APP Tour Atlanta Metro Open – Live Random Thoughts

No matter whether it is a PPA or APP, a regular tournament gives us kind of a let down feel post-MLP. That is especially the case when you can’t watch what really amounts to three-quarters of the tournament. However, we know there are enough weirdos out there that consume this content so we’ll do our best to give some thoughts throughout the weekend on what is going on at the APP.

Sunday, October 1st – Championship Sunday

6:30 pm EST – We haven’t been the most attentive to this over the weekend. Megan Fudge has to be the story of the weekend though. She double dips in singles and women’s to come away with two golds on the weekend. They took 2 in a row on Parris/Simone without dropping a game. Super impressive stuff from Fudge and Barr who have spent most of this year getting silver medals. Fudge is working on her game and the changes are coming slowly.

Scarpa/Dow also got spanked by Daescu/Nunnery. Not often you see a double pickle but they lost 11-0, 11-0. Tough day for them. Medina Alvarez took the gold over Roscoe Bellamy.

Another story has to be Parris Todd and Hunter Johnson taking home a gold medal. They beat Barr/Daescu twice after looking solid together in mixed at MLP. That has to feel good for the two of them as they have had their fair share of struggles.

Saturday, September 30th – Doubles

1:55 pm EST – The women’s is full steam ahead after having the first pro qualifier we have seen at a pro event for the women. It is not the highest quality draw we have ever seen, but it is another indicator showing how many more women are starting to play at this higher level. The only real result of note so far today is Riley Bohnert/Shelby Bates beating Tammy Emmrich/Milan Rane. That’s not what you want to see if you’re the Austin Pickleballers, who are coming off a rough Challenger first event at MLP. Otherwise, it is Glozman/Truong versus Fudge/Barr on the other side of the draw while Parris/Simone will play Shelby/Riley.

Brendon Long and Stefan Auvergne are having a day. They are in the winners bracket final following a semi-final win over the Johnson brothers (11-8, 15-13). They were able to take down Cincola/Munro in 3 games in their previous match and a podium in this field is a good spot for them after some shaky results together in the past. The other semi-final features Rob Nunnery/Andrei Daescu playing Wyatt Stone/Carlos Di Laura. Di Laura is not a name we have seen but Wyatt continues to get some sneaky good men’s results so this is an interesting spot for both of them. They beat Ryler DeHeart/Marshall Brown in 3 games (11-8 in the third) in the round of 16. William Sobek/Martin Emmrich for whatever reason had to withdraw against August Ge/Michael Lloyd. DeHeart/Brown are done in the backdraw following a loss to Munro/Cincola (15-12) and we’ll be curious if Munro might get a look in the Challenger Shuffle Draft coming up. They lost game 1 and then it shows a retirement. Hopefully nothing serious.

4:30 pm EST – Daescu/Nunnery are in the gold after a win over Auvergne/Long in the winners bracket final. Auvergne/Long will play the winner of Barrientos/Teoni and Dow/Scarpa. Good day regardless for Barrientos/Teoni to get to this match as they have had a nice run through the backdraw. The beat goes on for Daescu/Nunnery, who look a class above the field right now.

Glozman/Truong beat Fudge/Barr in the winners semi-final in 3 games. The third game wasn’t close as Glozman/Truong ended up cruising in the final game. We’ll expect to see a rematch in the bronze but that’s another win over Fudge/Barr for Truong/Glozman.

Friday, September 29^th – Mixed 

1:41 pm EST – It was a giant mixed qualifying draw for an APP event and there is lots of incentive for this tournament being the only event before the MLP Shuffle Draft that is slated for next Friday, October 6^th. It will be interesting to see who is available for teams as we know some franchises, like the Florida Smash, were not happy with their team’s performance. A team that has had a good start to the day is Augustus Ge/Kelsey Grambeau, who worked their way through the qualifier and then got a nice win in the first round of the main draw over Yates Johnson/Jessica Warren. Augustus Ge recently got a bronze with Michael Lloyd at an APP in men’s doubles.  

Anderson Scarpa/Arielle Butler had a good round 1 win over Roscoe Bellamy and Dominique Schaefer (1 and 4). It’ll be curious to monitor how Jack Munro does today playing with Megan Fudge. He is just starting to get higher end partners and they beat Ge/Grambeau (8 and 0) and will play Hunter/Parris next. Not surprisingly, Alli Phillips/Stefan Auvergne beat Alix Truong and Richard Livornese Jr. A couple of notable almost were Radzikowska/Brown almost beating Barr/Daescu (11-6 loss in the third) and Sobek/Frantova barely squeaking past Howells/Nobler (13-11 in the third).

5:10pm EST – It has been pretty chalky today with Andrei/Susannah and Hunter/Parris both getting to the winners bracket final, but that fight for the bronze podium is going to be interesting. Stefan Auvuergne/Alli Phillips lost to Hunter/Parris, but they were able to take down Nunnery/Glozman in two very close games (12-10, 13-11). Milan Rane and Maritn Emmrich lost in the other semis after beating Allison Harris/Brendon Long in 3. Harris/Long are done for the day following a loss to Truong/Livornese in the back draw (15-9), which has to be a disappointing day from those two. Harris will still almost certainly be the top pickup candidate for the upcoming Shuffle Draft. 

Munro/Fudge had a couple of good wins today as they also got past Radzikowska/Brown (17-15) before losing another close one to Glozman/Nunnery (15-13). Sobek/Frantova have also had a solid day as they took a game off Susannah/Andrei and they played a tight one over Cincola/Emmrich (15-13).

7:00 pm EST –  Parris Todd and Hunter Johnson are off to Championship Sunday after they finally get one against Susannah Barr/Andrei Daescu in 3 games. We had wondered what Parris’ performance might be like this weekend following the New Jersey event where Allison Harris filled in for Parris and she and Hunter were able to take a win off Susannah/Andrei before getting double dipped in the gold medal match. Whether the double dip happens to Parris/Hunter remains to be seen, but this is a good start as the only game they dropped on the day was to Andrei/Susannah. Not an ideal day for Andrei/Susannah, who were pushed to 3 games by multiple teams. For 2 players that were in finals of MLP, you still have to wonder if the MLP hangover has affected their play. 

It ends up being a solid day for Glozman/Nunnery after their early loss to Phillips/Auvergne. While Phillips/Auvergne lost 16-14 to Truong/Livornese to get to the match to go to bronze, Glozman/Nunnery narrowly avoided defeat on a couple of occasions (15-13 to Fudge/Munro and Rane/Emmrich) before betaing Truong/Livornese on their way to the bronze medal match. We have had a lot of questions about the mixed prowess for both Glozman and Nunnery lately, and it still feels justified. They were very close to having a bad day and now they’ll at least come away with a podium. We’ll continue to monitor the mixed results for these two as we head into the second MLP event of the year.

8:38 pm EST – Susannah and Andrei will play on Sunday. We’ll see if they can double dip as they took down Glozman and Nunnery 11-0, 11-9.

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Thursday, September 28^th – Singles 

2:25 pm EST – Late first update for the tournament. A little bit of a surprise on the women’s side as Salome Devidze beat Dominique Schaefer in the winner’s semi in 2 games (13-11, 11-9) to get to the winners final. Schaefer has beaten Devidze recently. This is still something where you wonder about post-MLP letdown for Schaefer as she loses in the backdraw as well to Jessica Warren (15-8) – Dominique is a prime candidate to get dropped in the Challenger Shuffle Draft. Either way, good win for Salome who is playing Judit Castillo right now. Judit got past Megan Fudge easily and also beat Jessica Warren earlier in the day. 

Two players on the women’s side with some noteworthy results are Thaddea Lock and Riza Zalameda. Lock must be in the States coming from across the pond and she went on a little backdraw run before losing 15-13 to Jessica Warren. Zalameda is newer to the game but has a strong tennis background of course. She beat Christa Gecheva (15-6), Alia Brown (15-11), Amanda Hendry (15-13) and Shannon Pretorius (15-9). Megan Fudge ended up taking down Zalameda (15-4). 

Not a lot of chalk on the men’s side. Yates Johnson is still going in the backdraw but lost early to John Cangelosi (3, 12). More post-MLP let down? William Sobek is having a nice day so far and is on court playing Roscoe Bellamy, who continues to find wins in singles. Medina Alvarez is playing Ryler DeHeart in the other men’s winners semi-final.

4:40 pm EST – It must have been quite a winners semi-final between Medina Alvarez and DeHeart. Medina Alvarez took it 12-10 in the third after losing game 1 (11-9) and then winning game 2 (11-8). DeHeart is always right in the thick of these APP singles draws, but it’s another close but no cigar. Going to be tough to go down to the loser’s side and get it back together after such a long match. Roscoe Bellamy has a guaranteed podium as well after beating William Sobek quite easily and the result with Medina Alvarez will be interesting. Commendably, Yates Johnson is one game away from the bronze match after a very early loss on his end. 

Judit Castillo is in the gold medal match. She cruised today winning 3 and 7 over Salome Devidze. Megan Fudge, always going to grind, she comes back through the loser’s draw to get to Championship Sunday. She barely squeaked by Devidze (10-12, 12-10 and 11-4). You know Fudge is always going to fight so she gets a rematch with Judit Castillo in the gold. The biggest surprise of the day is Schaefer not making it close to a podium. The grind of tournaments is very real and it is so hard to bring it every week, especially after an emotionally charged and potentially confidence draining weekend for Dominique.

9:00 pm EST – Roscoe Bellamy gets to his first Sunday as he beat Jack Foster in 3 in the bronze. Bellamy is a name to watch for sure. Foster with a strong podium as well. He beat Yates Johnson to get to bronze, which has to be tough for Yates after fighting through that backdraw.