Category: WOR

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Outdoor Cup Series Standings


The first Outdoor “major” is in the books. Beach Bash was a hit, and was well attended by one-wall specialists from the east coast, outdoor specialists from all-over, and by touring pros on both sides.


This was also the first of the three tournaments that will determine the winner of the 2022 Outdoor Cups. The Ladies cup series is sponsored by LPL Financial and the Men’s is sponsored by Kwm Gutterman , both companies run by huge racquetball enthusiasts and we thank them for their patronage.

Here’s the Cup standings after Beach Bash.

Women’s LPL Financial Cup Standings:

  • 1st: Michelle De La Rosa, 355 pts
  • 2nd: Masiel Rivera, 245 pts
  • 3t. @Katie Neils, 212.5 pts
  • 3t. @Erika Manilla , 212.5 pts
  • Hollie Scott , 205 pts.

Michelle De La Rosa, who would have won this competition last year if it existed, rightfully takes over the lead on the back of her Mixed Doubles title and finals finish in Pro Doubles. Rivera’s two second place finishes (in Singles and in Mixed) push her to 2nd place. Doubles partners Neils/Manilla, who took the Pro doubles title in an upset, tie for third place. Hollie Scott, despite winning the Singles draw, comes in fifth based on the small draw size in her win.

Also In the running after the first event in 6-10th place include @Kelani Lawrence , @AAnita Maldonado , @Susan Stephen , @KKathy Guinan , and Aimee Roehler .

LPRT full cup standings Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/…/1gUgDx40hqxGPJydLNyUR…/edit…

The Men’s competitions at Beach Bash included more than 50 potential players who competed in one of Singles, Doubles, Mixed, or CPRT. After the first set of competitions, here’s the top 5:


Men’s KWM Gutterman Cup Standings:

  1. Daniel de la Rosa , 550 pts
  2. @Javier Mar, 510 pts
  3. Mario Mercado , 375 pts
    4t. @Eric Faro , 325 pts
    4t. @IIgnacio Espino , 325 pts

    DLR, as expected, takes two titles and opens up a lead at the top. He’ll be tough to beat as long as he continues to dominate Mixed with his wife. But, a chink in the armor on the pro doubles side as he and @Alvaro Beltran took an early upset. Javier Mar had an astounding re-introduction to outdoor, winning pro doubles with 3rd place Mercado and racing to the singles final. Mercado continues to show why he’s one of the best doubles players in the land and may be kicking himself for not entering mixed (where he always does well). Faro and Iggy may not be long for this leader board once Outdoor Nationals rolls around as one-wall Florida-based specialists, but they had a solid weekend, taking the CPRT draw.
    Rounding out the top 10 include Eduardo Portillo , @Robert Sostre, @Andres Acuna , Sebastian Franco , and then a tie for 10th by the CPRT finalists @MaxMax Heyman and @Seran Ramkissoon. So, lots of players lurking who will definitely be at the next two majors.

  4. Men’s Full cup standings Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/…/1HBH6v9KhPIuUkwYjjWlI…/edit…


    Next stop, Outdoor Nationals for the second leg of the “Road to Vegas.” the R2site for Outdoor Nationals is live now and signups have begun!
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2022 Beach Bash Recap

Hollie Scott retains her beach bash singles title. Photo via Stephen Fitzsimons 2020 3WB


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Men’s Singles: Daniel De La Rosa
  • Women’s Singles: Hollie Scott
  • Men’s Doubles: Mario Mercado/Javier Mar
  • Women’s Doubles: Erika Manilla/Katie Neils
  • Mixed Doubles: Daniel & Michelle De La Rosa
  • CPRT: Eric Faro/Ignacio “Iggy” Espinal

    Lots of first time winners here this weekend; both pro doubles winners are first-time outdoor major titlists. But in singles this is more of the same; this was DLR’s 3rd Beach Bash singles title and Scott’s 3rd as well. Lastly, Faro & Espinal turn back the clock and take the CPRT title nearly 20 years after Faro made the finals of the first big-time rball event on these courts in 2004.
    This year’s Beach Bash was A great tournament that featured a ton of first-time pros who “got it” and fit into the vibe of the event. One-wall is unique, as is the culture surrounding it, and there’s been nothing but positives about the event from all who were there.
    R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=31509
    Triple Crown Reports: here’s links to the “triple crown” winners of all the Outdoor majors, updated to the 2022 Beach Bash:
    Men’s Singles: http://rball.pro/74BC5A
    Women’s Singles: http://rball.pro/1A00B2
    Men’s Doubles: http://rball.pro/E90109
    Women’s Doubles: http://rball.pro/6DBFD5
  • Mixed Doubles: http://rball.pro/B63A8C

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draws. First up, and first to be mostly competed, was the Men’s Singles draw.

Men’s Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/6BFD79

In the 16s:

  • Slight upset #8 @Mario Mercado taking out #9 @David Blatt. Blatt’s a one-wall specialist from NY, but Mercado has plenty of one-wall experience from playing at Stratton Woods in DC. He squeaked out a 21-19 win.
  • #5 @Thomas Gerhardt got a solid win over top IRT touring international @CConrrado Moscoso . Gerhardt’s strategy was clear: drive serve on open court to get points, then force the indoor pro into awkward overhead shots on quadrant serving. Moscoso made multiple errors going for too good of a shot early, and Gerhardt rode the lead to the win. A textbook example of how outdoor players strategize their way to wins.
  • #13 @Sebastian Franco upset the 4th seed William Rolon 21-14. A tough draw for Rolon, getting an “indoor” pro with a ton of one-wall experience at this juncture.
  • – The biggest upset of all though was new-to-outdoor @Javier Mar taking out the 4-time champion #2 seed @Robert Sostre 22-20. Mar proved to be quite a quick study to outdoor and squeaked out a close win.

In the Quarters

  • #1 @Daniel de la Rosa was mostly untroubled by #8 Mercado, advancing 21-13
  • #13 Franco advanced past #5 Gerhardt 21-16.
  • DC area one-wall enthusiast #6 @Dylan Pruitt got a statement win by taking out Hall of Famer #3 @FreFFreddy Ramirez with ease 21-11.
  • Mar continued his on-the-fly education, taking out a very capable outdoor player in #7 @Andres Acuna again by the 22-20 score line.
  • Your semis are the #1, #13, #6 and #15 seeds.

In the Semis

  • #1 DLR methodically topped #13 Franco 21-12 to move into the final.
  • #15 Mar outclassed the youngster Pruitt 21-6 to move to the final.

In the Finals, Mar and DLR went toe to toe for much of the game, with Mar more than holding his own and showing an amazing combination of power and touch on the one-wall courts. But, DLR was just a hair better, taking the final 21-15. He wins his third Pro Singles title in Hollywood and 2nd running.

Women’s Pro Singles preview
PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/559CFB

The Women’s singles was one of the absolute first draws to get started on Thursday morning, and right off the bat we got the #1 seed and defending champion @Hollie Scott getting pressed by two fellow LPRT pros. She managed to top both @KKelani Lawrence and @Masiel Rivera Operto by the razer thin score-line of 22-20 to pave the way for a defense of her title. She finished off the sweep of the 4-person round robin with a comprehensive 21-8 win over @kKatie Neil to repeat as Beach Bash women’s singles champ.

Men’s Pro Doubles review:
Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/BA011F
There were upsets galore in the Men’s Doubles draw, from the round of 16 onwards. Lets recap the unpredictable draw.
In the 16s:

  • The #1 seeds and defending champs @BennGolden Benny and Ryan Lopez were handed their walking papers by the #17 seeded team of relative outdoor newbies (but regular IRT touring pros) @Andres Acuna and @Eduardo Portillo 9,10.
  • CPRT champs Faro/Iggy took out the #8 seeds @Rick “Soda Man” Koll and @EEmmett Coe in a slight upset in the 8/9 match.
  • 2021 Vegas one-wall doubles winners Adam Manilla and Nick Riffel took out the 2018 Beach Bash Champs @WWilliam Rolon and @DaDavid Blatt (aka “The Warrior” and the “Hulkster”) in two solid games to advance.
  • Singles finalist Mar teamed up with experienced one-wall player @MMario Mercado to take out @RoRocky Carson and @AlejaAlejandro Barceló in an upset in the 7/10 match.
    So, four of your top 8 seeds were topped in the round of 16. But the upsets were just starting.
    In the quarters:
  • #17 Acuna/Lalo took out #9 Faro/Iggy in a match that went deep into the night, finishing under the lights on Garfield street. The young touring pros collaborated to take out two of the OGs of one-wall racquetball on these courts in a breaker.
  • #12 Manilla/Riffel shocked the 2015 championsSebastian Franco and @Joe Young 1,8.
  • #3 @RRobert Sostre and @DavDaDavid Horn held serve over the #6 seeds and 3-time champs Richie Miller and @Nelson Deida in dominant fashion 9,2 to move on.
  • And in a massive upset, #10 Mar/Mercado took #2 DLR and @Alvaro Beltran in a tiebreaker. No career triple crown for DLR/Alvi this year.
    So, #17, #12, #3 and #10 into your semis.
    In the Semis …
  • Portillo/Acuna blasted Riffel/Manilla 5,7 to move into the final. These two IRT regulars have really taken to outdoor.
  • Mercado/Mar nearly got whitewashed in game one, losing it 15-2, but then made adjustments like one-wall old hats to cruise to game 2 & 3 wins 15-7, 11-4 to move into the final over one-wall royalty in Sostre/Horn.
  • In the final: the two teams of IRT pros traded games, but Mercado & Mar pulled away in the breaker to take the title. Final score (12),13,3.

Women’s Pro Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/E72C77
Six teams competed for the Women’s pro doubles title, with some throwback teams and some surprising new teams.
From the top, #1 seeds DLR/Scott outlasted the @Kathy Guinan / @Maira Ramos team (each of whom has won prior Pro doubles titles here), in one semi, while the #6 seeds @Erika Manilla and @Katie Neils took out both the #2 and #3 seeds to get to the finals themselves.
In that final … outdoor veteran Neils and outdoor newbie (but red-hot lately) Manilla completed the sweep of the top seeds here, ousting the #1 seeds and overwhelming favorites mDLR and Scott to take the title. Final score: 8,(10),1.

Fun fact; every match in the Women’s pro doubles draw went tiebreaker. Never seen that before.

Mixed Pro Doubles review
Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/F553E8
The Mixed Pro draw was completed on Friday; the entire draw in one day, very Pickleball style. Here’s a recap.
On the top-half, what many think might be the best mixed doubles team of all time (the De La Rosa husband-wife pair) faced a stiff quarter final challenge against the under-seeded Rocky Carson/Kelani Lawrence team, but moved on to face NY one-wall specialists David Blatt (aka, the “Hulkster”) and @Susan Stephen in one semi. The New Yorkers pressed the Arizona duo, but fell 11-8 in the breaker.
On the bottom half, another under-seeded team of @Eduardo Portillo and Hollie Scott upset two higher ranked teams (Pagan/Roehler in the 16s then Riffel/Neils in the quarters) to make the Mixed semis. There they met the very tough team of Sostre/Rivera, who cruised past the Manillas in the quarters. The east coast duo of Sostre/Rivera outlasted the young duo of Lalo/Hollie to advance to the final.

In the final, Masiel and Iceman tried to break the DLR streak of wins, but fell in the breaker 11-5. The husband-wife team defends their 2019 title here and wins their 14th career pro outdoor Mixed doubles title together.

CPRT Doubles review
Though not tracked in the database, the CPRT takes on new importance in 2022 because it counts for the Cup series. So Let’s recap.
The top half of the CPRT draw went chalk, with #1 @Alvaro Beltran and @Rick “Soda Man” Koll advancing with ease into the semis. There they faced the sneaky-good Florida pair of @Eric Faro and @Ignacio “Iggy” Espinal.
The bottom half featured upsets, as 1988 IRT pro tour champ @Ruben González put down the pickleball paddle he was playing with in Hilton Head and came out of retirement to team with TiTo Montanez and upset the 3rd seeded team of one-wall experts Rolon/Young to advance to the semis. There they faced the dark-horse Florida team of @Max Heymann and Seran Ramkissoon , who won two rounds and upset #2 Freddy Ramierz and @Albert Jimenez to make the semis. Heymann and Seran made fast work of the legends to advance to the final.

In the final … the experience of Faro & Iggy (Faro is one of the few players who was at the original 2004 outdoor nationals event and is still playing here this weekend) outlasted the upstart Floridians; they take the CPRT title 7,7.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from the LPRT-sponsored broadcast team of JT R Ball, Vic Leibofsky , and friends.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors @Peggine Tellez and @Mike Coulter 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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
Next weekend is National Masters in the DC area, but more importantly Mexican Nationals! One of my favorite tourneys every year.
From an Outdoor Major perspective, Leg 2 on the “Road to Vegas” is Outdoor Nationals in July. The r2 site is live now; reserve your spot and start making travel plans to visit sunny Southern California.

Before that though; breaking news: 3WallBall is partnering with the IRT to host a Sunday May 1 Outdoor shootout the day after the IRT pro stop finishes in Fullerton in a month’s time. More details coming, but basically we’ll run a one-day pro shootout for all the travelling pros to play the day after the tournament saturday night finish.

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2022 Beach Bash Preview

Benny Goldenberg is the defending Beach Bash pro doubles champ with Ryan Lopez; can they repeat? Photo from 2021 Stratton Woods by Ken Fife

After a 2 year hiatus, Beach Bash is back! The best one-wall players in the land are descending as we speak to South Florida to join the Spring Breakers and to play some racquetball on the historic Garfield Street courts, right off the Boardwalk in Hollywood, Florida.


This will be the 14th iteration of what was first called “Beach Bash for Cash,” which started in 2007. It was the follow-on tournament to the seminal 2004 WOR One-Wall National Doubles Championships held on these same courts, which was a formative event in the history of WOR and Outdoor Racquetball in this country in general.
It is great to have this tournament back … and judging by the talent of players entered, so is the community at large.


A huge number of regular “indoor” touring pros are entered this week, including 5 of the current top 10 on the IRT and a slew of regular touring LPRT pros. They are joined by a literal who’s who of top one-wall outdoor players from DC, NY, and FL to compete for the pro titles. This weekend’s event shall be great.
Further adding to the import of the year’s first outdoor “major” is the inclusion of the new Outdoor Cup Series for 2022. Winners here this weekend will have a big leg-up on the competition for the “Road to Vegas” year-long cup series.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=31509

Lets preview the draws. There’s a ton of pro draws, singles and doubles, so we’ll run through them with some thoughts given in each competition.

Men’s Pro Doubles


A stacked Men’s pro doubles draw is headlined by the #1 seeds and defending champs Ryan Lopez and @Benny Goldenberg. Seeded #2 is the top outdoor doubles team of @Daniel de la Rosa and @Alvaro Beltran , who together have won six Major outdoor pro doubles titles, including the last five straight Vegas 3-wall pro titles. But, Beltran injured his hip in the IRT event last weekend … and this is one-wall, not three-wall (where all their titles together are), so DLR/Beltran may not be the favorites here.
The rest of the draw is littered with top pairs with past titles. The top half features @David Blatt and William Rolon as the #4 seeds (they were the 2018 Beach Bash champs), the hard hitting #5 seeded team of @Sebastian Franco and @Joe Young (the 2015 Beach Bash champs), the 2021 Vegas one-wall pro doubles champs as a #12 seed (that being @Adam Manilla and @Nick Riffel ), and then we throw in top outdoor one-wall player @Rick Koll playing with perhaps the land’s best paddleball player in @Emmitt Coe.
That’s a stacked draw … and its just the top half of this bracket.
Challenging DLR/Beltran from the bottom half include the #3 seeded team of Sostre and David Horn (Sostre has 4 Beach Bash titles and another 4 finals), teams comprised of top IRT touring players like Conrrado Moscoso , Mario Mercado , and @Javier Mar, and long-time outdoor player @Tito Montanez playing with the legend himself Ruben González. Lastly there’s #6 seeded team of @Nelsen Dieda and @Richie Miller … Miller and Dieda together made 5 straight Beach Bash pro doubles finals between 2013 and 2018, winning three of them, and Miller himself made the final of every Beach Bash pro doubles event for 8 straight years.
Whoever comes out of the bottom will have more than earned it.

Predictions? I like Lopez/Benny from the top to beat Franco/Young in the semis. From the bottom, whoever wins the 3/6 matchup between Sostre/Horn and Miller/Deida runs to the title. I’m leaning Miller/Deida, but wouldn’t be surprised if the strength of Iceman on the one-wall court pulls them to the final.

Women’s Pro Doubles
There’s several tough teams in this Women’s pro doubles draw, each of whom you could make an argument for winning. Scott (the 2018 winner) is playing with the most decorated women’s outdoor doubles player in the land in @Michelle De La Rosa: they’re the #1 seed. But they have to get by the Zerega-veteran team of Ramos/Guinan to make the final.
On the bottom half two-time Beach Bash champ and outdoor legend @Anita Maldonado is playing with three-time winner @Jasmine Suarez ; they’ll likely face the very tough doubles team of Hall of Famer Aimee Roehler and LPRT touring pro @MasieMasiel Rivera in the bottom half.

Great matches ahead; my money is on Roehler/Rivera to top mDLR/Scott in the final.

Mixed Pro Doubles


Its tough not to look at this draw and immediately predict a #1 vs #2 final, given who is there and how they generally fare in these events. #1 Seeds and defending champs the De La Rosa husband/wife pair
will be pushed in the semis by 2015 Mixed pro champs Maldonado/Deida, while the #2 seeded team of Sostre/Rivera will face a gauntlet of interesting pairings of experienced outdoor players playing with solid indoor-only partners (teams such as Portillo/Scott, or Riffel/Neils, or Pagan/Roehler, or even the Manilla bro/sis combo).

At the end of the day though, i’m going chalk to the finals with another title for the De La Rosas.

Men’s Pro Singles:

19 players are entered into Men’s pro singles, trying to dethrone the two favorites and two top seeds in 2019’s finalists @Daniel de la Rosa and @Robert Sostre. DLR took out IceMan in the 2019 singles final, breaking Sostre’s streak of four straight titles in the event.


From the top side of the draw, DLR will face an immediate threat from a seasoned one-wall expert in @Tito Montanez in the 16s, before having to navigate possibly against 2019 semi finalist @William Rolon in the semis. That’s if Rolon can get past the winner of @Thomas Gerhardt and Conrrado Moscoso , who is playing one-wall for the first time and could be a dark-horse thanks to his extensive experience playing Fronton in his native Bolivia.
From the bottom side, #2 Sostre may face a heavy challenge in the quarters from #7 @Andres Acuna , who topped two excellent outdoor singles players in 2019 en route to the 3WB outdoor final. Otherwise, the projection would be for Iceman to meet his long-time doubles partner Freddy Ramirez in the semis for a shot at the title.

Despite all the talent in the draw, look for a rematch of the 2019 final when all is said and done and for DLR to retain the title. He’s just too strong on the outdoor courts and is in the peak of his playing years.

Women’s Pro Singles .


Two time defending Beach Bash pro singles winner Hollie Scott is here to defend her title. She’ll take on a round robin of fellow LPRT touring pros and Outdoor veterans, trying to dethrone her.

My prediction: Scott rolls to another pro title.

Look for Streaming on the LPRT feed for the weekend, with JT R Ball flying into town from Southern California to man the mike with a series of guest stars all weekend.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors @Peggine Tellez and the @3WallBall Outdoor World Championships team (Mike Coulter) for putting this event on! Thanks to @Abel Perez and the title sponsor of Apcon/MZ Companies for your patronage.
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 FB. 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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2022 Holiday Park WOR Shootout Recap

Joe Young took the open double’s title on the weekend. Photo 2021 Beach Battle via Rick Bernstein

(recap by Todd Boss with help from Jeff Wright and Rob Mijares)

While huge swaths of the country were bracing for a debilitating snow storm (yours truly included; as I wrote this on Sunday there’s a blizzard of snow falling at my home in Virginia), it was 75 and sunny in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for yesterday’s 2022 Holiday Park Shootout. Why do we all not live in Florida again?

r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38174

Holiday Park is a cool facility. It is home to the Jimmy Evert Tennis center, a 21-court tennis facility named for its long-time teaching professional who happens to be the father of long-time #1 female tennis player Chris Evert (who grew up playing on the courts). The outdoor courts are tucked in-between a gym and a roller rink on the grounds; they’re three-wall mid-wall courts that are a bit wider than normal (23′ wide), and have side walls that run well past the short line, which makes for very unique play and strategy on the courts as compared to other 3-wall/mid-wall courts. Like many places in Florida, the regulars at the park have the advantage over traveling parties due to these unique factors, and welcome all covers to challenge the locals.

The park’s leading benefactor for decades has been the legendary George Daurio, who has worked with local officials for years for upgrades and is known as the “Godfather” of the courts. Tournament play has been present here for decades as well, and the park has been the home court for many top outdoor players over the years, including Ken Mooney, Billy Montana, Dave Smith, Ken Grandy, Dave Conway, and Rob Mijares.

Here’s a recap of the day’s action, which featured 37 of some of the best outdoor players in the state.

—-
Men’s Open Doubles recap

12 players/6 teams split into two RR groups of three to determine a group winner advancing to the knockouts. One group was taken by top seeds @Joe Young and @Garry Smith , while the other group was surprisingly taken by Max Heyman and Javier Trujillo, who played consistently all morning and made it to their first ever Open finals.

In the final, the powerful Young/Smith pairing vanquished the upstarts to take the title.

—-
Men’s Elite Doubles

The story of the day was longtime Holiday Park veteran Valeria Trabucco Clemmensen . The women’s draw was depleted due to some Covid exposures, so she entered into the Men’s Elite division with partner @Juston Cooklin and won the draw. She is a warrior and played amazing against some tough competition. Fittingly, Valeria hit a flat rollout to win it all in the tiebreaker. She has won many tournaments over the years, but this one was epic!
They topped the very tough @Eric Gomez and Luis Gonzalez in the Elite final.

———-
The winners of the rest of the events on the weekend:
– Men’s A/B Doubles: Giovanni Pezo / Luis Salinas
– Women’s Elite Doubles: Susan Suid / Carolina Pisana
– Mixed Elite Doubles: Miriam Benard / Max Heymann

———-

Thanks to Tournament director Jeff Wright for hosting the event and for all you do for Florida outdoor racquetball. Thanks to tournament staff @Rob Mijares and Hale Sakoff , who are ever-present figures at outdoor events in the state. Thanks to Vic Leibofsky for providing breakfast for the tournament; Vic is another behind the scenes supporter of programming who never asks for credit but who has been a great help to me over the years. And thanks to the city Parks and Rec staff, who gave the courts a fresh pressure wash ahead of the event.

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3WallBall SoCal Outdoor Season Kickoff Invitational Shootout Recap

Danny Lavely powered his team to victory in the season opening shootout. Photo via Outdoor Nats 2021/Steve Fitzsimons

To kick off the 2022 season, on January 8th 2022 3Wall Ball and MC Vegas hosted an invitational Outdoor shootout at the courts of West Newport Park, right on Highway 1 in Newport Beach, California. These 3-wall/mid-wall courts are Rocky Carson ‘s favorite, his “home courts” that he practices on most frequently, and he was part of one of nine top-level teams invited to play in this shootout. Some of the players were rusty; it had been several weeks of inaction for most of the competitors, but eight games of round robin cleared off the dust by day’s end for everyone. And the shootout featured a great collection of top talent from SoCal and beyond.

Here’s a recap of the action.

The nine teams played a pure round-robin, one-game to 11 against the other eight teams, making for a ton of racquetball on the day. The top 6 teams from the RR stage advanced to a knockout round. Two teams dominated in the RRs (Geis/Rich and Lavely/Solis) going 8-0 and 7-1 respectively, and looked to be the favorites for the cash.

Here’s how the knockouts went.

In the quarters:
– #5 @Tom Durham and @Matt Barserian upset #4 @Tony Berg and @Scott Sinclair 15-10. This is a great result for the relatively unknown Barserian, who (like Micah Rich) is a great player who plays recreationally and can put up results when he’s in practice.
– #3 Rick Koll (aka “Soda Man”) and Emmett Coe took out the home-court playing Carson and his regular partner @Jesus Ustarroz 15-11. Soda Man traveled to LA with Coulter from Vegas and teamed up with the ever-tough Paddleball champion Coe to take out the two-time Outdoor National champs Carson & Jay.

In the semis:
– #1 @Jason Geis and @Micah Rich, your 2021 Outdoor National champs and Vegas 3WB pro finalists, topped Durham/Barserian 15-5 to move into the final.
– #2 @Greg Solis, WOR Hall of Fame inductee in 2018, and partner @Danny Lavely crushed Koll & Coe 15-2 to move into the final.

In the final, Lavely got hot and made the best adjustments to the fast penn ball being used, took advantage of some tiring arms after a long day, and pushed his team to the upset win over #1 Geis/Rich 15-5.

Thanks to @Mike Martinez and @prokennex for stopping by, thanks to 3WB and other sponsors, thanks to Coulter as always for his support of the sport, and thanks to the players for putting on a show.

(Photos courtesy of Mike Coulter)

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2021 AGE Solutions Hollywood Beach Battle Wrap-up

Sostre the double winner this weekend. Photo Steve Fitzsimons 3WB 2020

Congrats to your One-wall Doubles winners on the weekend:

  • Men’s Pro Doubles: Robert Sostre/William Rolon
  • Women’s Pro Doubles: Masiel Rivera/Aimee Roehler
  • Mixed Pro Doubles: Robert Sostre/Masiel Rivera
  • 75+: Sergio Rivera/Suresh Vemulapalli

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37870

The weather looked great and the competition was awesome all weekend. Here’s a recap of the four biggest draws.

Men’s Pro Doubles recap:

12 teams entered this draw, split into three RR groups. The format gave the winners of the RR groups byes into the knockout semis, and then the three second place teams played a winner-take all mini-RR group to determine the last semi finalists.

Group winners:

  • @Robert Sostre and William Rolon
  • @Yasmani Perez and Alejandro Barceló
  • @Ignacio Espinal and Eric Faro

The three 2nd place teams who duked it out for the last semi spot were:

  • @Thomas Gerhardt and @Mike Harmon
  • @Richie MIller and @David Blatt
  • @Freddie Ramirez and @Joe Young

Ramirez and Young claimed the last knockout spot by topping the wild card RR group.

In the semis, Sostre/Rolon took out Ramirez/Young in a matchup of long-time one-wall partners Iceman and Freddie. In the other semi, Espinal & Faro topped the surprise group winners Perez/Barcelo.

In the final, Sostre/Rolon were just too strong and took out Espinal & Faro in two close games.

Women’s Pro Doubles Recap:

The Women’s pro doubles played one big RR group to determine the top two teams, who then met again in a winner take all final.

In the group stage, LPRT touring pro @Masiel Rivera and Hall of Famer @Aimee Roehler cruised to a group win, with #1 seeds and NY one-wall legends @Maira Ramos and @Kathy Guinan taking second.

In the knockout final, Rivera/Roehler won the rematch against the New Yorkers to take the pro title.

Mixed Pro Recap;

An excellent mixed doubles draw was hit somewhat by injuries by Sunday morning, but still featured some top teams battling it out. The 10 teams split into RR groups of five each, with the top two teams advancing to the knockouts.

Group A winners: Sostre/Rivera
Group B winners: @Ruben Pagan / Roehler.

Second place finishers: @David Blatt and @Anita Maldonado from Group A, and @Richard Miller / @Maira Ramos from group B.

In the knockouts, Sostre/Rivera held serve in the top half, while Pagan/Roehler were upset by the NYC pairing of MIller/Ramos. In the final, Sostre/Rivera made it a double, winning the Mixed 21-16.

Combined 75+ Recap

The Combined 75+ was nearly as big of a draw as the Men’s Pro, and was hotly contested. Like with Mixed, the 11 teams split into two big RR groups, with the top two teams advancing to the semis.

From Group A, @Alejandro Barcelo and @Richie Miller took the group, with the traveling VA team of @Sergio Rivera and @Suresh Vemulapalli taking 2nd.

In Group B: the pro finalists Espinal and Faro took the top spot, while the Miami duo of @Daniel Talamo and @Gleiber Barrios Subires surprised some one-wall top pros to take second.

In the knockouts, some amazing upsets. Barcelo/Miller took out the underdog Miami pairing in the first semi, but the Virginians shocked the pro finalists to get to the finals. There, Rivera and Vemalapalli took out another favored pro outdoor pairing to surprise the tournament and win the final. Kudos to Rivera and Suresh for their big win!

Thanks to the Tourney Directors @thao le and @maddie melendez for putting this event on! Thanks to @vic leibofsky for his help on the draws and making sure all of us watching from afar knew what was going 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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it.

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9S…/

… The next big tournament on the schedule is the IRT Suivant Consulting Grand Slam in Mid January 2022. We have a few lower tier events in the early part of January.

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2021 Hollywood Beach Battle Preview

Sostre is in Florida this weekend; can he take home multiple titles? Photo Steve Fitzsimons 3WB 2020

The AGE Solutions Hollywood Beach Battle

r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37870

Just when you thought the outdoor season was over … the venerable DC-based team of racquetball promotors Thao Le and Maddie Melendez are bringing racquetball back to the Historic Garfield Street one-wall courts in Hollywood, Florida this coming weekend, with a little help from regular Florida racquetball organizers like Vic Leibofsky, Rob Mijares and Jeff Wright.

Headline sponsored by DC-area player @Andy Gomer and his company AGE Solutions, this is the first time tournament racquetball has been played on these courts since the March 2019 Beach Bash. 2020’s event was one of the first major rball events to be cancelled thanks to the burgeoning Covid crisis, and 2021’s event never got off the organizational floor with the city from a permitting perspective. But here we are, and the draws look amazing.

Despite a space-limited capacity figure for the tournament, this tournament has drawn a who’s who of one-wall players from up and down the east coast, with a number of players flying in from New York/New Jersey and Washington DC. Other top outdoor players are coming in from Arizona and Texas and North Carolina. And of course, a ton of Florida’s finest are here, ready to fend off the challenges from one-wall out-of-towners and try to take home the titles on home soil.

Here’s a quick preview of the doubles-only pro draws to be competed this weekend. Note: some of these draws and partnerships may change by the time draws are released; some last minute withdrawals have forced some scrambling to find new partners… the Tournament Director’s lament.

Men’s Pro Doubles.

There’s 12 teams entered into the Pro one-wall doubles, and the competition will be fierce. They’re split into three RR groups of four teams each to start.

In Group 1, the favorites are the top seeded NYC team of Robert Sostre and William Rolon, who were the 2019 and 2020 One-Wall champions in Vegas together. Individually, these two hold a slew of Beach Bash titles; Rolon won in 2017 and 2018 with David Blatt, while Sostre holds four Beach Bash titles (and made another four finals) with long-time partner Freddy Ramirez. The “Iceman” and “The Warrior” will be tough to beat. However, Group 1’s #2 seed is the sneaky good team of Thomas Gerhardt and Mike Harmon, who very accomplished indoor players who also more than hold their own in the outdoor arena.

In Group 2, the #1 seeds are the tough team of Richard Miller and David Blatt, who themselves are one-wall royalty from NYC. Miller owns three Beach Bash titles (and made the pro finals another five times), while Blatt (known as “The Hulk” or “The Hulkster”) has both a Beach Bash and a Vegas one-wall title on his resume. They’ll be pushed in their group by top outdoor Florida players such as @Marcos Gravier, Alejandro Barcelo, and Yasmani Pérez. Also, shoutout here to Osman Alejandro Lazarte, a long-time DC area top player who’s entered in with a dark-horse New Englander in Sudheer Tata and could make waves.

In Group 3, the top seeded team is one-wall royalty in Freddy Ramirez paired up with perhaps the most powerful player in Hollywood this weekend in Joe Young. Freddy owns dozens of one-wall titles in his career and is perhaps the best right-sided one-wall player in history, while Young blasted his way to a Beach Bash title in 2015 and is a regular in outdoor majors. They’ll be challenged in the group stage by NYC ex-pat @Ignacio Espinal (Iggy) playing with @Eric Faro from New York and a dark horse team from Stratton Woods in @Sergio Rivera and @Suresh Vemulapalli.

Group Predictions: I hate to go chalk, but its hard to see any of the three top seeds getting upset in the group stage. Best chance for an upset goes to Gerhardt/Harmon in group 1.

The playoffs will be determined in a cool way: the three group winners advance to the semis, while the three runners-up will play a mini RR to determine the fourth semi finalist.

In the knockouts, I like Miller/Blatt over Ramirez/Young in the final, if the brackets work out that way.

Mixed Pro Doubles

The Mixed Pro draw is stacked. Some of the teams that stood out to me as immediate contenders include:

  • Sostre playing with LPRT touring pro Masiel Rivera Oporto
  • Gerhardt playing with Virginia top outdoor player @Aime brewer.
  • Ruben Pagan of onewallball.com playing with Hall of Famer Aimee Roehler.
  • Blatt playing with the legendary Anita Maldonado, who owns five major one-wall titles and is perhaps the best female paddleball player of all time.
  • Miller playing with @Maira Ramos, a pairing that won both the 2010 and the 2013 Mixed pro Beach Bash titles together.
  • Freddy playing with Kathy Guinan – Norwex Independent Consultant, who owns two Beach Bash doubles titles from 2010 and 2012.

Wow. These round robins are going to be amazing. Each RR group has three teams that you could make easy arguments for advancing.

Predictions: I’m going to go with Sostre/Rivera winning group one, Pagan/Roehler in group two, and Sostre/Rivera taking the playoff.

Women’s Pro Doubles

There’s eight women’s pro doubles teams entered, and the competition looks fierce.

In Group A, an old-school pairing of Guinan/Ramos will look to fend off what looks like a very powerful team of Roehler/Rivera.

In Group B, look for a battle between the Virginia-based pairing of Carrie Handfinger Hoeft and Brewer and the @Claudia Andrade/@Michelle Michbo Herbert team, which could be pretty tough.

In the final, I don’t think Roehler/Rivera can be stopped.

Other Draws

There’s huge Draws in Elite, in Men’s 75+, and others. Kudos to all the players who are flying in to support this event.

Look for streaming from the individual players throughout the weekend. I know that wifi is tough at the court, so we’ll hope for the best we can.

3WallBall Outdoor World Championships
Mid-Atlantic World Outdoor Racquetball
WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball

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2021 Florida State Longwall Championships Recap

Roy Hernandez (pictured here on the L with tournament host Marcos Gravier) was the double winner this weekend. Photo Tropical Park 2021


Hot on the heels of the 3WallBall Outdoor World Championships event in Vegas, some of the state (and country’s) best long-wall outdoor players gathered at the famous long-wall courts at Waterford Park in Davie, Florida for one of the biggest long-wall only outdoor events each year; the Florida State Long-Wall championships.
Waterford Park houses 8 long-wall courts, four of which are lit, and its tucked into a residential neighborhood in the suburbs north of Miami.

86 players entered and competed in both singles and doubles. Here’s some highlights from the top divisions.

In the Men’s Pro Doubles division, 7 teams entered, highlighted by the #1 seeded team of Roy Hernandez and @Marcos Gravier. They advanced to the final by topping the upset-minded team of @Tony Gonzalez and @Nicola Chafloque, who took out the #4 seeded team of @Yelandi Rivero and Robert Sostre in the quarters.
On the bottom half, #2 seeds and long-time top Florida indoor players Jonathan Burns and Mike Harmon showed they have some outdoor chops too, taking a 11-10 nail biter in the semis over the tough outdoor team of Joe Young and @Carlos Bravo to make the final.

In the final…The #1 seeds held serve and Hernandez/Gravier topped Burns/Harmon 10,12 to take the title.

In the Men’s CPRT 40+ pro division, 11 teams entered, highlighted by the #1 seeded team of Aaron Metcalf and Ross Greenberg. Metcalf is among the best long wall players in the country, a long-time indoor star and former IRT touring pro who turned to outdoor when the last of the indoor racquetball clubs closed in his native Jacksonville, and he’s been a force at long-wall ever since.
However, the #1 seeds were toppled in the semis by Burns and Gravier, who advanced 12,7 to make the final from the top half. In the bottom half, Rivera and Young took a tie-breaker win over #2 seeds @Thomas Gerhardt and Sostre to make the final.

In the final….Young used his pace to help drive his team to the title, with Young/Rivero topping Burns/Gravier 14,4.

In the Women’s Doubles Pro, the #1 seed was the traveling team from Virginia of @aime Brewer and Carrie Handfinger Hoeft, who earned their long-wall chops on the long-wall courts at Stratton Woods Outdoor Racquetball in Herndon VA. They were challenged by 3 all-florida teams in a RR for the title.

The Virginia team swept its three round robin games without dropping a game to take the title Saturday morning. The #2 seeds Teri Delgado and @claudia Andrade finished 2nd.

In the Mixed Pro Doubles, 6 teams challenged for the title.

The all-Florida team of Harmon and Luanne Pazos Bryant defeated the #2 and #1 teams en route to the title. In the semis they toppled Gerhardt and @Aime Brewer, and in the final toppled Roy Hernandez playing with Carrie Handfinger Hoeft.

Four brave souls entered the Men’s Pro singles division. Singles in long-wall is a test of racquetball shot-making and endurance, with players not only having to cover pinch shots up front but long bounding shots to the deep of the court.
In the semis, #1 Iceman Sostre took out long-time Florida outdoor player Mike Blackney, who grew up playing at the famous “Spanish Monestary” courts in North Miami. On the bottom side, Hernandez got a solid win over multi-state champion Harmon.
In the final…Hernandez dominated the New York Hall of Famer and took the title 8,7.

Thanks to tournament organizers Rob Mijares (who does so much for Florida outdoor racquetball) and Gravier.
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WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
Splathead Sportsgear
USA Racquetball

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12th Annual Vegas 3WB recap

Both Michelle and Daniel won all three events entered this weekend. Photo Mike Augustin Vegas 2019


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa/Alvaro Beltran
  • Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Michelle De La Rosa/Carla Munoz
  • Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa/Michelle De La Rosa
  • Men’s pro 1-wall Doubles: Adam Manilla/Nick Riffel
  • Women’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: Victoria Rodriguez/Katie Neils
  • Mixed pro 1-wall Doubles: Rick “Soda Man” Koll/Michelle De La Rosa
  • Men’s 3-wall Singles: Mario Mercado
  • Women’s 3-wall Singles: Carla Munoz
  • CPRT Pro Doubles: Robert Sostre/Greg Solis
  • Paddleball Men’s Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa/Alvaro Beltran
  • Paddleball Mixed Doubles: Brenda Laime/Emmett Coe

    Quite the amazing weekend for the De La Rosas in particular; Daniel entered and won three divisions (3-wall pro doubles, 3-wall mixed doubles, and Paddleball), while Michelle entered and won three divisions herself (3-wall pro doubles, 3-wall mixed and 1-wall pro mixed). 6 divisions, 6 titles. Bravo.

    R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37761

    Special thanks to the major sponsors for 2021’s 3WB event KWM Gutterman, AGE Solutions, and Pro Kennex. Thanks as always to tournament host and sponsor Mike Coulter MC Vegas and to Tournament director Peggine Tellez, (and all the volunteer staff for 3WB) who worked so tirelessly all weekend to coordinate on-site.

ProRacquetballStats.com links to match reports for all the pro divisions:

  • Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: http://rball.pro/D204CC
  • Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: http://rball.pro/48852E
  • Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles: http://rball.pro/D90DBF
  • Men’s pro 1-wall Doubles: http://rball.pro/693F45
  • Women’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: http://rball.pro/FE0189
  • Mixed pro 1-wall Doubles: http://rball.pro/CDB793
  • Men’s 3-wall Singles: http://rball.pro/43291F
  • Women’s 3-wall Singles: http://rball.pro/6FF3B2

Men’s 3-wall Pro doubles recap;

17 teams competing in this draw, and the big storyline was the seeding. 2021 outdoor champs Gies/Rich were seeded just 11th, outdoor legend and two-time outdoor national champs Carson/Ustarroz were seeded 10th, and some really tough top indoor pros were stuck in the 16/17 play-in. You have to beat them all to win, as they say, and the seeding made for some really compelling early matches.
In the 16/17 play in, Alex Landa and Sebastian Fernandez were not able to overcome the outdoor experience of Brian Pineda (playing with Eduardo Portillo Rendon) and lost 5,13.

In the 16s, some notable matches:

  • #1 seeds Daniel De La Rosa and Alvaro Beltran, for the 2nd year running, faced a significant challenge in the first round, having to take on the experienced Pineda playing with the quickly learning Lalo. The defending champs were down early, but rallied to run to a first game win 15-11 and then held on in game two to move on.
  • Solid win by the #8 seeded NorCal team of Walter Ramos and Israel Torres.
  • #5 dark horses Emmett Coe and Rick Koll advanced past two IRT touring pros in Adam Manilla and Nick Riffel with ease 7,6
  • The #4 seeds from Florida were upset by a drastically under-seeded #13 team of Brandon Davis and Alejandro Barcelo.
  • #3 Robert Sostre and Daniel Lavely held serve against two tough veterans of outdoor Greg Solis and Charlie Pratt Racquetball to move on.
  • The most ridiculous under-seed of the event, #11 Jason Newberg Geis and Micah Rich, upset the #6 seeded team of tough Formulaflow partners Mario Mercado and MoMo Zelada in a breaker.
  • Nor Cal tough doubles players David ” Bobby” Horn and Jose Diaz took out the legendary Rocky Carson/Jesus Ustarroz team in a breaker.
  • And the biggest upset of the day was the #2 seeds Tommy Medina and Thomas Gerhardt losing to the upstart team of Patrick Allin and Alan Natera Chavez 2,13. The #2 seeds looked completely lost in game one, then rebounded to push the envelope in game two but ultimately couldn’t push it to a breaker.

    In the qtrs, some solid matches:
  • #1 seeds DLR and Beltran cruised to wins in games ones and three, but seemingly took off game two against NorCal specialists Ramos and Torres. Final score: 2,(6),0. I might be wrong, but i’m not sure Ramos/Torres even served in the breaker. The lefty power of Ramos and lanky getting ability of Izzy powered them to a game two win, but the champs hunkered down for the breaker win to move on.
  • The #13 seeded team of Davis/Barcelo kept cruising, dominating against the #5 seeded team of Coe/Koll to move into the semis 12,2 The first game was close, but in game two Davis/Barcelo got into a nice rhythm of forcing awkward shots out of both competitors from the backhand side, with Barcelo hitting bomb after bomb from the deep forehand side to move on.
  • Four outdoor specialists, including one Hall of Famer, played a really entertaining match in the #3/#11 quarter, with your defending Outdoor National champs Geis/Rich moving on. They squeaked by in game one 15-14 over Sostre/Lavely, then dropped game two in fast fashion. But they refocused in the breaker, overcoming Lavely’s amazing getting ability and Iceman’s smart one-wall-inspired shot making to move into the semis.
  • The #7 seeded Area-code 209 team of Horn/Diaz squeaked past a shocked Natera/Allin team in game one 15-14, mounting a furious come back to steal the game after Natera/Allin served for it four times. Then, in game two a back and forth affair came down to just a few mistakes from the losing side; NorCal represented in the semis.

    The semis featured two dominating performances from the two pre-tournament favorites:
  • #1 DLR/Beltran controlled the match from the get go, forcing the issue primarily to Barcelo on the right hand side and advanced with relative ease 9,7. Their game plan was to isolate and avoid the dangerous Davis and be opportunistic with their attacking shots, and they were successful.
  • #11 Geis/Rich dominated the Stockton duo of Horn/Diaz 3,10 to move to the final. Game one was a blur of excellent technical outdoor racquetball, and though Diaz/Horn were able to make game two closer, the Southern California duo won out. Horn has been nursing a shoulder injury, which was not unknown to his opponents, and they forced him to hit lots of uncomfortable shots and took advantage.

    In the final…we got the rematch of the July outdoor nationals pro final, and the fans were treated to a pretty special performance from Daniel De La Rosa. Geis/Rich came out firing, worked Alvaro on the left side and limited their mistakes and surprised the #1 seeds 15-11. But game two and three was another story; DLR brought the pressure to Geis on the serve and was a man on a mission in the front court, hitting every shot he was presented. The second game was a blur 15-5, and the domination continued into the breaker. The top pair ran out to a fast 5-0 lead before Geis/Rich even got in the box, and despite their best efforts the top players ran away with the game 11-6.

    Great win for the top Mexican duo, who defend their 2020 3WB title and pad their ever-growing list of indoor and outdoor titles together.

Men’s 3-wall CPRT Doubles re-cap
We didn’t preview the CPRT, but it turned into a really solid pro-quality draw with some streaming on the weekend, so here’s a recap:

  • The #1 seeds Koll/Beltran were taken out by the Florida outdoor specialists Joe Young and Marcos Gravier in the quarters in what some would view as an upset, but Young/Gravier are highly experienced veteran outdoor players and ground out the win.
  • The #9 seeds were joined in the semis along with the other top 3 seeded teams, which include a slew of the top outdoor pros in the land.
    In the semis:
  • The #4 seeded team of Allin & Gerhardt controlled the power shots of Young & Gravier to move into the final.
  • The #3 team of dual hall of famers Greg Solis and Sostre took out the two-time outdoor nationals pro doubles champs Carson/Ustarroz in a spirited tiebreaker.
  • In the final, the Sostre/Solis team came back from a quick game one defeat to blow out Allin & Gerhardt 11-0 in the breaker to take the title.

Women’s 3-wall Pro Doubles re-cap
Last minute withdrawals of several top players thinned the women’s pro doubles draw to just a 3-team round robin. In the RR final though we got an excellent match between the defending champion team of Michelle De La Rosa and Carla Muñoz Montesinos taking on the decorated Janel Tisinger-Ledkins teamed with Arizona’s Katie Neils.

In the title match, Neils (the least experienced player on the court) made her presence known and handled the right hand side, matching Munoz shot for shot, but the defending champs squeaked by with a 15-14 game one win. That opened the flood gates, and Tisinger-Ledkins/Neils couldn’t stop the train in game two. mDLR and Munoz defend their title 14,4.

Mixed 3-wall Pro Doubles re-cap
A star-studded draw was featured in the Mixed doubles draw, including several Hall of Famers and several top touring indoor pros.
In the quarters:

  • NorCal duo of Williams/Ramos played solid ball to squeak past Alejandro Landa and Aimee Brewer.
  • Team Formula Flow (Zelada and Brenda Laime Jalil) upset the #3 seeded team of Riffel/Neils.
  • A tough opener featured Hall of famer vs Hall of Famer, with the team of Greg Solis and Tisinger-Ledkins taking out the #2 seeded team of Sostre/Munoz. Solis/Tisinger-Ledkins is quite a decorated team; they’re a 5-time winner in Huntington Beach and won the pro mixed in Vegas in both 2010 and 2011.
    In the semis:
  • Defending champs DLR and mDLR cruised past the NorCal duo of Ramos/Williams 5,1
  • Solis/Tisinger-Ledkins thwarted efforts by the indoor specialists Zelada and Laime to move to the final 12,6.
    In the final, Daniel continued his sharp-shooter ways and drove the conversation, and the husband-wife pair won going away 8,8 to capture their 13th major mixed pro title together.

    Side note: kudos to Tisinger-ledkins for playing and competing this weekend at … 8 months pregnant. Fantastic showing for someone with obvious mobility limitations to still compete at such a high level.

Men’s 3-wall Singles Recap:

Forfeits and injuries plagued the Men’s pro singles draw, with just one match managing to get played before the final. In the final, two IRT touring pros in Alan Natera and Mario Mercado faced off for the title. Mercado has a bit more outdoor experience than Natera and it showed, as he took the crown 13,7.

Women’s 3-wall Singles Recap:
Two California outdoor specialists in Erica Williams and Victoria Rodriguez attempted to dethrone the reigning Outdoor Nationals singles champion Carla Muñoz Montesinos. Munoz and Williams held serve against Rodriguez and competed for the title. Williams shocked the LPRT touring pro in game one with a 15-13 win, but Munoz turned the tides and raced away with the next two games to win the title. Final score: (13),6,4.

Men’s 1-wall Pro Doubles recap
Natera & Pratt upset the #1 seeded team of Daniel Lavely and Jeremy Mcglothin to move into the final. There they met the college buddy duo of Adam Manilla & Nick Riffel for a one-wall power racquetball shootout final.

In that final, the four IRT pros battled it out with a display less about one-wall tactics and more about brute force, with the lefty/righty Coloradans coming out on top 10,9.

Women’s 1-wall Pro Doubles recap

The top seeded team of Rodriguez/Neils took out team Virginia (TJ Baumbaugh & Aimee Brewer) to win the 4-team round robin and the title.

Mixed 1-wall Pro Doubles recap
The top two seeds advanced to the title game, with Rick “Soda Man” Koll teamed up with Michelle De La Rosa at the top. The bottom of the draw was packed, but team Virginia Gerhardt/Brewer advanced to make the final.

In the final… Koll/mDLR outlasted Gerhardt/Brewer 15-13 in the first game, then ran away with it to take the title 13,1. This is Koll’s 4th mixed pro one-wall title out of the last 5 years.

Paddleball Pro Doubles
We don’t normally cover much besides racquetball here, but 3WB features paddleball events that get tons of crossover between regular racquetball players and top paddleball pros from Southern California.
In the Men’s pro paddleball doubles, DLR/Beltran took out the athletic team of Emmitt Coe and Sebastian Fernandez to take the title.

In the Mixed pro paddleball doubles, Brenda Laime teamed up with perhaps the best paddleball player in the nation in Emmett Coe to top the legendary Aaron Embry and his San Diego partner Roxanne Rehling to take the title.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Dean Baer, Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., JP Edwards and @Tj Baumbaugh]

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 FB. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but FB stripped it.

Next up?

No rest for the weary; Alvaro and De La Rosa head straight to San Luis Potosi for the 2021 Mexican National doubles event next weekend. Then a couple weeks after that we have a combo IRT/LPRT event in Arizona that will feature pro mixed doubles, a rare treat for fans.

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KWM Gutterman Inc.
ProKennex Racquetball
AGE solutions inc

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12th Annual 3WallBall Las Vegas Outdoor Tournament

Hall of Famer Greg Solis makes his return to Las Vegas. Photo from HB2021 by Steve Fitzsimons


R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=37761
The 12th Annual 3WallBall Outdoor Tournament is upon us. Held on the grounds of the STRAT hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, this tournament has grown to now be the second largest annual racquetball tournament in the world (trailing only the US Open in terms of participation). This year is no different, as the tournament will host roughly 440 players for the 2021 iteration.

Your Pro defending champions from last year:

  • Men’s 3-Wall Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa & Alvaro Beltran
  • Women’s 3-Wall Doubles: Paola Longoria & Janel Tisinger-Ledkins
  • Mixed 3-Wall Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa & Michelle De La Rosa
  • Men’s 1-Wall Doubles: Robert Sostre & William Rolon
  • Women’s 1-Wall Doubles: Kelly Gremley & Amie LeBrun Brewer
  • Mixed 1-Wall Doubles: @Rick “Soda Man” Rick Koll & Rhonda Rajsich
  • Men’s 3-Wall Singles: Andree Parrilla
  • Women’s 3-Wall Singles: Paola Longoria

3-Wall Doubles Pro Previews

The 2021 Men’s Pro 3-Wall division will feature the defending champs (Daniel De La Rosa/Alvaro Beltran) as well as their vanquishers from this past summer’s Outdoor Nationals ( Jason Newberg Geis / Micah rich), as well as past Vegas winners Rocky Carson/Jesus Ustarroz, past Outdoor Nationals champs (Greg Solis, Brandon Davis, Robert Sostre), and a slew of the best outdoor players from Florida, New York, California, and beyond. It should be a highly competitive event.

The 2021 Women’s Pro 3-Wall division will also feature its defending champs, as Paola Longoria has committed to returning to defend her title with Tisinger-Ledkins. They’ll be challenged by the 2019 Vegas winners Michelle De La Rosa/Carla Muñoz as well as multi-time past champion and outdoor legend Rhonda Rajsich.

The 2021 Mixed Pro 3-Wall defending champs (the De La Rosa husband/wife team) will defend their 2021 title and try to build on their record 12 major outdoor titles together. They’ll be challenged by some tough teams, including the frequent Rajsich/Rick “Soda Man” Koll pairing, the two-time defending finalists Sostre/Muñoz team, a dark-horse challenging team of Tisinger-Ledkins/Solis, and a very interesting mother-son team of Martha & Jack McDonald.

1-Wall Doubles Pro Previews

The one-wall Pro Doubles crowns for all divisions (Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed) seem set to go to new teams in 2021, as the 2020 champion teams are either not present in 2021 or are not defending their titles.

Pro Singles Preview:

We’ll have a new Singles pro winner this year, as 2020’s winner is not here. The Women’s Singles division looks stacked, with four entrants (Longoria, Rajsich, Tisinger-Ledkins, and Muñoz) owning major outdoor singles titles. Longoria is the favorite every time she takes the court, but she’ll face stiff competition.

King of the Court

This year’s competition features a fun new event, King of the Court. 3WB’s team has invited a slew of legends of the sport to compete in a “King of the Court” singles division. Participants include former touring pros such as Doug Cohen, Bret Harnett, Egan Inoue, Todd O’Neil, and Ben Koltun. They’ll be joined by outdoor legends such as Craig “Clubber” Lane, Rick “Soda Man” Koll, and Jesus Ustarroz, and will face off against a slew of current outdoor stars for the title.

On a personal note, yours truly Todd Boss will not only be in Las Vegas for this event helping to stream and to do meet and greets, but i’m actually playing. For the first time since I believe 2003, I’m entered into a racquetball tournament.

Look for Streaming in the regular places; three major streamers are traveling to Las Vegas for this tournament. We’ll have streaming on the IRT feed (hosted by Dean DeAngelo Baer and Pablo Fajre), we’ll have streaming on the LPRT feed (hosted by Timothy Baghurst and Tj Baumbaugh) and we’ll have streaming hosted by JT R Ball, who is already on-site in Vegas and has been giving us great walking video tours and drone shots.
Thanks to the Tourney Director Peggine Tellez and of course to MC Vegas for all your hard work on this event.
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