Ireland's Fermoy Open 2008 had a few surprises to offer when some of the top seeded ladies and mens singles players were knocked out in early rounds to let Joe Farrell and National Singles Champion Ciara McManamom win the 2008 singles titles. On his way, Farrell defeated top players Noel O'Callaghan and Tristan Hickey to also defeat Adam Neary in the final.

Mexico's Alvaro Beltran and Paola Longoria are the 2008 Pan American Championships Singles Champions. This years' "PanAms" were extremely successful for Team Mexico anyway. A record high of 15 countries competed in the 2008 Pan Americans.

Good news for Turkish Racquetball: The Mayadrom Sports Center, Turkey's biggest indoor sports club, anounced it's first racquetball event of the year, the Mayadrom Sports Center Open which will be held April 3-7, 2008. Contact Turkey's Racquetball President Ayten Kececci for further information.

The 3rd IRF World Senior Doubles Championships 2008 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico are coming up next. FYI, the closest airport is San Luis Potosi and Continental Airlines flies directly through Houston, TX and American Airlines flies directly through Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX.  Contact Tournament Director Gary Mazaroff at gmampro@aol.com for any further details.

North, Central and South America meet in San Jose, Costa Rica for the Pan American Championships this week and the worldwide community can follow the action LIVE on the internet again. Just go to www.racquetballonline.tv, log in and follow the action at the San Jose Indoor Club.

The 2008 Pan American Championships are now underway in San Jose, Costa Rica. Follow the action live at the event website with almost in time updates of the draws. 165 players from 15 countries will compete for gold medals in this IRF regional competition.

Germany's Yvonne Kortes and Victor Montserrat from Barcelona defended their singles titles at the 2008 Italian Open in Brembate/Bergamo last weekend. Players from 7 countries competed in another great European major event. Montserrar defeated Carlos Oviedo 15-7, 15-3 while Yvonne Kortes finished a tough final against Barcelona's Elisabeth Consegal 15-11, 15-14.

Big upset for Irish National Singles Champion Noel O’ Callaghan: After 17 consecutive wins in the National Singles, this year he was defeated at the semi final stage already by 22-year-old Triston Hickey 15-7, 15-8. In the other semi final Liam Hughes defeated Adam Neary 2–1. The final show down between Triston and Liam  was a one sided affair with Triston having no answer for Liam’s power and shot selection, Liam won 15-3, 15-4.

The biggest racquetball event in Japan, the Japan Open will be held 3rd - 6th May in Tokyo again. Prior to the open competitions, all skill level divisions will be held in April. The main venue will be  Wel Sunpia Tama (Tama city, Tokyo) while three other clubs in the Tokyo vicinity will be used as sub-venues.

All Ireland Senior & Junior Singles Championships will take place in Kingscourt this weekend, a total of 110 players will compete for the 20 titles up for grabs.  It starts with under 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18, Novice, D, C, B and Open. All eyes will be on the men’s open competition where Noel O’ Callaghan will be aiming to win his 18th consecutive men’s open title.

77 players from Japan, Korea, and China competed in the 2008 Asia Open that were held in Japan in January. Both Open Singles titles went to the host country Japan as Michimune Kono defeated Yuuki Nakano in the Mens Open Singles, while Seiko Yoshimura defeated Bae Yun Mi (Korea). In addition to the official competition, a friendship cup was played between students from Korea and Japan at the same time.

The 3rd IRF World Senior Doubles Championships 2008 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico are coming up in June and entries are now formally accepted. The event will be held 11th - 14th June at the La Loma Centro Deportivo. Contact Tournament Director Gary Mazaroff at gmampro@aol.com for any further details.

Over 400 students from High Schools all over the United States competed in the 2008 USA Racquetball 21st National High School Racquetball Championships. Taylor Knoth def. Ryan Ingram 15-7, 15-5, Sharon Jackson def. Courtney Chisolm 15-4, 15-5.

Paola Longoria and Polo Gutierrez are the 2008 Mexican National Singles Champions. Longria defesated Karen Torres while Gutierrez claimed a victory against National Team mate Gil Mejia. In Mens Doubles, 'old' heroes Alvaro Beltran and Javier Moreno defeated young and hopefulls Ruben Estrada and David Ortega.

As of today, the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan are only 504 days away and Racquetball manifested it's appearance with the exciting announcement that besides the portable court which will be shipped for the event from Korea, a new and permanent court will be built right at the competition venue. The World Games, first held in 1981, are an international multi-sport event, meant for sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games.

The 2008 USA Racquetball National Doubles Championships concluded in Tempe, AZ as over 100 National Doubles Racquetball Champions were crowned with Gold Medals. The event is the premiere doubles tournament in the US and determined one-year appointments to the U.S. National Team that will be competing in the 2008 IRF World Championships in Ireland: R. Carson/J. Huczek def. J. Thoerner/M. Williams (15-6, 15-14). J. Paraiso/A. Ruiz def. R. Rajsich/J. Tisinger (15-11, 15-7)

The 2008 USA Racquetball National Doubles Championships in Tempe, AZ kicked off yesterday with plenty of action. Make sure to check out some live action by going to www.racquetballonline.tv. This internet broadcast will stream all of the matches until the end of the event (February 17th).

Julie Skekan breezed through the Womens Open Singles at the Moylagh Open in Ireland last weekend. Skehan defeated Newport`s Donna Ryder in the final by 2 games to nil. Number 1 seed Noel O`Callaghan recorded a similar victory over Liam Hughes in the Mens Open Singles. The Mens Doubles was won by Pat Hanley and Liam Hughes while the Gibney sisters Ailish & Elma won the Womens Doubles for the host club.

Turkey Racquetball hosts the 2008 Istanbul Open on March 28-30 in the Hillside City Club-Etiler. It is the first racquetball event in Turkey this year. Contact Federation President Ms. Ayten Kececci for more information or check the European Racquetball Federation website for more in the near future.

Busy schedule for Mexian tournament officials: While the National Championships (a qualifier for the Pan Ams in Costa Rica) will be held in the middle of February in Torreon, another major event, the National Masters will be held two weeks later in Chihuahua. There are plans to broadcast the master finals live on the internet.

The International Racquetball Federation is most pleased to officially announce that the 20th IRF World Junior Championships 2008 will be held in the USA at the Arizona State University Recreation Complex located in Tempe, Arizona. The dates have been set to December 15th to December 20th, with the opening ceremonies being held on December 14th.

Yvonne Kortes and Martin Klippel (both from Hamburg) are the German National Singles Champions 2008. Kortes defeated 17-year-old talent Lara Ludwig in two straight games to claim her 9th singles title while Klippel won his 7th title against Trevor Meyer with 15-7, 15-5.

The Italian Open 2008 are coming in March. This European Racquetball Tour event takes place March 8-9 in Brembate, at the same site that has hosted the 2007 European Championships with great success. No doubt that the 3rd Italian Open will be a great success itself as well.

The National junior B championships were held in Arklow last weekend, where there were 6national junior titles up for grabs. In the under 10 grade it was Templederry NS pupils that met in the final with Aisling Carey having the upper hand on Eimear Murphy after a tiebreaker to win her first National title at just 8 years old. Aisling’s first cousin Dylan (Templederry NS) made it a family affair when he captured the under 12 title with a tiebreak victory over his club mate Odhran Murphy (Templederry NS) to claim his first national title.

This week saw the first country from the South American continent to confirm it’s participation at the 2008 IRF World Racquetball Championships in Kingscourt, Ireland this August. Hotel reservations for the official host hotel have been made with the 2008 Local Organizing Committee and indicate that Venezuela will send a mens and ladies team to the 2008 Worlds. 40 countries are expected to compete in Ireland this year.

In the mens open singles of the 2008 Leinster Open there was victory for National Junior coach Liam Hughes in the first tournament of the new year with a win over Joe Farrell from the host club Arklow. In the womens open singles there was a first every win for 15-year-old Toni Neary. In the semi final Toni defeated the experienced Elma Gibney 11-9 in a tie breaker. In the final she had another extremely close encounter with Donna Ryder winning 11-9 in a tiebeaker. This makes Toni the youngest ever player to win a womens open title.

If you want to have a complete update on what has happened over the last couple of months in the sport of racquetball, download the latest IRF NEWSletter, no. 1/2008. Find all results of the IRF's World Juniors, as well as the Pan American Championships 2008 information and other important information from the racquetball scene around the world.

Puerto Rico Racquetball invites all Open and A players with Puerto Rican heritage to compete in the 2008 Ranking Tournament which will be held at the YMCA in San Juan from February 21 to 24, 2008.  All interested in participating should send an email to Pucho Miranda at  puchomiranda@hotmail.com or call him at (787) 642-8473.

Nicaragua will have it's first international racquetball tournament ever on February 18-23 in the country's capitol Managua. 14 countries are expected to send players to this inaugurational event which will be held at at the Club Terraza.

Preliminary information on the upcoming 21st Pan American Racquetball Championships 2008 in San Jose, Costa Rica is now available. The event takes place March 14-22 at the Indoor Club's four racquetball courts that will be very busy during the competition. Around 20 countries from the Pan American hemisphere are expected to compete in this event. For any further questions please contact Osvaldo Maggi and/or Usher Barnoff via email.

The 2008 USA Racquetball 41st National Doubles Championships are coming up in Tempe, AZ. The event will be held February 13-17, 2008. The tournament presented by Head/Penn and sponsored by Ektelon, offers doubles for skill, and age+skill divisions for men and women. This will be the ONLY National Doubles tournament for 2008.

Carlos Ovieda (Spain) and Yvonne Kortes (Germany) are the 2008 French Open Singles Champions. Ovieda defeated Noel O'Callaghan in straight two games while Kortes succeeded over Anna Ventura from Barcelona in a close match 14-15, 15-2, 11-6. German legends Trevor Meyer and Joachim Loof claimed another success together in the doubles division, defeating O'Callaghan/v. Doezum (IRE/NED).

Get certified with IPRO/AmPRO. The International Professional Racquetball Organization (IPRO), the official certification arm of the IRF has published it's first scheduled certification courses for the year 2008. Gary Mazaroff and his clinicans will travel around the world to o promote racquetball certification and to develop and coordinate services and programs for the further growth of the sport. Check it out.

The first stone of the 1st National Multiracquet Complex at La Democracia Park has been placed by IRF official Lucy Zachrisson and Guatemala's President Oscar Berger Perdomo.  This multisport Park offers skaiting ring, soccer stadium, olympic pool, track and field, handball, volley- and basquetball and very soon two racquetball, two tennis, two Fronton and two squash courts. It will be open for the public.

Hamburg will host the 27th German National Championships on February 1-3. Martin Klippel and Yvonne Kortes are the defending champions in both singles divisions. The event will be held in the Sport Department, the site that also hosted the 1988 IRF Worlds and the 2007 IRF World Senior Doubles.

Victor Monserrat and Anna Ventura are the National Champions in Catalunya (Spain) 2007. The event was held in December in the Club Natacio Barcelona. Montserrat defeated Alberto Serfaty 15-10 and 15-11 in the Mens Singles final while Ventura had another close match against Elisabeth Consegal with 15-13, 7-15, 11-7.