Paola Longoria
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 20, 1989  San Luis Potosí, Mexico
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| Sport | |
| Sport | Racquetball |
| Coached by | Fran Davis |
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Medal record
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Paola Michelle Longoria López (born July 20, 1989) is a Mexican racquetball player. She's the three time reigning International Racquetball Federation World Champion in Women's Singles. She has also been 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 five 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.
Longoria was undefeated on the LPRT for three and a half years, from May 2011 to October 2014. Overall, she's won 69 Tier 1 or Grand Slam events on the LPRT, including seven US Opens. In the 2014 US Open, Longoria beat Maria Jose Vargas in the first US Open final to feature two non-US players. In 2016, Longoria and Samantha Salas played the first US Open final between two Mexican players, with Longoria beating her long time doubles partner, 11-3, 11-7, 11-3. Longoria's beaten Rhonda Rajsich in four US Open finals: 2015, 2013, 2012 and 2011. Her first US Open win was in 2008 when she beat Cheryl Gudinas in the final, becoming the first Mexican – woman or man – to win that event or even reach the US Open final.
Her first women's pro tournament win was the Outback Steakhouse Blast It! tournament in Fayetteville, N.C., September 13-16, 2007, when she defeated Rajsich in the final, 12-14, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7.
Longoria finished as the #1 pro player at the end of five pro seasons: 2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-12, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16.
Longoria won Women's Singles at the 2016 World Championships in Cali, Colombia, where she defeated Gabriela Martinez of Guatemala in the final, 15-12, 15-7. She defeated Maria Jose Vargas in the semi-finals, 15-5, 15-5. In Cali, Longoria and team-mate Samantha Salas lost the Women's Doubles final to Americans Aimee Ruiz and Janel Tisinger, 15-11, 9-15, 11-8. In the semis, they defeated Bolivians Jenny Daza and Adriana Riveros, 15-5, 15-5. The gold in singles was Longoria's 6th gold at Worlds, putting her one behind Jackie Paraiso, but Paraiso's 7 gold are all in doubles, while Longoria has won three in singles and three in doubles.
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