Category: WOR

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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.

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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.
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.
Tags
@International Racquetball Tour
LPRT
3WallBall Outdoor World Championships
USA Racquetball
WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
Zurek Construction, LLC/Francisco Fajardo
AGE SOLUTIONS /Andy Gomer
Team Root.com/Randy Root
KWM Gutterman Inc./Keith Minor
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

Congratulations to the Pro Champions on the weekend:

• Men’s Pro Doubles: Jason Geis & Micah Rich
• Women’s Pro Doubles: Michelle De La Rosa & Carla Munoz
• Mixed Pro Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa & Michelle De La Rosa
• Men’s Pro Singles: Jose Diaz
• Women’s Pro Singles: Carla Munoz

To review the brackets and results, see here: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=31967

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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/6F519E

In the 16s, just one upset by seed, with the #10 team of Hall of Famer Freddy Ramirez & former IRT touring pro Nick Riffel taking out the #7 team of tourney director Geoff Osberg playing with 2018 Men’s singles pro champ Luis Avila in a tiebreaker.
In the quarters, a star-studded affair ended up going pure chalk, with all four top seeds advancing.

• #1 seeds Daniel De La Rosa and Alvaro Beltran got their title defense started with a closer-than-they-probably-wanted win over the tough team of former IRT touring pro and doubles specialist Jose Diaz playing with HB native Patrick Allin. The top seeds advance 13,14.
• #4 dark-horse team of Jason Newberg Geis and Micah Rich, who won the February Valentines Day shootout over a number of teams at this event, advanced with ease over #5 Rick Koll and Emmett Coe.
• #3 Josh Tucker and HoFamer Greg Solis were stretched to a breaker but moved past #6 team of NYC one-wall specialists Robert Sostre and Benny Goldenberg.
• #2 Rocky Carson and tourney co-director Jesus Ustarroz, themselves 3-time prior champs of this event, advanced with ease over the Ramirez/Riffel team.
  In the semis, two big upsets.
• #4 Geis and Rich took out the defending champs DLR & Beltran with a great win. The #1 seeds fought off multiple game points to take game one 15-14, then Rich and Geis cruised to a game 2 win to push it to breaker. There, the Lefty/Righty team pulled away at the death and DLR/Beltran just could not get enough shots to go down to force the issue. Geis/Rich take the breaker 11-8.
• #3 Tucker and Solis played nearly a “perfect Match,” going the absolute distance with two-time champions #2 Carson & Ustarroz. Final score: 13,(14),10.
  In the finals … veteran outdoor players Tucker/Solis took the first game, but Rich and Geis did not panic, dominating the second game to force the breaker. There, they continued to play smart outdoor racquetball and went on a run at the end to take the breaker 11-5 and take the title. Rich gets his first major outdoor title, while Geis returns to the podium at a major for the first time in a decade (he and Alvaro won the 2010 3WallBall pro doubles title).

Kudos to Rich and Geis, who may not be household names to the larger indoor community but who dominated a star-studded field this weekend.

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Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/39F9C4

The defending champs and #1 seeds Michelle De La Rosa and @Carla Carla Muñoz Montesinos cruised through a 5-team RR draw that featured a slew of draws as the other four teams battled it out for 2nd place. In the end Erica Williams and Katie Neils captured 2nd place on total overall points.

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Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/23766C
The top two mixed pro teams, who also met for the title in 2019, each cruised through the 5-team RR draw unscathed for their inevitable Sunday morning meeting for the title. There, the husband-wife defending champ #1 seeds Daniel De La Rosa and Michelle De La Rosa squared off against Robert Sostre and Carla Munoz.

In the final, the DLRs defended their title with a close 7,12 win over Sostre and Munoz.

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Men’s Pro Singles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/CF8A2A
The Pro Singles featured 8 brave souls attempting to play singles on the cavernous Huntington Beach courts. The top 4 seeds advanced into the semis. There, Jose Diaz upset #1 seed hall of famer Greg Solis, thwarting his quest for an elusive singles crown, while 2018 singles champ Avila downed the left “Sweet” Lou Orosco in the other.

In the final…Jose Diaz added his name to the board of legends who have won Outdoor Nationals pro singles, topping Avila 12,11 for the crown.

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Women’s Pro Singles Recap
PRS Match report: http://rball.pro/F96427

LPRT touring pro Munoz cruised through the 5-player RR draw to capture the 2021 Women’s singles Outdoor National championship. Arizonian Katie Neils came the closest to taking out Munoz, stretching her to 14 in one game and finishing in 2nd place in the group.

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Other Notable Draws:

• Men’s 100/Centurion Doubles, the largest draw of the event, featured a ton of outdoor racquetball legends competing. In the final #2 outdoor legends Scott St. Clair & Tony Burg topped Rocky playing with @jerry Hall in an 11-10 bruiser.
• Men’s 75+ Doubles: De La Rosa, playing with HoFamer Mike Peters, cruised to the finals of 75+ doubles, where they got a walkover against #8 Thomas Gerhardt and Benny Goldenberg in the final.
• CPRT 40+: Tucker & Solis avenged their loss in the pro doubles by taking the stacked 40+ draw, topping Carson & Ustarroz in the final.
• Mixed Centurion Doubles featured the legends Greg & Martha McDonald competing in their 46th outdoor Nationals event; that’s right; they were at the very first one in 1974 and have missed just one in their careers (missed in the early 1980s for the birth of one of their sons). However, they ended up coming in 2nd place in the mixed 100+ doubles, getting edged by Butch Fish playing with Laura Morin.

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Congrats on a successful return to Huntington each to tournament directors Geoff Osberg & Jesus Ustarroz, who have been running the event for years together and did a fantastic job getting sponsors, promoting the event and running the tournament all weekend.

Thanks to all those who streamed on the weekend. Racquetball social media promoter JT R Ball first and foremost, for setting up early, getting great drone/aerial shots, and streaming/commentating all weekend. Thanks also to personal feeds from people like Erica Williams, Ranulfo Alvarez, Frank Biehl, Ruben Antilla, and many others.

Thanks to all 2021 Outdoor National sponsors, listed here https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-sponsors.asp….
A big thanks to the title sponsor Randy Root and his teamroot.com enterprise; Randy continues to be the biggest sponsor of the sport. Major thanks to presenting sponsor Pro Kennex and Mike Martinez, who continue to be a leading voice in the sport and in outdoor.
Thanks to the gold sponsors, including Melissa’s restaurant, Gearbox (the official ball of the tournament), Coca-Cola, RH enterprises, 3WallBall, Splathead, Roundabout Entertainment, KWM Gutterman and Keith Minor. Thanks to all silver sponsors including Dale (Valentine) & Todd (Entrikin)’s WTF Racquetball series, Rogue Gallery, (Mark) Bloom Injury Law, the (Rocky) Carson Real Estate Team, and Ustarroz Construction. Thanks to all bronze sponsors including the IRT, the LPRT, the Comfort Inn and Suites, the Springhill Suites of Huntington Beach, Dogz Bar & Grill, Los Compadres Auto Sales (and thanks for all you guys do for the sport yourselves), RYDF, and Alberto’s.

Thanks for all the sponsors and all you do; without you, we would not have racquetball events.

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?
Next week, in Des Moines Iowa is National Team Qualifying and Junior Nationals. The draws are up here and play starts on Wednesday.. https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=37673

tags/Sponsor links
@International Racquetball Tour
LPRT
WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
USA Racquetball
Reaching Your Dream Foundation
Splathead Sportsgear
3Wall Ball
team root/Randy Root
KWM Gutterman Inc./Keith Minor
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor