APP Tour Pacific Northwest Classic – Live Blog
Sunday, August 1 – Singles
7:30 pm EST (Gritty) – It is a gold for Stratman and she completes the triple crown. I’d have to look back at the tourneys from 2021 but this may very well have been the weakest ladies singles field in an APP tournament. The men’s field was not deep at all either and you can only play the people in your field, but it is a shame some of these ladies fields aren’t bigger. Hopefully in time.
4:37 pm EST (Gritty) – It’s not surprising that Jay gets the win but he has to do it in 3. Triple crown for Jay. I don’t know how broken record it sounds of us to continue praising Frazier like this but he can start shaking up some singles brackets. It’s a wonder why he didn’t start playing singles earlier but at his age he has lots of time to figure it out, including developing a backhand pass. Interesting day of singles.
The women are about to get started but in a tiny 4 player round robin bracket I’d be shocked if it was anything other than a Lauren Stratman gold for a less impressive but still triple crown on the women’s side. Free money!
3:50 pm EST (Gritty) – Huge win for Dylan Frazier who continues to show he is a machine. This kid is something else and Matt Mayfield continues to be prophetic.
1:58 pm EST (Gritty) – It’s not too complicated on the men’s side. Jay and JW are going through. It’ll almost certainly be this in the gold with Frazier the only one who seems to be a threat. It was 14-12 in the second and Frazier has only played two tourneys in singles.
Saturday, July 31 – Mixed Doubles
6:37 pm EST (Gritty) – The gold ends up being a similar story as the winners bracket final as Jay and Lauren take it in 3. Devilliers continues his APP dominance with 2 more gold medals this weekend and he’ll look to take a triple crown tomorrow with seemingly only JW standing his wat for a singles gold.
5:00 pm EST (Gritty) – It is Jay and Lauren pulling through, but it was a super tight match. Stratman’s resets were probably the difference in game 3 as she got out of trouble on a bunch of different occasions. JW and Lea will take on Barr and Cassidy in the bronze after another close game to 15 win for them, 15-13, over Whitwell and Frazier. Don’t be shocked at Barr/Cassidy win but I’m still expecting this to go chalk
4:18 pm EST (Gritty) – we are back indoors today at the Pickleball Zone in Bend. Two close back draw matches that end up going the expected way. Whitwell and Frazier took down Devilliers and Lange 15-13 and then Barr/Cassidy beat Esquivel/Gabrielsen 17-15. You could see that Barr/Cassidy match somewhat in the background of the winners bracket final but I am still very curious to see where Jay’s wife is at with her play.
2:18 pm EST (Gritty) – It’s very as expected in the mixed draw. The two clear cut teams are in the winner’s bracket final. The only almost hiccup was a tight game 1 for Jansen/Johnson but they cruised in game 2. I will say that Whitwell/Frazier taking down Barr/Cassidy earlier was a good win for them and I fully expect that to be the fight to get to bronze.
Also looks like we might see a rain delay here. Stay tuned!
12:35 pm EST (Gritty) – It’s early in the day but Lange/Devilliers taking a game off of the 2 seed Jansen/Johnson is noteworthy. I also don’t quite understand why Deakin is playing with Christine Barksdale as a late entry despite recently coming off a wrist injury. They lose their first round marchup. Maybe it’s a Team Head thing? Odd, if you ask me.
11:04 am EST (Gritty) – Very interesting to note that a late entry to the draw is wife of Jay Devilliers, Aleksandra Devilliers, and Erik Lange. There has been some social media indicating she has been playing a bit more this year. Her very limited results over the years have not been good, especially with her very strong tennis background. I’ll be curious to monitor how they do today. Lange has much better men’s than mixed results but he’s still a high end partner in this type of field
Thursday, July 29 – Men’s Doubles
11:00 pm EST (Slim) – JW and Jay pull off the double dip to take gold, 12-10,11-4, 15-5. Devilliers retains his title as the double dip king, and it is another gold medal for the ever blossoming JW Johnson. While the gold medal match has to be a disappointment for Lange and Gabrielsen, especially blowing that 10-1 lead in game 1, overall I have to think they are happy with the day, as both players have been having some disappointing results recently.
10:15 pm EST (Gritty) – We were wrong about Deakin/Smith who don’t even get to bronze after losing to Frazier/Chou 15-9. Not surprisingly JW and Jay beat them in the bronze and classic double dip Devilliers just came down from 10-1 in game 1 of the gold to take it 12-10. We’ll see what type of momentum that carries through the rest of the gold.
6:41 pm EST (Gritty) – Lange and Gabrielsen prove me wrong with a trip to the gold medal match after taking down Devilliers/Johnson in 3 games. I did not expect this after 3 pretty sub par tourneys from Gabrielsen so this is a big result for one of the legacy players in pickleball.
On the senior men’s side, not surprisngly it appears Gingrich and Sperling are going to walk through this bracket. That’s a quality partnership there and this is their first run together. The Booth/Ruiz and Crandall/Morariu match is a little new vs old school and that’s going into game 3 to see who gets a shot at gold.
4:15 pm EST (Slim) – the men’s semi-finals are in the books, with JW and Jay defeating Austin and Shellton in two games and Erik and Wes defeating Steve and Spencer in two games. Spencer and Steve still appear to be figuring out their partnership it appears to me. I think they’ve looked stronger with Steve on the right side but keep starting matches with Spencer stacked on the left and then seem to shift Steve to the left side when they are down.
2:30 pm EST (Slim) – the men’s semi-finals are set with Devilliers/Johnson set to play Austin Gridley and the Unicorn and then Erik Lange and Wes Gabrielsen set to play Steve Deakin and Spencer Smith in the other. Deakin/Smith played a highly entertaining quarter-final match against Matt Chou and Dylan Frazier, winning 13-11 in game three to advance after falling down 10-4 in the third game.
One early round result that did catch my attention was Bryce Ogren and Michael Enright defeating Nick Williams and Rob Davidson 9-11, 11-7, 13-11. Nick Williams played his first tournament since covid last weekend in Seattle, and one has to wonder if he is still finding his tournament stride as that is certainly a surprising result.
