Who will win in Fayetteville?

The Outback Steakhouse Blast It! tournament kicks off the 2008-09 Women's Professional Racquetball Organization (WPRO) season tomorrow in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Rhonda Rajsich is the top seed. She won half of the Tier I WPRO events last year, and made it to at least the semis in all of them. Thus, smart money would be on Rajsich to win in Fayetteville, especially as she also won the World Championships - for the first time - last month in Ireland.

But that seems like such a boring prediction, and who said we were always that smart with our money anyway? In that spirit, we here at The Racquetball Blog are predicting Cheryl Gudinas Holmes to take the title in Fayetteville.

Gudinas Holmes is the second seed, and was runner up Rajsich at Worlds, so we aren't going far out on a limb with this. Rajsich's game style is more spectacular than Gudinas Holmes's, as it's not uncommon for Rajsich to keep the ball in play by diving multiple times in a single game, or even a single rally.

However, Gudinas Holmes is a very solid player, with great shot making ability and strong determination that had led to three World Championships and two U.S. Open titles. She's certainly a threat to win any tournament she enters.

So, that's our prediction, and it's probably worth exactly what you're paying for it. Thus, we're not advising you to bet big money on this in Vegas (although if you find out you can bet on this in Vegas, do let us know).

We encourage you to make your own prediction for this weekend's tournament. Let's see if TRB or its readers can make better predictions over the course of this racquetball season. To make your predication, look in the right sidebar of The Racquetball Blog. We've put up the names of the four top seeds as was as leaving a space for "Another player." Click on the circle beside your pick.

TRB readers' pick will be the player receiving the most votes. If that player wins, then that's one for the readers. If TRB selection wins (Gudinas Holmes for this event), that's one for us. We'll keep track of this over the course of the season, and see who comes out on top at the end.

Follow the bouncing ball....