Cheryl Gudinas (born May 11, 1967) is an American retired

racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velo ...

player. Gudinas won three ww.internationalracquetball.com International Racquetball Federation(IRF) World Championships in Women’s Singles (2000, 2002, 2004), 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.

Professional career

Gudinas's professional career is highlighted by her two

US Open Racquetball Championships The UnitedHealthcare US Open Racquetball Championships is the premier professional racquetball event. It is a Grand Slam event with men and women competing from the International Racquetball Tour and Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour, respectivel ...

in 2002 and 2004, which helped her attain the #1 position on the women's pro tour. She was a top 5 player on the women's pro tour from 1993-94 to 2010-2011, including four seasons as the #1 player from 2000-2004. Her 20 years ranked in the season ending top 10 is a record for women's pro racquetball. Gudinas fell to the #11 spot this past season partly due to missing the first few tournaments of the season with a foot injury.

International career

Gudinas won three consecutiv
International Racquetball Federation (IRF)

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in 2000, 2002 and 2004. She defeated Canadians

Christie Van Hees Christie Van Hees (born July 5, 1977) is a Canadian retired racquetball player. Van Hees won two World Championships in women's singles and was the number one women's professional player at the end of the 2004-2005 season. Professional career ...

and

Jennifer Saunders Jennifer Jane Saunders (born 6 July 1958) is an English actress, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of ...

in 2000 and 2002, respectively, and Chilean

Angela Grisar Angela Grisar (born May 2, 1973) is a Chilean retired racquetball player. She was the first South American woman's racquetball player to finish in the top 10 on the women's pro tour, doing so six straight seasons (2003-04 to 2008-09). She won nu ...

in 2004. Gudinas won the Pan American Championships (formerly the Tournament of the Americas) in 1994 (against American

Laura Fenton Laura Fenton (born June 28, 1962) 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. Professional ca ...

), 1997 ( Michelle Gould, USA), 2001 (

Josée Grand'Maître Josée Grand'Maître (born July 28, 1961) is a Canadian retired racquetball player from Hull, Quebec (now Gatineau, Quebec). Grand'Maître won the Canadian Women's Singles title three times, and the Canadian Women's Doubles title 15 times. Her la ...

, Canada) and 2009 (Carola Loma, Bolivia). In 2005, Gudinas was the Pan Am Championship silver medalist, losing the final to Kristen Walsh and was also silver in 2003, when she lost to Fenton, in 1999, when she lost to Robin Levine, and 1998, losing to Michelle Gould. Gudinas has also won two gold medals at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

she defeated Canadian

in the final in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and beat fellow American

in the

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

final in

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. In the

2011 Pan Am Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games, was an international multi-sport event that was held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby cities of Ciudad Guzmán ...

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, Gudinas earned the bronze medal, losing to eventual gold medalist

Paola Longoria Paola Michelle Longoria López (born July 20, 1989) 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 Champ ...

of Mexico in the semi-finals. Gudinas was also a silver medalist in 2011 from the Pan Am Games team competition. Most recently in the 2012 Worlds, Gudinas was a bronze medalist in singles, losing to Canadian

in the semi-finals, and a silver medalist in the team competition, when the American women's team lost to the Mexican team, including a loss by Gudinas to Mexican Jessica Parrilla. Gudinas has played in the

World Games The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 d ...

twice, and she finished 4th in both

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

US championships

Gudinas won 5 consecutive US Nationals Championships in singles from 1999 to 2003, and also won in 2005, 2008 and 2010. Her eight titles are tied for the most all time with Michelle Gould. Gudinas teamed up with

Gould Gould may refer to: People * Gould (name), a surname Places United States * Gould, Arkansas, a city * Gould, Colorado, an unincorporated community * Gould, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Gould, Oklahoma, a town * Gould, West Virginia, a ...

in 1995 and 1996 to win two of her three US National Doubles titles. Her other title was in 2001 with Kim Russell.

Career summary

Gudinas won 3 IRF

in Women’s Singles, 2

, and 8 US Racquetball Championships in Women’s Singles. Her 21 seasons in the

Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour The Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour is the latest name for the women's professional racquetball tour. It features the world's best players and several events each season - running from September to May - that are mostly played in the USA. Hist ...

top 10 is a record.

Career record

This table lists Gudinas’s results in annual events. Note: The US Open began in 1996. W = winner, F = finalist, SF = semi-finalist, QF = quarterfinalist, 16 = Round of 16, 32 = Round of 32, 64 = Round of 64.

References

External links

LPRT Page for Cheryl Gudinas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gudinas Holmes, Cheryl 1967 births Living people American racquetball players Racquetball players at the 2011 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in racquetball Racquetball players at the 1999 Pan American Games Competitors at the 2013 World Games Racquetball players at the 2003 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games