Pro Racquetball Stats

LPRT Sweet Caroline Wrap-up by Pro Racquetball Stats

Pro Racquetball Stats published this article on Facebook on January 29, 2018.

———-

LPRT Sweet Caroline Wrap-up

Note: the singles and doubles data for this is now loaded to the database; here’s a quick link to the Quarters/semis/finals report for the event with a new format that I’ve been experimenting with:

Link was broken, come back in a few days for an update on the link

Paola Longoria wins her 81st pro singles title in the database, taking the final over country-mate Nancy Enriquez 9,7,0. Longoria takes her 6th title of the season out of 6 tries, extends her current match winning streak to 25 matches, and puts some more distance between her and the rest of the field on tour given the number of upsets in this tournament; more on that next.

Mexican veteran Nancy Enriquez has a fantastic tournament, making her first final (and only second ever semi-final) with a number of solid upset wins. She played very well against Longoria in the first two games of the final before running out of gas in the last. Enriquez missed six full seasons on tour from 2011 to 2016, but now is a danger to advance deep into every draw.

Samantha Salas Solis returned to the tour after a significant lay-off due to shoulder surgery and survived her first test, downing former #2 Maria Vargas in 5 games in the brutal round of 16 match-up. She couldn’t make it through the next round though, with #3 Jessica Leona Parrilla getting her first h2h win over Salas on the LPRT in the quarters. #5 seeded Alexandra Herrera also got a career win over a top rival, beating #4 Frederique Lambert for the first time in 9 tries on tour to make the semis. We even saw a slightly surprising result in the #8/#9 match-up, with Carla Munoz getting a rare win over her South American rival Cristina Amaya Cris.

But the biggest upset of the weekend may have been Eleni Guzman Velgis taking out #2 seeded Rhonda Rajsich in the round of 16 in four tight games. Velgis shot the ball lights out, was rolling out pinches from 39 feet, and played fantastically. She lost in the quarters to eventual finalist Enriquez, but even making a quarter was a career best for her. Guzman Velgis is an oddity in the database: I have one match for her in the 2004 US Open (a 1st round loss), then she doesn’t appear in a pro event for TWELVE years. But she’s now playing a number of events and is getting results.

On the doubles side, Longoria improved her doubles record to 15-1 on the season and 83-5 since the beginning of the 2013 season by winning with partner Herrera. This new doubles partnership is still undefeated, now 11-0 in all events. Longoria has now won 29 of the 35 doubles events she’s entered in the last 5 seasons.

All data available online at www.proracquetballstats.com