PPA Tour Cincinnati Open and APP Tour New Jersey Open – Live Random Thoughts

PPA says Cincinnati will be “back to normal”. Hayden and Zane are missing from the draw, but it looks like the other signed PPA players are there, regardless of their MLP affiliation. YouTube will host the streaming.

Fun Fact: This was the first time in 2022 that Wilson made podium in mixed. He won a bronze with Yana. He then went on to win MXD Gold at 2 APP’s after Cincinatti with David. There were several upsets at last year’s Cincinnati Open (Ben, Waters) so what will this year bring? Will everyone’s head be in the game?

We will sprinkle in some APP stuff as they announced their 2024 schedule on Thursday morning.

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Championship Sunday, September 10th

9:40 am EST (Waggish) – It looks like the order will be WD, MD, MXD, WS, MS. Waters and Johns will once again be going for triple crowns. Parenteau will be hoping for a double crown. Not sure if there will be any break to get the timing right for Tennis Channel (2:00 pm EST). If we get long 5 game matches, the US Open could take eyeballs away (4:00 pm EST) including mine.

11:20 am EST (Waggish) – WD Parenteau/Waters vs Kawamotos. Team Waters was ready for all that the Kawamotos threw at them. It didn’t help that Jade threw them high balls instead of steady blocks/resets. Finally, the Kawamotos find their touch in game 2 with a tie at 7. The Jade and Jackie we saw yesterday in the SF against Bright/Dizon showed up early in game 3. An extended rally at 5-3-2. The Kawamotos able to dictate the pace of the game before team Waters get back to their aggressive ways. Once they go back to reacting to the aggression from AL/CP, they also to back to their UE. After a time-out at 10-6, they figured some things out and set up some plays to get to 9, forcing a time-out from AL/CP. Lacy S. is at the Kawamotos bench supporting/coaching. We got close to a game 4 with a laser-focused finish from all ladies that went into overtime. (4,7,11)

1:15 pm EST (Waggish) – MD Johns vs Frazier/Johnson. Game 1: Dylan’s hands don’t seem to be warmed up in game 1. Several speed-ups from Ben have caught him off-guard. Usually, he is faster with his reaction. JW is known to take a wait and see approach so he could get fired up eventually despite the Johns 4 point lead. Game 2: JW’s thirds are a problem, along with his timing. Dylan needs to take JW out to the woodshed and remind him how good he is. He badly needs a pep-talk after all his UEs. Game 3: Do or die time. JW’s lobs need to start working. They have been very shallow. Both of them need to stop speeding-up at Ben, his hands are on fire. Dylan could take more thirds since JW seems to have forgotten how to get them over the net. Tough love counseling – I love JW and Dylan! JW has found the sweet spot on his paddle and thus doing better. He still hits too near the top sometimes for a net ball but it’s been a nice improvement. It pays off with a 6-1 lead. Score gets to 9-1 before Johns make a move to get to 5 then a time-out. It was close but team Johnson win (8). Game 4: In the rewind I did at 7-7 to get Johns to 8, it looked like Ben crossed the plane of the net with his paddle to hit his Erne. Dylan looked like he wanted to call it or ask the refs about it. But he let it go. I didn’t rewind in slow-mo so I’m not sure. Solid play by both teams in game 4. Johns win. (6,6,8-,8)

Side note: The other day, I commented on how good the court view was and said it may not last. It didn’t. Tons of shots whose outcome you can’t see at presumably the baseline. They moved in a row of seats on the ground level like I predicted. Unknown if they had to move the cameras to do that or PPA just decided to hate their online viewing fans again.

2:40 pm EST (Waggish) – MXD Waters/Johns vs Wilson/David. Game 1 was pure fire and either team could have won. Game 2 was anti-climatic. Game 3 was even more disappointing. Out balls by Vivienne and Wilson not bringing enough offense. (10,4,1). Well done by Wilson and David to get a PPA MXD silver together.

4:00 pm EST (Waggish) – WS: Waters defeats Parenteau for the triple crown. (6,2).

4:40 pm EST (Waggish) – MS: Johns vs Staksrud. Game 1, Staksrud on fire and fights hard for the win. But Johns shows he wants it in game 2. Game 3 starts like it’ll be close but Johns still has the fight in him and takes a big lead. Staksrud able to get the angles and comes within 1 at 8-7. How much gas does Johns have left in the tank and can Staksrud play clean? I don’t know if Johns is trying to fire himself up or the crowd with his uncharacteristic yells. Both were really going after that gold but Staksrud wins. (9,2-,9). For those interested, you can still buy JOOLA Ben Johns 100 Gold Collector’s Edition Set for $999.95. Photo of Ben included!

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Saturday, September 9th – Doubles

1:50 pm EST (Waggish) – Newman/Wilson had an easy run to their QF where they defeated Arnold/Dawson (8,9). Arnold/Dawson had won against P.Smith/DJ Young to get there (10,3). Likewise Frazier/Johnson cruised to and through their QF against Jay and Dekel (3,7). Jay and Dekel had to fight through Alshon/Loong to get there (1-,7,7). Wright/Hewett knocked out Deakin/Shick (8,0) to make QF against Ignatowich/McGuffin. Ignatowich/McGuffin defeated Tardio/Garnett (3,9-,7).

2:45 pm EST (Waggish) – Johns vs Staksrud/Tellez QF: Johns had cruised through their round 32 and 16 but got tested in game 1 with an overtime finish – went to 15-13 before Team Staksrud won. Staksrud/Tellez won against AJ and Lange (8-,3,4) to make the QF. Game 2 we have a streaker at 3-8. Not totally bare – he was wearing black speedo. Refs call a timeout but it could have been a streaming switch change. Game 3 gets tied at 7. Very patient dink rally at 6-7 that seemed to extend for minutes. Team Staksrud get to match point! Can they close? Johns call timeout. Another long dink rally that ends in a speed-up gets Johns tied at 10 and they win. (13-15,11-4,12-10) Well done by Staksrud/Tellez to push them to the brink in games 1 and 3.

5:05 pm EST (Waggish) – Wright/Hewett vs Ignatowich/McGuffin QF on GS went to Ignatowich/McGuffin (7-,3,5). AL/CP defeats Black/Stratman QF (4,3). The Kawamotos defeat Schneemann/Jansen (8,5). Koop/Irvine are playing very well today. In the QF against Smith/Kovalova, in game 3, Smith brought fire power at times but not consistently. Neither side showed any interest in a dink rally – long or short. Koop and Irvine can struggle to hold the NVZ line but they did well in this match, especially Koop. Team Koop wins (9,7-,5).

5:25 pm EST (Waggish) – Bright/Dizon vs Wright/Tereschenko QF on GS. It was a closely fought battle in game 1 which must have inspired confidence in Irina and Etta to dominate game 2. Momentum shifts again in game 3 and Bright/Dizon win the match. (10,6-,5).

6:25 pm EST (Waggish) – Johns vs Newman/Wilson SF. Finally, an interesting match on CC! Close game 1 with a tie at 6. Wilson keeps falling for Johns down the SL shot. So bad that he falls for that play over and over. Both sides are making errors which is expected when bringing the aggression. Ben is #1 at cleaning up his errors though so that could determine this match in games 2 and 3 after team Newman take game 1. Very close game 2 finish with a fierce rally at 10-10. Well done by Newman/Wilson to catch up to them. Game 3 was not a contest. A lot of pressure was put on Wilson by the Johns targeting him. (7-,10,0)

7:30 pm EST (Waggish) – Frazier/Johnson vs McGuffin/Ignatowich SF. 7 points on Dylan’s serve at start of game 1! They keep their opponents at 0 for many side-outs. Game 2, I don’t think JW appreciated Tyson’s head shot. He really went after him in the next rally. Game 2 had many more side-outs but M/I did’t gain much in the score until 9-1. JW made a series of errors and M/I crept up to 7. JW/Dylan get the rematch against the Johns brothers. (1,7). At Takeya Showcase in August, F/J won the gold but Johns team may have been compensating for Collin’s achilles injury.
MD Bronze: Bracket is showing Newman/Wilson withdrew from bronze. Surprised Wilson would have agreed to that but maybe he wanted to be fresh for his Gold MXD match. Thus, James/Tyson get bronze. Surprisingly, the MD bonus draw only shows 1 withdrawal: McNulty/Bellamy. DeLaRosa/Emmrich win Bonus final over Jaime LLadro/Jordan Kinney (12).

8:15 pm EST (Waggish) – Parenteau/Waters vs Koop/Irvine SF. Close game 1 with tie at 6 and again at 9. P/W win (9). Game 2, Jessie was playing aggressive and would sometimes straddle that center line from the right side and grab that middle ball. A few times she pushed Koop off the line to get in front of her. We see AL do it with her partners but odd to see it coming from Jessie. As the underdog, Koop/Irvine had nothing to lose by trying an all-out aggression war. See the fight at 4-10-1. P/W win (9,4).
WD bonus draw: Allyce Jones/Jorja Johnson win final over Taylor Garcia/Danielle Bauers (2). No withdrawals, only 8 teams. Jones/Johnson had 2 matches before final (2),(0). The 2nd one was against Ava Ignatowich/Liz Truluck.

9:00 pm EST (Waggish) – Bright/Dizon vs Kawamotos SF. It is not surprising the Kawamotos won game 1 but the score is (3). They get to Sunday – their first together in PPA! (3,6) They were so in sync with each other and the play. Bright stepped up her aggression but it didn’t phase them. They remained a rock. Fun to watch.

9:40 pm EST – It doesn’t get much more chalk than the PPA this weekend. 1 and 2 seeds in every Sunday matchup except women’s doubles. The Kawamotos are the only non 1 or 2 seed to play on Sunday as they remain the most underrated, shouldn’t be underrated team.

Allison Harris has had quite the weekend at the APP. It was a surprise to us she went fully undrafted at MLP and it seems like a near certainty she gets picked up now. She fills in for Parris Todd and gets two Sunday appearances with Hunter Johnson and Simone Jardim. What does it say about Parris Todd that Allison Harris and Hunter rolled Daescu and Barr in the winners bracket final? Harris is the name of the weekend for the APP.

9:55 pm EST (Waggish) – WD Bronze winners are Bright/Dizon after Koop/Irvine withdrew.

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Friday, September 8th – Mixed

8:05 am EST (Waggish) – Top half: AL/Ben should have an easy ride to their QF where they could face Dylan/Callie or Allyce/Jay. For the QF, James/Anna may face Lea/Federico if they can get through Lucy/Matt. Dekel/Jade stand in James/Anna path to QF.

Bottom half: Riley and Jessie have a tough draw against the young teams. They may have to get through Tardio/Rane to get to QF where they could face Jorja/JW. It’d be wild and must see TV if we got Tardio/Rane vs Johnsons. In the Parenteau/McGuffin quarter draw, we have Wilson/David as a strong contender. We also see a new partnership Lacy/AJ.

3:10 pm EST (Waggish) – Round 16 results: Pablo and Jackie K. pushed AL/Ben to 3 games by winning the 2nd game (8). Dylan/Callie beat Allyce/Jay (7,8-,8) to face AL/Ben in QF. Callan and Mary B. had a good showing against Dekel/Jade K. (8,7) but were easily defeated by James/Anna (3,2). Lea/Federico had no problem with Lucy/Matt (2,5) to face James/Anna in QF. Tardio/Rane got knocked out in their first round by P.Smith/Irina (7,5) who then lost to Riley/Jessie (9,5). JW/Jorja beat Julian/Lauren (9,5). But were defeated in the QF against Riley/Jessie (2,7-,9). Very close games 1&2 Black/Hewett vs McGuffin/Parenteau and they take them down 9-11,13-11,11-5. They face Wilson/David in QF after Wilson/David’s win over Schneemann/Koller (9,6).

3:25 pm EST (Waggish) – AL/Ben vs Dylan/Callie QF: Game 2, Dylan/Callie had an 8-2 lead but Ben/AL are never out and make it 7-9. A good firefight between Ben and Dylan got Dylan to game point. But Ben/AL get to their own game point. A dinking contest ends with a speed-up by Dylan but his next ball goes out. Ben/AL (6,10).

4:50 pm EST (Waggish) – Ignatowich/Bright vs Jansen/Staksrud. Team Staksrud executed well with few errors in game 1 to gain and maintain the lead. Team Ignatowich adjusted their game with Anna playing left and aggressive poaching by James for game 2 which got them a win, along with more dinking. In game 3, team Ignatowich mixed things up with Anna taking each side. They settle with James on left. Earlier, they had been caught unwinding so they try to avoid that with their strategy. With a 6-5 score, this match can be either team’s road to SF. But there’s always one team that makes more errors and Team Ignatowich are able to pull away from Team Staksrud. (6-,6,6) They will face AL/Ben in SF.

5:55 pm EST (Waggish) – Wilson/David vs Black/Hewett QF. In game 1, we see uncharacteristic errors from team Wilson. But they get into their groove and tie at 7 and eventually take it. They did well to win the match against very tough opponents with 2 FH in the middle (lefty Rafa) and each having strong 2HBH. (8,7) They play Newman/Irvine in SF.

The larger CC space allows a much better viewing angle than we’ve had for weeks/months. I’m enjoying actually being able to see a full view of the play and close-ups when needed. Though it can be “amusing” to hear announcers talk about play we can’t even see on stream, it is actually annoying. Hopefully, this continues Saturday and Sunday. But PPA has a way of messing up a good thing. So they may decide “oh, let’s squeeze a few extra rows of seats in so we can make a few extra $$$”.

PSA: PPA Las Vegas is supposed to be Amazon Prime. But I saw a notice flash saying there would be free streaming on tennischannel.com and the tc app. Makes you wonder if the KC Prime didn’t bring the viewers.

6:55 pm EST (Waggish) – DEFLATE SF #1: Waters/Johns vs Ignatowich/Bright. Game 2 was tied at 4 before AL/Ben pulled away. I/B decided to try Anna B. on left which gets them to a tie at 7. This may have been the closest Ignatowich/Bright have ever played Waters/Johns. Ref says Video Challenge at 9-7 for a “deflated ball” – ball didn’t bounce high and Ben/AL immediately claimed the ball was bad. AL swung at it and missed. The ball was a powerful overhead from James. Replay of point because Ref says ball “did deflate”. It may have gotten the crowd on Anna/James side with cheers when they got the ball back at a side-out. AL/Ben win (6,7). Fleming didn’t seem to like the term “deflate” but I like it. Myself and others have often thrown balls out because they had no bounce as if they had deflated. They looked new and they had no cracks. But they were not playable.

7:45 pm EST (Waggish) – SF #2: Newman/Irvine vs Wilson/David. Game 2, Riley went for an Erne. Usually the other partner will immediately straddle that middle line for the return a la Bright with Ignatowich. Jessie didn’t move until very late and thus missed the return. Riley just leaned on the post and looked down in contemplation. That seemed to inspire Wilson/David because they went on a run and didn’t allow them another point! (6,4). Newman/Irvine didn’t play that bad but Wilson/David played superb. Riley gets Wilson tomorrow so he’ll appreciate him then even if he didn’t today.
Something minor that I noticed today. The 2 foremost don’t paddle tap until match end are being conformists. Riley paddle-tapped at end of game 1. Lea also paddle-tapped at end of a QF game mid-match. Makes you wonder if PPA told them all to play nice after Tyson’s little contretemps on singles day. Usually, they encourage a little chirping during a game though so probably coincidental.

8:45 pm EST (Waggish) – MXD Bronze: Riley/Jessie withdrew so Anna/James win. Ironically, Lindsey and DJ played the bonus draw but came up short, losing in the final to Dekel and Jade (6). Other withdrawals in Bonus draw: Etta and Collin, Tardio and Rane – though this one shows as a forfeit so maybe they started it and got a technical foul?, Loong/Valdes, Garnett/Padegimaite, S.Smith/Dizon, Koop/Alshon, Gridley/Rohrabacher. Some of these don’t show until the 2nd round because there can only be one withdrawal shown in the first round I guess. With the withdrawals, Dekel/Jade played 3 matches. Lindsey/DJ played all 4 matches. Each match is one game to 15. Because of the withdrawals, some teams were 2-0 because they lost first match in main draw then lost first match they actually played in bonus draw.

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Thursday, September 7th – Singles

10:45 am EST – Even though it is singles day, let’s start the live blog with the doubles partnerships for the week.

New MD partnerships: Callan Dawson / Julian Arnold, Deakin / Shick, Loong / Alshon, Newman with Wilson, Wright with Hewett
Repeats: Devilliers is partnering with Bar, Garnett with Tardio, Emmrich / DeLaRosa.
Tried and True teams: JW/Dylan, Johns, McGuffin/Ignatowich, Staksrud/Tellez.

New WD patnerships: David/Emmrich, Newman/Pisnik
Repeats: Dizon/Bright, Jansen/Schneemann, Stratman/Black, Tereschenko/Wright
Tried and True: AL/CP, Kovalova/Smith

2:40 pm EST (Waggish) – MS:The 2nd game in Ben’s QF was close 12-10 against Julian Arnold. Ben beat Shick to get there (7,8). Arnold beat Jay to get there with an easy game 3 (0). Loong took Tyson to 3 games (4,6-,3) but Tyson made QF where he then beat Marshall Brown (6,1). Brown had defeated Tardio to get there (4,6). Vich again defeats Dylan (6,4) and was then defeated in his QF against Staksrud (7,6-,5). Staksrud faces Garnett in the SF after Garnett’s defeat of Quang Duong in QF (8,7). In Round 16, Duong defeated Alshon (7,10).
WS: Rohrabacher has made it to the SF. She didn’t have to fight Black as she withdrew. Her first round was also a withdrawal so she only had to play the QF match against Victoria Helmuth (3,2). I don’t know what is going on with the women. Jorja, Bright, Stratman makes 5 withdrawals in what was already a shallow draw.

3:50 pm EST (Waggish) – SF #1: Johns vs McGuffin. Catching up on some things. PPA surprisingly posted an interview on YT with Loong after the words exchanged between Tyson and Tyler at the end of their match. Immediately after game 3, Tyson flipped the bird to Tyler. Then he had some “choice words for me” that “came out of the blue”. Tyler goes on to say he was not sure what happened. In Tyson’s post match interview, he said “boys will be boys” but Tyler hadn’t done anything – just sitting on his bench. Tyson referenced the KOTC podcast. Jimmy on the KOTC podcast has mentioned Tyson’s name a few times. I don’t recall Jimmy mentioning any family member other than seeing them at an airport. Tyler did a funny “hail all the king” kind of motion afterwards on the live stream. Tyler at least kept a sense of humor about it. Now to the SF results. Surprise! Ben beats Tyson and it wasn’t even close. Tyson couldn’t get anything going and was widely missing shots. (2,2)

4:50 pm EST (Waggish) – SF #2: Staksrud vs Garnett. Garnett closed to the net and Staksrud would hit passing shots or angles outside his reach. Staksrud win (7,8). The play was good and very familiar.

5:10 pm EST (Waggish) – WS SF #1: Waters vs #12 Ava Ignatowich. Just to remind everyone Ava signed PPA while brother James signed MLP. Ava has not yet had any podium results in PPA. Ana benefited when Bright withdrew. Ava played #13 Ekaterina Biakina in QF (10,5). Biakina defeated #4 Mary Brascia (10,6-,8) in round 16. Ava gave AL no trouble. (0,1) Get used to it. 2024 may have lots of these.

6:08 pm EST (Waggish) – WS SF #2: Parenteau vs #22 Rohrabacher. Rohrabacher played 1 easy match (3,2) to get to SF. CP played 2. Her first match was very close (10,10) against #15 Shannon Pretorius. In QF, CP defeated Taylor Garcia (10,3). CP is wearing a band beneath her knee and it seems to be effecting her movement. Score was 2-7 before CP made a run to 6. After that, it was a close game 1 to the Rohrabacher game point (11-8). Parenteau takes the next 2 (8-,3,3).
MD Bronze: McGuffin still has Garnett’s number (3,6-,4)

7:25 pm EST – Just when you think that a weekend might actually be all pickleball, you get Tyson McGuffin flipping the bird to Tyler Loong and it appeared to be completely unprompted. Tyson referenced comments Tyler had made on his podcast in the post-match interview and wasn’t pushed by Stone or Fleming to elaborate. Tyson has been called out for some of his hypocritical comments on the KOTC podcast and it was also alleged that he bought about 20,000 more followers on the most recent episode. The bird flip was an odd choice considering what Tyson has been called out for recently, but it’s a choice he made that will create some interesting conversation. Tyson ends up with another podium today after losing to Ben in the semis, beating Garnett in 3 games.

Otherwise, pretty dang chalk. A lot of withdrawals on the women’s side leading to some unexpected quarter final matches and then you have another Fed and Ben final for the men. Rachel Rohrabacher pushed Catherine Parenteau and it was evident that Rachel’s singles practice that she alluded to on the Tennis Sucks podcast has been paying dividends. 

For some APP updates, Hunter Johnson is in another APP final. He’ll have a rematch against Eduardo Irizarry, who was able to beat Yates Johnson in the bronze to get another shot at the twin brother Hunter. Irizarry has an APP podium this year and is always around these draws. He finally breaks through for his Sunday shot. 

On the women’s side, we don’t know why Parris Todd withdrew after coming out on top in what had to be 3 long games over Chao Yi Wang. Was Parris simply looking for reps or is there an injury? It opened the door for Megan Fudge to play Salome Devidze in the winners bracket final and Devidze breezed there. Chao Yi Wang then ran through the backdraw to make it all the way to bronze. Wang’s raw talent popped when we briefly saw her in-person against ALW at the Seattle PPA and the results are already coming fairly quickly for her. She lost handily to Megan Fudge but a good bronze run with her only losses being a tight one to Parrs and then Megan Fudge are good signs for Wang. 

The other thing to note for the day is the Eugenie Bouchard signing by the PPA. Big signing there. No clue if she actually has played pickleball there, but her social media reach is incredible. It has almost been a decade since Bouchard looked to be the next big thing in tennis, reaching the Wimbledon final in 2014. Bouchard continues to have star power and the PPA’s strategic pivot is obvious at this point. We’ll see how it works.

8:25 pm EST (Waggish) – WS Bronze: Rohrabacher over Ignatowich (2,1). Bonus draw: Mary Brascia won over Kelsey Matthews (3). Pablo Tellez and Ryan Sherry didn’t play in the bonus. Tellez had lost to Brown (5,7) in his first round. Roscoe Bellamy beat DJ Young in a close final (13).