Racquetball Phenom Daniel De La Rosa Showing His All-Around Talents with MLP's Brooklyn Aces

Daniel De La Rosa was the world’s best racquetball player from 2021 to 2023.

Full stop.

He started playing the game from a very young age in his hometown of San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

However, like many elite players in other racquet sports, DDLR has made the full transition to pickleball in 2024 and is loving every minute of it, playing for the Brooklyn Aces in Major League Pickleball's Challenger Level.

Let's get to know him.

Growing Up in Mexico

Daniel grew up in central Mexico, about six hours north of Mexico City. San Luis Potosi is a city just shy of 1.3 million people, which has nearly doubled since Daniel was born there in 1993.

The 31-year-old started playing racquetball after learning it from his father. His younger sister, who is three years younger, also picked up racquetball at a young age.

De La Rosa comes from a very athletic family, as his father played both racquetball and soccer professionally in Mexico. Daniel credits his father with teaching him the game of racquetball and credits him for never missing his events as a child.

Pro racquetball and moving to the U.S.

Daniel played his first pro racquetball event at the age of 15 – the 13th US Open Racquetball Championships in 2008. Fifteen is a young age to start out doing anything professionally, let alone traveling to a different country to play against the world's best.

Daniel De La Rosa's racquetball skills were evident early on in his teenage years.

De La Rosa went full-time pro racquetball in 2013 at the age of 19, regularly competing in pro tour stops around the globe. In order to train better and make travel easier, Daniel moved to the United States around that time. He started in San Diego and moved to Arizona shortly thereafter before settling in San Antonio.

Daniel won his first pro tournament in his second full pro season at the age of 21 in 2014, beating fellow Mexican Daniel Alvaro 11-4, 11-6, 9-11, 12-10, at the New Jersey Open. Daniel was ranked the No. 5 overall racquetball player in the world at the end of the 2014 season and continued playing professional racquetball on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT).

Here is a condensed list of Daniel’s accomplishments on the IRT Tour:

• 2017 – Won his second IRT event of his career in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, both in singles and in doubles
• 2018 – Third IRT gold in the LA Open and finished the year ranked fourth in the world
• 2021 – Won three consecutive IRT tournaments, including the US Open
• 2022 – Won two IRT tournaments
• 2023 – Won three IRT tournaments

Daniel finished 2021, 2022 and 2023 as the overall No. 1 racquetball player in the world while playing pickleball part-time.

International racquetball

Daniel played for Mexico internationally up until 2023, when he switched his status to the United States as a dual citizen. 

Daniel was a stud internationally for Mexico. At the age of 17, he played for the full Mexican National Team (not juniors) in the 2011 Pan American Racquetball Championships in Nicaragua. He beat Carlos Keller, Vincent Gagnon, and Chris Crowther, winning a gold medal at his first national team event.

Here are the highlights of Daniel’s Mexican international racquetball career:

• 2011 and 2016 - De La Rosa won gold in the Pan American Championships
• 2014 - Silver in singles and gold in doubles at the Central American and Caribbean Games
• 2015 - Bronze in singles and gold in the men’s team event at the Pan American Racquetball Championships
• 2018 - Gold in doubles with Alvaro Beltran in the IRF World Championships

His first international competition with the United States was at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile, where he lost in the quarters twice and semis once. He did earn his first medal for the U.S. – a bronze – in the men’s team event at those same Pan American Games.

Pickleball career

Daniel started playing pickleball for fun with some friends in Arizona in 2016, where he lived at the time. Since Nationals in 2017 were in Casa Grande (about an hour drive away), he decided to play at the 4.5 level in doubles, where he took first place. DDLR's quick adaptation to pickleball is a great example of how having a high-level background in ANY racquet sport can help you tremendously.

He started playing Major League Pickleball in 2022 on the Chimeras with Andrea Koop, Megan Fudge, Rob Cassidy, and Gabe Tardio. They won the inaugural and only Pritchard Cup that season.

DDLR was drafted to the Dallas Pickleball Club in Season 1 of MLP in 2023, where he competed with Jill Braverman, Ben Newell, and Christa Gecheva. In 2023 Season 2, Daniel played for the ATX Pickleballers (Austin), but that franchise folded in 2024.

Daniel was taken 15th overall in the 2024 MLP Draft by the Brooklyn Aces and was the team's second-round draft pick behind Lina Padegimaite. To fill out the foursome, Brooklyn drafted Martin Emmrich and Layne Sleeth.

Daniel made ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 back in 2023 with this play:

Prior to the MLP Mid-Season Tournament, Brooklyn traded Martin Emmrich for Pablo Tellez. Daniel went 4-2 in doubles at that event – winning 51.45 percent of his points – and went 12-10 in Dreambreakers to help his team win the Challenger Level title. They took home $30,000 for that win, but they have more aspirations in 2024. 

Daniel really wants to help Brooklyn get promoted to the Premier Level next year. In order to do so, the Aces have to finish top four in the Challenger Level, which they are well on their way to doing. The Aces are currently in first place at 1.88 points per match but are barely a third of the way through the season, so there is a lot of pickleball left to play.

Pickleball and life in 2024

De La Rosa still plays both racquetball and pickleball (and dabbles in padel), although pickleball is full time. He trains three times a week on average with Vivienne David, a top 10 player on the women's side.

He is also the face of ProKennex for padel, racquetball, and pickleball. He is sponsored by the company in all three sports and has his own signature padel, racquet, and paddle.

Daniel is gearing up for the 22nd World Racquetball Championships in late August in his backyard in San Antonio, where he currently lives with his girlfriend, Hollie Scott. Hollie is also a pro racquetball player, currently ranked 14th in the world on the Ladies Professional Racquetball Tour in singles and 10th in the world in doubles.

Additionally, Daniel takes any chance he gets to head back to Arizona to see his two children (daughter, 7, son, 4), who live there with their mother. 

Recently, Daniel snuck away after MLP duties to surprise his daughter at her first racquetball tournament.

Daniel doing some “papa bear crawls” with his son in late 2022:

These days Daniel is putting family first, pro pickleball second, and his first love – racquetball – third in his life priorities.

That, and help get the Aces to Premier Level for 2025.