The Racquetball Blog: Mexico, USA & Canada win gold at 2024 International Racquetball Federation World Championships

Mexico and the USA won two finals with Canada winning the other at the 22nd International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Championships in San Antonio, Texas on Thursday. Mexicans took Women’s Singles and Women’s Doubles with the USA winning Men’s Singles and Mixed Doubles, and Canada winning Men’s Doubles.

Mexican Paola Longoria won Women’s Singles for a record extending 6th time, defeating Guatemalan Gabriela Martinez, 11-5, 6-11, 11-9, 12-10, in the final. Longoria and Martinez have played four of the last five Women’s Singles finals with Longoria winning three times and Martinez once.

Daniel De La Rosa won an All-American Men’s Singles final, as he defeated Jake Bredenbeck, 11-9, 11-9, 1-11, 11-4. It’s the 16th time an American has won Men’s Singles at Worlds, and the first since 2021, when Alejandro Landa won it. It’s De La Rosa’s second World Championship, as he won Men’s Doubles with Alvaro Beltran two years ago, when he was representing Mexico.

Mexicans Alexandra Herrera and Montserrat Mejia won a closely contested Women’s Doubles final, as they hung on to beat Argentina’s Natalia Mendez and Maria Jose Vargas, 11-3, 9-11, 15-13, 7-11, 11-7. It’s the third consecutive title for Mexico, but the first for Herrera and Mejia, who were runners up in 2018.

Those three finals were all won by the higher seed, but the top seeds in Men’s Doubles - Mexicans Eduardo Portillo and Andree Parrilla - lost to Canadians Coby Iwaasa and Samuel Murray, in a final that also went five games, though perhaps strangely none of the games were that close as Canada won 11-5, 6-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-6. This is Canada’s first World Championship since 2006, when Christie Huczek (née Van Hees) won Women’s Singles, and the first Men's Doubles title for Canada.

De La Rosa and Hollie Scott won the Mixed Doubles title, as they defeated the top seeded Mexican team of Javier Mar and Mejia, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 14-12. That was De La Rosa’s third World Championship (and second of the day) and Scott’s first.

We expected good matches in all five finals, and they delivered. No final was decided in three straight games, and four of the five had multiple games decided by the minimum of two points. Of the 10 matches decided by two points, 4 went into extra points (i.e., were played past the minimum winning score of 11 points).

Match notes

Hollie Scott was the least experienced player in the Mixed Doubles final, but she came up big in game four, hitting five winners, as well as making two gets on another rally that led to a De La Rosa winner. In fact, she hit the match winner: a forehand splat shot off a lob serve to the right side.

The Men’s Doubles final was a streaky match, as four of the five games saw one side take a big lead that they didn’t give up. Only the third game was close all the way.

Mexico lost that game, so they needed to win game four. They won the first point of game four, and then got out to leads of 5-1 and 9-2 before closing it out at 11-4 to force a fifth game tie-breaker.

But in the breaker, it was Canada who scored first, and led all the way, at 3-0, 7-2, and 9-3. Mexico made it interesting at 9-5 and 10-6, but Murray won it then with a backhand shot that went over to the right side and handcuffed Parrilla.

Argentina won game four to force a tie-breaker in the Women’s Doubles final. In that breaker, they took the early lead over Mexico at 2-0 and 6-4. But at that point Vargas hit a loose ball that came back at her, causing an avoidable hinder and made the score 6-5 for Argentina. However, Argentina only scored one point after that.

The margins between elite players can be paper thin, and little things can make the difference.

Mexico score three more points to lead 8-6, so Argentina called a timeout. When play resumed Mendez hit a ball that was probably meant to be a cross court shot, but went into the middle and hit her partner Vargas, making the score 9-6.

A Mejia winner made it 10-6, but a Vargas winner denied them the first match point. But Herrera made good on the second match point, as the left-hander hit a forehand reverse pinch shot winner to the front right corner.

The Men’s Singles final was a contrast of styles, as De La Rosa is primarily a shooter and Bredenbeck a power player. Thus, De La Rosa mainly lob served during the match, while Bredenbeck drove serve. But the reason De La Rosa has been the #1 player on the International Racquetball Tour for the last three seasons is that he can also play a power game, and that was on display during the final.

Longoria is also a player who is both a shooter and a power player, which is why she has dominated women’s racquetball for nearly twenty years. Martinez is a power player, and fully committed on the court, as she throws herself around it making some great gets to keep the rallies going.

But Longoria’s shots were generally more precise that Martinez’s, and that was the difference. Martinez’s efforts might keep rallies going, but too often - and even on offensive opportunities - she was just giving Longoria another opportunity to hit a winner, and Longoria doesn’t need many opportunities to hit winning shots.

Team competition

Play continues at Worlds, as they will move on to the Men’s and Women’s Team competition. Countries face off in a best of three matches: two singles matches and a doubles match. The order of the matches varies across the rounds, although the final will be singles, singles and doubles, if necessary.

If you missed any of the action, and all the finals are well worth seeing, check out the IRF YouTube channel.

22nd IRF World Championships
August 24-31, 2024 - San Antonio, Texas, United States

Men's Singles