PPA Tour Austin Showdown – Live Random Thoughts

The PPA is going Daytona to Austin and then it will be back to Daytona for MLP next weekend. That’s a lot of Daytona for a couple of months considering the APP was there not too long ago. The temperature and weather will be something to monitor in Austin as we could be seeing cold and windy weather, which will be quite the opposite of Daytona.

Sunday, March 19th – Championship Sunday

5:50 pm – We get an all chalk Championship Sunday, but it included some pretty solid matches. Bright/Ignatowich put up a real good fight against Johns/AL as the mixed field continues to mix and match when it comes to Sunday appearances. They have to be very happy about their performance this weekend. Riley/Matt gave us a good game one against the Johns brothers, opting to switch sides and have Riley on the right. They had game points in game 1 that they could not close out and it was curtains from there. Anna Leigh Waters gets her singles title back after another hard fought match with Catherine Parenteau. There’s no question that Parenteau is getting to a ton more balls and making Waters’ life very difficult. The first two games were really tight before a steam rolling of a 3rd game from Anna Leigh, which has to be extra impressive given she had already played two finals on the day.

Takeaways tomorrow!

5:00 pm EST (Waggish) – Parenteau vs Waters: Parenteau won last week when these players faced each other – in the SF match (7,9). Waters bench has not 1, not 2, but 3 coaches on it. CP’s coach on her bench is her phone. AL pulls from behind to win a very tight game 1. As we are used to seeing, amazing athleticism. Game 2 at 3-3 point: how is that even humanly possible. Game 2 slowly starts slipping away from CP with the smart placements from AL. But she makes the comeback after a time-out. Game 3: Ladies are falling all over the court. First AL then CP. See incredible play at 1-1. AL gets really fired up and makes quick work to finish game 3. Incredible performance by both ladies but especially AL after having played 2 matches. Triple for AL (10-,9,1). She credited all her coaches: Christian Alshon, Mom, and Ben for keeping her head in the right place – her “confidence squad”. She will be taking April off as her mom has surgery and AL gets her wisdom teeth out.

This tournament had the least amount of controversy during play and it showed in the lack of comments. MLP will be next week-end for a different look at the pros.

3:55 pm EST (Waggish) – Newman/Wright vs Johns: Game 1: Newman/Wright had 3 chances at game point and couldn’t close. The Johns brothers didn’t fool around when they got there. Johns dominated in game 2. Game 3 gives another triple to Ben. Riley’s speed-ups not working well enough with balls into the net. (10, 3, 6)

2:50 pm EST (Waggish) – Waters/Johns vs Bright/Ignatowich. Ignatowich figured out how to reach that passing shot and caught them up from 4-10 to 8-10. Despite the low score for most of game 2, you felt like Ignatowich was posing a real threat to Johns. Again when the Johns side reach 10, Bright/Ignatowich get a run. They get it from 5 to 10 forcing a 2nd timeout from AL/Ben. Incredibly, they win! There’s no question that Bright is hitting more balls than she would have with Newman. It is keeping her in the rhythm of the game and she’s better able to prepare for the firefights with either AL or Ben. But it’s James deadly attacks that kept them as viable to win it. Throughout the match, both sides had their fair share of mishits from confusion in the middle. Game 3 starts with plenty of aggression. BTW, James is now playing with the 002 instead of the 002A for that extra power. It’s paying off in spades against Ben whenever James gets an overhead that he can pound into the ground. This time AB/James didn’t wait for Waters/Johns to get to 10 but started at 2-7. Ben and AL quickly call the time-out to regroup. And it worked as they get the serve back. James had 2 opportunities for a speed-up off the bounce but chose to dink. This time when Ben and AL get to 10-4, it’s Bright/Ignatowich that call the time-out. You see them talking vigorously at the timeout. But it doesn’t help as Al and Ben get the game point at time-in. I’m loving all the angle shots in the match. No hitting directly to anyone’s forehand in this match. James may be playing a little tight in the crucial game 4 to force the game 5. He makes some unforced errors on easy shots. The speed-ups and precision from Ben and AL were too much and James and AB never had much of a chance in game 4. Much better match than I expected. (8,11-,4,5)

12:45 pm EST (Waggish) – Waters/Bright vs Dizon/David: Dizon/David have nothing to lose as the underdogs so they will leave it all on the court. As you’d expect, we get aggression early from both teams. But no one does aggression better than AL and they take the commanding lead. Dizon aimlessly hitting directly to them when off the line. Game 2 gave us dink rallies sprinkled amongst the firefights which seemed to benefit Dizon/David’s game. Game 3, Dizon/David got a short-lived small lead then AL/AB brought the relentless aggression. AL/AB in 3. (2,7,6)

11:44 am EST (Waggish) – Johns vs Staksrud: After Ben got to 10 in game 1, the run made by Staksrud from 4-10 was electrifying. You didn’t dare take your eyes off the screen in case you missed something. Unfortunately, game 2 wasn’t the same and Ben commanded the lead all the way to 11. (8,2) Salome was in the chat and talked about what paddles she’s been using. And how delamination is not any kind of advantage to the players. She has wicked satire which also shows in her posts in some of the online forums. Zane also in the chat and we know his humor with a twist! Who else will be joining?

Saturday, March 18th – Doubles

12:18 pm EST – The women’s field is getting more compressed in terms of what the difference is at the top. Last year we had a bunch of the same stuff happening with less depth on the PPA tour and this year with the increased depth we are getting more wins from different teams. However, the only real additions to a regular PPA roster are Jorja Johnson and Vivienne David, and David has definitely shown once again with a different partner she is an elite right sider in the women’s game. The depth has increased with the players getting better. It will likely be a silver for David/Dizon, but that’s far more than we could have expected going into the weekend. Catherine and Jorja finally had a decent result

With the men, it’s a same old, same old at the top 1-2-3. Long/Cincola made it to the semi-finals very unexpectedly but the consistency of the top 3 is unmatched right now in the first 3 months. The wind was a big story of today, but it’s still the same top 3 teams winning at the end of the day. Can Riley/Matt make some noise after a really tight 11-9 win in the third against JW and Dylan? Riley was sure fired up for that win.

10:05 pm EST (Waggish) – Frazier/Johnson get their 4th MD bronze over Long/Cincola (4,9-,4). Jorja and Catherine get their 1st WD bronze vs Tereschenko/Wright (8,6). Catherine has 2 WD gold. (2023)

9:01 pm EST (Waggish) – AL/AB over Jorja and CP (3,6). Aggressive play but AL does aggression better than all of them. Backdraw: 5th place has gone to Padegitmaite/Grechkina over Franco/Schneemann (3). Newman/Irvine pushed Franco/Schneemann (18-16). MD backdraw: Staksrud/Tellez beat the Johnson brothers (8) then McGuffin/Ignatowich (5) to win 5th place.

8:20 pm EST (Waggish) – SF: Frazier/Johnson got here by beating Yates and Hunter Johnson in 3 then beating Arnold and Wilson in 3. Wright/Newman got here by beating Ben Newell and Daniel De La Rosa in 2 tight games then McGuffin/Ignatowich in 3. Frazier/Johnson beat Wright/Newman in 2 at the indoor tournament (and got gold). What do they have for us today?
Newman immediately goes after Dylan with a speed-up. Sets the tone with speed-ups by all players. Dylan and JW also doing the speed-ups off the bounce. JW won a lot of those hand battles with Riley. Game 2: Riley and Matt dinked to the middle a lot and that got them a tight game at the start. Dylan and Frazier get to 9 and it was their game to win. But you know Riley will not give up being aggressive and he got his side to game point! Everything worked in their strategy: dink to middle, be aggressive, attack Dylan’s hip. The announcer still talked about wind and side but doubtful it as a factor. Game 3 is the mental game. Talk about weaknesses, finger wags, stares, and loud yells. It was working for them and they’ll get another Championship Sunday. We didn’t see the same level of aggression from Dylan and JW in game 3 as we saw in game 1 or 2. Great match. (4-,9,9)

7:05 pm EST (Waggish) – Sheehan-Dizon/David vs Etta Wright/Tereschenko SF: Stream cut out so missed a big portion of game 1. Wright/Tereschenko blew out game 2. Dizon/David was tight until end change then Dizon/David pulls ahead. (8,4-,5) What a result for this first time partnership. Some wins/losses of notable teams: Black/Devidze 2-2, Smith/Kovalova 1-2, Jansen/Jones 2-2, Brascia/Stratman 1-2.

5:50 pm EST (Waggish) – SF #1: Brendon Long/John Cincola got here by beating Loong/Dawson then Koller/Bar. The Johns got here by beating Alshon/Hewett then Staksrud/Tellez. Johns first game against Tamaki/Martinez Vich was the closest but then they were cold so not unusual. Long/Cincola will get the opportunity to take home bronze. (3,6)

In WD, we get Parenteau/Jorja Johnson vs AL/AB. But first we have Sheehan-Dizon/David vs Etta Wright/Tereschenko.

4:48 pm EST (Waggish) – Frazier/Johnson vs Arnold/Wilson. In the first game, you are thinking Arnold and Wilson have figured out how to beat Frazier and Johnson with their attacks and speed-ups. Then Frazier/Johnson get the “good” side. And it’s a runaway game for them for a big lead. Game 3, back on the bad side but by then Frazier/Johnson are hot and it doesn’t matter. JW’s hands are handling anything thrown at them. There’s been mention of the “adaptability” skill which is shown in Ben Johns and also Matt Wright. But JW might be catching up. Frazier/Johnson will play Wright/Newman in the SF.

3:55 pm EST – Cinocla/Long having a day. They beat Koller/Bar and that’s an enormous day from them already. Their reward is the Johns brothers in the semi-finals, but this is already a great day. It is all gravy from here. What is going on with AJ Koller? They had him on the left a lot of the day with Dekel Bar and his game has just not been there in 2023 at all. He always looks kind of zoned out, but are we just reading in that he looks more zoned out than ever when he plays these days. His unique style has become borderline maniacal at times with all the weird stuff he does. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares with Newman at MLP next weekend with the full squad back.

More weirdness on the women’s side for another weekend. Callie/Lucy are out early after their last tournament in Minnesota winning gold. They lose to Dizon/David, 11-8 in the third, which is a huge win for Dizon. That is probably her best win to date in what is her best partnership to date. They will face another minor upset in Irina/Etta Wright getting it done 11-8 in the third over Jansen/Jones. Etta Wright is a star on the rise and Tereschenko’s steadiness suits what she needs quite well at this time.

2:15 pm EST – Some fun matches in the early going. McGuffin/Ignatowich are showing they can be right in the mix of the top teams. It is windy out there today, not like yesterday, but it seems like it is making a difference. Wright/Newman we’re very close on the end switch but they pulled away to get the 3 game win.

What about Cincola and Brendon Long? They beat Tyler Loong/Callan Dawson in a barn burner of a match on Grandstand court, winning 13-11 in the third. Brendon Long is getting his due and good win for Cincola. Cincola/Long have taken a game off Dekel/AJ too but that game is still going split at one game a piece.

Some other notable results are the Johnson brothers taking JW/Dylan to 3 games and Staksrud/Tellez beating team no counter, Jay and DJ in 3 games. The women have started but all chalk so far.

8:30 am EST (Waggish) – New pairings: Salome is playing with Hurricane Tyra Black. Their first match is against AL/AB! Tough break for them. Meghan Sheehan-Dizon is playing with Vivienne David. Braverman is with Buckner. Women’s start at noon tournament time (1:00 EST).

On the men’s side, poor Jaume Martinez Vich with partner Kento Tamaki has to face the Johns in their first match. Ben doesn’t appear to like that paddle Vich is using. Collin Shick partner is Alex Neumann with first round against Alshon/Hewett. Could get a rematch with DJ/Jay against Federico/Pablo but early rounds so probably won’t be as much pressure that needs releasing via paddle or otherwise. We might also see a rematch QF between Loong/Dawson and Koller/Bar that was super tight last time. But it’s the bottom half that looks like it could have the more interesting QF and SF. Possibly Frazier/Johnson vs Arnold/Wilson and Wright/Newman vs McGuffin/Ignatowich. Men’s scheduled start is 10:00 (11 EST).

2:20 am EST – Let’s give one thing to watch in each of the gender brackets. What we want to monitor is how Jorja Johnson and Catherine Parenteau fare together. It was a tougher mixed day for Parenteau on Friday, but overall she has been on a heater. She hasn’t been able to make her non-AL women’s partnerships work for 2023 and Jorja has just struggled overall in 2023 to get good results at the PPA in women’s despite having ideal partnerships on paper with Jessie Irvine and Catherine Parenteau. Will this weekend be a breakout for them as a pair?

On the men’s side, the question as it pretty much is every week is whether the Johns brothers can be taken down. After one close match against Koller/Bar to start the year, Koller/Bar were stomped by the Johns brothers the second time around in Daytona. You give the Johns brothers time to figure things out and they generally seem to find ways to exploit the weakness of teams. We saw the Johnson/Frazier team play them super tight at the Masters and since then they have not come close. With a Newman/Wright vs. Johnson/Frazier match looming on the non-Johns half of the draw, we’ll have to see if this is the week where any trouble can be given to the #1 team out there.

Friday, March 17th – Mixed

2:13 am EST – Bright and Ignatowich already off to their first Sunday in a weird, windy day with the side making such a difference all day, except for their semi-final apparently. We were both skeptical of them as a pair and their choice to pair together long term. The ‘I Told You So’s’ can come out now but the skepticism for us was not really for the short-term decision. It’s for the long-term decision and the grind of how difficult it is to play together as a couple. The one thing that combats the grind is winning as that will usually cure all. Stratman/Arnold grinded out a backdraw together to find 5th place and they seem to be making it work as well. The exuberance on the faces of Bright/Ignatowich was heartwarming after they won their semi and it’s clear this has been a very personal decision for both of them. It had to feel like a major relief to get the first Sunday out of the way so early. We’ll see if they can give the #1 mixed team any trouble come Sunday.

10:28 pm EST (Waggish) – Stratman/Arnold for 5th place after their win over Smith/Devilliers (11). Good day for both of these teams. Johnsons over Jansen/Frazier for 3rd place Bronze (5,9).

8:44 pm EST (Waggish) – Bright/Ignatowich vs Johnsons SF was disappointing. Lot of pressure by Bright/Ignatowich caught Johnsons in bad position often and they made lots of errors. Bright/Ignatowich (6,4).

8:05 pm EST (Waggish) – Waters/Johns vs Jansen/Frazier. For some reason Dylan and Lea seemed to want to get into speed-ups and hands battles with Ben straddling that center line. That didn’t turn out well for them. (3,3)

A surprise result in the back-draw. Only 2 withdrawals! Wright/Bar and Newmans. Stratman/Arnold has made a deep run beating Parenteau/McGuffin then David/Wilson to make it to 5th place match. They’ll play either Kovalova/Wright or C.Smith/Devilliers.

7:37 pm EST – The wind side situation has been wreaking havoc all day. It is clear that the near side of the court where players are hitting into the wind is the advantageous side, as is often the case. Teams that are ending on that side have a huge advantage as a lot of matches are going to 3 games as a result. Matt/Lucy ended on the good side but could not make up an 8-2 deficit. Jansen/Frazier got the upset win over Parenteau/McGuffin as they finished on the good side and rattled off a bunch of points when they were down big at the side switch. The Newman’s almost overcame the bad side and had a match point against the Johnson siblings at 10-9, but they couldn’t seal the deal. The Johnson’s came out on top on the good side, 12-10 in the third.

The side stuff is part of the game but it is interesting to think about a more equitable solution as Zane Navratil has discussed on his podcast recently. When wind is in play, the side switch at 6 creates such an advantage for the team finishing on the advantageous side. It’s not like in tennis where you are switching sides every 2 games.

7:30 pm EST (Waggish) – Johnsons vs Newmans. Riley finally got a carbon paddle – called Obsidian. Same brand – Gamma, approved in February. Just like last QF, side still matters. Whoever is on the “good” side wins the game. So we get a game 3! I’m really surprised that wind side matters so much with pros. Newmans 1 point lead at side switch to “bad” side. At 10-10, Riley makes a video challenge. Ball was in! Server 2 (Jorja) gets the Johnsons to match win! Well-played by these teams full of partner synergy. It felt more like a SF than a QF. Johnsons to face Bright/Ignatowich in SF. (4-,4,10)

6:35 pm EST (Waggish) – Parenteau/McGuffin vs Jansen/Frazier: Game 1, CP and Tyson were too much for Lea and Dylan. They seemed in defense mode almost all of game 1. Under this much pressure, you saw the problem with a first time partnership with both Lea and Dylan going for the ball. Lea complained to Don Stanley about Tyson’s serve several times in the match. Game 2 was a different performance. Dylan was getting everything and misdirecting some good shots. Parenteau’s hands almost caught them up. Lea’s complaints had some effect as Tyson’s serve looked better in game 3. Tyson on fire first half of game 3 until side switch at 6-0. But the side switch helped Dylan/Lea get 6 straight points! And after a side-out they get the other 5 points. Just Wow!. (4-,7, 6). They’ll play Waters/Johns in the SF.

5:35 pm EST (Waggish) – David/Wilson vs Waters/Johns QF: I couldn’t tell what CRBN model David/Wilson were using. I didn’t notice anything different in their play. They pulled ahead in game 2 8-6 and eventually win with very aggressive play coming off whatever model of the CRBN that Thomas is using. Very well done by him! At one point in game 3, AL just slides right off the court while Ben takes over the middle. David/Wilson got an early lead then the game gets tight at 4-5. It was looking hopeful that we’d get a different result this time between these teams. AL was letting out what looked like pretty long yells. I would have liked to see Vivienne retaliate just for the fun of it. She did a fist pump but it was towards Thomas not her opponents. It was an exciting match and well done by Vivienne and especially Thomas to push Ben and AL hard. (5,8-,8).

4:30 pm EST (Waggish) – QF #1: Kovalova/Wright vs Bright/Ignatowich. Ignatowich controlled game 1 with fast paced drives and speed-ups. Bright wasn’t interested in any cross-court dinks with Lucy. Kovalova/Wright were able to slow the game down and win game 2. They forced some cross-court dink battles. Game 3 went about the way of game 1. (5,6-,5) for AB and James

Upcoming QF: Waters/Johns vs David/Wilson. We’ve seen this one many times and can predict the result. Parenteau/McGuffin vs Frazier/Jansen. This one could be fun. I liked how Lea and Dylan were playing earlier. Newmans vs Johnsons. Can Jorja handle Riley today like she’s been able to in the past?

2:00 pm EST – We are starting to get through some of the matches on mixed day and some interesting early results. Hurricane Tyra Black and Pablo Tellez played a very tight 3 game match against Parenteau/McGuffin, losing 11-6 in the third. Considering the McGuffin/Parenteau duo cruised to Sunday last weekend, being able to play 3 tight games for the newcomer Black is strong and it speaks to Tellez’s high ceiling in mixed. Notable that Braverman/Loong beat Padegimaite/Collin Johns. That’s not an upset, but it is a result that demonstrates we may be correct with where the Braverman assessment is at. Irina Tereschenko/Pat Smith beating Schneemann/Hewett in 3, 11-3 in the third, has to feel good for Pat Smith, who does not get many wins these days in mixed or men’s. 

Federico Staksrud has to be underrated as a mixed player. He and Brooke Buckner were right there to take down Dekel Bar/Etta Wright, but lost 12-10 in the second after winning game 1. They lose out at the end of the day, 11-6 in the third, but Federico is always competitive with less than the best as his mixed partners. Notable that AJ/Jessie had to go 3 games against Bates/Navratil. The Koller stock is not as high these days and it will be interesting to see what type of body language we get from the Koller/Irvine pairing if we see them on a streamed court.

10:09 am EST (Waggish) – We’ll see a few different MXD combos today. Alshon is with Sheehan-Dizon. Dylan is with Lea Jansen. Brooke Buckner is playing with Federico as his usual partner Mary Brascia switches over to play with DJ.

Thursday, March 16th – Singles

11:24 pm EST – After a couple of weekends of madness, the pickleball world decided to leave the madness the way of the NCAA. Ben Johns will play Federico Staksrud and Anna Leigh Waters will play Catherine Parenteau. All chalk. Ben did Ben things and figured some stuff out against some playeres he doesn’t know as well. Neither Anna Leigh nor Catherine faced much trouble either. The notable results came earlier in the day. Not a great sign for Tyson McGuffin to be losing to another legacy guy in Gabe Joseph. Crazy we are calling Gabe a legacy guy at this point but that’s what he is. Garnett took down Joseph and these draws are just a lot tougher for guys like Tyson. How much longer does he have in singles? We have been saying that for a while so this could be just his first event back. The interesting thing for the women will be the Waters vs. Parenteau rematch, and whether this can amount to anything.

If you want to see a bunch of stuff about paddle controversies, Ben Johns was out on his Twitter today and going off on these companies. It’s very random for Ben to start being vocal on social media about topics like this, but he is clearly trying to get out in front of this. Head to our Twitter and go through pickleball Twitter to see what all the chatter is about. It’s fascinating how high and mighty all these people are, and it is hard to know what to believe from anyone. Also, you can check out our post with thoughts on the CRBN paddle situation and the PPA if you haven’t seen it yet.

9:40 pm EST (Waggish) – Bronze: Unexpected results: Allyce won the bronze over Salome. (9,2) Alshon easily wins over Garnett (2,3)

8:42 pm EST (Waggish) – Final SF results: Connor Garnett gave Staksrud a fight but he wins in 2 (7,7). Match point was an ATP. No backdraw play but looks like bronze is being played. No streaming of course. 1 and 2 seed on Sunday for both genders. Tyson #3 seed was defeated by Gabriel Joseph in the second round.

8:20 pm EST (Waggish) – Ben on to Sunday after defeating Alshon in 2. (9,4)
Catherine vs Allyce. It looked like Catherine’s strategy was to run Allyce to exhaustion. Catherine did a great job of setting up her shots to catch Allyce off-balance. CP to meet AL on Sunday. (2,1)

7:20 pm EST (Waggish) – WS SF: Salome lost but in her book it might have felt like a win. No drama over refusal to warm-up, no contentious line calls, just a straight 2 game match. Salome was up in game 2 8-4 but then AL got the serve to run it to 7. (6,9). In MS, Connor Garnett won over Gabriel Joseph (7,5-,3) to play Federico in his SF.

6:23 pm EST (Waggish) – Johns vs Martinez Vich. Game 1 went neck to neck until 8-8 when Ben made a “run” to 10. Johns had an easy path to 11 in game 2. (9,3) Vich had a pretty good match against JW at the Masters in January taking JW to 3 games. And at last month’s Grand Slam, he got 6th place against Christian Alshon. Alshon defeated Jay (7,10) so he plays Ben in SF. In WS, Allyce beat Irina (9,9) so she plays in SF against CP.

5:40 pm EST (Waggish) – WS QF: AL wins over Callie (1,2). Brooke Buckner pushed Parenteau to 3 games but CP wins. 11-3, 9-11, 11-4. Salome wins over Padegimaite. (10,7) She plays AL in SF. QF: Allyce vs Irina with winner to play CP.

MS QF: Ben vs Jaume Martinez Vich after Vich wins over Yates Johnson (10,3). Alshon beats Hunter (9,6) to play Jay in QF. Federico defeats Wyatt Stone in QF 0,2. Interestingly, Wyatt beat Rafa 9,6. Still unknown who Federico plays in his SF.

4:23 pm EST (Waggish) – We are getting close to seeing who will be in QF. Dylan lost in 3 to Brandon Lane: 11-6, 5-11, 11-6. In that third match Dylan was low energy. I don’t know how much of the backdraw they will play. But Dylan looked like he needed to withdraw to be strong for the rest of the week-end. I’ll post MS QF when ready. Nothing newsworthy to report on the Women’s side.

2:10 pm – They are getting some matches under the few covered courts at Dreamland so it will be slow going through the brackets. The PPA seems to be figuring out that it may be a better idea to put some of the intriguing first round matches on their stream as opposed to Ben Johns beating on a qualifier. Prior to the rain, they had advertised Shick vs. Alshon and Hewett vs. Navratil. Awfully convenient those matchups found their way to be in round 1 but, hey, at least this is good TV. Alshon beat Shick 11-9 in the third and it’s pretty clear Shick is right there in terms of being able to compete with the best. They both cover a ton of court and their combined shot making is high level for a first round match. We also saw a another chippy Hewett vs. Navratil match. Some questionable early calls from Hewett and he got through Zane in straights. What a difference a week makes and a paddle change back to the JOOLA. Poor Adidas. They never stood a chance.

11:21 am EST (Waggish) – Rain delay. Streaming expected to start at 11:00 at indoor courts at Dreamland. May have some other interruptions if they have to move from Dreamland back to original venue.

10:43 am EST – Lea Jansen is taking the weekend off for singles, which makes for what appears to be a 3 horse race in the women’s field. The question will be whether Parenteau can replicate her success from Daytona. She has played near flawless singles pickleball since losing game 1 to Lea Jansen in the final at Minnesota.

It’s spring break time at North Carolina State so it’s Shick time! Back in the draw for singles and also in it for Doubles with Alex Neumann. We also get a Johnson twins sighting at a PPA and a looming match for Hunter with Ben Johns. A look ahead week for Ben after a triple crown could mean we get a less focused Ben.