| 2009 World Games - Racquetball Single Women | |
| Host |  |
| Dates | July 21–23, 2009 |
| Teams | 15 |
| Podium | |
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| Fourth place | |
The racquetball - women's singles competition at the World Games 2009 took place from July 21 to 23 at the Chung Cheng Martial Arts Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. [1] Players qualified for this event from their performances at the 2008 Racquetball World Championships.
| Rhonda Rajsich | BYE |  |
Yazmine Sabja | 2–0 | |
| Angela Grisar | 2–1 | |
Cristina Cordova  | 0–2 |  |
| Paola Longoria | 2–0 |  |
| Josée Grand'Maître | 2–0 | |
Harumi Kajino  | 0–2 | |
Cristina Amaya  | 0–2 | |
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
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| | 2 | Third place | ||||||||
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Racquetball is a racquet sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek is credited with inventing the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velocity and control. Unlike most racquet sports, such as tennis and badminton, there is no net to hit the ball over, and, unlike squash, no tin to hit the ball above. Also, the court's walls, floor, and ceiling are legal playing surfaces, with the exception of court-specific designated hinders being out-of-bounds.
Heather Pamela McKay is a retired Australian squash player, who is considered by many to be the greatest female player in the history of the game, and possibly also Australia's greatest-ever sportswoman. She dominated the women's squash game in the 1960s and 1970s, winning 16 consecutive British Open titles from 1962 to 1977, and capturing the inaugural women's World Open title in 1976, while remaining undefeated during that period. She was also a top-level player of other sports, including field hockey and racquetball.
The World Racquetball Championships are the top-tier racquetball competitions organized by the International Racquetball Federation (IRF).
This page shows the results of the Racquetball Competition for men and women at the 1999 Pan American Games, held from July 23 to August 8, 1999 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Michelle Gould, born December 22, 1970, is a retired American racquetball player. She was the dominant player in the 1990s, finishing as the #1 player on the women's pro tour seven of those 10 seasons. Gould was once called "the best, man or woman, to ever play" racquetball. She had a strong drive serve. Injuries led to her retirement in 1999.
Cheryl Gudinas is an American retired racquetball player. Gudinas won three [www.internationalracquetball.com International Racquetball Federation] (IRF) World Championships in Women’s Singles, and was the #1 player on the women's pro racquetball tour from 2000-2004, finishing in the top 10 on tour a record 21 seasons.
Rhonda Rajsich is an U.S. racquetball player. She has been World Champion in Women's Singles twice, and Pan American Champion 6 times, as well as US Open champion four times. Rajsich was the #1 player on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour season ending rankings four times – three straight seasons from 2005–06 to 2007-08 and then again in 2010–11. She is of Serbian descent.
Paola Michelle Longoria López is a Mexican racquetball player. She's a three-time International Racquetball Federation World Champion in Women's Singles, tied with Michelle Gould and Cheryl Gudinas for the most ever World Singles titles by a female. She is also a three-time World Champion in Women's Doubles, and is the only woman to have won both singles and doubles at Worlds. Longoria is also the #1 player on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) tour, and was the first Mexican woman to attain the #1 pro ranking, doing so at the end of the 2008-09 season. She repeated the feat at the end of 2009–2010 season, and has been #1 for the last eight seasons. Longoria's style is characterized by a semi-western grip of the racquet, which is unusual for racquetball; Longoria is the only pro player using this grip style.
Jackie (Jacqueline) Paraiso is an American racquetball player. Paraiso was the #1 player on the women's pro racquetball tour at the end of the 1991-92, 1998–99, and 1999-2000 seasons. She is a seven time World Champion in women's doubles, which are more World Championships than any other player.
Jennifer "Jen" Saunders is a Canadian retired racquetball player from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Saunders is the current Canadian Champion in Women's Singles, winning for the 11th time in Langley, British Columbia, where she also won her 13th Women's Doubles title; this time winning with Danielle Drury. Her 11 Canadian Women's Singles Championships and 24 combined Canadian Women's Singles and Doubles Championships are Canadian women's records. Saunders was the 2009 Manitoba Female Athlete of the Year as voted by the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. Saunders announced her retirement from competition in December 2019, as she accepted the position of Administrator of High Performance and Sport Development with Racquetball Canada. In July 2020, Saunders was named as one of the 2020 inductees into the Manitoba Sport Hall of Fame.
Lori-Jane Powell is a Canadian retired racquetball player from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Powell was Canadian Champion five times: thrice in singles and twice in doubles. She was forced to retire from competition in 2007 due to a right knee injury.
Samantha Salas Solís is a Mexican racquetball player. Salas is current Pan American Games Champion in Women's Doubles, winning the title for a third consecutive time in 2019 in Lima. She was the second Mexican woman to finish in the top 10 rankings on the women's pro tour, doing so at the end of the 2006-07 season. Salas was ranked 2nd at the end of the 2018-19 Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) season, which was her ninth season in the top 10.
Josée Grand'Maître is a Canadian retired racquetball player from Hull, Quebec. Grand'Maître won the Canadian Women's Singles title three times, and the Canadian Women's Doubles title 15 times. Her last title came in doubles in May 2014 with Jennifer Saunders as her partner. Grand'Maître's 15 doubles titles are the most ever, and her 18 combined titles place her third on the all time list behind Saunders (20) and Mike Green (21).
Aimee Ruiz is a left-handed American racquetball player. She is the current USA Racquetball Champion in Women's Doubles, winning her 13th title with Erika Manilla in 2020. In addition to her USA doubles titles, Ruiz has three Women's Doubles World Championships and one USA National Women's Singles title.
Cristina Amaya is a Colombian racquetball player. Amaya finished the 2017-18 Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) season as the 8th ranked player, which was her eighth consecutive season in the top 10. She was the third South American player to be in the women's pro top 10 after Angela Grisar and Veronica Sotomayor.
María José Vargas is a Bolivian-born Argentine racquetball player. Vargas has five wins on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT), and has finished in the top 10 six times - four of those were within the top three with her career best coming in 2014-15, when she finished #2. She is also the current South American Racquetball Champion in Women's Singles and Doubles.
Frédérique Lambert is a Canadian racquetball player. Lambert has won four Canadian Championships: two in Women's Singles and two in Women's Doubles. She has been a member of the Canadian National Team since 2008, and has won several medals in international competitions, most recently a bronze medal in Women's Doubles at the 2016 World Championships. Lambert was the #2 ranked player at the end of the 2017-18 Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) season.
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Gabriela Martinez is a Guatemalan racquetball player. Martinez is the current International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Champion in Women's Singles, winning the title at the 2018 World Championships. Martinez has competed on the Guatemala National Team at international tournaments since 2012, most recently she was a silver medalist in Women's Doubles at the 2019 Pan American Games.
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