Gabriela Martinez won the 2024 Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) Frontline Family Foundation Mile High Open in Denver, Colorado, the first LPRT event of the 2024-25 season. She defeated LPRT #2 Paola Longoria in the final, 3-15, 15-6, 11-10. The win is her third LPRT victory and first since the Sweet Caroline Open in May 2023. Remarkably, Martinez hasn’t made it past the quarterfinals in either of the last two seasons aside from that victory.
The final went to a breaker after Martinez and Longoria split the first two games each winning by a lopsided score. Game three was close all the way. Longoria opened with a 3-0 lead, with Martinez getting the next six points to lead 6-3.
She held that lead until Longoria tied it at 9-9 with a drive serve ace to the right side. Longoria followed that up with another drive serve ace - this time to the left side that cracked out just past the short line - that made it 10-9: match point.
Longoria drove serve again, but hit it short. Her lob serve to left side began a long rally that Martinez ended on the 15th shot with a forehand cross court winner. Martinez then hit another winner - a forehand wide angle pass - to put herself on match point at 10-10. Martinez hit a drive serve to the right side, and Longoria skipped her return shot, giving Martinez the win.
In the match Martinez - a right hand player - hit many backhand drive serves to the left side: Longoria’s backhand with some success.
This final may be a preview of what we’ll see at the 2024 International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Championships taking place at the end of August in San Antonio, Texas, as Martinez and Longoria have met in the Women’s Singles final at three of the last four World Championships with Martinez winning once and Longoria twice. Longoria has won Women's Singles at Worlds five of the last six times with Martinez's win the only exception in that period.
Doubles
Brenda Laime and Montserrat Mejia won the LPRT doubles title in Denver by defeating Natalia Mendez and Maria Jose Vargas in the final, 14-15, 15-6, 11-3. Mejia usually plays with Alexandra Herrera, but Herrera wasn’t in Denver due to injury, so she partnered with Laime, and played on the right side, as she does with the left handed Herrera, although Laime is right handed.
As for the other team, Vargas played the left side and Mendez the right. Over several years of playing together, Vargas and Mendez have varied which of them plays which side, but Vargas left and Mendez right is what they played this weekend.
They were back and forth throughout game one. When Mendez and Vargas took four point lead at 13-9, it looked like they would close it out. Instead, Laime and Mejia actually had game point first getting five straight points to make it 14-13.
A Mendez forehand pinch shot fought off that game point, and she tied it at 14-14 with a backhand shot up the right side. Vargas finished off the game on the next rally by hitting a forehand cross court shot from the front court.
Mendez and Vargas won the first two points of game two, but Laime and Mejia got the next eight to lead 8-3, and they never trailed after that, as they went on to win games two and three fairly convincingly. Mejia did a lot of the heavy lifting in those games, but Laime did her fair share, including the last two points with the winner being a backhand from deep on the left side.
In the semi-finals earlier on Saturday, Laime and Mejia beat Kelani Lawrence and Jessica Parrilla, 15-5, 15-8, while Mendez and Vargas needed to come back from a game down to defeat Longoria and Samantha Salas, 7-15, 15-10, 11-3.
The next LPRT event is the Chicago Turkey Shoot, November 22-24, in Lombard, Illinois, but they’ll also be playing outdoors next month at the 3WallBall World Championships in Las Vegas, September 24-29. If you missed any of the action from Denver, check out the matches via the LPRT YouTube channel.
2024 LPRT Frontline Family Foundation Mile High Open
Denver, Colorado - August 1-3, 2024
Singles Final - Saturday
9) Gabriela Martinez d. 2) Paola Longoria, 3-15, 15-6, 11-10
Doubles - Semi-finals - Saturday
1) Brenda Laime & Montserrat Mejia d. 5) Kelani Lawrence & Jessica Parrilla, 15-5, 15-8
3) Natalia Mendez & Maria Jose Vargas d. 2) Paola Longoria & Samantha Salas, 7-15, 15-10, 11-3
Doubles - Final - Saturday
1) Brenda Laime & Montserrat Mejia d. 3) Natalia Mendez & Maria Jose Vargas, 14-15, 15-6, 11-3
Follow the bouncing ball….
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