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.

PPA Tour Riverland Open – Live Random Thoughts

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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.

APP Tour Plantation Open – Live Random Thoughts

We have new partnerships and players who aren’t at a lot of these tournaments like the Kawamoto’s this weekend. Of course, Anna Bright is back in the spotlight after her week long media tour. We’ll give our thoughts as the weekend progresses. You can check out our fantasy draft preview here too.

Sunday, March 6th – Singles

5:30 pm EST (Gritty) – Parris Todd was a takeaway for us a couple of weeks ago and she showed Bright is not the only newcomer we should watch out for. Todd beat Bright 15-13 and then played Jorja Johnson tight in 3. Like so many women, if Todd can figure out how to come to the net it’ll make a huge difference. She’s already very good. But Jorja was too much and she is also showing what she can do. Jorja will remain a staple at the top of podiums this year at these APPs.

This has to be a bit humbling for Bright. We’ll have more in takeaways but after such a hyped weekend that we here at NML played some part in, it’s not easy to bring that high level every week.

3:32 pm EST (Gritty) – JW in singles at the APP’s might become a cake walk. He handled Zane with ease again. Frazier gets a nice bronze with a win over Foster as we are in a rain delay.

Jorja is on fire today taking down Megan Fudge easily. Fudge had a tight win against Parris Todd and beat Jorja last week. Don’t count out the kid!

1:08 pm EST (Gritty) – Humbling weekend so far for Anna. She loses to Jorja easily and it looked like the “veteran” Jorja handled the win a lot better as Anna also did not come up to the net at all in that match either really. We’ll see how the backdraw goes before going too snap judgement-y for the second week in a row.

Zane and JW will play the winners bracket final – JW is up and appearing to be on his way to another win. In the backdraw, Foster with a couple of tight 16-14 wins over Cincola and Neumann. William Sobek is also having a fine day as he beat last week’s bronze medalist Gabe Tardio. Consistency in pro pickleball is tough.

10:30 am EST (Gritty) – Early noteworthy result is Cincola losing to newcomer Federico Staksrud 11-7, 11-8. Fed is a former college tennis guy who has had some impressive early results on the pro scene including wins over Jack Foster and Rafa Hewett as well as taking a game off JW last weekend. Another impressive win spin serve and all againsg Cincola

Saturday, March 5th – Doubles

8:17 pm EST (Gritty) – Outside of a 1 game blip in their first match, the Kawamoto’s were absolutely dominant today as they cruised 2 and 2 in the gold. Easy to forget how good they are and a team needs real weapons to get past them as they are otherwise too steady.

This is Gehrke’s second APP podium. I was fact checked on this.

JW and Dylan get back with a gold. They get 2 and then 15-5. This is where their steadiness is helpful with no panic. It seems like it can be a double edged sword for them but they do stay the course as a pair. Worked out today.

5:00 pm EST (Gritty) – A couple of somewhat surprise old guard bronzez. Podium Joey Farias is back with two bronzes in a row! In all honesty, put Joey with someone steady and not Jeff Warnick, you have something there. On the women’s side, is that Gehrke’s first pro podium? Someone fact check that but that’s a big day for Gehrke and Padegimaite. Neither bronze match was close though, not surprisingly.

2:55 pm EST (Gritty) – I thought it might be a bit closer but Kawamoto’s were too much for Johnson/Whitwell. When they show up to tourneys, they are #good. On the back side, Bright/Hendry are downed by Padegimaite/Gehrke. Tough to figure anything from this but not an ideal doubles showing for Bright.

Daescu/Navratil pulled it out against the kids. A bit surprising but like the Kawamoto’s when Daescu shows up he is #good.

1:48 pm EST (Gritty) – Tough day for Austin and Chuck going down 16-14 in their first losers match. That’s a surprisingly bad result for this first time partnership. Close matches in the losses but ultimately it’s an 0-2 day. Daescu and Navratil are into the winners final along with JW and Dylan who rolled through their matches. Travis and Ryler are not quite ready for that level.

I think Gabe Tardio needs more respect from us. He and William Sobek took down John Cincola and Johnny Goldberg 15-3 as Goldberg’s stock is not high coming off patnernity leave. Maybe the Napa wine tripping wasn’t great for pickle.

Anna and Amanda had a solid match against Lee and Jorja but they were overmatched. That’ll be an expected winners final there. We’ll monitor Bright through the backdraw.

11:27 am EST (Gritty) It’s another crazy windy day in Plantation, which really does change the dynamic of things. Nevertheless, the results are the results. Rettenmaier/DeHeart get another upset and it probably won’t be long before we have to stop calling these upsets. They get a squeaker by Gridley/Taylor 12-10 in the third. Those two are going to make you work and there’s nowhere you can go to get out to win free points. Another guy who is getting pro wins against real teams is Stefan Auvergne as he and Brendan Long get Tardio/Sobek in 3 then they take down Merchant/Farias 8 and 8.

On the women’s side, the Kawamoto’s are through with a 3 game win over Oshiro/Rane. Milan Rane is likely underrated for her level and it’s not a surprise to see them give the Kawamoto’s some trouble. Hendry/Bright got a very favorable draw as they are easily into the semi-finals where they will likely face Whitwell/Johnson.

Friday, March 4th – Mixed

7:05 pm EST (Gritty) – A lot of close matches today. We’ll start with the gold where Frazier/Jardim were cruising as they were up 11-2 and 9-2 in the second before a huge run from JW/Lee got it back to 10-10. This was buoyed at 9-10 by another classic Lee Whitwell Erne fault. I think it’s about time we sort this out and call her for a fault for running through the kitchen. The madness has to stop! But anyway, good gold for Jardim/Frazier as they were very close to being sent to the bronze match down 9-6 in the third against Kawamoto/Navratil, who had a nailbiter of a day themselves. 

Whitwell/JW barely made it through the kids Jorja Johnson/Gabe Tardio 17-15 before getting some revenge on Kawamoto/Zane. Jackie and Zane smoked Lee/JW in the semis and Lee/JW didn’t quite roll through them, but they did return the favor. A solid day for all of the podium teams and exactly how I expected it to go heading into the day. 

3:10 pm EST (Gritty) – So we have our semi-final set with Frazier/Jardim to take on Kawamoto and Zane. I was surprised that Jackie and Zane rolled through Lee/JW after the first part of game 1 was played so closely. These days are so close from being really good and really bad as we mention ad nauseum. Zane/Jackie were down 9-4 and on the verge of going to hte loser’s bracket. Now they are guaranteed a bronze. Frazier/Jardim continue their strong run with a fairly tight 2-gamer against Jorja Johnson/Gabe Tardio. Simone may not be the same but she’s still a strong mixed player. 

Anna Bright had a short day and again close to a big upset becomes a short day in the backdraw. They lost to Cincola/Charity and you wonder whether Cincola’s serve was something different to see for the pair. Did not see Anna’s matches but there is clearly still work to do. Mixed dobles is the toughest probably for a player like Bright as she has acknowledged herself. 

12:00pm  EST (Gritty) – Alright, so the Kawamoto/Navratil vs. Bright/Krishnaswamy match was a pure battle. Kawamoto/Navratil were down a game and 9-4 in the second where they apparently held out for numerous side outs before rattling off 7 straight points for the win. That’s gotta hurt for Bright/Krishnaswamy. Like, really gotta hurt. Not surprised at all that was a battle, but sounds like experienced prevailed there. 

On the bottom side of the draw, Whitwell/JW had a battle of their own against the up and coming marital duo of Fudge/DeHeart. They won in 3 games as well. Neither of us drafted Fudge/DeHeart, but those two are getting a lot of attention for good reason. Lee/JW are our consensus #2 mixed team for the day so that’s an impressive loss. No moral victories though… 

10:00 am EST (Gritty) – Brutal draw for Zane and Jackie Kawamoto as they’ll get Bright and Krishnaswamy in their first match. I had those teams back to back in rankings so it’s a tough spot to be for them. That is one I’d like to watch.

PPA Tour Indoor National Championships and APP Tour Punta Gorda – Random Thoughts

No live blog this weekend with two tournaments happening at the same time. We’ll see if we can get some thoughts out there for the end of each day.

Sunday, February 27th – PPA Championship Sunday and APP Singles

Anna Bright is the story of the weekend but may become the story of the year. Total dominance the past day and a half. Like, total dominance. Not a total newcomer but Gabe Tardio with an impressive bronze in arguably a deeper singles field than the PPA. Good weekene for Tardio.

PPA Sunday results were as expected. Callie/Lucy were surprisingly pushed to 5 by the Waters, which was not as expected by us at least. The Waters together are still a force.

Saturday, February 26th – PPA and APP Doubles

We’ll have more on Anna Bright in our takeaways but obviously impressive performance. The most impressive thing we have seen in pickleball all things considered. We expect some pros aren’t going to like her fire, but definitely can’t put us in that bucket. She is intense but hilarious, and it’s wonderfully refreshing.

Travis Rettenmeir and Ryler DeHeart had a really impressive day too. They beat DJ Young and Adam Stone, and came close to taking a game off Dekel and Kyle. Two guys who have partnered together as tennis guys and are looking to do what Pat Smith and Jay Devilliers did together. Yates and Bar had a good day with two wins over JW and Dylan, convincingly.

The big story from PPA was Wilson/Koller taking down Newman/Wright narrowly. The Waters also finally broke through to a Championship Sunday, which is big for them. The negative was once again Jay/Tyson who lost in 2 not close games to Taylor/Cassidy and then were ousted by Newman/Wright. 3 straight disappointing performances.

Friday, February 25th – PPA and APP Mixed

It looked like it was going to be a big day for Simone Jardim after easily cruising to the gold match and then winning 13-11 in the first game of the gold. But it’s still a new world for Jardim, who still doesn’t appear to have the same punch to her game that is presumably sapped due to injury. Vivienne/Dekel rolled after that to a gold and they seem to be figuring it out against the lower end competition. I’ll be interested to see how they perform against some better competition.

Slim took Anna Bright in two spots in the fantasy draft and she didn’t disappoint on mixed day, eventually being ousted by Esquivel/Yates 15-13. She is no doubt one to keep an eye on.

For Lucy/Matt, they go out again without a podium as the number one seed after barely losing to Jay/Jessie and then Parenteau/Newman. For Parenteau/Newman, they salvaged bronze following an early loss to Jansen/Wilson, but this is another disappointing early exit for them. Something to monitor?

Callie/AJ lost another heartbreaker on the winner’s side this weekend after being up 8-4 in the third on Jessie/Jay and it’s kind of what you expect with them – consistently inconsistent for the time being. Jansen/Wilson had a pretty strong day, on the other hand. Wilson is obviously very good as he has been having success with a variety of partners.

Thursday, February 24th – PPA Singles

Let’s try to give a few thoughts on what went on today. Frank Anthony David has had a better run as of late in singles and he showed it with a big win against Thomas Wilson then playing Tyson to 3 games. He ended up short of the bronze, losing to Wilson on the back side, but overall a good performance. On the flip side, Wilson still needs more consistency in his early career as losing to FAD in two shouldn’t be happening.

Jay Devilliers and Tyson McGuffin get to a Championship Sunday, and Jay needed it more than anyone in this Ben-less field. Strong win over Sherry. The courts are apparently playing slow in Minnesota, which should favor Tyson.

In women’s, another tough day for Jansen who loses to Smith and Tereschenko. You wonder how difficult her health situation is given she hasn’t lost to those two much, if at all, from what we can recall (Edit: US Open was the last time). The 5 team field in singles is quite hilarious though with Callie and AL getting to a gold match on Sunday after 1 win on the day.

REPORT: Ben Johns to JOOLA?

The whispers have been around for weeks now, and continue to grow, that Ben Johns is set to join JOOLA on what we presume must be a substantial sponsorship deal with the European table tennis company. The rumor is that Johns has turned down an extension from Franklin that would have paid him around seven figures over three years (edit: the offer may have been four years). Johns, who has been with Franklin since 2019, has been undeniably the best player in pickleball over the recent years and it would appear that JOOLA is going all-in on the number one player in the game.

We do know that JOOLA is looking to get into the Pickleball game. We saw Chuck Taylor playing with the JOOLA Synchro, currently their only USAP approved paddle, at the PPA’s Desert Ridge Classic a couple of weekends ago. We also know that some pros have been given a number of demo paddles to test drive. While it is still very early stages for them, it seems pretty close to definite that JOOLA is looking to get into the North American Pickleball market even though they currently do not actually have any pickleball paddles for sale. Interestingly, the only pickleball related person JOOLA follows on Instagram is Casey Patterson.

If this partnership with Ben Johns comes to fruition for JOOLA, it will be quite a splash for a company that has no hands in the pickleball cookie jar. We have been seeing other big, non-pickleball brands working their way into the market such as Head, Babolat, Adidas and, of course, Franklin. Although Franklin sold pickleballs prior to signing Ben, their acquisition of him, supplemented by Christine McGrath and their existing relationship with Aspen Kern, was their first real foray into the legitimate paddle business. Instead of sponsoring an entire roster of players, Franklin chose to go big with a few players led by Ben Johns and it has been a resounding success for them.

It would appear that JOOLA appears to be trying to build success off the same model as Franklin by signing Ben as the face of their Pickleball line.

The rumor surrounding Ben and JOOLA is that Ben is going to be creating his version of the Electrum paddle. This is not surprising as we’re seeing all sorts of companies try to emulate and/or surpass the grit and spin that used to be unique to the Electrum brand, and Ben himself has been very complimentary of Electrum.

Not a lot of people are probably aware that Ben developed a paddle with Prince, the Quantum Pro, with intention of signing with Prince, but then Franklin came in with a better option and Johns signed with Franklin. Ironically, his brother, Collin Johns, went on to sign with Prince and play with the Quantum Pro, while Ben went on to design his signature paddle with Franklin. Ben also had a hand in the development of the Elite Pro Maverick at Engage so he is no stranger to developing paddles.

Prince thought they had Ben in the bag, which was obviously a mistake on their part to do anything without a hard commitment. Of course, it’s possible this situation could change for Ben and JOOLA as there have been rumblings for some time with nothing officially announced. For what it’s worth, Ben’s Instagram still has Franklin Pickleball as one of his sponsors. But that could also be due to Ben still being under contract with Franklin.

These are the types of deals that will push the sport forward, but it will also leave less room for smaller companies who have had their primary focus as pickleball. That’s the business of the game though as it may only be a matter of time before we start seeing players find larger deals with more widely known companies as the sport continues to grow. It will also be interesting to see what impact this signing has on Franklin. They do have a number of other pros now on their roster, but Johns has certainly been the face of their Pickleball brand, and the “Ben Johns Signature Paddle” appears to be their best seller by far.

One other thing we will be keeping an eye on, if Johns does indeed go to JOOLA, is whether there are any changes to JOOLA’s ownership, which is Sport Squad, Inc. There is currently a bit of an attempt at monopolizing the pickleball market, and you can’t help but wonder if this move might be another part of that.

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