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!

APP Tour Plantation Open – 5 Takeaways – JW Separating from the Pack

📸 @digspat – Steve Taylor

We did not get a repeat Anna Bright performance this weekend as we’ll get more into in the takeaways. In some non-Anna Bright results, there are clearly going to start being some staple podium finishers at these APP’s this year with Navratil, Frazier, the Johnson’s, Dekel Bar, Vivienne David and Lee Whitwell making up a lot of podiums this year. It feels like a different type of steadiness than the PPAs, but there inevitably has to be some consistency in results as top players assert themselves. We’ll have a PPA in Port St. Lucie, Florida next weekend to add a little bit of spice to our Florida pickleball life. Let’s get to the takeaways.

1. JW Johnson Separating from the Pack (Slim) – JW Johnson has separated himself from the field…of singles players not named Ben Johns. Going into 2022 it appeared that there was Ben Johns, then a group of Tyson McGuffin, Zane Navratil, JW and Jay Devilliers behind him. JW has pulled away from the rest of that group, into a class of his own, to start the year.

After beginning the year with a couple of losses to John Cincola, JW has only lost one match in the five tournaments since then, when he lost to Ben Johns in the semifinal of the PPA’s Arizona Grand Slam. Both this past weekend and at the PPA’s Desert Ridge Open, JW won gold without dropping a single game. His Desert Ridge gold medal, included beating Tyson McGuffin in three straight games in the gold medal match. JW has also clearly had Zane Navratil’s number this year, as he has handled him with relative ease in the last three APP gold medal matches.

It will be interesting to see how JW fairs this weekend at the PPA’s Riverland Open. Unfortunately, he will probably due to seedings have to play Ben Johns before the finals, which will rob us of an opportunity to see those two in best 3 out of 5 games.

With JW only playing a limited number of PPAs this year, and Ben strictly playing PPAs this will likely be one of the few opportunities to potentially see those two go head to head. At this point, I think JW is the only person who has the ability to truly challenge Johns, though Johns did handle JW easily in their one match up this year.

JW’s steady approach to the game is generally one his strengths, and also probably one of the reasons he has been so consistent with his results this year. However, I do wonder, if against Ben, JW might benefit from a more varied approach.

2. Not Quite as Shiny and Bright (Gritty) – Anna Bright shone last weekend, but the diamond wasn’t quite as Bright in Plantation. Although pro pickleball is small, it is still a professional sport and being consistent in any professional sport isn’t easy. Just ask Chuck Taylor, Austin Gridley or Gabe Tardio (who actually showed out pretty well this weekend). Bringing a podium level week in and week out is a serious challenge.

It was apparent going into this weekend that Bright didn’t have the same quality of partners. Amanda Hendry is still finding her way in these pro brackets as a former D1 athlete without a racket sports background. While quite solid, Shiv Krishnaswamy has not shown to be able to compete at an elite level in these APP pro brackets. It’s evident we probably didn’t give Jorja Johnson her proper dues last weekend. She was a stable force with rock solid hand speed that allowed Bright to play with the freedom that she did. The “veteran” in comparison to Bright, Jorja looks to be maintain that consistency after a gold in singles, silver in women’s and 4^th in mixed performance.

Neither of us expected a podium for Bright in the doubles events going in. However, it was surprising to see her completely off the podium in a stronger singles field than Punta Gorda. It was clear for Bright in her 2-game loss to Jorja Johnson that Jorja was more comfortable in the wind and the more experienced player overall. So many of these women are uncomfortable getting to the net consistently in singles in a way that will continue to baffle me, including Jorja, but Bright was basically a stranger to the kitchen line in singles from what I saw yesterday. She allowed Jorja to take control of points at her choosing. Parris Todd could be a force to be reckoned with as well once she figures out the nuances of singles some more so it wasn’t shocking after the Jorja loss to see Bright lose 15-13 to Todd.

As quick to judgement as we were last weekend, we’re not backing off our analysis of Bright after one sub-par performance, especially Slim with his “maybe hot take”. There’s a lot of things that went into this weekend. The wind and lower level of partners, as noted above. Slim disagrees with my take on these next two points, but I think there’s something to be said about being physically and mentally ready for Bright. Physically, she’s not accustomed to playing this much pickleball. On her chat with Scott Golden, she mentioned how she tried to play some rec on Monday, which tells me she may not realize how taxing 3 consecutive pro tournament weekends can be. Mentally, I don’t think the brief media tour on top of a full-time job and trying to get ready for another tournament was the best recipe for success.

The thing is, if Bright gets that game to 15 off of Todd, she gets another shot at Jorja after Megan Fudge’s withdrawal and who knows what happens from there. We may not be here having any of this discussion. Ultimately, this weekend might be the best thing for Bright long-term. You can say all the right things about knowing you need to put in the work after Punta Gorda, but nothing tells reminds you of the need to put in the work like some humble pie.

3. The Kawamoto’s, Still Underrated (Gritty) – We haven’t had much negative to say about the Kawamoto’s in their limited pickleball tour stops. This weekend is no different. The twins cruised to a gold medal in women’s doubles. I thought it would be a bit closer against Whitwell/Johnson, but maybe we should have seen this coming. Their last tournament was the APP in Boca Raton where they ended up with a silver after losing two very tight matches to Jardim/Koop. The Kawamoto’s are often forgotten on a weekly basis as we have new players finding their way regularly on the tournament scene like Anna Bright and Parris Todd that are fun to talk about. With full-time jobs, the Kawamoto’s aren’t going to be playing the same number of tournaments as a lot of their other pro colleagues. This is basically the same takeaway we had after Boca but we couldn’t help ourselves after this performance. We’re literally doing all we can to ensure people do not forget about the perennially underrated sister duo.

4. Rick Witsken’s 2022 Surge (Slim) – Rick Witsken is off to a very strong start to the year in Senior Men’s Doubles. He has played five tournaments so far this year and made the podium every time with three golds, a silver and bronze. This weekend he and Dan Granot took gold over Paul Olin and Barry Waddell, and John Sperling and Mirceau Morariu. He also has a pair of gold medals partnering with Scott Crandal this year. Witsken is proving to be one of the dominant forces on the Senior Tour. Gritty speculated last year that Morariu/Sperling could possibly challenge Dave/Dayne, but now I would be curious to see Witsken and Crandall play Dave Weinbach and Dayne Gingrich who have dominated the Senior Tour when they have played together. But that does not seem to be in the cards, at least any time soon.

5. Old Guard Old Tricks (Gritty) – There was a time where Joey Farias was one of the name men in pickleball. He had (still has) a sweet backhand roll before it was the norm to have one. He could do about as much as anyone off the bounce and out of their air from both wings. Again, he can still do these things. One of the true nice guys in pickleball, Joey has never struck us as a true grinder. Rather, it seems he’s more of the classic very talented former tennis player who kind of fell into pickleball and has made a career out of it. Consistency isn’t the name of Joey’s game. Nevertheless, it’s clear Farias can still compete at a high level with the right partnership. In back-to-back APPs, Farias has hit the podium with bronze medals. Last week it was with Austin Gridley in Punta Gorda and this week it was with Altaf Merchant.

The key thing in those partnerships is steadiness for Farias. There were a lot of Jeff Warnick partnerships in 2021 for Joey and that’s not a recipe for podiums. Sure, those were in PPAs and you put those two together at some of these APPs they are probably finding a couple of podiums as well. But the point stands. Warnick/Farias is a high volatility partnership. The other main partnership Farias had in 2021 was Kyle Yates in his still trying to be the alpha phase. Farias has some 4^th place finishes mixed in there, but Joey’s last podium in a pro event was the 2020 Texas Open with Steve Deakin. Again, notice a trend?

Nice to see Joey Farias on the medal stand getting it done.

Fantasy Update: Gritty is back! First win of 2022 in convincing fashion 17-13. This one took a while, and we’ll have to see whether the tides are turning. It’s only one week and the fans are hoping that this flame doesn’t get blown out after only one week. Zane Navartil and the Kawamoto’s pushed Gritty’s team forward this week as Zane was able to podium in all 3 events. Slim is still 4 up on the year.

ICYMI: One last plug on the blog for the time being for our podcast appearance Lauren McLaughlin’s Pickleball After Dark.

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

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.