LPRT Boston Open Recap

Herrera makes it two for two over Longoria. Photo LPRT official


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Singles: Alexandra Herrera
  • Doubles: Paola Longoria & Samantha Salas

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38579

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/F91610

In the 32s:

  • @Hollie Scott and Maria Renee Rodriguez split two close games in their 16/17 match-up before Scott pulled away with a dominant 11-1 tiebreaker win.
  • The ever improving junior Micaela Meneses took a game off of #13 @Erika Manila before falling in a breaker.
  • @Crist’ Amaya got a solid win over fellow veteran tour player @Nancy Enriquez 11-5 in the breaker.
  • – #11 @Carla Munoz reversed the script against @Jenny Daza , topping her 9,9 to move on. Daza had gotten the big upset over Munuz in this round just last tournament.

In the 16s:

  • Scott made #1 @Paola Longoria work for her round of 16 win, pushing the top player 12,11 in their round of 16 matchup.
  • #5 @Natalia Mendez was challenged by her younger Argentinian rival @Valeria Centellas before advancing 11-7 in the breaker.
  • #13 Manilla got her fifth win over a top-5 seed on tour since October, downing #4 @Gaby Martinez in a hard-fought close match. She took the first game 15-13, then Gaby raced to a huge lead in game two before Erika pulled it all the way back. They traded blows at match point before Gaby’s athletic exploits pushed a tiebreaker. There, Manilla looked to run away with the breaker before Gaby scored 7 unanswered to push for an amazing comeback … but Manilla got the 11-8 win.
  • #3Maria Jose Vargas battled through some illness and outlasted the veteran Amaya in a tiebreaker.
  • – #7 @Montse Mejia put a statement down , crushing #10 @Brenda Laime 8,1 to move into the quarters.

In the Quarters, a couple of surprising results.

  • #1 Longoria made fast work of her doubles partner Salas 5,7
  • #5 Mendez avenged herself in a rematch against Manilla, winning in a tie-breaker to avoid two upsets in two tournaments.
  • #3 Vargas could not overcome both illness and #6 Barrios, losing in a tie-breaker.
  • – #2 Herrera outlasted her doubles partner Mejia, dropping the middle game but running away with it in the tiebreaker.

In the Semis

  • Longoria made quick work of Mendez 7,5 and was in cruise control for most of the match.
  • Herrera was not troubled by the young Bolivian Barrios 6,5 and setup the anticipated rematch of last week’s final in Vero Beach.
    In the Finals…. another shocker. Herrera dominated in game one 15-8, then for a while it looked like Longoria had found another gear, racing to a 12-1 game two win. Instead of packing it in, Herrera fought back and saved game points against to take game two 15-14 in a pretty amazing comeback win.

Herrera’s second career win moves her into the top 20 all time of tour wins. Longoria loses in the final for the second tourney in a row … something that hadn’t happened since the fall of 2010, when she lost two successive finals to Rajsich (also the last time she lost to the same person in two straight events). Is this a changing of the guard? Or a blip on Longoria’s resume?

Points Implications of results: I don’t see a ton of movement in the top 10 after this tourney. Herrera solidifies her grip on #2 and closes the gap a bit on #1. Gaby maintains a slight lead on Mendez for #4.

Further down, some more significant movement. Manilla should move up to #12 and Lawrence should move to #15, edging slowly to the top 10. Meneses continues to rise; she’s nearly in the top 20 now. Lastly two more appearances for Daza and Rico have them both inside the top 30.

Doubles review.
Hollie Scott had the tournament of her career, driving the all-American duo of Scott & Lawrence to the pro doubles final. They took out Vargas & Mendez in the quarters, then Herrera/Mejia in the semis. In the final though, they couldn’t overtake the #1 duo of Longoria/Salas, falling in a breaker.
Longoria & Salas win their 35th pro doubles title together since August 2014. Amazing.

Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/F5E7DA

Women’s Open

Meneses may have lost in the first round of pros to Manilla, but she took out several pros en route to the Women’s Open title. She took out local player @Jolene Sullivan in the round of 16, then beat Lotts, Lawrence, and Munoz for the title. Great wins.

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

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Nothing domestically, but a couple of countries are having National selection events to pick their teams to go to PARC. We’ll try to decipher Facebook postings to figure out who has won.

tags
@LPRT

LPRT Boston Open Preview

Is this Mejia’s weekend to shine? Photo unk.


Hot on the heels of the Vero Beach Open, the LPRT returns to action, this time in Boston. The LPRT returns to Massachusetts for the 5th time in 7 years, with the tour heading to the Wayside Athletic Club in Marlborough, MA.


R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=38579


24 ladies pros are in Boston, with some interesting additions and absences as compared to two weeks ago in Florida. #8 @Jessica Parrilla is missing; she was injured in Florida and is presumably rehabbing. But Leoni is the sole player in the top 20 who is missing from Boston; returning to action include #4 Gaby Martinez, #9 @SamantSamantha Salas , and #13 @Valerie Centellas, all of whom missed the Florida event.
Which means, this draw is stacked, and there’s great matches from the first round onwards.

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

In the 32s…here’s some matches to look for.

  • #16/#17 features two players very evenly matched in @Maria Renee Rodriguez and @HoHollie Scott . Even though MRR is ahead of Scott in the rankings, I think Scott is the favorite here.
  • #13 Erika Manilla versus #20 @Michaela Meneses Cuellar: Manilla should advance, but Meneses continues to get solid looks at top pros. Its just a matter of time before the Bolivian reigning junior 18U champ gets a top win.
  • #14 v #19 features two long-time LPRT touring pros, both former top 10 players now pushed down into the teens in @Cris Amaya and @Nancy Enriquez. Enriquez has had some tough openers lately (losing to Sotomayor in Vero Beach, and losing to Meneses at the US Open last fall), and is a better player than her ranking, and will look to get back into a position to go deeper into the draw here.
  • #11 @Carla Munoz versus #22 Jenny Daza : an immediate rematch to one of the biggest upsets from Vero Beach, as two South American internationals face up again. Can Munoz learn from her loss against Daza and flip the script? Or will Daza win again?
  • – #15 Kelani Lawrence versus #18 @Sheryl Lotts: these two Americans will face off in the round of 32 for the third time in 9 months, with Kelani looking to advance to force a rematch with last week’s tourney winner.

round of 16:
I’m projecting a couple of upsets in the 16s, and some solid matches.

  • #8 v #9 will be two long-time adversaries on tour: Rhonda Rajsich takes on @Samantha Salas . They’ve met 26 times over the years both internationally and professionally, with Rhonda holding an 18-8 career lead. Salas is still trying to regain her form from a couple years ago, while Rhonda continues to make waves on tour and retain her top 10 spot. Look for Rhonda in the mini upset here.
  • Sometime doubles partners Centellas and Natalia Mendez are set to face off in the 16s, with Natalia looking to right the ship after an early exit in Vero Beach. Centellas is also looking to right the ship in general. After spending most of the last two seasons well inside the top 10, she’s now drifted to #13 in the rankings and is in jeopardy of slipping further.
  • #13 Manilla is set to take on her next top-4 challenger, that being the Guatemalan #1 Martinez. Manilla topped Gaby at the US Open and will look to do so again.
  • – #7 @Montse Mejia gets her tournament started in challenging fashion against #10 @Brenda Laime. On paper this is a straightforward win for Mejia, but Laime has been turning heads lately and will put up a fight. These two close friends may struggle to amp up the competitiveness needed to win.

Projected Qtrs:

  • #1 @Paola Longoria over her longest rival Rajsich. Fun Fact: of Longoria’s career 33 pro losses, 15 of them are to Rajsich.
  • Manilla upsets Mendez for the second straight tournament to move to the semis yet again.
  • #3 Vargas takes out Barrios in a distinct battle of game styles.
  • #2 @Alexandra Herrera , fresh off her big win in Florida, runs into perhaps the one player she didn’t want to see in the quarters, that being her doubles partner Mejia. Mejia has topped Herrera the last four times they’ve met, dating to 2017. I think she could make it a 5th; look for Mejia upset here.


    Semis: we get two rematches from last week.
  • Longoria over Manilla; Erika can go to the game tape to see what she needs to do to win; basically the answer is , don’t make mistakes.
  • Vargas over Mejia: they’re close, but i still think Vargas has the advantage. Mejia knows what she needs to do to take this match; can she do it?

    final: Longoria over Vargas.

Doubles Preview.
As we get closer to the next international competition (PARC), we’ll continue to see country’s international representatives playing together on tour to get practice ahead of IRF competition. This tourney is no different, as we seem to have the Reigning championship doubles teams from Mexico (Longoria, Salas), Guatemala (Martinez/Rodriguez), and Argentina (Vargas/Mendez) as three of your top four seeds. Interestingly the USA reigning champs Rajsich/Manilla are playing with alternate partners.
Nonetheless, it will make for some great semi-finals and forward action. Look for the reigning Mexican champs to beat the Guatemalan team in one semi, and for the #2 mexican team Herrera/Mejia to top the Argentinians in the other semi.

This leads us to yet another heavyweight meeting between the two top Mexican pairs; I still give Longoria/Salas the edge.

Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.
Look for @ [554433128:2048:Timothy Baghurst], Jerry J Josey Jr., JP Edwards and @ [1254655965:2048:Tj Baumbaugh] on the mike, calling the shots!
Thanks to the Tourney Director @SStuart Soloman for putting this event on!
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Racquetball Canada Winter Selection Event recap

Murray wins his 10th straight Canadian national team event. Photo via us2019 Kevin Savory


For the first time since February 2020, Racquetball Canada hosted a selection event. Normally, Canada hosts two of these events each season (usually, in late November and then again in early February) to determine seeding for its eventual Nationals (held in May). But, thanks to Covid, we hadn’t seen one of these tournaments since right before the Pandemic took grip of society.
Trackie.com site for the event: https://www.trackie.com/…/racquetball-canada…/474684/…
Lets do a quick recap of the results.
Note: thanks to IRF’s decision to go to rally scoring, this tournament was played with the rally scoring rules. Three out of Five games to 15, win by one.
In Men’s Open, #1 Samuel Murray and #2 Coby Iwaasa met up in the final for the eight successive Canadian Nationals or Selection event, with Murray taking the title over his countryman for the 8th successive time. Murray’s 10th straight Canadian national tournament title came with the scores of 8,11,14.
click here for the Match report: http://rball.pro/F20E68

Click here for a list of all Canadian Men’s National event finals dating to 1975; http://rball.pro/2CB02F

In Women’s Open, #1 @Frederique Lambert continued her dominance over Canadian Racquetball (when she can play, given her medical residence requirements) by taking out #2 @Michele Morisset in the final (😎,10,6,10. The draw was missing @Christine (Keay) Richardson, who had made the final of the previous five Canadian national tournaments.
click here for the Match report: http://rball.pro/DCDEDE

Click here for a list of all Canadian Women’s National event finals dating to 1975; http://rball.pro/AF9A18

Murray and Lambert retain their #1 positions in Canada heading into May’s Canadian Nationals, and should be representing their country at the upcoming PARC event in Mid April In Bolivia.

@Racquetball Canada

This coming weekend is a busy one on the racquetball calendar

  • USA Racquetball High School Nationals is in St. Louis
  • the LPRT is in Boston
  • there’s an IRT Tier 3 in Findley, Minnesota that has a handful of touring pros attending.
  • there’s an IRT Tier 4 or 5 in Pueblo, Colorado, also with a few IRT regulars in the field.
    Click here for my running Racquetball “major” event tracker:
    https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Longoria-Herrera Match Stat Breakdown

Herrera celebrating her first LPRT win. Photo screen capture from LPRT Facebook video of awards ceremony

I thought it would be illuminating to break down the LPRT final between Paola Longoria and Alexandra Herrera, looking for some trends and interesting data points.

Using my standard detailed Match Tracker, I filled in match stats for the first game of the final, a nail-biting 15-14 win for Herrera.

Here’s a link to the match tracker detailed data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t8GgzPppq4dZvZwkS3yITkZAlKGSRQAGROM6woq-0G4/edit?usp=sharing and here’s a link to the video on Facebook for the match: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=372683864314937

Here’s some breakdowns.


Duration Stats
Game start in Video6:45 in video
Game end43:23 in video
Game duration36mins 38 seconds
Avg time per rally36.6 secs

So, this was a long game. 36 minutes overall. Both players took both their time-outs, both players took a brief equipment time-out, and there were a couple of appeals. All told, including the time-outs the average time per rally was 36.6 seconds. This is slightly longer than the average rally time for the last match I did this for; the Parrilla-Waselenchuk Atlanta final tie-breaker.


Serving Breakdown:

Serving# of svc attempts# of AcesServes Good1st Serve %1st Drive Serves1st Drive serve %1st Lob Serves1st Lob Serve %
AH Serves30222 of 3073.33%30 of 30100%0 of 300%
PL Serves30325 of 3083.33%30 of 30100%0 of 300%

Both players served exactly 30 times. Both players drove serve on every first serve, and Paola actually ended up with a higher first serve percentage than Alexandra on the day.

Serve Selection% 1st to F% 1st to B% 2nd to F% 2nd to B
AH33.33%66.67%25.00%75.00%
PL53.33%46.67%0.00%100.00%

Paola basically split her drives between Alexandra’s forehand and backhand on the day, hitting 16 drives to the left side, 14 to the right. Meanwhile, as a lefty Herrera has grown up accustomed to primarily serving to right handers, and thus focused mostly on hitting drives to Paola’s backhand. Both hit mostly simple lobs to the backhand as 2nd serves; there was almost no variation on the lob serves used: no nick lob attempt, no wall paper; just half-height lobs meant to solicit a ceiling ball in return.

Serve Breakdown and Success rates

Serve Type SelectionServe selectionhow often usedPct UsedHow often point?Pct points
AH #1 1st Serve SelectionDrive to Backhand19 of 3063.33%10 of 1662.50%
AH #2 1st Serve SelectionDrive to Forehand10 of 3033.33%4 of 580.00%
AH #3 1st Serve selectionHard Z-Serve to Backhand1 of 303.33%0 of 10.00%
AH Most frequent 2nd serve selectionLob Serve to Backhand6 of 875.00%1 of 616.67%

Here’s where we get some interesting information. Alexandra hit 19 of her 30 serves as drives to the backhand, and got points on 10 of the 16 successful first serves she made. That’s a 62% rate, pretty good. Furthermore, she tried 10 drives to Paola’s forehand, missed half of them, but got points on 4 of the 5 successful serves. She only varied away from these two straightforward serves once; a z-ball to Paola’s backhand that did not work.

Serve Type SelectionServe selectionhow often usedPct UsedHow often point?Pct points
PL #1 1st Serve SelectionDrive to Forehand16 of 3053.33%9 of 1275.00%
PL #2 1st Serve SelectionHard Z-Serve to Backhand9 of 3030.00%3 of 933.33%
PL #3 1st Serve selectionDrive to Backhand5 of 3016.67%1 of 425.00%
PL Most frequent 2nd serve selectionLob Serve to Backhand5 of 5100.00%1 of 520.00%

Meanwhile, Paola had a ton of success when driving to Alexandra’s forehand, getting 9 of her 14 points that way and having a huge success rate when she got that serve in. It was clear during the match that she started with the hard-Z to the backhand with little success, then got some points on the forehand drive, and the stuck with it the rest of the way.

 Serves leading to pointspct
AH 1st Serve good14 points out of 2263.64%
AH 1st Serve bad1 point out of 812.50%
PL 1st Serve good13 points out of 2552.00%
PL 1st Serve bad1 point out of 520.00%

This chart basically shows why you need to get your first serves in. The two players combined to score exactly 2 points on their second serves all game.

RalliesRallies WonPct of Rallies
AH Rallies won31 of 6051.67%
PL Rallies won29 of 6048.33%
Replays0 of 600.00%

This shows just how even the match was: out of 60 rallies, they nearly split them 50/50. Alexandra won two more rallies than Paola b/c Paola served first and then Alexandra scored the last point. There was not a single replay in the entire first game.

 Rally Winner/Error Stats
(not including serves)TtlFHBHPassPinch
AH Rally Winners20137119
AH Rally ending Errors321  
PL Rally Winners221111184
PL Rally Ending Errors972  

So, this shows some interesting information. Alexandra hit 13 of her 20 winners on the forehand, and pretty evenly split all her winners between passes and pinches. Meanwhile, Paola really does not shoot for the corners, getting 18 of her 22 winners as passing/kill shots. Paola also shows

The story of this game though is right here: 9 errors for Longoria versus 3 for Herrera. And of those three errors, one was an “off the back wall’ attempt that fell short and a second was a ball that bounced weird off the back wall and jammed her. In other words, Alexandra had just one skip this entire game. Longoria had 9 skips, 7 on her forehand.

Ratio of Winners to ErrorsRatioRatio
AH20 to 36.6 winners for every error
PL22 to 92.44 winners for every error

Further illumination of the shotmaking in this game: 20 winners to 3 errors for Herrera.

(these figures not including serve)Rally Stats
Average # of shots per rally , entire game3.95
Average # shots in AH-won rallys4.25
Average # of shots in PL-won rallys:3.62
Average # of shots in replay ralliesn/a
longest Rally of game17 and 16: both ended with PL error

The average number of shots per rally (not including the serve) was 3.95 in this game, but much shorter in Paola won rallies. The 3.95 figure compares to the average rally length for the Parrilla-Kane match, which was just 2.24. Women’s rallies tend to be longer.

Short Rally Statstotal% of rallies
# of Aces58.33%
# of 2 shot rallies (serve, return)813.33%
# of 3 shot rallies (serve, return, end)46.67%

A decent percentage of the 60 rallies were “short” rallies: 1,2 or 3 shots including the serve.

 Game points Saved
by AH4
by PL3

The players managed to save seven game points between them; that’s a heck of an accomplishment by both.


Lastly, since Rally scoring has now been introduced by the IRF, I thought i’d show you what this game would have looked like if it was rally scoring:

(all these times include Tos)Rally Scoring Stats
Game end if rally21:46 in video
Game duration if rally15mins 1 sec
Game score at Rally finish8-4 for AH

If playing rally scoring, the game would have been over in 15mins with the score 8-4 for Alexandra. Instead, we got a 36 minute barn-burner that saw Longoria rally from an 11-4 deficit and nearly take the game. What problem exactly are we attempting to solve with rally scoring? Because every time I do this analysis we’d basically neuter an excellent game.

LPRT Vero Beach Open Wrap-up

Herrera with her first pro win! Photo Denver 2021 KenFife


Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Singles: Alexandra Herrera
  • Doubles; Herrera & Montse Mejia

    A career weekend for Herrera, who vanquished both her top rivals Vargas and Longoria on the weekend to take her first professional singles title. Heading into this event, Herrera was a career 0-18 against Paola and 1-9 against Vargas; she beat them both to secure her first pro win. She becomes the 30th known champion on the women’s professional tour.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38227

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

In the 32s, there were a couple of upsets by seed and a couple of surprising results.

  • #17 Cris Amaya played #16 Hollie Scott as closely as you could expect, losing an 11-9 breaker. We always get great 16/17 matches and t his was no different.
  • #13 Kelani Lawrence advanced past hard-hitting Mexican 18U junior Daniela Rico 6,9. Rico continues to play LPRT veterans tough on tour but is still searching for a break-through win.
  • #14 Maria Renee Rodriguez cruised past Mexican lefty @Montserrat Perez 7,6. MRR really controlled this game and snuffed out any thoughts about an upset.
  • #22 Veronica Sotomayor upset #11 veteran @Nancy Enriquez in a come-back, hard-fought match 11-9 in the breaker. Sotomayor continues to show she’s in her former top-10 form but needs more tournaments to get the points she needs to be ranked suitable to her talent level.
  • The Biggest shock of the round was Bolivian veteran @Jenny Daza Navia upsetting #10 Carla Munoz in a breaker 11-6. Daza (who was in the same “junior class” as Longoria) has been playing internationally for a decade and a half representing Bolivia but is an infrequent participant on the LPRT. However, she continues to show she’s a dangerous opponent when she does play, adding another top-10 scalp to her resume.

– Reigning 18U World junior champion Bolivian Micaela Meneses made quick work of #15 Sheryl Lotts 6,7 to move into the 16s. Meneses improves with every tournament, and is the kind of gym rat that you know is going to get tougher every time she plays.

In the 16s, some significant results with major upsets.

  • #1 Paola Longoria cruised past #16 Scott in game one, then Hollie really made a game of it in game two before falling 15-14.
  • #9 Brenda Laime blasted #8 Rhonda Rajsich in game one then held on in game two for a statement win 3,12.
  • #12 Erika Manilla got another statement win, taking out #5 Angelica Barrios in a straight-forward 12,9 win. This is the fourth tournament this season where Erika has toppled a top-5 seed to advance, and its just a matter of time before she herself is a top-5 seed.
  • #13Kelani LawrenceKelani Lawrence got a career-best win, beating #4 Mendez in two straight. She sets up a meeting against countrywoman Manilla for a shot at the semis.
  • #3 Maria Jose Vargas made quick work of MRR 8,2 to setup a key quarter final match.
  • #6 Montse Mejía played a really comprehensive game to blast the upstart #22 Sotomayor 4,9 to move on. Mejia controlled the game from the start and was never in danger of losing. She’ll be tough to beat this weekend if she plays like this the rest of the way.
  • #7 Jessica Parrilla suffered an injury that took her out of both singles and doubles, giving Daza a walkover into the quarters. It’s just the 2nd time ever that Daza has made a pro quarterfinal.

– #2 Alexandra Herrera blitzed the junior Meneses 8,2, showing the gulf in talent that the young Bolivian has to make up.

In the Quarters

  • Longoria made quick work of Laime 7,0.
  • Manilla made a statement both on tour and in the national pecking order by cruising past her countrywoman Lawrence 7,13 to return to the semis for the second time this season.
  • Vargas was stretched thin by Mejia in a battle of perhaps the 2nd and 3rd best players on tour, but Vargas held on in the breaker to advance.

– Herrera outclassed the Bolivian veteran Daza 4,2 to move into the semis.

In the Semis

  • For stretches of this match, Manilla hung with Longoria and matched her punch for punch. But then for stretches Longoria does what she always does: consistently makes shots, rolls balls out, and relentlessly keeps the pressure up, which drives her to victory. Longoria advances in a hard-fought 11,6 match.
  • Herrera absolutely crushed her closest rival Vargas 3,8 to move into the final. This was never close from the get go, and whatever changes Alexandra has been making are working. She looks to be playing the best ball of her career.

In the Finals, a shock result. Herrera and Longoria traded off stretches of dominance, each running off multiple points in a row with excellent play and long rallies. In both games, Herrera mounted game-saving comebacks to win a two-game 14,13 thriller was just as close as the scores suggest. Herrera showed mental confidence and stayed in points and rallies, forcing Longoria into rare errors and pressure.

Points Implications of results

  • Herrera and Vargas should switch spots at 2/3, but not much else changes in the top 10.
  • Manilla continues her climb up the rankings; she should now improve to 14, meaning she’s getting close to a top 10 seed with the expected absences each event.
  • Centellas dives down, now at #13 with several early losses and a missed event.

– Daza doubles her existing points total and jumps 12 spots.

Doubles review
The doubles tournament was an interesting case study of how far Longoria could advance with a brand new partner with whome she had never played …the answer turned out to be the final, where she and MRR were vanquished with relative ease by Herrera/Mejia.

Herrera wins the double on the weekend, and Longoria loses two finals in an event for the first time in recorded/known history.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst , Jerry J Josey Jr. ., and Tj Baumbaugh .
Thanks to the Tourney Directors @sudsySudsy Monchik and his wife Veronica for putting this event on! It was an excellent time, great matches, the courts looked great, and thanks to all the sponsors.

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/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Next weekend there’s a lower tier IRT event in Atlanta and an experimental tournament in Tallahassee being run by Baghurst that will feature variants of the sport and rally scoring.

LPRT 2022 Vero Beach Open Preview

Sotomayor hosts the LPRT at her home club; how far can she go in the tourney? Photo unk source


The first LPRT event of the new year comes in a brand new location with a brand-new host: the one and only Sudsy Monchik. Sudsy and his family recently relocated to Vero Beach from Ecuador, took over programming at their club, and committed to bringing the ladies pros to South Florida.

This event is unique: no amateur draws, no full-service weekend long tournament. Just a pro draw, being held at a facility with two courts. This could be an interesting pathway forward for the pro tours, one that’s more in line with what we see in other professional racquet sports like Squash and Tennis. Thanks to this setup, every single pro match will be streamed live on the weekend, starting at 10am today 2/17/22! Log in and follow @LPRT to get live streaming notifications.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38227


24 Ladies are committed to Florida for the weekend.

top-20 players missing; We have 17 of the top 20 ladies pros here; No #4 Gaby Martínez, no #11 Valeria Centellas, And #9 Samantha Salas Solis was a last-minute drop, which definitely changes the pathway for several key players and radically alters the doubles draw. Read on for more.

Lets preview the draw.
In the round of 32, the top 8 pros neatly get a bye. We have some pretty compelling play-in matches. Here’s

  • #16/#17 Amaya Cris versus Hollie Rae Scott is a solid match, as the 16/17 always is. They’ve met once: a 12-10 fifth game barn burner back in 2019. Since then, Scott has been improving and Amaya has been slipping, so I expect a straight forward Scott win here.
  • #9 Brenda Laime Jalil gets jumped three spots thanks to absences and matches her career best seeding. She faces Costa Rican junior Maricruz Ortiz in her opener. While Cruz is tough, Laime has been spending time practicing with two top IRT touring pros and gets better every tournament.
  • #14/#19 features an intriguing matchup between the lefty Mexican Montserrat Pérez and the LPRT veteran @Maria Renee Rodriguez. I can see this going breaker with a possible upset.
  • #11 Nancy Enriquez is the unlucky loser of the “who gets to play Verónica Sotomayor in the opening round” sweepstakes. Sotomayor is the #22 seed and is on her home court. Enriquez has been playing well … but nobody out there has a better training partner than Vero. Look for the upset here; Sotomayor was a top-8 player before starting a family and is still in her prime years of playing.
  • In the #15/#18 match-up, we have an interesting one as well. Veteran @Sheryl Lotts faces off against the junior Bolivian phenom Micaela Meneses Cuellar. Meneses has a couple of decent wins on tour, and has played some top players tough. Lotts faces a tough opponent who gets better every tournament. Upset watch here, in as much as an 18 over 15 seed is an upset.

Projecting the round of 16:

  • #1 Paola Longoria should cruise past Scott, who can hang for some points but isn’t as consistent in her shot making as the champ (who is?)
  • In the #8/#9 we get Laime versus the veteran Rhonda Rajsich. They played a couple times back in April 2019, both times Rhonda wins but both times five game barn-burners. The shorter format (and the early round) favors the older player here, but Laime has also markedly improved since. I still like Brenda for the upset.
  • #5 Angelica Barrios vs #12 Manilla. This is an excellent opportunity for Manilla to get back to the pro quarters; of all the top 8 seeds she probably matches up best with the Bolivian. Angelica plays an ultra control game with her abbreviated swing mechanics, while Manilla plays more of a classical power game with athleticism and shot-making. This match will come down to whether or not Manilla grows frustrated with Barrios’ ability to hit little dink winners from all over the court and sticks with a gameplan of overpowering her younger opponent. A winnable match for Erika.
  • #4 Natalia Mendez faces USA’s @Kelani Lawrence. Amazingly, they’ve never met in any competition that PRS tracks, so this is all speculation. Mendez is #4 for a reason, Lawrence has played top-4 players tough tournament after tournament but has yet to get a breakthrough win. It may be tough for her this weekend.
  • #3 Maria Jose Vargas Parada, pushed out of #2 for the first time in months, should cruise past the winner of Perez/MRR to advance to the quarters.
  • #6 Montse Mejia projects to face Sotomayor, which should be interesting because these two have been training together in advance of this event. So they’ll be quite familiar with each other’s game. It will be a too-early departure for one of these top players; both are quarter final or better players on tour right now. This game comes down to Mejia’s mental state; she’s the most gifted natural player on tour (and yes I’m including the #1 player), and has shown the ability to cruise through draws and beat everyone in the world (including Longoria). But she takes weird losses early all the time. I’m going with Sotomayor in the upset again; Vero plays with such steely, controlled emotions on the court; she doesn’t get rattled, she calmly goes through point to point. That can unnerve a more passionate player.
  • #7 @Jessica Parrilla versus #10 Carla Muñoz Montesinos. Tough match here: the last time they played it was 11-10 in the breaker. I’m thinking this goes breaker again, and the Mexican pulls it out, but would not be surprised to see Munoz advance either.
  • – #2 Alexandra Herrera is set to face the junior Meneses, who will get some points here and there, but the solid Herrera will move on.

Projected Qtrs:

  • #1 Longoria over Laime with little trouble. Laime’s game will be neutralized by the methodical Paola, who will run off points in streaks to advance.
  • #4 Mendez stops Manilla’s run in the quarters. It should be spirited, but Mendez is tough to beat before the semis on tour right now. Manilla will need to scheme long and hard with brother Adam Manilla to find a winning game plan.
  • #3 Vargas versus Sotomayor; two more ladies who regularly train with each other. Both play the same game; classical power racquetball. Who can do it better? I like Sotomayor’s mental game here a bit more than Vargas, but if Maria Jose has her game going she’s tough to top. Vargas in a breaker.
  • #2 Herrera over her countrywoman Parrilla. It has been more than 6 years since Jessica was able to top Alexandra, and I don’t see that changing here.
    Semis: I’m predicting chalk to the semis. From there …
  • #1 Longoria over Mendez; Mendez has lost all 7 meetings to Longoria, but has taken games here and there.
  • #3 Vargas tops Herrera. Alexandra got a first win over Vargas in Chicago in November 2021, enough to propel her to #2 on tour, but Vargas is the better player and should advance.

Finals; Longoria over Vargas.

Doubles review
Salas’ last minute withdrawal has made for a new doubles team; Longoria has picked up MRR as her partner and get the #2 seed. It should be interesting to see whether Longoria can carry a new partner along to the title.
From the top of the doubles draw, its hard to see anyone other than the top pairing of Herrera/Mejia advancing. They’ve been regularly playing together for a while now, have a couple of Mexican national titles over the Longoria/Salas team, and are tough to beat.
From the bottom of the draw, can MRR hold her own against these top teams if they double-serve her? We’ll see. The Vargas/Mendez team is tough to beat and I like them for the final.

In the final, Look for Mexico over Argentina.

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!
Also, the venerable JT R Ball is heading to Florida and has been doing promotion of the event for weeks.
Look for Streaming on USA Racquetball’s page, with Leo Vasquez on the mike as always!
Thanks to the Tourney Director @Sudsy Monchik again 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 FB stripped it.
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NRT 2022 Kickoff IRT Tier 4 Re-cap

Manilla was a double winner this weekend. Photo 2019 Us National singles, Photographer Kevin Savory

There was a smaller IRT Tier 4 this past weekend, held in Omaha, Nebraska, who were visited by the Manilla brother/sister crew. Here’s a quick recap of the results.

r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38121

In the IRT Pro division, current #14 ranked Adam Manilla cruised to the singles title without dropping a game. Along the way he vanquished Iowan Alex Midkiff in the quarters, Kansas Lefty Derek Izzi in the semis, and then under-rated Minnesota top amateur @John Goth (who made the US National team in 2012) in the final. Goth had advanced to the final by topping Adam’s sister @Erika Manilla in the quarters and US Junior national team member Andrew Gleason in the semis.

In the Pro Doubles division, #1 seeds Gleason and Kansas’ @John Hudson swept through the 4-team round robin to take the title. Coming in 2nd was the surprise team of Aaron Kurowski and Gabrielle Shnurman.

In the Mixed Doubles division, the Manillas teamed up to win the division topping the Kurowski/Shnurman team in the first place game.

Congrats to Tourney Director Caroline Reitmeyer for bringing some pro racquetball to Nebraska!


We’re entering a bit of a lull in the racquetball calendar; the next major event is not until the 2/20/22 weekend, when the LPRT heads to the Florida coast where host @sudsySudsy Monchik is holding the 2022 Vero Beach Open. Maybe i’ll do a Pro Racquetball Stats Ask Me Anything session on facebook live one night in the next couple of weeks.Racquetball Tournament in Omaha, NE USA. Dates: 1/28/2022 – 1/30/2022.R2SPORTS.COMNRT 2022 Kick Off TournamentRacquetball Tournament in Omaha, NE USA. Dates: 1/28/2022 – 1/30/2022.

Match Tracking Statistical Deep-Dive Into Andree v Kane

Parrilla vs Kane stat breakdown was illuminating. Photo unk

I think we all found the tiebreaker of the International Racquetball Tour 2022 Suivant Consulting Grand Slam final between Kane Waselenchuk and Andree Parrilla pretty compelling racquetball. So, i spent a bit of time doing detailed match tracking to get some statistics of interest. The match itself is at this facebook video link:
https://www.facebook.com/24705156736/videos/247158204232394 and the tiebreaker starts at 51:51 in the video.

I’ve uploaded the match tracker data for just the Tiebreaker here for your perusal: https://docs.google.com/…/1CIWVYxCzCMWRRTtEZTwY1kRGMA…/edit…

Here’s some interesting statistics from the tiebreaker;

Game time: 28minutes, which included 1 tiebreaker and one appeal
Average clock time per rally: 34 seconds (We’ll comeback to this later when we talk about rally scoring what-if scenario)

Total Rallies: 49
– AP Rallies won: 23 of 49
– KW Rallies won: 22 of 49
– Replays: 4 of 49
– Points: 21 of 49
– Side-Outs: 24 of 49

So, no surprise here in an 11-10 game; the number of rallies won was one more for Andree than Kane.

Serving Details:
– AP service attempts: 23
– KW service attempts: 26. Kane had more service attempts b/c of replays more often occurring on his serve.

First Serve Percentage:
– AP: 14 of 23 60.87%
– KW: 13 of 26 50.00%

Neither player really served well, but a 50% first serve percentage by Kane is really bad at the pro level. By way of comparison, when I tracked this data in the one-serve era for Cliff, he made more than 90% of his first serves, all of which were drives.

First Serve direction (Forehand or Backhand)
– AP hit 19/23 first serves to Kane’s forehand, and 9/9 second serves.
– KW Evenly split his first serves; 13 drives to AP’s forehand, 13 to his backhand. All 13 of Kane’s 2nd serves were lobs to AP’s backhand.

Its pretty amazing how much AP picked on Kane’s forehand in this match.

First Serve selection:
– AP hit 10/23 first serves: Hard Z-Serve to Forehand
– AP hit 8/23 first serves: Drive to Forehand
– KW hit exactly 13 Drive to Backhand first serves and 13 Drive to Forehand first serves.

Second serve selection:
– AP hit the exact same 2nd serve the entire match: Nick-Lob to Forehand. 9/9 times
– KW hit the exact same 2nd serve 12 of 13 times: Nick-Lob to Backhand. The one time he didn’t, he tried a lob Z that Andree cut off and killed easily.

Winners and Errors: here’s some fun stuff:
– AP Rally Winners: 12. 6 on the forehand, 6 on the backhand. 5 were passes, 7 were pinches. Pretty even distribution.
– KW Rally Winners: 16. 13 on the forehand, 3 on the backhand. 10 were passes, 6 were pinches.

So, this may just tell us what we already knew from the serving stats, but Kane spent most of his match hitting forehands.

– AP Rally ending Errors: just 3 the entire breaker. all three on the backhand
– KW Rally Ending Errors; 10. 10 skips! 8 on the forehand, 2 on the backhand.

Now I do not have career stats on how many skips Kane averages per game. But i’m pretty sure it isn’t 10.

AP 12/3 ratio of Winners/Errors
KW 16/10 ratio of Winners/Errors

Pretty interesting ratios here. Given these stats, its kind of amazing the game was 11-10.

Average # of shots per rally data (none of these figures include the serve):

Average # of shots per rally , entire game 2.249
Average # shots in AP-won rallys 1.91
Average # of shots in KW-won rallys: 2.89
Average # of shots in replay rallies 3.25
longest Rally of game 7 shots (three times; all three AP serves and KW side-outs)

Miscellaneous Stats
# of Aces in game 4 total: 3 for KW, 1 for AP
# of Dives in game 6 total: 2 for KW, 4 for AP
# of Rollouts in game 12 total: 8 for KW, 4 for AP

Note: my “rollout” stat is an opinion based stat; was the shot a complete rollout/kill shot that would have been a point even if the opponent was standing right there? This is less important in singles than it is in doubles, where oftentimes yes there is an opponent standing there and you really have to roll balls out to get winners. This game featured a ton of “winners” and you could probably argue that many/most were “rollouts” … so maybe in the future I avoid this stat.

Game start in Video 51:51:00
Game end 1:19:00
Game duration 28 mins
Avg time per rally (including Tos) 34 secs

IRF Rally scoring scenario:
Game end if rally 1:03:44
Game duration if rally 12mins 45secs

Lastly, since the IRF is going to Rally scoring, I have a column that tracks the score as if we were using rally scoring. Kane wins this game 15-10 if using rally scoring at a point in the game where the actual score was 6-3. The game would have
been over in 12mins 45seconds.

I’m pretty clearly on record disagreeing with the rally scoring decision by the IRF, and this match is a great example. Why do we need to change the scoring method that’s been in place for more than 50 years so as to neuter a fantastic game and force it into a premature end at 12minutes? What value does that serve?

Anyway, hope you enjoy this analysis.

2022 Suivant Consulting IRT Grand Slam Recap

Parrilla does the impossible, topping Kane in the final for his 2nd ever tier 1 win. Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:
– Pro Singles: Andree Parrilla
– Pro Doubles; Conrrado Moscoso & Roland Keller

Parrilla does the impossible and vanquishes the King, and gets a second career IRT win. Moscoso & Keller edge past a familiar rival team, one they’ve played 6 times in the last 2 years.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38056

——————

Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/F1138C

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In the 64s:
– Mexican Jordy Alonso got a solid win against former IRT touring pro David Horn 14,7.
– Mexican 18U junior @Mauricio Delgadillo had a great pro debut, topping IRT regular Sam Bredenbeck 13,13 to move into the 32s.
– Mexican Rodrigo Rodriguez struggled with Guatemalan veteran @Christian Wer, going to a tiebreaker before moving on (11),10,4.
– Mexican @Jaime Martel had a slow start this week, dropping the first game to Guatemalan Geovani Mendoza before moving on in the breaker (11),6,0.
– Mexican veteran @Abraham Pena played a solid game and dispatched Maryland’s @DyDylan Pruitt 10,4 to move into the main draw.

In the 32s, we saw some interesting results and some upsets.
– In the always-competitive #16/#17, we got a barn burner. #16 @SeSebastian Fernandez was pushed to the very edge, advancing over #17 @AlaAAlan Natera in an 11-10 tiebreaker thriller.
– #8 Rocky Carson and #25 @CharCharlie Pratt Racquetball played a predictable match, each trying to out-think the other and stretching each other to a tie-breaker before Carson prevailed 11-5 to move on.
– #22 Erick Trujillo was the beneficiary of an injury to veteran @AlAlvaro Beltran , who lost the first game 15-1 then retired. Trujillo thus earned the magic ticket to face the King in the next round.
– #6 @Kane Waselenchuk started off his return to the tour with a straightforward 2,3 win over Mexican youngster @Elias Nieto . Kane shook off a bit of rust but was not really threatened by his round of 32 match.
– #7 @CoConrrado Mosco was the unlucky top 8 seed to get the dangerous Martell in this tournament; he advanced but it was pretty close 14,11. This is two IRT events in a row for Martell, who as a full time player on tour probably gets into the teens relatively quickly; we’ll see if he sticks to the tour full time in 2022.
– In the always-close #15/#18 slot, @ThThomas Carter got a solid win over Bolivian @Kadim Carrasco 11-8 in the breaker to force a meeting with Landa.

—————-
In the 16s, we started to see some major developments in this tournament, as the challenges and part-timers were mostly vanquished and the veterans started to meet up.

– #1 Daniel de la Rosa was set for his expected stiff challenge from Patata, having faced him in the 16s in the last two events as well. But eight points in, Fernandez retired due to injury. Fernandez had tweaked his back in the round of 32 win, played about 5 minutes into his round of 16 and called it off. An unfortunate development for Sebastian, but DLR moves on with little fanfare.
– In the #8/#9, a battle of two team USA players turned into a close encounter, eventually won by the veteran Carson, who took out #9 Jake Bredenbeck 14,11 to setup a rematch against long-time rival DLR in the quarters.
– #5 Eduardo Portillo ‘s day came to a quick halt; at 1-4 in the first game he was also forced to retire due an unspecified injury against Sebastian Franco . Franco was definitely the underdog to Portillo here, who has been on a run and was a favorite to make the semis in this event. This definitely opens up the top half of the draw for all parties.
-#4 Andree Parrilla frustrated #13 @AAndres Acuña on the court and grinded his way to an 5,12 win Parrilla used an effective Z serve most of the match, which Acuna struggled to attack, often attempting to jump the Z-serve but then jamming himself and making for easy points for the Mexican. Parrilla moves on.
– #14 Rodrigo Montoya got his best win on tour in nearly two years by taking out #3 @Samuel Murray in a tiebreaker (12),9,6. Montoya may have World titles and Pan Am gold medals on his resume, but his pro results have been inconsistent. But this is a great win for the young Mexican, and one of his best ever wins on tour. Murray won this event last year but exits early. Murray eventually forfeited his doubles match later in the evening, with some implying he picked up an unspecified injury in this match that helped him to the door, so its an early exit all around. For the neutrals, we now get a Montoya-Kane match that could have some fireworks.
– Whatever rust there was on Kane’s game in the round of 32 was completely gone by his round of 16, as he obliterated Mexican junior phenom @Erick Trujillo 1,1. Kane’s serving was crisp, as was his shot making. There was the familiar booming sound of his kill shots, and the excellent shotmaking from the back court. Look out; he’s back and he doesn’t seem like he’s lost a step.
– #7 Moscoso advanced past a potentially tricky @Mario Mercado 8,13. Mercado has been playing really great ball lately, with a ton of “upsets” on his resume leading up to his first tier 1 win last November in Arizona. So far, the sometimes mercurial Moscoso has held serve and not taken the surprise loss; he now gets a shot at #2 Landa to move on.
– #2 Landa moved past #15 Carter with relative ease 8,12 to setup what projects to be a challenging quarter final for the Mexican.

—————-
In the Quarters…

– #1 DLR cruised past his long-time rival Rocky 8,8 to move into the semis. This was the 30th time they’ve met professionally, with DLR having taken their last three meetings
– #4 Parrilla held serve against the surprise quarterfinalist Franco 10,11 to quietly move into the semis. Parrilla has two solid wins on his belt and has yet to really be troubled, and now gets a shot at #1 DLR in the semis.
– #6 Waselenchuk played a fireworks-filled match against fellow power-player Rodrigo Montoya , who hung with him for most of the first game and was ahead 9-6 before Kane characteristically “turned it on” and ran away with the game and the match. From 6-9 down Kane scored 24 of the next 28 points to win 15-9, 15-4. Early in game one, Montoya’s serve and power seemed to nettle Kane, who gave up points here and there, but he played himself into more consistent power form by the middle of game one and completely ran away with game two. Montoya could do little to stem the flow of points from Kane, and was in danger of taking a twinkie before netting a few points at the end. For any who think Kane’s lost a step or a tick off his fastball, this match showed he can still out power one of the best power players on tour.
– #2 Landa outclassed #7 Moscoso 9,6 in a match that wasn’t as close as the score suggests. Moscoso spent most of the match taking ill-advised shots and giving away points left and right on lob serves and defensive returns from Landa. He essentially gave up mid-way through game two and just went through the motions to even get it to 15-6. It was a real disappointment, in that I legitimately thought the Bolivian would be “up” for the challenge and the thought of a Kane matchup in the semis.

—————
– #6 Kane absolutely demolished #2 Landa 1,5 in a match that barely took 30 minutes end to end. Landa had zero answers for Kane early, as he ran out to an 8-0 lead with little effort in game one. I texted a colleague and literally said at that point, “double donut is in play.” Landa’s mobility looked lacking, perhaps another remnant of months-long issues with his back bothering him, combined with Kane’s lethal attacks made for a quick game one. Kane began lob serving at some point, easing off as it became apparent he was going to be able to win this contest without exerting max effort.
– #4 Parrilla came from a game down to shock the #1 player DLR 11-7 in the breaker. The game was played in spurts, as Parrilla ran out to a quick game one lead only to have DLR run off 10 straight points to take it. In game two, Parrilla ran out to an insurmountable 11-2 lead, but DLR pulled way back and for a short moment looked as if he could take the match in two. A couple of arguable points ended game two with some argument, and there was a tense feeling between the players (and with the referee) the rest of the way. The Tiebreaker was excellent, back and forth action up till around 9-7, when a very light hinder claim went uncalled for DLR and he literally stopped playing in the middle of the point. This immature action was more reminiscent of a C player, not the #1 player in the world, and he lost that point and eventually the match 11-7 in the breaker. Thus Parrilla advances to just his fourth career pro final (in 55 career Tier 1 events) and gets the top half’s shot at the King.

In the Finals, a pretty amazing match. Many thought we’d see a continuation of the steamrolling Kane has done through this draw. But Andree has a history of playing Kane tight and had something to say about the flow of the game. It was neck and neck for the entire first game, and Parrilla had first crack at a game point when he inexplicably held up on a very borderline avoidable claim, which seemed to get into his head and cost him game one 15-14. Instead of letting that call get to him and losing focus mentally, Andree hunkered down and gave Kane a beat-down like he hasn’t seen since the early 2000s, taking game two 15-2.

In the breaker, Kane took control and it looked like game two was just an aberration, jumping ahead 7-3. Parrilla fought back though, and lessened the gap. Parrilla was using a Z-serve with great effect, getting service winners and uncharacteristic weak returns. Meanwhile, Kane’s first serve percentage plummeted in the breaker, and Parrilla made a ton of shots. For me, this was all evidence of a gassed Waselenchuk just trying to get to the finish line. Despite his fatigue, Kane worked his way to match point at 10-7 for, but Parrilla calmly waited out a ball off the back wall and buried the return. From there, Andre never left the box again, serving out the match and scoring 4 straight in a flash to take the title 11-10. One of the best matches we’ve seen on tour in quite a while ended with a possibly transformative result for the tour.

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Points Implications of results

Assuming that the tour continues to expire points on the same cadence as before, this event should replace the two Jan 2020 events in Austin and Sioux Falls in the rolling calendar. Parrilla should thus move from #4 to #2 on tour, as he’s replacing two round of 16 losses in early 2020 with a massive 600-point grand slam win. The rest of the top 10 remains the same, just pushed down one slot (meaning Kane still sits at #6).

Other interesting moves:
– Beltran drops from #11 to #13 and he seemingly gets closer to possible singles retirement.
– Acuna rises from #16 to #14, which continues to put himself in place to face winnable round of 16s.
– Carrasco enters the top 20.
– Trujillo makes a big jump up to #23; he’ll be closing in on a 9-16 protected seed soon.
– Martell makes a big jump up as well with this and last week’s results: I’ve got him projected as #33 now; lets hope he continues to feature on tour.
– Rodrigo Rodriguez jumps from the 50s to the mid 30s.
– Jordy Alonso jumps from the mid 70s to the mid 40s.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: http://rball.pro/3C740A

In the 16s:
Injuries suffered by players playing singles earlier in the day Friday led to the withdrawing of two top teams and the hampering of two more, gutting the Pro doubles draw of some of its favorites but keeping in tact some stellar matchups. The #2 seeds Murray/Landa and #5 Portillo/Carson withdrew before playing, giving first round wins to Alonso/Rodriguez and @juaJuan Jose Salvatierra and @Javier Martinez respectively. Fernandez, who dropped out of his singles match with an injury, recovered enough to gut out a win with Parrilla in his opener. Beltran, who withdrew from singles after a heavy first round loss, came back to participate in an easy first round win as the #1 seed. The biggest upset went to the #9 team of Acuna/Natera, who took out the Bredenbeck brothers in a tiebreaker.

In the quarters:
– #1 DLR/Beltran held off the upstart Acuna/Natera team in the first, then cruised to a 14,6 win.
– #4 Moscoso and doubles specialist Roland Keller blasted the Guatemalan pair of Salvatierra & Martinez 5,8.
– #3 Montoya and @Javier Mar faced tough opposition from the Bolivian pairing of Mercado & Carrasco, advancing in two closely fought games 11,12.
– #7 Parrilla/Fernandez shook off ailments and took advantage of the #2 seeds withdrawal to advance to the semis over the young Mexicans Alonso & Rodriguez 12,6.

Doubles Semis:
– The reigning Bolivian national champs upset the #1 seeds DLR/Beltran 11-7 in a breaker to move into the final.
– Montoya & Mar cruised past #7 Parrilla/Patata to setup an excellent final.

In the final, we get a fun matchup. This is the sixth time these teams have met since mid 2019; they met at 2019 PARC, the finals of the 2019 Pan Am Games, the 2019 US Open, the 2021 World Doubles in Denver, and most recently in the finals of 2021 Worlds in Guatemala. Ahead of this match, they’re split 3-2 in favor of the Mexicans.

And on the court, we got a treat. The Bolivians evened the recent score of results by taking a two game match 14 and 14. In both games, the Mexican pair got to 14 first and served for the game, but in both cases the Bolivians saved game point against, got back in the box, and served it out. Great showing by both teams.

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Other Draws

In the 25-man Men’s Open Singles, the quarters went essentially chalk (with just small upsets at the 8/9 and 7/10). From there, the semis were nearly chalk as well, with #1 Mercado topping #9 Cuevas, #5 Trujillo upsetting #4 Natera, #3 Martell cruising past #6 @Sam Bredenbeck , and #2 Acuna defeating local Georgian Austin Cunningham
In the semis, it was #1 and #2 prevailing; Mercado took a 14,14 win over the up and coming Trujillo, while Acuna labored to get past the always-tough Martell. In the Open singles final, Mercado grinded his way to an 11-7 breaker win over Acuna.

The men’s Open Doubles also went chalk to the semis, where the reigning world champion team of Montoya/Mar (the #3 seeds in the pro doubles draw) destroyed the #4 seeds Cunningham/Pruitt to make the final. From the bottom side, double specialist @Roland Keller teamed with Carrasco to top the all-American Pratt/@Robbie Collins pairing. Mar/Montoya got a walkover win in the final.

In the 3-team Mixed Open draw, Carrasco teamed with @Kelani Bailey to defeat her fellow team-USA teammate @Hollie Scott (playing with Sebastian Fernandez) 11-8 in their RR group final to take the crown.

In the 6-player Women’s Open, the two LPRT touring players Lawrence and Scott each topped their small RR group to advance to a winner-take-all final. There, Lawrence continued her recent dominance over Scott, winning in two 9,9

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

Thanks again to the Tourney Directors Rob Lyons and @Chad Bailey for putting this event on! Thanks for all the sponsors as well; without you we have no pro racquetball.

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…/

There’s a Tier 5 in Nebraska that is drawing a bunch of top players from the mid-west. The 53rd annual Florida State Singles is being held in Sarasota, always a solid event featuring a bunch of top players. Kane & Sudsy are hosting another iteration of their Experience, this time in Vero Beach, Florida. The next pro event is in mid Feb when Sudsy also serves as a pro tour host, having the LPRT come visit his new home town in Vero Beach.

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tags

Associations
International Racquetball Tour

Countries
@USAUSA Racquetball
@RaRacquetball Canada
@FedeFederación Mexicana de Raquetbol
@Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora
@FedeFederación Boliviana de Racquetball
@RaRacquetball Colombia
@FedeFederacion Colombiana de Racquetball
Federación Costarricense de Racquetball
@ASOCIACION DE RAQUETBOL DE GUATEMALA

Major Sponsors
@Reaching Your Dream Foundation
@BeastmBeastmade
@Suivant CSuivant @WWilliams Accounting / @DonDonald Williams
@ZurZurek Construction, LLC / @Francisco Fajardo
Francisco Fajardo Francisco Fajardo

Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

IRT Suivant Consulting Grand Slam preview

Kane has re-appeared; will he make a run to the podium? Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

The IRT returns to Atlanta for its first big tourney of the new season, and its a Grand Slam thanks to the continued patronage of Donald Williams and his firm @Suivant Consulting .

Its time for the 2022 Suivant Consulting Grand Slam.

In the early days of the sport, Atlanta was a frequent host on the men’s pro tour, hosting a Catalina event in 1980 and then hosting the DP/Leach Nationals in 1983 and 1984. The city returned to hosting in the mid 1990s, being the main host of the VCI named events. But then there was a hosting gap from 1997 to 2015, when pro racquetball returned to the city and has been an continued presence ever since. Recreation ATL is the host club in Lilburn, a north-east suburb of Atlanta proper, host to a very active racquetball community that hosts tournaments all year long.

This year’s tournament, as is now well known to the racquetball community, marks the return of 14-time Pro tour champion Kane Waselenchuk to the court. Kane’s been an infrequent presence on tour ever since Covid shut things down in March 2020; he’s played in just two of the six IRT tier 1 events hosted since, and only played singles in last year’s US Open. Despite not having taken an on the court loss since April 2019 (when he was hampered by a hand injury), he has slid to #6 on tour based on points and faces an interesting gauntlet of matches to get to a prospective final.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=38056

There’s a big draw for this event: 46 pros are entered, making for an excellent and deep tournament. Despite it being a grand slam, we are missing a couple of the more regular IRT touring pros at this event: #12 Carlos Keller Vargas , #14 @Adam Manilla, #15 Eduardo Garay , and #20 @Javier Mar are missing out of the singles draw. Mar is at the event, but only playing doubles (he did the same at the US Open, an interesting trend for a player who I still rate as one of the top players in the world).

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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that I’m looking forward to. Because this is a grand slam, the main draw starts in the 32s so there’s just one qualifying round on Thursday; the round of 64.

– #32/#33 NY up-and-coming junior @Josh Shea gets an interesting matchup against IRF veteran Guatemalan @Javier Martinez. Martinez has shown himself to be a tough opponent, taking top-20 IRT pros to breakers on tour recently. Shea had a great showing in his first IRT event last November, taking out Canadian team member @Pedro Castro before falling 11-9 to @Sam Bredenbeck . I like Shea to take the next step and make the main draw here.
– #21 @Erick Cuevas versus #44 @Alejandro Bear: two Mexicans facing off; Bear is relatively new to the scene while Cuevas has been a tour regular for some time. Can the newcomer force the issue against Cuevas?
– #28 @Bobby Horn vs #29 @Jordy Alonso: perhaps the best match of the round, you have a former top 10 player in Horn who has stepped back a bit in the past two years versus a player in Alonso who is not a frequent IRT player, but who has a number of big wins on the old WRT and took Keller to an 11-8 breaker loss in his last IRT appearance. I’m looking forward to this match.
– #29 Atlanta native @Austin Cunningham has an interesting match-up against Argentine veteran #36 @Shai Manzuri. I’d expect the younger player to outlast Shai, who has been playing for Argentina at IRF events since 1998, but there’s a reason Manzuri continues to be selected to represent his home country.
– Look for #35 @Rodrigo Rodriguez to upset #30 Guatemalan vet @Christian Wer in the opener; the lefty Rodriguez has splashed onto the scene lately with big wins.
– One more fun matchup for Thursday is #31 @Dylan Pruitt versus #34 @Abraham Pena. Pruitt is a frequent tour player, having just matriculated out of US Juniors, while Pena is a veteran Mexican player of the previous generation, representing Mexico at IRF events in the mid 2000s before the likes of De la Rosa and Beltran started taking all the Team Mexico slots. Pena plays an athletic, powerful game but Pruitt is excellent at playing controlled racquetball on the court, making for a great contrast in styles.

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Projecting the 32s: here’s some possible matchups, though the depth of this draw could make for some upsets and make these predictions moot:

– #16/#17: once again Patata gets stuck into the #16/#17 match. This time, @Sebastian Fernandez takes on @Alan Natera Chavez at this juncture. I like Fernandez here; he topped Natera at the same juncture last November in Arizona.
– #9 @Rocky Carson projects to play his USA teammate and frequent doubles partner @Charlie Pratt in the 32s. Pratt has shown he can take out Rocky in the past, but I sense Rocky is the favorite here.
– #5 @Lalo Portillo projects to play the winner of Horn/Alonso. That should be a great round of 32 irrespective of the 64-winner.
– #3 @Samuel Murray projects to play the lefty Rodriguez in his opener. Rodriguez will score points here; probably not enough to win, but enough to press Big Canada.
– #11 @Alvaro Beltran projects to play his young countrymate @Erick Trujillo in the 32s. Probably not the player Beltran wanted to see; Trujillo already has significant wins over solid IRT players and just finished blowing through world juniors. Upset watch here.
– #26 Jaime Martell faces a stiff challenge, going up against the winner of last November’s Sarasota IRT event in #7 @Conrrado Moscoso. Martell pushed DLR in last week’s Wintergreen and should hang with Moscoso but I sense the Bolivian has too much firepower here.
– #15/#18 @Thomas Carter versus @Kadim Carrasco; these two met at this exact juncture in this event one year ago, a slim 11-8 win for Carter. This match will come down to form; who is sharper? They’re evenly matched and i give Carter the slight edge.

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Round of 16 predictions
– #1 @Daniel De La Rosa is set to face Fernandez for the third straight tournament at this juncture. Look for a close match as Patata uses his athleticism to stay in the game, but for DLR to pull away in two games.
– #9 @Jake Bredenbeck is set to face Carson in another all-USA team matchup. Ironic that three of our team members are all in the same mini-quadrant here. I like Jake here in the mini upset.
– #5 Portillo over #12 @Sebastian Franco, who he’s topped a couple times lately and shouldn’t trouble him too much. Franco is recovered from surgery and didn’t show much in the way of wear last weekend at Wintergreen.
– #4 @Andree Parrilla versus #13 @Andres Acuna. After months of work getting out of the dreaded “16-seed hole,” Acuna looks to build on his win over Landa in the last IRT event and his run to the final of Worlds against Parrilla. These two players are similar in age and have been meeting in World Juniors for years, but their pro experiences against each other are limited. Andree crushed Acuna at this event last year, but Acuna topped Parrilla in Sept 2019 to advance to his first ever pro quarter. Acuna has improved mightily in the last year; upset watch here for me.
– #3 Murray vs #14 @Rodrigo Montoya : a very interesting matchup here; Montoya continues to be an enigma to predict; he has stellar wins but curious losses all throughout his resume. He absolutely has the ability to out-power Murray (he topped Sam in the 2019 Pan Am Games en route to the gold medal), but will he? Will the winner of this match be the one doing the least amount of bracket watching? On paper, the prediction is Murray, but upset watch here.
– #6 Kane Waselenchuk is set to face the winner of Beltran and Trujillo. If its Beltran, it makes for an interesting matchup between the top player in the world and a guy who is not afraid of him at all. Beltran has always shown the ability to hang with Kane with his excellent shot making abilities, but Kane might be a man on a mission this weekend.
– #7 Moscoso takes on #10 @Mario Mercado , a player who will play Conrrado tough. Last time they met it was a two game win for Moscoso, but he was made to work for it. Mercado has been playing great ball lately, got a win over Lalo in Maryland last weekend and really pushed the #1 player in the final, and could surprise Moscoso if he’s not focused.
– #2 Landa should outclass either of Carrasco or Carter advancing to move on.

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Projected Qtrs: There’s a lot of what-ifs in this draw, so take these projections with a grain of salt.

– #1 DLR over #9 Jake: it was 11-10 to DLR the last time they met in Sarasota last fall; it probably will be close again, but DLR wants a matchup with Kane.
– #5 Lalo over #4 Parrilla: another quarters rematch from Sarasota, where Portillo easily handled Parrilla and I predict it happens again.
– #6 Waselenchuk over #3 Murray: Canada on Canada crime; Kane moves on here.
– #7 Moscoso over #2 Landa: I’m not sure Landa is recovered enough from his back ailments from last fall to hang with the younger, more powerful Moscoso here.

Semis:
– #1 DLR over #5 Portillo; yes Lalo beat DLR 11-10 in Sarasota; i don’t think DLR is coasting through this event.
– #6 Kane over #7 Moscoso; well, if you asked me which matchups i’d most like to see on tour, this is a close #2 to the final we’re likely to see. They’ve only met four times, but neutrals were really treated to some fun top level shot making each time. This was the 2019 US Open final, and gave us a scintillating game one between these two players. Lets hope for another barn burner.

Finals; if all goes well, we will see the match everyone wants to see. The current #1 DLR versus the presumed #1 Kane, irrespective of his current ranking. The big questions for this match:
– we’ve watched DLR really mature over the past year, playing lots of controlled, smart racquetball on the court, beating all comers. Can he maintain his poise against the relentless power and pressure of Kane?
– how rusty is Kane? He’s played exactly three pro singles matches since March of 2020. In that time he’s gone from age 38 to 40 and has been contemplating his future in the sport. But, when he comes to a tournament, he comes to win.

Prediction: Kane over DLR 12,10

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Doubles review

The doubles draw looks awesome: #1 DLR/Beltran and their heirs-apparent in Mexico #3 Montoya/Mar are my favorites to advance to the final. however, the top half features two tough teams in #4 Keller/Moscoso and #5 Lalo/Carson that will make for a fun semi. From the bottom half, Fernandez and Parrilla make for an interesting pairing, and of course the #2 seeds Murray/Landa will have something to say about my prediction.

Finals prediction: Montoya/Mar over DLR/Beltran.

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Look for streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Dean Baer , @Favio Soto, @Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Chad Bailey and @Rob Lyons 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 FB stripped it.

Associations
International Racquetball Tour

Countries
@USA RacqueTeam USA
@RaRacquetball Canada
@FedeFederación Mexicana de Raquetbol
@Federación Boliviana De Raquetbol – Febora
@FedeFederación Boliviana de Racquetball
@Racquetball Colombia
Federacion Colombiana de Racquetball
Federación Costarricense de Racquetball
@AsAsociación Argentina de Racquetball
ASOCIACION DE RAQUETBOL DE GUATEMALA

Major Sponsors
@Reaching Your Dream Foundation
@BeastmBeastmade
@suivant consulting and @Williams accounting

Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor