Congrats to your winners on the weekend:
- Men's Pro Doubles: Rocky Carson & Kane Waselenchuk
- Women's Pro Doubles: Carla Munoz & Brenda Laime
- Mixed Pro Doubles: Chris McDonald & Michelle Key
- Men's Singles: Eduardo Portillo
- Women's Singles: Carla Muñoz
- CPRT: Chris McDonald & Kane Waselenchuk
Executive Summary: A big weekend for the McDonald clan, who took home a slew of titles. Muñoz got the double and missed out on a Triple Crown by one division. Two wins for King Kane, adding his name to the outdoor record books, and yet another title for Rocky.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=42032
ProRacquetballStats.com Match Reports by Pro division (notification that the results have been loaded to the database):
- Men's Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/s0x
- Women's Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/km7
- Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/6zj
- Men's Singles: https://rball.pro/5tx
- Women's Singles: https://rball.pro/xyg
Triple Crown Reports: (these show the winners of all Pro divisions at all WOR outdoor majors across time)
- Men's Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/j47
- Women's Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/2vv
- Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/y43
- Men's Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/86z
- Women's Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/x8g
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Here’s a Quick Recap of the Pro Draws
Men's Pro Doubles:
Thanks to very balanced seeding, there were really no surprises to the semis in the Men's Pro Doubles draw. All top 4 seeds advanced as expected, and only one tie-breaker blip in an earlier round forced one of the favorites to stress.
In the semis, the #1 seeds and defending champs Josh Tucker and Brandon Davis struggled with the veteran/youth combination of Mexican #4 seeds Alvaro Beltran and Eduardo Portillo , losing the first game 13 before grinding out a three game win. In the bottom semi, two-time Outdoor Nats pro winners Micah Rich and Jason Geis faced off in a highly anticipated match against 5-time Outdoor Nats pro winner Rocky Carson and 14-time IRT tour champ Kane Waselenchuk . Kane first played outdoor just a few years ago, coming out to Las Vegas during the Covid year to make a huge run to the final before falling to the DLR/Beltran team. He came to Huntington Beach last year, but struggled to gel with Alvaro and lost early to the same team they played on Sunday (Jason and Micah). In 2024, with a more natural left-sided partner in Rocky, Kane was unbeatable. Unlike in years past, when Kane's court coverage was a liability, he was deadly today, and any ball that ventured to the right side of the court that was below his shoulders was basically a roll out. Rich and Jason worked primarily to Rocky, but Rocky's defensive game is top notch, and there was just only so many shoulder height overheads Micah could take in the middle of the court before one popped over to Kane for the kill. The final score line was 7,7, and the two legends of the sport were moving on.
In the final, Kane & Rocky white-washed the defending champs in game one before they made the adjustments needed to get back into the match. Like one would expect, Davis & Tucker ground their way to a game two win to force a breaker. There, Rocky & Kane took back over and won the title 11-7. Rocky claims his 6th Outdoor Nationals doubles title, tying him with Greg Solis and Clubber Lane for 2nd all time. Meanwhile, Like indoor legends Brumfield, Swain, Carson, Beltran, and De La Rosa before him, Kane got to put his signature on the champion's surfboard for the first time.
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Women's Pro Doubles:
Carla Muñoz won her 6th straight Women's Pro doubles title at Outdoor Nationals, and her third in a row with a different partner, by teaming with Brenda Laime to down her former partner Michelle Key playing with Katie Neils in a close 11,14 match Sunday morning.
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Mixed Pro Doubles
Chris McDonald played his patented "pressure defense" game while teaming with the best and most decorated female doubles outdoor player of all time in Michelle Key to take the final in dominant fashion over the #1 seeds Rich & Muñoz, denying Muñoz the triple crown on the weekend. Final score: 9,5.
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Men's Pro Singles
In his first ever foray into outdoor singles, International Racquetball Tour veteran Eduardo "Lalo" Portillo made fast work of the competition to take the title. He downed Hall of Famer Greg Solis in the semis 4,6 and then toppled the defending champ and #1 seed Danny Lavely 3,5 in the final.
Portillo is now the 8th different man to win this title in the last 8 years it has been held. Before him was Lavely, Acuna, Diaz, Covid, Tucker, Avila, Beltran, and then Rocky ... who won it 10 out of 11 years dating back to 2007 and beyond.
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Women's Pro Singles
#1 seed Carla Muñoz won her 3rd Women's pro singles title at Outdoor Nationals in four years, topping fellow LPRT pro Brenda Laime 7,14 for the title.
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Other Major Draws in California:
- CPRT: the future Vegas World Team Racquetball team KWM pair of McDonald and Waselenchuk used this draw to get acclimated as partners, and they ran through the draw learning each other as they went to end up with the title. After topping the NorCal based Torres/Ramos, they vanquished the top seeds Tucker & Solis 14,6. In the final, they faced 2-time pro champs Carson & Ustarroz, who have played together for many years. The two legend-led pairs split the first two games before the fire of McDonald caught ahold and they raced to an 11-3 tiebreaker win for the title.
- Men's 75s: Chris McDonald made it three titles on the weekend, teaming with his younger brother Jack Mcdonald to take the 75+ division. They beat Florida's Max Heymann and Sweet Lou Orosco in the final.
- Men's 100/Centurion: Heymann went one step further than he did in 75s, teaming with Gabe Medina to win the 100s.
- Men's Open: Jack McDonald and Lou Orosco both claimed a second title on the weekend, winning the Open Doubles crown.
- Men's Paddleball "Upper" title: Danny Lavely & Jeremy McGlothin won an injury-riddled Paddleball Upper division title, getting a walk-over in the final when Brian Pineda got hurt earlier in the weekend.
- Mixed Paddleball upper title: San Diego pair Aaron Hager & Roxanne Rehling surprised the draw by taking the title as the #5 seeds.
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Thanks to the Tourney Directors Geoff Osberg and Jesus Ustarroz for putting this event on, and congratulations on your induction into the WOR Hall of Fame for your decade-plus of service here.
Thanks once again to all the sponsors, especially 3Wall Ball , KWM Gutterman, Keith Minor, ProKennex, Melissa's Produce, Joe Splathead and Gearbox.
