APP Tour Hilton Head Open – Live Random Thoughts

No full live blog this weekend as we are sticking with the random thoughts. We’ll do our best to give some thoughts throughout the weekend. Be sure to see our takeaways on Monday after what looks to be great weather for this stop.

Sunday, October 17th – Singles

2:26 pm EST – A little bit more expected with the results today as we have Zane Navritil and Jay Devilliers playing in the winners bracket final after Zane narrowly escaped Frazier 11-9 in the third.

The women’s we had Parenteau with a major singles win over Jansen as she squeaked it out 11-9 in the third as well. We’ll see how the gold plays out with what should be a rematch in the final. Would be surprised to see Jansen drop twice to Parenteau. We also note that Stratman showed why you don’t pick someone without a history over someone with a history. Stratman tuned up Oshiro 15-1.

Saturday, October 16th – Doubles

5:36 pm EST (Gritty) – We had this one capped wrong for the doubles days. Neither of our top 2 men’s teams hitting the podium and our #2 female team not on the podium. Stratman and Whitwell put up a very good fight to Simone and Catherine. We’ll see if David and Jansen can put up a statement with the double elim of Simone and Catherine.

Koller continues to get results and even we seem to be undervaluing his strong play at this point.

2:16 pm EST (Gritty) – Don’t know if I have seem so many lobs in a match but Frazier/JW overcome a plethora of lobs from Dawson and Koller to win in 2 games. Dawson is a lob master but Koller probably needs to ease up a bit as his lobs were not as effective in the match. Other than the lobs, there wasn’t much of an answer from them against Frazier and Johnson.

1:40 pm EST (Gritty) – Koller continues his amazing recent run as he wins with Dawson over Nunnery and Stone and Pat and Jay both in 2 games. Dawson is an ideal partner for Koller if in form and it appears that he is.

The draw did not shake out well for Irvine and Barr as they had to face Simone and Catherine in their winners semi while David and Jansen had to go through Carr and Remynse. I’ll expect to see Barr and Irvine back from the bronze but it’s not going to be easy.

11:22 am EST (Gritty) – Stratman and Whitwell losing easily to Remynse and Carr is a surprise to me. That first match with no warm up round when the other team has already played a match is tough…but still. Maybe not giving enough credit to Remynse and Carr.

11:01 an EST (Gritty) – At some point, we need to be asking more questions about Collin Johns. Let’s see how the day goes but losing 5 and 6 to Cincola and Thomas Wilson is not good when playing with Dekel Bar. The time may be very soon to ask those questions of Collin.

9:31 am EST (Gritty) – It is one of the weirder “pro” partnerships of 2021 that Rob Cassidy, coming off a legit silver medal at a PPA event, is teamed up at a big APP event with Gizmo Hall. I would love to know the story behind this one. Of course, they did lose their first round match to Austin Gridley and Shelton Jean-Baptiste. Cassidy is a wild man.

Friday, October 15th – Mixed Doubles

6:59 pm EST (Gritty) – Pretty dominant day for Simone and JW. They were pushed in their winners semi and winners final matches, and at the end of the day came out on top. The gold medal match was more of a breeze. To take doen Jay and Jessie twice with a new, less established partner was Simone telling the haters that I’m still here. You could call this a statement win for her and that she’s very elite in mixed. It also makes you question Ben’s interest in that partnership as they shouldn’t be losing the matches they have been losing recently

3:52 pm EST (Gritty) – Do we have a rejuvenated Simone? She looked very good with JW after a tight win over Navratil and David. To go on to beat Jay and Jessie is impressive for a new partnership. Jardim may be dealing with injuries but this could be a new partnership into 2022. Early results are promising.

David and Navratil themselves are having a quality day as Navratil podiums yet again at an APP event. That’s a well deserved win over Parenteau and Bar, and I need to go back to not trusting Bar in mixed. Parenteau is an A+ partner and no podium in this field is a poor result for them.

12:45 pm EST (Slim) – The first semi-final is in the books as JW and Simone take down Zane Navatril and Vivienne David, 9-11, 11-0, 11-7. After a slow start in game one JW and Simone seemed to find their rhythm and rolled. The other semi-final features Rob Nunnery and Michelle Esquivel versus Jay Devilliers and Jessie Irvine. Rob and Michelle, have not had a lot of success this year but they got a solid win over Lauren Stratman and Patrick Smith 7-11, 11-6, 11-6 to reach the semi-final.

Dekel Bar’s mixed results continue to be confusing as he and Catherine Parenteau lost to Vivienne David and Zane Navatril 11-6, 11-9. He just does not seem to be able to bring the consistency in mixed.

10:38 am EST (Slim) – Mixed is underway and for the most part things are chalk. I should note, I was very high on the Barr/Johns partnership in the fantasy draft, and they dropped their second round match up to Jansen and Dawson 11-5, 11-9. This may have been a case of me being too excited about a new partnership.