USA Racquetball announces World team

USA Racquetball (USAR) revealed their team for the 2021 International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Championships Tuesday. The seven player team is a mix of young players and wily veterans.

Leading the team are Rocky Carson and Rhonda Rajsich, both definitely in the wily veteran category, as they will be making their 19th and 27th appearances, respectively, on Team USA. Rajsich will play both Women’s Singles and Doubles, while Carson will play Men’s Singles.

Alejandro Landa is the other Men’s Singles player, and he’ll be making his first appearance on Team USA, but it won’t be his first international event or even first World Championships. Landa previously played for Mexico, representing them in the 2010, 2016 and 2017 Pan American Championships, as well as the 2010 World Championships in Seoul, Korea, where he was a bronze medalist in Men’s Doubles (with Miguel Perea). So, not his first rodeo.

It will be the first rodeo for Erika Manilla, who will play Women’s Doubles with Rajsich. Kelani Lawrence - in her 4th Team USA appearance - rounds out the Women’s team as their other player in Women’s Singles. By our count, Manilla will be the 108th player to play for the USA at an international racquetball event (Landa being #107).

Jake Bredenbeck and Charlie Pratt will be the Men’s Doubles team, and will be making their 9th and 5th Team USA appearances, respectively.

What are the prospects for Team USA at Worlds? They should be strong on the men’s side. Landa is the #2 player on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT), and Carson’s 5th. Bredenbeck is 10th on the IRT and Pratt is 34th, but that’s primarily because he hasn’t played very many events. Pratt would certainly be a top 15 player (or higher) if he’d played more. So, that part of the team looks solid.

But on the women’s side, Rajisch is the highest ranked player on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour, but she’s only 11th, which is her lowest ranking in many years. Lawrence is 16th and Manilla 34th, though like Pratt, neither has played many tour events. But many of the players ahead of them will likely be at Worlds, as the best women players have generally always gone to international events, which wasn’t always the case with the men back in the day.

If we were making a medal prediction for the USA at Worlds, we’d say two medals maybe three, and we're not sure what colour those medals will be. That’s a far cry from a six gold medal sweep that would have been predicted - even expected - from the USA at Worlds in years gone by.

But that’s how the racquetball landscape has changed.

We look forward to the World Championships, which are expected to happen in late November and early December. Exact dates have not been confirmed, as the IRF would like to do the World Championships and the World Junior Championships simultaneously - at least with some overlap between the two events. That has never been done before, and ironing out the logistics to get it to work are undoubtedly complex.

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