{"id":2497,"date":"2026-06-10T16:48:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/?p=2497"},"modified":"2026-06-10T16:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:48:51","slug":"irt-2026-gateway-city-pro-am-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.proracquetballstats.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/10\/irt-2026-gateway-city-pro-am-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"IRT 2026 Gateway City Pro\/Am Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Andree Parrilla is a newlywed, and could make a deep run. Photo 2019 US Open via Kevin Savory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the final event of the 2025-26 IRT season, the 2026 Gateway City Pro am, being held at the Vetta Sports clubs in the St. Louis area. This event takes the place of the postponed US Open, which was initially set to fall on this date but has been pushed a year due to unforeseen circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Louis holds an important spot in the history of our sport. It hosted a number of the early IRA Nationals events (in 1969, 1970, 1973, and 1975). It also was home to a slew of the sport’s early stars, including Marty Hogan, Jerry Hilecher, Steve Serot, Benny Koltun, Doug Cohen, Kenny Wong, Jerry Zuckerman, and the Gross brothers. More recently, StL hosted a decade-long event annually, named the IrtNetwork.com open initially, then Party with the Pros and Winter Rollout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Louis’ High School league remains unique in the country, and the area still churns out hundreds of tournament players per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

R2 Sports App link: https:\/\/www.r2sports.com\/website\/event-website.asp?TID=54042<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are 33 players in the Men’s Pro singles draw, including four St Louis-area top high school players, the entire Guatemalan men’s national team and the entire Costa Rican men’s national team, who make up a bulk of the players seeded 20 and above. This event is the last pro event prior to this summer’s Central America and Caribbean Games event, which every north American country not called USA or Canada is playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

top20 players missing; unfortunately we got word earlier this week that civil unrest in Bolivia made it impossible for #2 Conrrado Moscoso to get his visa processed in time to make the flight up here. This robs Moscoso of one final pay day for the season, and thins the draw considerably. He and Kane met 8 times this season, but we won’t get a 9th. I suppose i’m thankful that the tour race didn’t get decided by this event, in that Kane’s win a month ago in Montana sewed up the title for the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #2 Moscoso (visa issues)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #10 Natera<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #17: Carrasco (presumably also visa issues)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #18, #20: Miranda and Garcia: funding, possibly visa issues (both still live in Bolivia as well)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #19 Sam Bredenbeck: stepping back<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————————<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the round of 32:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Wolfe-Zera in the 16\/17 should be close<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– US Junior national team member Grant Williams faces down the always tough Jordy Alonso in the first round<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Sneaky good Costa Rican player Gabriel Garcia faces Montoya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– We get an all-USA Junior U21 matchup between DJ Mendoza and Cole Sendrey, who have together won two straight US Junior national doubles titles together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Evan Whitley, son of the tournament director, gets to face #2 Jake Bredenbeck in his pro debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

round of 16:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– I like the 8\/9 Portillo-Alonso match; that could go either way depending on who’s hot or who is rusty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Montoya has to play Gastelum again; last time they played, Diego beat him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– The red-hot Trujillo plays into the similarly red-hot Jhonathan Flores; this is too early to see this matchup, which on form is at least a quarterfinal match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Parrilla faces Martell in a throwback to a decade-old WRT matchup<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– An all USA lefty showdown between Manilla and Carter in the bottom half of the draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————————<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projected Qtrs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– #1 Kane will face the Portillo\/Alonso winner. Both have wins over him, but neither will be favored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– In the 4\/5, assuming seeds hold, we get a banger between Flores and Montoya. Two of the hardest hitters on tour could be awesome. Or, we could get a shocker rematch between Gastelum and Trujillo if things don’t fall the way the top seeds want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– I’m projecting an upset in the 3\/6 Acuna-Parrilla match; Parrilla owns a dominant 7-2 h2h lead in my database over Acuna, dating all the way back to a 10U world juniors matchup 20 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Another all-USA matchup awaits Jake Bredenbeck, who will face either Manilla or Carter for a semis spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Semis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Kane vs Flores\/Montoya winner; love this match, hope its Kane-Flores, who have met twice in their careers, both being relatively interesting matches to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Recently married Parrilla shocks the tour with his second upset in a row, beats jake to make the final of the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finals; Kane over Parrilla in a fun contrast in styles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————————-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doubles review: There are no Pro doubles this weekend, as the tour is focusing on driving more prize money to the singles draw, making this an IRT-800 event. There will be some solid teams in the Open Doubles draw, which we’ll recap on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———————————<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Carrie Reitmeier, Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre, @JTRball, and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the microphone, calling the shots!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the Tourney Director @dan whitley for putting this event on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the event sponsors: KWM Gutterman, Downey Ethics, St. Louis Redbirds, Wood Phillips Patent\/Trademark\/Copywright attorney, and Thurman Brooks – TLBJ CPA Firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to tour sponsors: KWM Gutterman, Papa Nicholas coffee, Black & White Energy drinks, Reignstorm Group; tax and wealth management, Frank Hotels<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gearbox , and Formula Flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Racquetball Tour<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the final event of the 2025-26 IRT season, the 2026 Gateway City Pro am, being held at the Vetta Sports clubs in the St. Louis area. This event takes the place of the postponed US Open, which was initially set to fall on this date but has been pushed a year due to … <\/p>\n

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