DUPR Pickleball Night in America – Ep. 6 Battle at the Beach

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We have another installment of Pickleball Night in America even during the US Open. They are doing this one in Florida at the Beach Boyz Pickleball Club in Fort Myers. There is a big gap between singles and the doubles pro events so DUPR is still going to put this on. We have some interesting players as part of this format being in Florida and it’s smart of them to try to get away from the Dreamland players at least for the week. It’s Team Beach Boyz vs. Team Baywatch, whatever that means.

As usual, the event starts at 8:00 pm EST and you can watch on Facebook and Youtube streams. 

Women’s Doubles – Kasandra Gehrke/Jackie Kawamoto vs. Corrine Carr/Bobbi Oshiro 

There’s definitely a discrepancy in levels between the men and the women overall for this installment, but that doesn’t mean the women’s matches are not interesting. Jackie Kawamoto will be playing at the US Open and this is a nice warm-up for a player that doesn’t get a bunch of tournament reps. We are high on both of the Kawamoto’s and the righty Jackie is arguably the best female in this group. The pairing with Gehrke is brand new for both of them but you know Gehrke’s weird hands do hold up to a certain degree.

Speaking of players we are high on, Bobbi Oshiro gets a big bump in exposure after her gold with Anna Bright in South Carolina. It’ll be interesting to see her and Kawamoto across from each other as alphas in their partnerships as they are players who have a lot of good things going for them but not necessarily the most powerful players out there. Corrine Carr should hold up fine in this type of a matchup but Oshiro is not the ideal partner for her.

Two less than ideal partnership fits but we’ll go with Oshiro/Carr here.

Men’s Doubles – Kyle Yates/JW Johnson vs. Andrei Daescu/Eden Lica 

Yates and JW are not a regular partnership unlike Daescu and Lica, but they are a great theoretical partnership. Yates can sit on the right with JW lurking on the left. Although different styles overall, Yates/JW are essentially better mirror versions of their opponents. Yates is a better right-sided player than Lica, who is underrated himself, and JW is a better left-sided player than Daescu. In these rally scoring games to 21, that does not mean it’s a lock win but JW/Yates should have the edge in just about every aspect of this matchup.

Mixed Doubles – Jackie Kawamoto/JW Johnson vs. Bobbi Oshiro/Andrei Daescu

We’ll predict the matchups for mixed as it seems quite clear where this will go if the #1 and #2 players are all paired with one another. You put JW with anyone and they have a shot it feels like, but Jackie should be a strong fit for him with her great hands and defence. On the other side, you have another brand new combo and it will be fun to see the small Oshiro play with the giant Daescu. Again, the fit is very good with Oshiro being so steady as well as tricky with her offence.

JW Johnson simply makes him and Kawamoto the better team though. Kawamoto is more seasoned at the highest level than Oshiro even if they are about a push in terms of ability. As is most often the case Johnson is the best player on the court, particularly in mixed where Daescu is less experienced. Give us Kawamoto/JW in this matchup.

Mixed Doubles – Kasandra Gehrke/Kyle Yates vs. Corrine Carr/Eden Lica 

There is one player in this foursome who has had any sort of recent mixed success. That’s Kyle Yates. However, Yates’ success is only good relative to the rest of this group in mixed. Lica is a men’s specialist in terms of relative success. Gehrke is a weird player to go against in mixed as she is showing Erne’s left, right and centre. Lica and Carr don’t really have anything different to show, but it will be interesting to see Lica play some mixed. This matchup is probably the least interesting of the four matches we’ll see.

We’re taking Gehrke/Yates in this one.

Singles Dreambreaker 

They didn’t play the dreambreaker last week because of poor conditions. We don’t see this one going to a dreambreaker, but if it does it will probably be a close one. The thing is, Daescu and Lica can l hold their own in singles while Oshiro is sneaky good in singles and Carr at least has some experience there. JW almost won the US Open and Yates can also hold his own in singles for this format. The big outlier here is Gehrke who doesn’t have too much resembling a singles game. Kawamoto doesn’t play much singles but she should be more than fine. This one could go either way, but let’s give an edge to Team Baywatch (Daescu, Lica, Carr and Oshiro).

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

2 thoughts on “DUPR Pickleball Night in America – Ep. 6 Battle at the Beach

  • April 26, 2022 at 8:27 am
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    As usual, your post made me aware of this event. Thanks. The MD could be fun to watch with rally scoring else might not be interesting. I agree with you that a dreambreaker is unlikely during US Open. Because of JW, the DUPR probabilities are not as close as usual. MD is 65% vs 35%!

    Reply
    • April 26, 2022 at 10:07 am
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      JW seems to be the big determining factor here for sure!

      Reply

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