WPRO : Christmas Classic Prediction

The Christmas Classic, the last event of the year on the Women's Professional Racquetball Organization's (WPRO's) schedule, run by fabulous tournament director Karen Denu begins today in Arlington, Virginia. Time for The Racquetball Blog to predict the winner. Which player will have a very merry Christmas?

The hot racquet is being held by Paola Longoria, who's won the last two WPRO Tier 1 tournaments in Memphis and Edmonton, so perhaps she's the obvious choice. TRB readers seem to think so.

But Longoria's not the WPRO's #1 player or even #2. Those players are Rhonda Rajsich and Cheryl Gudinas Holmes, respectively. We've picked against the top seed before, and it hasn't really worked for us.

Moreover, Rajsich should be motivated by her recent shock loss to Veronica Sotomayor, another up and coming player, in the final of the New Jersey Open. Top players don't like losing. That's one of the reasons they are top players. And their rare losses are motivation for working even harder to ensure that never happens again. Never. Again.

Yet the up and comers have time on their side. A lot of time. Rajsich, 30, is giving up over a decade to Longoria, 19, and Sotomayor, 16, and Gudinas Holmes at 41 is giving up more than two decades.

Nevertheless, we gotta pick someone, so we picking Rhonda Rajsich to bring her athleticism, unorthodox serving style and determination to Virginia and ruin everyone else's Christmas. Longoria will have to console herself with a World Junior Championship next week.

Follow the bouncing ball....