2025 World Singles and Doubles Recap – IRT and Mixed Doubles

Thanks to Jim Hiser and crew for putting on another amazing World Singles and Doubles Open Racquetball Championships, presented by R&B Sales and KWM Gutterman, in Highlands Ranch.  Coinciding with Worldwide Racquetball Day, the event featured a tribute to USA Racquetball Hall of Fame members, a special tribute to Dr. Bud Muehleisen, and the IRT and LPRT (with the rare mixed pro doubles division). It was a weekend to remember!

Congrats to the Pro winners:

– Men’s Pro Singles: Andres Acuna

– Women’s Pro Singles: Maria Jose Vargas

– Mixed Pro Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & Paola Longoria

See the tournament website for full details:

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=42889

Men’s Singles Recap

In the 64s:

-US Junior national team member DJ Mendoza took a barn burner over DC-area Open player turned Florida Man Dylan Pruitt, surviving 11-10 to move on. Tough matchup for both, and predictably it went the distance.

-European #1 German Marcel Leunsmann made his IRT pro debut and pushed the solid Miguel Angel Arteaga in game one 15-14 before running out of gas 15-4 in the second.

-Kadim Carrasco eked out a win over Victor Camacho 15-6, 13-15, 11-10.

In the 32s:

– Conrrado Moscoso got a walkover/withdrawal from Carlos Ramirez to setup the anticipated round of 16 against Kane Waselenchuk.

– Sam Bredenbeck had a solid win over #12 Jaime Martell, 15-12, 15-7.  This is probably his career best win, certainly by seed of the opponent, but also by talent of the opponent.

– Bolivian 18U champ Jhonatan Flores easily beat his fellow rising Junior Gastelum 15-6, 15-9 to put himself into the 16s.

– Bolivian Vet Kadim Carrasco upset Thomas Carter 15-13, 15-6. This is a step back for Carter, the kind of matches he’s generally been winning lately as he’s climbed up the rankings.

In the 16s, upsets and a heavyweight matchup:

– In the 1 seed vs 16 seed match, two of the best players in the sport faced off earlier than usual due to Moscoso’s injuries costing him ranking points.  The two played their typical match; lots of power, great shot making, and a series of streaks that defined each game. Waselenchuk jumped out well ahead in game 1, Moscoso fought back briefly, then Waselenchuk powered into Game 2. There it was the reverse; Moscoso jumped ahead, Waselenchuk fought back, and then it was Waselenchuk fighting off game points at the end and taking the gam 15-14 to save a tiebreaker. It was good to see Moscoso not capitulate in game two after a heavy game 1 loss; he’s just 10-26 lifetime on tour when he loses the first game.

– Adam Manilla returned from injury and ground out a great 11-10 win over #8 Alan Natera to move on. Solid win by Adam, who is looking to get back his career high #4 ranking.

– Jake Bredenbeck tamed the young Bolivian phenom Jhonathan Flores 15-7, 15-9. Jake played well and just controlled the youngster.

– Miranda got a walkover against #3 Parrilla, whose back tightened up on him suddenly and wouldn’t release in time to play.

– Rodrigo Montoya was pressed to a tiebreaker by Bolivian Carrasco before advancing, but the effort caused him to roll an ankle, which knocked him out of the next round.

– Javier Mar beat Jordy Alonso 15-8, 15-0 in a big reversal of latest trends.

– In another top round matchup, #2 Acuna stepped up and took out the tough Argentine Diego Garcia 15-5, 15-6. A two-time international finalist this year, Garcia was thought to be a dark horse for the semis, but Acuna had other plans.

In the Quarters

– Waselenchuk easily beat Adam Manilla 15-0, 15-2 in a lefty on lefty match-up.

– Lalo Portillo outlasted Bredenbeck in a tiebreaker to get back to the semis once again.

– Miranda gets his second straight walkover, this time over Montoya, to get to the semis without playing for two days.

– Acuna played amazingly well to outclass Mar 15-9, 15-5.

USA Racquetball

USA Racquetball

In the Semis

– Waselenchuk took out Portillo 15-7, 15-12 to get to another final.

– Acuna looked like he might get upset, as Miranda controlled game one, but he flipped the script to get to the final 7-15, 15-13, 11-3.

In the Finals, what looked like a mismatch quickly turned into a battle. Waselenchuk from the onset didn’t look as if he was moving at 100%, but still made shots. Acuna’s drive serves were working to the left and to the right and kept him in points. The two were neck and neck to 14-14, which is where Waselenchuk usually finds some magic to pull wins out of losses … but the pair went back and forth at game point several times before Acuna pulled it out.

Waselenchuk got down early in game two and wasn’t able to recover from the first game loss.

Although it appeared Waselenchuk may not have been 100%, that takes nothing away from how Acuna played all weekend, and has been playing all season.  There is a reason Acuna has risen to #2 in the rankings.

With this win, Acuna becomes the 46th ever player to win a Tier 1 title. He joins an interesting looking group of 1-title holders on tour that includes a few current players (Portillo, Montoya) a few recently retired players (Mercado, Franco, Pratt), some 90s pros (Guidry, Sweeney, Croft), and some historical guys (Hawkes, Wagner).

see https://rball.pro/q60 for a list of title holders historically.

Mixed Pro Doubles Review

The IRT and LPRT tours are not often in the same place at the same time, and it’s a rare treat to watch them play together.  Seedings are notoriously difficult to get right in Mixed Pro, since we have so few match results, and this was the case here again.

By the time that the round of 16 was over, we’d seen the #2, #5, and #8 seeds vanquished. The most impressive early run was by #15 Rocky Carson & Michelle Key, who won their opener against Texas juniors DJ Mendoza & Naomi Ros, then ousted the defending Mixed Pro finalists Alan Natera & Carla Munoz rather easily to move on. The Manilla siblings, both of whom who have struggled with injury over the last year, shook off some early rust to blast the #5 seeds Andree Parrilla & Natalia Mendez to move into the quarters.

In the Mixed quarterfinals, the top 3 seeds advanced, while Carson & Key kept their I-formation show going and took out 2018 Mixed pro champs Rodrigo Montoya & Samantha Salas in a tiebreaker.

In the semis: Longoria/Moscoso advanced over Mar/Mejia in an amazing match, one point shy of the perfect match 15-14, 14-15, 11-9. Carson & Key kept the show going with a similarly brutal tiebreaker win over the Herrera/Portillo pair to setup a #1 vs #15 unlikely final.

In the final: Key & Carson took game one, but the top seeds pulled the match out in a 3rd successive tiebreaker to win the title and defend their 2023 win.

María Paz Riquelme

USA Racquetball