1985
PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
GREGG PECK
LYNN ADAMS
1984-85 SEASON RECORD Davison, MI-Semi-final Stockton, CA-Win Pleasanton, CA-2nd Tempe, AZ-Semi-final Tulsa, OK-Semi-final Beaverton,OR-Round-of-32
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Concord, CA-Semi-final Baltimore, MD-2nd Anaheim, CA-2nd Cheyenne, WY-Round-of-32 Boston, MA- Win
or those who follow professional racquetball closely, the rise of Gregg Peck to the top of the men's game has been a foregone conclusion for years . Since joining the tour as a 16-year-old in 1979, his march up the ran kings has been so steady and predictable that his season-to-season record looks like a road map to the national championship . If he soon becomes the world's top-ranked player, which now seems very likely, the 1984-85 season will be re membered as Gregg's initiation into the "inner circle". He won the first ranking tournament of his career by defeating Marty Hogan in the final at Stockton in September , and then ended his season with a stunning victory over Mike Yellen to win the DP Nationals in Boston . Over the season he took out Hogan twice, and Yellen three times. Peck's most remarkable achievement this season, how ever, was what he did when he wasn't winning tournaments. In the eleven ranking tour events, he finished in the semifinals or higher nine times, making him by far the most consistent player in the game. With the biggest title in the sport now in his pocket, Peck seems ready to mount a serious assault on the dominance of Hogan and Yellen. At 21, and still improving with every match, Gregg stands an excellent chance of becoming the first player to accomplish that since his older brother David. 0
1984-85 SEASON RECORD Auburn, MA-Win Burlington, VT Win Lynnwood, WA-Semi-final
Anaheim, CA-Win Ft. Worth, TX-Win Boston, MA-Win
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tated simply, no woman racquetball player has ever equalled in a single season the 1984-85 record of Lynn Adams. In seven tournaments she lost only one match to Terri Gilreath in the semifinals at Lynnwood. She is the first woman to ever win the Women's Professional Rac quetball Association "triple crown" -consecutive victories at the Ektelon , WPRA, and DP National Championships . Amazingly, she lost only one game en route to the Ektelon and DP crowns. Practically since the WPRA was formed in 1979, women's professional racquetball has been dominated by Adams and her only rival Heather McKay-a combined dynasty not unlike that of Navratilova and Everett-Lloyd in tennis. But that dominance is about to change: McKay dropped out during the season because of a nagging neck injury and officially retired following the DP Nationals. There is no doubt that eventually one of the other talented women on the tour-Panzeri, Gilreath, McKinney, Drexler -will rise to take her place. but that process could take years, and in the meantime Lynn Adams is likely to reign as the absolute monarch of the women's pro tour. What makes Adams so unusual, and her dominance in the game so unchallel)gable, is that despite her phenomenal success over the years she still finds excitement playing the tour. She has made no secret of her goal of playing an en tire pro season without a loss . That has never been done in either the men's or women's game; Lynn Adams has a good chance of pulling it off next season. 0
September 1985 / National Racquetbafl 127