Barrios wins in Kansas & summer preview

Angelica Barrios capped off a great season Sunday by winning Women’s Open at the 2022 TeamRoot.com Super Max Slam in Overland Park, Kansas, where she defeated Kelani Lawrence in the final, 15-4, 15-13. Earlier this season, Barrios won Women's Singles at the 2022 Pan American Championships, and reached the US Open semi-finals for the first time.

In the Women’s Open semi-finals, Barris defeated Valeria Centellas, 15-11, 14-15, 11-5, and Lawrence beat Micaela Meneses, 15-6, 15-5.

Barrios lost in the Round of 16 of the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) singles draw in Kansas to veteran Rhonda Rajsich, but nonetheless should be ranked in the season ending LPRT top 10 for the first time. She's had a great season indeed.

Upcoming events

It will be a busy summer of racquetball this year, as the 2022 World Games take place in Birmingham, Alabama next month, and then the International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Championships happen in San Luis Potosi, Mexico from August 19-27.

The World Games competition will begin on July 10 and run to July 13. Only singles will be played, and 16 players qualified for the event from the IRF World Championships last year in Guatemala. The men’s Round of 16 will be on July 10 with the women’s 16s on July 11. Then the quarterfinals and semi-finals will be July 12 and the finals on July 13. We think there will be 3rd place matches as well on the 13th.

The main court from the US Open will be used for the event, and all matches will be played on that court. Also, we understand that video replay rather than line judges will be used for all appeals. It will be interesting to see how well that works.

The World Games match format will be the same as for the 2022 Pan American Championships: best of 5 games with the first four games to 15 points, win by 1, and the fifth game, if necessary, will be played to 11 points, win by 2. Rally scoring - every rally results in a point for a player - will used.

But for the 2022 World Championships will use rally scoring with a match format of best of five games to 11 points with each game win by 2. That’s similar to what the pro tours used to do, but with rally scoring rather than scoring only when serving.

It should make for an exciting summer of racquetball.

2022 TeamRoot.com Super Max Slam, June 9-12, 2022
Overland Park, Kansas 

Women’s Open - Final

1) Angelica Barris d. 2) Kelani Lawrence, 15-4, 15-13

Semi-finals

1) Angelica Barris d. 5) Valeria Centellas, 15-11, 14-15, 11-5
2) Kelani Lawrence d. 3) Micaela Meneses, 15-6, 15-5

Quarterfinals

1) Angelica Barris d. 8) Sheryl Lotts, 15-9, 15-8
5) Valeria Centellas d. 4) Carla Muñoz, 7-15, 15-8, 11-9

3) Micaela Meneses d. 6) Hollie Scott, forfeit
2) Kelani Lawrence d. 7) Adriana Riveros, 3-15, 15-13, 11-10

Round of 16

1) Angelica Barris d. 16) T. J. Baumbaugh, 15-0, 15-2
8) Sheryl Lotts d. 9) Susana Acosta, 15-12, 12-15, 11-3

5) Valeria Centellas d. 12) Annie Roberts, 15-13, 15-8
4) Carla Muñoz d. 13) Stephanie Synhorst, 15-2, 15-3

3) Micaela Meneses d. 14) Sunshine Arterburn, 7-0, injury forfeit
6) Hollie Scott d. 11) Camila Rivero, 15-6, 15-4

7) Adriana Riveros d. 10) Linda Tyler, 15-12, 15-6
2) Kelani Lawrence d. 15) Martina Katz, 15-2, 15-0

 Follow the bouncing ball….