PPA Tour Riverland Open – 5 Takeaways – Benny Backdraw

📸 @collinjohns_pb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But I digress.

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

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

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

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

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

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

PPA Tour Riverland Open – Live Random Thoughts

📸 @ppatour

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

Our fantasy draft preview is here for your interest.

Sunday, March 13th – Championship Sunday

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, March 12th – Doubles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, March 11th – Mixed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, March 10th – Singles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PPA Tour Riverland Open – Fantasy Draft Preview

It’s the PPA Riverland Open hosted by Simone Jardim. A couple of weeks after the Carr/Jardim band got back together, we’re throwing it back with Lucy Kovalova and Simone Jardim this week. This “legacy” partnership was the dominant female partnership this time last year. Where are we going to be one year from now? It does shake up the women’s draw a little bit as we get Andrea Koop then teaming up with Callie Smith, which should be fun. Lucy and Simone should benefit from a number 1 seed, which could leave the Waters facing off against Parenteau/Irvine for a spot in Championship Sunday spot. It would be interesting to hear what the PPA contracted players have to say behind closed doors when something like this happens and the PPA points give a legacy seeding to Simone who is not contracted. This should correct itself over time, although someone like JW who primarily plays APPs will be seen a round or two earlier than some would want to face them because of the lower seeding. There are going to be APP players who will make for some scary early round matchups as the year goes on.

Slim is 4 up on the year after suffering his first fantasy loss of the season last weekend. Gritty won the toss and elected to pick second.

(1) Anna Leigh Waters / Ben Johns (Slim)

(2) Ben Johns / Collin Johns (Gritty) 

(3) Anna Leigh Waters (Gritty) 

(4) Ben Johns (Slim) 

(5) Catherine Parenteau / Jessie Irvine (Slim) 

Slim – Ben and Anna Leigh have looked dominant to start the year, only dropping one game in their last two tournaments. Getting Ben in singles at number 4 seems like a steal. It may be a very deep men’s singles field, but Ben is still clearly the cream of the crop. The fifth pick was tough, but without Callie and Lucy playing together this women’s doubles field feels pretty open. I decide to go with Jessie and Catherine, despite the fact they are coming off a loss to the Waters, as I think they are the most consistent, proven team in this field.

Gritty – I picked second because I saw 4 gold medal teams with women’s doubles being very up in the air this week. Ben/Collin have been totally dominant this year and, although you’d think they will have to lose eventually, they are a gold star lock for the time being. While Anna Leigh has not lost, she has been pushed by Catherine Parenteau a couple of times recently and Lea Jansen in the past. Can Jansen get it done this weekend? I’m betting on that being a no so without Catherine in the field I prefer AL over Ben in singles by a hair.

(6) Anna Leigh Waters / Leigh Waters (Gritty) 

(7) Riley Newman / Matt Wright (Gritty) 

(8) Tyson McGuffin (Slim) 

(9) Lea Jansen (Slim) 

(10) Jessie Irvine / Jay Devilliers (Gritty) 

(11) Andrea Koop / Callie Smith (Gritty) 

Slim – I decide to take Tyson in singles here, who is coming off of his gold in Minnesota, and he benefits from being the 2 seed and getting to avoid Ben Johns. Tyson has made all three Championship Sunday in singles so far this year. However, this is the deepest singles field to date. Without Catherine in the field, Lea is the clear number 2 women’s singles players, and I am hoping she will bounce back after a disappointing Minnesota tournament that saw her lose to Callie Smith and Irina Tereschenko.

Gritty – The Waters had a breakthrough at the last PPA so there’s no reason why they can’t go back-to-back this weekend. It looks like their seeding will have them facing Catherine/Jessie in the semi-finals, which creates more variance than I would like with the 6th pick. Riley/Matt were a Matt Wright overhead being reset in the mid-court by Thomas WIlson away from another Championship Sunday appearance. They are still the men’s team with the best chance to take down the Johns brothers.

Jessie/Jay lost to Andrea/JW in Arizona and barely squeaked by Lucy/Matt in Minnesota. It seems like Lucy/Matt have to break through at some point, but I still have to go with Jessie/Jay who continue to get results. Andrea Koop and Callie Smith definitely have gold medal upside as the downgrade from Kovalova to Koop isn’t nearly as steep as it may seem to some.

(12) JW Johnson (Slim) 

(13) JW Johnson / Dylan Frazier (Slim) 

(14) Catherine Parenteau / Riley Newman (Gritty) 

(15) AJ Koller / Thomas Wilson (Gritty) 

(16) Simone Jardim / Lucy Kovalova (Slim) 

(17) Lucy Kovalova / Matt Wright (Slim) 

Slim – At this point you know my fantasy rule, which is never bet against JW Johnson, so getting him in singles at number twelve seems like a steal, when in terms of talent I feel like he is the second best player, if you remove seeding. JW and Dylan Frazier are coming off a gold in Plantation, I would say we will see if they can keep the momentum going, but those guys never exactly get too excited… A year ago Simone and Lucy, would have been a top five pick in this draft. How things change. If Simone is healthy enough though, they can win this. There is no way Matt and Lucy should have fallen to the 17th pick. They may have had a slow start to the year in mixed, but their gender doubles results, show they can both still get it done, and it is likely a matter of time until the mixed results come.

Gritty – Lucy/Matt could easily have been picked in the Catherine/Riley spot, particularly with Catherine/Riley likely settling for bronze in a best case scenario if the seeding goes the way we expect. It also has not been as good a year as I’m sure Catherine and Riley expected heading into 2022. On the flip side, they could be due for a big result finally. I’m happy to get AJ/Thomas at this spot. I had them one spot higher on my men’s board than JW/Dylan.

(18) Callie Smith (Gritty) 

(19) Callie Smith / AJ Koller (Gritty) 

(20) Anna Bright (Slim) 

(21) Jorja Johnson (Slim) 

(22) Lea Jansen / Yana Grechkina (Gritty) 

(23) Jay Devilliers (Gritty) 

Slim – I am still all in on Anna Bright and her talent, and I actually like her to make the podium in singles this week, as I think the talent is there, and she is going to be motivated after a bit of a disappointing showing in Plantation last week (Gritty tried to steal my Bright corner last week taking her first overall but this week we are seeing who the true believer is). Jorja Johnson, has to be asking what she needs to do to get some respect, after her gold last week, and she is an easy pick here for me.

Gritty – Callie Smith lost to Parris Todd in Arizona but she had a gold medal match appearance in Minnesota after beating Lea Jansen. There’s silver medal upside with Callie at the end of the day. Callie/AJ as a mixed pair also bring silver medal upside so to get them as the 5th mixed team here feels pretty good. The Lea/Yana pick comes down to Yana being the best secondary player of the women’s teams left to be drafted. There’s power in this partnership so they could find their way to a medal if they get hot. Jay Devilliers’ singles stock is significantly down this year, but he has to be picked at some point.

(24) Andrea Koop / JW Johnson (Slim) 

(25) Patrick Smith / Andrei Daescu (Slim) 

(26) Parris Todd (Gritty) 

(27) Thomas Wilson (Gritty) 

(28) Tyson McGuffin / Jay Devilliers (Slim) 

(29) Anna Bright / Milan Rane (Slim) 

(30) Dylan Frazier (Gritty) 

Slim – You know my rule, always bet on JW and I have also always been a big believer in Andrea Koop’s talent, so they were an easy pick for me here, but this noticeably leaves Tyson McGuffin and Lauren Stratman undrafted. I think they caught fire at the Arizona Grand Slam and will have a tough time replicating that result. Patrick Smith and Andrei Dasecu are a very intriguing partnership for me, as the fit with Patrick on the right and Andrei on the left just seems so natural. I only worry about Pat’s health when making this pick. I then take Tyson and Jay in men’s doubles. They have yet to get any results this year, and if the results don’t come soon, I have to wonder if the clock isn’t ticking on this partnership. With my final pick I bet on the upside of Anna Bright and Milan Rane in women’s doubles, taking them over the more established Lauren Stratman and Allyce Jones.

Gritty – I had Jorja, Anna Bright and Parris Todd packed in a row on my big board in that order. Slim may have the right idea going with the upside in Bright first, but I’m always going to be concerned with these singles players until they come to the net regularly. However, Parris Todd has proven she can beat legit competition without coming to the net regularly so who knows what could happen. No Parenteau changes this draw significantly – side note, this is two in a row without Catherine in singles. Is she hurt?

Thomas Wilson could have been drafted in the Jay spot as his singles stock continues to trend upwards. Finally, I could have picked between so many people with this last men’s singles spot. I went with Dylan Frazier with other viable options being Ryan Sherry, Jack Foster, Julian Arnold, FAD and Tyler Loong. I may very well have missed naming a couple of other real options in what may be the deepest men’s pro singles field to date even without Zane Navratil.

Undrafted Note: I thought both Lauren Stratman/Allyce Jones and Stratman/Tyson were basically toss-ups for the 6th slot and Slim chose to go the other way with both his picks. I don’t see anything wrong with it but it is noteworthy, especially Lauren/Tyson in mixed who found their way to Championship Sunday in Arizona.

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 – 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!

PPA Tour Indoor National Championships and APP Punta Gorda – 5 Takeaways – Shine Bright Like A Diamond

📸 Steve Taylor (@digspat)

Two tournaments in one weekend makes for a lot of pickleball over the course of a few days. We’re going to do a combined takeaways section for the two tours as we’re seeing the beginning of what will be numerous overlapping tournaments. As much as the tours want to avoid the competition discussion, the head to head weekend mirrors the ongoing slow burn battle that continues between the PPA and APP. There’s surely more news to come as the year moves along but this weekend was another reminder of how quickly things can change from a player landscape standpoint as new talent enters that sport. Anna Bright was that reminder. Let’s get to the takeaways.

1. Shine Bright Like A Diamond (Slim) – Pickleball has really needed a new female star and her name is Anna Bright.

Bright is an absolute electric factory on and off the court. Her consistent intensity on the court, while still having a sense of humor and self awareness makes her impossible not to root for, although we’re sure there will be some out there who find a way. She already provides better sound bites than basically every pro in the post match interviews and she seems to have a knack for that social media thing. You should give her new pickleball Instagram account a follow…

Going into the tournament I was very high on Anna’s potential, and thought the raw tools were there, but figured it would take her a little bit of time to figure it out. That seemed like it would make sense since she it looks like last week was her four month pickleversary and she played her first tournament in December in Delray. I had her rated as the second best female singles player for our draft, and had her and Jorja ranked as the 4th best womens doubles team on my board. I thought this was being bullish, but it turns out I was severely underestimating her.

Her weekend started with a solid fifth place showing in mixed with Gabe Tardio, which showed her potential but also suggested there was still some work to do. Then sometime on Saturday, in the women’s doubles back draw, she found “god mode” (her words) and it was curtains for the competition. I did not get to watch enough of her early women’s match to say exactly what happened but I suspect at some point Bright, realized that she could just relentlessly attack the women in the field without being punished and once she figured that out it was over.

In the bronze and gold medal matches Bright (and Jorja Johnson who played very well herself) relentlessly attacked Vivienne, Lee, Simone and Corrine and they had no answer. Unlike Lee and Vivienne, I was very surprised that Simone and Corrine never really attempted to make an effort to adjust and to stop playing the ball to Bright, in particular her backhand which teams really could not seem to read when she attacked with it. The momentum from doubles day carried over for Bright into singles on Sunday, as she rolled through the field not dropping a game and only really was pushed once in the second game of the gold medal match, by Megan Fudge. Her shot making, and court coverage was just too much for this field.

Anna Leigh Waters has looked poised to have a dominant run as the top female player in the game. Anna Bright is the first women to come a long in a while who I think is a legitimate threat to that status. My maybe hot take is I think Anna Bright is going to be a top 5 female pro by the end of the year, and I think she might be in the top half of that top 5.

There is still a lot of work for Bright to do to reach the very top of the female game, but the raw tools are all there, her hands already have to rank among the top female players, and the consistency of her shot making is remarkable for a player that is so new to the game – assuming it is sustainable beyond this tournament. In the women’s game, she is going to need to figure out how to insert herself into more points, as teams are going to work to isolate her partners, but part of what makes Bright so intriguing is that she has the physical tools, movement and length to be able to cover some extra court. In time she should be able to figure out how to slide over to finish balls, and to help herself set up points.

In singles, aside from the last game of the gold medal match, we did not see her pushed, but she has a long ways to go to learn the nuisances of the singles game. She will be playing a PPA event in Florida coming up and she will need to become more comfortable coming to the net regularly (in my opinion, on every return) if she wants to be able to beat the top female single players. She also showed the ability to hit some of the roll shots that Anna Leigh hits in singles that makes AL so deadly in singles. If Bright can keep developing those shots, she is going to be a big problem in singles. In mixed, while her overall consistency is remarkable for a player that has been playing for as short as time as her, she still needs to work on becoming more comfortable in those long cross court dink rallies that are a staple of mixed (for now, I would just try to get her in front of the women and let her go after it).

Bright’s performance was the most impressive thing we have seen in our relatively short time watching pro pickleball consistently. She will be the next big thing in pickleball if she wants it. You can count on that.

2. Blood is Thicker (Gritty) – Speaking of breakthroughs this weekend, the cousin duo of Koller and Wilson had their own massive result at the PPA event in Minnesota. After going up 6-3 in the third and dropping 7 straight points to Matt Wright/Riley Newman, the pair were able to find their way back to stave off a match point after a ridiculous get off a Wright overhead. They didn’t look back from there and rattled off 6 straight points on their serve to make it to their first Championship Sunday together.

Having a bond that goes beyond pickleball is one of those intangible things we like to think makes a real difference. While spouses outside of Wright/Kovalova usually can’t keep playing together indefinitely, we have seen it most prominently with the Newman’s and Johns how beneficial a family connection can be. It creates a partnership that isn’t only rooted in pickleball and it was evident in AJ Koller’s Facebook post on Saturday after their big win. We see partnerships created solely from pickleball for the vast majority of players but it has to help a partnership work through the ups and downs that pro pickleball has to offer with that blood connection.

AJ and Thomas are not playing exclusively together, but they are primary partners. They are a talented pair that have the advantage of something bigger than pickleball. As they say, blood is thicker than water.

3. Newcomer Week (Gritty) – Travis Rettenmaier and Ryler DeHeart continued the theme of breakout performances on men’s day as they took down Adam Stone/DJ Young and almost won a game off of Yates/Bar (they were up 10-5). Two former pro tennis players, Rettenmaier’s first tourney was December 2020 while DeHeart’s was September 2021.

Although Rettenmaier has been playing longer, it appears he has only began taking the game more seriously recently. We have been waiting for an opportunity to share this footage of Rettenmaier essentially trying to play singles in a open doubles bracket at his first tourney (it’s the wildest watch ever FYI!). Rettenmaier and DeHeart look to be making the leap into high level pickleball together as a pair, similary to Jay Devilliers and Pat Smith’s rise through the ranks.

The pair of Rettenmaier and DeHeart are already adept at grinding out long points and they have the hand speed to ensure opponents are wary of pulling the trigger on them. It’s a winning formula for these two former pro tennis players. These types of players are the scariest for veteran teams as you have to fend off two guys together who are improving at a rapid pace as they learn the game. All the tools are there and they seem like they are going to put in the work. This is a pairing that will undoubtedly be one to watch as we go along in 2022.

As an aside, Gabe Tardio deserves a shoutout for his play with a 5th place finish in mixed and then a bronze in singles in a deep singles field. Tardio has a ton of talent and it was on full display this weekend. Another newcomer onto the scene.

4. PPA vs APP (Slim) – This was the first time this year that the PPA and APP went head to head as we noted in the lead. It is pretty clear that the PPA with its contracted players, will have have larger audiences and viewership, as the casual fan will still be drawn to the Johns, Waters and McGuffin names. That was demonstrated in the stream numbers throughout this weekend. The fields though were much larger and deeper in the APP, which could be in part due to one tournament being in Florida and one being one in Minnesota in February, but it is a trend I suspect to continue as the top heavy PPA fields don’t incentivize players to play unless they are being paid to play. On the other hand, the APP fields offer a lot more options to a lot of players.

These are both trends that I suspect we will see continue this year. The PPA is going to have the glam and glitz and as a result the eyeballs of a lot of casual fans, but the APP will have a lot of more interesting draws. Something I thought that was interesting was that the APP seemed to have larger womens draws and have some new females with high upside potential, which is something that has been desperately needed in pro pickleball and is something I think the small extremely top heavy draws have discouraged.

Another question is will the APP be able to keep these new women playing their events? I think it is critical to their long term success that they find ways to incentive these women to keep playing their tournaments as we know the PPA is going to continue to try to lock up top talent.

A final thought on this is I do think the APP has do more to promote its players and the quality of its competition. They had the better mens singles field this weekend with Ben not playing in Minnesota and they had the deeper mens doubles field as well. They need to make the casual fan more aware of the quality their players and help promote the players.

5. Paul Olin Climbs Mount Johansson (Gritty)– Paul Olin has been a staple at the top of the men’s senior pro singles world ever since he turned 50 in 2019 when he won TOC and a National championship in singles. Mircea Morariu made Olin work for it in 2020 but Olin was often the favorite before newcomer Mattias Johansson arrived on the scene midway through 2021. Since 2021 TOC, Johansson has had Olin’s number when they have faced off except for one win on Olin’s part. That is, until this weekend. Olin had Johansson’s number in Punta Gotda as he beat Johansson twice on his way to a gold. Two hard fought 3 games matches in these larger APP senior pro fields. It’s a serious grind after a long weekend so kudos to Olin for finding a way to beat Johansson.

Fantasy Update: Slim continues to run almost as hot as Anna Bright. He won both the APP (17-13) and the PPA (17-16) fantasy drafts this week to go 5 up on the year. Are the fantasy draft outcomes becoming as predictable as the PPA results? Only time will tell.

Final thing is a tease for the week. Keep an eye out for what is coming in the pickleball podcast world this week. That’s all we’ll say for now.

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