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2025: The Year in Review for the IRT and the Men’s Pro Game

Happy New Year from Pro Racquetball Stats and Todd Boss. It ahs been a tumultuous year for the Men’s Pro tour and the sport in general. Here’s a quick run through the seminal events to this observer of the 2025 year, along with some commentary/Retrospective after the fact.

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– 1/21/25: The World Team Racquetball concept debuted at the 2024 3WB event is officially pulled underneath the IRT umbrella, with the blessing of Mike

Coulter. Mike Kinkin will become the president of the WTR. The group plans WTR events at each of the three outdoor majors in addition to other 2025 spots.

In retrospect, this announcement didn’t have the impact we thought it might at the time. WTR did run an event at the 2025 Warhawk Open, but it was mostly Amateur teams (albeit with fantastic names). That event was overshadowed by fixture congestion that badly impacted the attendance of both the Warhawk Open and the Beach Bash outdoor major, which led to bruised egos amongst the various event directors involved. This problem, coincidentally, returns again in 2026, as the two events will conflict again and will overlap with the first weekend of the Pan Am games. We just have to figure out how to stop this from happening year after year.

– 1/21/25: the new IRT commissioner Dave Negrete wants to revert back to some of the tour rules that were the norm during his time. Most notably, he wants

to return to protected top 8 seeds into the round of 16 and to go back to a fall-to-spring multi-year season. This may end up meaning that the 2025 “season”

is just six months long, comprising just those events that are held between the beginning of the year and the August World Singles and Doubles event.

In retrospect, we have not seen the “top 8 get byes into the 16s” but we have seen the conversion of the schedule to a fall-to-spring. Instead of giving a 2025 half-season champ, they decided to have a super-sized 18-month season to determine the 2025-26 champion this coming June.

– 2/28/25: Dan Jaskier, owner and President of the Glass Door Swim & Fitness club in Lombard, Illinois, announces that the club is closing after 48 years.

The 3/16/25 tournament will be the last major pro stop at the club, ending a decades-long association with both pro tours.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/208962609136484/permalink/10076808775685102

Update: there was a Nov 2025 post on the Glassdoor Facebook page intimating that the club was possibly re-opening. I have no idea if they’ve remodeled the inside, who’s involved, or if there’s the possibility of the return of the Geoff Peters legacy event that was one of the most popular stops on tour. IRT commissioner Negrete lives in the Chicago area, so i’m sure he’s on top of it.

-3/6/25: The IRT introduces the “IRT Club,” a monthly subscription service that gives access to a 2nd stream plus other benefits. https://irttour.com/irt-club/

Notes: this is one of the new ideas from the new IRT ownership group, and is spearheaded by Adam Manilla. They offer fantasy racquetball and a new podcast series hosted by yours truly alongside Brian Pineda. It’s $15/month and also gives access to alternate streaming at IRT events.

– 3/21/25: Months after Swain’s 10/4/24 announcement, the USAR officially announces the 2026 US Open return in June to Missouri State University.

https://www.usaracquetball.com/news/2025/march/21/US-OPEN-Racquetball-Championships-To-Return-in-2026

Notes: in the months since, we’ve seen a couple of updates from the organizers, and all organizations are working as if this event is happening. So, make plans to visit Missouri in June 2026.

– 3/23/25: Cliff Swain and Jeff Collins release a new video on the US Open. They’ve confirmed dates (June 10-14th 2026). Details include:

– Portable court is to be used, will be at the Springfield Expo center

– 12 courts at Missouri state University

– all within 5mins of each other; hotel, university, showcourt

– Richard Eisemann onboard as tourney coordinator, Tillbury hospitality/vip liaisons.

– Straight draw; no qualifiers in pros

– going to old-school scoring 3/5 to 11

– Dedicated referee staff on showcase on court; 5 officials planned

– winners ref on amateur side.

– Looking to raise $300k. Gives breakdown of what that revenue goes for: $40k IRT, $40k LPRT purses, $80k court, $50k facility rental

US Open 2026 – New Information Released March 22, 2025

Notes: the transparency and advance planning is refreshing. Putting out these numbers in plain sight for those who have consistently questioned why the portable court isn’t constantly in use should resolve criticism of event planners. It costs a ton to transport, install, configure, tear-down, store, and insure the court.

– 4/18/25: Mike Coulter of 3WB publicly announces that the 3WallBall in Las Vegas has to be “paused” in 2025 due to the drastic rise in costs that the economy has seen in the early parts of 2025. They’re looking for a site in Southern California to host the 2025 version of the event on courts that can be rented, not built.

https://www.facebook.com/3WallBall/posts/pfbid02mdHC24G9neVP32zSt5zpp8yzxbvp1ZLwB8tBNLsL7CGE9VMFoESpm78EbmxczdyPl

Retrospect: the writing was on the wall for this announcement for a while; costs and inflation have crushed the country, attendance has dwindled at 3WB for a bit, and it stopped being a viable tournament for Coulter to host. My big worry with something like this is, once Mike loses the spot on the schedule with the hotel, it’s going to be doubly difficult to ever get it back. I hope we haven’t seen the last of 3WB in Vegas, but don’t have high hopes.

– 5/3/25: #5 Alan Natera has a knee operation. Per Natera, he had knee arthroscopy, ACL, and meniscus reconstruction. He had been playing with pain for months and it was time to do it before it got worse. No word on recovery time or how long he’ll be out, but the next scheduled event isn’t until September. Update: Alan plays in the early September 2025 World Singles & Doubles.

This injury/surgery was well timed for Natera, who didn’t miss a ton of events and still is maintaining his top 10 status. He’s taken some tough losses as he’s stuck in the 8/9 seed spot right now, part of which may still be due to him testing out the knee. I’ve had multiple knee operations, and in one case it took me two years to return to the court.

– 5/8/25: Mike Coulter/3WB announces that 2025’s Outdoor Nationals will join forces with 3WB for 2025.

https://www.facebook.com/3WallBall/posts/pfbid0jKqYSy9SREynx8jDgkndwmEaQ1WMx3fXADvMhZVnxs7KRfKF4Xzxccy8Ve32uq64l

This collaboration made sense, as 3WB was already heavily involved in Beach Bash and it can only help with sponsors and splitting the workload.

– 6/3/25: Jeff Collins, Cliff Swain, and others hold a press conference in Springfield, MO to discuss the 2026 US Open.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/springfield-will-host-us-open-racquetball-championships-in-2026/ar-AA1GsOgZ?ocid=BingNewsVerp

– 6/23/25: Pan Am Games organizers officially release the 2027 slate of sports, and Racquetball has been cut.

Panam Sports define 36 deportes para Lima 2027

Commentary: for a few weeks this looked like a dagger for the sport’s reputation … but read on for an update in early August.

– 8/7/25: IRT releases its fall/spring slate of events and its massive: there’s nearly 20 full stops and satellites planned, a return to Mexico, and a return to a number of old stops that have lost their sponsors over the years. Great news.

https://www.facebook.com/racquetballtour/posts/pfbid02mjnYZapeydi4j4nua5iFpGXxmywF4uM6dsvGAiik8HyWARDjn4fU5cxbNaV4JbvBl

In the months since, the slate has been pared a bit, but there’s still been a ton of IRT-350 satellite events held and the Tier 1 slate is bigger and better than it has been in years. The new ownership group is having a major impact on the tour.

– 8/7/25: Racquetball gets back into the 2027 Pan Am Games! Despite not being included in the original slate of games IRF President Osvaldo Maggi had been working with Pan Am behind the scenes and secured a return of the sport today.

BOWLING AND RACQUETBALL ENTER THE LIMA 2027 SPORTS PROGRAM

Commentary: initially, the loss of racquetball from the Pan Am games had been predicted for years by insiders, and it would have been a real disappointment for the sport. Peru took over as host from Colombia , and when Lima hosted these same games in 2019 they had Racquetball … but for some reason chose to initially eliminate it this time around. All due credit to Maggi for politicking behind the scenes and making this happen.

This is one of those seminal events that has outsized impact; if we’re out of the Pan Am Games, we as a sport may lose accreditation with our own USOPC, which cuts funding and reduces our legitimacy as a sport. I think we’re well past any pursuit of getting into the Olympics at this point in the sport’s history (and, lets be honest, when the sport was ignored for the 1984 Olympics in LA, and again in 1996 in Atlanta … both big-time racquetball towns and at the absolute height of our sport’s popularity and participation, we should have realized there was never a shot), but the Pan Am games still remained the highest honor we had internationally, and we hold onto participation for one more cycle.

– 8/8/25: Bobby Horn, who attempted a comeback last season, undergoes shoulder surgery

https://www.facebook.com/david.horn.792/posts/pfbid0qBRa6zJ8zM17Sbhb89oyUT7uSwTPGwkbzBeYpNcRd8bajJj7d73pMZUkg3SxHq7Tl

You hate to see these long-term injuries, which rob players of months at a time.

– 9/2/25: New president Dave Negrete releases an “Update” on the new season, naming the new official IRT staff.

Keith Minor – Owner

Dave Negrete – President

Adam Manilla – Vice President

Pablo Fajre – Director of Media and Commissioner

Jared Harding – Chief Marketing Officer (Fractional)

plus key sponsors:

KWM Gutterman

Black and White Energy Drink

Frank Hotels

PapaNicholas Coffee

Gearbox Sports

My Pillow

Update on the 2025-26 IRT Season

Note: Negrete’s re-involvement brings back a ton of connections he maintained from 20 years ago, and the group is adding new major sponsors like the Black & White and Frank Hotels.

– 10/21/25: Pro Kennex announces that they’re reuniting with long-time PK player Kane Waselenchuk.

https://www.facebook.com/ProkennexNorthAmerica/posts/pfbid0c86LgpyfW5fACNtA4dyG5YDaBRoVL4DUomb1LcYCS4FxPNWrZbjdKA3qp1oRJj8Zl

Notes: The two parted ways in Sept 2021 when a Pandemic-

afflicted company and Waselenchuk couldn’t come to an agreement on outstanding payments as the tours cancelled events for nearly a year. It bad at the time, but the two sides buried the hatchet and are working together again. Kane was reportedly using a blacked-out Gearbox to compete and now gets his trusty old sticks back.

– 10/29/25: 3-time champ Daniel De la Rosa reportedly has his PPA contract terminated for lack of performance. Will he return to Racquetball?

Notes: this was an ill-kept secret in the pickleball world, but as of this writing we haven’t seen DLR return to any known racquetball stuff. And, in the most recent post on his page he had a ton of hashtags for MLP, so maybe DLR has negotiated his way back to a pay as you go contract with the PPA instead of the salary based one. Either way, he hasn’t played a pro event since Jan 2024, but is the reigning US National singles champion. Will DLR defend his title? Well, there is a PPA event the same weekend as USAR Nationals, so he’d have to skip it … but if he’s not under contract it won’t matter. We’ll see what happens.

– 12/7/25: Erick Trujillo has missed every event for the past 6 months; is he officially stepping back? He’s now a 5.5 DUPR rated pickleball competitive player; could he be making a push towards pro pickleball instead?

comments: Trujillo’s DUPR rating is on the rise, but I don’t see him traveling to any US-based events thus far. It’s also possible that he’s made the very rational decision that losing in the 16s at IRT events isn’t worth the money it takes to get there.

– 12/20/25: Mike Kinkin is named the President of FormulaFlow Racquetball. He joins forces with Mauricio Zelada’s budding racquet manufacturer

https://formulaflow.com/blogs/news/mike-kinkin-president-of-formulaflow-north-america

Notes: this is an interesting move; FormulaFlow is now one of 3-4 remaining manufacturers in the space. I haven’t had a chance to catch up with Kinkin about the move or what they plan, but it is good to see a brand pushing further into the sport rather than walking away from it.

– 12/29/25: IRT announces that the new ball of the tour is the Formula Flow Blue. This replaces the thicker, slower Gearbox ball.

Notes: no word yet on how the FF ball plays; is it faster, slower, thicker, bouncier? No idea.

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Phew; that’s it. Did I miss any major events worth noting?

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LPRT 33rd Annual Xmas Classic Recap

Vargas wins again Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Maria Jose Vargas

– Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alexandra Herrera

TL/DR Executive Summary: Vargas extends her lead atop the LPRT rankings with a solid win in singles, while the world’s top doubles team wins another.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=51202

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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/3f08be

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In the 32s, just a handful of matches as just 19 ladies entered this event. The tour was definitely missing some of its younger competitors, away at Junior Worlds, but the tour is also missing several touring regulars from the recent years past who seem to have either stepped away due to injury or priorities.

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In the 16s:

– In the 8/9, Lotts pressed Centellas but fell.

– Laime crushed Munoz 2,5 in the 6/11 matchup

– Herrera held on against veteran Parrilla, winning 9,12

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In the Quarters

– The big s hock was Mendez taking out Gaby Martinez 13,11; that’s a solid win for Mendez.

– Vargas was pressed by her Argentine teammate Centellas but won 11,11

– Mejia had to go breaker to beat her doubles partner Herrera.

– Longoria cruised past Laime 1,6, perhaps looking to make a statement against a player who’s beaten her in the past.

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In the Semis

– Vargas took out Mendez , but not before dropping the first game 15-2 in a crazy scoreline.

– Longoria got some revenge against Mejia from the last event, winning 7,9.

In the Finals, Vargas won with relative ease 6,12 to claim her 14th career LPRT title. She’s now in 10th place all time.

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Points Implications of results

Despite making the finals over Mejia, Montse leapfrogged Paola for #2 on tour for the time being, as points expiration from last year conspired against the GOAT. No other major movement in the top 10 other than Kelani Lawrence continuing to fall; she’s apparently quiet retired.

Here’s a link to my LPRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.

women

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16o0aE4YophvlQdezlMVj_dqPRUoDQqwE5-LtsLbOncg/edit?usp=sharing

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/38e8b2

Mejia and Herrera held serve against Manilla &* Longoria in the opener and then went on to win it, to claim their 15th pro doubles title together.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Lotts beat Sanchez for the Women’s Open RR title.

– Ohio’s Victor Migliore took the Men’s Open singles title.

– The Open Doubles was taken by two Maryland locals Ben Bleyer / Christopher Ruano

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

We have World Juniors going on as we speak; we’ll cover the knockouts and the results next week. Then that’s a wrap for 2025.

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IRT 2025 SoCal Open Recap

A double for Moscoso, and a win over kane. Photo unk from Bolivian IRIS

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: @Conrrado Moscoso

– Doubles: Moscoso & @Kadim Carrasco

TL/DR Executive summary: Moscoso gets a big win over King Kane, then finishes off the event for his 11th career singles title, then gets the upset win over top seeds Montoya/Mar for the double in Fullerton.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=50749

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Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/8322db

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In the 32s, no real upsets. We had a couple closer games from Gatica and Bear, but otherwise the seeds held.

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In the 16s, a couple of notable results:

– #9 Portillo topped #8 Natera in two closer games; not an upset for me necessarily, as Portillo’s ranking is more about his limited schedule than his talent.

– #7 Mar crushed Alonso 6,5 for another statement win defining the top 8 versus the next 8.

– Biggest match of the round: Thomas Carter gets a career best win over Montoya i11-9 in the breaker.

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In the Quarters

– Waselenchuk was pressed by Lalo in game one, then cruised to win 10,1

– Moscoso destroyed the elated to be there Carter 5,2

– Parrilla dominated Jake 7,4 to move into the semis; this was a pretty solid win for Andree, something he followed up on in the next round, and is part of a pattern for the SLP product of having spurts of success on tour.

– the best match of the round was Mar-Acuna, which was back and forth and featured some really fun rallies especially at the end, as Acuna pulled it out 11-9 to move on.

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In the Semis

– The match of the event was Kane vs Conrrado, and the Bolivian put on a show. He ran of 12-straight points unanswered in game one, with 4 service winners and another 6 3-point rally kill shots wherein he missed just one first serve. Kane had no answers, either getting handcuffed on the serves or flailing them to the ceiling defensively. Kane did a better job in game two and looked to be pushing towards a breaker, but Moscoso held firm, and got a come from behind win 15-14 to advance. It’s awfully hard to beat someone who’s hitting 160mph bullet first serves on concrete without ever missing, and that’s what we saw all weekend from Conrrado.

– Parrilla improved to 5-2 lifetime against Acuna on tour to move into the final.

In the Finals, Conrrado picked up where he left off, giving Andree a rare finals donut in game one before taking the title with ease.

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Points Implications of results

With the win, Conrrado moves into #2 on tour. Other top players will move down a spot, while Montoya’s early loss dumps him to #6. No other real movement of import amongst the top 16, even given all the missing junior players here.

Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.

men

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z6eg6NJT6fjGMfRRyKTNLShAiDoz0TzzmQCt1_SbNBo/edit?usp=sharing

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/5542be

It’s been a minute since we had a real Pro doubles draw; not since March in Lombard has the tour done one, mostly because all the events in the interim have been combined events where the prize money that would have gone to doubles ended up going to the ladies, or to Mixed pro.

Moscoso, clearly feeling his oats this weekend, carried partner Carrasco over the top seeds Montoya & Mar to claim the title.

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Open Singles, other notable draws

– Diego Gastelum topped fellow round of 32 loser Gatica for the Open title, taking the big RR event.

– Bear & Alonso took out top SoCal outdoor team Myers & St. Clair for the Open Doubles title.

– Arizona’s Damien Zamora took the 35-50+

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Fantasy Racquetball Competition Wrap-up

We don’t know the results of the IRT Club Fantasy FastBreak competition this past wekeend, but yours truly (who was in 2nd place) definitely took Moscoso to win, so i’m expecting big things.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, Thanks to the tourney sponsors, and thanks to the players for supporting tournament racquetball.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

We have a break to the Sioux Falls Lewis Drug next year, but we may have a satellite event in January.

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2025 LPRT 33rd Annual Christmas Classic Preview

Manilla is back, but for how long? Photo 2021 US Open via Kevin Savory

As the Men are playing on one coast, the ladies are clear across the country, about as far away as one can get from Fullerton, visiting Severna Park, Maryland for the 33rd annual Christmas Classic. This event is being held at the venerable Severna Park Racquet club, one the last old-school hold out venues anywhere. The championship court is sunken and features stadium seating, there remains at least 6 functional courts (at least there were the last time I attended an event there), and this 33rd annual event is now one of (if not THE) longest running pro events in the sport.

R2 Sports App link:https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=51202

9 of the top 10 ladies are here, and most of the rest of the top 20 is present as well. We’re missing a couple of veteran regulars, which will give us some interesting doubles teams, but more on that in a moment.

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

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In the 32s,

– Erika Manilla returns; the former top 4 player has struggled to get back to form since her hip issue; she faces the Canadian #2 Parent in the opener.

– Synhorts faces the ageless Brandt in the play-in to #2 Mejia.

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round of 16:

– Manilla plays into #1 Vargas: normally this would be a semis-quality match. Vargas holds the career lead 5-1 and seems the favorite to make it 6-1.

– @sheryl Lotts celebrates her career high ranking with a juicy matchup against #8 Centellas: great “show-me” match for Lotts to see if she can make the quarters.

– 5/12 Mendez-York could be upset city.

– Gaby has to play her doubles partner MRR in the opener; hate it when that happens. I once entered an out-of-town event with my partner and roommate at the time @Ben Hale; we both played open singles and open doubles. I called for start times; they forgot to put us in. So the TD gives me a start time … I ask him who i’m playing and he slowly says… Ben Hale. I’m like, “absolutely not. You forgot to put us both in and now have us playing each other in some play-in to a top seed; make the draw right, and make us play someone else.” This is TD 101; never, never have out-of-town doubles partners playing each other in the singles first round. Of course, in teh Pros … its all by points, and this happens all the time.

– Munoz-Laime is a great match in 6/11: both players play classical drive and shoot ball.

– Herrera-Parrilla is a frequently seen matchup both home and abroad

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Projected Qtrs:

– Vargas vs Centellas; doubles partners and Argentina team mates face off. Vargas should cruise here.

– Gaby-Mendez: the Guatemalan shouldn’t have any issues advancing.

– Longoria-Laime: there’s danger here for the GOAT, as Laime has put losses on her in the past. Laime is Jeckyl & Hyde: you just never know if you’re getting someone who can cruise into the finals without breaking a sweat, or a one-and-done loser.

– Mejia-Herrera: more doubles partner action, though Mejia has taken a step forward in this singles rivalry over hte past few years.

Semis: Vargas over Gaby, Longoria over Mejia.

Finals; Vargas over Longoria, though honestly these days on tour any one of the top three ladies can and will win events. If Mejia gets hot, forget it. If Longoria is “on” this weekend, she can’t be stopped.

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Doubles review

Longoria is missing Salas here, so she picked up Manilla, who has no points, and they’re seeded 7th out of 8. Taht means we get Longoria/Manilla vs Mejia/Herrera in the first round. wow. I’ll say it now; whoever wins this, wins the event.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.

Look for Timothy Baghurst, Sandy Rios, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Associations

@lprt

Posted on

IRT SoCal Open Preview

Can Javier Mar make a deep run? Photo Kevin Savory 2019 US Open

The International Racquetball Tour is back in action, hosting its first full Tier 1 stop since last month’s Mile High Open, with the 2025 SoCal Open. The tour returns to Fullerton for the first time since the 2019 Los Compadres open, and returns to what used to be the Meridian Sports Club and one of the largest (if not the largest) clubs in terms of functional racquetball courts. As of 2023 there were still 24 courts operating at this facility, though the club went under, was taken over by new management, and has apparently repurposed some in the time since we last got information.

We’ll know soon enough, as the tour returns to one of its premier locations, which used to host national events and major pro events in the early 2010s.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=50749

draw size, observations; the top 11 on tour are here, but a decent chunk of the 11-20 guys are missing due to this event’s proximity to World Juniors, which kicks off this coming Saturday in the Dominican Republic.

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

In the round of 32, there’s only 5 matches because of the smaller draw, but a couple of interesting ones:

– #12 @Thomas Carter is the highest seed that has to do an early round; he goes against relative unknown Mexican Javier Gonzalez , a 16U Junior player from Chihuahua. Sometimes these juniors come out of nowhere and shock regular tour players.

– #14 @Kadim Carrasco has to deal with @Alejandro Bear, who has a few results on tour over the past 5-6 years.

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round of 16:

– The 8/9 is brutal: @Eduardo Portillo versus Alan Natera. Tough draw here; Portillo has been much better than a 9-seed over the past couple of years, while Natera continues to work his way back from a knee issue earlier in 2025.

– In the 6/11: Parrilla vs Manilla. these guys met in the quarters last month, an 11-9 win for Andree. Can Adam flip the script here?

– 7/10: Mar vs Alonso: a great match for the neutrals, two classy tactical players who rely on shot-making versus power. They’ve played twice already this year, both Mar wins, including an 8,0 beatdown in Highland Ranch in August.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Kane Waselenchuk likely faces off against Lalo Portillo, who played Kane pretty tough in the semis back in early September. Lalo was also on the court with Kane when he blew out his Achilles tendon in sept 2022.

– #4/#5 Moscoso vs Montoya: I love this matchup. Power, athleticism. It’s always close; they’ve played twice this fall already, both 3-game Moscoso wins. But early in their careers, Rodrigo owned him.

– 3/6 Bredenbeck vs Parrilla: it looked for a while in 2022-23 like Jake had really taken the reigns on this h2h matchup, but then Andree beat him for the Boston title in Dec 2023. Jake won their last meeting in Chicago in March, but these two always play tight.

– 2/7; Acuna vs Mar: Mar leads this matchup 4-3 in their careers, but Andres has the last two, including a dominant 9,5 win back at World Singles & Doubles. Can Mar get back the upper hand here? My upset pick is Mar winning here.

Semis:

– Kane over Moscoso: what can Conrrado do to make adjustments and get a win here? He’s got one thing going for him: the qtrs and semis are both on Saturday, so he may be able to get a tired Kane and take advantage from an athleticism perspective. Still, Kane’s the favorite.

– This could go several ways: Acuna and Jake haven’t met in years. Jake and Mar just met in Eugene, a straightforward 10,9 win for Mr. Minnesota. I’m going with jake.

Finals; Kane over Jake. Jake does have two legit h2h win over Kane in his career, bu t has to be playing well to do so. If he gets here, he’ll have been playing well.

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Doubles review; draws not published as of this writing.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.

Look for Favio Soto, Samuel Schulze, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!

IRT Club Fantasy: If you’re in the IRT Club, sign up to play Fantasy Racquetball along with myself, Brian Pineda, and other club members. Also, be sure to tune into our Fantasy Fast Break podcast, which we do before and after every IRT Tier 1 event!

Associations

International Racquetball Tour

Posted on

Racquetball Canada Fall National Team Qualifier Recap

Racquetball Canada athlete Juliette Parent poses for their headshot on May 24, 2023. Photo by Mike Sudoma/COC *MANDATORY CREDIT*

Racquetball Canada kicked off its 2025-26 National team qualification process this past weekend with the first of three events that will shape the national team composition for 2026-27 season. This event was in Brossard, in the Montreal suburbs.

Click here for the tourney site and draws: https://secure.racquetballcanada.ca/event/fall-national-team-selection-event/1017224/

Congrats to the singles champs this past weekend:

– Men’s Open Singles: Samuel Murray

– Women’s Open Singles: Juliette Parent

Links to the draws in Proracquetballstats.com database:

– Men’s: https://rball.pro/73294e

– Women’s: https://rball.pro/674df8

Here’s a quick recap of the draws.

Men’s: the final came down to the two top players in Canada once again, as Murray took out @Coby Iwaasa in four. Murray gets some revenge from his May 2025 Nationals loss to Iwaasa, and improved to 18-7 over Coby in his National career. The win gives Murray his 21st career Canadian National event win, and extends his reign at #1.

Women’s: in a possible “Changing of the Guard” moment, #2 Parent upended #1 @Frederique Lambert in the final in 5 games. Lambert had not been beaten in a Canadian National event since 2014, and had won the last 18 straight events that she had entered. Bravo to Parent, who wins her first national event title.

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The next Racquetball Canada event will be the Feb 8th 2026 weekend in Burlington, the same weekend as USA Racquetball’s national indoors. Then, the 2025-26 season wraps up with Nationals in late May to crown the 2026-27 national team.

As always, I keep a master major event calendar where this and other upcoming events can be found: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

Posted on

LPRT Mile High Open Recap

Mejia with the double in Denver. Photo Kevin Savory US Open 2019

I had a bit of fixture congestion personally this week and couldn’t get a preview out for this one. My apologies there. But, here’s the recap. The Ladies pros were back in action for their third singles event of the new season (but, ironically, their first doubles event) in Denver, with hostess and fellow touring pro @erika Manilla in action and running the show.

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Montse Mejia

– Doubles: Montse Mejia & Alexandra Herrera

The event was missing #1 Longoria, who may have had legislative duties back home, and the absence will do a bit of harm to her chances for finishing #1 on the season based on the results. But Mejia’s win (instead of Vargas) may have helped her keep the pace.

Mejia’s singles win gives her 9 career tier 1 titles now, in 12th place all time. Meanwhile, the Mejia/Herrera doubles win is their 14th professionally, though both remain well behind the Longoria/Salas duo in terms of career LPRT pro doubles wins.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=49237

——————

Let’s review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/f5eb2b

—————-

In the 32s:

– A great matchup between the legend @Rhonda Rajsich and a player on the comeback trail in Manilla went Erika’s way

– @Susy Acosta, appearing in her 27th season, took out @Maria Renee Rodriguez

in a breaker.

– @Annie Sanchez got a really nice win against the rarely seen but former top 10 Mexican @Nancy Enriquez.

—————-

In the 16s, just one upset by seed:

– #10 @Sheryl Lotts was well ahead of #7 @Cristina Amaya when the Colombian turned Italian had to retire due to injury.

– The only other real close round of 16 match was in the 8/9 spot, as Argentine @Valeria Centellas picked up a solid win over @Jessica Parrilla to move into the quarters.

—————-

In the Quarters

– #1 @maria Jose Vargas had to dig deep to beat her doubles partner Centellas 12,8

– #5 @brenda Laime held serve and beat #4 @Natalia Mendez in a breaker.

– #3 @Gaby Martinez beat #6 Alexandra Herrera in the round’s best matchup of former Tier 1 winners

– #2 @Montse Mejia cruised last Lotts to earn another semis.

—————

In the Semis

– In a very topsy turvy match, Vargas destroyed Laime in games 1 and 3 to win 1,(7),2 and move into the final. As they say, it only takes 26 to win.

– In a great semi final, Mejia rebounded after a first game loss to beat Gaby (7),7,7 to setup a 1v2 final.

In the Finals, Montse turned the tide and took out Vargas, reversing the trend of her latest match winning streak.

—————-

Points Implications of results

With no Longoria, Vargas, who had already taken back over #1 on tour, extends her lead atop the standings to a more comfortable level. Mejia closes the gap on Longoria for #2 but stays in third. There’s still a huge gap between the top 3 players and the rest of the field, big enough that there’s just no way anyone can catch them at this moment. Elsewhere, Centellas’ result puts her back in the top 10 for the first time in years, Lotts moves up to #11 on tour, while Salas’ absence drops her to #13.

Here’s a link to my rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings.

women

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16o0aE4YophvlQdezlMVj_dqPRUoDQqwE5-LtsLbOncg/edit?usp=sharing

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/2a7b95

Mejia got the double on the weekend, grinding her way to a title with long-time partner Herrera without dropping a game. They certainly worked for it, topping the very-good Guatemalan national team in the quarters, Laime/Mendez in the semis, and the Argentine national team in the finals.

—————-

Open Singles, other notable draws

– Lotts beat Synhorst in the Women’s Open singles final

– Yelverton & Amaya took the Mixed Open doubles draw.

– Adam Manilla beat Erik Garcia in the IRT singles exhibition draw

– Yelverton & Garcia beat the legend Woody Clouse and top Texan Craig Clement in the Men’s Open Doubles final.

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

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Stuart Solomon, Richard Eisemann, etc.

Thanks to the Tourney Directors the Manillas for putting this event on!

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

There’s two different IRT-350s next weekend, one in Boston and one in Tucson. The LPRT will be back the first weekend of December for its long running Christmas Classc in the DC area.

——————-

tags

@lprt

Posted on

New Reports now available at Pro Racquetball Stats

We’re constantly adding features and functionality to the database, so here’s a quick review of some of the new stuff that we’ve built. As always, if someone in the racquetball community wants a Report that isn’t readily available, ping me and we’ll see if I can code it up.

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1. Added a slew of Mixed Junior Doubles as a pull down

In the Junior Databases, we have a number of Category-driven reports so you can see (for example) all US 18U singles winners, or all IRF 16U doubles winners. Now that we’re seeing more Mixed Doubles play at US Nationals and at Worlds, I’ve added Mixed as a category where appropriate. We still haven’t seen Mixed junior competitions in Canada or Mexico; so this is just US and IRF for now.

Reminder: we only store the finals of Junior Doubles to capture the winners.

Here’s an example of all Mixed 21U finals across both US and IRF Junior Worlds: https://rball.pro/64091b

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2. Improvements to Ages of Tourney Winners report

There’s a cool report called “Ages of Tourney Winners” that’s existed for years that shows, for all tournament winners on tour, their debut date, the date they first won an event, their last tourney win, and their last tour appearance. I used this report often to show just how frequently Men’s tour players retire right around the age 32-34 range. There’s a slew of examples of top players who stopped playing right at this range, and the reason to me is relatively obvious: physical skills and the athleticism needed to compete generally starts to degrade right in that early 30s range, and suddenly players go from making semis and finals to making the quarters at best and no longer really making enough money to make touring worth it.

Anyway, a conversation with @Timothy Baghurst led to adding some more columns to this report; specifically career W/L, the number of seasons on tour, and the number of tournament wins. These new fields provide great context to the rest of the age-driven data.

click here for the report for the IRT: https://rball.pro/4he

click here for the report for the LPRT: https://rball.pro/lxc

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3. Addition of Ages of Tourney Regulars Report

Another Baghurst suggestion was to provide all the above information for more than just historical tourney winners, so I took the same logic and now you can see all that information for what I call “Tour regulars,” which is defined as players who have more than 25 pro tour wins in their career. This added at least 35-40 players to each report.

click here for that report for the IRT: https://rball.pro/2b096e

click here for the report for the LPRT: https://rball.pro/4f5468

——————————————–

4. More “Most Appearances since” reports.

@Adam Manilla asked me just today, “Who has the most appearances since Covid? Or in the last 10 years?” So I adapted a simple report i already had that shows the Most appearances of all time and just added the two above.

So, for the IRT, here’s Most Appearances since Covid: https://rball.pro/d755fb

And, most Appearances in the last 10 years running: https://rball.pro/83f66e

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5. Changed the IRT to go back to fall-to-spring

The new ownership group decided that they wanted to go back to a Fall to Spring schedule this summer. This means that the “2025” season no longer exists, and it will be rolled into a 1.5 year season starting Jan 1 2025 and running through next year’s US Open in June 30 2026. In order to support this, I had to change the season of all data in the database and do some quick code fixes. This temporarily made it look like the 2025 season was different from teh 2025-26 season in counting reports, but that’s fixed now.

———————————

Anyway, that’s a quick summary of the 2025 code fixes I’ve done. Hope you enjoy this little glimpse into the sausage making of ProRacquetballStats.com .

Posted on

2025 Golden State Open Recap

Vargas takes back over #1 on tour with her win in Golden State Open. Photo via usaracquetballevents.com

Congrats to your Pro winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro Singles: Conrrado Moscoso

– Women’s Pro Singles: Maria Jose Vargas

– Mixed Pro Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & Gaby Martinez

Moscoso wins his 10th career singles title (he’s now 14th all time) and his third straight major Mixed Pro Doubles title (to go along with the 2023 and 2025 World Singles & Doubles titles). Vargas wins her 13th career title, tied for 10th ever, and takes over World #1.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48678

——————

Let’s review the notable matches in the Men’s Pro Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/42ed4b

—————-

In the 32s:

– @Robbie Collins dropped the first game to @Wayne Antone 15-1, then came back to win 15-10 and 11-0 thereout.

– @DJ Mendoza grabbed the first game against Bolivian vet Carrasco, but couldn’t finish it out, losing in three.

– Bolivian junior debutant Santiago Borja certainly made #2 Javier Mar work for it, losing into 14 & 11. Great showing.

—————-

In the 16s:

– Martell made fast work of Carter 7,3 in the 8/9 seed matchup

– Parrilla came back from a blowout game 1 loss to edge Diego Garcia in three 11-9. This was an upset special for me, but Parrilla held him off.

– Carrasco earned his first career pro IRT tier1 quarterfinal with a walkover injury against Natera. Alan had major knee surgery earlier this year and struggled a bit in his round of 32 match against a junior, and had to step out of this match.

– Alonso squeaked past Gastelum 6,14.

– Moscoso crushed Bolivian native turned Argentine Miranda 0,2.

– Lastly, the big result of the round: #2 Mar, who we already had circled as a potential upset in this match, had to retire after losing the first game to Bolivian phenom Flores.

———————-

In the Quarters, all four matches go breaker:

– Montoya was stretched to three against countryman Martell but advanced.

– Parrilla held off Manilla 11-9 in the third to move into the semis.

– Alonso was pressed by Carrasco, but moved on in a very close 13,(13),8 result.

– Moscoso was pressed all night by Flores, but found an extra gear in the breaker to win 14,(10),6.

—————

In the Semis, the two top players in the draw (Montoya and Moscoso) cruised into the finals with little trouble; Montoya frustrated his long-time rival Parrilla 8,2 and Moscoso blasted Alonso 4,0 to setup the dream final.

In the Finals, we had two players who seem like they’re a lot closer than they historically have been: Moscoso led the h2h for their careers 9-5, but had won the last 5 meetings to put some separation between them from a period a few years ago where Montoya really seemed to have his number. Rodrigo did his best here to reverse the trend, taking game one 15-13, but Moscoso took over from there, winning games two and three by 15-7, 11-5 margins that weren’t ever really in doubt.

—————-

Points Implications of Men’s Pro results

Moscoso’s win should move him up to #5, which once again in a full draw would put him on a collision course with Kane prior to a final. Montoya moves up one spot and now sits #3, though there’s little separating #2 to #6 (270 total points). Any missed event and a big run from any of the #2 to #6 guys will put them right behind Kane, who despite missing this event still maintains a massive lead atop the rankings.

In other movement: Natera’s injury loss costs him; he drops from 6 to 9. Flores now sits 16th in the rankings, meaning he’s creeping closer to more manageable round of 16s with each passing event; he was the #15 seed as the #19th ranked player this past weekend, moving up 4 spots due to missing players, and that should just continue. Trujillo, a mainstay on tour for the last couple of years, has missed his 3rd straight Tier 1 and may be quietly stepping back from touring for now.

Here’s a link to my IRT Rolling 2year Calendar XLS, which I use to approximate the points after each event. It is not exact but it’s usually close enough to the actual rankings, which @Ryan Rodgers does with @R2 Sports App on behalf of the tour after each event, to allow some quick post-event analysis before the rankings post.

men

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z6eg6NJT6fjGMfRRyKTNLShAiDoz0TzzmQCt1_SbNBo/edit?usp=sharing

—————————————–

Let’s review the notable matches in the Women’s Pro Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/300dd0

—————-

In the 32s:

– MRR got a solid win over Mexican junior Gutierrez 13,11 in kind of a trap match.

– Rajsich won her most recent return to LPRT, 6,3 over the elder Perez-Picon sisters.

– Andrea Perez-Picon, the reigning 16U Mexican Jr Champ who has also won US Jr National titles in the past out of the 209 Stockton Jr. factory, got a win over fellow Norcal player Erica Williams to advance.

—————-

In the 16s:

– Centellas got a solid win over Parrilla in the 8/9 matchup, a good sign for the Argentine as she gets back into regular touring.

– Mendez was pressed by MRR before winning in three

– Gaby dominated US National Sanchez 4,2

– Mejia took out former 4-time pro champ Rajsich in two

– Laime was stretched before topping Munoz in three

– Lotts got a career win, topping Amaya in three, earning her 4th career quarter final appearance.

———————-

In the Quarters, all four matches go chalk.

– #1 Longoria was pushed by Centellas 9,10

– #4 Gaby Martinez cruised past Mendez 7,11

– #3 Mejia had a match, going toe to toe with fellow power hitter Laime before advancing 11-8 in the third

– #2 Vargas moved past upset-minded Lotts 6,10

—————

In the Semis, Longoria was pressed to a breaker by Gaby as she often is, but she persevered after some acrobatic rallies to move into the final. Meanwhile, Vargas-Mejia turned into a smooth win for the Argentine, who is dialed in this weekend and advances 7,9.

In the Finals, Vargas just controlled the match from start to finish, Longoria just couldn’t seem to hit her serves or her lines, and Maria Jose won 8,8 to take her third straight title on tour. As @Steve Castleberry pointed out to me, It has been nearly to the beginning of Longoria’s touring career since she failed to win a tournament one out of four in a row … Vargas has now won the last three events, matching her career best stretch that powered her to her first pro title at the end of 2023.

—————-

Points Implications of Women’s Pro results

The Points are tight at the top, and I may have my XLS calcs wrong, but I believe with this win Vargas takes back over #1 on tour by around 20 points. My sources tell me Longoria may miss the next event due to conflicts with her new career in politics, which could spell trouble for her title defense. Other movements: despite Herrera’s absence she will jump Laime for #6. There should be a wholesale shuffling of the ladies ranked 14th to 18th with Lott’s big win, MRR’s strong return, and York/Synhorst’s absence this weekend.

Here’s a link to my running 2-year+ Women’s ranking worksheet.

women

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16o0aE4YophvlQdezlMVj_dqPRUoDQqwE5-LtsLbOncg/edit?usp=sharing

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Mixed Pro Doubles review

Natera’s injury suffered during singles resulted in his wife picking up a last minute sub … and she managed to “find” a suitable replacement in the legendary Alvaro Beltran. Alvi’s inclusion caused a last minute shuffling of the whole mixed draft and actually improved the draw, removing one blatantly too-early matchup and getting neutrals a better draw. Here’s a quick rundown of how the action went:

In the 16s:

– the Parrillas were pushed to an 11-10 limit by Guatemalans MRR and Galicia, a testament to how “back” Maria Renee seems to be based on her results this weekend.

– Last minute sub Beltran got to a breaker, but fell alongside Munoz to the Argentines MIranda and Mendez

– The Manillas, kind of inexplicably seeded 10th despite winning US Nationals Mixed two years ago, “uspet” the #7 seeds Carter & Lotts.

In the quarters:

– Mejia & Mar held off the tough young Flores/Centellas pairing.

– The Parrilla siblings took out the #4 seeds Miranda & Mendez

– Moscoso &Martinez had a great win over Vargas & Garcia in the match of the round.

– The Manilla siblings, seeded 10th, continue to upset and prove the seeding committee wrong with a solid 15,7 win over #2 Montoya/Laime.

Semis: the two favorites advanced, with Mar/Mejia dominating the Parrillas and Moscoso/Martinez crushing the Manillas.

In the final, Moscoso won his 3rd straight major Mixed Pro doubles title with a come-from-behind win over Mar & Mejia (14),10,2.

—————-

Open Singles, Open Doubles, other notable draws

– Texan USA Junior National DJ Mendoza won a stacked Men’s Open singles draw, beating the surprise finalist Alvaro Guillen from Costa Rica

– Mexican former Jr star Ivanna Balderrama won a solid international junior laden Women’s Open/Elite draw, beating fellow Mexican Michelle Gomez in the final.

– Flores & Guillen took the big Men’s Open Doubles draw, getting a walk-over in the final but more than earning their title.

– Guatemalans MRR and Reyes won the small RR Women’s Open Doubles draw.

– Guatemalans continued to shine, taking the Mixed Open doubles draw as Mansilla/Sipac beat Mexicans Martin & Gutierrez in the final.

—————–

Thanks for all the streaming, thanks for the Tourney directors, and the sponsors.

——————

Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMbIP9SZd0MssH_nPGU/edit?usp=sharing

The 10th annual Asia Open Racquetball competition is next weekend in Seoul. After that, there’s an IRT Satellite just announced in the Chicagoland area. November features more IRT events plus a possible IRT/LPRT collab in Denver.

——————-

tags

@International Racquetball Tour

LPRT

Posted on

2025 Golden State Open Preview

Rhonda Rajsich with a rare pro appearance. Photo 202 USAR Doubles by Kevin Savory

One of the year’s biggest events is this coming weekend; the 2025 Golden State Open, the brainchild of two former touring pros in @David ” Bobby” Horn and @Adam Manilla, hosted by two of Stockton’s legends @John Ellis and Steve Cook. Both pro tours are onsite at the Bay Club Pleasanton in the East Bay portion of the San Francisco bay area, which means a huge prize purse fundraising effort was done and we get Mixed Pro Doubles for the second time in as many months.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=48678

There’s 38 men’s pros and 21 Women’s pros on hand, with fireworks and unexpected results anticipated. By the time you read this play has already started, with the round of 64 on the mens side getting a rare Wednesday evening start.

——————————

Let’s preview the Draws. We’ll do the two singles draws and then the Mixed Pro draw. They’re hosting Open doubles draws for both genders, but the top pros are not entered.

Men first: as we covered in our IRTclub Fantasy Fastbreak podcast with @BBrian Pineda (see here for the link if interested: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1590097114629503/?multi_permalinks=3794248374214355&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen ), we are missing the top three ranked players out of this draw and four of the top 10. Kane and Jake both have weddings (separate weddings we believe), Andres had a family commitment, and Lalo is elsewhere along with his girlfriend Herrera.

This leaves Rodrigo Montoya to get a #1 seed, a career high. In fact, most of the top 8 at this event are at career high seedings: Mar at #2, Natera at #3, Alonso at #6, and Carter at #8 are all career-best seeds, and the mashed up top 8 is going to give us some new and unexpected head-to-heads here.

More importantly, the absence of Kane in particular historically has been a big indicator that we may get a first time winner.

———————————-

In the round of 64 and 32, here’s a few matches to watch for:

– Mauro Rojas vs Emir Martinez: Rojas a former US Junior National champ, and Emir a former top Junior from Mexico. Tough opener, and as it turns out it went three before Rojas fell.

– There’s a few unknown Bolivians who made the trip and who could make waves: Arnez & Borja in particular. Santiago Borja is the two-time defending World 14U junior champion. Both won their openers to face off against top ranked pros in the 32s.

– Sendrey vs Wolfe in the 32s is a solid test for the teenager to see if he can take out a semi-regular IRT touring player.

– Mexican Junior Santiago Castillo, who owns a slew of Mexican Jr National titles including the 2024 16U title, faces off against IRT veteran @Thomas Carter in a match he can’t look past.

– Carrasco-Mendoza in the 14-19 matchup could be close: how much is Mendoza improving versus how quickly is the aging Carrasco’s skills fading?

– If Borja wins his first, he plays into #2 Mar. A good pro debut for the 15yr old.

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Round of 16:

– Martell-Carter in the 8/9 is an interesting matchup; they’ve never met in a top-level event.

– We’re projecting two lefties who both play out of the Bay Area a lot in Collins and Manilla into the 16s.

– Tough draw once again for Parrilla: last week Moscoso played into him early, this week is Garcia, who’s demonstrated his ability to beat nearly anyone on tour.

– Gastelum-Alonso could be close: they met at 2024 Mexican Nationals and Alonso prevailed in three, but Gastelum has come a long way. This is Pineda’s big upset pick.

– the dangerous Miranda meets Moscoso in the 7-10 matchup; this is too bad for Miranda, who has been eyeing a deep run.

– #2 Mar faces off against #15 Flores in a huge trouble area for the Mexican. If Flores plays up to his capabilities, this might be a huge upset.

——————————

Projected Qtrs:

– Montoya over the Carter/Martel winner: Montoya will be favored no matter who comes out here, and has to like his draw this weekend in general. No crazy bolivian junior world champs, no Moscoso seeded 16th, etc.

– Manilla-Garcia: Manilla made a massive run here last year as the host; can he do it again?

– Natera v Alonso: both players are probably looking at each other going, “hey i should win this” and get back to the semis. Could be close

– Moscoso will be favored over whoever comes out of that bottom half, whether its a huge shock like Borja, an upset-minded Flores, or Mar holding serve against two top Bolivian juniors he’s set to face early.

Semis:

– Montoya over Manilla/Garcia winner: Montoya’s only obstacle to the final this week is injury.

– Moscoso over Natera/Alonso winner: this could be over fast.

Finals; I’m calling a Moscoso-Montoya final, with Conrrado taking the title.

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Women’s Pro Singles preview:

Like with the Men’s draw, the ladies draw is missing a few key players. Herrera is out, as is Lawrence and Salas (surgery). So that’s three top 10 ladies missing. What we do have in this draw is a bunch of top Junior Mexicans who we rarely see, including the Perez-Picon sisters. Plus, we get a rare sighting of Rhonda Rajsich, which is awesome to see the future Hall of Famer.

Preview of the draw:

round of 32s to watch for:

– top Mexican U21 player Cynthia Gutierrez makes her LPRT debut and faces Maria Renee Rodriguez-Josey in a tough one for the veteran

– Andrea Perez PIcon, the reigning Mexican 16U champ and finalist at World Juniors last December, faces Norcal’s ERica Williams. Andrea’s older sister Estefania feeds into the Legend Rajsich.

Projected 16s of note:

– The 8/9 between Centellas and Parrilla will be awesome.

– #4 Gaby Martinez projects to play rising USA player Annie Sanchez, who’s played some top players close lately.

– Mejia could face Rhonda in a generational battle of top players

– Munoz-Laime is probably the match of the round.

– Amaya-Lotts will be a battle.

Qtrs on: From here, I see the top four ladies advancing as they typically do: there’s such a gap between Longoria/Mejia/Vargas/Gaby to the rest of the tour right now, it’s hard to predict any upsets. I see Longoria topping Mejia in the final.

———————————

Mixed Pro Doubles

I love Mixed pro doubles: we just have no idea who’s going to win some of these early matches. Normally I look at the two women’s players and try to use that as a determining factor (thinking that the weakest link on the court will get the most shots and will play the biggest part in the match result), but that doesn’t always tell the whole story, and the doubles acumen of the players involved needs to be given more weight. With Salas missing (one of the best mixed doubles players ever) and Longoria skipping out, there’s some new teams and tough matchups.

Here’s some matches to look for and some guesses how this draw will go:

In the 16s, easily the match of the round is the Manilla siblings versus the Argentine mixed national team of Garcia/Vargas: how this is an opening round match is beyond me.

In the quarters:

– Mar/Mejia should advance

– I like Natera/Munoz over the Parrilla sisters

– Moscoso/Martinez should beat whoever comes out of the above 6/11 match, but once again this is the toughest part of the bracket.

– Montoya/Laime is an amazing team and should top Miranda/Mendez.

Semis:

– Mar/Mejia should beat Natera/Munoz … but when these two teams met in the 2023 World Doubles competition it was an 8,9 win for the Chileans. So who knows. I think Munoz is a better doubles player than her counterpart, but Mejia is the harder hitter. Mar-Natera is probably a wash on the left, but Mar is a superior doubles player when he plays with Montoya on the right.

– Moscoso/Gaby over Montoya/Laime, but I have no confidence here. Montoya won the 2025 World Doubles mixed title with Paola in both 2023 and 2025, and Gaby should hold her own as a solid doubles player on the right. But, Laime is no doubles slouch and they could surprise here. Great match.

In the final, i’ll go with the winner of the bottom semi, who i’m thinking is going to be Moscoso/Gaby.

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