Daniel de la Rosa

Daniel de la Rosa (born July 4, 1993) 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 (after Álvaro Beltrán).

De La Rosa represented Mexico to the IRF World Junior Championships most of his junior years.

At the 2007 World Junior Championships in Cochabamba, Bolivia, De La Rosa lost in the quarterfinals of Boy's U14 Singles to the USA's Dylan Reid, 15–11, 6–14, 11–4, after beating Sebastian Franco of Colombia, 15–0, 15–4, in the Round of 16.

He played Boy's U14 Doubles with Missael Leija, and they lost in the semi-finals to Bolivians Carlos Keller and Jorge Luis Michel, 15–4, 15–7.

In his second year of 14s, De La Rosa lost in the semi-finals of Boy's U14 Singles at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Tempe, Arizona, as he was beaten by Marco Rojas of the US, 15–10, 15–11.

He was runner up in Boy's U14 Doubles with Leija, as they lost in the final to Rojas and Jose Diaz, 13–15, 15–10, 11–4.

In 2009, De La Rosa played Boy's U16 Singles, losing to Carlos Keller of Bolivia in the semi-finals, 13–15, 15–8, 11–8.

He also played Boy's U16 Singles following year in Los Angeles, where De La Rosa again lost in the semi-finals, to Jose Diaz of the US, 15–14, 15–9.

Those results combined to put him 9th at the end of the season, which began a streak of top 10 season finishes that is now in its 9th season.

He became the third Mexican player to be in the IRT top 10 after Álvaro Beltrán and Javier Moreno.

De La Rosa was runner up in Boy's U18 Singles at the 2011 World Junior Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as he lost to Carlos Keller of Bolivia in the final, 15–9, 15–5, after defeating the USA's Nick Montalbano, 15–14, 15–13, in the semi-finals, and Canadian Samuel Murray in the quarterfinals, 15–10, 15–6.

He played Boy's U18 Doubles with Missael Leija, and they lost in the semi-finals to Montalbano and Joshua Hungerford, 15–12, 12–15, 11–9.

That was the last time he played at World Juniors.

De La Rosa represented Mexico at a senior level for the first time in 2011 at age 17, when he played at the Pan American Racquetball Championships in Managua, Nicaragua.

In the quarterfinals, De La Rosa beat the player who'd given him so much trouble at World Juniors – Bolivian Carlos Keller, 15–2, 15–8.

Then he defeated Canadian Vincent Gagnon in the semi-finals, 15–13, 15–4, before eking out a narrow victory over American Chris Crowther in the final, 12–15, 15–14, 11–9.

So, De La Rosa didn't win a World Junior Championship, but won gold in his first national team event.

De La Rosa played half of the 12 events of the 2012–13 IRT season, reaching the semi-finals once, quarterfinals three times, and Round of 16 twice.

The semi was at the Stockton Pro-Am, where he lost to Rocky Carson in three games, 11–8, 11–2, 11–2.

In the 2013–14 IRT season, De La Rosa played the tour full time, entering 10 of the 11 events, and getting to a final for the first time, which happened in Davison, Michigan, where he lost to countryman Álvaro Beltrán, 11–8, 10–12, 11–8, 11–4, in what was the first final between two Mexican players in IRT history.

That combined with two semi-final finishes and seven quarters put him 5th at the end of the season.

De La Rosa won Men's Doubles at the 2014 Pan American Racquetball Championships with Edson Martinez, beating Americans Jose Rojas and David Horn in the Men's Doubles final, 14–15, 15–12, 11–1.

De La Rosa played for Mexico at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico, where he earned a silver medal in Men's Singles, losing to Álvaro Beltrán in the final, 15–7, 15–2, and a gold medal in the Men's Team event.

De La Rosa defeated Costa Rican Andres Acuña in the final to seal victory for Mexico.

De La Rosa won his first IRT event in December 2014 during his second season playing full time on tour, when he defeated Álvaro Beltrán in the final of the 2014 New Jersey Open, 11–4, 11–6, 9–11, 12–10.

De La Rosa reached the final by beating Rocky Carson in the semi-finals, 12–10, 9–11, 11–6, 11–6.

He finished 2014–15 ranked 4th.

In 2015, De La Rosa played Men's Singles at the 2015 Pan American Racquetball Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Bolivian Conrrado Moscoso, 15–14, 15–11.

Also that year, De La Rosa played at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, where he was a bronze medalist in Men's singles and a gold medalist in the Men's Team event.

De La Rosa lost to the USA's Rocky Carson in the semi-finals of singles, 15–14, 15–8, but helped Mexico win team gold by beating Costa Rica in the quarterfinals, Bolivia in the semi-finals, and the US in the final.

De La Rosa was in five finals in the 2015–16 season, including being a finalist at the US Open – the second Mexican player to do so after Beltran.

He reached the final after an epic five game match with Rocky Carson, winning 11–9, 10–12, 8–11, 11–8, 12–10.

But in the final, Kane Waselenchuk defeated De La Rosa in straight games, 11–5, 11–8, 11–3.

His five finals that season is a career high, but he didn't win any of them.

Nonetheless, he finished 3rd, behind Waselenchuk and Carson, at the end of the season, which was also a career high.

In 2016, De La Rosa won Men's Singles at the Pan American Racquetball Championships in his hometown of San Luis Potosí, where he defeated American Jake Bredenbeck in the final 15–2, 15–1.

En route to the final, De La Rosa defeated Colombian Sebastian Franco in the quarterfinals, 15–5, 15–5, and Fernando Rios of Ecuador in the semi-finals, 15–12, 15–7.