Who will win in Denver?

The International Racquetball Tour (IRT) Motorola Racquetball World Championships are almost through the qualifying stages, so it seems about time for The Racquetball Blog (TRB) to make its prediction for a winner. TRB readers have voted for either Rocky Carson, current number 1 IRT player, or Kane Waselenchuk, the returning former number 1 player, to take the tournament.

But we're going with another former number 1. TRB predicts Jack Huczek will win in Denver. Huczek lost in the first round of this tournament last year, which was the only time he did not reach the finals in Tier I or Grand Slam IRT events last season. Thus, if he wins, he can get a big boost in the rankings, which could take him back to the top of IRT.

Of course, Mr. Huczek might not be so pleased with our choice, as we're 0-1 following last weekend's Women's Professional Racquetball Organization (WPRO) event in Fayetteville, NC, where we predicted Cheryl Gudinas Holmes would win it all. In fact, Rhonda Rajsich won, as predicted by the TRB readers.

But the IRT is a whole different thing from the WPRO! It's a brand new event! And a whole new week! Why should we be held down by past errors? We should not!

So we're down for Huczek. It might not be the most popular choice this weekend, but popularity is so common.

Follow the bouncing ball....