Parrilla gets the double this weekend in San Jose. Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory
Congrats to the pro winners on the weekend:
Singles; Andree Parrilla
Doubles: Parrilla & Sam Murray r2 link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=39311 Lets recap the Pro Singles draw: In the 16s, I had my eye on a couple of matches that might be close … but in the end, the draw went essentially chalk to the quarters. I say “essentially’ because #9 Javier Mar took out #8 Erick Trujillo 8,3, which may be an upset by seed but certainly is not by talent. The other pro-vs-pro round of 16 that looked intriguing turned into a blowout, with #7 Eduardo Garay Rodriguez handling #10 Alan Natera 12,3. In the quarters:
#1 @AnAndree Parrilla made fast work of #9 Mar 7,6. This used to be a much closer rivalry, now Mar has his work cut out to close the gap.
#5 Andres Acuña cruised past #4 @Sebastian Franco 9,3 on his home courts.
#6 @Rodrigo Montoya got a statement win over #3 @Eduardo Portillo 9,9; tour observes often wonder what would happen if Montoya committed to the tour full time, with his full attention. Could he be a top 5 player?
– #2 @Samuel Murray cruised past #7 Garay 4,7.
Both Semis featured great comebacks from the top seeds.
#1 Parrilla dropped the first game to the home-town favorite Acuna before advancing (😎,12,2.
#2 Murray looked like he was going to lose two fast ones to the athletic Montoya, but held on to win (😎,12,7.
In the final: Parrilla and Murray played a barn burner, each going through multiple shirts and fighting both each other and the humidity before Andree pulled away at 7-7 in the breaker to take it. Solid match.
Pro Doubles review: The pro doubles went completely chalk to the finals, where #1 Montoya/Mar took on #2 Parrilla/Murray.
In that final … Parrilla & Murray, who had just walked off the court as singles competitors in the final, teamed up to take out the #1 Montoya/Mar pairing 13,13. This is an interesting result for me: Montoya & Mar are an accomplished, veteran team who have shown the ability to beat any other pairing in the world. Meanwhile, Parrilla just spent the last season exclusively playing doubles with Portillo … who was here in Costa Rica. So why didn’t the two play together? Meanwhile, Murray normally plays with Landa and has for several years and is securely ranked #2 on the doubles circuit. Is he looking for a change?
Men’s open review: The Men’s open draw was nearly the size of the Men’s singles draw and featured some interesting players and interesting results. From the top half, #1 Erick Trujillo topped #4 @Set Cubillos in one semi, while #2 @Alan Natera took out #3 former IRT touring pro @Felipe Camacho in the other. Camacho advanced in part by topping LPRT #5 @Ana Gabriela Martinez along the way in a breaker.
In the Open singles final… Trujillo got a solid win against a tough veteran player in Natera to take the Open title.
Thanks to Dean Baer and Pablo Fajre for making the trek to San Jose to broadcast for us!
Longoria wraps up her 13th pro title.
Photo via US Open 2019, Kevin Savory
The Kansas City SuperMax last week also marked the official end of the 2021-22 season. After a covid-ravaged season, the LPRT ended up this season with 9 events, including three majors.
The final season rankings have been updated to the website: see https://www.lprtour.com/lprt-singles-rankings for the year end standings. We have captured the standings and uploaded them to the proracquetballstats.com website, where they will now be picked up in all year end rankings queries as appropriate. For example, click here http://rb.gy/x0t9jz for the year end singles standings in the database, and click here http://rb.gy/ysxyi8 to see how they flow into the Season Summary report.
Here’s some commentary on the LPRT finishers. We’ll break this post into four posts; in this post we’ll talk about the top 10, then talk about 11-20, then the rest, then list notable news items that happened this season to finish it off.
Paola Longoria : finishes #1 for the 13th time (see here for a list of all LPRT year end title winners: https://www.proracquetballstats.com/…/lprt_year_end… . She now has nearly double the next closest player, that being Michelle Gould with 7 year end titles. Longoria won 6 of the 8 events she entered, but showed a chink in the armor with two successive tourney final losses to #2 Herrera. She ends the season with a 600 point lead at the top; by way of comparison she ended last season leading the tour by nearly 1,000 ranking points. Still, her dominance this season should not be overlooked; finishing a season 31-2 is no mean feat. We have a tendency to focus on the losses for our two GOATS of the sport, not the wins. She’s still the #1 until someone takes it from her. Predicted Rank next season: #1 again.
2 Alexandra Herrera ; she finishes #2 for the second year in a row, but this #2 finish seems meaningful. For me, she has clearly taken over the title of “Best player not named Paola,” a title owned by Vargas for the past couple of years, and then Salas for a few years prior to that. Herrera found a way to beat Paola, and will be thinking she can continue the trend.
The beginning of next season should be rather interesting, as Herrera has a good chance of really narrowing that points gap and putting Longoria’s reign at #1 in jeopardy. Predicted Rank next season’s end: #2 again.
3 Maria Jose Vargas finishes #3, having made three finals and three semis, but took some earlier-than-expected losses this season. She is also 4 months pregnant, which puts her childbirth right in the middle of the fall section of the LPRT schedule, meaning she’s likely to miss significant time next season. She missed an entire season earlier in her career after having one child and she missed half a season in 2017-18 around the birth of her second kid. So we’ll see how much she can factor in next year. Suffice it to say, there likely will be a new #3 next year.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: outside the top 20
4 Natalia Mendez improved to a year end ranking of #4, her career best, by playing consistently and generally playing up to her seeds. She made three semis, three quarters, and had three first round upset losses on the year. She’s a good ways behind Vargas for #3, and the players who finished 4-5-6 are relatively tightly packed and could see some shuffling into next season.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #5 or #6: i think she gets bumped down.
5 Gaby Martinez managed to finish ranked 5th on tour (and missed out on 4th by less than 30 points) this season despite missing 4 of the 9 events played, quite a feat. She did this by becoming the 31st player ever to win a LPRT tier 1 event back in August in Denver, when she took the World Singles & Doubles title as the #10 seed. This powered her to a huge jump in ranking (she finished last season ranked #11).
It wasn’t too long ago (March 2019) that Gaby announced she was “retiring.” Since then, she’s managed to play more than half the pro events. If she played 100%, one has to wonder if she’s be pushing Herrera for #2. Predicted Rank next season’s end: #4/#5 if she plays enough events.
6 @Erika Manilla is the clear Player of the Year on tour. After playing just 9 pro events in her career, she played all 9 this season and vaulted herself from a ranking in the upper 30s to the #6 spot on tour. She had wins this year over Gaby, Mejia, Barrios, and Parrilla, and earned her first US National singles title. Quite the season. She’s within striking distance of #3 on tour (as are several players in this range), so the fall of 2022 could be super interesting.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #3. I think Manilla will continue to rise up and take Vargas’ place at #3.
7 Angelica Barrios finishes the season ranked 7th, a one-spot improvement from last year. She made 3 semis and was upset in the 16s three times (by Manilla, Gaby, and Rhonda), so kind of an up and down pro season. Of course, Barrios’ major accomplishment this year was taking the PARC title on home soil, beating four top players in a row (Lawrence, Herrera, Gaby, and Vargas) to do so.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #5 or #6; incremental update, but not enough to press the top 4.
8 Jessica Parrilla may have dropped back a spot from last season’s finish, but she accomplished something this season that she hadn’t since Jan 2018: she advanced to a Pro semi final. Since badly injuring her knee in June of 2018, Leoni has endeavored to get back to her rankings peak (she finished 2017-18 at #3 on tour), and this was a big first step. She needs to get out of the 8-9 spot though, which plays into #1 every quarter, in order to have a chance to really move up.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #7 /#8: i think she’s right in the same range again next season.
9 @Rhonda Rajsich finishes #9 on the year, missing out on #8 by a scant 5.5 points, and finishes in the LPRT top 10 for an amazing 22nd consecutive season. She made four quarters out of nine events and got some really solid wins along the way. Additionally, Rhonda had solid results at both international events this year, and qualified for the US Team for the 20th time.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: just outside top 10: I think father time is catching up.
10: Montse Mejía finishes 10th despite going into the season’s final event as the #6 seed and reaching the final. Three missed tournaments and a couple of shaky early round losses conspired against Montse this season, and even a grand slam final couldn’t make up the difference. Mejia is one of the more talented players on tour, with a classical style and athleticism to beat any player she faces, and the new season setups better for her to make an impact.
Predicted Rank next season’s end: #4, assuming she continues to miss events and not play full time.
Players 7-10 were very tightly bunched; Less than 30 points separated them at season’s end. To put that in context, players get 25 ranking points for making just the round of 16 in a normal tour stop. So, suffice it to say, the 7-10th players will quickly switch places next season as play picks back up.
Check back in for Part 2, where we cover the players who finished 11-20.
Acuna welcomes pro players to his home club as a host this weekend in San Jose. Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory
The Costa Rica country club in San Jose is hosting an IRT event for the first time (I believe) since 2019, and they’ve got a nice solid draw. Lower tier events are not put into the proracquetballstats.com database because they’re not “full draws,” but they generally get a good chunk of the IRT top 10 and definitely contribute ranking points. r2 link; https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=39311 Here’s a preview of the draw in San Jose this weekend; the tourney runs Weds-Sat so play will start on 6/15/22. There will be streaming, which is awesome, and per the IRT’s posts streaming starts thursday with the quarterfinals. Singles preview:
25 players entered, including 3 guys from the current top 10 (Parrilla, Murray, and Portillo) and another 5 guys from the 11-20 range (Franco, Acuna, Garay, Montoya, and Trujillo) and a couple of big names from the 21-30 range who can make noise (Mar, Natera). There’s a ton of players here from Guatemala, including their entire international team of Salvatierra, Wer, Mendoza, and Galicia. There’s also a great set of IRF vets from other countries: Cueva from Ecuador, Cubillos from Colombia, the Gaticas and Salgado from Chile, plus @Franciso Fajardo and some of Team Zurek. In the round of 16, look for these good matches:
8/9 Trujillo vs Mar: a tough draw for the young Trujillo, getting a player in Mar who, when he’s “on” can be one of the best 8-10 players in the world. Mar has been out for a while nursing a core muscle injury, so this could be a close match.
4/13 Mexican up and comer Sebastian Hernandez takes on veteran Franco in a good test for him, assuming he can get by the veteran Cubillos in the 32s.
7/10 Garay vs Natera; this is an interesting match. Garay has been hit or miss touring lately, but should have the slight advantage over Natera.
2/15: Murray vs Camacho; Camacho is a long-time former touring pro who can still ball; Murray has no cake walk here. Projected Quarters:
#1 Parrilla vs Trujillo/Mar winner: Parrilla has a tough quarter ahead.
#4 Franco vs #5 Acuna: Look for Acuna to hold serve at his home club
#3 Lalo vs #6 Montoya: tough matchup for Lalo here; Montoya is better than his ranking
#2 Murray vs Garay/Natera winner: this should be a win for Murray on paper, but both of these players can cause trouble.
My projected semis and Final: Parrilla over Acuna, Montoya over Murray. Final Parrilla over Montoya. However … if the semis turn into this quartet of players, its “any given sunday” because I think all four of these players are tightly bunched and can beat each other. Should make for some great Friday and Saturday action.
Doubles: One of the best doubles teams in the world is here in Montoya/Mar; I see them topping Garay/Franco in one semi. In the other side, Portillo/Acuna versus Parrilla/Murray is an interesting doubles match. Portillo/Parrilla were a “team” for sometime recently but now are apparently splitting up. Acuna doesn’t really have a regular partner since Camacho stopped touring, but Portillo has shown he’s a solid player. I’ll go with Lalo/Acuna in an upset.
However, the final is all Montoya/Mar, irrespective of who comes out of the bottom side.
Looking forward to more live pro racquetball this week!
Longoria wraps up her 12th pro titile.
Photo via US Open 2019, Kevin Savory
Congrats to your winners on the weekend:
Singles: Paola Longoria
Doubles: Alexandra Herrera/Erika Manilla Longoria secures her 107th career Tier1 title and sews up her 12th year end #1 title. Manilla wins her first ever pro doubles title, teaming with the hobbled Herrera.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=39192
Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/466E25
In the 32s, a couple of notable results:
In the 16/17, Lotts got a solid win over MRR in a breaker.
In the 15/18, Scott held serve and downed Centellas in a breaker.
Munoz absolutely destroyed Meneses 0,4 to move on. Meneses has gone from one promising result after another to getting blown away in the last two pro stops.
In the 16s, a slew of upsets and surprising results.
#1 Longoria was pushed to a breaker by Lotts before advancing. These two played in the South Carolina event a month ago and it was a 3,1 beat-down. Bravo to Lotts for playing really well here.
#8 Manilla got a really solid win over #9 Parrilla to continue her excellent run of form.
#5 Gaby was pushed to a breaker by #12 Laime (now representing Colombia)
#13 Salas got an upset win over #4 Mendez in a breaker.
#3 Vargas was upset by #14 Munoz in a breaker. (note: Vargas is roughly 4months pregnant, a likely factor in the upset loss, not taking away anything from Carla’s solid win of course).
#6 Mejia looked quite dominant over #11 Lawrence, and the bottom side of this draw has opened up widely for the defending champ (as we’ll see in a moment)
#10 Rajsich turned back the clock on #7 Barrios, a player half her age, to advance to the quarters.
In the biggest upset, #2 Herrera, who reportedly was in a walking boot last week, defaulted her match to American Hollie Scott after just a few points.
So, that’s #2, #3, #4, #7, and #8 out at this juncture, a ton of upsets.
Also, 3 American’s into the quarter finals for the first time in a pro event since 2016.
In the Quarters:
#1 Longoria was pressed in game two by Manilla, but held on for a 4,13 win.
#13 Salas turned back the clock and got her second top -5 win in a row, dominating Gaby 5,12 to return to the semis for the first time since this event last year.
#6 Mejia made fast work of Munoz 1,7
– #18 Scott dominated her fellow team USA teammate Rajsich to make her first ever pro Semi final.
In the Semis, no real shocks. #1 Longoria trounced Salas to beat her for the 55th time in 58 pro meetings, while #6 Mejia handled Scott efficiently to setup a rematch of last year’s final in this same event.
In the Finals, Mejia bent Paola but did not break her, getting close but losing 14,10.
Points Implications of results Not much changes in the top 10: Longoria already had #1 sewn up and the top 5 spots shouldn’t change. Manilla should jump to #6 on tour, her highest ever ranking. Despite making the final here, Mejia will take a tumble in the rankings due to expiring points but should remain in the top 10. Rajsich should keep her top 10 ranking to secure her 22nd straight season in the top 10.
However, this is all speculation until we see the final LPRT season-ending rankings, at which point we’ll do a recap and talk about movements in the rankings.
Doubles review Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/19DB35 The big storyline in the doubles draw was the upset of the #1 team Salas/Longoria in the semis; they were dethroned by the Guatemalan veteran doubles team of Martinez/MRR. They met the new Herrera/Manilla team in the final, who survived Alexandra basically playing on one leg to get a tiebreaker win over Parrilla/Mejia.
In the final…Herrera may have been hobbled but when the ball came to her she executed, and she/Manilla took the doubles title.
Women’s Open:
The only other draw here was the Women’s Open, which went mostly chalk and featured #1 Barrios taking out #2 Lawrence in the final.
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst and special guests Sudsy Monchik and Leo Vazquez. Once again, thanks to Randy Root for your generosity in sponsoring the biggest prize purse in the sport.
Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.
Next up? Per our handy master racquetball calendar … https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
There’s a lower tier IRT event in Costa Rica next weekend, then the next big event is US Junior Nationals in Des Moines.
Herrera the big story here; is she hurt? Photo Denver 2021 KenFife
Welcome to the final event of the 2021-22 season for the Ladies Pros, and its the biggest purse in the sport. Thanks to @Randy Root, its time for the Teamroot.com Super Max tournament in Overland Park, outside of Kansas City, MO. R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=39192
28 players are here this weekend competing, including 18 of the top 20 (just #16 Enriquez and #18 Amaya are missing from the top 20).
Lets preview the Singles draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to: In the round of 32:
#16/#17 Lotts vs MRR is compelling. Lotts is coming off a good showing at USA Nationals.
#14/#19 Munoz vs Meneses: Micaela is coming off a disappointing showing in South Carolina, while Munoz is coming off one of her better showings: can both players keep it going?
#6 Mejia vs #27 @Martina Katz: the Argentinian junior makes her LPRT debut. I don’t suspect she’ll trouble Mejia, but she’s had great international showings thus far.
– #15/#18 Centellas vs Scott; another compelling match between two players who both can win this match.
Projecting the round of 16s. Here’s some matches to watch for, assuming no major upsets in the 1st round.
#8 Parrilla vs #9 Manilla. Manilla coming off a run to the US nationals, but a win over a solid veteran pro like Parrilla will be important to Erika to maintain forward momentum into the next season.
#4 Mendez vs #13 Salas: this was a quarter final matchup last year at this event, now Salas has plunged in the rankings all the way to #13. They have not met in nearly a year, and Mendez has stayed the course in the top 4, but this has “upset by seed” potential.
– #6 Mejia vs #11 Lawrence; a first time meeting for these two, and an interesting test. Mejia won this event famously last year, beating four top 10 players in the process. On paper a win for the Mexican … but Kelani has been getting top10 wins all season.
Projected Qtrs:
#1 Longoria over #9 Manilla, a rematch of a couple of more “famous” matches from earlier in the season.
#5 Gaby over #4 Mendez: Martinez leads 6-3 career, and beat Mendez last fall at Worlds. Gaby plays a limited schedule and will make the most of it here.
#3 Vargas over #6 Mejia: these two both play “speed racquetball” but Vargas holds the slight edge.
#2 Herrera over #7 Barrios: Barrios is solid but won’t top Herrera right now on form, despite her 21 World’s shock win (which included a win over Herrera in the quarters). Herrera was reportedly in a walking cast last week with an unspecified injury; if she’s hobbled, this is the kind of player who will exploit it. We should watch Herrera’s mobility. Semis: Longoria over Gaby, Herrera over Vargas (assuming Herrera is healthy). There’s just such a gulf between the top 2 players and the rest of the field right now.
Finals; I think Longoria has righted the ship and will take this final over Herrera to end the season with a big check.
Doubles review The reigning #1 team of Longoria/Salas is here and together, but there’s some interesting jumbling of regular partners elsewhere in the draw that should make for an interesting tourney. Typically the #2 seeds, long-time partners Herrera and Mejia are split up this weekend, with Herrera playing with US singles champ Manilla and Mejia playing with fellow Mexican Parrilla. They’re the new #2 and #3 seeds and may face each other in the semis. Other teams in the draw including the newly named US champs Lawrence/Scott as the #6 seeds, the long-time Guatemalan national team of Martinez/Rodriguez as the #5 seeds, and the new Argentine national team Mendez/Centellas as the #4 seeds.
In the end though, Look for Longoria/Salas to claim their 37th pro doubles title together.
Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots! LPRT
Brenda Laime had a nice showing at the Stratton Woods event last weekened. Photo 2020Vegas by Stephen Fitzsimons
One of the biggest non-major outdoor events of the year was last weekend, the Capital City WOR championships held on the Stratton Woods courts in Herndon, VA (just outside of Washington DC). r2 link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39432 83 players from 11 states descended on the one-wall/three-wall complex to play both iterations of outdoor racquetball, plus some paddleball events, and celebrated the great weather with some great ball.
Here’s a recap of the Pro/Open divisions. Singles 3-wall: IRT top pro Sebastian Franco won the small 3-man RR group to win the iron man competition that is 3-wall singles. All three matches between Franco, @Juan Pablo Rodriguez, and Nathan Tucker were close though. A few points either way and its a different winner.
Singles 1-wall: Maryland’s @Dylann Pruitt took out NYC’s 1-wall specialist William Rolon in the Singles 1-wall final.
Men’s 3-wall Open/Pro Doubles: #1 seeded local team Mauricio Zelada & Sergio Rivera held off the competition to take the title. In the semis they took out Maryland-based team of Pruitt/Bleyer. The vanquished finalists were top outdoor players Sebastian Franco & Thomas Gerhardt, who outlasted the NY pairing of Goldenberg/Sostre in the semis.
Men’s 1-wall Open/Pro Doubles: The biggest draw of the event featured 15 teams playing one-wall top-level doubles. In the top side of the draw, #1 NYers Sostre/Rolon took out team Formulaflow #5 Zelada/Mercado in one semi, while #2 Franco/Gerhard took out team onewallball.com #3 Pagan/Benny in the other semi. In the final, Sostre & Rolon prevailed in two.
Men’s 3-wall Combined 75+: the final came down to NY’s best versus Florida’s best, as Sostre/Goldenberg took out Hernandez/Mijares to take the title.
Women’s 3-wall Open/Pro doubles: tournament director @Aime Brewer took the “Queen of the Court” competition over three fellow outdoor ladies pros to take the “doubles title.” Women’s 1-wall Open/Pro: USAR Hall of Famer @Aimee Roehler teamed up with LPRT touring pro @Brenda Laime to win the 3-team Women’s 1-wall RR title.
Mixed 3-wall Open: Pruitt & Laime teamed up to win a solid 3-team RR group for the title.
Mixed 1-wall Open: Laime got the Mixed doubles “double,” winning the 1-wall event with fellow FormulaFlow Pro Mercado. They took out the accomplished mixed doubles team of Pagan/Roehler in the final.
Thanks to Tourney directors Brewer and Carrie Hoeft for their tireless work on this event. Thanks to photographer Ken Fife for taking pictures all weekend and posting them for all to see. Thanks to lead sponsor @Andy Gomer and AGE Solutions, along with other sponsors who made this event possible.
Mixed Doubles:David Serra/Disney Linares The Canadian Nationals also had Junior nationals, awarding the following Junior titlists:
Girls 21U: Cassie Prentice
Girls 16U: Ofelia Wilscam
Girls 14U: Lahni Buller
Boys 18U: Nathan Jauvin
Boys 16U: Asher Pocsai
Trackie home page for event: https://www.trackie.com/…/racquetball-canada…/476421/…
Lets do some quick commentary on each draw.
Men’s Singles: PRS event report: http://rball.pro/CF063C No real surprises here; #1 @Samuel Murray topped #2 @Coby Iwaasa for the fourth straight time. The Men’s draw was missing some regulars (Castro, the Landeryou brothers, Bousquets), but featured the expected names at the back end.
Men’s Doubles; PRS report: http://rball.pro/5F5739 The Murray brothers secure their third straight Canadian men’s doubles title together, and Sam gets his 6th for his career, by topping Iwaasa and Kurtis Cullen in the final.
Women’s Singles: PRS report: http://rball.pro/EEB08C Former LPRT #2 Dr. @Frederique Lambert won her fourth national singles title, defeating her doubles partner Michele Morissette in the final.
Women’s Doubles: PRS Report: http://rball.pro/7B7355 Lambert gets the double on the weekend, winning both Singles and Doubles. Frederique wins her 3rd career national doubles title, Morissette her 3rd as well, but their first together.
David Serra and Disney Linares took the first ever Canadian Mixed doubles title and bring some fresh new faces to the National team, winning a small 3-team round robin event.
Junior events
Girls 21U: Cassie Prentice
Girls 16U: Ofelia Wilscam
Girls 14U: Lahni Buller
Boys 18U: Nathan Jauvin
Boys 16U: Asher Pocsai
There was some junior competitions at the event but some divisions went un-competed. We’ll have to adjust the junior matrix for the new U21 division.
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend from Racquetball Canada, who brought in Timothy Baghurst and JT R Ball to do the streaming on the weekend. Always helps when you bring in the pros.
Next up? Per our handy master racquetball calendar … https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
Capital City WOR, then LPRT Supermax in mid June in Kansas City.
Carson has a huge weekend, winning both his draws. Photo Portland 2019 via Kevin Savory
Congrats to your winners and US National team qualifiers on the weekend:
Men’s Singles: Rocky Carson over Alex Landa
Women’s Singles: Erika Manilla over Rhonda Rajsich
Men’s Doubles; Rocky Carson/Charlie Pratt
Women’s Doubles: Holly Scott/Kelani Lawrence
Mixed Doubles: Alex Landa/Michelle De La Rosa
These players qualify to represent the USA at the upcoming 2022 World Games in August in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and at the 2023 Pan American Racquetball Championships (PARC) to be held in April 2023 at a site yet to be announced. (Note: the 2022 World Games participants were determined from the finishes of last year’s Worlds).
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38797
Lets review the draws and give out the direct links into the database for the full draws of results. Men’s Singles Recap: PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/F7A26D Seeds held to the quarters (though #6 seed Thomas Carter was a no-show), with only one close match in the 16s, that being #7 Sam Bredenbeck going the distance to take out #10 Danny Lavely in five. In the quarters, no real surprises as the top 3 seeds advanced. #5 Manilla got a mid-game injury retirement after #4 Horn pulled something in his leg. In the semis; chalk. Manilla kept it close but #1 Carson won in three, while #2 Landa dominated #3 Bredenbeck to return to the US National team.
In the final, Carson secured his 9th ever US National title, most ever for American Men, by topping Landa in 4. Click here http://rball.pro/455001 for a list of all National title winners across all countries.
Women’s Singles: PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/173522 7 of the top 8 seeds advanced to the quarters without dropping a game; the sole upset by seed was #10 @Shane Diaz, who took out #7 seed @Graci Wargo in three. In the quarters, chalk, as only one top four seed was extended by a game. Up and coming junior @Annie Roberts took a game off of Manilla, otherwise the top US women cruised into the semis as expected. In the semis, Manilla was taken to 4 games but advanced past Scott, who continues to look for her first US title. On the bottom side, a big upset as #2 Lawrence (who had made the final of the last three nationals) was taken out by #3 Rajsich. These two had met as recently as the last LPRT stop, where Kelani dominated Rhonda, but the tables were turned today. In the final, Manilla finished her official ascension to the top of US racquetball with her first National title, a dominant 7,8,1 win over Rhonda. See here http://rball.pro/8C6DC2 for a list of all US national titles.
Rajsich made her 13th national singles final, and guaranteed making the team yet again.
Men’s Doubles: PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/92C865 The top 4 seeds advanced to the semis without dropping a game. In the semis….chalk, but not without some excitement. #1 Carson/Pratt advanced in four over Manilla/Horn at the top, while #2 Bredenbecks’ staved off three match points in games 4 and 5 to shock the 2020 National titlists and tournament favorites Landa/Monchik 13-11 in the fifth. In the final, the veterans dropped the first game but took the next three to repeat as champions, take their 3rd title together, and for Rocky secure his 13th US doubles title.
Click here for a list of all USA Men’s Doubles champs, dating to 1968: http://rball.pro/589110
Women’s Doubles: PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/B31897 Seeded teams 1,2,3, and 5 advanced into the semis; the sole upset in the opening round was #5 @Lexi York/@Michelle De la Rosa taking out the #4 seeded U21 team of @Annie Roberts/@Alondra Canchola in four games. In the semis, the #3 seeds scored a mini upset when the 2020 champions @Aimee roehler and @Erika Manilla upset the #2 seeds @Rhonda Rajsich/@Sheryl Lotts. The #1 seeded team of Scott/Lawrence, who eneted the event ranked #1 and #2 in USA Women’s doubles, dropped a game but advanced over York and De La Rosa. In the final, #1 took out #3 in four games, giving Scott her first ever National doubles title.
Click here http://rball.pro/8F8065 for a list of all USA Women’s Doubles champs dating to 1972.
Mixed Doubles: PRS Match Report: http://rball.pro/04FD8B Seeded teams 1,2 and 4 advanced to the semis with relative ease, but a big upset in the 3/6 quarter final, as my pre-tournament favorites #3 @Sudsy Monchik and @Kelani Lawrence were upset 11-9 in the fifth by #6 @Sam Bredenbeck and @Lexi York.
In the semis and finals, seeds held to form as #1 Landa/De La Rosa took out the Manilla siblings to claim the first ever Mixed doubles USA crown.
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters @Tony Prater and newly elected USAR Board President @Stuart Soloman , plus Team Dovetail’s @Kyle Artzman, who streamed the secondary court for us at home all weekend, plus a shoutout to everyone else who broadcast live off their phones. Thanks to the Tourney Director and USAR National events coordinator Connor Shane for putting this event on!
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Next up? Per our handy master racquetball calendar … https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/ Next weekend is the big Capital City WOR championships in Stratton Woods outside of DC, and then the week after is the big Supermax LPRT Grand Slam in Kansas City, the final event of the 2021-22 LPRT season.
Can Sudsy double qualify at the age of 47? Photo 2020 USAR Doubles via Kevin Savory
Welcome to the 53rd Annual USA Racquetball National Singles championships! 2019 was the 52nd, then Covid knocked this event out for the last two years. Prior to that, it had been held every year since the first one in 1968 in Milwaukee. But we’re back, and so are the players. 246 participants are entered in Texas, which is the highest National Singles turnout since 2016. That’s great news and a nice sign that perhaps tournament players are ready to come back. The qualifying team draws are stacked, and the event should be a ton of fun with the inclusion of Mixed doubles and the return of some big names. Reminders:
the national team qualifiers will play IRF rally scoring rules, including the “immediately stop on appeal” rule, as much as we may not like them. 3 out of 5 games to 11, win by 2.
the rest of the tournament still plays classical USAR rules.
Seedings were done in singles purely by rank, while Men’s/Women’s doubles gives priority to last year’s finalists if they have returned as a team. There’s no “last year” for Mixed, so its seeded entirely by rankings.
Lets preview the draws. I talked through the draws with @Sudsy Monchik on Monday 5/23/22 (see here for that link: https://www.facebook.com/RacquetballGuy/videos/1451019748650331 )
So, I’ll do some quick predictions here instead of re-hashing an hour long conversation.
Men’s Singles 19 entered, headlined by last year’s finalists #1 @Rocky Carson and #2 Alex Landa . There’s some intriguing round of 16 matches to watch for: look for close matches in the 8/9 Robbie Collins / Nick Riffel match, and in the 7/10 match between Sam Bredenbeck and Danny Lavely , an accomplished player who hasn’t played US Nationals in more than a decade. In the quarters, a potential 4/5 match between @Bobby Horn and @Adam Manilla looks really tough; the two are doubles partners here and are also business partners in their new online training/coaching venture. I think Manilla gets the upset.
Semis and Finals: I’m going chalk, with a repeat of last year’s final between Carson and Landa. I can’t quite see either Manilla or Horn topping Rocky, nor can I see @Jake Bredenbeck beating Landa. Rocky to repeat, since getting onto the team is seemingly more important than winning the title.
Women’s Singles: The US Women’s game has four top competitors in Manilla, Scott, Lawrence, and Rajsich … then a gap to the rest of the field. While there’s some compelling early rounders (Ros vs Roberts and Diaz vs Wargo in matches of rising juniors), the semis were always going to be the “big four” here. Matchups matter: in the 1/4 Scott and Manilla will battle it out in a match that could go either way; the two have split their only two adult meetings, and despite Manilla’s run into the LPRT top 10 she lost badly in the last pro event. Meanwhile in the 2/3 matchup Lawrence has the upper hand against long-time rival Rajsich. Rhonda beat Kelani in 8 of their first 9 meetings, but Kelani has won the last three, including an 0,9 beating at the SC pro stop a few weeks ago.
Look for Manilla vs Lawrence in the final and a first ever national title for Manilla.
Men’s Doubles review Last year’s finalists (Carson/Pratt and the Bredenbeck brothers) are back as the #1 and #2 seeds, with 2020’s champions (Monchik/Landa) pushed to #3. The Bredenbecks may be pushed a bit in the quarters against Diaz/Hansen; Diaz and Jake were long-time playing partners and know each other’s game well, but the seeds should hold to the semis. In one semi, Manilla/Horn have a great shot at upsetting Carson/Pratt; all four players are accomplished veterans, cerebral on the court. In the other semi, we should see a return to the final for Monchik/Landa.
Finals prediction; a repeat of the 2020 semis, with Monchik/Landa topping Carson/Pratt in a tight one.
Women’s Doubles Preview: This draw is all about who’s coming in second, because the #1 seed are the top two female doubles players in the land right now in Scott & Lawrence, and they’re going to win this draw.
The 2/3 semi to determine who makes the final will be intriguing, with Manilla and hall-of-famer Roehler (she the owner of 13 national doubles titles) taking on the veteran Rajsich and Lotts. I like Manilla/Roehler here to make the final, but not to realistically push Scott/Lawrence once t hey get there.
Mixed Doubles Preview Perhaps the most fun draw to preview in a while, since there’s almost no history of these players playing mixed doubles at a high level. We just do not know how the teams will gel, who is better at Mixed than their ranking may indicate, and who isn’t. The quarters will be interesting from the top down, with #1 Landa/De La Rosa getting challenged by Jake and Roehler and #2 Manilla Siblings projected to face veterans Diaz/Rajsich. While we could see some breakers here, i’d expect the top four seeds to the semis. From there, we could see some upsets. I can see #4 Horn/Scott taking out Landa/mDLR, and I can see #3 Monchik/Lawrence topping the Manillas. But I can also see the reverse; we could see 1 v 2 in the final, or 3 v 4 in the final.
I’m picking Monchik/Lawrence to take it over Horn/Scott in the final.
Look for Streaming on USA Racquetball’s page, with a rotating crew of broadcasters for this event to include current USAR board member @Stuart Solomon at the lead.
We’ll preview the other big National event in Canada later this week, once they get through their RRs and have a knockout bracket set.
Associations International Racquetball Tour LPRT Countries USA Racquetball
Jessica Parrilla returns to the pro semis for the first time in years. Photo US Open 2019 via Kevin Savory
Congrats to your winners on the weekend:
Singles: Paola Longoria
Doubles; Alexandra Herrera/Jessica Parrilla Longoria reverses the script from the last two finals against Herrera and wins her 106th career LPRT tier1 event. See http://rball.pro/6CB839 for a list of all LPRT singles tour winners Both Herrera and Parrilla get their second pro doubles title of the season, each done with different partners.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=38854
Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/9FD2AF
In the 32s:
I was shocked by Lotts’ 2,2 win over Meneses, considering that the Bolivian junior had bested Lotts handily the last two times they played. Lotts played lights out and took it to the up and coming Micha.
– Naomi Ros continues to look for a breakthrough win, playing Scott tough before losing 9,10
In the 16s:
Salas trounced Centellas in the 8/9 game 4,6. Centellas seems to be lost on the court lately.
Mendez forced to a breaker by Scott before advancing in a match that looked like an upset for a while.
MRR took Vargas to a breaker before falling.
Lawrence handed Rhonda a donut in the first before moving on.
– Biggest shock of the round: Munoz absolutely dominated Manilla 7,4 to move into the quarters. Manilla had been riding high all season but came out flat today.
In the Quarters
Longoria took out Salas in what is now the 2nd most frequent rivalry in tour history.
Mendez’ luck ran out as she was taken out by Parrilla, who amazingly returns to a Pro semifinal for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
Lawrence advanced to her first ever pro semi with a career win over Vargas in a close tie-breaker 11-9
– Herrera cruised past Munoz 7,2 to slide into the semis for the 7th time in her last 8 pro events.
In the Semis, the #1 and #2 players showed their dominance on tour, each winning their semi finals in dominant fashion; Longoria 2,6 over Parrilla, and Herrera 8,3 over Lawrence.
In the Finals, we got the third straight meeting of 1v2, and the fans got another compelling back and forth close match. This time though the GOAT Longoria prevailed in the breaker and ended Herrera’s 2-tourney win streak.
Points Implications of results So, the 2022 SC event should expire off the 2020 KC and 2021 SC events (if they’re continuing to do a 12-month rolling calendar of points), which will mean a significant tightening at the top of the race for the top of the tour. But, with just one more LPRT event on the books, Longoria’s lead is insurmountable for the 2021-22 season, meaning irrespective of the KC events she will capture the year end title, which will be her 12th. See this link for a list of all LPRT tour winners. https://www.proracquetballstats.com/…/lprt_year_end… Herrera trails Longoria by a bit more than 500 points, which is a lot, but which represents her cutting that lead in half just since the last LPRT event thanks to the way the points work. A couple more good results for Alexandra and we’ll have a real good race for the 2022-23 title.
Elsewhere notable, Mendez should return to #4 by virtue of Gaby’s missing this event, and Barrios will drop a couple slots with her absence. Despite an early loss, Manilla will move up to #9 (her career best), and Lawrence’s big semis should propel her up to #11 (also her career best). It is good to have a couple of American’s returning to the top 10 just as the long-standing stalwart of American racquetball (Rajsich) begins her gradual falling out of the top 10.
Doubles review Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/EE4945 Herrera and Parrilla gave the Longoria/Salas team a rare pro doubles loss in the final, and game two wasn’t that close. Four of the top US women’s doubles teams heading into US nationals all played with each other as practice for the event in Texas in two weeks:
Diaz/Ros took the veteran Roehler/Manilla team to a breaker
Roehler/Manilla lost to the #1 pro team Longoria/Salas 6,9
Scott/Lawrence took out the #4 seeds and took the #1 seeds to a breaker before losing
Rajsich/Lotts were unlucky to lose against the #2 seeds, going down 11-10.
Based on these results, Scott/Lawrence look like the team to beat.
Women’s Open, other draws Centellas rebounded from a disappointing pro event to take the Women’s open title, downing Munoz and Amaya along the way. #1 Seed Meneses lost to Amaya 7,2, another shocking result that indicates to this observer that something was amiss with Micha this weekend.
Maurice Miller cruised to the Men’s Open title as the #1 seed, topping Alabama #1 Destry Everhart in the final. However Miller couldn’t convert the Men’s open double, losing the doubles final with his twin brother Marquis to Everhart playing with Shane Karmelin.
Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., 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 Facebook. 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…/ We have a rare break in the calendar next weekend… then the final weekend of the month is Nationals! US in Texas, Canada in Brossard.
