2025 Arizona Open a Roaring Success at ASU

Thank you to Coach Jim Winterton for making this event happen again this year. Thank you to tournament director Sean Davis, presenting sponsor Dan Parker of The Madison Trust, and all of the sponsors and volunteers who made the event possible.
Thank you to Todd Boss of ProRacquetballStats.com for his full event recap:
Mejia wins her 8th career singles title, moving into 12th place all time. She returns to the winner's circle for the first time in exactly a year; she won the 2024 Arizona Open for her last title. Meanwhile, Longoria & Salas win their 50th career pro doubles title together; our records only go back to 2014 and I have them at 40 in the database, which means another 10 in the years prior to 2014 that we could go back and find with enough LPRT event research.
R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=45386
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Let's review the notable matches in the Singles draw.
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In the 32s:
- Lotts and Ros had a battle, going tie-breaker, before Lotts advanced. These 16/17 seed matches are tough.
- Lucia Gonzalez pressed Amaya, losing 8,14.
- Arizona Resident Michelle Key was a withdrawal from her "home" tournament, giving MRR a walkover. She was able to play doubles the next day.
- Annie Sanchez got a solid win over Lexi York to move on and get a rare win on tour.
- Rhonda's return to the tour ended with a one-and-done at the hands of Kelani 4,8
- Parrilla made fast work of Enriquez 4,2.
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In the 16s:
- The 8/9 matchup between Amaya and Salas went the distance, as expected, with Samantha squeaking out an 11-10 win.
- Herrera got pushed by Centellas, who won the first game before falling (10),13,6
- Mendez cruised past Parrilla 11,1 to earn another quarterfinal.
- The Vargas-Barrios match was tight as expected, but Maria Jose won 10,12 to avoid the round of 16 upset.
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In the Quarters
- #1 Longoria beat her doubles partner Salas, as the met for the 63rd time on tour. Believe it or not, that's not the most frequent h2h match we've ever seen; Longoria played Rhonda 69 times in their career.
- #5 Martinez made fast work of #4 Herrera 8,4 to setup a solid semi from the top side.
- #3 Mejia seems like she's on a mission, crushing #6 Lawrence 0,4 to move on.
- #2 Vargas dropped the first game against her now dropped doubles partner Mendez before advancing.
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In the Semis
- #1 Longoria had to come from a game down to beat the Guatemalan Martinez, cruising to an 11-1 tiebreaker.
- #3 Mejia continued her torrid stretch, dominating the drained Vargas in two 7,9 to move into the final.
In the Finals, Mejia defended her 2024 title in this event with a comprehensive 8,14 win.
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Doubles Review.
The doubles draw gave us an upset of the #1 team for the first time in more than a year, as the new-look Argentina doubles team Vargas/Centellas topped Mejia & Herrera in the semis. However, Longoria & Salas (now dumped down to #3) didn't drop a game all weekend and took the title 12,10.
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Open Singles, other notable draws
- LPRT U21: Yanna Salazar took out countrymate Daniela Rico for the U21 title.
- Women's Open: Naomi Ros faced Angelica Barrios as the two tops seeds, and the former top 8 LPRT pro won out as she rebuilds her ranking points.
- Men's Open: US Jr National team member Grant Williams faced Texan Daniel Bautista for the title and won 10,5.
- Men's Open Doubles was taken by Arizona residents Coy Rogers and Alonzo Tavares
- Mixed Open Doubles was taken by Katie Neils & Freddie Villalon in a walkover that may have been travel related (i.e. someone had to get on a plane).