World’s top handball players face off in inaugural Tucson tournament

Some of the world’s top handball players will be in Tucson this weekend to compete in a first-of-its-kind doubles tournament in the Old Pueblo.

The first round of the Tucson Elite Doubles Invitational begins at 4 p.m. on Friday, followed by the quarterfinals, which will run until about 8. On Saturday, the tournament continues, starting at 9:30 a.m., followed by the semifinals around 11 and the finals at 2 p.m.

The tournament will be held at the Tucson Racquet & Fitness Club, 4001 N. Country Club Road. Admission is free for spectators.

The event, hosted by Tucson Rolling Shutters, Mesch Clark Rothschild law firm and local chiropractor Ashley Ruiz, is the first exclusively doubles professional handball tournament in Tucson.

“They will see a sport that’s at the high end of any pro sport that you could ever, ever see, like live tennis or live football, any sport. But when you see top pro doubles handball, you’ll see one of the top athletic sports that you’ll ever get a chance to witness and you get to come see it for free,” said Jeff Healam, a director at the World Players of Handball Foundation and owner of Tucson Rolling Shutters.

The sport itself is fast and exciting, with players diving all over the floor, says Ruiz, a handball player on the professional circuit, WPH board member and Tucson chiropractor.

“Even if you don’t know what’s going on, it’s exciting,” she said. “It’s pretty simple once you think about it and you may not know the rules when you first start watching it, but you can still see the excitement, and our crowd gets pretty rowdy. So, it’s a really fun environment.”

Seventeen players from the United States, Mexico, Canada and Ireland will compete in the tournament, including the top seven players in the world.

“This is probably one of the toughest doubles draws that you’ve seen in years,” said Ruiz.

The idea for a doubles tournament developed from the lack of doubles tournaments in the professional handball Race 4 Eight tour. While the tour will occasionally host doubles, it’s rare, according to Healam.

“We had the idea that everybody loves to see doubles handball,” he said. “The problem with it when it’s associated with a singles tournament is that a lot of the players are worn out or tired because they played very hard in the singles event, and it becomes less than stellar sometimes. So, we had the idea of having an exclusively doubles event.”

After the Tucson Elite Doubles Invitational wraps up this weekend, Tucson can expect even more professional handball this fall.

The professional handball Race 4 Eight tour will make a stop in Tucson from Nov. 7-9. Women and seniors will also compete in this tournament.

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“There’s levels for everybody, even beginners can enter to play,” Ruiz said of the November tournament.

A handball haven

Handball and the Tucson community have gone hand-in-hand (no pun intended) for decades.

Tucson is not only the home of the World Players of Handball Foundation and the U.S. Handball Association, but it’s also home to the Handball Hall of Fame, located near Grant Road and Tucson Boulevard. The foundation moved to Tucson in 2009.

“It’s one of the hotbeds for the entire world, but definitely for the United States,” said Healam.

Healam has been involved in handball since the 1970s, when he was in college, he says, and only retired from the sport a few years ago due to back issues.

“I’ve been associated with handball ever since,” he said.

Ruiz shares a similar story: starting her handball journey in college in Iowa. After graduation, she moved to Tucson, where her passion for the sport continued to grow.

“I moved to Tucson and that’s where I really got the bug because the community here, it’s like family. So, once you’re in it, it’s hard to get out of it,” she said.

The handball community itself is Ruiz and Healam’s favorite part of the sport. It’s a place where young, old, beginners or professionals can develop their skills and build friendships.

“I don’t have family here, but they are my family, the handball players are family, and nothing can beat that,” Ruiz said.

The two estimate that Tucson’s handball community is around 200 strong.

But that number could rise in the future due to the sport’s growing popularity in the U.S.

“It’s a very unique sport,” Healam said. “If you ask across the board, different ages, different people, you’ll find the camaraderie (is great). You can go to any handball community and we’ve seen many, many people come to Tucson and get their career started, or get their career extended and have an instant group. … That’s very unique to handball.”