New Rankings Out: IRT & WPRO

The rankings for the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) and the Women's Professional Racquetball Organization (WPRO) have been updated.

IRT

On the men's side, there's no change in the top 10, although The Racquetball Blog had speculated that Jack Huczek might have gotten the top spot by moving past Rocky Carson, as Huczek reached the finals while Carson lost in the Round of 16 at last week's Kansas City Open. But Carson's still number 1, although his lead over Huczek in second spot has narrowed. The Kansas City Open wasn't a Grand Slam event, so there were fewer points to earn than at the previous event - the Motorola IRT Racquetball World Championships, which was a Grand Slam event.

But in the 10-20 rankings, Kane Waselenchuk has moved up again, as he won the Kansas City Open. He's now ranked 14th - up from 18th, so he'll be one of the 8 seeded qualifiers and won't have to play more than one qualifying match to get into the main draw at this week's Kentucky Open.

If Waselenchuk wins again this week, he might be 10th in next week's rankings. Then if he wins next week at the Canadian Classic in Edmonton, he could be 8th, which would be a seeding directly into the main draw and no qualifying matches. Whether that happens depends on how well the players above him do, and exactly how many points are possible from the next two events.

Lee Connell just gets into the top 20 this week at number 20. Travis Woodbury has dropped a spot from 17 to 18. Andres Herrera dropped from 15 to 17, while Alejandro Herrera improved from 16 to 14.

WPRO

Rhonda Rajsich tops the WPRO rankings, as before. Indeed, the top 8 women remain the same, but Doreen Fowler has moved up to the 9th position, as she's flipped places with Christie Van Hees.

Samantha Salas and Veronica Sotomayor are the big upward movers in the 10-20 range. Salas moved from 18 to 13, while Sotomayor went from 24 to 20. Jennifer Saunders also went up from from 19 to 18.

Going the other way were Kimi Ferina, who dropped from 13 to 15, and Candi Hostovich, moving from 16 to 19.

Top 20 IRT Players for Sept 29, 2008

1) Rocky Carson
2) Jack Huczek
3) Jason Mannino
4) Alvaro Beltran
5) Shane Vanderson
6) Mitch Williams
7) Ben Croft
8) Chris Crowther
9) Jason Thoerner
10) Andy Hawthorne
11) Juan Herrera
12) Hiroshi Shimizu
13) Alejandro Herrera
14) Kane Waselenchuk
15) Javier Moreno
16) Kris Odegard
17) Andres Herrera
18) Travis Woodbury
19) John Ellis
20) Lee Connell

Top 20 WPRO Players for Sept 29, 2008

1) Rhonda Rajsich
2) Cheryl Gudinas Holmes
3) Kerri Wachtel
4) Angela Grisar
5) Kristen Bellows
6) Paola Longoria
7) Adrienne Fisher
8) Brenda Kyzer
9) Doreen Fowler
10) Christie Van Hees
11) Jo Shattuck
12) Diane Moore
13) Samantha Salas
14) Vivian Gomez
15) Kimi Ferina
16) Keely Franks
17) T. J. Baumbaugh
18) Jennifer Saunders
19) Candi Hostovich
20) Veronica Sotomayor


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