APP Tour Delay Beach Open – 5 Takeaways – Two Tours

📸 @officialapptour and @digspat

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It was noted on the live random thoughts, but it seemed like a particularly heavy line call dispute weekend. It’s possible that we noticed a little more because we had some more time this weekend to watch quite a bit of the action live or it may simply have been a matter of things happening more on center court. These types of things happen all the time on the outer courts, and you see the debate about line judges in the chat. Line judges have been a problem in pickleball as pro players have trouble with the quality that they get from the line judges. The PPA tried giving players the options between line judges and “passive” line judges for bigger matches, which appears to have gone away completely. There will have to come a point in time where pickleball has line judges. You can’t rely on players to make major calls that have such a significant impact on the outcome as the sport grows bigger. We know a lot less than the pros do about which players have the reputations for tight line calls, but this shouldn’t even be part of the equation as more money enters into the sport. No one really enjoys discussing line calls, especially when there don’t appear to be malicious intentions behind them. Unfortunately, it is a reality that all pickleball players have to live with, including the pros.

Let’s take about some other things though, shall we? We almost went with the are JW and Dylan’s excessive celebrations bad for pickleball takeaway this week, but we want to see more evidence before we go all-in on that. Now for the real takeaways from another week of pickleball.

1. Two Tours (Slim) – JW Johnson has clearly made his mark in the first quarter of the year as the second best male player on the planet, and someone hot on the heels of Ben Johns for that crown as the top player in the world. Now, that should be exciting for pickleball fans. Unfortunately, a quick perusal of tournament registrations seems to indicate that they may not be matched up in any tournaments for a while now, except for the US Open at the end of April, with JW currently not appearing to be registered for the next few PPAs, and Ben obviously being married to the PPA. Tournament registrations also show that Dekel Bar and Vivienne David are registered for the PPA Austin this weekend, but do not seem to be registered for many PPAs after that. Adam Stone and Zane Navratil also are not registered for many PPAs right now, among other players.

I have to think a large part of this is that if you are not a PPA signed player, the prize payouts for the PPA events do not create a lot of incentive for unsigned players to play. The PPA certainly has a few more of the big names, but especially on the men’s side it is not the difference that they would like you to believe that it is, especially with Thomas Wilson and AJ Koller registered for more APPs. JW Johnson and Dekel Bar are two of the top five men in the game. I continue to wish that instead of exclusivity agreements, tours focused on putting on the biggest and best tournaments, with the biggest and deepest prize payouts. At the end of the day, I think players, fans and pickleball would all win from that approach. Sadly, that is not the reality and, at least for the next while, we are going to live in a world where l talent is divided among two tours. And it is not going to be strictly a major and minor league tour situation because, for financial reasons, players are going to play on different tours. It may be good for the players, but it is not great for the fans and sport.

Sidenote: Dekel Bar and JW Johnson are lined up to play some tournaments together this year. I would be inclined to take this team against anyone right now, but I would like to see how they actually play together before making too bold of a prediction.

2. Singles Fluctuation (Gritty) – The underdog story du jour was Federico Staksrud. The Argentinian born NAIA tennis alum has made Fort Myers his home and began playing tournaments in September 2021. For the most part a singles specialist in his early career, going into this weekend Staksrud’s had wins over Jack Foster, Rafa Hewett, John Cincola, Dylan Frazier and Frank Anthony Davis. He then broke out in a big way in Delray. After pushing JW Johnson to 3 games and having an 8-6 lead in the third of the winner’s bracket quarter-final, Staksrud ran the table in the backdraw with wins over Foster, Zane Navratil, Ryler DeHeart, John Cincola and Jake Kusmider. He proceeded to once again take JW Johnson to 3 games in the gold medal match, losing 12-10 in the third. Other than Ben Johns, Staksrud is the only player to take a game off JW Johson in singles over this 4-week stretch of play and he actually has taken 3 total games off JW.

While Staksrud is obviously one to watch, the bigger takeaway from his run is that it is more evidence of what these men’s singles draws are becoming, which is a plethora of talented players challenging the current guard. With the learning curve being far less steep in singles relative to doubles in pickleball, a lot of these former tennis players are able to come into pickleball and give these top players a run for their money. As more and more talent come into the sport, we’re seeing earlier returns for less experienced players.

Alex Neumann had a big run in the PPA Riverland Open two weeks ago, getting wins over Tyler Loong and Jay Devilliers. Following a loss to Ryler DeHeart in round one, Julian Arnold came away with 4^th place at the PPA last weekend, ultimately losing to Ben Johns. DeHeart and doubles teammate Travis Rettenmaier have had some results in singles (Rettenmaier actually beat Staksrud 17-15 in Punta Gorda). Gabriel Tardio got a bronze in Punta Gorda. James Ignatowich beat Thomas Wilson and AJ Koller at the Riverland Open. And here I am talking like Thomas Wilson shouldn’t be included in this group of up and comers.

I’m probably missing some other names, but you get the point. Not a single player noted above has a tournament played prior to December 2020 (I’m not including Thomas Wilson in that). Jay Devilliers, who was arguably the most consistent singles player in 2021 other than Ben Johns, already looks like he may be falling behind in the singles race. It makes sense that the singles game would be ripe for newcomers to make some noise, and nothing highlights that more over these past 4 weeks than Staksrud’s run in Delray.

3. Will the Competitive Women’s Fields Continue? (Slim) – A concern both of us had heading into the year was what would the women’s fields look like in APP tournaments? With pro women’s brackets often already very small, and a number of the top women locked into the PPA, we worried about both the numbers and quality of the fields. But at least for the first quarter of the season, the women’s fields have been a pleasant surprise. Over the past three APP tournaments, we have seen good sized brackets that have had a nice mix of new players (Anna Bright, Megan Fudge), rising talents (the Kawamoto’s, Jorja Johnson) and established veteran’s (Simone Jardim, Andrea Koop). I think taking out the elite women provides motivation for more women to enter the pro brackets, which is something that has been desperately needed. We are also seeing these PPA women’s fields get bigger too with a fairly sizable doubles field in Austin coming up and it may be that slowly, but surely, more talented women are entering the sport at a higher rate. Now, it will be interesting to see if this trend continues for the APP as they leave Florida. Florida, with its depth of talent, really helps solidify these fields, and some of these new players may not want to travel outside of Florida.

4. Susannah Barr’s Big Weekend (Slim) – It was a big weekend for Susannah Barr as she picked up two silver medals this weekend. I doubt going into the weekend many people would have predicted that Susannah would have made the podium in either event so it is quite noteworthy that she took away a couple of silvers. That often seems to be the case with Barr, though. She is often over looked, but at the end of the day she finds herself on her fair share of podiums. When she is playing with the right partner, Susannah continues to be someone no one wants to face, especially in mixed. Susannah’s women’s results are more sporadic, but that may largely be due to the difficulty in finding consistent partners. Susannah has shown us she can get women’s results as well with her gold medals in Chicago and Newport Beach, with Lauren Stratman and Jessie Irvine, last year.

Also, of note in women’s results this weekend was Simone Jardim going double gold, with JW Johnson and Andrea Koop. Simone is showing that she can still get it done in these fields when she has the right partners. And both Susannah and Simone are showing the forty plus women can still get it done, and should not be counted out.

5. Senior Pro Double Dip (Gritty) – Steve Kennedy and Jamie Oncins came away with the win in men’s senior pro doubles this weekend in a very strong field. These APP fields are generally quite deep for senior players with the most notable missing players being Dayne Gingrich and Dave Weinbach. However, it’s nothing to scoff at for Kennedy/Oncins to come back through the back draw after losing 13-11 in the third to Derisi/Witsken to beat them twice in the gold. Oncins mostly plays Florida tournaments and Kennedy is getting up there at age 57 from a senior pro perspective (although Scott Moore would disagree with that probably).

On the other side of the field, I wanted to highlight the quite random women’s doubles silver medal by play-in seeded Shelly Maher and Jenny Hubbard. I had not seen their names before and that’s because they don’t play many tournaments. Both from New York, they have played together quite a bit but their only tournament since COVID began was the 2021 US Open. Hubbard, who is in first eligible senior pro year, waltzes into her first senior pro event with Shelley Maher and gets a silver medal. After their first round match, they had to play Bellamy/Bagby, who ended up being their only team they lost to all day. Shelley Maher, in particular, has some very smooth looking strokes and it appears the hands on both players are strong. Curious if we will see these two at any more senior pro events going forward.

Fantasy Update: Not even sure what to say at this point. 16-9 for Slim as it doesn’t get any better for Gritty. Slim bet on JW and Anna Bright this weekend, and they paid off big with 6 podiums between the two of them. Impossible to chalk up this weekend to luck as this was purely better analysis on Slim’s part overall. It’s now 6 up and a giant run of 10 up going back to the end of 2021. The trash talk is one-sided at this point. We’ll see if things start to get more competitive, but it is not looking promising.

Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments below or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram or Facebook too!

Teaser: Keep an eye out for our DUPR Beat the Dream Team Preview that we’ll be posting Tuesday morning!

APP Tour Delray Beach Open – Live Random Thoughts

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This is a tier 1 APP Tour tourney, which means we get a Championship Sunday. 4 more days of pickleball? Sign us up! We actually had some mixed pro split age on Wednesday that was won by AJ Koller/Eva Welsher after coming through the backside to beat Barr/Witsken.

Our fantasy draft preview can be found here for those interested.

Sunday, March 20th – Championship Sunday

3:02 pm EST (Gritty) – JW Johnson is a beast. It was tight but he pulls out a triple crown. JW and Simone steamrolled Barr/Gridley, which was not shocking at all. It looked like it might be another steamrolling in the men’s match up a game and 8-4 in the second, when Dekel Bar started serving the crap out of it. We’ve had some discussion about illegal serves but as I noted before a major difference with Dekel’s serve is that he is still coming underneath the ball rather than sidearm. He is definitely pushing the waist boundary but he has such an advantage with his height. Frazier/JW missed 4 returns in game 2 and then Bar/Stone took game 3. They started middle dinking the kids a bunch but in the game to 15 they weren’t able to pull it out, losing 15-10.

12:05 pm EST (Gritty) – No double Johnson gold today in singles. JW scraped by Federico Staksrud 12-10 in the third and Fed has announced his place in the pickleball world in a big way this weekend. JW secures his 4th singles title in a row but he had to fight for it.

Anna Bright is also clearly improving after 4 weekends of playing. The results are going to vary but she said in an interview this weekend she knows she needs to fight her instinct and get to the net. With less court coverage, it seems it is more difficult for the women to feel comfortable at the net. She can still do it more but she did it enough against Jorja to secure her 2nd pro singles title. As an aside, she looked really good this weekend in women’s doubles and mixed. The train should be full steam ahead here.

Saturday, March 19th – Mixed

6:50 pm EST (Gritty) – I don’t think Susannah Barr and Austin Gridley made new friends today, but it is a huge day for them. There’s no two ways about it, Gridley made a poor call on a helluva shot from Anna Bright 10-10 in game 1 to give them 11-10. He made an immediate call and seemed to think it was out, but the replay clearly showed in. Tough time to lose a point. But the match itself was just really fun. 12-10, 10-12, 11-8 and Barr/Gridley were down 8-2 in the third. Bright, who hasn’t seen a ton of big pickleball matches, looked to get just a wee bit tight down the stretch of game 3. Barr is getting the “net lord” nickname as she plays with such thin margins, but when it is working like it was down the stretch it cannot be fun to play against. I actually thought Gridley lost an inordinate number of hand battles over the course of the match. They come out on top regardless.

4:24 pm EST (Gritty) – A lot of very tight calls this weekend. The Hewett/Ansboury and Barr/Gridley match got a bit heated with a line call off a serve by Barr that looked close but impossible to tell on video with Barr’s body blocking the ball. It’s kind of ironic seeing Ansboury get so up in arms over these things but everyone gets upset if there’s a bad call against. These things are going to keep happening without line judges though. It’s inevitable, intentional or unintentional. There seems to have been more really close ones for whatever reason this weekend. Not ideal.

Winners bracket final is one game in and JW and Simone win the first 11-7. I’d like to see Bright straight across from Jardim as an adjustment. She doesn’t have the consistency to grind Simone, even whatever % of her best self Simone is right now. Barr/Gridley will get Koop/Navratil to see who plays for bronze.

2:21 pm EST (Gritty) – Bright/Frazier are into the winners final. Hewett/Ansboury were up 8-3 in the 2nd but got 8 straight put on them. Only play the teams you meet but I still think they benefit from not having to face David/Bar or Koop/Navratil. Speaking of David/Bar, it’s a weird withdrawal if only rest related. They can still come through the backdraw and I think it’s pretty pathetic not to want grind through for a shot at gold, especially if it’s just Dekel not wanting to be tired for men’s tomorrow. Stealing a page from the Ben Johns playbook.

12:19 pm EST (Gritty) – Just when you think Dekel Bar is figuring out the whole mixed thing (although they withdrew from back draw so injury?), we get a loss against Remynse/Daescu in 3 games. Remynse is one of the underrated players out there with her lack of tournaments and seemingly lackadaisical style, but as we saw with Barr yesterday, and now Daescu today, she is still right there. Then Remynse/Daescu lose a super tight one 11-9 in the third to Bright/Frazier. Bright’s talent continues to shine through in these matches as her hands are simply top notch. But those are always heartbreakers. Daescu also is a monster overall.

Ansboury/Hewett continue to be a team that can do damage in these fields. They are often on the border of being drafted by us but you just never know which tourney they are going to hit in. Big win, 11-9 in the third, over Koop/Navratil. Ansboury needs a guy like Hewett to be the tasmanian devil and finish points, and Hewett needs someone with Ansboury’s full steadiness. His style plays better for mixed and it clearly works for the two of them. 

Just a note that it sounds like Lauren Stratman tweaked something so her singles withdrawal and then her being out completely in mixed with Julian Arnold seems to be health related. It’s interesting because she sounds like she has signed the 3-year PPA deal so to play this Delray tournament we think she would have needed permission. But the non-appearance is apparently injury related.

Friday, March 18th – Doubles

7:42 pm EST (Gritty) – Let’s get caught up on the day here. The women’s doubles side was quite interesting as Jardim/Koop will play for gold. They have, unsurprisingly, rolled through the bracket. However, Bright/Franco and Remynse/Barr are both teams that we didn’t necessarily expect in the bronze. Esquivel/Whitwell were not strong today and it really shows what steady forces Jorja Johnson and Vivienne David are as they have had good success teaming with Lee. In the bronze, Remynse/Barr made an important adjustment to have Barr cross-court with Franco and use her penetrating rolling dinks to grind her. Bright barely touched the ball most of the match and it’s really hard for a newer female like Bright to figure out how to insert herself in a match like that. Barr and Remynse both counter well so the few times Bright was able to speed up it wasn’t an easy proposition, especially when they know it’s coming. So it’s Barr/Remynse to play for gold. 

On the men’s side, it doesn’t look like Frazier’s back is too much cause for concern. They steamrolled Koller/Wilson after they basically played everything to JW in game 1. It didn’t really matter. But then Frazier/JW took down Bar/Stone in the winners bracket final 11-6, 11-4, which I found to be surprising. Look at it this way, Kyle Yates/Dekel Bar beat JW/Dylan twice in Punta Gorda without dropping a game. Sure seems to say something about Kyle Yates when he is paired with an elite left-side player – Yates/Cassidy by the way with a couple of heartbreaking losses today. Daescu/Navratil and Wilson/Koller battled through to the match to get to bronze in 15-13 wins but Koller/Wilson came out on top 15-11. 

At the end of the day, Bar/Stone will get another shot against the kids as they take Wilson/Koller down 11-3, 12-10. It was a strong men’s doubles field today and clearly that bronze could have gone to a number of different teams. 

2:30 pm EST (Slim) – The first women’s semi-final is in the books, with Anna Bright and Regina Franco rolling Megan Fudge and Martina Kochli 11-1, 11-6. I expect whoever they play next will give them a tougher test, but Bright and Franco are rolling right now. In the other women’s semi-final Maggie Remynse and Susannah Barr have taken the first game off of Simone Jardim and Andrea Koop, it will be interesting to see if they can pull off the upset.

On the men’s side we have two very interesting semi-finals, with Adam Stone and Dekel Bar taking on Austin Gridley and DJ Young. I like Adam and Dekel to take it but think it will be close. In the other semi-final Thomas Wilson and AJ Koller will take on Dylan Frazier and JW Johnson, in what should be an extremely close match up, I would usually favor Frazier/Johnson, but I think Wilson/Koller take it, I am worried about Dylan’s back.

1:05 pm EST (Slim) – Some interesting results in the women’s draw to start the day. Anna Bright and Regina Franco beat Vivienne David and Corrine Carr 11-4, 11-0. I am not surprised that Anna and Regina won, but I am a little surprised about the scores. Vivienne and Corrine are just not a good fit, as they are both setup players. I am also sure Corrine Carr will be happy if she doesn’t have to face Anna Bright for a while. Megan Fudge and Martina Kochli defeated Michelle Esquivel and Lee Whitwell 11-7, 1-11, 11-8 which is a very good win for them, and Megan Fudge seems to be continuing to improve. Maggie Remynse and Susannah Barr beat Jorja Johnson and Sarah Ansboury in three games 11-8, 6-11, 11-7. Maggie and Susannah are a first time partnership and I had a hard time figuring out how they might do this week, but that is a good start for them.

On the men’s side things have been pretty chalk so far, DJ Young and Austin Gridley just beat Kyle Yates and Rob Cassidy in three close games, 12-10, 8-11, 11-9. If they match up against Dekel Bar and Adam Stone in the semis, I will be interested to see if they can cause them some problems, they are a very long team with excellent hands and weapons. The Wilson/Koller vs. Dasecu/Navratil quarterfinal is also intriguing, I like Wilson/Koller to win, but think it will be close. Also of note Dylan Frazier and JW Johnson went three games in the first match of the day against Eric Gilbert and Jay Campbell, I do wonder after he withdrew from singles yesterday, how Dylan’s back is.

Thursday, March 17th – Singles

5:54 pm EST (Gritty) – Two surprise podiums in men’s today with Fed Staksrud and Jake Kusmider. Staksrud into the gold after a strong performance. Kusmider hasn’t been playing much this year so far so great result for him too. Staksrud has come as close as anyone has to beating JW over the past month. Let’s see if he can do anything in the final.

Jorja easily over Megan Fudge who did run out of gas. The APP switched up their initial Championship Sunday mishap and is not playing the bronze on Sunday this time around. Good for viewers. Not good for Fudge. We’ll see if Jorja can find a way to cool down Anna Bright.

3:57 pm EST (Gritty) – JW Johnson is into the gold medal match. He’ll play the winner of Jake Kusmider and whoever wins between Federico Staksrud and John Cincola. Federico with a huge day as almost beat JW Johnson earlier then fights in the backdraw to take down Zane Navratil 17-15 and then a win over DeHeart to be in the bronze. John Cincola beat Gabe Tardio 15-13. It seems like these men’s singles fields are going to become harder to cap with all the new talent coming in. The learning curve is far less steep than doubles and it allows these talented players to do damage at the pro level. Julian Arnold barely lost to Tardio 18-16 on the losers side as well.

On the women’s side, Anna Bright is steam rolling through like she did at Punta Gorda. She’ll play the winner of Jorja Johnson and Megan Fudge. Fudge will get a much needed rest before playing Jorja on Championship Sunday in the bronze. It also does appear that Devidze seems to run out of gas later in the day. Devidze lost to Johnson 15-2 after beating her earlier in the day.

2:00 pm EST (Gritty) – There’s a lot going on today in Delray. The entire bottom half of the draw is in flux as Zane Navratil lost to Alex Neumann and Dylan Frazier withdrew, presumably those back issues haven’t sorted themselves out from last weekend. Neumann then proceeded to lose in a close 3-game match to Ryler DeHeart, who continues to get results despite his slightly advanced age and lack of any sort of backhand groundstroke. Talent will go quite far. JW Johnson is in the semi-finals against John Cincola, but not before getting a scare from Federico Staksrud who was up 8-6 in the third against him. Staksrud is also just getting wins and will have to be in consideration for fantasy drafts going forward along with Neumann and DeHeart.

Julian Arnold, Gabe Tardio, Jack Foster and Zane are all making their way through the backdraw. Neuman was beaten by Julian Arnold as he was last weekend. 

Jorja Johnson got an extremely tough draw. Salome Devidze is good and almost beat Johnson last weekend in Port Lucie. However, Anna Bright gets some revenge for the 15-6 loss last week to Devidze as she gets through 11-0, 12-10. Strong fight by Devidze after being down 8-3 in the second but she could not quite pull out game 2. Lauren Stratman had a pretty easy draw but clearly decided not to play beforehand so Megan Fudge gets a pretty clean path to the winners bracket final after a tough match with Amanda Hendry.

10:55 am EST (Gritty) – So we have a rain delay to begin the day, but not before Alex Neumann has another big upset. He beats Zane 11-6, 11-9. It’s pretty wild to think 2 weeks ago he had never had big wins and now it’s 2 weeks in a row. This could be for real? Neumann is sponsored by Crbn just for anyone who is interested. And Ryan Sherry, who has always used a Franklin Ben Johns, looked to be playing with a Crbn this morning too, but someone correct me if I’m wrong. There’s obviously something to this paddle or guys like Sherry and JW wouldn’t be using it.

APP Tour Delray Beach Open – Fantasy Draft Preview

We are on the final leg of this four consecutive week Florida pro pickleball swing. The Florida fields for these APP tournaments have been quite strong and it will be interesting to see how that plays out as the year goes along. Looking at the men’s field, no matter how you slice it, the top 3 teams in this APP tournament are probably the #3, #4 and #5 teams in some order at most PPA events. You take out Ben/Collin and Matt/Riley from those fields, and it makes a big difference on the men’s side in terms of perceived depth. Thomas Wilson and AJ Koller are slated to play at least the bigger APP events in New York and St. Louis coming up. The comparisons will be an ongoing exercise for as long as these two tours are competing against one another. 

On the women’s side, the rising star, Anna Bright, has had quite a change in circumstances as a lot of people in pickleball have seen. Two and a half weeks ago, Bright was set to play this Delray tournament with Milan Rane and Shiv Krishnaswamy. We’re not sure of how this situation changed but she’s now partnered with Regina Franco and Dylan Frazier. That’s an upgrade in level of partners for Bright, especially in mixed.

DUPR is announcing battle of the sexes. JW is playing with an illegal paddle (just kidding!). And we’re only two and a half months through the year. There’s so much more to come.

Slim is back at 5 up for the year in Fantasy. Gritty won the toss and elected to pick first.

(1) JW Johnson (Gritty)

(2) Simone Jardim / Andrea Koop (Slim)

(3) Simone Jardim / JW Johnson (Slim)

(4) Dekel Bar / Adam Stone (Gritty)

(5) Jorja Johnson (Gritty)

Gritty – I saw only one thing that could be considered anything close to a sure thing this weekend for a gold medal and that’s JW in singles. The only concern I have is that this will be 4 weekends in a row of tourneys for JW. That’s a lot of pickleball no matter how young you are. Dekel/Adam should be the top men’s team despite JW/Dylan’s silver last weekend, particularly if Frazier is struggling with any back issues. I had Bright in singles over Jorja Johnson after her big breakout in Punta Gorda but Jorja has proven to be the steadier singles player. She deserves the #1 women’s singles spot in this tournament.

Slim – I end up really riding with Simone, which is risky given all of her apparent injuries these days, but I think she has the partners to complement her this week in JW and Andrea. We saw Andrea and Simone team up in Boca earlier this year, and they took gold, and the only team that really pushed them was the Kawamotos. JW and Simone teamed up once last year in Hilton Head and took an impressive gold over Jessie Irvine and Jay Devilliers (they beat them twice). Simone still brings a lot of consistency and when you partner her with players who can really finish points, which JW and Andrea can both do, she is still very tough.

(6) Dylan Frazier / JW Johnson (Slim)

(7) Anna Bright (Slim)

(8) Vivienne David / Dekel Bar (Gritty)

(9) Zane Navratil (Gritty)

(10) Sarah Ansboury / Jorja Johnson (Slim)

(11) Thomas Wilson / AJ Koller (Slim)

Gritty – Bright could very well have another weekend but I was fine with Slim taking Anna Bright in singles who lost to Salome Devidze at the PPA last weekend 15-6. Vivienne and Dekel could easily be considered the #1 mixed team in this tournament so I’m happy to get them here. Zane Navratil has been ultra consistent in singles and in this men’s field he should be a pretty good bet for silver.

Slim – I have to stick to my number one fantasy rule of always betting on JW. I especially have to after he delivered me the W last week. Dylan and JW can beat anybody as we saw with them beating the Johns brothers last week. Taking Anna Bright seventh is a bit of a gamble, but in a women’s singles field that isn’t quite as deep as we have seen the last few weeks, I like the upside. We know she can beat Jorja as we saw in Punta Gorda. Sarah Ansboury and Jorja Johnson looked very solid last week at the PPA, so I like them here. Thomas Wilson and AJ Koller are making their first APP appearances of the year. It will be interesting to see how they do. I like them to make the podium, but can they make it to the gold medal match?

(12) Andrea Koop / Zane Navratil (Gritty) 

(13) Michelle Esquivel / Lee Whitwell (Gritty)

(14) Megan Fudge (Slim)

(15) Dylan Frazier (Slim)

(16) Salome Devidze (Gritty)

(17) John Cincola (Gritty)

Gritty – Andrea Koop is arguably the best female in this mixed field and Zane had a nice overall run in Plantation two weeks ago. Esquivel and Whitwell had to be the #3 team for me on the women’s side. The power of Esquivel should pair well with the steadiness of Whitwell. Salome Devidze has a pro tennis background and it just seems like her level dips as the day gets longer. She’s good though. While Cincola’s results have not been good since his big APP gold at the beginning of the year, there’s not enough reliability in this singles field to take anyone ahead of him (I had Cincola over Dylan Frazier, partly due to health concerns).

Slim – Megan Fudge has been putting up pretty consistent singles results for the last month and I like that consistency to earn her a third straight podium in an APP event this weekend. Dylan Frazier is very hit and miss in singles. I am hoping he is on this week.

(18) Anna Bright / Dylan Frazier (Slim)

(19) Anna Bright / Regina Franco Goldberg (Slim)

(20) Lauren Stratman / Julian Arnold (Gritty)

(21) Andrei Daescu / Zane Navratil (Gritty)

(22) Austin Gridley / DJ Young (Slim)

(23) Lee Whitwell / DJ Young (Slim)

Gritty – I’m a big fan of Julian Arnold and it seems like forever ago that Stratman/Arnold had their surprising run at the PPA Masters. This is a high upside team that I like a little bit more than Bright/Frazier. I’m also a big fan of Daescu and in Planation Daescu/Navratil had a really solid run together. Gridley/DJ are another scary team that I didn’t like to leave on the board for Slim but the reliability of Daescu/Navratil was something I couldn’t pass up.

Slim – The results haven’t been there for Bright since her breakout performance at Punta Gorda, but I think the talent is still very evidently there, so I am betting on that talent. Bright and Dylan Frazier both have great hands, so they have the potential to beat any team in the mixed field. Bright and Regina is also a partnership with great hands, though I worry Regina is still finding her form. Austin Gridley and DJ Young are an intriguing partnership and one I can imagine other teams in the bracket don’t want to face. DJ Young and Lee Whitwell seem to be practicing a lot together at Dreamland, and I think that chemistry could really help them this week.

(24) Lauren Stratman (Gritty)

(25) Maggie Remynse / Susannah Barr (Gritty)

(26) Julian Arnold (Slim)

(27) Ryan Sherry (Slim)

(28) Vivienne David / Corrine Carr (Gritty)

(29) Kyle Yates / Rob Cassidy (Gritty)

(30) Amanda Hendry (Slim)

Gritty – Slim made a mistake letting Stratman slide, and this very well could be a bronze for her. Slim has all the Bright stock this weekend, which means she is going to take off, but I had Remynse/Barr above Bright/Franco on my big board. I’m still in wait and see mode on Franco who is going to need space to get her timing back. Vivienne David as a right sided player does not fit well with Corrine Carr’s lack of power, but they are clearly the #6 team in this field. In terms of the men’s team, this could have gone a number of ways for my final pick, but I didn’t have much doubt that Yates/Cassidy were the right choice here.

Slim – Julian Arnold has been knocking on the door for a little while now in singles. Could this be the week he breaks through? Ryan Sherry’s results haven’t been great over the last month, but in a singles field that is not quite as deep as some recent ones, I like him to do some damage. I did not know until recently that Amanda Hendry won multiple NCAA field hockey titles at North Carolina.

Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments below or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram or Facebook too!

PPA Tour Riverland Open – 5 Takeaways – Benny Backdraw

📸 @collinjohns_pb

It was a windy one at the PPA Riverland Open this weekend. Like, a real windy one. At times what was going on barely seemed to resemble pickleball. While the players have to play through the conditions, there is a certain degree of grain of salt that has to be attached to these results, particularly with the weather on the Saturday doubles day. On the other hand, there is something to be said for the mental fortitude it takes to play through the frustration of ridiculous wind. You never know what you’re going to get in Florida! There were a lot of things that happened this weekend and we try to bring you the most important takeaways from a whirlwind 4 days. 

1. Benny Backdraw (Gritty) – We only got one instance of Benny Backdraw this weekend despite two missed Championship Sunday appearances. Ben Johns lost in singles to JW Johnson in the semi-finals on Thursday and then was taken down by JW Johnson again in men’s doubles with Dylan Frazier in the quarter-finals. Ben and Collin proceeded to immediately withdraw from the backdraw, presumably to rest up for his one whole match on Sunday. Ben is still clearly the best player out there still and we do see ongoing improvement in his game, but he’s also more gettable than ever right now. We are a broken record on this, but the increase in level from the rest of the players is what best explains this. JW Johnson, in particular, has seen a steady and significant improvement in his level that makes him so dangerous in these early rounds of PPA events where his PPA points-based seeding obviously does not accord with where he should be seeded.

It continues to be a bit of an amusing turn of events that one of the biggest drivers of a single elimination format, Ben Johns, is having to deal with the big downside of getting rid of the opportunity to get back to that gold medal match. The move by the PPA was made at a time when Ben was in a completely untouchable league of his own. That has not been the case since last summer. Most great athletes in their sports are not great losers and Johns is no different. Ben and Collin sulk like they’re LeBron James watching Russell Westbrook take a crunch time 3-pointer when things aren’t going well. Ben essentially refuses to talk about his losses on his podcast (when he used to do them at least).

It seems pretty much inevitable that he’s not going to be totally dominant over the course of this 3-year exclusivity deal he has with the PPA and I’ll be curious to see how he handles it when more losing comes his way. Benny may have to actually grind more backdraws in the future.

2. Anna Leigh’s Triple Crown (Slim) – Anna Leigh won the triple crown this weekend, and she didn’t just win it, she took it in dominant fashion. Between the three events this weekend, Anna Leigh dropped a total of one game, a game to Riley Newman and Catherine Parenteau in mixed, enroute to the triple crown. And most of her matches were not overly competitive, as the game scores indicate.

It will be interesting to see if and how many times, Anna Leigh can replicate this feat this year. I would expect that we will see Anna Leigh on top of almost every PPA singles and mixed podium this year (at least until Ben gets bored and checks out), so it really comes down to the women’s doubles. Obviously Lucy Kovolova and Callie Smith did not play together this weekend, and they have been the dominant women’s team this year. In Minnesota though, we did see the Waters play Lucy and Callie tight losing in 5 sets, so it is quite possible they are figuring things out, or maybe the conditions there just favored the Waters.

Women’s doubles is the last piece of puzzle for Anna Leigh as outside of Catherine Parenteau nobody seems to be close to her in women’s singles and she seems to be widening the gap over her opponents. In mixed, she and Ben are rarely challenged, and that looks unlikely to change anytime soon. If she and Leigh can find a way (I am a little skeptical) to top Callie and Lucy she will be inarguably the most dominant force in pickleball.

Also, I don’t think it’s going to happen but it is fun to speculate about Anna Leigh down the road here, looking to move on from Ben, and what a twist of fate it would be to see Ben getting dumped by a younger partner.

3. JW Johnson. Can’t Stop. Won’t Stop (Gritty) – As much as it could be beneficial for the APP Tour to have their marquee player be a bigger personality, they probably needed a person with JW Johnson’s temperament to handle what has been thrown at him as a non-PPA player. It takes a certain kind of person to not care about the perceived glitz and glamor that the PPA offers to players. Photoshoots? Social media growth? Guaranteed money? Free rental cars? That stuff doesn’t impact ol’ JW too much. It also doesn’t hurt that his mother and sister were going to be mainstays on the APP Tour. Regardless, the man is just going to go out to play some really good freakin’ pickleball and let the chips fall where they may.

This weekend was another massive JW Johnson performance. He won gold in singles and silver in men’s doubles with Dylan Frazier. The pair took down Ben and Collin Johns, and played a very competitive match against Matt Wright/Riley Newman even though Frazier appeared to be troubled by a back injury at one point in the match. The PPA is lucky that JW does not appear to be registered for anymore PPA events for the foreseeable future. It gives them time to figure out something that we know some of their contracted players are not happy about, which is the JW’s of the world getting low seedings that lead to very tough earlier than should be matchups in the draw. Ben Johns cannot be happy about the fact he would continue to see JW in singles semi-finals as the #4 seed..

There are only so many things we can write about JW Johnson but he keeps giving us more reasons to do so. It doesn’t seem like he feels pressure, which can be a double-edged sword when the man can probably find a way to be more aggressive at times in doubles. However, it also bodes well for a ‘bet on yourself’ mentality and it looks like JW is going to make a bunch of money doing whatever he’s going to do this year.

4. Jorja Johnson’s Rise (Slim) – To start this year Jorja has really proven herself to be a force to be reckoned with on the women’s pro scene, which given she is still just 15 years old is very impressive. She has been getting results all year, but her bronze in singles at this weekends PPA was just further evidence of her arrival.

Part of what is impressive about Jorja is at a young age she seems to be able to stay pretty steady. After dropping a tough 3 set match in the opening round, she was able to battle all the way back in awful playing conditions and take bronze. That run included a very impressive 15-13 win over Callie Smith and how easily she handled the fast rising Parris Todd in Bronze medal match was almost equally impressive.

Prior to this weekend, in the past two APP events at Punta Gorda and Plantation, Jorja medaled in 5 of her 6 events, including the surprise gold with Anna Bright over Simone Jardim and Corrine Carr and a gold medal in singles in Plantation, in a deep womens singles field.

It will be interesting to see where Jorja’s ultimate ceiling is. She does not play like a classically trained tennis player but she has as much power as pretty much any women out there, and her hands are beyond solid in general (I have to imagine most stuff looks pretty slow when you play with JW every day) so a lot of the tools are there. It will also be something to monitor who she gets for partners moving forward.

5. Lea Jansen’s Serve (Gritty) – I don’t want to beat a dead horse too much and so much has happened since singles Thursday when Lea Jansen’s serve was a very hot topic. Her serve is one of the most, if not the most, illegal looking serves we have seen in the pro ranks. Neither of us on this blog are rules guys. That’s not our angle. However, before getting into the real takeaway of what the serve could mean for pro pickleball, my thought on the serve itself is that it should be illegal. Yes, I know that when you watch the serve in slow motion the majority of them appear to be technically legal. But that’s slow motion. If you use the Bill Simmons ask 10 people in a bar approach, I bet most of them watch it live and say it’s illegal. She is basically full sidearm on some of the serves. If it looks like an illegal serve, talks like an illegal serve, and walks like an illegal serve, it should be an illegal serve. Here’s 3 screenshot photos from 3 different angles I took from the match with Bright that are not necessarily a full picture of where her serve motion ends up each time:

But I digress.

The real point of the serve is what it means for pro pickleball. In Lea Jansen’s match against Anna Bright, she was only called once for an illegal serve by the referee. Whether it’s legal or illegal, she is not getting called on it. It should be a message for pro players to realize that they can push the envelope when it comes to rules. Just the same as if a referee isn’t calling me for standing in the key on every play for 10 seconds, I’m going to go as high as I can with that serve until the refs start to call me on it.

I think it is more problematic in pickleball when there is a limited audience monitoring what goes on in the sport. The players have a ton of say in the direction of the sport relative to other professional sports and their influence on the tours is relatively large. If Jansen is posting on the Pickleball Forum about the legality of the serve prior to the tournament, I’m going to take a wild guess that some conversations were had with Mr. Connor Pardoe about the serve as well. That’s just a completely wild guess though.

My expectation is that we’re going to see a lot of other players continuing to push the boundaries on not only the serve but any aspect of the rules where there is a potential advantage to be gained. I worry that there aren’t going to be enough checks and balances to stop the players from being able to direct how the rules operate. I wouldn’t expect anything drastic to happen with Jansen’s serve and we’ll have to see if Jansen’s serve is somewhat of a tip of the iceberg for these kinds of rules questions.

UPDATE: I wanted to provide a little bit of clarification that I think could have been included in the initial post on how Lea Jansen’s serve is differentiated in my mind from ones like Tyson McGuffin, Gabe Joseph and Dekel Bar. From a live eye test perspective, those players have serves that no doubt border on illegal and, especially Gabe Joseph, it seems like some, but not all, are illegal. However, when I watch Jansen’s serve, pretty much every serve looks to be illegal. That does change to a degree when I slow her serve down or stop her motion at the point of contact, which I note in the post. The other point is that her serve is more sidearm than those other players I mentioned and that makes it more of an issue in my mind. So I wanted to be clear about why her serve is being written about and not other specific borderline serves that are out there.

Fantasy Update: Slim is back with another win. It’s a 17-12 win this weekend with Slim being the beneficiary of some upsets and betting on JW Johnson. Slim is once again 5 up on the year as the dominance continues. Gritty better figure things out fast or he might need to take out a second mortgage at some point.

Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments below or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook too!

PPA Tour Riverland Open – Live Random Thoughts

📸 @ppatour

We wondered in our opening of our fantasy fraft preview about whether PPA contracted players could be upset about high quality APP players getting low seeds due to a lack of PPA points. For whatever reason, the draws for the entire weekend have already been released on Pickleball Tournaments. Callie Smith and AJ Koller are getting Andrea Koop and JW Johnson in round 1. Round 1! Lea Jansen could very well face Anna Bright in her first match. Interestingly, the PPA players avoided JW in their quarter of the bracket. Nevertheless, it’s something to monitor as we go on in the year. All of these are assuming draws don’t change as they tend to from time to time.

Our fantasy draft preview is here for your interest.

Sunday, March 13th – Championship Sunday

4:00 pm EST (Gritty) – A triple crown for AL and didn’t even drop a game. Mama Waters has even alluded to there only being so much time she has left to play with her daughter, but how can you ever break this partnership up so long as there is the slight possibility of tourney wins. There can’t be much better than getting a triple crown this way. I bet if you asked AL, winning less with her Mom is more important than winning more with someone else.

JW is dominant. He has clearly separated himself from the rest of the tier 2 pack. There really is no question now. 3 game win over Tyson.

2:10 pm EST (Gritty) – The Waters were down 9-2 in game 1 and were able to pull it out 12-10. It’s crazy how fast things can change. They were down less in game 2 but still down, and they went on another tear. It was a fantastic performance from the Waters as Anna Leigh really showed how dominant she is. I know Collin was doing the earlier games and Collin Johns does a good job on the commentary. But this is the first time I had heard Lea Jansen do commentary (I believe she did some in Minnesota), and I think she’s the best person I have heard doing color commentary. She clearly knows all the players out there and she’s constantly giving the viewer nuggets of information and analysis we so often do not get on pickleball broadcasts. Very much enjoyed the listen.

1:12 pm EST (Gritty) – JW and Dylan put up a very good fight against what we would consider to be the clear #2 team out there right now. Tight game one, winning game 3 and a fairly tight game 4 after Dylan Frazier needed a medical timeout for his back. It was discussed on the broadcast by Lea Jansen that the kids needed to stay aggressive and not sit back in rallies. I think this is one of their weaker points as a partnership, and it likely comes from the two being so stoic in their demeanor. There’s not enough urgency to switch things up sometimes and they have two of the best hands out there. They need to remember to stay aggressive, especially JW.

Anna Leigh and Ben continue to be a class above the rest. Easy 3 game win over Jay/Jessie. Not much else to say. Too good.

Saturday, March 12th – Doubles

10:45 pm EST (Gritty) – Tyson and Jay live! That’s a huge bronze for any prospects of their long-term partnership. Who knows where we go from here but that’s gotta help morale.

Smith/Koop rallied from an 11-0 first set loss. It’s clear Simone isn’t the player she was last year and that has to be tough for her. Less power and assume her injuries make it tougher to grind long rallies like she’s known to do.

8:50 pm EST (Gritty) – Maybe I shouldn‘t have written their obituary just yet as Jay and Tyson are grinding into the bronze. They’ll have a very winnable matchup. Loong and Todd Fought with a good day too. Fought is getting results and those Utah guys clearly respect his ability.

Newman/Wright will play the kids which was not surprising after they got through the Johns.

The women is kind of what you would expect with Parenteau/Irvine getting the Waters. The back draw is still going and we have to expect Koop/Smith will play Jardim/Kovalova.

1:20 pm EST (Gritty) – We are in a rain delay here but when we come back we won’t get the pleasure of Benny Backdraw who apparently is not contractually obligated to play back draws. The Johns bros with the classic Ben/Simone withdrawal. Sorry fans!

Jorja and Sarah had a really good match against Catherine and Jessie. Barely lost in 3. The wind is no joke as seen in the Milan/Anna vs. Blackwood/Todd matchup. But still, Jorja is really getting it done these days.

11:32 am EST (Gritty) – I wanted to talk about this but then the Johns brothers lost. Tyson/Jay. They ended up beating Jonny Pickleball and Junior Ore 9-11, 11-7, 11-1, but that’s two tight sets for an alleged top 4 seeding. Now they lost to Smith and Dawson. Reading the tea leaves, this partnership could be heading towards splitsville. I wanted to give this partnership time, but time may be up. It seems like there could be more going on behind the scenes between the two. Tyson, who is usually very open talking about his partnerships and losses, gave the most minimal mention to the performance him and Jay had in Minnesota. We both think it’s telling that he’s not talking about how they are working on things and going to figure it out. Another bad result here, another bad result there, and you really wonder how long this can last for.

Smith/Daescu great win over Koller and Wilson in 2 games. Maybe Jay wishes he had Pat back? Pat is having a huge weekend and this theoretical good fit with Daescu is turning into a legit good fit.

Jorja Johnson continues her strong run these days as her partnership with Ansboury leads to a win over Bright/Rane. That partnership not looking Bright as Rane so far. And Smith/Koop win a very tight one over Stratman/Jones. A little surprising how tight that was.

10:18 am EST (Gritty) – Down goes Frazier! Wait, sorry I have that wrong. Down goes the Johns! Quite the early upset. Extreme wind conditions out there that the always stoic JW and Dylan Frazier handled it far better than the Johns did. The Johns brothers were up 4-1 in the first and then lost 11-5 and 11-3. Literally 4 points the rest of the way. If you want to bring in the body language doctor, the Johns brothers have some of the mopiest body language it gets when they start losing. There were a bunch of net cords that went against them in game 2, but it was also clear in my mind they began pulling the trigger far too early out of frustration to try to get themselves easy rallies. It didn’t work. It’s quite the thing when Ben Johns is probably the main reason behind the single elimination format and is now suffering as a result. Time to see Benny do what we know he loves to do, which is grind backdraws. They don’t call him Benny Backdraw for nothing. The PPA is pretty fortunate JW isn’t registered for more PPAs coming up because their players suffer as a result of his low seedings in these tournaments. You have to think they may make a change to how their seeding operates as a result.

Friday, March 11th – Mixed

5:12 pm EST (Gritty) – Matt/Lucy do take home a bronze after beating Parenteau/Newman then getting some mild revenge on Waters/Smith, who ousted them from the winners bracket side. The bronzes have to be pretty disappointing for this team who is so used to playing in gold medal matches. On the other hand, they could be Parenteau/Newman who are finishing another tournament off the medal stand. It’s probably too early for these teams to be in any sort of change mode, but with PPA partnerships being so exclusive you have to think we’ll start seeing mid-year partnership changes if results continue to fall flat. Big day for Pat Smith and Leigh Waters too. That’s a surprising 4th place, at least in our eyes.

I have to mention more wins for mixed specialist assassin Allyce Jones with Spencer Smith. Wins over Simone/Dylan, Lea/Collin and Callie/AJ today.

3:17 pm EST (Gritty) – This has been a fascinating mixed day of results. Leigh Waters and Pat Smith had close to a fantastic day. They took down Collin Johns/Lea Jansen then followed that up with a huge upset of Lucy Kovalova/Matt Wright, who we may need to do further investigation into their mixed struggles. Waters/Smith played Irvine/Devilliers really tight in 2 games and just had a bit of a come back to earth game 3, losing 11-0. Smith’s health has been a concern all year but I’m even more interested to see how he does in mens with Daescu tomorrow.

Irvine/Devilliers get another Championship Sunday appearance. They have really benefited from having this #4 seed during the year. We’re going to try to dig in more to understand the PPA points as movement at the top is very limited. On the other hand, Parenteau/Newman have severely been limited by having a #2 or #3 seed this year. They put up a decent fight but having to face Anna Leigh/Ben in every semi-final is not really fair to them at all. 

11:10 am EST (Gritty) – Ben gets the bronze in singles over Julian Arnold 11-6, 11-9. If there’s one thing that may have woken Ben up this morning, it could have been not letting the “Andiamo’s” beat him.

Mixed day is quickly becoming the most fun day with how strong all the teams are. Nothing shocking because all the teams are so tough, but lots to note. Bright/Loong over Stratman/McGuffin 11-8, 11-8. That partnership with Bright is perfect for her right now in mixed as she gets to be straight ahead with the opposing female.

AJ and Callie in 3 tight ones over JW and Andrea. This felt like the most unfair first round matchup for both teams. Allyce Jones, mixed specialist, getting more Ws as her and Spencer Smith get it over Simone/Dylan in 3. And then the newest serve controversy specialist, Lea Jansen, is ousted with her partner Collin Johns by Leigh Waters and Pat Smith. Still giving that partnership time even though early results have not been promising.

Thursday, March 10th – Singles

9:34 pm EST (Gritty) – Jorja Johnson gets a very impressive bronze with a 15-13 win over Callie Smith and then taking over against Parris Todd after a close first half of game 1. Johnson needs a little more to be truly elite in singles but the improvement has been super steady for the youngster. Big credit to her.

Benny backdraw will play the bronze against Julian Arnold tomorrow morning at 9:30 am EST. Fired up Julian vs. slow starting contractually obligated to play Ben. Could be intriguing.

4:50 pm EST (Gritty) – Alex Neumann’s career day is stopped by Tyson. It’s a big breakthrough with very legit wins. Neumann has been getting some wins at pro but losses in the last two tourneys to William Sobek did not indicate any sort of major breakthrough forthcoming. McGuffin gets a far easier road than Johns and that won’t change anytime soon with the way it seems PPA points work. Ben will play for bronze. You can be sure he is a happy camper.

Lea Jansen beat Callie Smith in two tight games and she’ll get Waters on Sunday. Bright goes down to Salome Devidze who then lost to Todd. Devidze played Anna in Punta Gorda and looked solid, but this is still a surprise. Jorja Johnson squeaked out a win over Callie Smith 15-13 and that’s 2 of the last 3 tourneys where Smith has lost to seemingly lesser opponents. Full credit to Jorja who should have the edge in the bronze.

3:05 pm EST (Slim) – JW knocks off Ben Johns in three games, 5-11, 11-6, 11-6. It is a huge win for JW as his singles ascent this year continues. I will be very surprised if anyone can beat JW in the finals on championship Sunday. JW and Ben seem to be in a different class then everyone else, but is starting to look like a class of two. In the other semi-final Tyson McGuffin will face Alex Neumann who is having a career day, defeating Jay Devilliers 11-7, 11-9 in the quarter finals.

On the womens side Lea Jansen defeated Anna Bright 11-4, 11-9. In the second game Bright showed glimpses of her talent, and seemed more settled and was coming to the net more regularly. The biggest difference in my mind though between the two is Lea is much more comfortable operating at the net currently. I also think Bright needs to become more comfortable going down the line with her two hand backhand.

Also Lea Jansen’s serve is going to be a talking point, she posted about herself in the pickleball forum but it is obviously going to draw a lot of her attention. Live it just looks illegal (too high and side arm), slowed down it does appear that she often is making contact below her waist, but not every time.

1:30 pm EST (Slim) – Women’s first round matches are in the book, of note Anna Bright took down Allyce Jones 11-8, 11-3 to set up a match against Lea, which should give us an idea of where her singles game is at relative to the top players. Another notable result was Salome Devidze beat Jorja Johnson in 3 games, 11-7, 3-11, 11-9. Salome is a relative newcomer who seems to just to be playing singles but she was once ranked around #250 in the world in tennis in both singles and doubles, so she has a very strong tennis foundation.

On the mens side Ben Johns beat Ryler Deheart 17-15, 11-3 in a very hard fought first game. Ryler is eextremely talented but he needs to figure out how to be able to do more on his backhand at the net if he wants to compete at the highest level. Ben was repeatedly dropping to Ryler’s backhand.

12:25 pm EST (Gritty) – Tough loss for Staksrud as he loses in 3 to Devilliers. Won game 1 and lost game 2 15-13 before ultimately losing 11-8. Devilliers stranglehold as a top singles player is becoming concerning.

FAD over Jack Foster easily and DeHeart over Sherry in 2 not that close games. So much talent all over the place these days.

Also, if anyone knows what Damien Spizzo’s situation is please advise…he had the 15 seed today somehow and the PPA streamed his loser’s bracket match versus Joey Farias. He coaches the Johnson’s and seems he has to have some kind of in with the PPA. There’s other things that would indicate this as well.

11:15 am EST (Gritty) – Federico Staksrud is starting to get results. Noted him on the live blog last weekend and he beats Dylan Frazier easily based on the scores. He’ll get Jay Devilliers and that score will be something to monitor. A couple of other minor results are Alex Neumann beating Loong, who had been having a very solid singles 2022, and Ryler DeHeart over Julian Arnold. DeHeart in his late 30s but when you were literally a pro singles tennis player there is something in the tank.