APP Tour Hilton Head – Live Random Thoughts

Another weekend means another live blog here. We’ll be giving some commentary along with Waggish, who is going to keep up with some of the action as well.

Sunday, October 30th – Championship Sunday

5:50 pm EST – A couple of thoughts on the day. Vivienne David having another weekend. She wins with Wilson and has a better than we expected day with Corrine. The end of 2021 was a strong one for David and the same is happening for 2022.

JW and Dylan win, but it was not a walkthrough. Showing the depth of these APP men’s fields now too along with the women’s side. Two very legit teams are both ends going after each other with Simone and Anna making adjustments to get them into a much better spot today.

Julian Arnold not to be forgotten amongst all the new talent. Convincing win over Hunter Johnson today.

4:15 pm EST (Waggish) – MXD: David/Wilson vs Koop/Navratil.  David/Wilson go for consecutive gold MXD after Houston last week. Insane Zane – see point 4-1! Not to be missed! Zane played lights out in game 1 and got them close.  Not much they could do in game 2.  David/Wilson in control all the way (11-8, 11-4). David has set the high bar for all women now with her consistency, drops, 2-handed backhand, and court positioning. Anyone who says it is all about drives and fire-fights and no more dinks and drops, please go watch David/Wilson path to gold in 2 consecutive tournaments.

3:24 pm EST (Waggish) – MD: Johnson/Frazier vs Bar/Young. Yes, it’s that Johnson this time – JW.  As a reminder, Johnson/Navratil won gold last week in Houston defeating Bar/Young. Johnson/Frazier are defending their gold from last year’s tournament.

The infamous fast hands of Johnson/Frazier were snoozing in game 1 but woke up in game 2 to take them to a 7-0 lead. Frazier gets them game point with a very funny right knee bend leg lift and backhand overhead. Bar/Young did their best to get us a game 4 tie-breaker by taking the lead 5-0 in game 3.  But we’re talking about Johnson/Frazier here and they take over until reached 11! (7-11,11-9,11-5).

2:18 pm EST (Waggish) – WD: On resume from rain delay, we go into game 3 after a quick finish to game 2 Johnson/Koop 11-8. The tension in game 3 built to a crescendo with each firefight that was fierce and no holds barred. Either of these teams could have won but ultimately it was Johnson/Koop 12-10 for the gold. Most of the time fans want the game 4 tie-break but game 3 seemed like a fitting climax. I am impressed with how much Koop can do with the ball when she is so often off the NVZ.

12:35 pm EST (Waggish) – WD: Johnson/Koop vs Jardim/Bright. This is a rematch.  Johnson/Koop completely over-powered Jardim/Bright (result: 0,2) on Saturday.  But a fresh, caffeinated Jardim and a well-warmed up Bright (from prior WS) is a different team.  Jardim/Bright game 1 11-3.  Johnson/Koop settled down a little in game 2 and we saw some great firefights between the teams. Great rallies win fans but not the game. Jardim/Bright playing with total confidence in their partner allowing each to execute daring shots. When Jardim/Bright lead 8-6 and as Jorja takes the serve, Jardim calls for a medical time-out.  Then you get rain. On rain delay. Yesterday, the broadcasters mentioned the binding Jardim was wearing as a result of prior year’s hip and hamstring injuries. It looks like the binding wasn’t preventative today but the rain delay should help. Before the rain delay, Jardim didn’t immediately start doing any kind of rehab – just walking around to see if the pain would go away. Without rehab, I would have expected her to withdraw.

11:40 am EST (Waggish) – MS: Arnold vs Johnson.  No not that Johnson.  JW got knocked out by Hunter on Thursday and ultimately got bronze when he played Hunter a second time. Subsequently, Julian knocked Hunter Johnson out of the winner’s bracket on Thursday 4-11,12-10,11-6. In game 1 today, Hunter tried to keep the ball out of reach of Julian and kept it out of reach of the court too with out balls.  In game 2, Hunter gained a 7-1 lead before Julian turned into a roaring fire and tied it up. Julian did an Andiamo after almost every point.  11-8, 11-7. With the strong singles field, it’s hard for any player to get consecutive golds (Hunter had his gold last week in Houston).

10:41 am EST (Waggish) – WS: Devidze vs Bright. Just when you think it’s all she wrote at 9-0 in game 1, Bright fires up the energy from her reserves to make it a game at 9-7. Devidze fights hard and gets to 11-8. Game 2 had energy from both ladies and same result. Devidze 11-8. This was a good showing from Bright after Devidze had beat her 11-4, 11-5 though Bright took 2nd game 11-5 in the winners bracket. Bright was looking more in control and not as reactive once she got fired up.

Saturday, October 29th – Doubles

9:26 pm EST – The end result of a long doubles day were the top two seeds making their way to Championship Sunday. Kyle Yates and Andrei Daescu actually pushed JW and Dylan Frazier hard until the end of game 3. It could have been a controversial one if the win went Yates/Daescu’s way after a Frazier ATP that appeared in was called out and then Andrei called a JW Johnson return long on the next point, which was overruled by the ref. You wonder if the referee was regretting not overruling the ATP on the previous point as the second call very well could have been out. Can you say make-up call? In any event, Johnson/Frazier are through to Championship Sunday to play Bar/Young, who avenged their earlier loss to Yates/Daescu, 9 and 9 in the bronze. We’ll see if Dekel and DJ can give some trouble to Dylan and JW. 

On the women’s side, it really looks like Simone can’t deal with the power from some of these top players. Jorja and Andrea won 11-0 and 11-2 against Bright/Jardim, and that’s a lot of power coming from the other side. Bright/Jardim will get another shot at them after cruising past Stratman/Braverman in the bronze, but that was a beating from Jorja/Andrea. 

Notable good days on the men’s side from Tardio/Shelton Jean Baptiste and Hewett/Farias. Joey Farias looks to have added a two-handed backhand off the bounce as we see even the older guard continuing to add to their game. 

8:25 pm EST (Waggish) The craziest thing in the WD. Ansboury/Kawamoto vs Stratman/Braverman.  Long rally at game point 14-12.  Kawamoto gets ATP, Braverman returns high and deep and thinks the match has been won.  She drops her paddle and raises both hands in victory.  But Sarah runs back to baseline and hits the return. Ultimately, Stratman/Braverman make it into the bronze. 16-14.

Results from yesterday’s Senior MD and WD:

Sr MD: Scott Crandall/Jose Derisi 11-9,10-12,11-7,15-12 over John Sperling / Mircea Morariu who defeated Rick Witsken / Jaime Oncins De Oliveira in the bronze 11-8,7-11,12-10.
Sr WD: Bagby,Nathalie-Bellamy,Beth (7,3) over Sarah Mitten / Mary Helen Atkins who defeated Anna Shirley / Angela Simon in the bronze 11-3,13-11.
Today’s Sr MXD: UPDATED: Angela Simon / Dan Granot 10-12,11-4,11-7 over Mary Helen Atkins / Scott Moore who defeated Beth Bellamy / Rick Witsken in the bronze 11-4,11-3.

8:00 pm EST (Waggish) Bar/Young will make it to a consecutive Championship Sunday. Daescu/Yates put up a respectable fight in game 2 after losing the lead at 9-5 in game 1. (9,9)

6:45 pm EST (Waggish) Johnson/Koop vs Jardim/Bright   All I can say is WOW!  Johnson was clearly feeling it. She could do no wrong.  No way Jardim/Bright could handle that kind of power.  If Johnson was not there to slam the ball then Koop was.  (0,2)

6:30 pm EST (Waggish) #3 seed Daescu/Yates vs #1 seed Johnson/Frazier. After the dominance of Johnson/Frazier in a boring game 1, I was not expecting much in game 2.  One thing leads to another and we get a game 3.  I really liked Daescu’s shot placement in game 2.  And I liked how Kyle kept the ball in play and didn’t try too much. Some contentious line calls spiced up game 3 at 9-7 and then 9-8. Johnson/Frazier win 11-8.  We’ll see them tomorrow. And maybe Daescu/Yates if they win the bronze.

5:35 pm EST (Waggish) WD: #1 seed Johnson/Koop will battle it out against #2 seed Jardim/Bright. I liked the fight and court coverage from David/Carr against Jardim/Bright. It was a better match than I expected despite the score (6,4).

MD backdraw update: Tardio/Jean-Baptiste win over Navratil/Merchant easily 15-3. They go up against Bar/Young next. The Johnsons are done after their defeat at the hands of Hewett/Farias (8). Julian Arnold ended his day earlier than Hunter so maybe he’ll be a bit fresher for their Singles match tomorrow.

I’m getting my popcorn ready for the men’s match to see who gets to Championship Sunday first.

4:40 pm EST (Waggish) In the MD backdraw, 8 seed Staksrud/Arnold barely beat 16 seed Kusmider/Neumann 18-16 then surprisingly get taken out by 7 seed Hewett/Farias 15-10. They are playing the 13 seed Johnsons next . We’ll see if Ignatowich’s shoulder forces him to pull-out.  If not, Wilson/Ignatowich play the winner.

4:30 pm EST (Waggish) Bar/Young vs Daescu/Yates CC1.  Bar playing big on the court.  One of his overheads bounced so high that it went over Yates head out of his reach and Yates was only a foot in front of the baseline!  Daescu/Yates do a good job with their resets from transition zone and usually make it to the net.  Win game 1 11-5. Bar/Young found more patience in game 2 and focused heavily on Yates.  They were able to keep Daescu/Yates away from the NVZ on several rallies too. Bar/Young game 2 (11-5). After the Daescu/Yates lead at 6-2 on the end-change, Bar/Young stage a come-back.  In the end, the great offensive weapons of Daescu/Yates were just enough for game 3 (12-10).

Johnson/Frazier vs Wilson/Ignatowich CC2. Wilson/Ignatowich changing up the stacking.  Ignatowich has a sore shoulder and rubbing it. He can’t bring the power to his overheads. Johnson/Frazier (3,4) to move on to the semis against Daescu/Yates.

3:22 pm EST (Waggish) Johnson/Koop def the 2 lefties McMillan/Whitwell (2,2).  McMillan/Whitwell put up more of a fight than the score shows in game 2.  I couldn’t figure out the stacking strategy because sometimes Whitwell played left.  Stratman/Braverman def Ansboury/Kawamoto (7,3) and face Johnson/Koop next (4 and 1 seeds). Jardim/Bright first game is a donut/bagel (0,0). David/Carr def Brascia/Barr (11-3,13-11). It wasn’t streamed so unknown stack or played straight for these normally right side players. Most likely they’ll get Jardim/Bright in their next match (3 and 2 seeds)

2:47 pm EST (Waggish) Wilson/Ignatowich vs Navratil/Merchant QF. By game 3, Wilson/Ignatowich switched up the stacking from Ignatowich on left to Wilson on left. Wilson/Ignatowich got stuck on 9 with sloppy errors and Navratil/Merchant started making a comeback but Wilson/Ignatowich win (12-10, 9-11,11-7). Prior, Navratil/Merchant beat Johnson/Johnson (0,5). Frazier/Johnson vs Tardio/Jean-Baptiste QF (7,3) without much trouble. Wilson/Ignatowich will face Frazier/Johnson in their next match. Bar/Young are waiting to see if they face Taylor/Cassidy or Daescu/Yates.  They beat Hewett/Farias (6,8) QF. We may get some WD next.

1:45 pm EST – We are back at it this morning after the rain delay. As we start the day again, we are not having all chalk results. Shelton Baptiste aka the Unicorn has another good win for the second weekend in a row, playing with Gabe Tardio today. They beat Arnold/Staksrud in 3 games, 11-7 in the third. We have not seen much of Shelton this year but a couple of good recent results give an indication he is not to be completely forgotten. Interestingly, Kusmider/Neumann took JW/Dylan to 3 games, 9-11, 11-1 and 11-6, so not a complete walkover after a sleepy game 1 from the favorites. The APP has two courts going today with Dom and Chad Edwards on CC1 and Lauren and Adam Stone on CC2.

9:53 am EST (Waggish) APP facebook page shows 11:00 ET time. I don’t know if that is for streaming or for the matches. It looks like they are drying the courts.

Our friend Jack Olmsted over at PB Live Streaming facebook page has posted the timestamps for yesterday’s Pro Mixed Doubles. So if you want to catch up to your favorite players MXD matches, here’s the list. Better to go to the PB Live Streaming facebook page for direct links in Jack’s post. or go to APP Tour YT channel and click the direct links there.

1. 7:25 Jade Kawamoto/Dekel Bar vs Vivienne David/Thomas Wilson
2. 27:26 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Lee Whitwell/Julian Arnold
3. 1:08:28 Mary Brascia/Federico Staksrud vs Corrine Carr/DJ Young
4. 2:00:16 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Zane Navratil /Andrea Koop
5. 3:12:02 Mary Brascia/Federico Staksrud vs Vivienne David/Thomas Wilson
6. 3:54:48 Anna Bright/James Ignatowich vs JW Johnson/Simone Jardim
7. 4:20:16 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Vivienne David/Thomas Wilson
8. 5:21:29 JW Johnson/Simone Jardim vs Zane Navratil /Andrea Koop
9. 5:51:32 Jorja Johnson/Dylan Frazier vs Zane Navratil /Andrea Andrea Remynse Koop
10. 7:37:40 Beth Herr Bellamy/Nathalie Herreman-Bagby vs Anna Shirley/Angela Simon

9:33 am EST (Waggish) MD start at 8:00 a.m. With few exceptions, the podium teams from last week’s Houston tournament aren’t together this week. One exception is DJ Young/Dekel Bar who won silver last week.  But instead of JW/ Zane they’ll get JW/Dylan if both get that far. JW/Dylan won the gold last year.  Callan Dawson/AJ Koller were last year’s  silver medalists which shows how times have changed.  AJ has played some APP this year but Callan is PPA signed. Zane goes with his old partner Altaf who went 2/2 last year. Hewett who won bronze last week with Kyle Yates is with Joey Farias today. Kyle Yates is with Andrei Daescu and I expect them to be a strong contender for podium. Thomas Wilson pairs with James Ignatowich. I could see Wilson/Ignatowich playing it straight or trying stacking both ways if they run into trouble.  Gritty likes them in his draft and thinks Ignatowich stacks left.  Staksrud pairs with fire power stud Julian Arnold.  

WD start at 10:30 a.m. Last weeks WD gold team Johnson/David changes partners.  Jorja teams with Andrea Koop.  Vivienne David pairs with Corinne Carr.  Last week’s silver medalist Anna Bright wasn’t even playing this time last year but today she pairs with last year’s silver medalist Simone Jardim.  Parris pulled out so we have Stratman/Braverman. Other women teams to watch: Remynse/Esquivel, Ansboury/Kawamoto, Brascia/Barr.  

Despite the 8 a.m. scheduled start, I’m not seeing any scores posted or any updates to the court assignments. Weather looks fine so maybe a technical glitch.

Friday, October 28th – Mixed

7:45 pm EST – Another interesting mixed APP day for the second weekend in a row. You have to wonder how Vivienne David is feeling now about the partnership split with Dekel Bar. Maybe she should have been playing with Wilson all along? This looks like a strong pair going forward as they got some draw luck today but you can only beat who is out there. Handling Johnson/Frazier in two games has them in the favorites over Koop/Navratil on Sunday. Meanwhile, Dekel Bar had a fine day in mixed but the consistency overall in results juts is not there for him. 

What to make of Simone/JW? They had a good run in the backdraw, including avenging their Brascia/Staksrud loss from earlier in the day. However, a 15-4 loss to Koop/Navratil is not ideal by any stretch. Simone, in particular, might be looking forward to some rest. It’ll be interesting to see how her day goes with Anna Bright tomorrow. 

A random funny result is from Shelby Bates and Jake Kusmider, who lost early and went down to the losers bracket to win 17-15, 16-14, 16-14 before finally bowing out 15-8 to Kawamoto/Bar. They knocked off Braverman/Merchant and Stratman/Hewett but what was close to an 0-2 day, suddenly becomes a 3-2 day for two non-established pro doubles players – Kusmider obviously is established as a singles player at this point. 

4:45 pm EST (Waggish) Johnson/Frazier get Bronze. Koop/Navratil get Championship Sunday (7,5) Johnson/Frazier seemed late with their prep/reaction on the balls coming with pace from Koop/Navratil.  Sometimes they’d hit the ball when it was almost past them resulting in some loss of control. Both got hit many times by the ball when they didn’t move quick enough. Navratil in particular seemed to heavily target Frazier’s body. Johnson/Frazier never got their offensive to work long enough to get a rally going.

3:45 pm EST (Waggish) Koop/Navratil easily defeat Jardim/Johnson 15-4.  Jardim seemed to make some horrible shot selections.  Johnson didn’t seem to want to insert himself.  You could almost see the energy and willpower drain away from them as the game proceeded. Bronze is next. Johnson/Frazier beat Koop/Navratil earlier today but it took them 3 games.  What will they have left in the tank and toolbox this match? Who will we see on Championship Sunday?

3:03 pm EST (Waggish) David/Wilson vs Johnson/Frazier for Championship Sunday

Streaming very glitchy so hard to get the continuity of the rallies. Wilson created more problems for Jorja than the other men today. Jorja couldn’t seem to get a read on WIlson. As usual, Vivienne did a great job going to the BH/sideline side of the male with enough variety so they never knew when it was coming. They switched Jorja to the left at around 3-1 in the game 2. And tried targeting Wilson in the dinks/drops. Eventually went back to Dylan on left.  And started attacking hard which got them some points.  Just really hard playing a team that was so on and not making many mistakes. David/Wilson will make another Championship Sunday with their stellar play. 11-6, 11-8 You have to figure these Texas players are drilling hard and solidifying their dominance. Will we see anything from the Johnson Twins tomorrow to show how strong Texas has become?
Jardim/Johnson get their revenge on Brascia/Staksrud 15-12 and face Koop/Navratil next.

2:30 pm EST (Waggish) Jardim/Johnson vs Bright/Ignatowich Game to 15

Some streaming glitches.  At end-change, Jardim/Johnson lead 8-6 and kept it going until 15-6. Johnson was fully engaged and ready for every single ball he could speed-up or attack.  Jardim kept the rally going until Johnson could step in. Ignatowich didn’t let or know how to let Bright set up a play for him to come in and place the put-away.  Men rightfully dominate MXD but there’s gotta be more strategy than “if I can get to the ball, then that’s enough”. We’ve seen Bright win in WD against Jardim when she can directly attack her.  Too few opportunities here in MXD. Jardim may be weakening but her body of experience kept her in this game.

2:00 pm EST (Waggish) Mary Brascia/Federico Staksrud vs Vivienne David/Thomas Wilson

Brascia did a good job attempting to keep Wilson from dominating the middle by going to his backhand/sideline. Wilson and especially David kept the opponents guessing – always mixing their shots up. Staksrud probably would have liked to dominate that center line but can’t do it with David’s ability to place the shot at will. 11-5, 11-1. The two undefeated teams soon: David/Wilson vs Johnson/Frazier.

Back-draw: Jardim/Johnson went down to Brascia/Staksrud and face Bright/Ignatowich next. It looks like we get to see this on CC.  Then Brascia/Staksrud take on the winner.  

Koop/Navratil are waiting to see if they take on Remynse/Daescu or Kawamato/Bar.

1:05 pm EST (Waggish) Johnson/Frazier vs Koop/Navratil.

Close game 1 11 -8. Game 2. In some of these exchanges, It almost seemed the only 2 people playing was Jorja and Zane. One of the rallies at 5-5 was great but no point awarded. Neck-to-neck race in game 2 to game point. Game point opportunity 10-8 for Zane/Andrea.  But got a side-out to tie 10-10. When Zane/Andrea get it back they get to game point 12-10. No one let up, kept up the attacks on those last few rallies.  Game 3: End-change 6-0 for Jorja/Dylan. They had Andrea across from Jorja at times but kept switching it up. After end-change, they settled with Zane on left. Finally Andrea gets their first point at 8-0.  Jorja and Dylan didn’t look like they were trying to go for too much or force anything to happen.  Just played a very clean, crisp game.  11-2.

11:36 am EST – It has not been the best past couple of weeks for Simone Jardim. We go to the tired well a lot for JW but this is two sub-par days in a row for him. Simone/JW lose to Mary Brascia/Staksrud, 12-10 in the third. They actually came close to losing to Brascia/Staksrud quite recently and this time they do not pull out a close one. It’s really a long year for both JW as well as Simone, who has come back from injuries to play quite a few tournaments and do well at that this year. 

Kawamoto/Bar lose to David/Wilson 11-8 and 11-3, which is not a surprising result but the JW/Simone loss really opens the door for David/Wilson as the favorites in this draw. Finally, Koop/Navratil beating Bright Ignatowich in 3 games, 11-4 in the third, and they will take on Jorja/Dylan Frazier next. Bright/ignatowich got by Stratman/Hewett and showing some resilience against a higher end team, but that’s simply a tough match up for them.

10:20 am EST (Waggish) Let’s catch up with the brackets.  Carr/Young def Yates/Barr 11-9, 2-11, 12-10. David/Wilson def Kawamoto/Bar 11-8, 11-3. Game #2 seemed extremely quick. Johnson/Frazier were pushed a little by Fudge/Long but won (8,9). Whitwell/Arnold def Remynse/Daescu 8-11, 11-6, 13-11. Bright/Ignatowich def Stratman/Hewett 15-13, 11-2.  First game obviously close followed by a run-away 2nd game.

Next up on CC looks like Johnson/Frazier vs Whitwell/Arnold.  Don’t forget you can catch some matches on CC#2.  NML will take it from here.

8:30 am EST (Waggish) Mixed Day has 33 teams trying to grab a podium spot! On paper, you would expect 3rd seed Jorja/Dylan to meet up with 2nd seed Andrea/Zane in their semi.

#1 seed JW/Simone should meet up with either 5th seed Jade Kawamoto/Dekel Bar or 4rth seed Vivienne David/Thomas Wilson. Can David/Wilson repeat their amazing performance from Houston?

Or will JW/Simone get their 7th gold in an APP tournament this year?

Or will Jorja/Dylan get their 2nd gold? They also have a bronze together.

Andrea/Zane have 4 medals together in APP tournaments this year.  Will this one finally be the gold?

Any team can catch fire so let’s see what happens. Who do you think will be an upset team?

P.S. I find myself wishing Hunter was playing today. But we get to see Yates with Megan Charity. Parris Todd pulled out of this tournament.

Gritty and Slim have the most likely contenders in their fantasy draft but who did they snub? https://www.nmlpickleball.com/fantasy/app-tour-hilton-head-fantasy-draft-preview/

Thursday, October 27th – Singles

7:51 pm EST – Pretty fascinating day all around. No JW Johnson in a Championship Sunday as Hunter beat him twice. Is Hunter the flavor of the month or does he have long lasting staying power? He sure looks like he rips the ball about as well as anyone out there. Two golds in a row would be quite the feat.

On the women’s side, Anna Bright looks to be moving very well and pushed Devidze. It was not enough today but Bright’s singles game looks a little more polished. Radzikowska looked to hurt hersef in the bronze after squeaking by Stratman, 18-16, but Ewa is clearly someone with some skill to watch out for.

6:30 pm EST (Waggish) MS Bronze. To refresh our memory, Hunter defeated JW earlier today in a match that wasn’t streamed on CC. 10-12, 11-8, 11-9.   JW was on a mission in bronze.  Hunter takes a time-out when JW was ahead at 8-3. And mounts a run to tie it up 10-10. JW got close to a point but shot goes long.   Hunter 12-10. Hunter really pushed JW hard.

Game 2: Rally at 3-4 was amazing gets! But Hunter pulls away and wins 11-5.  I didn’t see JW call a time-out. Did he not realize game 2 was slipping away… So Hunter vs Julian rematch on Sunday.  As a reminder, earlier today Julian won 4-11, 12-10, 11-6. Hunter did a great job moving JW from one sideline to the other. And he must have put some amazing pace on some of his shots from JW’s reactions. Well done.

6:00 pm EST (Waggish) I didn’t watch the women’s bronze. Anna Bright defeats Radzikowska Ewa (5,3).  Ewa’s game against Stratman looks like it was a tight one with score of 18-16.  Rematch between Bright and Devidze on Sunday. In their earlier game, Devidze was handling the out line calls by Bright much better.  She of course didn’t like them but she didn’t create drama with it.  She didn’t pout or get vengeful and call the next ball by Bright that was anywhere near the line out.

5:47pm EST (Waggish) Julian vs Hunter.  Hunter quickly takes care of business in game 1 (4). But Julian gets 4 quick points in game 2 before Hunter gets his first point. Hunter got to game point but Julian never let up.  He did some amazing gets with runs from one end of the court to another. Andiamo’s were on sale. 12-10 to Julian.  Game 3.  6-5 Arnold at end-change. Time-out by Hunter at 8-5.  Can the come-back kid do it again this week like he did last week twice in Houston for game 3 after a time-out? Julian had too much fire. Takes the match 11-6.  In one instance, Hunter moved to one side too early and Julian saw that in time to hit the shot to the opposite side.  Julian moves on to Sunday while Hunter moves on to face JW.

In the back-draw, JW has taken out both Dylan (8) and Federico (10).  He faces Hunter next on CC.

Federico def Ignatowich 15-8 and JW got the same score against Dylan. Tellez actually pushed JW more to a game of 16-14.

5:16 pm EST (Waggish) Devidze vs Bright. Game 1 to Devidze (11-4). Devidze passing shots down the line after Bright had moved towards the NVZ was a winning strategy until Bright caught on.  Then Bright covered better.  Devidze shots started going wide in an effort to get past Bright. Bright (11-5). Game 3: End-change 6-1 Devidze. But it wasn’t a complete romp. Anna started getting points when Devidze balls went wide. Devidze ultimately wins game 3 and match. 11-5.

3:49 pm EST – To throw some NML thoughts here. It is pretty cool we’re getting such a variety of results. A Julian Arnold vs. Hunter Johnson winners bracket final was not out of the realm, but definitely not expected. It’s something to consider whether either Julian and/or Hunter have turned a corner in their games. Hunter dominated Ignatowich after losing game 1 and Arnold got past Staksrud in 2 and Frazier in 3. JW Johnson is fighting a long backdraw and, of course, no one wants to see him coming back to gold. Also, clearly we have to watch out for Radzikowska. Barely losing to Salome in her first match then she has already gotten through Mary Brascia. It’s not flash in the pan stuff.

3:14 pm EST (Waggish) James vs Hunter.  James takes game 1 11-8.  Game 2, James couldn’t find the court. A high % of his serve returns went out along with some passing shots. The passing shot is the bread and butter of his game too.  Hunter’s confidence just kept building. Hunter made some great angle shots and James reached many of them. But in the end it was the out balls that determined the game. 11-0.  Game 3. End-change 6-1 Hunter. But James seemed to regain control of his paddle versus the lines and put up a good fight. Fierce fight but Hunter ultimately wins 11-4 by moving James around with his angles. Everyone talks about length but nimbleness creates a level playing field.

2:21 pm EST (Waggish) WS Update: Jorja withdrew. Anna Bright faces Salome Devidze after Anna def Mary Brascia (7,5) who had defeated Stratman (10,4).

MS Back-draw: Jake Kusmider def Christian Alshon 15-6. Federico def DeHeart 15-7. They’ll now face each other which I wish would be shown but still too much in the main draw. It looks like JW’s match against Tellez is on CC2.

2:10 pm EST (Waggish) James vs Yates: Very tight game 1 with neither sustaining a big lead. It was mainly a tale of who got the biggest angle.  When you can get out of the reach of James, that’s a freakish angle! Game 2 started about the same way. Yates hit some serves and returns into the net. Those kind of sloppy mistakes eventually caught up to him with a lead by James 7-3. But Yates caught up 7-7. But that’s all Yates could get. I don’t remember seeing a singles game with so many balls into the net. To James (9,7).

Arnold def Frazier: 5-11, 11-5, 11-3. End change 6-3. In game 3, Frazier was trying hard with his angles and cuts.  In the end, Frazier made more errors than Arnold.

The Hunter vs JW match wasn’t on CC.  Hunter wins 10-12, 11-8, 11-9.  James now faces the twin next on CC. The winner then takes on Arnold.

11:57 am EST (Waggish) Got some energy on the court with Dylan and Jake. Check out Jake’s slide in 2nd game at 3-2. Jake had to make a quick dash/slide to the NVZ when Dylan’s ball paused hitting the net and barely made it over. Jake made a run near the end and almost pushed a game 3. Dylan did an amazing ATP at 10-10 then closed it out. Dylan 11-7, 12-10. Dylan sporting a Selkirk T-shirt so wondering if he signed. He’s been using their 002 paddle for a few months. Dylan faces either Julian or Federico next. Looks like James and Yates next up on CC.

11:33 am EST (Waggish) Gabriel Tardio struggled in his first match against Roman Kravchuk 1-11, 12-10, 15-13. Then he falls to Dylan Frazier 11-0, 11-4. Jake Kusmider beat Jack Foster 11-0,11-0 . Now Jake gets to take on Dylan which is next match on CC. That should be fun to watch with all the slides that Jake does. Julian Arnold not having any trouble in his matches. But he faces Federico next so that is likely to be a different story.

Hunter beats Rafa 11-8, 11-4. He faces JW next who easily beat Christian Alshon 11-5, 11-4 despite both looking a little slow this early game. Yates Johnson wins his match against Cincola 11-7, 11-8. He’ll face Ignatowich or DeHeart next.

7:44 am EST (Waggish) Streaming will start at 10 as usual. The men’s bracket starts at 9. Dylan, JW, James, Federico, Jack Foster, John Cincola all have byes. It’s a long-shot that we’ll get to see the Johnson twins battle it out. That was a great match last weekend in Houston when Hunter came from behind in the 3rd game to win 12-10.

It should be a good day. Dylan and Federico are on the same half, but Federico will have to get through Julian Arnold to get there. JW has Ignatowich as well as both Johnsons on his side of the bracket while Hunter Johnson has Rafa Hewett.

On the women’s side, it’s not a large field but it’s deep for a 9 player bracket. 6 of these players are contenders. Devidze will play Radzikowska first round. A notable absence is Megan Fudge, who was obviously a gold medal candidate. The women’s bracket starts at 11. Bright will get a bye.

2:30 am EST – Something to note off the top is that Parris Todd has pulled out of this tournament altogether. We saw she was out of singles but missed she pulled out of the women’s doubles bracket too. Lauren Stratman is now with Jillian ‘Don’t Call Me Retired’ Braverman, who is also with Altaf Merchant in mixed.