early in the pro semis in Severna Park ended his 2022 season and left both his 2023 season and his career plans in doubt.

Achilles injuries generally take between 6-12 months to recover from. By all accounts, at six months people should be back at full activity, but that full movement and “trust” in the repaired tendon takes another six months. But, this recovery time is also based on the individual: Kane’s no longer a 25yr old athlete. He’s north of 40, has embarked on a new non-racquetball related career, and presumably isn’t training full time like a full-time athlete would.. How committed is he to coming back and re-dominating on the court? How much energy does he have left in his competitive motor to do so? Kane has never wanted to take the court unless he was at 100% … the question is, how long will it take him to get there? He’s been tight-lipped on social media about his recovery, so we’re all guessing at this point.

Projected Ranking for 2023? The injury was in Mid-September, which puts his 6-month recovery window to mid-March 2023. There’s going to be FIVE tournaments by that point, and there’s just no realistic way he will be able to compete for the 2023 title missing nearly half the slate of events. There’s no 2023 US Open (his favorite tournament), so no marquee event to target as a return.

Does he come back and play the back half of the 2023 slate, get a bunch of wins and prove a point to the tour one last time? Or does he not tempt fate and walks away now? We’ll see. For the time being, I’ll predict he comes back for the 2nd half of the season, gets a couple of wins, enough to buttress his ranking enough to keep him in the back half of the top 10, and maybe he’ll do a 2024 swan song run.

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#9 Rocky Carson finished right about where he was ranked in 2021; dropping one slot but mostly playing about the same level over the past couple of seasons. After setting a truly Lou Gehrig-esque tournament playing streak (not missing one pro event between 2001 and 2017), he’s now missing events here and there. He’s also starting to see the tour pass him by; in his last 12 pro tournaments, he’s advanced past the quarter finals just twice (Nov 2021 and then Mar 2022).

In his year-end Facebook live interview, Carson admitted that he’s no longer a full-time tour player, that his focus now is on US National team representation. The events he missed in 2022 seemed to show the pattern of attendance we can expect; he missed two of the east-coast events, avoiding a 5 hour west-to-east grueling flight. He also missed the final event when it was clear it would make little difference in his year end ranking. Reportedly he’s not in the Longhorn Open field, so we’re already seeing some early “load management.”

Luckily for Rocky, the first half of the 2023 slate features mostly central and west coast events; Austin, Sioux Falls, Atlanta, Fridley MN, Chicago, Fullerton, and Tijuana. The only east coast event on that list is Atlanta .. which is a Grand Slam and worth the trip. National Singles/Doubles is nicely spaced in-between the Lewis Drug and the Atlanta GS. The challenge he’ll face is the first three weeks of March, where he’s got Minnesota, Beach Bash, and Chicago in a row before a one week break to the 2023 PARC.

That’s a heck of a tough travel schedule for a player north of 40, and I think we’ll see some missed events along the way from Carson as he manages his playing load. We don’t yet know where the 2023 PARC is going to be, but the odds are it will be in a central or south American city requiring a massive 10-12 day trip, so that will factor into Carson’s priorities as well.

Projection for 2023? When Carson plays he generally makes the quarters, so I think he’ll tread water one more season and hang towards the back half of the top 10 again.

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#10 Mario Mercado hung onto the 10th spot on tour for the second year running thanks to the running 11-tournament rankings system, which pulled in solid end-of-2021 results for Mercado and kept him ranked 10th. For the season, Mercado lost in the 16s six of the nine tournaments he entered, making a couple of quarters and one semi. Those are not the numbers of a #10 player, and the beginning of 2023 should see him fall quickly into the teens.

Mercado remains a dangerous player, one who can turn it on and get wins over the tour’s best. In Pleasanton, he beat both Parrilla and Moscoso before losing to Jake in the semis. However most of the 2022 season saw him in tough 8/9 or 7/10 matchups against guys like Manilla, Jake, and Rocky, those kinds of incredibly even matches that are coin flips to predict, let alone play, and he came out on the wrong side more often than not.

For 2023, I predict that Mercado continues to play full-time and promote FormulaFlow with partner Zelada, but will continue to put up similar results and gets pushed into the mid-teens by year’s end.

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My predicted top 10 in 2023:

1. Moscoso

2. DLR

3. Parrilla

4. Montoya (who we’ll talk about next post)

5. Portillo

6. Jake Bredenbeck

7. Murray

8. Waselenchuk

9. Landa

10. Carson

(outside top 10: Mercado)

Next post; the players in the 11-20 range, which include more than a few guys who are top 10 by talent but not by points, and one of whom i’m predicting a huge run up the rankings for 2023.

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LPRT Xmas Classic Recap

Mejia two in a row. Photo Kevin Savory US Open 2019

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Montse Mejia

– Doubles; @Samantha Salas Solis and @Alexandra Herrera

Mejia wins her third career title, and 2nd in a row, with a dominant final’s win over Longoria. She now has 3 career titles, the same number of titles as current LPRT players Salas, Herrera, and Vargas. (see http://rb.gy/vdajxp ).

In Mejia’s last four pro events entered, she’s lost 14,10 in the final of the Team Root Super Max event to Longoria, lost 11-10 in the Aguascalientes final (unable to convert on match point) to Longoria, then won the Chicago event (beating #1 and #2 en route), then this weekend also beats #1 and #2 to win in Maryland. That’s a nice run.

Earlier this year, after Herrera won two straight tourneys, we were wondering if she was the heir apparent. Now we’re wondering if we were premature, in that we have a player in Mejia who routinely beats Herrera and is now topping the world #1 8,7 in finals.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37908

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rb.gy/by5ykr

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In the 32s:

-Susy Acosta stretched MRR to 11-9 before losing.

– Ana Gabriela Martinez , after missing most of the fall slate and seeing her ranking drop nearly out of the top 16, tops Nancy Enriquez to move forward.

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In the 16s:

– #1 Longoria handled Gaby 8,8 to move on in a stern round of 16 test.

– Kelani Lawrence got a very solid win over #8 @Brenda Laime, playing on essentially her home courts.

– Natalia Mendez reversed last event’s upset loss to Lotts, topping her in two.

– The big talking point and big upset of the round was #13 Valeria Centellas mounting a fantastic comeback from 5-10 down in the breaker to upset #4 @Erika Manilla . Lots of online chatter about bad calls at the expense of Manilla, but this observer didn’t really see anything to be that upset about. There were two calls in particular (a cross court side-out winner that Manilla thought skipped but Centellas immediately walked to the box for and which sounded just fine), then a “cut backhand” slice shot Manilla hit for what she presumed was a winner but which sounded funny on the front wall and was called a skip. Tough loss either way.

– @Hollie Scott got a very solid win, beating #6 @Jessica Parrilla 11-10 to move on.

– In a continuing rivalry that keeps popping up this season, @Carla Munoz took the latest episode over Samantha Salas in a tight one.

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In the Quarters, chalk

– #1 Longoria over #9 Lawrence, but not after dropping the first game.

– #4 Mendez had her best tourney for a while, getting to the semis with a solid 10,9 win over fellow Argentine Centellas.

– #3 Mejia went breaker against upset-minded Scott but moved on.

– #2 Herrera was pushed 11-9 by Munoz before advancing.

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In the Semis

– #1 Longoria in two straight over #4 Mendez.

– #2 Mejia in a breaker, once again, to top #2 Herrera.

Then in the final … a dominant 8,7 win for Mejia as discussed.

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Points Implications of results

Not too much: I don’t see any changes in the top 7, but I do see some severe tightening at the top of the race. Longoria had an 1100 point lead after winning her namesake grand slam in August; that lead is now lower than 500 points. She has two finals and two wins to defend from the last half of last season, but without a KC Supermax commitment and (at this point) things could get a little dicey if Longoria wants to maintain her #1 streak.

Elsewhere further down in the rankings:

– Laime missed this event last year so she moves up to #8 despite the early loss.

– Same with Salas; she didn’t play last year and only gains points: she moves up to #10.

– Vargas takes a dive, from #8 to #15, which means everyone above her moves up one slot.

– Gaby remains mired outside the top 16 and will need a huge run to move up at this point.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: http://rb.gy/ieneht

Salas and Herrera won a weird looking match, taking the first game 15-0 before Mejia/Longoria made a match of it. Still no official word why these two long-time pairs split up, but i’m sure we’ll get the 411 at some point.

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Women’s Open, other draws

– Centellas got a walkover win in the Women’s open final over Amaya, who got a great win in the semis over Enriquez.

– the Men’s Open was won by Dylan Pruitt , who took out Virginia’s Justin Carpenter in the final.

– Carpet baggers @Damian Zamorano and Craig Clement took the Men’s Open draw.

– Carpenter and Kelani (both Chesapeake VA natives) took the small Mixed Pro Doubles draw over teams that included Parrilla, Centellas, and tour commissioner @Tj Baumbaugh .

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

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Karen Grisz for putting this event on!

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

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

The last remaining event on the 2022 calendar of note is the 2nd annual Beach Battle in Hollywood, FL next weekend. Then its happy new year and the first big event on the 2023 slate will be the IRT Longhorn Open.

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Junior Worlds 2022 Wrap-up

Barrios takes the triple crown of U21 at World Juniors. Photo via Barrios’ facebook page.

One of the biggest tournaments for us to enter each year just wrapped up; Junior Worlds 2022, held this year for the second year running at the fabulous brand new facility in Guatemala City.

Champions were crowned in Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles in six age groups: 21U, 18U, 16U, 14U, 12U, and 10U, as well as a team competition, meaning that in essence this tournament actually held 30 separate competitions to enter into the database. Its the rough equivalent of doing 30 small pro tournaments all at once, with the added benefit of typing in brand new names never before seen for a good chunk of the participants. If you see any typos, or name corrections, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Reminder: as a practice, Pro Racquetball Stats does not capture full draws for any groups younger than 14yr olds; for the 12s, 10s, and younger we just capture the champions for historical reporting.

Congratulations to your champions:

Boys Singles:

– Boys 21U: @Diego Garcia , Argentina

– Boys 18U: @Sebastian Hernandez , Mexico

– Boys 16U: @Jorge Gutierrez, Mexico

– Boys 14U: Nicolas Galindo, Mexico

– Boys 12U: Pablo Ignacio Lagos, Bolivia

– Boys 10U: Hermann Gracia, Mexico

Mexico takes 4 of the 6 Boys singles titles.

Girls Singles:

– Girls 21U: Angelica Barrios , Bolivia

– Girls 18U: Michaela Meneses , Bolivia

– Girls 16U: @Naomi Ros, USA

– Girls 14U: Adriana Noelia Blacutt, Bolivia

– Girls 12U: María Laura Villacreses, Bolivia

– Girls 10U: Michelle Gomez, Mexico

Bolivia takes 4 of the 6 Girls Singles titles, while Ros secures the USA’s sole singles gold at the event.

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Boys Doubles:

– Boys 21U: Erick Trujillo / @Jose Carlos Ramos , Mexico

– Boys 18U: Sebastian Hernandez / @Luis Renteria, Mexico

– Boys 16U: Jorge Gutierrez / Eder Renteria , Mexico

– Boys 14U: Diego Romano / Sebastian Ruelas, Mexico

– Boys 12U: Axel Sanchez / Santiago Castillo, Mexico

– Boys 10U: Hermann Gracia / Arturo Gonzalez, Mexico

Mexico does a clean sweep of all 6 Boys doubles titles.

Girls Doubles:

– Girls 21U: Angelica Barrios / @Natalia Mita, Bolivia

– Girls 18U: Valeria Miranda / Rebecca Amaya, Bolivia

– Girls 16U: Cynthia Gutierrez / Yanna Salazar, Mexico

– Girls 14U: Larissa Faeth / Giuliana Faeth, Costa Rica

– Girls 12U: Angelica Villaroel Garzon / Luciana Illanes Quenta, Bolivia

– Girls 10U: Grissel Gomez / Michelle Gomez, Mexico

Bolivia takes 3 of the 6 Girls doubles titles.

Mixed Doubles:

– Mixed 21U: Hector Barrios / @Angelica Barrios, Bolivia

– Mixed 18U: Sebastian Hernandez / Angela Veronica Vera Ortega , Mexico

– Mixed 16U: Jorge Gutierrez / Yanna Salazar, Mexico

– Mixed 14U: Sebastian Ruelas / Miranda Barraza, Mexico

– Mixed 12U: Pablo Ignacio Lagos / Angelica Villaroel Garzon, Bolivia

– Mixed 10U: Hermann Gracia / Michelle Gomez, Mexico

Mexico takes 4 of the 6 Mixed doubles titles.

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Grand total of Titles won by Country:

– Mexico: 17 of 30

– Bolivia: 10 of 30

– Argentina, USA, and Costa Rica: 1 each

Team Mexico really dominates the 2022 event, especially on the Boys side where they took 10 of the 12 divisions. Bolivia won 7 of their 10 titles in Girls divisions, supporting what we’ve seen on the pro tour, where Bolivian players (or Bolivian born) comprise 3 of the top 10 and 6 of the top 20 players.

Bravo to these players, who took hold Triple Crowns of Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles:

– Angelica Barrios: 21U, Bolivia

– Sebastian Hernandez: 18U, Mexico

– Jorge Gutierrez, 16U, Mexico

– Hermann Gracia, 10U, Mexico

– Michelle Gomez, 10U, Mexico

These players earned double crowns:

– Yanna Salazar, 16U, Mexico

– Sebastian Ruelas, 14U, Mexico

– Pablo Ignacio Lagos, 12U, Bolivia

– Angelica Villaroel Garzon , 12U, Bolivia

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

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

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

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

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

Boys 21U:

Clearly the two best players (Garcia and Erick Trujillo ) in this draw ended up in the same RR group, and then they fought their way to meet again in the final. Garcia (representing Argentina but who used to represent Bolivia) got two wins over his young Mexican to take Gold. The last time Garcia showed up on tour, he beat both Javier Mar and Rocky Carson; pretty heady company. We hope to see more of him. This is Garcia’s 7th Junior World title.

Notable here is Jose Carlos Ramos, aka “Pepe,” who beat Trujillo in the Mexican Junior nationals final and thus was the #1 seeded Mexican player here; he fell to Garcia in the semis. American #1 Micah Farmer got a great win over Bolivian @Adrian Jaldin but then fell to Garcia in the quarters.

Boys 18U:

Mexico’s Sebastian Hernandez came out of nowhere to win both his country 18U and World 18U titles, his first career Junior titles. He dominated in Guatemala, and the only player to even take a game off of him was an obviously hobbled @Timmy Hansen .

Hernandez joins a pretty illustrious list of 18U boys champs: here in reverse order are past winners: Trujillo, Miranda, Portillo, Marco Rojas, Christian Longoria, Montoya, Mercado, Moscoso, Marco Rojas, and Keller. That list includes 5 players currently ranked in the top 15, multiple IRT tournament winners, etc.

16U:

Mexico’s Jorge Gutierrez repeats as the 16U Junior worlds champ, the first time we’ve had a repeat 16U singles champ since Longoria in 2015. He’s another guy who has really blasted onto the scene, with no previous Mexican Junior titles prior to 2021. We went wire-to-wire as the #1 seed and defeated his countryman Eder Renteria in the final.

14U:

Hats off to Galindo for taking this title; he was inexplicably the #18 seed here, behind two other fellow Mexican players, despite being the 14U losing finalist in Mexican Junior Nationals and thus finishing ahead of multiple other Mexican entrants to this draw. I’ve complained about questionable IRF seedings before but this one is beyond me. He defeats Ruelas in the final after losing the Mexican final to him.

12U: An all-Bolivian Final which featured two Mexican semifinalists and a first time champion.

10U: Hermann Gracia (not Garcia as r2sports shows it) follows up his 10U Mexican title with a worlds title, taking out USA’s Alejandro Robles Picon in a huge come-from behind effort in the final.

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Girls 21U

Current LPRT regular Angelica Barrios skipped the pro stop in Maryland to compete and secured her third ever Junior Worlds title. She was pushed in the knockouts by Argentine lefty Martina Katz before topping tough Costa Rican Maricruz Ortiz in the semis (a match that many thought was the true final). Mexico’s @Maria Gutierrez (who went by Mafer in this event) upset USA’s Shane Diaz to make the final.

Girls 18U

Bolivia’s LPRT touring pro Micaela Meneses repeated as 18U world champ and did not drop a game all event. She secures her 6th Career Junior World title. She topped both Mexican entrants en route to the title.

Girls 16U:

USA’s @Naomi Ros gave the US its sole gold medal at this event, beating both the Bolivian #1 and Mexican #1 to take the title. This is Ros’ second Junior world title; the first was in 12U when she was still competing for Mexico.

Girls 14U: Bolivia’s Adriana Noelia Blacutt wins her first junior world title.

Girls 12U: Another Bolivian first time girls winner in María Laura Villacreses took the title, defeating three of the top seeds along the way.

Girls 10U was taken by Mexico’s Michelle Gomez, who has now entered four junior events in her career and won four titles. She’s the two-time defending Mexico 10U champ, and now she’s the two-time defending World 10U champ.

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Thanks to the International Racquetball Federation for hosting the event, thanks to the great hosts in Guatemala, thanks to all our the coaches and parents who sacrificed to get your kids down there, especially t his close to the holiday season, thanks to @Gary Mazaroff

for the streaming all tournament.

Tomorrow we’ll publish the LPRT summary, th en we’ll take a break until the end of the year when we’ll start posting some IRT season recap material.

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LPRT 30th Annual Xmas Classic Preview

Can Mejia get another title? Photo Kevin Savory US Open 2019

LPRT is back in action, and back in my hometown, for the last pro event of this calendar year 2022.

Quick History lesson on this event, for those who are interested:

This is the 30th iteration of this event, which puts its first occurrence way back in 1991 (it missed a year for Covid like everything else). It was originally the brain child of long-time DC-area racquetball promoter Ed Willis II, who ran tournaments for more than a decade in the area and was briefly the LPRT tour commissioner.

When I moved to Arlington VA in late 1997, i hooked up with Team Ed to help them with tournament prep; I dug into my old files for when I was working with Team Ed and I have a file dated Dec 1999 with start times for the 8th annual event. Top seeds in the Men’s Open draw of the 1999 event? Dan Fowler , Daniel F Llacera , Mike Porter, David Day, Dave White, Stan Davis, Ben Hale, Jamal Harris . If I had to guess i’d say Fowler took Llacera in the final, with Porter and Day making the semis. The Women’s open was a bit smaller but featured Doreen Fowler and … current LPRT commissioner @TJ Baumbaugh as the top seeds.

The event used to be run at the historic Crystal City Sport & Health, which hosted pro stops for decades dating to the 1980s, before moving to the Tysons Club, then moving around the area as the Sport & Health chain in the area systematically eliminated courts throughout the chain. Today i’m not sure there’s a single racquetball court inside the beltway, where as for decades the DC area had a massive community of players, both club and tournament. A shame.

The tourney (and Team Ed’s portfolio) was eventually was taken over by Karen Grisz , who took over when Ed stepped out of racquetball promotion, and the tournament moved to Sportfit Laurel for a time before settling where it is today: at one of the last clubs in the DC/Baltimore area with enough courts to hold anything more than a shootout; Severna Park.

R2 Sports App link:https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37908

This weekend’s event features 22 Ladies pros and has a pretty good talent level despite the smaller draw. 9 of the top 10 are here (only missing the new mom Vargas), and then 8 of the next top 10 ranked players are here (missing only Barrios, who is at World Juniors, and the recently retired Rajsich). So, a solid 17 of the top 20 present.

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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:

In the 32s,

– watch for Ana Gabriela Martinez , who returns to the tour for the first time in months and gets a #17 seed for her troubles. She faces off against #16 Nancy Enriquez and is favored to move on.

– I like Lotts vs Lexi York as a play-in to the main draw; Lotts has been playing well lately and should move on.

– #14 Maria Renee Rodriguez will have a good test against long-time tour player @Susy Acosta

– For the 2nd event in a row, the two traveling Colombians, and doubles partners @Maria Paz Riquelme and @Cristina Amaya have to face off. Maybe we tweak the seeding next time? These two also may very well face off in the 2nd round of Women’s Open.

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round of 16:

– #1 Paola Longoria gets the absolute worst case round of 16 match she could ask for, projecting to face Gaby. At the end of the day, Longoria holds a dominant career h2h against the Guatemalan, but Gaby has toppled Paola in the past.

– #8 Kelani Lawrence vs #9 Brenda Laime Jalil . Great match; hope we get this streamed. Two very close players, MD vs VA. I favor Laime to move on and set up another qtr against Paola.

– #5 Natalia Mendez vs #12 Lotts: ironically a rematch of Lott’s huge upset win over Mendez in Chicago. Can she do it again?

– #6 Jessica Parrilla vs #11 @Hollie Scott : this is a very even matchup, and the kind of match Scott needs to win if she wants to break into the top 10.

– #7 @Carla Munoz vs #10 Samantha Salas Solis: these two keep running into each other; they met in August and again at the US Open. They’ve split those two meetings … who comes out on top this time? Salas seems to have found a second win lately and could pull the upset.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Longoria v #9 Laime, again. this would be the 4th meeting of the season. Laime shocked the #1 in Chesapeake; can she do it again on essentially home soil?

– #4 Erika Manilla vs #5 Mendez; assuming no upsets, Manilla gets a challenging match to get back to the semis.

– #3 Montse Mejía vs the Parrilla/Scott winner: Mejia would be favored either way.

– #2 Alexandra Herrera vs the Salas/Munoz winner: Herrera favored either way.

Semis:

– Longoria over Manilla: Paola is 7-0 lifetime over Erika, but the American #1 improving. Erika has gone from losing 0,1 to Longoria in Nov 2021 to taking a game off of her at the US Open in October. She projects to get another shot here.

– Mejia over Herrera; Montse is 6-3 lifetime over Herrera, including the last two meetings.

Finals: Mejia over Longoria. Montse beat her in Chicago, has a couple other wins over Paola, and won’t be intimidated. After Longoria labors through what arguably could be called the most difficult possible draw she could have … she runs out of gas in the final.

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Doubles review

Once again, we see the long-time partnership of Longoria/Salas split up … as we do with the long-time partnership of Herrera/Mejia. These players have paired up with each other, and we should see all four in the final.

Longoria/Mejia is a more formidable doubles pairing than even Longoria/Salas and is my favorite to win.

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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, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Mike Grisz , Karen Grisz, and Bill Milbach for putting this event on! Since its Severna Park, I know Slemo Warigon will be involved too.

Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on LPRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!

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IRT John Pelham Memorial ToC Wrap-up

Bredenbeck wins! Photo Kevin Savory 2020 USAR national doubles

Congrats to your Pro Singles winner on the weekend: Jake Bredenbeck !

Jake becomes the 44th man to ever win a Tier 1 professional racquetball event, dating to the fall of 1974. See http://rb.gy/aibnid for a list of all Tier 1 winners in the history of the IRT and its predecessors. Jake joins a club of “One time winners” on tour which includes 10 players, several of which are active currently (Murray, Portillo, Mercado, Franco, Pratt).

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37812

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

PRS Match Report: http://rb.gy/wfieqj

No real surprises in the 32s. The main notable match was Alan Natera ‘s 0,0 win, the first time we’ve had a double donut on tour since Jan 2019 (see this link for the tour’s worst defeats to see all the double/triple donuts we’ve had: https://rball.pro/99u )

In the 16s, just one upset by seed but several notable matches:

– #9 Thomas Carter got a very solid win over the recently surging #8 Adam Manilla 11-9 in the breaker. Carter was solid, making serves, and making shots, while Adam was leaving things up and not putting away his opportunities. Carter makes his 3rd career pro quarter: see http://rb.gy/hio52i for his career Summary.

– #6 Mario Mercado was stretched to a breaker by veteran lefty @Robert Collin before advancing.

– #7 @Rodrigo Montoya was pushed to a breaker by Alan Natera before advancing.

– #2 Eduardo Portillo advanced over Canadian Michael LeDuc by the 0,0 score line, the second double donut of the tournament.

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In the Quarters, three of the top four seeds advance.

– #1 Andree Parrilla got pushed 15-14 in game one by #9 Carter, but then blew him out in game two 15-2 to advance.

– #5 Bredenbeck improved to 3-2 lifetime against Big Canada Samuel Murray to move on. Jake topped Sam 9,4 in a comprehensive victory.

– #3 Alejandro Landa held off Mercado but was taken to a breaker to do so.

– #2 Portillo blasted #7 Montoya 1,4 to move on. Montoya, who I tipped to win this event, did not drive serve early and does not seem to this observer like he was healthy.

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In the Semis

– Jake won a fantastic match that featured multiple come-from-behind actions to top his long-time rival Parrilla to move into the final.

– Portillo ground out a win over the veteran Landa, winning game one 13 and then having landa retire at 11-11 in the second.

In the Finals

– Jake had another match that featured a ton of comebacks to win his first title.

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Points Implications of results

This tournament expired the 2021 Chicago event, and the top 4 players on tour were essentially locked into their spots irrespective of the results here (probably why the attendance was sparse).

However, the players ranked 5-10 collectively are separated by just 200 points, so every tournament jumbles the seeding. Based on these results, and the expiration of 2021 Chicago, Murray should drop from 5 to 7, Landa and Kane will move up a slot, and Rocky drops down to #10. Montoya just misses out on a top 10 spot for the season.

At some point I presume the tour will pivot back to a 365-day rolling calendar, now that we’re beyond covid and are back to a decent schedule. Right now, the 2022 title is determined in part by tournaments that happened in 2021 (not the least of which is the 2021 US Open, which gives a huge chunk of points to DLR in particular), and it probably isn’t “fair” to continue to do this.

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Men’s Open, other draws

There was no Pro doubles here, nor a U21 division (since all those players are at World Juniors). The Men’s Open draw was small, and was won by Natera over Montana Amateur Ty Hedalen . Hedalen teamed with Matthew Ivar Majxner to take the Open Doubles title, representing Montana well. California duo Will Reynolds and Estefania Perez-Picon took the large Mixed Open doubles draw. Shout out to fellow USAR board member @Cindy Tillbury, who won the Women’s Open doubles draw with partner Rachel Chamness. Lastly sometime LPRT touring pro @Lexi York took the 20-person Men’s Elite singles draw.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

World Juniors is underway now; knockout brackets will be determined later this week after the RRs complete.

After that, the LPRT is heading to the DC Area to play the 30th iteration of the Xmas Classic, a tournament I used to help run 20 years ago. Then the last major event on the 2022 schedule is an outdoor event in Hollywood Florida that’s become one of the most popular outdoor tournaments all year.

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IRT Portland John Pelham Memorial Preview

Is this Montoya’s tournament to break through? Photo 2022 3WB via Steve Fitzsimons

Welcome to the final event of the 2022 International Racquetball Tour season, the long-running John Pelham memorial, held in one of the hotbeds of racquetball in the USA, Portland Oregon.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37812

The timing of the event, along with the nature of the tour right now, has conspired to make this the smallest Men’s draw we’ve had in quite some time. There are 23 pros in Portland, with a number of top players missing.

The draw is missing #1, 3 and #7 on tour right now. #1 DLR has sewn up the 2022 title and had an increasingly busy Pickleball travel schedule and has skipped the event. Moscoso generally likes to cluster events to play when he makes the long flight from Bolivia, and Carson at #7 has been slowly stepping back as his sponsorship deal changes with the newer reality of the sport. A good chunk of the guys ranked 11-20 are out as well, due to vacations (Acuna is at the World cup), injuries (Kane and Alvaro of course are out for some time), or travel issues going from east to west.

That being said … when the draws are missing big names, we usually get surprises. And I think we’re going to get a 1st time winner this weekend. Read on…

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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:

I see no real surprises in the 32s: Pratt-Martin should be good, as should Cuevas-Spencer.

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round of 16:

– #1 Andree Parrilla probably faces Charlie Pratt , who got his one career title on this court in 2017. Pratt has been on daddy duty lately; it remains to be seen how rusty he is.

– #8/#9 features lefty v lefty in Adam Manilla and Thomas Carter

– #7 Rodrigo Montoya likely faces off against Alan Natera in the 7/10 spot, a tough opener as compared to other top 8 seeds.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Parrilla over #8 Manilla; This is a great spot for Adam to try to get a breakthrough win, but Andree is still too tough.

– #5 @Jake Bredenbeck over #4 Samuel Murray ; Murray opted out of the recent Canadian qualifier final with injury and may not be 100%. Jake and Sam have split their 4 career meetings, so it’s anyone’s game.

– #6 Mario Mercado over #3 @Alejandro Landa Mercado made the final here in 2017 (losing to Pratt), and has been playing well. I like him to catch the slow-starting Landa off-guard and get the upset.

– #7 Rodrigo Montoya over #2 Eduardo Portillo . Montoya made the finals of US Open and Dovetail, losing to Conrrado and DLR respectively. Neither are here. I think he’s the favorite to win.

Semis:

– Parrilla over Jake; Andree is 5-1 against Jake since 2017 and seems to know how to beat him as needed.

– Montoya over Mercado, though this is a tough one; Mercado is 3-1 over Rodrigo lifetime, including a win the week after US Open in California … if Mercado gets here, watch out.

Finals;

Montoya beats Parrilla again to win his first IRT title.

Lets see if my prognosticating skills are any good for the last event of the season.

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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 ,Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Azuma Dave , @Wendell Pelham, and others for putting this event on!

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2022 Mexican Junior Nationals Data Loaded to Pro Racquetball Stats Database

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We got a little backed up here at PRS over the past couple of months, between my real job and the work I did for the US Open and 3WallBall in October. So I’m just now doing the data entry for the 2022 Mexican Junior Nationals.

This post is the notification that this data, from the tournament ending on 9/18/22, is now in the database. Here’s some links and a recap.

R2sports tournament link for Mexican Junior Nationals:

https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39839

Congrats to the Mexican Junior National Champs for 2022:

– Boys 21U: Jose Ramos

– Boys 18U: Sebastian Hernandez

– Boys 16U: Jorge Gutierrez

– Boys 14U: Sebastian Ruelas

– Boys 12U: Santiago Castillo

– Boys 10U: Hermann Gracia Castro

– Girls 21U: Maria Gutierrez

– Girls 18U: Veronica Angel Ortega

– Girls 16U: Yanna Salazar

– Girls 14U: Miranda Barazza

– Girls 12U: Danna Hernandez

– Girls 10U: Michelle Gomez

All these players qualify for the 2022 Junior Worlds Competition, along with the winners of the double elimination brackets for each draw. These two players then generally also form the doubles team that competes in Worlds (Mexico does not generally also compete a Junior doubles division like the USA and other countries do).

Junior Worlds commences on 12/3/22 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. See https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=40015 for the home page for that event.

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Matrix Reports: these show all Junior National champs in all age divisions going back to 2011 for Mexico (prior years are not in R2 and are not complete/not yet loaded):

– Boys Junior Champs: https://rball.pro/4cu

– Girls Junior Champs: https://rball.pro/6ja

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Here’s some commentary on the winners and qualifiers, division by division:

– Boys 21U: Jose Ramos, a name who some may not recognize, wins the first Mexican Junior 21U boys title by topping a solid bracket with several semi-regular IRT touring pros. He topped Erick Trujillo in the winner’s bracket final. The draw also featured Erick Diaz Fernandez , @Oscar Elias Nieto, and its top two seeds were Diego Gastelum and Emir Martinez . Ramos wins his 7th junior national title, but his first since 2018. Trujillo took the loser’s bracket to secure the second spot for worlds. IRT fans certainly recognize Trujillo’s name; he’s already got a couple of top-10 wins under his belt. Well Ramos is just as good but never travels.

– Boys 18U: Sebastian Hernandez wins his first ever junior national title. He lost in the quarters last year. He’s yet to make his IRT debut. @Roberto Cornejo made the winner’s bracket final but was topped by 3-time junior national champion Luis Renteria for the second jr national team spot.

– Boys 16U: Gutierrez repeats as 16U champ. he topped 6-time junior national champion Eder Renteria in the final. Renteria earned the second spot on the national team.

– Boys 14U; Ruelas takes his 2nd ever junior national crown, topping former 8U national champ and #2 seed Nicolas Galindo in the winner’s bracket final. Galindo was then upset by #3 seed Diego Romano for the other World’s spot.

– Boys 12U: Castillo wins his 2nd ever junior title as the #1 seed. He topped #2 seed Brian Axel Sanchez in the final, who then secured the second team spot.

– Boys 10U: Hermann Gracia took his 2nd straight junior title (he won 8U last year). Vico Gonzalez takes second.

– Boys 8U: Kermann Gracia (Hermann’s younger brother) goes 5-0 to win the 8U RR.

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– Girls 21U: only two entrants, who played a couple times and determined the winner to be Maria Gutierrez, her 2nd junior title. Hernandez secures the second spot. Only Hernandez has even played an LPRT event; once in 2017 when she was just 14 (she lost to Susy Acosta in straight games).

– Girls 18U: Ortega wins her 4th career junior national title. She topped #1 seed Leonela Osorio in the winner’s bracket finals, but Osorio was beaten by Ivanna Balderrama (the 2019 14U champ) to secure the 2nd team spot. Ortega has twice made the Worlds final, losing to USA’s Heather Mahoney each time, and debuted professionally at this year’s US Open.

– Girls 16U: Yanna Salazar gets her first ever junior national title, topping @Fatima Sanchez in the winner’s bracket final. #1 seed Cynthia Gutierrez , who made the finals of 16U Worlds last year, fought back in the loser’s bracket to secure a return trip to Worlds.

– Girls 14U: Miranda Barraza wins her first jr national title, winning the draw as the #8 seed and defeating several top seeds along the way. She becomes the third Barraza family member to win a junior national title. The #11 seed Lilia Farias (last year’s 12U champ; why was she ranked so low??) took 2nd place.

– Girls 12U: Danna Hernandez topped #1 seed Danna Portillo for the title; both qualified for the worlds’ team.

– Girls 10U: Chihuahua’s Michelle Gomez repeated as 10U champ, topping #2 seed Grissel Gomez Rubio in the final. Both qualified for the national team.

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thanks to the venerable @Favio Soto for running this event on behalf of The Mexican Federation FMR.

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IRT Monterrey Open Recap

Parrilla the double winner in Monterrey. Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory

While the LPRT was in Chicago, there was an IRT-sanctioned lower-tier event in Monterrey Mexico last weekend that featured a handful of IRT tour regulars. Lets do a quick recap.

r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=40000

The top 4 seeds in this event are also the four most “notable” names to most IRT fans: #1 seed and current #2 player on tour Andree Parrilla , #2 up and coming Mexican phenom Erick Trujillo , #3 seed the always dangerous Jordy Alonso , and #4 seed the ever-present tour player Erick Diaz Fernandez . These four advanced to the semis as expected.

Quarter final losers include a set of names to know in Mexican racquetball: Christian Longoria was the #8 seed and lost to Parrilla in the quarters, but managed to score the most points against him of any player this weekend and was probably underseeded. @Diego Gastelu (the #1 seed at Mexican Junior Nationals U21 division earlier this fall), Oscar Nieto and Sebastian Hernandez rounded out the rest of the quarterfinalists.

In the semis, Andree made fast work of Cuevas, while Alonso took out Trujillo in an 11-8 thriller.

The final was anti-climactic, as Parrilla trounced Alonso 6,5 to win the title. The event serves as a nice little tune-up for Parrilla as he heads to Portland for the season’s last event, one where he projects to be the #1 seed with the 1,2 players likely missing the event.

Parrilla teamed up with Cuevas to take the Open Doubles, topping Trujillo and @Jose Ramos in the final. Ramos is a name to take note of; he won the U21 division at Mexican Junior nationals, beating Trujillo in the final. He has 6 junior national titles and is every bit as talented as some up and coming Mexican younger players like Trujillo, Ortega Jr., Gastelum, and the like.

Thanks to the International Racquetball Tour team for traveling down and broadcasting a few matches this weekend.

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LPRT 2022 Turkey Shoot Recap

Mejia wins her 2nd pro title. Photo Kevin Savory US Open 2019

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Montse Mejia

– Doubles: Alexandra Herrera & Samantha Salas

Match Reports in the ProRacquetballStats database:

– Singles: https://rball.pro/4tc

– Doubles: https://rball.pro/vcf

Mejia wins her 2nd career singles title, defeating #1 and #2 on tour to do so. Salas teams up with a new partner to win her 37th pro doubles title since we started tracking them.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39960

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/4tc

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No surprises in the 32s: Annie Roberts played well in taking MRR to 9,9, and Argentine junior Martina Katz played Lawrence well in game one before losing big in game two.

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In the 16s, four upsets by seeds to talk about:

– #9 Brenda Laime with a solid win over #8 Angelica Barrios 11-6 in the breaker. These are the kinds of tough wins you have to continually get when you’re in the 9-16 range in order to move up.

– #13 @Sheryl Lotts got her best career win, topping #4 Natalia Mendez 11-9.

– #11 Samantha Salas showed that she’s not done yet on tour, topping fellow Mexican veteran #6 @Jessica Parrill 11-8.

– #10 @Kelani Lawrence met #7 @Carla Munoz for the first time on the pro tour (they’ve met 4 times internationally) and got the win 11-7. A solid win between two players that are neck and neck in terms of talent.

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In the Quarters

– #1 Paola Longoria had to work for it, but she beat down the challenge from Laime (who had beaten her earlier this season). 11-8 in the breaker.

– #5 Montse Mejía made fast work of the Cinderella #13 seed Lotts, 13,2.

– #3 Erika Manilla held serve against the tough veteran Samantha Salas , moving into the semis in two close games 13,11

– #2 Alexandra Herrera dominated American Lawrence to move on 3,11.

A great set of semi-finalists; for me the best four players in the world.

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In the Semis

– #1 Longoria was beaten again, this time by Mejia in a breaker. Mejia was down big in each game but clawed back each time.

Longoria fought back in game 2 to force a tie-breaker, saving multiple match points against, but Mejia left no doubt by jumping out to a huge lead in the breaker to win going away 11-3.

– #2 Herrera demonstrated why there’s still a gulf between #2 and #3, crushing Manilla 7,4 to move into the final. Herrera makes her 6th final out of the last 10 pro events.

In the Finals … the two long-time doubles partners (who have seemingly split) went to battle, and it looked for a time like Mejia was not going to compete. She took a bad injury in the doubles match the night before and looked sluggish in game one, losing 15-2. But she battled back, grinding out game 2 15-12 before taking the breaker after running out to a huge lead. Inspired play from Mejia.

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Points Implications of results.

This tournament sees off two Nov 2021 events (Arizona and this same event in Chicago), both won by Paola, and neither of which Montse played in, so she gets a HUGE jump in the rankings as a result.

The top 2 remain the same, and despite her recent upsets Paola still has a commanding lead for #1, just as Alexandra has a commanding lead for #2. But Montse now sits at #3 on tour, jumping over several ladies in the process.

Elsewhere on tour, Munoz moves up to #7, jumping over Vargas, who slips from #3 to #8 by virtue of losing points in essentially three events. Barrios, who has been ranked as high as #4, will slip outside the top 10 for the first time in quite a while. Lotts with her big win moves up to #14, and the absent Rajsich now slips nearly out of the top 20.

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Doubles review

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

The new pairing of Herrera & Salas proved too dominant, cruising into the final from the top half. From the bottom half, the seemingly dominant Longoria/Mejia team nearly was upset in the quarters by Laime/Barrios, having to save match points before advancing. They then lost to Manilla/Mendez in the semis (Mendez choosing not to play with fellow Argentine Centellas, who instead matched up with Parrilla and got crushed in the quarters).

In the final, the two excellent doubles players Herrera/Salas outlasted the improving Manilla/Mendez team, winning 13,14.

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Other Draws:

– Lawrence cruised through the Women’s Open draw, never giving up more than 8 points in a game while topping Maldonado, Amaya, and Centellas to win.

– @Thomas Carter took the 10-man Men’s Open draw, topping fellow IRT tour veteran @Mario Mercado in the final after beating fellow lefty Rodrigo Rodriguez in the semis.

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

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

We have Thanksgiving this coming weekend, then the first weekend in December sees the IRT visiting Portland for the Live Like John Pelham memorial. We also see the kick off of World Juniors 2022 in Guatemala.

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LPRT 2022 Turkey Shoot Preview

Can Manilla make another run to the final? Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory

Welcome to the 30th Annual Turkey Shoot, presented in 2022 by Platt Hill Nursery and hosted at the famous Glass Court Swim and Fitness club in Lombard, IL. Home of the famous “fishbowl” sunken 3-wall glass court, this club is a regular host to both pro tours.

Last year’s LPRT event featured a fantastic 11-9 final between #1 Longoria and then #3 Herrera as well as a couple of double-digit seeds into the quarters, shaking up the draw. See https://rball.pro/vxh for last year’s results … what does 2022 have in store for us?

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39960

There are 24 LPRT women’s pros in Chicago-land this weekend competing.

Top 20 players missing this weekend include @Maria Jose Vargas , who has now dropped to #7 while on maternity leave; she may be back early next year. #13 Hollie Scott misses the event; curious as she has been traveling a lot for events lately. #14 Rhonda Rajsich continues her absence on tour; she has not played since the season ending event in June. Lastly Gaby Martinez , who won a major last year, has now dropped to #20 on tour; when she returns someone’s going to have an awfully hard opening round match.

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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:

Round of 32:

– #14 Maria Renee Rodriguez has a fun match against USA U-21 and current Intercollegiate champ @Annie Roberts to open the tourney.

– #11 Samantha Salas Solis has an interesting one against USA’s Lexi York , who has been training with the Bredenbeck boys in Minnesota and could be tough.

– In the #15/18 match we get Colombian-on-Colombian crime, as partners Cristina Amaya and @Maria Paz Riquelme are forced to play.

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round of 16:

– 8/9, tough as always: Brenda Laime versus Angelica Barrios . Both Bolivian born, both extremely tough to beat. Two contrasting styles; the classical flair of Laime versus the control grinding of Barrios. I see Laime upsetting the #8 seed to push for another Longoria meeting.

– 5/12: Montse Mejía and @Valeria Centella , who have been meeting since Juniors, meet again. They went breaker at the US OPen; can Centellas get an upset here?

– #6 @Jessica Parrill versus possibly Salas; two long-time Mexican top players set to battle once again.

– 7.10 projects to be Carla Munoz versus Kelani Lawrence , a total battle. I have them neck and neck in my personal world rankings, with Munoz slightly ahead. Expect a tiebreaker here.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 @PaPaola Longo versus Laime: third time they will meet in the last three tourneys; Laime famously topped Paola in Virginia before Paola completely crushed Brenda at the US Open 1,8. What happens here? I don’t think Paola is going to look past Laime again, so expect a win for the #1.

– #5 Mejia over #4 Natalia Mendez : Mejia is the better player, the more complete racquetball player, but has been known to drop games to fellow friends on tour like Mendez.

– #3 Erika Manilla over #6 Parrilla: Erika has handled Leoni the last couple times they’ve met, and Manilla has her eyes on #2 on tour. She’ll be focused here.

– #2 @Alexandra Herrera vs Munoz: Carla is 0-6 lifetime against the lefty, and this would be the 3rd straight event they play. Alexandra is just too strong for Carla right now.

Semis:

– Longoria over Mejia: I know Mejia has topped Paola in the past, and it isn’t out of the realm of possible, but is she prepared? Mejia hasn’t played an LPRT event since mid August, having missed Worlds, Virginia, and the US Open. Longoria hasn’t missed anything.

– Manilla over Herrera: they just met in Minn; a 6,6 dominant win for Erika, staking her claim to be the #2 player in the world. Can she repeat?

Finals;

Longoria over Manilla in a US Open final rematch. Manilla took game one in Minn before getting wiped out 5,3 in games 2,3. Can she make it closer here?

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Doubles review

Some interesting team machinations going on in Chicago: The clear #1 pro team of Longoria/Salas .. are not playing with each other for the first time that I can recall. And, long-time #2 team Herrera/Mejia have split up too, jumbling partners so that Herrera/Salas are taking on Longoria/Mejia. Weird.

From the top I like Herrera/Salas versus Munoz/MRR, while from the bottom i like Longora/Mejia over Manilla/Mendez.

Longoria and Mejia to win.

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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 , Jerry J Josey Jr. ., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Thanks to the Tourney Director @DaniDaniel Jay for putting this event on!

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

Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on LPRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!

Associations: LPRT