Martin Mulkerrins won his thirteenth Race 4 Eight title and fourth of the 2024/25 season at the 2025 R48 Hall of Fame in Tucson last weekend (5th/6th April).
In so doing he retains his lead in the standings as the tour heads to Salt Lake City, Utah for the last of eight tour stops.
The Moycullen ace, playing out of Texas, remains the top seed, a standing he has held since May 2024.
However, close on his heels is the Mexican #2 seed, Lucho Cordova. The last stop, in three weeks’ time, awards double points which means this race is far from over and still all to play for.
Last Sunday, Mulkerrins and Ray Ure met for the second time in a final this season, with Mulkerrins taking their first finals encounter at the 2024 Portland Classic in October.
Mulkerrins was seeking his thirteenth Race 4 Eight title in his sixth final (from six starts) of the season, while Ure was aiming to become the youngest champion in R48 Men’s Pro history. Mulkerrins enjoyed a perfect start, winning the first three rallies of the match with superb serves and kills. Mulkerrins would lead 7-4 before a Ure streak tied the game at seven. Mulkerrins seamlessly shifted gears from there, holding Ure scoreless for the rest of the first game by mixing lob and power serves and keeping Ure in the back court with perfectly placed ceiling and wrap shots. He closed out the first on a 15-7 score line.
Mulkerrins continued his mastery of the court in the second game, racing to a 14-3 lead with precision defence and bottom board kills. “I don’t think I missed a shot up until fourteen,” Mulkerrins would later say. Mulkerrins would need three serves to close out the match and claim his thirteenth Race title and in the words of David Fink, WPH Senior writer, “he (Mulkerrins) is now regarded as one of the best ever to play the Race tour”.
