APP Tour Houston and PPA Tour DC – Live Random Thoughts

We’ll have a double live blog with this weekend for the dueling tour events and try to keep up as best we can. With that in mind, all this pickleball watching gets to be a lot for us so we have enlisted a little bit of help for the blog. She has been a frequent follower of the blog and clearly an avid follower of pro pickleball. Her insights and in-depth knowledge of the pros has stood out to us in all of our interactions with her. You may know her as Pickleball Jan on Facebook but she’ll go by the pseudonym of Waggish for NML. Waggish will help out with live blogs along with other content as we figure things out starting this weekend! Here’s a little bit more about Jan from her:

I was such a pest on NML blogs that they decided to just make me part of the team. I think they are hoping to control me. Ha, ha. I have them fooled.

I’m Jan. But that is BORING! So I’ll be known as Waggish! Some of you may have seen my medal count posts on the Pro Pickleball Stats page on Facebook. Yup, I love numbers! I’ll start with assisting with some live blogs for now but I may post some medal counts here as well. And if they need a substitute for the fantasy draft, I’ll fill in. That will certainly give Gritty a chance to catch Slim!

I’m really excited to help out at NML because of weekends like this with a PPA and APP going on – that’s a lot of matches to watch and write about.

Sunday, October 23rd – Championship Sunday

11:10 pm EST – We’ll have takeaways as always at some point tomorrow, most likely towards the end of the day as is more typical now.

6:50 pm EST (Waggish) – APP MXD: Wilson/David get game 1 11-8.  Johnson/Todd take game 2 11-8. Excellent placement and shot selection by Wilson/David.  Their read helped them with their positioning. David’s experience in mixed helped her cover for her partner better than Todd.  Todd also took her time getting to the line and that cost her a few rallies when Wilson and David were both at the line. Very tight game 3 with no one getting a streak.  JW took advantage of every slightly high ball he could reach. For the most part, Thomas had good timing on his hits. It seemed to take forever to get to end-change but finally Wilson team get it 6-5. And finally a run of 4 points from 5 to 9 for Wilson team.  #5 seed take down #1 seed 11-6. First gold in MXD I believe for Wilson. Slim had the insight to draft them for his team. But Gritty had snagged Johnson/Todd. That’s it from me while I catch up on other things.

5:15 pm EST (Waggish) – APP MD: Young/Bar vs Navratil/Johnson. Game 1 goes to Young/Bar pretty easily 11-4.  Wind was playing havoc with the ball. It looked like game 2 would go the way of game 1. But Navratil/Johnson got zoned-in on the same page of the playbook and won 11-8. They kept the heat in game 3 and it looked like it’d be 11-2.  But the side-out gave Young/Bar an opening to get to 5. Not enough and after a 2nd side-out, Navratil/Johnson finish it 11-5.  4th game tie-breaker: Navratil/Johnson lead at end-change 8-1. Slow and steady wins the race 15-7. It looks like that makes it 3 for 3 for this team. We’ll see JW again immediately in the MXD Gold with Parris Todd. They face Thomas Wilson/Vivienne David from the winner’s bracket.

3:30 pm EST (Waggish) – APP WD: Jorja Johnson/Vivienne David vs Parris Todd/Anna Bright. Game 1: 11-1 Johnson/David. As the announcers said “total domination”.  Todd/Bright stacked until 8-1 then changed it up. Johnson/David kept with their stack putting Johnson’s massive FH in the middle with David’s massive 2-handed BH in the middle.  Formidable wall of hands to get through!

Game 2: Todd/Bright win 11-6.

Game 3: Showed wind 26.5 MPH. Johnson/David were giving Todd/Bright too many balls they could attack. The end-change settled them and their balls down enough to get to 10-6. A quick side-out then GOLD at 11-8. Fun to watch these ladies battle it out and hope we see them again.

PPA MD: Johns take it in 3 straight against Newman/Wright: 11-6, 14-12, 12-10.

2:31 pm EST (Waggish) – PPA WD:  Kovalova/Smith get the GOLD against Waters. 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4. In game 4, Leigh probably hit > 80% of the balls.  AL did her best to cover 90% of the court but Kovalova/Smith were really dialed into Leigh.  Nothing AL could do. Waters had tried AL on the left in game 3. They lost that game and didn’t try it in game 4.

2:14 pm EST (Waggish) – APP MS: Game 3: Quick with Staksrud win 11-7.  Game 4 tie-breaker was full of wind and controversy. Update on wind was 41 MPH with gusts and swirls. Tight rallies.  Staksrud seemed to be “educating” the referee when an out ball at 7-5 was over-ruled by his side-line ref. Staksrud immediately lifted up his finger indicating out.  The ref over-ruled him.  Staksrud not happy when Hunter gets the point at 7-6. At end-change  Staksrud again asked the ref about his over-ruling him.  Afterwards, Staksrud again shows his frustration with his mis-hits with some paddle banging. Staksrud calls a very close ball out at 9-5 which was over-ruled.  Staksrud throws his paddle and takes a time-out after his next ball goes out. I didn’t see him get a warning and probably by now he should have.  At 7-10, Staksrud serves after ref calls the score.  Hunter says he wasn’t ready.  Camera was on Staksrud so unknown how he was signaling not ready or if ref even looked at Hunter. Point replayed and Staksrud return goes out. Both played out the game without any more drama. Staksrud creeping back in at 13-11 time-out by Hunter. But it wasn’t enough. GOLD for Hunter 15-11.

1:11 pm EST (Waggish) – APP MS: Game 1 to Johnson (not that Johnson) 11-8. Staksrud got visibly frustrated with himself. Staksrud took the early lead in game 2.  Hunter is the one to get frustrated in game 2 and throw his paddle down.  The paddle broke on his return hit – FIRST and caused the ball to go out.  Surprisingly, that is not a replay.  Staksrud takes it 11-7.  We’ll get a game 3. Will we get a game 4?

PPA WD: We have sound on YT now.  Commentators mentioned lobbing into the sun and the infamous quote “can’t you beat us straight-up”.  Lobgate is not going away.

Game 1: 11-7 Kovalova/Smith. I’m not sure Kovalova/Smith liked a single line call by Waters team.  

Game 2: 11-9. I didn’t watch. Currently in game 3, Kovalova/Smith are ahead 8-3.

Going forward, I’ll probably only watch APP and catch up with PPA MD later for the full game.  But I’ll give score updates for PPA WD and maybe the MD.

12:25 pm EST (Waggish) – APP WD: Tied up at 8-8. Fudge gets to 10 first.  Time-out by Todd to stop the Fudge train.  But another out-ball by Todd and match goes to Fudge! She ended the game on what the announcers claimed was the side favorable to the wind.  They showed a weather forecast that had wind at 23 MPH.  Nothing a pro shouldn’t be able to handle IMHO.

The PPA WD looks like it’s going to be contentious.  First video challenge by Kovalova on an out call by the Waters early in game 1 at 2-1. Took them 3 minutes to make the decision. Ball was out.  No sound on YT. Also airing on CBS SN.

12:00 pm EST (Waggish) – Wanted to jump on for a quick Congratulations to Corrine Carr and Adam Stone. Adam announced they are expecting a son next May.

We are into Championship Sunday for both tours. A reminder that the PPA MXD Gold aired yesterday on CBS in a shortened format 2/3. The third game would have been to 7 with rally point scoring.

APP WS is into the third game. Game 1 to Todd 11-5, Game 2 to Fudge 11-2. We’ll see who can tame the wind in game 3.

Saturday, October 22nd – Doubles

8:21 pm EST – Parris and Anna, and JW and Zane are back to the gold matches. Simone is struggling with the power being brought by the other top teams today and it’s just a different world out there for her. A lot of interesting matches tomorrow as the JW and Zane rematch with Dekel and DJ will be equally intriguing. Parris has 3 finals tomorrow and you wonder how that will affect her coming off a couple of long weekends at MLP and Vegas.

Callan and Tyler Loong come out with another bronze. They have had a very good second half of the year together. While Catherine and Lea’s partnership has to be on life support at this point, they are still fighting to get bronze medals. 19-17 over Jones/Sheehan-Dizon and a 3 game win over Irina/Jessie.

5:35 pm EST – Dekel and DJ are into the gold medal match with a close 3 gamer over Zane and JW. The possible question this brings is whether DJ is better suited to be a right sided guy. He can do so much with his forehand and it keeps him from doing too much. Just food for thought. Bright and Todd are now in the bronze with a 15-9 win over Truong and Fudge.

At the PPA the top seeds are all in the gold for both the men and women.

4:04 pm EST – Yates and Hewett losing to Scarpa and Dow a few weeks ago in a smaller tourney kind of screwed up our analysis of that team. They are into the bronze after another long run through the backdraw for Rafa Hewett. Quite a weekend for Rafa and then for Yates today after being disqualified yesterday in mixed against Rafa for a meltdown including some profanities at the ref and a paddle throw. Once again, we did not see 2022 Rafa Hewett coming.

Jorja and Vivienne hang on 11-9 in the third over Anna Bright and Parris Todd. They were up 9-3 in the third but were on the wrong wind side. There are 30 mile winds with bigger gusts and it really caused Parris and Anna, the less experienced players, some real difficulties.

Ben and Collin are into the finals again after losing a sleepy game 1 versus Chuck and AJ. The Waters also got through Catherine and Lea in 2 games despite being down 8-2 in game 1. Cannot expect those two to continue together into next year with this difficult 2nd half of 2022.

2:46 pm EST – Ben and Anna Leigh win the mixed final in expected fashion. They only played best 2 out of 3. Pretty meh broadcast. At one point they referred to Tyson as the number 1 singles player, which is true but also hilarious because there’s not enough knowledge to know what that means. National TV is national TV. More eyeballs. Still might need to ask Hannah and Ben how difficult pickleball is to master though.

In doubles PPA action, Koller and Taylor beat Jay and Tyson in 3 tight games 9-11, 11-9 and 11-4. That figured to be a close one as Koller shows his ability to win with different partners. Irvine and Tereschenko ended up winning over the Utah ladies in 3 games

At the APP, we are getting the expected winners bracket men’s final with the big D’s against JW and Zane. It’s a tough go for Sarah Burr and Susannah Barr, losing to Simone and Andrea, but that’s a strong win over Schneemann and Whitwell to get there, 1 and 9.

12:45 pm EST – Garnett and McMakin are the surprise semi-finalists of the day but will be in tough against Dekel and DJ. Overally, tough morning for the older crew. Nunnery and Stone go down to the Johnson’s in the backdraw. Steve Deakin and Spencer Smith lost in their 2nd round match to Erik Forsythe and Andrew Yaraghi. It’s almost as if you need to play tournaments to be able to win matches. Have to give it time.

The women’s stuff is just getting going. We are waiting on a result from the Utah ladies vs. Irina and Irvine. With the mixed final to get going in about 45 minutes on CBS, there will be lots to discuss as the day goes on.

11:08 am EST – So Adam Stone and Rob Nunnery don’t appear ready for prime time together. They got beat by Connor Garnett and Ky McMakin, 11-7, 11-3. That bye probably wasn’t super helpful for them after Garnett and McMakin had a matxh to get going, but that’s not a good sign for either of them. Shelton Jean-Baptiste, aka the Unicorn, hadn’t had a good win in a while but he gets one with Hayden Patriquin, 11-9 in the third over the singles boys, Staksrud and Tellez. Another Utah guy who has fallen off the radar a little playing less tournaments since being dropped after MLP Austin, Austin Gridley and Todd Fought beat the Johnson brothers 4 and 9. We have always been higher on Gridley and he gets quality wins in men’s. The door is open in their quarter of the bracket.

Nothing much to report at the PPA. Koller and Taylor had to go 3 games in their first match with a couple of unknowns, Arpit Dhir and Bill Kacergis. Still early going though.

1:59 am EST – Callie and Lucy are still 1 seeds for the time being and it’s not clear whether being on Jessie/Irina’s half is better or Catherine/Lea. We’ll see how Jessie and Irina fare after a good chunk in between partnerships for them.

The backdraw makes it less crucial but Anna/Parris vs. Vivienne/Jorja sets up for a fun semi-finals match while Simone/Andrea have a pretty easy run to the winners bracket final as the 1 seed.

Friday, October 21st – Mixed

9:47 pm EST – Just wanted to give a little wrap up of the day. First off, the mixed final is not going to be on Sunday, it will be on Saturday at1:30 pm EST because they have put it on CBS. We had not heard or seen anything about CBS until the PPA posted their TV schedule for the weekend but still no mention of the mixed final. This seems very last minute and possibly a result of the MLP news that caused Tom Dundon to call in some favors, but that’s all speculation on our part. It could be a rough one for Wright and Kovalova on national television. In any event, it has to be better for the sport to get a real tournament match on national television rather than an exhibition.

On the APP side, we had another very funky day. It’s clear Parris Todd and Anna Bright both have some seasoning left to be consistent at that higher level in mixed. While it is a reminder that Vivienne David is elite when she has better partners, the loss to Wilson/David exhibited some inconsistencies for Parris that will only come with time. It’s still a Championship Sunday appearance for Todd/JW and it will be interesting to see what happens with the rematch with David/Wilson. Parris and JW lost about 3 net cord points in game 3 against Vivienne and Thomas so something to keep in mind. 

Schneemann/Hewett had a notable 4th place finish. They had an odd forfeit win over Yates/Barr early on, but a win over Koop/Bar as well as Navratil/Bright in the backdraw are quality wins. Also of note, Dekel Bar continues his mixed inconsistencies with a rough day. Anna Bright said on the Pickleball Studio Podcast she thinks Dekel takes too much court in mixed and that’s our read on him too. He has to find more of a balance or he’s going to keep having trouble putting together full days. Dekel and Andrea were down to Tellez/Whitwell in their first backdraw match too before winning 15-13.

7:52 pm EST (Waggish) – APP update: Tardio/Jorja played a little too loose in the bronze and Todd/JW got the upper hand. I didn’t see much dinking by either team. Game 1 was 11-9. Game 2 got stuck on 2-0 for several side-outs but once that was broken there was no looking back for Todd/JW. Tardio got wild with his shots. He may have to consider using the “classic ready position” sometimes for steadier hands. 11-2.

PPA bronze update: As has become the norm for PPA no streaming of the bronze. Parenteau/Newman win the feeder against Jones/Smith 16-14. Irvine/Devilliers win their feeder against Grechkina-Newell/DeLaRosa 15-0. Bronze goes to Parenteau Newman: 3-11, 11-8, 11-2.

6:52 pm EST (Waggish) – APP update: Tardio/Jorja are into the bronze to face Todd/JW after their loss to Wilson/David. Wilson/David took the “steady as she goes” approach in game 1. Tardio/Jorja took the “take no prisoners” approach. Wilson/David maintained a small lead through most of game 1. Then at 7-7 they were chasing each other to see who could get to 11 first. Went to 12-10. In the end, it was just too many balls hit out from the Tardio/Jorja team. Game 2 saw

Tardio/Jorja try to slow it down with some dinks but Wilson/David maintained their early lead – usually by 5 points. It was windy and that seemed to have pushed the ball just of reach. Game 2 11-4. Nice to see Julie and JW in the audience for support. Wilson got passed on down the line shots several times in his matches today. I expect he’ll be working on that. Another update after the bronze.

4:56 pm EST (Waggish) – APP update: Tardio/Jorja are headed to the winner finals (7,3). You know she is going to want to show her brother she can beat a team that defeated him so she’ll have some extra motivation. Tardio was impressive with his cross-court Bernies and both players were impressive with how they had each other’s back.

APP loser bracket updates: Schneemann/Hewett defeat Koop/Bar 15-13 then defeat Bright/Navratil 15-11. They play Padegimaite/Auvergne next. Todd/Johnson next up on CC playing Fudge/Cincola then the winner plays the winner of just mentioned match.

PPA loser bracket updates: Leading into bronze will be the winners of Irvine/Devilliers vs Grechkina-Newell/DeLaRosa and Parenteau/Newman vs Jones/Smith.

4:20 pm EST (Waggish) – APP update: Game 3 went to Wilson/David in a surprise win over number 1 seed Todd/JW. They kept a good lead through most of the game then JW decided to get more aggressive. It was starting to go Todd/JW’s way at 7-9 after Wilson hit 3-4 balls into the net. The last one looked like it should have been an easy dink for him so he rightfully took a time-out to stew. We all know JW’s awesome ability with that little flickshot which caught Wilson with a delayed reaction and some net balls. After the time-out, Wilson had a new mental lease on his game. A few out balls by JW helped them to pull off the winner 11-7. Now they’ll play the winner of the Tardio/Jorja and Lina/Auvergne match. I noticed Tardio/Jorja looked relaxed before the match and that is usually when Jorja plays her best.

3:50 pm EST – Look who is back into a Championship Sunday, it’s Matt/Lucy, pulling out a super tight one against Riley Catherine, 11-9 in the the third. You don’t often see much emotion from those two as a couple but there was what appeared to be a hug of relief after their win. It’s been a tough stretch for them so to get one over the clear #2 team in the draw has to be a big sense of relief. There have actually been a number of tough results for the main draw exits at the PPA as Callie/AJ, Lea/Tyler and Leigh/Tyson all lost their first round losers matches to lesser teams on paper. 

At the APP, we’ve had some interesting results today. Notably, Thomas Wilson was having some heart palpitations apparently in their win over Bright/Navratil. This is something he has dealt with before, including in Chicago. They are currently in game 3 against Todd/JW and fighting hard, but that’s something to keep in mind. Tardio/Jorja Johnson got a real close one over Staksrud/Jardim, 11-9 in the third, and either Tardio/Jorja or Lina/Auvergne will be guaranteed a medal when they play their match. Staksrud/Jardim have been eliminated by Heather Nobler and Mike Forster, which is a bad loss there and seems like a classic losers bracket let down. 

1:34 pm EST (Waggish) – PPA center court action 3 seed vs 6 seed: Wright/Kovalova vs. McGuffin/Waters. McGuffin/Waters up 7-0 then got to 9-1. Wright/Kovalova started getting some momentum with some aggressive attacks. McGuffin/Waters finally get to 10-3 but took them a while to close the deal at 11-4. Wright/Kovalova took lead to get to 10 in game 2 after McGuffin/Waters got stuck on 4 at 5-4. Close game 2 out at 11-6. Same score game 3. Wright/Kovalova will face either Newman/Parenteau or Jansen/Loong next. In Losers bracket, Allyce Jones/Spencer Smith take out Tereschenko/Johns 16-14 and Smith/Koller get by Sheehan-Dizon/Dawson 15-6. The two winners will face each other next.

APP: 4/5 seeds: Bright/Navratil battling Wilson/David. Wilson/David take game one 11-7. Exact opposite 7-11 in game 2. Early lead at side-change in game 3 for Wilson/David at 6-0. They kept the ball away from Bright who was playing left-side and straight across from David. David fell into the kitchen after an angled overhead. Impressed she didn’t twist her ankle on the fall. The sun was giving Bright/Navratil trouble. Game 3 11-3. Wilson/David will face Johnson/Todd next.
In another match, Padegimaite/Auvergne beat Koop/Bar 11-7, 7-11, 11-4. They will be facing Fudge/Cincola next.

12:38 pm EST (Waggish) – APP: Barr-Yates forfeited their second match. Brackets haven’t updated for their loser bracket match so not yet known if they are out for the day or just was late to their start. Tood-Johnson handily beat Schneemann-Hewett (score 1,3). Jorja and Tardio will be facing Jardim-Staksrud and that could be interesting but unknown if it’ll get streamed.

PPA: Easy day so far for the top guns in PPA. Irvine-Devilliers vs Smith-Koller second game was close at 11-9. They should face-off against Waters-Johns next. Irina and Collin gave Lea and Tyler Loong a little bit of trouble winning the second game 11-5.

11:09 am EST – All as expected for both tours in the mixed day so far. The thing to note at the PPA is that Catherine and Riley finally have enough combined points that they are the number 2 seed so there is no concern for them about getting put on AL and Ben’s half of the draw. The top 2 teams are top 2 in points for now, and it sets up for an expected gold medal final.

Thursday, October 20th – Singles

7:34 pm EST – A final three bronze matches update for the day. Federico Staksrud gets by Rafa Hewett, 11-5 and 11-5, for another shot at Hunter Johnson in the gold medal match. Hunter has been playing some seriously good singles pickleball over the past couple of months. A gold in this JW Johnson-less field would be no small feat for him. On the female side, Parris Todd gets back to gold after a bronze match where Schneemann gave Todd trouble at times with her get to the net every point style that is unique to the female game. Todd caught fire after going down 6-0 in game 2 and was too much with her passing shots. Schneemann has certain spots she really prefers when she volleys at the net and the ground strokes aren’t as pure, which means dialing in that net game will be crucial if she wants to take the next step in the singles game.

Tyson McGuffin wins bronze at the PPA, winning easily over Alex Neumann in 2 games. That has to be a disappointing bronze for Tyson today in a field with only 3 real contenders.

6:30 pm EST – This has been a lot of pickleball for those MLP people coming to play singles. You’re seeing a number of unexpected days from those players who went deep into MLP. Jorja Johnson lost to Ali Phillips in the backdraw 16-14, Zane went down to Rafa, Staksrud lost to Hunter Johnson and then earlier we had Parris losing to Megan Fudge in the main draw.  Fudged played MLP but she is onto Championship Sunday after beating Lacy Schneemann in two games. Schneemann is determined to get to the net every point, but she doesn’t have different spots she can go with volleys quite yet. Don’t give Lacy an overhead though… 

Unsure of what happened to Gabriel Tardio but he forfeited to Federico Staksrud, who as we noted lost to Hunter Johnson 9 and 3. You never know when you are going to get a big run from Rafa Hewett, who lost his first match of the day to Tardio and worked himself all the way back to the bronze, beating Ryler DeHeart to get there, who also had a nice run himself. Gosh, you never know when you’re going to get the podium days from Rafa, who apparently got over his MLP hangover fairly quickly. 

At the PPA, it’s crazy how little we have seen of Jay and Tyson playing together. We know that’s because the PPA does a  good job of spreading out their PPA players amongst the draws, but with such a small draw this week we finally got a Jay/Tyson matchup. Devilliers comes out on top over Tyson, 11-7 and 11-9. We’ll likely have two pretty boring singles finals on Sunday at the PPA as Ben Johns also beat Alex Neumann by the exact same score. A little closer than you would expect for Ben Johns.

Lea Jansen gets the bronze at the PPA over Rosie Johanson so a small measure of revenge for Jansen, winning in two games 7 and 6. 

3:49 pm EST – Another real surprise win from Megan Fudge, who continues to be underrated in singles. She beats Parris Todd in 3 games, including 11-1 in the third. Early on it looked like Parris was going to roll but Megan Fudge kept making Todd work for every point. Todd was coming to net more in the first two games than we have seen her in the past it felt like, but she really prefers going cross court on her volleys at the net right now, which makes her predictable when she gets up there. Late in game 2, Megan Fudge got to one of those cross-court forehands and went cross-court on the baseline herself, which was the turning point for everything. It was also windy out there, which isn’t favorable to Parris with her penetrating ground strokes and looked to give her some trouble throughout the match. Parris Todd may be playing to keep pushing up those APP points but it will be a pain for her to have to grind through two matches, along with a double dip to get there. 

In other APP results, Lacy Schneemann has guaranteed herself a medal with an easy 2 game win over Jenna Hessert while Hunter Johnson squeezed one over his twin brother Yates, 12-10 in the third. There was an overrule by referee Ron Ponder at 9-10 in Hunter’s favor on a ball down the line. Awkward for the twins? 

Anna Leigh is through to Championship Sunday after grinding through 1 match 11-1, 11-3 over Irina Tereschenko. Hope she’s able to stay fresh for Sunday after such a long day. She’ll have another match against Catherine Parenteau, who was able to get past Rosie Johnason in two games. 

1:50 pm EST – Now we are getting somewhere with these results. Twins Hunter and Yates will face each other in the semi-finals in Houston after Yates Johnson beat Zane Navratil 4 and 5. You have to wonder where Zane is at mentally going into this tournament after his MLP win last weekend. The loss is not a giant upset but to go down that easily could be indicative of a mental letdown. Staksrud is going to play Tardio in the other semi-final as Tardio barely beat Cincola in 3 games. It’s a good run for Tardio today, who is kind of in that Rafa Hewett mold in singles where you never know when the big day is coming. The other big early APP result is Schneemann winning over Jorja Johnson in 3 close games. Schneemann’s stock is on the rise. 

At the PPA, we have a big women’s upset with Rosie Johanson winning in 3 over Lea Jansen. Who knows where Jansen’s health is at, but that’s a really good win for Johanson, who has proven to be a threat on the APP side of things. Some 3 game wins for Jay Devilliers but he finds his way through to the semi-finals

11:45 am EST – Early going in the singles draws this morning with nothing of note to report at this stage in the day. Tyson McGuffin lost a game to a complete unknown guy that isn’t even a familiar draw name to us in Jhonnatan Alvarez. Tyson came back to steamroll Alvarez in game 3, 11-1. It would be a pretty big surprise to see anything funky happen before a semi-finals today with the top 3 seeds – Ben, Tyson and Jay.

On the APP side, Ryler DeHeart gets a good win over Pablo Tellez, 13-11 in the third and continues to show he can get wins in pro. Hunter Johnson is set to play Jack Foster next on center court and we’ll have Yates Johnson later against Zane Navratil. Yates has not had the results of Hunter but he’s close to as dangerous.

2:08 am EST – A couple of notable absences from the APP Houston singles draw. Parris Todd is not one of them. Anna Bright and JW Johnson both are not included despite being on the player list today. JW needs to be smart about his body and long-term he should be making more decisions like this. With Anna, there’s been a lot of pickleball the last couple of weeks so it must be a body decision.

At the PPA, we have a nice draw for Anna Leigh Waters, who will have to play one match to get to Championship Sunday. Ben Johns has about the easiest draw we have seen in a long time while Tyson will likely get Jay in a semi-final matchup.

24 thoughts on “APP Tour Houston and PPA Tour DC – Live Random Thoughts

  • October 20, 2022 at 3:26 am
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    Welcome to the team Waggish! Thanks for being willing to help Slim and Gritty out! Glad the best media in pickleball is growing, however slightly it may be 🙂

    Reply
  • October 20, 2022 at 5:16 am
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    Congrats Waggish! A great add to the NML team.

    In other news, I’d like to point out that the 26th seed in the men’s singles DC PPA has the last name McNulty, and you cannot tell me otherwise that is not Jimmy McNulty of the Baltimore Police Department making his pro debut. How many beers deep will he be? Will Bunk be there to cheer him on? Will he and Lester expose corruption all the way up to the top of the PPA? Pardoe and Dundon should absolutely be worried.

    Reply
  • October 20, 2022 at 5:23 am
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    Thanks for the welcome guys.

    Another glaring omission in the MS list is Sherbear. Two Pro tournaments and his name isn’t in either one. Wish him well.

    Reply
  • October 20, 2022 at 3:07 pm
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    I think we hit a technical glitch so I’ll use the comment.
    Hunter vs Federico:
    Even Hunter seemed to believe he’d lost the game at 8-6. But the time-out at 9 seemed to have fired him up to go out with all guns blazing! What a difference in energy level. Won game 1 and was never any doubt in game 2 (11-3) who was in charge.
    A new sheriff in town. We’ll see if we get a match-off between these 2 in Gold.

    Reply
  • October 21, 2022 at 5:05 am
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    The notable forfeits at the APP we’re due to illness (Tardio) or injury (Whitehead).

    The wind was really swirling seemed to give advantage to one side of championship court.

    Reply
  • October 21, 2022 at 6:53 pm
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    I heard the announcers talk about “tomorrow” for the MXD gold match after Matt and Lucy’s win. But I thought that was just a mistake on their part. Curious how that’s going to work in the middle of all players playing their WD and MD games. And will they stick with 3/5 format though it shouldn’t be a problem given their opponents. I bet this one time PPA wished Riley had won – better TV.

    Reply
  • October 21, 2022 at 9:04 pm
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    Have the senior pros played in either of these events, Waggish? Gritty and Slim kind of swung you out there without a net, buy throw us geezers an occasional bone.

    P.S. Remember that some readers don’t open pbt.com.

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  • October 21, 2022 at 9:05 pm
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    Have the senior pros played in either of these events, Waggish? Gritty and Slim kind of swung you out there without a net, but throw us geezers an occasional bone.

    P.S. Remember that some readers don’t open pbt.com.

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    • October 22, 2022 at 4:55 am
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      Gritty and Slim have been fantastic! It was all on me that I didn’t report anything in the senior events.
      PPA just barely had a MD and no WD.

      APP: Gold: Rick Witsken/Dayne Gingrich beat Tao Thongvanh/Mircea Morariu in close games 14-12, 12-10.
      Nathalie Bagby/Beth Bellamy beat Cammy MaGregor/Jennifer Dawson 11-7, 11-9.
      23 MXD teams play today.

      PPA: Gold: Dave Weinbach/John Moorin beat Eric White/Scott Trevethan 11-1, 11-6 in a 6 team bracket.
      There was no Senior Women Doubles. There are 7 MXD teams that play today.

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      • October 22, 2022 at 5:05 am
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        Of note, In the PPA, Dave Weinbach will play in the regular MD today with Patrick Smith.

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        • October 22, 2022 at 7:42 am
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          Thank you. PPA senior draws continue to be an embarrassment. I guess one could argue that they have switched roles with the APP, becoming the developmental league for senior pros. That is, if anyone entered. Do you know what the payouts are for Rick Witsken/Dayne Gingrich and Tao Thongvanh/Mircea Morariu, compared to Dave Weinbach/John Moorin and Eric White/Scott Trevethan? I understand the APP’s pay is better, but would like to know how much better.

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  • October 22, 2022 at 10:19 am
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    Well this is interesting. I was happily watching McGuffin/Devilliers vs Taylor/Koller and ready for game 3. But instead we get nothing as they end the stream to prepare for CBS MXD Gold match.
    McGuffin/Devilliers win 11-9, then opposite game 2 in 9-11.

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  • October 22, 2022 at 1:19 pm
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    “Quite a weekend for Rafa and then for Yates today after being disqualified yesterday in mixed against Rafa for a meltdown including some profanities at the ref and a paddle throw.”

    Can you give us more information about this?

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    • October 22, 2022 at 3:45 pm
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      Yes, please! The video is not available. It’d be interesting to learn more, particularly in light of all the pearl clutching around Leigh Waters yelling that she doesn’t like lobs..

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    • October 22, 2022 at 3:50 pm
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      Second that. Sounds more explosive than Leigh Waters melt down.

      “Cannot expect those two to continue together into next year with this difficult 2nd half of 2022.” Guess you mean Catherine and Lea, but there has been speculation about the Waters’ continued partnership.

      “Still might need to ask Hannah and Ben how difficult pickleball is to master though.” What do you mean? Response to something said on the broadcast?

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    • October 22, 2022 at 8:05 pm
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      This is not something new for Yates. He likes to tilt at windmills. His passion sometimes leads him to some heated language and I guess in this case he acted out his passion on his paddle. Officials don’t really like it when you argue with them. So they took advantage of the rule book:

      3.A.13.  Forfeit An egregious behavior violation or a combination of technical warnings and/or technical fouls that result in either a game or match being awarded to the opponent. 

      12.F.6.a Game scores after a rule-based forfeit shall be reported as: 11-0, 11-0
      12.F.6.b May continue to compete in upcoming matches.

      So if you look at the MXD bracket you can see that is what happened as a result of Yates getting over-heated. I’ve seen him right on some of these occasions but that doesn’t mean he can get away with over-reacting when he can’t get the official to see things his way. Without video or first party input, can’t judge the “rightness” of his view. In the past, it’s usually been a built up of “wrongs” that finally makes him blow a gasket. I could speculate on what I think happened here but it wouldn’t be fair to the opponent. It’s not the same as Lobgate where you had video.

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  • October 22, 2022 at 3:42 pm
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    I lost interest in the PPA MXD as soon as I saw the format 2/3 with game 3 only to 7 points using rally scoring. I understand the goal was not to entertain the fans but grab eyes in the 1 hour allotted to them. Overall, I found the APP MD more interesting than the PPA MD. When Johnson/Navratil lost, I was very glad they had a 2nd chance in loser’s bracket bronze.

    Looking at the PPA MD back-draw, I see Dawson/Loong take McGuffin/Devilliers 16-14. So they’ll play Koller/Taylor for Bronze which of course is not broadcast. Smith/Weinbach had more staying power than you would expect for a senior partner until losing to Koller/Taylor 15-7.

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  • October 22, 2022 at 3:49 pm
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    PPA WD back-draw: Parenteau/Jansen got pushed to a 19-17 game by Sheehan-Dizon/Jones. They face Irvine/Tereschenko in bronze.

    APP WD bronze: We’ll see who gets the re-match against Johnson/David on Sunday: Bright/Todd or Jardim/Koop.

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  • October 22, 2022 at 4:13 pm
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    So why doesn’t PPA broadcast the bronze medal matches anymore?

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  • October 22, 2022 at 5:23 pm
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    The PPA is lucky that Wright/Newman vs Johns/Johns has been great and somewhat masking what a sleepy boring season they had. Outside of that rivalry I can count on one hand how many matches were truly compelling and I don’t need to use every finger.

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    • October 22, 2022 at 7:41 pm
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      Today was the most boring PPA I’ve watched I think.

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  • October 22, 2022 at 7:46 pm
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    I got interrupted watching game 2 of the APP WD bronze. Just now watched its completion. It’s going to take me a long time to get tired of watching Anna and Parris together. Both teams started doing speed-ups and fire fights. I think Koop did more resets than Jardim which was surprising. The rematch in the Gold matches tomorrow for APP WD and MD will be fun.

    And we can’t predict anymore who will come out in Johns vs Newman/Wright PPA Gold battles. So that doesn’t get stale.

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    • October 23, 2022 at 6:39 am
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      The colder, dry weather might favor Wright/Newman in the speed-up battle today.

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