| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Suzy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Mexican | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 8 December 1976 Chihuahua, Mexico | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Racquetball | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest world ranking | 4th | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Susana Acosta (born 8 December 1976) is a Mexican racquetball player. A left handed player, Acosta has won several gold medals for Mexico, including at the 2003 Pan American Games. She's also played on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) and been ranked as high as 4th (in 2012-13). [1]
Acosta began playing the women's pro tour in 1998, when she played at the US Open Racquetball Championships for the first time, losing to Jackie Paraiso in the Round of 16. [2] She was in half of the pro events in the 1998-99 season, and finished No. 13 in the rankings. [1]
In her 2nd US Open Racquetball Championships, Acosta reached the semi-finals of the 1999 US Open by defeating Kersten Hallander in the quarterfinals, but then lost to Jackie Paraiso in the semis. [3] That result helped her finish No. 5 in the pro rankings, her first top 10 on the pro tour.
Acosta won gold in Women’s Singles at the 2002 Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, El Salvador, where she defeated Dominican Republic’s Claudine Garcia in the final, 7-15, 15-9, 11-2, and got to the final with a win over Puerto Rico’s Anita Maldonado, 15-12, 13-15, 11-4. [4]
Acosta and Rosy Torres won the first women's racquetball gold medal at a Pan American Games when they won gold in Women's Doubles at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Acosta and Torres defeated Americans Jackie Paraiso and Kim Russell, 8-15, 15-7, 11-9 in the final. [5]
The next year, in 2004, Acosta and Torres became the first Mexicans to win Women's Doubles at the Pan American Racquetball Championships in Cuenca, Ecuador, where the defeated Canadians Josée Grand'Maître and Jennifer Saunders in the final, 15-14, 9-15, 11-6. [6] and they successfully defended that title in 2005 by defeating Americans Kristen Walsh and Cheryl Gudinas in the final. [7]
Acosta and Torres played Women's Doubles final at the 2004 World Championships in Anyang, South Korea, and defeated Canadians Josée Grand'Maître and Jennifer Saunders in the semi-finals, 8-15, 15-5, 11-4, but lost the final to Americans Jackie Paraiso and Kim Russell, 15-10, 10-15, 11-9. [8]
Acosta played Women's Singles for Mexico at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games, and earned a bronze medal, and helped Mexico win gold in the Women's Team event. [9]
Acosta only played a few pro tour events from 2006 to 2010. She kept her streak of US Open appearances intact, but didn't get past the Round of 16 during this period. Thus, Acosta slipped out of the top 10 pro players. [1]
Acosta won Women's Doubles with Samantha Salas at the 2010 Pan American Championships in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, as they defeated Canadians Geneviève Brodeur and Frédérique Lambert in the final, 15-11, 15-4. [10]
In the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games, Acosta played Women's Doubles with Samantha Salas, and they won gold in by defeating Dominican Republic's Claudine Garcia and Yira Portes in the final. [11]
Acosta's best season on the pro tour was in 2012-13, when she played all 11 events and reached the semi-finals 5 times - a career high. [1] That resulted in her career best season end ranking: No. 4.
Momentum from that season carried over into the 2013-14 season, as in October 2013, Acosta reached the semi-finals of the US Open for just the 2nd time in her career and the first since 1999. She did it by defeating Jackie Paraiso, 11-8, 11-7, 4-11, 8-11, 11-2, in the Round of 16, and Janel Tisinger, 11-13, 8-11, 12-010, 11-4, 12-10, in the quarterfinals, before losing to Rhonda Rajsich, 4-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-2. [12] She hasn't been in a pro semi-final since then.
Acosta played singles and doubles at the 2014 Pan Am Championships, winning Women's Doubles with Samantha Salas, [13] as they beat Canadians Josée Grand'Maître and Frédérique Lambert, 15-13, 15-12, in the semi-finals, and Argentina's Maria Jose Vargas and Véronique Guillemette in the final, 10-15, 15-8, 11-7. Acosta also played Women's Singles, defeating Colombian Cristina Amaya in the semi-finals, 15-10, 14-15, 11-7, but losing to Vargas in the final, 15-4, 15-8. [14]
Acosta has played some events on the pro tour in recent seasons, but only a few, and hasn't made it past the Round of 16. [1]
Acosta has won several medals for Mexico over her career, highlighted by gold in Women's Doubles at the 2003 Pan American Games and gold in Women's Singles at the 2022 Central American and Caribbean Games. She's also been ranked in the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour top 10 for 9 seasons, which is tied for 11th most.
This table lists Acosta's results across annual events.
| Year | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| US Open | 16 | SF | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | QF | SF | 16 | 16 | QF | 32 | 32 | |||||
| LPRT Rank | 13 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 10 | 15 | 14 | 11 | 19 | 23 | 21 | 17 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 22 | 23 | 26 | 27 | 25 | |
Note: W = winner, F = finalist, SF = semi-finalist, QF = quarterfinalist, 16 = Round of 16, 32 = Round of 32, 64 = Round of 64, 128 = Round of 128.
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 American 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 is the current Women's World Champion in both Singles and Doubles, winning both divisions at the 2022 International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Championships in San Luis Potosi. Longoria is the winningest player in IRF World Championship history, and she is the only woman to win 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 ten consecutive 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.
Kristen Walsh Bellows is a retired American racquetball player. She represented the USA on four occasions, winning gold in Women's Singles at the 2005 Pan American Championships. On the women's professional racquetball tour, Walsh Bellows won once, and was twice ranked 4th in the season ending rankings. She was also a five-time USA Racquetball (USAR) collegiate champion.
Jennifer "Jen" Saunders is a Canadian retired racquetball player from Winnipeg, Manitoba. In her last Canadian Championships in 2019, Saunders won both Women's Singles, for a record extending 11th time, and Women's Doubles, for a 13th time. 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 Sports Hall of Fame.
Lori Jane Powell was a Canadian racquetball player from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Powell was Pan American Champion twice and Canadian Champion five times. She retired in 2007 due to a right knee injury.
Samantha Salas Solís is a Mexican racquetball player. Salas is the current World Champion in both Women's Doubles - winning that title for a fifth time with Paola Longoria at the 2022 World Championships in San Luis Potosí, Mexico - and Mixed Doubles with Rodrigo Montoya. She is also the current Pan American Games Champion in Women's Doubles, winning that title with Longoria for a third consecutive time in 2019 in Lima. Salas 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 3rd at the end of the 2019-20 Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT) season, which was her tenth season in the top 10.
Laura Fenton is an American racquetball player. She won two World Championships in doubles, and finished in the top 10 on the Women's Professional Racquetball Organization rankings seven times in her career.
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).
María José Vargas is a Bolivian-born Argentine racquetball player. She is the current Pan American Champion in Women's Doubles, as well as part of the Women's Team Pan Am Champions and the current South American Racquetball Champion in Women's Singles and Doubles. Vargas has five wins on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour (LPRT), and has finished in the top 10 seven times - five of those were within the top three with her career best coming in 2014-15, when she finished #2.
Frédérique Lambert is a Canadian racquetball player. Lambert is the current Canadian Champion in Women's Singles and Women's Doubles, and has won seven Canadian Championships: four in Women's Singles and three 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.
Daniel de la Rosa is a Mexican racquetball and pickleball player. De La Rosa is the current International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Champion in Men's doubles, winning the title in 2022 in his home city of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He's won 12 times on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT), including the 2021 US Open. De La Rosa is the first Mexican player to win the US Open, and he was the second Mexican player to win an IRT Tier 1 event.
Janel Tisinger is an American racquetball player. She is the current USA Racquetball National Champion in Women's Doubles winning the title for a 5th time in 2019 with Aimee Ruiz. Tisinger is former World Champion in Women's Doubles, with Ruiz, winning the title in 2016.
Gabriela Martinez is a Guatemalan racquetball player. Martinez is the current Pan American Games Champion in women's doubles. She is a former International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Champion in the women's singles, winning the title at the 2018 World Championships. Martinez has competed on the Guatemala National Team at international tournaments since 2012, garnering many medals across her career.
Natalia Mendez is a Bolivian-born Argentine racquetball player. She is the current South American Champion in Women's Doubles and was the 2022 Pan American Champion in Women's Doubles, winning both titles with Maria Jose Vargas. Mendez has medaled at the International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Championships as well as the Pan American Games.
Rodrigo Montoya is a Mexican racquetball player. He is the current International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Champion in both the Men's Team competition and Mixed Doubles, winning those titles at the 2022 Championships in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. That was his 4th IRF World Championship, as he won the 2018 Men's Singles in Costa Rica and the 2021 Men's Doubles with Javier Mar in Guatemala City, so Montoya is the first player to win singles, doubles and mixed doubles at Worlds. He is also the current Pan American Games champion in both Men's Singles and Doubles with Mar, winning those events at the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima. Montoya is the current Pan American Champion in Men's Doubles, winning that title with Eduardo Portillo at the 2023 Pan American Racquetball Championships in Guatemala City.
Angélica Barrios is a Bolivian racquetball player. Barrios is the current Pan American Champion in Mixed Doubles, winning the title at the 2023 Pan American Racquetball Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and a former Pan Am Champion in Women's Singles. She is also the first Bolivian to win a medal at the World Games, as she won bronze at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama.
Montserrat Mejía is a Mexican racquetball player. She finished #1 on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour in 2022–23, becoming the second Mexican to do so after Paola Longoria. Mejía is the current Pan American Champion in both Women's Singles and Doubles.
Alexandra Herrera is a Mexican racquetball player. She is the current Pan American Champion in Women's Doubles. A left-handed player, Herrera has been the #2 player on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour in 2020-21 and again in 2021–22, two of her eight seasons in the LPRT top 10.
