Category: USA

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LPRT Sweet Caroline Grand Slam Preview

Can Centellas get another bracket-busting win in Greenville? Photo via deportesbolivia

The LPRT is back in action just a few days after its last event, which was filled with upsets and surprising results. Now the tour is in Greenville, South Carolina, for one of its favorite stops; the Sweet Caroline Grand Slam.

The season-end race has tightened up considerably, and the results at this grand slam will play a huge part in determining whether the title will be Longoria’s 14th or Mejia’s first.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=40764

24 ladies are here, including the top 15 players and 18 of the top 20 overall.

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Lets preview the draw.

Because there’s not a ton of movement down-rankings from event to event, we’re seeing some repeated matchups in both the 32s and the 16s from last week. And we’re seeing some intriguing meetings

– Its Guatemala vs Guatemala in the 16/17 match, as long-time doubles partners and National team members @Ana Gabriela Martínez takes on Maria Renee Rodriguez for a shot at #1 Longoria

– Two Argentinans Maria Katz and Maria Jose Vargas face off to play into Jessica Parrilla

– Impressive US Junior National team member and reigning16U world champ @Naomi Ros gets a shot at US Adult team member Kelani Lawrence , a week after taking a game off of another US team member Manilla. Can she get a breakthrough win here?

– Not for the first time this season, Colombian team mates Cristina Amaya and Maria Paz Riquelme have to face off.

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round of 16:

– #1 Paola Longoria projects to face Martinez again; last week was a tight 13,14 win. Can Gaby push it to a breaker this week?

– In the always-close #8/#9 matchup, a solid all South American match between Bolivian Angelica Barrios and Chilean @Carla Munoz . Barrios has owned this matchup as of late and is the favorite here, but Munoz is coming off a solid win last week and will try to keep it close.

– For the 2nd week in a row, Vargas plays into Parrilla, and likely gets the upset win. Bad luck for Parrilla.

– This week, USA national champ Erika Manilla gets another precocious opponent in Valeria Centellas . The U21 is coming off her career best win over Herrera last week, and has a h2h win over Manilla earlier this season. This is definitely danger zone for Manilla and this could be another major upset. Added wrinkle; these two are playing doubles together this week.

– #3 Alexandra Herrera projects to face US National Hollie Scott and should advance, but her shock loss last week has opened up questions about her game.

– #6 Brenda Laime may have made the final last week, but she projects to face #11 Kelani Lawrence , who’s beaten her twice since December. I’m going with the upset loss; from the finals to one-and-done for Laime.

– #7 Natalia Mendez is reeling in the rankings, and now projects to face #10 Samantha Salas , who beat her in their last meeting in June and has generally controlled their h2hs. Upset watch here.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Longoria versus Barrios: Barrios shocked Longoria in Boston earlier this year, so we know she can get wins. But is Longoria too focused knowing what’s at stake? I think so, and I think she wins.

– #12 Vargas over #4 Manilla; a rematch of the San Antonio quarters, where Vargas crushed Erika 3,6. I see no reason not to think a similar result happens, unless the Manilla coaching brain-trust comes up with a new gameplan to counter the powerful Vargas.

– #3 Herrera over #11 Lawrence; these two have met a few times, and Kelani has made things close, but the lefty is still 10-0 lifetime versus Kelani, looking to make it 11-0.

– #2 @Montse Mejía set to lock horns with Salas again, and somehow avoid another upset quarter-final outster. Few would have predicted last week’s Salas win: will Mejia get re-focused for this week knowing that she likely needs two wins to secure the title? The pressure is on and I think she rises to the occasion.

Semis:

– Longoria over Vargas: when the chips are down and the pressure is on, I’ll take Longoria.

– Mejia over Herrera: Mejia’s quote familiar with Alexandra’s game by this point and has won their last few meetings (4 straight wins since August) and if she can get past Salas I like her chances for the final.

Final: if it can be #1 vs #2, the pressure will be immense. I like Longoria to handle the pressure, but Mejia to handle Longoria. Mejia for the title and takes back control of the title race.

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Doubles review

So much is at stake in singles, I wonder how contested the doubles will be. But after lots of partner shuffling, we have the two top doubles teams together and on opposite sides of the draw. #1 Longoria/Salas and #2 Herrera/Mejia are likely on a collision course for the Saturday night final. I’ll go with Longoria and Salas to retain the crown.

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LPRT U21

The U21 are in action again for the 2nd week running; this time 5 of the tour’s young pros will battle it out, with defending U21 Lprt champ Centellas the likely favorite. Look for a fun semis match between #2 Katz and #3 Ros, a great measuring stick for the Texan.

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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 X and X for putting this event on!

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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LPRT

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LPRT Battle at the Alamo Recap

Longoria back on top for the first time in months. Photo via US Open 2019, Kevin Savory

Congrats to your LPRT Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Paola Longoria

– U21 Singles: Valeria Centellas

Paola returns to the winner’s circle for the first time in many months, a strange thing to say for someone who has 110 career tier 1 wins and, prior to this year, was a 95% favorite to win.

There was also a healthy Men’s Open Singles and a great Mixed Pro doubles event; read on for recaps.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=40580

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Lets review the notable matches in the Pro Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/jb3

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In the 32s, no real upsets but a couple of notable results:

– @AAna Gabriela Martínez returned to the tour and downed LPRT vet Nancy Enriquez in two games 6,11.

– #5 Jessica Parrilla was taken to a breaker by the current Mexican 16U champ (and finalist at World Juniors last November) Yanna Salazar . Watch out for Salazar, the next in a long line of promising Mexican junior women.

– #4 @EErika Manila was really pressed by reigning US and World 16U champ @Naomi Ros, playing in her home town. Manilla took the first, 15-7, but Ros powered back to take the 2nd 15-9 and force a breaker. The reigning US champ took the breaker 11-6 but this match was closer than Erika probably wanted. Ros, like Salazar, is poised for a breakthrough.

– #7 @Angelica Barros got a walk-over when Maricruz Ortiz no-showed. That had to be a sigh of relief for the Bolivian; Ortiz took her out with relative ease at PARC in Guatemala earlier this month. I thought this draw opened up for Ortiz and predicted as much in my preview; she misses an opportunity to put some LPRT points on the board.

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In the 16s, we got some great matches and some upsets.

– #1 Paola Longoria held serve against a top rival in Gaby, grinding out a 13,14 win. Gaby made a furious come-back attempt in game 2, coming back from 8-14 down to tie it, but Paola held on for the 2-game win.

– #8 @Carla Munoz got a very solid win over a top rival in #9 @Kelani Lawrence in a breaker to move into the quarters for the 4th time in 8 tourneys this year.

– #12 Maria José Vargas “upset” #2 Parrilla to move on; this was an expected win for the come-back Vargas; question is, how far back up the rankings can Vargas get with the newly vulnerable Longoria on her heels?

– #4 Manilla took out her fellow team USA mate Hollie Scott in two, a match that will help solidify Manilla’s seeding ahead of US Nationals.

– #14 Valeria Centellas got her best career win in topping #3 Alexandra Herrera . After exploding onto the scene in 2019, Centellas has struggled to get out of the 16s, but this win ensures her 3rd quarterfinal of the season.

– #11 Brenda Laime trounced #6 Natalia Mendez 7,6 to move on. Laime continues to be a dark-horse whenever she enters an event, with recent wins this season over Longoria, Herrera, Manilla, and now Mendez.

– #10 Samantha Salas made fast work of #7 Barrios to move into the quarters for the 91st time in her illustrious career.

– #2 Montse Mejia , who is on a 21 match win streak as of this round, made fast work of Colombian @Cristina Amaya to reach the quarters.

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In the Quarters, some bracket busting.

– #1 Longoria dropped the first game to #8 Munoz (the first time in 21 meetings where Carla had taken a game off of Paola), then the champ ground out game 2 before turning the tie-breaker into a romp.

– #12 Vargas continued her comeback with a dominant 3,6 win over #4 Manilla. The two play a similar game … Vargas just plays it better right now.

– #11 Laime continued her run, ending Centellas’ weekend despite her big win.
– The big result; #2 Mejia goes down against the veteran #10 Salas.

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In the Semis:

– Longoria turned the tide against Vargas, to whom she had lost two in a row, by grinding out a tie-breaker win.

– Laime took out Salas 11,11 to make her second ever pro final.

In the Finals, despite having a h2h win over Longoria earlier this season, Laime just seemed overwhelmed by the opportunity and Longoria crushed her 7,3 to claim the title.

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Points Implications of results

For months i’ve been saying this title was Mejia’s to lose … and i’m still right, but this weekend’s results definitely closed the gap between the players. Longoria may hold a 400+ point advantage right now in the rolling 365-day standings, but Mejia’s ahead in season to date points. However, she squandered a huge chunk of her S-T-D points lead this weekend by losing in the quarters … and now the two players are nearly tied for the season. I have Montse with just an 11 point lead before the fractional points that the players get for winning an extra game here and there. Suddenly the last two events take on even more import. Simply put, Mejia cannot afford another early round loss to an opponent she should be beating if she wants the title.

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Other Draws. There was no LPRT doubles, but we did get several other interesting draws in San Antonio.

– LPRT U21: touring pro Centellas topped three fellow U21 players to take the LPRT U21 draw without losing a game. She beat USA National team member @Annie Robert in the final 9,4. A solid weekend for the Argentine.

– Men’s Open: the Men’s “Open” draw featured two top-8 IRT pros, seemingly in violation of their player contracts unless there was some sort of deal made with the tour, and the Texas fans got some fireworks on and off the court.

Two Texans both stretched the top two seeds @Daniel De La Rosa and Alejandro Landa to tiebreakers in the quarter finals; Brendan Jennings took the first game 11 before falling 5,5. Meanwhile US Junior National team member @Cole Sendry gave #2 Landa everything he could handle, taking game one, diving all over the court and pushing the tie-breaker to 11-7. There were both on- and off-the-court issues here that may have ramifications for the senior member of the US Team; we’ll leave the commentary at that for now.

After the fireworks in the quarters, the rest of the draw went chalk, with DLR downing Christina Longoria with ease and Landa cruising past #3 @Alan Natera in two fast games to setup the expected final. In the final…DLR dropped the first game 14 to his US National doubles team partner before turning on the jets to win games 2 and 3 for the title and the cash.

– Mixed Pro: a great Mixed Pro Doubles draw featured 8 of the top 10 LPRT pros playing with a slew of IRT and other top players battled it out for an upset-filled Mixed draw.

In the end, #3 seeds and Husband/Wife Duo Natera/Munoz took the title over #1 Landa/Vargas in two close games.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., and @Tj Baumbaugh] Also thanks to the excellent commentary from guest announcers like Richard Eisemann and Sandy Rios all weekend.

Thanks to the Tourney Director Mike Cantu for putting this event on!

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

The LPRT is right back in action, with the tour flying to South Carolina for their annual Sweet Caroline grand slam in Greenville, SC, home of the Ladies pro hall of fame.

That will be the last event that players have to secure seeds ahead of the 2023 US National Singles team qualifier in Chicago at the end of the month. The Men’s pros have a satellite in Costa Rica in June, but otherwise have nothing official until Denver’s event in August.

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LPRT Battle At the Alamo preview

Can Vargas do another run? Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

The LPRT returns to San Antonio for the first time since 2019, having taken the requisite Covid break and then just missing 2022. Prior to that, the Battle at the Alamo was a staple for nearly a decade on tour and I’m sure the ladies are glad to be back. The draw size reflects that, with enough players to push to a ro und of 64, the first time we’ve seen an LPRT draw that large outside of the US Open since the last Denver major. So that’s great news, and there’s a great draw here.

Tournament Director Mike Cantu has also gotten significant prize money to fund big-time Mixed draws and Men’s open draws, so more than a few IRT regulars are here to play Open and Mixed.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=40580

The entire top 10 is here, and only a couple non-retired players are missing out of the entire top 20 (Lotts and MRR), so get ready for solid matches from the get-go.

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Round of 32 notable match-ups: Here’s what to look for early thursday:

– In the 16/17 @GabGaby Martínez matches up with Nancy Enriquez in a good early test.

– Fresh off a win at the Asia Open, Argentine Martina Katz makes the long, long flight to Texas to face off against #9 Kelani Lawrence .

– #11 Brenda Laime takes on US intercollegiate champ Annie Roberts in the opener.

– Not for the first time, both members of the Colombian national team @Cristina Amaya and partner @Maria Paz Riquelme have to play in the opening round of a pro event.

– Lastly, the match of the round has to be Costa Rican rising star @Maricruz Ortiz against #7 seed Angelica Barrios . Ortiz just beat Barrios at the PARC event two weeks ago en-route to a semis appearance, but that was IRF and rally scoring. This is the pro tour and a different vibe; can she repeat the win? I think she’s a bad matchup for Steffany and can get another big win here.

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Round of 16:

– #1 Paola Longoria , the embattled long-time #1 who’s taken more losses this year than in the last decade combined, cannot be happy seeing Gaby in her round of 16 match. Longoria should move on, but Gaby has beaten her in the past and will look to take advantage of Longoria’s recent slide.

– The 8/9 Lawrence – Carla Munoz match is a rematch at this juncture from a pro event in November, a 3-game Kelani win. Can she repeat the task or can Munoz reverse the trend on her season so far?

– #5 Jessica Parrilla is the unlucky recipient of the @JMaria José Vargas comeback tour; Vargas is now up to #12 after taking maternity leave and has been dominating since her return. Look for Vargas to get the “upset” here and make more waves.

– #4 Erika Manilla projects to face her former doubles partner @Hollie Scott in the 16s for the second time this year; the first time was a dominant 6,6 win that portends well for Manilla in next month’s US Singles National team qualifiers. This is a possible semis or finals preview of Nationals and both will be looking for an advance scouting report on the other.

– #3 Alexandra Herrera projects into Valeria Centellas, who just can’t seem to capture the flash of brilliance she showed back in 2019-2020 and has been mired in the mid-teens ever since.

– Laime – @Natalia Mendez is a great round of 16 match between two players who both flash top-4 talent. They have not met since June of 2021, and Mendez owns all three h2h wins.

– If Ortiz can get past Barrios, she projects into an old guard vet in Samantha Salas who plays a similar power game, a match that could be close. But I’d favor Ortiz’ chances to move on.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Longoria over #8 Lawrence. Paola is 7-0 lifetime over Kelani.

– #4 Manilla vs #12 Vargas: match of the round. These two heavyweights both play power ball (they were #1 and #3 at last year’s radar gun challenge). They have not met since 2014 in any format. Who’s hot and who will handle the pressure better? My money is on Vargas to win a close one and build on her great results since coming back.

– #3 @Alexandra Herrera over #6 Mendez: the lefty is 10-1 lifetime over Natalia.

– #2 @Montse Meja Lopez against Ortiz; Mejia should end the run of the Costa Rican junior here, but good things are on the horizon for Maricruz.

Semis:

– #12 Vargas over #1 Longoria. After starting her career just 2-41 against Longoria … Maria Jose has beaten her twice running, once at the Arizona stop in February and then at PARC earlier this month. Vargas seems to have moved past whatever mental block she had versus Paola, and I think she wins again.

– #3 Mejia over #2 Herrera; Mejia has one four tourneys on the trot, and has beaten her long-time doubles partner four times in the last calendar year across multiple competitions. Montse has her number and wins again.

Finals: I think Mejia has figured things out, has beaten Vargas twice this year already (finals in AZ, then finals in PARC), and is in the driver’s seat on tour right now. Mejia wins the title for her 5th straight and virtually guarantees she ascends to #1 by season’s end.

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Doubles Preview: no pro doubles this weekend, the first time in I can’t remember how long the LPRT hasn’t had a doubles component. Instead we’ll get big money in the Men’s Open singles and Mixed doubles, and should have some fun draws there.

There is a U21 singles draw accompanying the main pro draw though, and it features 10 up and coming players. I really like these U21 draws, which give a second chance at cash to younger players. I like Ortiz over Katz in this one, with Roberts and Centellas in the semis.

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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!

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!

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LPRT

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IRT SoCal Open Recap

Jake wins his 2nd ever IRT title. Photo unknown circa 2018

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Jake Bredenbeck

– Doubles: @Daniel De La Rosa and @Alejandro Landa

Bredenbeck beats #1 and #2 to claim his second career IRT title. Landa and DLR win their first title together since claiming the US National crown in February.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=41100

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/fz9

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In the 32s: the move to a non-qualifying draw continues to show its impact. Of the nine round of 32 matches competed, four of them could only be described as complete blow outs, finishing with score-lines of 2&0, 2&1, 5&1, and 0&1. Even those which didn’t finish in 15 minutes were generally not competitive, featuring single game scores in the low single digits. Only one tiebreaker in the entire play-in round, when #11 Jaime Martell was pushed to a breaker by #22 @Oscar Elias Nieto.

Lower-ranked players: are you still sure you want a non-protected draw?

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In the 16s, just one upset by seed and really only a couple of competitive matches as the IRT starts to get really chalky.

– #11 Martell upset #6 @Alejandro Landa 14,12. Landa was recovering from a couple of simultaneous injuries suffered in an IRT match earlier this season and the Opportunistic Martell took advantage.

– The only other close match in the 16s was #2 Daniel De La Rosa grinding past #15 Sam Bredenbeck 7,12.

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In the Quarters, we saw some solid ball.

– #1 @Conrrado Moscoso , who could not lose #1 unless he lost in the first round, cruised past the #8 seed Alan Natera .

– #5 Rodrigo Montoya continues his recent dominance over #4 Andree Parrilla , beats him for the 5th straight time in all competitions to move into the semis. With this win, Montoya should ascend into the top 4 on the IRT for the first time.

– #3 Jake Bredenbeck raced past the upset-minded Martell 11,2 to move into the semis for the 5th time in six tournaments this season, after having made a grand total of 5 pro semis in his entire career prior.

– #2 De La Rosa moved past the lefty Adam Manilla 12,6 to setup a critical meeting against Jake that has significant ramifications both for the pro tour and for USA national rankings as we approach National singles.

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In the Semis

– Moscoso and Montoya had their customary “nothing between them” first two games, splitting it 14 one way and 13 the other, before Conrrado ran away with the tiebreaker to move into the final.

– In the bottom half, pundits (ahem, me) thought DLR would advance into the final like he normally does over Jake (he’s 13-2 lifetime against Bredenbeck and has owned him this whole season). Jake had other plans, taking game 1, getting a huge lead in the breaker and holding off a comeback attempt to take the semi and advance into the final.

In the Finals, another upset as Jake took out Moscoso in two straightforward games to get his first ever win over the Bolivian and claim his second title after taking Portland in December. Jake played solid, calm, tactical power racquetball to take out the world #1. A well earned win.

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Points Implications of results:

We’ve alluded to the expected changes above, but we’re seeing some major movement with these results:

– Thanks to Jake’s replacing last year’s round of 16 loss in SoCal with a win here, he will supplant De La Rosa easily for #2 on tour. What a great achievement for Jake, who many thought would be mired in the 7-10 range as a peak for his career.

– Montoya will jump over both Parrilla and the missing Eduardo Portillo and moves into the coveted #4 spot. He’ll continue to project into Moscoso in the semis, and may very well continue to face his long-time nemesis Parrilla in the 4/5 spot in the quarters, but he’s now in position to put some points on the board.

– Manilla should move up to #8 spot.

– Murray drops to #9 and with his latest injury is in serious jeopardy of dropping out of the top 10 for the first time since 2016.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/zc9

This tournament marked the triumphant return of Alvaro Beltran to the tour after months away, and also marks a new pathway forward for Beltran. For a while, he has been hinting at retiring from playing singles but still wanted to play doubles. However, his long-time doubles partner De La Rosa has been forced to find new partnerships in his absence.

Since Alvaro’s injury, DLR has played with @Kadim Carrasco (semis loss in Florida), Sebastian Fernandez (semis loss in Austin), @javier Mar (a win in the Lewis Drug), Landa ( a win at US nationals, then a Finals loss in Atlanta before this weekend), and then with Moscoso (a loss in Minnesota). Suffice it to say, DLR needs a regular partner. Has he found one in Landa? Maybe so; he and Landa eased into the final by topping Chicago’s champs Parrilla and Manilla in the semis.

There, they met … DLR’s old partner Beltran, who teamed with Montoya this week in Mar’s absence and got a very solid win over the PARC finalists from Bolivia Moscoso & Carrasco to get t here.

In the final, the former partners showed little good will towards each other in a tight, testy match that belied the existence of some tension between the long-time partners. In the end, DLR and Landa took the title, their first since taking US Nationals in February, though Beltran made his normal array of fantastic shots.

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Other notable draws.

In the Men’s Open, Trujillo (who curiously forfeited his pro match) took out for fellow Mexicans in a row (Sanchez, Nieto, Ortega, and Longoria) to take the Men’s Singles Open title.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew . thanks to Brian pineda for coming out of broadcasting retirement to make it happen this weekend.

Thanks to the Tourney Director @Favio Soto and for Keith Minor as always for your continued support of the sport. I’m not sure we have pro racquetball right now without KWM Gutterman and Minor.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

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

Next weekend the LPRT is back in action for the first of two back to backs, in San Antonio and then their Grand Slam in Greenvile, SC. The IRT has had several events fall through and now doesn’t have a tier 1 again until the big event in Denver, which may very well feature the return of Kane Waselenchuk .

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@kwKwm Gutterman

International Racquetball Tour

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IRT SoCal Open Preview

Carso returns to the tour. how far can he go? Photo Portland 2019 via Kevin Savory

Welcome back! It’s been a month since the last IRT event, but it seems like forever since the Men’s pro’s were in action. But they’re back, in Southern California.

r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=41100

Perhaps its a hangover effect from the PARC, but this event is missing a ton of regulars. #4 Lalo, #8 Murray (who got injured in Guatemala), #10 Acuna are not here; these guys rarely miss an event. Plus a big chunk of the 11-14 ranked guys conspires to give Natera a #8 seed here, by far his highest ever pro seed. (note: post publishing JTRBall tells us that both Lalo and Acuna are at the Asia championhships).

A total of 28 players here, down from 42 players at this same event this same weekend last year. This continues a troubling trend on the IRT, which seems to have lost a third of its players in the last year.

Daniel De La Rosa won this event last year, so he’s defending full winner’s points. Meanwhile Moscoso lost in the quarters and will likely gain ground on his top rival DLR for the #1 spot after the weekend.

Lets go through the draw, see what may happen with so many top players out.

round of 32:

– @Rocky Carson is back, playing on tour for the first time in months in his home town. He faces local junior Cody Elkins in a round of 32.

– Jaime Martell takes on fellow Mexican Neito Oscar.

– #6 Alejandro Landa , fresh off not going to PARC, gets to play a name we havn’t heard in a while, former Japanese international Hiroshi Shimizu . Shimizu has pro results dating back to 2001-2, nearly as long as Rocky.

– in the 15/18 match, Sam Bredenbeck takes on Mexican youngster Jesus Guillermo Ortega in a match that could be closer than expected.

In the 16s, the top 4 seeds join the action. Matches of note for me:

– Rodrigo Montoya projects to face Carson and probably ends his return to the tour early.

– Landa projects to face his old WRT rival Martell.

– #7 Adam Manilla versus #10 Erick Trujillo is probably the most interesting match of the round. A good test for Trujillo to see if he can get by the crafty lefty.

Projected qtrs:

– #1 Conrrado Moscoso takes out Natera

– #4 Andree Parrilla faces his nemesis #5 Montoya, who has taken over their h2h lately. Montoya wins again and moves on.

– #3 Jake Bredenbeck projects to face #6 Landa in an intriguing match. Last time they played, Landa cruised past Jake at the 2022 USA National singles event to take the qualifier spot. But, since then Jake has really turned things around. What happens here? This is likely a preview of a match that happens in May with a spot on the US team on the line.

– #2 DLR projects to face Manilla, another possible May USA nationals match. DLR moves on.

Semis:

– Moscoso may be #1, but he has the harder semi against Montoya, a player who has proven time and again he can beat the Bolivian. These two met at this juncture in Chicago and it was a 14,14 win for Conrrado. What happens here? Coin flip, but i think Moscoso is on a roll after dominating the PARC event.

– DLR vs Jake. they keep running into each other at this juncture … and Jake keeps pressing the action but falling short. I see an other DLR TB win.

Final: DLR tops Moscoso. I think the jet setting catches up to Moscoso and DLR defends his title.

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Doubles preview:

The big news, as announced on Sudsy Monchik ‘s show last Sunday, is the return of Alvaro Beltran to the court. He has not played professionally since injuring his elbow in the Vegas 3WB tournament last October.

He’s paired with Montoya, whose regular partner @javier Mar is not here. They’re the #1 seeds; can they run the table?

They’ll face stiff competition from the top half of the draw, which features PARC champs Moscoso & Carrasco, who will have to get by the Bredenbeck brothers before taking on the Mexicans for a spot in the final. We’ll see how Beltran is doing quickly, as their opponents will be testing Alvi’s stamina.

From the bottom half, the #2 seeds Parrilla and Manilla have had some fast success together, but will have to get by the newly crowned USA national team pairing of DLR/Landa.

I’m looking at Team Bolivia versus team USA in the final, with DLR/Landa getting the win

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Look for Streaming starting at 7pmEST/4pmPST on the regular channels

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USA Racquetball Intercollegiates Recap

Congrats to John Dowell of the University of Missouri and to Annie Roberts of the University of the Pacific for taking Gold #1 Intercollegiate titles this past weekend at the 2023 USA Racquetball Intercollegiates championships.

This was the 49th edition of this event, dating back to 1973. Jerry Hilecher won the very first intercollegiate title, playing out of the same University of Missouri that Dowell does.

In the team competition, Oregon State was able to reclaim their overall title from Missouri, and thus tied Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) with 12 overall team titles in the competition’s history. Oregon State also took the Men’s title, while Missouri took the Women’s title.

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IRT Shamrock Shootout Recap

Manilla wins the pro doubles in Chicago. Photographer Kevin Savory

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Singles: @Conrrado Moscoso

– Doubles: @Andree Parrilla and Adam Manilla

Moscoso secures his 6th career win, tying him for 16th all time. He now has as many tier 1 victories as @Jerry Hilecher , Ruben Gonzalez and Drew Kachtik each had in their careers.

On the doubles side, Parrilla wins his 4th career pro title and Manilla his 2nd.

see https://rball.pro/vhp for a list of all Tourney winners.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=40557

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

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

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In the 64s and 32s, absolutely no surprises.

The only upset by seed was in the 16/17 game between Carrasco and Cuevas, and no one was surprised by the 6,8 victory by the 17th seed. All sixteen round of 32 matches were two-game wins, zero tiebreakers, zero upsets. Lots of blow outs, and even those games that appeared like they were closer probably weren’t; if a player wins the first game 15-1 and then wins the second game 15-11 …. it’s not like the losing player suddenly “figured things out” as much as its likely “the winning player coasted.”

I mention these facts because this is a side-effect of going to a straight draw, which some lower level players have clamored for. Well, congratulations, you’ve gotten what you want. People are convinced that from a competitive level giving top players byes into either the 16s or the 32s was unfair to the rest of the tour; well, what you fail to realize is that these top players are there for a reason. Now instead of getting a more competitive match in the 32s against a player seeded closer to your ability, mid-20s seeds are forced to play IRT top 8 players and get crushed.

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In the 16s, we got nearly chalk, with 7 of the top 8 seeds advancing. Only in the 8/9 match did we get an upset, with Acuna taking out Manilla a week on from a reverse outcome in the same matchup.

– Montoya held serve against an improving Natera in a closer than expected game 9,14

– Moscoso was taken to breaker by his countryman Carrasco.

– Landa dropped the first game and held on for an 11-9 tiebreaker win against Carter

– Murray made a statement against Mar, winning 2,13 to move on in a match I thought would go the other way.

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In the Quarters

– Moscoso crushed Acuna 3,7

– Montoya topped Parrilla yet again, going breaker yet again. These two have been playing each other for so long, dating to Juniors and WRT, and now it looks like they’ll continue to do so on the pro tour.

– Portillo made fast work of Landa 2,9

– Jake crushed Murray 3,7 to continue to prove that he belongs near the top of the IRT.

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In the Semis

– Moscoso won a captivating match 14,14 over Montoya, the player who just topped him at the last event. Great racquetball.

– Jake ground out a come-back win over Portillo to move into another final.

In the Finals…. Jake will be kicking himself for this one. After taking a close first game, Jake had leads of 8-0, 10-5, and 14-10 and could not close out the match, as Moscoso hung around and avoided the mental checkout of game 2. The tiebreaker was neck and neck before Moscoso ran off points at the end to win 11-7, but for me the story was Jake letting a winnable one slip away.

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Points Implications of results

With no DLR, obviously this win puts Moscoso back on top of the tour. He should be about 150 points clear. The next event to expire was a DLR win, so he’ll have 400 points to defend when the tour returns.

No other changes in the top 10.

In the 11-20 range:

– Mar and Carter flip spots at 11 & 12

– Natera up to 14th

– Collins up to 15th

– Martel now in the top 16, which may be a tough spot for him because he’ll continue to run into #1 or #2 in the round of 16.

– Rocky and Kane are now 17 and 18 respectively.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/vy2

Parrilla & Manilla topped Montoya and Mar 10,10 to win the doubles title here.

@Andree Parrilla wins his 4th career pro title and Adam Manilla his second with an impressive win over the #1 Montoya/Mar team.

Parrilla has bounced around partners for a while on tour: he played most of last season with Portillo, but Lalo seems to have gone with a Team Dovetail connection with Acuna. It was looking like he had paired up with Murray for a bit (as Murray was dropped by Landa for DLR upon Beltran’s injury), but Murray picked up with Jake when Sam took the last few events off. This left Andree needing a partner again.

Manilla has been bouncing around too; he used to play mostly with Riffel, them being college buddies, but when Riffel stopped touring Manilla has needed a partner. In the past few Pro events Adam has played with Murray, Franco, Mercado, Fernandez, Jake, and even Horn going back to 2021. But none of these players are a reliable partner for him, either because of absences/stepping back from touring, or because they’re playing more regularly with someone else.

Maybe Manilla and Parrilla are the new solid pairing, given that they just beat the clear #1 team in the world.

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Men’s Open, other draws

– Natera took out Longoria in the final. Semis Martell and Migliore, who had an excellent win over Trujillo to get there.

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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…/

We will recap Intercollegiates tomorrow. The Warhawk IRT satellite is next weekend in Louisiana, then the next week starts the 2023 Pan American Racquetball Championships (PARC). This annual event takes on special importance this year, as it will be a qualifier for the Pan Am Games later this year in Chile.

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International Racquetball Tour

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IRT Shamrock Shootout Preview

Jake is the #2 seed; can he get an other tour win? Photo Kevin Savory 2020 USAR national doubles

Welcome to Chicago, and the famed “fishbowl” court at the Glass Court Swim & Fitness club in Lombard, IL. Its the 2023 38th Annual Papa Nicholas Coffee Shamrock Shootout Presented by Glass Court Swim & Fitness.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=40557

Two big news items from Chicago:

– #1 De La Rosa is not here. Instead, he’s in Austin playing in the PPA pickleball event. I just got done going on @Sudsy Monchik ‘s show talking about how DLR had a smooth ride to #1 based on his Fall 2022 results expiring … but not if he’s missing events in March. Look, this is probably a calculated decision on Daniel’s part, knowing that the pay at PPA events is better, knowing that he’s now representing Pro Kennex in both sports, and probably knowing full well of his game-plan schedule wise to ensure a year end #1. Just saying.

– This event has no qualifying; its a straight draw. This is the 3rd event in a row where the tiered qualifying has been abandoned, and this is being done at the request of a player suggestion. @Pablo Fajre and I have talked about this in the past; when he ran the WRT, he used straight draws, and there’s decent arguments to go back to a straight draw in the IRT now based on the size of the draws (small) and the concentration of talent at the top.

Top 20 players missing: after DLR, we still don’t have Mercado. Rocky hasn’t played a pro event since November, kane still hurt, and Franco misses another.

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

In the 32s, I don’t see anywhere where i expect an upset by seed, with the exception of the 16/17 match between Cuevas and Carrasco. But even that could go chalk. Longoria may give Montoya a push, or maybe you see Mendoza get points off of Collins, but there’s little chance otherwise for upsets in this round. In fact, I see a ton of absolute blowouts. #1 Moscoso versus a high school kid in the 32s? #2 Bredenbeck against a local amateur?

Not for nothing, this is one of the reasons given for going to protected qualifying to begin with. Lets take the #29 seed in this event: Victor Migliore. Assuming he wins his round of 64 match against Blase Zera, he sets to face #4 Parrilla in the 32s, almost certainly a loss. However, under protected top 8 qualifying we’ve had in place since 1999, Migliore would have played #20 Edwin Galicia in the “round of 64” (a winnable match?), to then play into #13 Trujillo in the “round of 32.” He would have more opportunities to get upset wins, which then lead to improved ran king and more prize money. Instead, with a straight draw? He loses in the 32s and probably gets zero prize money.

I know there’s lots of proponents for straight draws, but realize that straight draws are almost guaranteed to eliminate the kinds of close early round matches that we’ve come to enjoy.

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round of 16:

I don’t see a ton of upsets here: maybe 8/9 Manilla-Acuna will be close. Can Trujillo trouble Parrilla right now in the 4/13? i don’t think so. Unless Landa is still hurt, he should cruise past Carter.

The two best matches in the 16s are at the bottom: Murray-Mar and Jake-Martell. Mar took out Murray at the US Open and is my pick to move on here. Martell can get wins, but probably not against Jake based on the way Jake is playing.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Moscoso over Manilla

– Montoya over Parrilla: Rodrigo has Andree’s number right now.

– Portillo over Landa: Even at 100% this is close, and I’m guessing Landa is still not 100% so i’ll Pick Lalo here.

– Mar over Jake: this is the tough one. Jake has been playing so well, but Mar handled him easily the last time they played (last Sept). This could go either way.

Semis:

– Moscoso over Montoya: Rodrigo got him in Minnesota, i think Conrrado flips the script with the faster courts in Chicago. This is the real “final” for me with DLR in the draw.

– Mar over Portillo; similar game styles, Mar the classier player.

Finals;

– Moscoso over Mar.

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Doubles review

I like chalk to the semis. The “final” again comes early, with Montoya/Mar taking out Moscoso/Landa in the semis. On the bottom, Murray/Bredenbeck power their way over Manilla/Parrilla. In the final #1 team continues to win.

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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!

International Racquetball Tour

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APCon Beach Bash 2023 Recap

DLR wins the triple on the weekend, and gets a career Grand Slam. Photo 2019 outdoor Nationals by Mike Augustin

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Doubles: Daniel De la Rosa & Javier Mar

– Women’s Pro Doubles: Hollie Scott & Kelani Lawrence

– Mixed Pro Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa & Hollie Scott

– Men’s Pro Singles: @Daniel De La Rosa

– Women’s Pro Singles: Veronica Sotomayor

A Triple for DLR, a double for Scott, and a shocker upset for Sotomayor. Read on.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=39926

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Reports on ProRacquetballStats.com:

Match reports for 2023 Beach Bash:

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/6io

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/4n8

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/u78

– Men’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/0y0

– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/cwv

Triple Crown Reports for all past WOR major champions:

– Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/3lj

– Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/zoa

– Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/obz

– Men’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/9ey

– Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/h27

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Lets run through the draws, recapping the action.

Men’s Pro Doubles:

The Men’s pro doubles draw was incredibly deep this year. Most of the round of 16 matches were coin flips, and six of them went tie-breaker. Once we settled down though into the semis, it was mostly chalk. The top 3 seeded teams advanced with straight-game wins, to be joined by the upstart 12th seeds of @Marcos Gravier and @Roy Hernandez, who took out #5 and #4 to make the semis here.

From there, it had to come down to #1 vs #2 in the final; the hall of famer Ice Man Robert Sostre paired with former BB champ @Benny Goldenberg took on the current IRT #1 De La rosa, playing this tournament with the underrated @Javier Mar. The final was a shootout between DLR and Iceman on the left hand side, with Sostre showing fast hands and Daniel showing even faster put backs. In the end the two touring pros won a solid 8,11 final to cap the weekend.

With the win, Mar repeats as Beach Bash Champion. But with this win, Daniel becomes the first male to win the career “Grand Slam” of Men’s pro doubles events (Beach Bash, Outdoor Nationals, and Vegas). Several women’s pros have done it (Rhonda, Janel, Michelle, and Aimee) but never a Male until today. H/T to Vic for this observation.

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Women’s Pro Doubles:

The 6th seeded former USA National champs Kelani Lawrence and @Hollie Scott took their first outdoor pro doubles title together by ousting the #3, #2 and #1 seeds in order. First they took out the NY pair of Ramos & Guinan, then they downed the pre-tourney favorites Munoz & Laime in the semis, before taking out the top-seeded team of Roehler and Sotomayor in the final in a breaker.

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Mixed Pro Doubles:

De La Rosa repeated as Beach Bash mixed champion, albeit with a new partner for 2023, winning the final as the #2 seed with Hollie Scott in a tiebreaker. The met two relative newbies to outdoor racquetball in the final in Eduardo Portillo and Alexandra Herrera , who took out the #1 seeds Robert Sostre and @Caridad Morales in the semis.

This win represents Daniel’s 18th Mixed pro major outdoor title, his fourth in Florida.

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Men’s Pro Singles:

Daniel De la Rosa blew through the singles draw, giving up a combined 19 points in three games to repeat as Beach Bash singles champion. He defeated #3 seed Maryland native @Pruit Dylan in the final. DLR’s adeptness at one-wall was apparent throughout the Thursday competition, mixing in soft slice lobs off of drive serves with pin-point accuracy of drive kills and angled passing shots.

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Women’s Pro Singles:

Sotomayor, who had never played outdoor racquetball prior to this event and was thus seeded last, ground out victories against @Carla Munoz (who has won both 3-wall singles titles at the last two outdoor majors) in the quarters, @Kelani Lawrence in the semis, then upset the 3-time defending Beach Bash singles champion @Hollie Scott in the finals 21-14. Sotomayor crushed her backhand all day, hitting bottom-board from shoulder height overhead serves and demoralizing her opponents. A great performance.

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Other Notable draws:

– CPRT 40+ Doubles: Well, they say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Tell that to the 48-yr old five-time IRT champion Sudsy Monchik , who teamed with fellow 40-something Rocky Carson to take the loaded CPRT 40+ doubles draw. They topped two tough outdoor veterans in Joe Young and Thomas Gerhardt in the final 11-8.

Two IRT legends teamed up, one with decades of outdoor experience in Rocky Carson, the other with almost none (and a broken hand to go with it) in Sudsy Monchik . They beat teams that included best outdoor players Florida has to offer in Rob Mijares , Marcos J. Gravier , the #2 seeds Rolon & Sostre in the semis, then former BB champ Joe Young paired with #1 ranked 3-wall singles player Thomas Gerhardt in the finals.

– Men’s 75+: in what turned out to be the biggest draw of the event (20) teams, the final had some familiar names and was a nice warm=up for the weekend’s pro doubles. Two-time defending Outdoor Nationals champs @MMicah rich and @Jason Geis reached the final from the top-half, while Rocky (who wons 11 major outdoor pro doubles titles .. but none in one-wall) partnered with Barcelo to reach the final from the bottom.

In an excellent final, Rocky/Barcelo took out Rich/Geis 11-7 in the breaker.

Men’s 100+: Hall of Famer Marty Hogan teamed up with the venerable @Richard Miller to take the 100+ doubles draw. They were seeded 12th out of 12 teams, and beat the 11th seeded team of Jose Nivela / Martin Gonzalez in the final.

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Paddleball Competition Review

It is worth noting that these courts were originally designed for Paddleball. So its only fitting that there were Wednesday Paddleball competitions.

– Men’s Pro Doubles Paddleball was taken by the Hulkster/Warrior combo of Rolon and Blatt, who defeated fellow NYers Ryan Lopez and @Paul Angel in the final.

– Women’s Pro doubles paddleball was taken by #1 seeds @Kathy Guina and @Jasmine Suarez , who crushed two LPRT pros in the semis and then took out Morales/Colon in the final.

– Mixed pro Doubles Paddleball: was taken by Rolon & Guinan, giving both the Paddleball double on the day, defeating Suarez/Angel in the final.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from the LPRT video crew, with @JT R Ball leading the way and bringing in all sorts of characters into the booth (including the Warrior, Sudsy, Mikey D, Vic Leibofsky and the like).

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Peggine Tellez , Jen O’Meara , @Mike Coulter and the entire 3Wall Ball crew for putting this event on and ensuring the legacy of outdoor majors.

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…/

Next week the IRT is in Chicago, and USAR hosts Intercollegiates at Ohio State for the first time. Later this week we’ll recap the standings post Beach Bash for the 2023 Cup Series and post the results online.

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Beach Bash 2023 Preview

Sostre is the #1 seed in both pro doubles draws; can he finish them out? Photo Steve Fitzsimons 3WB 2020

The time has come for the first Outdoor Major of the new year! Its Beach Bash time, held on the historic Garfield Street courts a block from the beach in Hollywood, Florida. 162 lucky competitors got in before the tourney filled up and are set to compete for the title of best one-wall racquetball competitors in the land.

This is the 15th “Beach Bash” event, dating to 2007, 16 if you include the seminal 2004 WOR One-Wall outdoor championships that served as a kickoff for WOR and the integration of outdoor communities from around the country.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=39926

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There’s a ton of Pro and upper-level draws to review. We’ll run through them with some quick observations as a preview instead of my normal per-round, per-match review.

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Men’s Pro Doubles

The biggest draw in Florida this weekend is Men’s Pro doubles, with 15 teams vying for the title. We’ll have a new champion for 2023; last year’s winning team (Mercado and Mar) has changed up; this year @Javier Mar is playing with none other than DLR and will make for a formidable team to beat as the #2 seed.

However, the bottom half of this draw is crazy deep; multi-time Outdoor National champions Jason Geis and @Micah rich are here for the first time playing one-wall; they’re seeded 10th and will have to work at it to take out the 2018 champions Blatt/Rolon in the round of 16 just to take a shot at DLR/Mar. Also lurking in the bottom half is Faro & Iggy (who won the CPRT draw last year), Joe Young (the 2015 doubles champ) playing with @Carlos Bravo, and outdoor legend @Rocky Carson , playing with Alejandro Barcelo . There are no easy matches in this lower bracket.

The #1 seeds are legendary; Robert Sostre and @Benny Goldenberg , NY’s finest, who have 5 doubles titles in this event between them. They could face 3-time winner Deida in the quarters. Watch out for dark horses Roy Hernandez and @Marcos Graviel as the 12 seeds; they may be better at long wall, but they have a decent pathway to the semis.

My Finals predictions: Mar/DLR take out Iceman and Benny in the final.

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Women’s Pro Doubles

Great matches expected throughout this draw, which features a ton of old-school and current talent. We’ll have a new champion, since last year’s team got broken up.

#1 seeds are interesting: Sotomayor and USAR Hall of Famer @Aimee Ruiz form a tough lefty-righty pair, but they’ll be pushed heavily by another lefty-righty pairing of top-4 LPRT players in Erika Manilla and @Alexandra Herrera in the semis. That is of course if Manilla/Herrera can get by the NY legends Anita Maldonado and Michele Herbert , who have won this title three times between them.

From the bottom half, @Carla Munoz (who won Vegas one-wall last October) picks up the excellent doubles player Brenda Laime and will be tough to beat. However, the 3/6 match between LPRT and USAR regular doubles partners Scott and Kelani Lawrence and the underrated Kathy Guinan and @Maira ramos could be eye opening.

Finals Prediction: Laime & Munoz top Herrera & Manilla.

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Mixed Pro Doubles preview

The DLRs have parted ways, both on and off the court, meaning that there will be a new Mixed doubles champion team going forward. Daniel is here, teamed with Scott and are the pre-tournament favorites despite being the #2 seeds. To get to the final though, they’ll have to contend with top mixed pairings like Munoz/Natera, Laime/Bleyer, Benny/Silva, and Mar/Manilla. The team coming out of the bottom half will be battle tested for sure.

Iceman is paired with Caridad Morales as the #1 seed, and they’ll face a very tough team in the semis no matter what, as that quadrant is stacked. Rich/Lawrence, Guinan/Deida, Blatt/Herbert, and Herrera/Lalo are all great teams and its a coin flip for me who advances.

Finals prediction: DLR/Scott over Sostre/Morales

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CPRT 40+ preview

Last year’s CPRT finalists Seran Ramkissoon / Max Heymann are back as the 1-seeds; they’ll be pressed by the experienced #4 seeds Geis/Soda Man to get back to the finals from the top-half.

In what should be a super-fun bottom half, two IRT legends in Carson and @Sudsy Monchik are teamed up as the 6-seeds. They’ll have their hands full to get past #3 Miller/Gravier and especially #2 Sostre/Rolon from the bottom half.

Finals prediction: Sostre/Rolon over Geis/Koll

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100+ combined: just a quick note for star power observations: Marty Hogan is in the 100+ draw with Richie Miller, and look to be the favorite in that draw despite their seeding.

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Men’s Pro Singles:

#1 seed and IRT #1 Daniel De La Rosa is back in Florida to defend his title. He cruised to the singles title here last year, won it in 2019, and is the favorite here. He has two tough one-wall players in @Nelson Deida and @David Blatt (aka the Hulkster) in his half-bracket to contend with.

From the bottom side, look for under-rated outdoor player @Ben Bleyer to make some noise; if he can get by William Rolon he could be a finalist.

In the end, I don’t see DLR losing this draw; he’s just too good a shot maker to be defeated in one wall.

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Women’s Pro Singles

#1 Seed @Hollie Scott is the 3-time defending champion in this event, but doesn’t have to contend with the likes of MRivera or Herbert this year as in years past. This year she has a whole slew of LPRT touring pros in the bracket, and will have to get by the likes of Erika Manilla and @Carla Munoz to take a 4th straight title. Don’t sleep on Veronica Sotomayor , in this draw as a 7th seed and is the definition of an upset special.

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Streaming: remember to be patient with streaming at this event, because the cell phone coverage at this site is notoriously difficult. But sign up for live streams notification at WOR and 3WallBall and of course KRG will have notifications all weekend.

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Peggine Tellez , Jen O’Meara , Mike Coulter and the whole @3Wall Ball team for putting this event on! Thanks again to Abel Perez and his company @APCON for being the title sponsor; Perez is a great promoter of the sport.

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.

Associations not already mentioned: @World Outdoor Racquetball , WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball , USA Racquetball