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Rhonda Rajsich (Phoenix, Ariz.) won the Ladies Professional Racquetball Association’s [LPRA] stop of the year, held in Rosarito Beach, Mexico January 18-20. It was Rajsich’s first professional tournament win.

Rajsich, a former standout basketball player at Stephen F. Austin State University, earned her first professional win by defeating the top ranked, Cheryl Gudinas (Lisle, Ill.), in the semifinals before topping current U.S. OPEN champion, Kerri Wachtel (Cincinnati, Ohio) in the finals. It was the second tournament in a row that Rajsich defeated Gudinas in the semifinals. Rajsich placed second at the LPRA Denver event in December, losing to Jackie Paraiso Rice in the finals.

“I just decided to start having fun again,” Rajsich says of her recent success on the tour. “After playing so bad in Canada (LPRA/Saskatoon) I just decided to loosen up and have fun on the court.”

Her appearances in the finals of the last two tournaments has vaulted Rajsich back into the No. 4 spot in the rankings, the same position she held last year at this point. Last season, her first year on the LPRA tour, Rajsich shocked everyone by earning a spot in the finals of the U.S. OPEN but since then her success has been limited and her talent only repeated in spurts.

“I realized that I was thinking too much on the court,” Rajsich explains. “In basketball you don’t figure out how to run a play during the game, you figure it out in practice so that when it’s game time you can be loose and just play. That is what I am trying to do in racquetball now. I just go out there and play loose and have fun.”

The LPRA may be at its most competitive level in years. One or two players no longer dominate the circuit and most tour regulars have a shot at winning a stop this year. “There are five tournaments left this year and the fact that it’s not Cheryl (Gudinas, No. 1) or Jackie (Paraiso Rice, No.2) in the finals every time shows that we’re all trying to get better.” But Rajsich still has respect for the two players that have been on top since she started playing on the tour, “It’s good that they are up there. It gives us something to strive for.”

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