• June 2017: Prior to the start of the new season, Major news is announced on Facebook and other social networking platforms: the IRT tour has been sold to a group of investors led by IRT Network's owner John Scott. The new company (E.J. Productions) will package the tour and its broadcast network together, talks of new juniors programs and may also eventually include the LPRT. Current IRT President Jason Mannino moves into a "consultant" role while Scott assumes the IRT Presidency (with the title "CEO."). Scott soon names former LPRT commissioner Andy Kulbeck to be the new IRT commissioner as he steps into more of an executive/management position.
• Sept 2017: First event rebrands "Open" as "IRT Futures" and opens it up to anyone outside the IRT top 8 by ranking (not seeding, as Parrilla was seeded 8th but played in the event. IRT also announces an increase in total purse and prize money in the Futures event that makes it rather competitive with the WRT, perhaps an attempt to keep the draw sizes high.
• Sept 2017: First event of the year has a huge draw (37 players) and a number of the top WRT players ... and unsurprisingly the seeds 5-8 all lost early. WRT regulars Parrilla, Montoya, Gerardo Franco and Horn all made the quarters, with other WRT regulars like Bredenbeck and Fernandez putting up tough fights in the 16s. The Rojas brothers were missing (wedding), and Pratt no showed (hurricane), but this was one of the better draws in recent memory. Kane pounded Montoya in a match that was closer than the score in the semis and cruised to the win.
• Sept 2017: immediately after the event, IRT announces an "Exemption rule" for its top 8 players, enabling them to play one non-IRT sanctioned event each season. This implies that the non-compete still exists for the top 8 players, which raises a thorny question for those players who are good enough to be right on the cusp of the top 8 but who face an earnings-limiting decision if they venture too close to the top 8. One has to wonder if the absence of Alex Landa (ranked #9 on the tour at the end of 2015-16)'s absence from the opening event played a part.
• Sept 2017: someone in the investor group has some sway at ESPN: a highlight of Kane from the opening tournament making a kill shot between his legs makes ESPN Sportscenter's top plays of the week.. I can't quite tell though but it does look like its a clip the 2016 Atlanta event, not the event that just occurred. Its a shame they didn't use the Kane-Montoya rally at 4-0 in game one, one of the better rallies i've ever seen on tour. Nonetheless, its Racquetball on Sports center, so perhaps I doth protest too much. Note: this 4-0 rally DID make it onto ESPN sportscenter top 10s a few weeks later coinciding with the beginning rounds of the US Open, on 10/4/17.
• Sep 2017: a "petition" appears on all major Racquetball discussion outlets (Facebook, reddit, 40x20) which read like a rant about the prize money changes, the costs, the food and the spectator ticket prices for the US Open. It clearly addresses some points of contention with some of the lesser players and again highlights a growing complaint in the player base: the IRT's "protection" of its top 8 ranked players with byes while the WRT provides no such protection. New owner John Scott wades into the discussion asking for patience, but it should be interesting to see if there's some players who purposely miss the marquee event of the year. Participation in the IRT pro draw is down 33% from 2010 to 2016 on the Men's side and the tour probably wants to reverse that trend.
• Oct 2017: a robust draw for the first US Open underneath new ownership, reversing a 7 year trend of declining Men's pro draws. However there's notable absences; all three Rojas brothers are absent, including 5th ranked Jose and 7th ranked Marco. The youngest brother Daniel (Mauro) made some comments about dissatisfaction with the organization of the tour as his reason for not showing, but the absence of Jose in particular is interesting. Marco has apparently graduated and taken a FTE teaching job, which may mean the end of his touring days. We'll update this as we learn more information. Meanwhile, the US Open also features the return of former #1 Sudsy Monchik, who has become rejuvenated coaching the Ecuadorian nat'l team. He's teamed up with another former #1 Cliff Swain to play pro doubles, in what could be a fascinating matchup of power forehands in the doubles draw. The draw features a number of dark horses, some of which face unfortunate seedings (Landa-Montoya in the 32s for example, while others (Javier Mar) have somewhat clear paths to the quarters. The play not disappoint: Monchik makes the quarter finals as the #53 seed, beating Gerardo Franco in qualifying and then #12 Camacho and #5 Allen in 5 games before falling to Beltran (The Monchik/Swain doubles combo lost their first match). Monchik's first pro appearance since Feb 2012 was a rousing success. Veteran International player Fernando Rios, seeded #70 after having all his prior pro points expire, took out promising US junior Dylan Reid and #6 seeded Sebastian Franco to make the round of 16 as the #70th seed before falling to Landa in four. Bolivian Carlos Keller Vargas advanced to the main draw and took a game off of De La Rosa before falling as the #67 seed. Reigning Mexican champ and #23 seed Javier Mar easily handled #10 seed Murray and #7 seeded Mercado in straight games before being outclassed by Rocky in the quarters; he's clearly better than the #23 player in the world. Meanwhile, the 2017 US Open was definitely a "coming out" party for several juniors who are not that well known to the rball world. Conrrado Moscoso, who was playing in his first IRT or pro event and seeded dead last at #73, advanced to the quarters and kept Kane on the court for nearly 1hr 15minutes as the 22-yr old showed what those who have followed the international game have known for a while; he's legit. Canadian junior #52 seed Nicolas Bouquet took out two higher ranked players (Cubillos and Collins) before falling to Beltran in the 16s. Mexican junior Eduardo Portillo, who is only 17 and still has one more year in 18U at the int'l level, advanced to the round of 32 as the #64 seed (again, this was his first IRT event) and stretched Kane to 6,9,9 in a match where he absolutely flummoxed the champ). Seven of the final 16 players were upsets by seed, and the final 8 featured the top four seeds plus the #11 (Landa), #23 (Mar) and aforementioned Monchik (#53) and Moscoso (#73). There's often talk about how "thin" the depth on tour is; perhaps the fact that there's constantly new faces challenging and taking out anyone seeded 5th or lower is evidence of how "deep" the player pool is outside the top 3-4 guys. Lastly, a mention for Landa, who still seems to only play every other tour event but yet is a constant threat to make the semi finals (he's made 4 semis out of the last 6 tournaments played). After outlasting Montoya in the 32s he made the semis and took a game off of Carson before falling. In the end, Kane beat Rocky in a 4-game final to capture his 13th US Open title. Kane looked tired and sluggish, perhaps the aftermath of an amazing and emotional Mens doubles final the previous evening that had many observers calling it the best game of racquetball they've ever seen. The 2017 US Open did see Kane's amazing consecutive games winning streak come to an end; Beltran took a game off of him in the semis. His streak ends at 113 straight games won, dating to May of 2016 (where, ironically, Beltran was the last previous player to have taken a game from him). This is by far the longest such streak in the tour's history, and includes the entirety of the 2015-16 season as noted elsewhere.

• Sept 2016: First event of the year: still no Croft; his shoulder injury may be career-ending. Tons of "upsets" in the 32s, as the guys ranked 9-16 take a beating at the hand of players who don't play the tour as frequently. Franco, Zelada, McClellan, Collins, Mercado and Pratt all upset by lower ranked (but probably better) players. Long time player Alejandro Landa entered his first IRT tournament since the 2015 US Open and promptly beat #5 seed Jose Rojas in 3-straight; he then advanced past fellow upset winner Bredenbeck to make the semis as a #21 seed (the highest seeded player to make a semi since I started capturing seeds in 2010). It seems like every time Landa enters a tournament he upsets a ranked player and makes the quarters or semis.
• Sept 2016: Other start-of the season observations: the diversity on tour is starting to really show. Just four of the tour's top 10 players are now American-born; 4 from USA, 1 Canada, 2 Mexico, two from Columbia and one from Costa Rica. 9 of the next 10 ranked players are from the USA, but the real power on tour is slowly migrating south. This is no surprise; the rise of the WRT (which is heavily populated with Central and South american players) and the rise in popularity of the game in these countries will only continue to drive this trend.
• Oct 2016: Kane handily wins his 12th US Open (9th in a row) with a 2,2,6 win over #2 Rocky Carson. As noticed by Evan Pritchard at theracquetballblog, Sebastian Franco's quarterfinal appearance is the first time a South American has advanced to the quarters of a major tournament. Up and coming player Jake Bredenbeck had split the first two games with Daniel De La Rosa in their quarterfinal when he injured his shoulder diving, causing him to retire. Later that night though, he showed up in his Pro doubles match and played *left handed* ... even drive serving at some point. However the news on his shoulder is not good: he tore the labrum in his shoulder. He opted to rehab instead of going straight to surgery, so we may not see him on the tour for a while (he actually continued to play both IRT and WRT events left handed for months afterwards).
• Oct 2016: Relatively new touring pro and Maryland native Mauricio Zelada takes an offer to start working for Gearbox Racquetball in San Diego and abruptly quits the IRT. He finished 2015-16 season #12 with two quarter final appearances, but thanks to his involvement with Gearbox presumably will now exclusively play on the WRT. He also broke his contract with the IRTNetwork, which may have some longer term effects on the viability of that company to continue operating.
• Nov 2016: Landa strikes again: as a #15 seed he takes out #2 Seed Rocky Carson in a 2+ hour marathon match in Atlanta. Its just the third time that a #1 or #2 seed has lost a non-forfeit match in the round of 16 since 2010. Thanks to a compressed schedule for the tournament and the existence of doubles, Landa has just 90 minutes to rest before he plays his quarter final match (which he wins in 3 close games over Allen). He loses in 5 close games to De La Rosa in the Semis (who injures himself at the end of the 5th game and defaults the final), but all told he spends more than 8 HOURS on the court over the course of just 2.5 days, making the semis in singles and finals of doubles.
• Jan 2017: Kane cruises through the draw again and has won every event thus far on the season without dropping a game; he's 60-0 in 21 matches (one forfeit win).
• Mar 2017: Andree Parrilla makes the final of the Lombard event as a #14 seed; that's the lowest seed to make a final (not including the under-seeded returns of Kane from suspension in 2008 nor Alvaro from injury in 2010) since Derek Robinson's run to the finals as a #15 seed in Columbus 1998. Along the way he beat #3 seed De La Rosa in a 5-game stunner in the 16s, then got revenge against Alejandro Landa (who had beaten him the previous week in mexican Nationals). Then in a 2 hour marathon he took out #2 Carson, holding off rocky's late charge after jumping up big in the final game. In the final, Parrilla loses the first two quickly but pushes kane to 12-10 in the third game, falling in 3 straight but making an impression. The win jumps him from #14 to #10, just one slot ahead of Landa, whom he beat for the first time ever competitively en route to the finals.
• Mar 2017; one week after the Lombard event, Kane is a late withdrawl from the Ohio event due to flu-like symptoms. This makes for a wide open draw, with all four top seeds (Carson, Beltran, DLR and Rojas) having taken round of 16 upsets at some point this season. The tournament ended up with a first-time semi finalist (Canadian Samuel Murray) but more or less went chalk, with #1 seeded Rocky taking out #2 seeded DLR in the final. Kane's points lead afforded him this break; he need only win one more event this season to wrap up the title. However it moves Rocky to the #1 seed for the next tournament.
• May 2017: Kane Waselenchuk finishes the 2016-17 season Undefeated (29-0) but more importantly, he finishes the season without having lost a GAME (85-0 in the match database). Four times during the season he was stretched to a 12-10 game win, and had to mount a huge comeback in the semis of the final 2016-17 event (Jose Rojas was up 10-4 in game one of their semi finals) to set this record. Kane secures his 12th pro tour title in the process and does not look like he's slowing down anytime soon.
• May 2017: Season ending standings observations: the top 7 for the year are identical, in the same order, as last season's. In #8, Sebastian Franco just beat out Mario Mercado for the last protected seed. However, the 9-16 saw some significant movement and a number of new names that could shake up the tour in the coming years. Parrilla and Landa finished 10th and 12th respectively despite playing the IRT just part time. Horn finished 13th in his first year touring "full time," Samuel Murray finished 14th in a huge jump from last year, and Bredenbeck finished 16th despite missing half the season through a shoulder injury. All five of these players have posted significant wins over higher ranked players in the past couple of seasons, and it could make for a very deep tour if they can play full time in 2017-18.

• Sept 2015: Alvaro Beltran reportedly fined for playing in a competing tour event held by the WRT in his home town of Juarez Mexico. Given that nearly every regular player ranked outside the top 10 also plays WRT events, we wonder what the offical rule is with IRT players. I suspect the IRT is either top-8 or top-10 protected by non-compete contracts, similarly to the way that certain players can or cannot play in non Tier-1 events.
• Sept 2015: Ben Croft returns to the tour after rehabbing from a serious shoulder surgery and drops what he calls "a rehab start" game in the round of 16 to Felipe Camacho. Croft notes that he only was present at the event so as not to drop round of 16 points and was clearly not ready to play, having only even been on the court once prior to the event. Croft took to social media to call out Camacho as an "A player" as he apparently was smack-talking on the court during a match where Croft was clearly struggling. Camacho's best ever result on tour prior to this was likely a round-of-32 defeat of Mauro Rojas in Fresno 2015 and had never even come close to advancing past the round of 16 beforehand. Camacho eventually beat fellow upset winner Bradley Rogers in the quarters to advance to the semis for the first time of his career.
• Oct 2015: Waselenchuk wins an unheard of 11th US Open title in October, beating upset-minded Daniel De La Rosa in the final. Thanks to a rankings quirk, Kane entered the event seeded #2, which enabled De La Rosa to meet the #1 seeded Carson in the semis, where he prevailed in a barn-busting 12-10 5th. De La Rosa at age 23 is who many pundits believe may take over on tour, but he falters in the every next tournament, dropping a round of 16 match to Sebastian Franco (who then goes on to make his first career semi). De La Rosa struggles in the next few tournaments, losing in the quarters in Davison and then no-showing in Garden City. The US Open semis-loss is the second such upset loss in the season's sole major for Carson, who similarly was upset in the semis of the 2014 US Open, a loss that significantly hurt him at season's end (when he lost the points by just 32 points).
• Oct 2015: A number of regular player absences at the Atlanta event made for some weird seedings: #11th ranked Felipe Camacho was seeded 5th by virtue of Waselenchuk, Croft, and Marco Rojas missing the draw, and then Camacho getting the lucky seeding scramble. Other regulars on tour also missed the draw: Diaz and Fuhrman opted to play in the WRT event close to home. Thanks to the weakened draw, both DC-area native Mauricio Zelada and Matthew Majxner made a quarter final for the first time, each "upsetting" a player ranked slightly ahead of them at the time. Felipe Camacho also made the quarters in this tournament, with only Daniel De La Rosa facing a seeded tour player in his quarter final. This has turned into a game-changing season so far for Camacho.
• Nov 2015: Waselenchuk withdraws from Davison event with a shoulder injury, too late to re-make the draws so he gets yet another "loss by forfeit" instead of loss on the court. The main beneficiary is Brad Schopiery, who gets his career best result with a bye into the quarters, where he pounded Felipe Camacho to make the semis (previous career best: round of 16). The bigger news was the huge upset of Swain over Beltran in the round of 16, who then made shorter work of #6 seed Allen to make the semis at the ripe old age of 49. Fringe tour player Tom Fuhrmann opted to enter the competing WRT event instead of the IRT event, perhaps signifying a change in his playing status. Croft still MIA, nursing his surgically repaired shoulder.
• Nov 2015: Sebastian Franco is the next recipient of a gift into the semis as De La Rosa forfeits his round of 16 match in Garden City. This enables Franco to get an easy quarter final win over Scot McClellan to make his 2nd semis of the season. In the next event, yet another surprise early round loss from Alvaro Beltran (this time to Mario Mercado) paves the way for yet another of the tour's newer players to make their way into the later rounds for the first time. Mercado, who had never advanced beyond the round of 16, makes the semis in St. Louis. It seems like every week there's another first-timer in the semis this year, perhaps a sign that a changing of the guard is coming. Camacho, Franco, Schopiery, Swain, Mercado. Lots of surprises this year.
• Dec 2015: Ben Croft announces that he has to take the rest of the season off due to lingering issues with his off-season shoulder surgery. Croft has only played in 2 events and has fallen out of the top 8 at this point (he sits at #11 as of this writing), so (in his words) there's little incentive to continue to play to keep his protected ranking so he might as well shut it down for the season. He hopes to come back perhaps by the last event of the season.
• Mar 2016: Kane wins the Lombard, IL event and gives up a grand total of 19 points in four matches. Just a crazy show of dominance in the event. His Semi-final win over Alvaro 2,0,0 was "injury aided" but he dominated DLR in the final.
• Apr 2016: Kane withdraws from the Ohio event last minute due to a medical issue. Statement from the tour: "Top ranked Kane Waselenchuk pulls out of The 8th Annual Raising Some Racquet For Kids tournament in Ohio. After trying to battle through the pain, Kane was admitted into the hospital this morning for emergency incarcerated hernia surgery. We will keep you updated as information is released." Post at IRT-tour.com: http://www.irt-tour.com/kane-did-great/ . This injury clearly was still affecing him a month later at the Florida event, where he played a tough Bredenbeck opponent and had to retire in the 5th. This is troublesome for Kane, because in his absense Rocky picks up two tournament wins and, with two events back, Kane basically has to at least win one of them to guarantee the year end points title.
• May 2016: Sebastian Franco continues to make his mark on the tour; he's now made 4 semis and a quarter final this season after not ever advancing past the round of 16 in seasons' past. He entered the Florida event ranked 9th but easily handled the 8th ranked Camacho (himself also experiencing a big 2015-16 season) to advance. He also easily handled upstart Bredenbeck to make another semi. Franco may not quite have the points to put himself into the top 8, but he's proved that he can beat those guys in the 5-8 section of the rankings.
• May 2016: Faced with having to win one of the remaining two events, Kane cruises through the draw in Portland, showing a bit of rust but otherwise winning. In the final against De La Rosa, observers on irtnetwork.com's live feed noted that Kane looked like he was playing hurt and were postulating that he may very well forfeit the match after losing the first game 11-5. However, disagreement midway through the second game resulted with the two coming nose to nose on the court. This seemed to energize Kane, and he ended up stepping up his game (injury or not) from there out, taking the 2nd game and eventually the match (5),9,3,3. This win sealed Kane's 11th title thanks to Rocky's semis loss to De La Rosa. For good measure, Kane went on to take the season's final event the following weekend in Reseda, again beating DLR in the final to seal his latest dominant title.
• May 2016: final top 10 observations: De La Rosa finishes the season by making 4 of the last 5 finals, but it wasn't enough to get him past Rocky Carson for #2 on tour. However one has to think that the torch may have been passed in terms of who is the 2nd best player on tour.

highlights

• Three missed tournaments early in the season (plus a fourth tourney with a forfeit loss in the quarters) due to the same inner-ear condition that plagued him earlier in his career cost Kane Waselenchuk the #1 seed in tournaments starting in 2015 ... but more importantly, looked (at least for a bit) likely to cost him the #1 season end title. It did not look like there would be enough events in the year to make up for the third dropped event, giving Kane a huge dis-advantage over players like Rockey and Alvaro (who never miss an event). As late as May, Kane was still the #2 seed and #2 ranked (by a nominal amount of points). But according to points analysis, thanks to a late-season tourney addition, the last event of the season in Fresno ended up being a winner-take-all between Kane and Rocky; whoever wins, takes #1 for the season. Sure enough, Kane swept through the tournament w/o dropping a game and clinched his 10th #1 title. He was 42-1 on the season (his sole loss being a quarter final default in the Nov 2014 Kansas event), but more impressively he only lost TWO GAMES the entire season. He was 123-2 in games for the year; he dropped a game to Beltran in the semis of Sarasota, and he dropped one game to Rocky in the San Marcos final. Just an unbelievable show of dominance from the 10-time champ. Any question about who the greatest player to ever play this game should now be more than answered. Kane now has 10 titles, missed two seasons in his prime, and hasn't lost on the court in a non-injury situation in years. The better question for Kane might be whether he's defeated again before he retires.
• Long time part-time player Alejandro Landa burst onto the scene early, making the semis of the first two events that he played on the season, including the US Open. It remains to be seen of Landa will play more of the tour; he's never played more than half the events in a season but has multiple quarterfinal and semi final appearances. He was the highest seed, by far, to make a semi-final on the season (seeded 13th and 14th in his two runs).
• Beltran achives a #1 seed in the St. Louis event that immediately follows the US Open, by virtue of his briefly passing Rocky in the rankings and Kane skipping the event. With only 14 entries to the pro division, IRT commissioner Mannino and IRT staff member John Scott are forced to play to fill out the round of 16 draw. Entire pro draw will take place in just two days. Opportunistic players looking to gain valuable ranking points (to say nothing of prize money) must be kicking themselves at the missed opportunity.
• Long time tour player Chris Crowther missed an event for the first time since the 2005-6 season under rumors that his sponsor (E-Force) was no longer paying his travel expenses. This likely ends the effective career of Crowther on the pro tour, with his having spent the last decade in the top 10 (and mostly in the top 6). He played a couple of WRT events close to home, but his last match on tour looks to be a round of 16 forfeit to Swain in Davison. He still finished the tour ranked 12th despite missing the last half of the season.
• Top-10 player Tony Carson suddenly dropped off the tour in November 2014. Reportedly he stopped playing due to a combination of injury and work reasons. He's re-appeared at the end of the season, presumably healthy again, but he played only a handful of events afterwards (mostly in the mid-west, presumably drivable from his him in Colorado).
• Long time tour player Ben Croft underwent shoulder surgery in late April 2015, causing him to miss the events at the tail end of the season. Luckily he hadn't missed a tourney all year so he should maintain his top 8 ranking despite the injury. He was 5th on tour when he went under the knife and fell to 6th in the season-ending rankings. He returned for the first event of the new season.

highlights

• Kane continues his dominance on tour, winning his 9th title with a couple of tournaments to spare
• Kane's sole loss on the season was in the season opener to Jose Rojas, where he was hampered by an injury and lost in four. Rojas went on to take that tournament for his 2nd pro title.
• Despite Kane's dominance on tour, thanks to missing two events early in the season he was actually seeded 2nd at the season's fifth event (Rocky was seeded first). Kane won that event and every event the rest of the way.
• Rocky and Alvaro continued their even-handed competition for the 2nd/3rd spot on tour, trading off spots in the final for most of the season. In the end, Rocky squeaked out the #2 spot for the season.
• The big riser for the year was Daniel De La Rosa, who finished the season comfortably 5th in the rankings playing the tour full time for the first time (the year prior he was in the top 10 despite missing half the events).
• Jansen Allen broke into the top 8 thanks to a consistent run of quarterfinals, but could not keep that lead going into the start of the next season (where he was seeded 9th in the opener, just missing out on the bye into the 16s.
• Legend Cliff Swain played just four events but finished 13th on tour thanks to becoming the 2nd oldest player ever to make a pro semi final in his father's memorial Red Swain event in November 2013.
• Charlie Pratt had a career best semi-final appearance in Florida in early 2014; this helped push him to an 11th place finish on tour, putting him back in the top-10 periphery where he had resided from 2009-2011.

highlights

• Kane wins his 11th straight "Major" in October, and collects his 8th US Open title.
• Kane wins his 12th straight "Major" in May, finishing off a 41-1 season.
• Kane's sole loss on the season was an injury forfeit loss in the final of the March 2013 Denver event.
• Alex Ackermann and Daniel De La Rosa have major runs at the US Open, which assists both of them to top10 or near top 10 season-ending rankings.
• Ruben Gonzalez plays his final pro tournament at the US Open in October, losing in the 32s but still ranked #16.
• Tony Carson breaks into top 8 at the expense of Andy Hawthorne in Nov, finishes 7th on the season.
• New Jersey Open missing Kane (knee injury recovery), Croft (getting married), Pratt (ankle injury). Allows surprise semifinalist Nick Montalano. Montalbano's career best showing prior to this was making three main draws (losses in rounds of 16).
• There was some rumors of Kane's possibly losing the season-ending title by virtue of missing too many events, which was partly due to Rocky's having earned more cumulative season points by the time the last event had rolled around. This turned out to be baseless; the rules on the tour allow the dropping of two events, which in Kane's case were two missed events due to injury. In reality the only way Kane would have been in jeopardy is if he missed the season-ending event.

highlights

• Kane featured in nytimes article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/sports/self-taught-racquetball-player-kane-waselenchuk-in-a-class-by-himself.html
• Kane fft in NYC pro am final ends a streak of 134 (137?) on-court wins
• Kane's injury causes him to miss the next two events, which were subsequently won by first time winners Ben Croft and Jose Rojas. Rojas win over Beltran extends his own futility in finals to 1-20.
• Ruben's farewall tour, failing to make the top 10.
• Rojas ' climb up the rankings; finishing 3rd on tour.
• Sudsy returns and plays a few events.
• Vanderson announces retirement at the end of the season; he continues to play most of the events in 2012-13 though, still finishing in the top 10 on tour.
• Beltran returns in earnest to the tour, making four finals, finishing the year 5th but probably supplanting Rocky Carson as the 2nd best player on tour with several head-to-head wins towards the end of the year.

• Kane Waselenchuk completes his third straight dominant tour victory, winning 12 of the 13 tournaments he entered and with a 52-1 match record (his lone loss a semi-finals forfeit to Huczek in NYC in January 2011), and extends his personal streak of matches won on the court (i.e., not counting forfeits) to well over 100. The real news of this season follows...
• The 2010-11 season marks an interesting transition for the tour, and Racquetball in general. This is the first season in years without the major sponsors of Verizon, Motorola or Choice Hotels. The US Open, a staple for 15 years in Memphis with marquee host club The Racquet Club, has moved to Minneapolis. And, after being held at the Downtown YMCA in Houston for 28 straight years (every year since 1983), USAR national singles is moving to a new site. The 2011 National event will be held in Fullerton, California and will be combined with a Pro event called "Ektelon National Singles," marking a new era for the two marquee events on everyone's racquetball Calendar.
• On the IRT side, 2010-11 marks the first new season under new leadership. Mannino's first order of business was to implement some rule changes designed to address fan concerns about pace of play and player behavior. However, the re-introduction of 2-serves to the pro game marks a seismic shift in player strategy. And, the first three events of the season the impact of this new 2-serve rule was evident. Power players and heavy drive servers were experiencing better success than the control players. Chris Crowther made the final of the 2nd event of the season despite having advanced past the quarters in exactly one tournament in over 100 attempts previous and was ranked 5th on tour after languishing for years on the periphery of the top 10. Ben Croft made the semis of the first three events, catapulting him to the #2 ranking on tour after the US Open and resulting in a #1 seed in the 2010 Corona Open draw when Waselenchuk skipped the tournament to nurse an injury (coincidentally, the first time in the history of the tour that a #1 seed in a pro draw did not have a previous tournament win). And, Mitch Williams had two semis appearances (and one injury fft) despite himself only ever advancing past the quarters twice in 70 pro tournaments prior to this season.
• Meanwhile, the control players on tour struggled to keep up. Huczek dropped out of the top 4 rankings within the first three events for the first time in a decade. Vanderson struggled in the early parts of the season and (making matters even worse for Shane) he was forced out of the US Open to deal with a horrible family tragedy, missing out on valuable rankings points (and prize money) at the worst possible time. Carson made two of the first four finals of the season ... but was upset in the round of 16 at the US Open and in the quarters of the Cali Major, costing him major tourney points that are sure to be felt at the end of the season. Beltran (whose game isn't necessarily a control or a power game) slowly worked his way back from an injury that basically cost him the entire 2009-10 season, making the finals of the US Open and putting himself on track to regain top-4 status.
• Injuries and absences on tour started to add up. For the 2nd time in two seasons Mitch Williams had to retire from a match with an arm injury. This time, it cost him a finals spot in the US Open and resulted in a labrum tear (or was it a dislocated shoulder?) keeping him out for 4-6 weeks. After a setback during rehab, he retired from the tour effective 1/31/11. Meanwhile, Alvaro Beltran's attempt to return from a season-ending knee injury in 2010 saw him make a couple of finals earlier in the season, but he re-injured the knee and (apparently) had a second operation, costing him the bulk of the 2010 -11 season. He returned for the final event of the season still maintaining the #10 ranking, but at age 32 and being right at the typical age that pro racquetball players retire anyway, Beltran may be done on tour.
• Speaking retirements, Jack Huczek suddenly announced his retirement from the pro tour on 5/24/11. Huczek has finished his MBA from Oakland University and has taken a job with Ericsson.
• The intended effect of the 2-serve rule has yet to affect the consensus #1 player, who continued his unbeaten streak into its third season. But Kane was dropping games in the early part of the season. The 2-serve rule allows power players such as Crowther and Croft to control sections of the match with the serve and gain traction towards taking games off of Kane. However, Kane himself has a fantastic drive serve to right-hander's backhands that can be lethal as well.
• Up and coming players for the season were led by Charlie Pratt, who made 5 quarterfinals on the year without ever having made one previously. Pratt suffered an upset though at the season ending event at the hands of another rising junior, Taylor Knoth, who reached the quarters of the Ektelon Nationals. Tony Carson got some marquee wins and made four quarter finals this season, including at the season's ending grand slam. Jose Rojas' first full season on tour saw him reach a couple of semis and consistently place at least in the quarter finals, and he had reached the #5 ranking by the end of the season. Finally Anthony Herrera made a quarter final for the first time in his career.
• Heading into the 2011-12 season, the pro tour may face a crisis of a different order. There's so little money on tour that there is barely a "tour" at all. With Williams, Huczek and possibly Beltran retiring, there may be barely enough guys regularly touring to fill out the top 8 seeds at each tournament.

If his 2009 title (while going 49-1 on tour) was considered "dominant," then there's no other way to describe his 2010 title other than "other-worldly." Kane won all 8 of the tournaments he entered (he missed one event mid-season due to the flu), ended the season in the middle of a 58-match winning streak (easily the best ever seen on tour), and ends this season having won the last 14 touranments he has entered. However, the most astonishing accomplishment of the season was his "games" won-lost record. He finishes the season a perfect 34-0 but was 102-3 in games. He only lost three GAMES all season. There is not much room for improvement on Kane's season.

In other tour news, It was a tough year on the tour's players from an injury standpoint. Alvaro Beltran missed basically the entire year after tearing knee ligaments just before the season started. He made just one appearance; making the semis in the season's last event in his home country in Tijuana. Mitch Williams suffered a partially torn labrum in his hitting shoulder but only missed one tournament because of lucky scheduling. Jack Huczek started the season as a model of consistency, becoming the beaten finalist in each of the first 6 tourneys before suffering a lingering right quadriceps injury that cost him his competitiveness for the rest of the season. Ben Croft served a 3-tournament suspension at the beginning of the season for events stemming from an on-court incident with Chris Crowther last last season but roared back to make the semis of the US Open in his return. He also made his first final of his career and finished 6th in the year end rankings. Jason Mannino ended a 15-year touring career by being appointed the new commissioner of the tour and winning the one event that Waselenchuk missed. And lastly Jose Rojas played 6 of the 9 events on the year, made two quarterfinals and broke into the top 10 for the first time.

After a two year absense from the tour, 3-time pro champion Kane Waselenchuk made his return at the season opening 2008 Motorola IRT World Championships in Denver. Having absoloutely zero rankings points he was forced to qualify for a number of events at the beginning of the season, leading to discussions about whether in the future a "protected" ranking should be used for players who have laid off the tour for injury or other reasons (the ATP Tennis tour uses such a system for 6-month or greater injury layoffs for its players and creates an artificial ranking for such players for their first few tournaments back. However, the situation arises so rarely in Racquetball that a policy change may be deemed unnecessary).

Kane won his first three tournaments back and was undefeated half way through the season before Alvaro Beltran beat him in the semis in January 2009's California Open. This loss would prove to be the ONLY loss of the season for Kane, who finished the year by sweeping the tour's three Majors, winning 10 of the 11 tournaments he entered, and compiling an astounding 49-1 record for the season. Statistically speaking, this was the greatest season ever (surpassing Marty Hogan's 44-1 record in 1977). Kane completes the season easily winning his fourth Pro title at the age of 27 and starts discussions about whether or not "King" Kane can surpass Cliff's 6 titles.

Kane also reached a number of interesting landmarks. His 24-match winning streak to end the season is one of the tour's longest in recent memory (though not close to Hogans' 54-match winning streak in the 76-77 season). He pushed his career W/L Percentage to .847, surpassing (for the time being) Hogan's long standing career mark in known sanctioned Pro events. He swept the three major tournaments (the first time that had happened since he himself performed the feat in 2004-5). And he had even veteran players wondering if he had any competitors that could stand in his way of 3-4 more titles in a row.

From the onset, the 2007-8 season looked as if it would be a statement season by Huczek. He had won his first title the prior season had won most of the tournaments he had entered. The tour's other top competitors had the summer to consider their games and how to adjust to a suddenly dominant-looking Huczek. Kane was still suspended and no one knew if he would ever return. Were we about to see a significant shift away from the power games of the tour's more recent dominators? It seemed so: all four of the tour's top players were less pure "power" players and relied more on finesse and athleticism. It seemed like a Yellen-esque transition away from the power game of the early 80s.

The tour was jolted at the season opening Motorola 2007 World Racquetball Championships in Denver. This was the first event of the season and was a new Grand Slam tiered event. Some people complained about having such an important points event so early in the season, and in a high-altitude city to boot (however; Tennis has always started its season with the Australian Open; so having a major event early on is not unprecedented in a racquet sport pro circuit . Players who stayed in better shape or who were used to playing at altitude had the advantage. Sure enough, for the first time in recorded pro tour history the #1 and #2 seeds were ousted in the round-of-16. Through expiring points, Mannino actually entered the season ranked #1 and lost to Polo Gutierrez 11-8 in the fifth while Huczek fell in 4 games to veteran journeyman Javier Moreno. The door was opened and #3 Rocky Carson took advantage, winning the Grand Slam event and taking a commanding points lead over his closest rivals.

The season devolved more or less to be the Rocky-Jack show. Of the tour's remaining 13 events that year, Rocky and Jack met in the finals no less than 10 times. Rocky took 6 of those 10 meetings, the most important of which was at the US Open in October. By winning the season's first two majors and consistently reaching the finals, Rocky was able to open up a slight gap over his rival and eventually clinch the title prior to the season ending Pro Nationals. The season was cruel to Huczek, who after his season opening loss made EVERY tournament final the rest of the way. It wasn't enough. Eyewitnesses reported that Rocky had "figured out" Jack's game at Memphis; while the stats don't necessarily show this, Rocky definitely held the upper hand and never seemed like he was going to relinquish the title all season.

The racquetball world is shocked when 3-time defending pro tour champion Waselenchuk tests positive for banned substances and is suspended from competing for two years. This suspension gives the tour's top players (Huczek, Mannino, Carson and Beltran) renewed hope for a #1 ranking. Jack Huczek, who nearly pipped Kane for the 2005-6 crown, took control of the tour early by winning the first four events. However, at the season's first Grand Slam Huczek was upset in the semis and Mannino took the crown and significant points burst.

Mannino kept the pressure on Jack, winning 2 of the next 5 events, but as the season wound down Huczek found his rhythm and pulled away. Mannino suffered a couple of quarterfinal losses later in the season that cost him the points needed to challenge Jack for the title. At the season ending grand slam Pro Nationals event, Huczek beat Jason in the final and took the title by about 150 rankings points. Jack finishes the season winning 9 of 13 events but splitting the two majors with Mannino, who finishes second. The season also demonstrates the gulf in talent between the top four players and the rest of the tour; only 8 of the season's 52 semi finalists were not from the top four.

Amateur/IRA champs pre 1974 (per USRA website)