PPA Tour Florida Open – Live Random Thoughts

From blizzardly Minnesota to sunny Florida. Some fans have grumbled that bike week and spring breakers have driven up pricing and availability for lodgings and restaurants. But the pros won’t be complaining to finally have some warmer weather as Arizona did not do the trick. We’ll try to have as much of the action covered here as we will see some new partnerships and weird draws. What else would you expect from the great state of Florida? Waggish will be back in the saddle providing live commentary throughout the day with some Slim and Gritty takes mixed in.

Sunday, March 12th – Championship Sunday

3:30 pm EST (Waggish) – Parenteau defeats Jansen 4,2. No big fireworks like we see in the Devidze vs Jansen games. Some of CP’s gets were impressive. Triple was a little out of reach when she had to play Ben/AL but a second double is well done.

2:30 pm EST (Waggish) – Waters/Johns vs Parenteau/McGuffin. A big yawn. The most exciting thing was seeing both AL and Ben go after the same ball. In game 3, you clearly heard Ben say mine and didn’t phase AL at all as she moved to hit the ball. She took 4 balls in a row that Ben was also going after. Waters/Johns 5,2,6. With predictability like this, rally scoring won’t be needed.

1:20 pm EST (Waggish) – Johns vs Arnold/Wilson: Game 1: See 3-5-1 fire fight. Julian taking on both Ben and Collin! Arnold/Wilson seemed to let off the gas in game 2. Game 3: 3-0. WOW! Great game with Arnold/Wilson catching a tie several times. Johns win in 3: 8,6,9.

12:03 pm EST (Waggish) – Parenteau/Waters vs Jade Kawamoto/Lacy Schneemann. First game was good to watch. CP and AL targeting backhands to avoid those 2 FH in the middle. Almost made you wonder if they should have tried reverse stacking occasionally. Jade not covering that middle when Lacy gets pushed wide. Game 3 Lacy and Jade came out on fire to go down in a blaze if necessary. Lacy does a tweener at 5-4! Good rally at 4-6. Very close, good third game with plenty of rally battles. Parenteau/Waters in 3: 9,3,8

11:02 am EST (Waggish) – Johns vs Shick 6-11,3,0. Ben got off to a slow start then took care of business in games 2 and 3. Congrats to Shick on that Silver!

Saturday, March 11th – Doubles

9:30 pm EST – Schneemann and Jade Kawamoto out of nowhere today and into Championship Sunday. That’s a major surprise but we also can’t be getting so surprised at these surprises. You see what we’re saying? Schneemann looks like she’s adding to her arsenal of shots and Jade Kawamoto is playing more aggressively these days, maybe getting the memo that she did not ever speed things up. Jones/Jansen will be disappointed but that’s another podium for them. They have hit a lot of podiums and if you told us that at the start of the year we would have been surprised. Also, Jones’ comments in their post QF match interview were heartwarming as Jones got teary eyed talking about her partnership with Lea Jansen. Jones seems to be an elite teammate and that can often be underrated when players are looking where to go and what can be best for them long-term. Cool to see from Allyce.

We could have a boring Sunday outside of the women’s singles final. We have two gender doubles finals with heavy favorites, an unknown playing Ben Johns, who generally is motivated on the bigger stage for matches like this, and then a mixed final with likely an overmatched Parenteau/McGuffin. We’ll have to see how Parenteau plays though as we have underrated her as the year has gone along.

7:55 pm EST (Waggish) – Frazier/Johnson get their 3rd PPA 2023 bronze (they have 1 gold). Defeat Navratil/Young 10, 6. Jorja and Jessie get 5th place – 2nd time for each of them. Defeat Bright/Todd 12. WD Bronze Update: Jansen/Jones over Dizon/Wright 4,6.

7:45 pm EST (Waggish) – Wow! I bet no one saw that coming 8,1 beat down by Lacy Schneemann/Jade Kawamoto over Jansen/Jones to get to Sunday. Lacy and Jade just didn’t get super aggressive which can lead to mistakes but maintained a steady NVZ playbook. Well done by them.

7:05 pm EST (Waggish) – Johns vs Frazier/Johnson: 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Just when you think Dylan/JW have the speedup strategy needed against the Johns, they decide to play game 1 as a dink match. It’s possible they didn’t think a speed-up off the bounce would benefit them if the ball was playing slow. JW/Dylan did better in game 2 and fans got treated with some good hand battles. If more of Dylan’s balls had stayed in on the put-away shot, they might have pushed it to a game 3. Johns win 3,8.

6:05 pm EST – Maybe these crazy days are more the norm. The women’s fields have gotten a lot tougher in 2023 and it is showing in the results. Anna and Parris were a Sunday team last year yet lose to Schneemann/Jade Kawamoto. We have continued to wonder whether Parris is treating her craft like a pro athlete should and this result is not dissuading us. This loss opens up the draw for Jansen/Jones, who could see another Sunday. Then we had Dizon/Wright beating Jorja/Jessie and it’s not a great loss in women’s once again for Jorja who has not meshed super well with Irvine despite the on paper fit.

As we noted in the fantasy preview, the Newman/Parks seeding really messed everything up as we may get the gold medal match in the semis with the JW/Dylan vs Johns match. Navratil/DJ Young have to be devestated to miss out on Sunday, 11-9 in the third they lose to Arnold/Wilson. 2 tourneys in a row for DJ having the draw go in his favor without taking advantage. Zane and DJ were fired up all day today and appeared to be having a ton of fun together – Zane had his back and forth with Rafa Hewett in an earlier match and they were loud against Andrei/Jay. Arnold/Wilson get to Sunday and it’s been a helluva year for the Mad Drops teammates. Those slower conditions and a sweet draw were both helpful today.

5:55 pm EST (Waggish) – Parenteau/Waters vs Dizon/Wright went the way you’d expect. 0,2.

5:40 pm EST (Waggish) – Arnold/Wilson vs Navratil/Young SF: I would have expected these teams to be equal. And you saw it with the score flip from game 1 to game 2. We get a tight game 3. A crucial middle dink “”whose ball” grab at 8-9 was a bad mistake for Zane/DJ. Julian and Thomas on Sunday 5-11, 11-3, 11-9. In the backdraw, Devilliers/Daescu get 5th place after their tight win over Koller/Bar 16-14 followed by another tight win over Rettenmaier/Tchikatilov 15-13. Daescu seems to play better when the games are tight near game point.

4:40 pm EST (Waggish) – Johns win over Koller/Bar 5,3. Meghan and Etta win over Jessie and Jorja in 3: 4, 3-11, 4 to play Parenteau/Waters in semi. After game 2, I thought Jessie and Jorja would win the match. Jansen/Jones over Brascia/Stratman: 4,11. Bright/Todd vs Schneeman/Jade Kawamoto QF on a GS but streaming has ended. 12-10,4-11,11-9 for Lacy and Jade. They play Lea and Allyce.

2:55 pm EST (Waggish) – Tardio/Hewett vs Navratil/Young QF: Close game 1. Game 2: At 0-3, 2 fun shots: Tardio’s tweener then DJ’s cut drop. Video challenge at 0-6. Rafa called Zane’s serve out. What a bounce from Zane’s spin! Ball is out on review. Game 3 gets tied up at 5-5 and Tardio/Hewett get the lead but Zane and DJ tie it at 9. Tardio gets frustrated at not winning game point at 10 and kicks the ball into the net. Zane does a huge yell and staredown when they pull ahead to 11. And they win: 9-11, 3, 10. In the backdraw, Devilliers/Daescu over McGuffin/Ignatowich 10. Jenkins/Kacergis vs Arnold/Wilson QF not streamed but Julian and Thomas win 8,1 to play Zane and DJ semi.

WD: Bright/Todd vs Radzikowska,Ewa/Summers,Rachel. AB and Parris barely squeak out game 1. By game 2, AB and Parris have hit their stride. 9,1. Top Half QF between Irvine/Johnson and Sheehan-Dizon/Wright. Other top QF Waters/Parenteau vs Koop/David.

1:50 pm EST (Waggish) – Frazier/Johnson vs McGuffin/Ignatowich QF: Dylan and JW made short work of the tall Ignatowich in game 1. Did Ignatowich underestimate Dylan and JW because he practices with them? Ignatowich has said JW doesn’t always try hard in practice so perhaps. See the flick JW does at 9-4. It went into the net but man was that a fast reaction flick volley. James and Tyson get dialed in and pumped up with their shots at 8 and 9 to tie it up. Forces JW and Dylan to take a time-out which they seldom do. JW and Dylan go to semi’s. 6,9. Dylan’s focus in this match was exceptional. JW – well who knows with him.

1:00 pm EST (Waggish) – Ben Johns seemed to be practicing his below the net speed-ups in the game against Kyle Koszuta/Craig Johnson. Koszuta/Johnson played well but Ben seemed to be in practice mode with cross-court dinks until the speed-up attempt. The first of the rallies at 8-9 in game 2 got interesting with that rally going to Kyle and Craig. Johns 2,9.

For QF we have Johns/Johns vs Koller/Bar, Frazier/Johnson vs McGuffin/Ignatowich in the first half. 2nd Half: Tardio/Hewett vs Navratil/Young, Arnold/Wilson vs Jenkins,Josh/Kacergis,Bill who came in through the qualifier. They defeated Newman/Parks (0,7) then FAD Davis/Livornese 11-13, 6, 2. We have a few APP players to keep an eye on in the backdraw such as Farias/Siljestrom and Cincola/Dow.

12:15 pm EST (Waggish) – Devilliers/Daescu vs Navratil/Young. A feisty match! The staredowns, come-ons, and very vocal out calls made this a fun match to watch. DJ and Zane took advantage of the big targets posed by Jay and Andrei. And also took advantage of the fight over that middle. I really liked how both sides were playing as a team with no one playing just a “right side” role. All players were doing their share of taking aggressive shots. See 11-10 rally game 2. Zane and DJ win. 7,11. Newman/Parks got knocked off first match no surprise despite their #2 seeding! I wonder why Riley didn’t try to get a pro partner like Pesa Teoni. Long/Cassidy defeat silver medalist Staksrud/Tellez in their first match (3,5).

Friday, March 10th – Mixed

7:31 pm EST – Collin Schick may have stole the show yesterday, but Catherine Parenteau is the story of this tournament so far. We had been moving out on Parenteau at the end of 2022. Her plateau of results combined with the partnership stuff left a lot to be desired. But she has figured some stuff out in 2023. Credit is being given to her switch to Selkirk, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. There’s so much that goes on in the lives of these people that we don’t know about – injuries, personal, mental exhaustion etc. Regardless, we did not see this coming. Like, did she get on some PEDs or something? Jokes aside, Catherine was still getting results with Riley Newman in mixed and you can’t help but think that Riley is having some regret not sticking it out with Catherine this year. The grass can often seem greener but Catherine making it to another mixed final with a different partner, this time with the also not done yet, Tyson McGuffin, aka. the real Daddy. The closest Catherine/Tyson came to dropping a game today was in their first two matchups, giving up 8 point in one game to both Oshiro/Long and Tavernier/Koszuta.

The new partnerships did not pan out today for Anna Bright or Riley Newman. Ignatowich/Bright struggled against Parenteau/McGuffin while Newman/Todd blew a 9-4 lead in the second game, only to get steamrolled in game 3 by the Johnson’s. We said after Newman/Bright lost early that new partnerships need time to breathe and that will be the case for Bright/Ignatowich as well. It is never going to be easy in these deep mixed fields.

Jay/Jessie also put together a nice little bronze day after a brutal mixed day in Minnesota. It goes to show that we can’t take too much from one tournament when the teams are so strong. In contrast, Stratman/Arnold went 0-2, losing to Fudge/Nunnery and Heather Nobler/Gabe Tardio. Yikes.

6:00 pm EST (Waggish) – PPA got what they wanted when they made the draw. AL and Ben make it to Sunday. (4,4) over Jay and Jessie. Ignatowich was not just blowing smoke when he said he knew how to beat Todd. 15-5 over Todd/Newman.

5:10 pm EST (Waggish) – Parenteau/McGuffin vs Johnsons SF. Very odd. Jorja seemed to handle Newman’s speedups fine. But she couldn’t handle McGuffin’s. Maybe it was that neon green shirt that would distract anyone. Johnsons lacked energy and let themselves get run over. (6,0)

4:25 pm EST (Waggish) – Irvine/Devilliers defeat Koop/Koller to play Waters/Johns in SF. (4,6). Jessie and Jay might appreciate each other more after trying other partners. We do get the Todd/Newman vs Bright/Ignatowich match after Jones/Smith withdraw. Unfortunately the streaming has ended on the GS court so we don’t get to see it. Darn. So close.

4:00 pm EST (Waggish) – Bright/Ignatowich vs Parenteau/McGuffin QF: For a team who practice together regularly, Bright/Ignatowich didn’t seem all that in sync, especially after watching the teams in prior matches. Parenteau/McGuffin doing an excellent job after McGuffin’s time off. In game 2, Anna went on the left. Didn’t gain them anything. Parenteau got into some fire fights and didn’t seem to think to do resets after James came after her hard. All parties are clearly going to go down swinging. Parenteau/McGuffin in 2: 2,7. Bright/Ignatowich will face Todd/Newman in the backdraw if they beat Jones/Smith. I’d love to see that match – someone get your phone out!

Waters/Johns defeat David/Wilson again. Very quick match. (7,7). Prior Silver medalists lost their first match. Fudge/Nunnery defeated Arnold/Stratman 9,10. In the backdraw, David/Wilson lose to Jade Kawamoto/Frazier (13). UPDATE: That match was on the other stream. Frazier’s side had 14 and Wilson’s side was at 7 and they made it to 13 before Frazier’s side got to 15. Great come-back for an almost win.

2:40 pm EST (Waggish) – Todd/Newman vs Johnsons QF: Adam Stone says: “Parris Todd speed-up, Riley Newman clean-up” didn’t really work out that way. Entire match seemed to be a highlight reel of speed-ups. Jorja does as good a job as Riley. JW is doing a good job grabbing more balls than in the past in MXD. Newman’s paddle broke at 10-8 during a rally. Jorja’s ball went out of bounds but Riley’s paddle head fell into the NVZ. So why wouldn’t that be a fault? Refs conferred and it was a fault! I would have liked to see JW keep up the aggression in game 2, stepping in to grab balls. Random thought: I wonder if Jorja needs to do some “tough love” instead of the “that’s okay” pat. Great rally at 3-6 started by ATP from Jorja. JW’s hands were great but Riley’s shot selection was better most of the game. After trailing most of game 2, the Johnsons tie and eventually win. A lot of that was because JW got the opportunity to go after Parris hard. That come-back really motivated the Johnsons and they dominated game 3. 9-11, 14-12,11-2 All players were great to watch and I’ll rewatch this one many times.

Waters/Johns over Grechkina/Newell (4,5). The best part of that match was the tips Adam Stone was throwing out. They play David/Willson in the QF. David/Wilson beat Mary Brascia/Staksrud 7,5. Irvine/Devilliers vs Koop/Koller in QF. It took 3 games for Koop/Koller to defeat Dizon/Johns.

The QF of Bright/Ignatowich vs Parenteau/McGuffin will be interesting for sure. Jansen/Rettenmaier pushed Bright/Ignatowich hard in 2nd game: 3,12.

2:35 am EST – Mixed days are so competitive now with these deep fields. We have to expect there will be a motivated AL and Ben, especially with AL coming off that loss to Parenteau in singles. That half of the draw is not quite as strong in depth as the other half that features Parenteau/McGuffin, Ignatowich/Bright, Todd/Newman, JW/Jorja, Stratman/Arnold and Jansen/Rettenmaier. We probably won’t get another wild day like yesterday but it should be good nonetheless.

Thursday, March 9th – Singles

2:30 am EST – What a day all around. Singles days are nuts. Collin Shick, the medical student and former D1 tennis player, who we had not heard of before today, onto Championship Sunday. He ran through the qualifiers and the main draw, beating top singles players Frazier and Arnold. With all this cramping stuff going on, there’s really no excuse for pros when Shick is playing a qualifier in the Florida heat and managing to stay fresh enough to get to Sunday. Food for thought. Big run for Pablo Tellez today as well. The bronze is a huge result for him but he just continues to struggle with consistency. He has that upside to get big time results though.

Lea Jansen and Salome Devidze might be the funniest matchup in pickleball. Line judges everywhere and the ref giving the video review results had some issues, which in this match is just that much more comical. One big thing we noticed for this match was the presence of Allyce Jones. It has been commented on this blog before and we have noticed Jansen is generally alone in singles. It’s tough mentally in singles to be there all by yourself but Jones was there supporting her doubles partner in the semi-finals. It could have been the difference. Down 6-3 at the turn in game 3, Lea Jansen went on a run to go up 8-6 and you wonder how helpful it was to have Jones there as a morale booster. Having someone there for you can be a difference maker and Jones can be such a positive influence. Jansen vs. Parenteau should be a fun one on Sunday even though it is a match we have seen before. Anna Leigh Waters pulled out of the bronze so Devidze gets a free podium.

9:10 pm EST (Waggish) – Pablo Tellez gets the bronze over Dylan Frazier. 6-11,11-7,11-7.

7:50 pm EST (Waggish) – Lea vs Salome. Wow! 4 line judges and 2 net judges for this SF. And Don Stanley lurking in the background. I’m glad the players will be able to just concentrate on their shots and not have to worry about a bad call from the opponent. I assume the line judges will act like refs and not call lines but can overrule if asked. We’ll see if Lea has to instruct the ref on waiting to call the score until she is done with her pre-serve ritual. Allyce sitting on Lea’s bench. At 6-1 Salome says out, Lea appeals. Ref agrees out. Another one confirmed at 8-5 for Lea. Having the extra officials are keeping an even tempo to game 1. Both ladies seemed to be swapping out the balls frequently. Lea called a ball out in game 3 at 2-0. Lea’s out call is overturned. Then Lea did a video challenge. Stanley comes over to confer with the refs. Video review says the ball is in. Lea starts arguing with the ref. Ref had the score at 2-2 but it should have been 2-1. Now we get a ref time-out. Score gets corrected to 2-1. Salome does a video challenge at 2-3. Lea’s out call is overturned. Another video challenge on Salome’s out call at 8-6. Salome’s call stands. Finally game 3 is over! Lea wins 11-5, 3-11, 11-7. AL didn’t stick around for the bronze so Salome gets bronze. Men’s bronze was not played during all of this. Streaming ended so presumably PPA is letting the ticket holders view men’s bronze on CC. Pablo vs Dylan

6:30 pm EST (Waggish) – Collin Shick vs Frazier SF: Shick takes game 1 with his quickness at getting to the ball. Frazier gets the lead in game 2 and refuses to pass that baton. Shick started in the qualifier round at 7:00 a.m. so his energy is even more impressive. But slowly Dylan runs some of that energy down. Game 3 is an exciting battle because you feel like either could win. 8-11, 11-7, 11-6. For Shick! The difference may have been Dylan’s weak backhand and Collin’s very strong 2-handed backhand with that lethal knife cut. I feel for Dylan – so close to Championship Sunday. Congratulations to Shick! An absolute amazing day for him! Women’s 5th place goes to Judit Castillo Gargallo over Padegimaite (13). Judit also got past Allyce Jones (12).

5:55 pm EST – We’ll have more on it in our newsletter but the Rafa Hewett-Zane Navratil paddle controversy was an interesting topic in light of the announcement from PPA, MLP and USA Pickleball of the partnership to implement paddle testing. We have confirmed that Hewett challenged Zane’s paddle and Zane’s new signature paddle passed the test. Tough loss for Rafa in his first time playing with his horrid Adidas paddle. Again, subscribe to our newsletter that is going out weekly on Friday for more thoughts on this.

In terms of results, another whacky day to talk about. Ben Johns is in the finals after a tough 2-game semi-final win over Pablo Tellez 9 and 8. Tellez had a win over Deveilliers and newcomer Christopher Harworth to get to the semis. Tellez really swings in and out of his singles results. He has had some early exits and here he is pushing Ben in the semi-finals.

On the other side of the draw, we had upsets of both Federico and Julian Arnold in the quarters. The Tyson McGuffin withdrawal meant the draw opened up for two qualifiers to enter that part of the bracket and Collin Schick took advantage. He beat Wyatt Stone, Jason Gariotte and then took down Arnold in 3 games, 11-1 in the third. We have never heard of Schick or Harworth, and haven’t even seen Schick in a draw before. The Frazier upset is obviously much less surprising as he has given Staksrud some trouble in the past. If there’s one area that Fed is vulnerable, it is to a guy who wants to play more cat and mouse, especially in slower conditions.

On the women’s side, poor Hurricane Black had to play Anna Leigh Waters in her first ever singles match in a pickleball tournament. She lost 11-0 and 11-0 and we couldn’t get any gauge really of where she is at. She won 2 matches in the backdraw against not good players before losing 15-6 to Allyce Jones. Black has some very good mobility. Another notable player in all of this is Allyce Jones. Nothing shocking here but she took down Yana Grechkina, 11-9 in the third, and then made Lea Jansen work, losing 7 and 9. Jones has separated herself from the pack of 2022’s middling PPA women like Grechkina as a total package player. Even as a player that is a little older, she is no slouch in singles.

5:40 pm EST (Waggish) – Catherine versus AL SF. CP had only played one game – against Ava Ignatowich (2,2). She didn’t play QF because Lauren withdrew due to illness. AL played Black (0,0) then Lina Padegimaite in QF. She was pushed by Lina but won (7,7). Near end of game 1, Ben Johns gets called over to assist Leigh with coaching! AL loses (7). CP is really zoned in and takes the early lead game 2. But Johns and Leigh’s coaching during the timeouts shows results. CP now starts making errors.Coach Athene not on CP’s bench but CP started checking her phone. See rally at 5-5! CP new workout routine is paying off in spades. I’ve never seen AL make so many errors between points 5 and 6 while CP gets to 10. The pressure from CP is tremendous. 4 match point ops for CP and AL creeps to 9. But CP does it on the 5th. (7,9).

5:00 pm EST (Waggish) – Ben defeats Tellez but it was a good match 9,8. In the backdraw, looks like a good match between Zane and JW with JW win 17-15. Only to be defeated by Christopher Haworth (6)! Julian withdrew in the backdraw but Devilliers grinds it out until a defeat at hands of Kusmider. Kusmider had a fantastic run in backdraw: Rafa (10), Tardio (2), Staksrud (5) then Devilliers (7) and Haworth (5). All of that got him 5th place.

In other news, PPA and USAP announce partnering for Nationals. Nationals will be moved to Dallas. Same dates. More courts but we don’t know the quality of those courts or the championship court seating capacity. At least we now know the pros will be allowed to play Nationals. There was speculation they would not.

4:15 pm EST (Waggish) – I completely missed that Tyson withdrew from Singles. Tellez was pushed to 3 games by Christopher Haworth but wins: 8-11, 2, 6. Now playing Ben in SF. The big news is Dylan beats Federico: 5-11,11-7,11-5. Dylan faces Collin Shick in his SF. As expected, AL plays CP in SF. Lea beat her partner Allyce 7,9. She plays Salome in SF. The big question there is do we get extra refs for line calls?

2:20 pm EST (Waggish) – Tyra Black vs AL: We have our answer of how yet another tennis player comes into pickleball singles. I only saw Black twice at the net in game 2 – first due to a ball from AL put her there but second was intentional. 0,0 win for AL. Julian Arnold vs Collin Shick loss! 11-4, 3, 1. We’ll have to hear from NML who this Shick guy is but not a schtick!

2:04 pm EST (Waggish) – Is another paddle being tested? DavidJ comment said Rafa wasn’t happy with Zane’s paddle. I skimmed through the match. I didn’t see the incident that DavidJ referred to or see Rafa talk to ref. But at end of match (1,2) for Zane, Zane attempts to hand his paddle to the ref. She’s marking the scoresheet so doesn’t see him. So he drops his paddle at her feet. Walks over to pick up his bag. And seemingly leaves his paddle on court. Zane has a signature paddle with ProXR.

1:48 pm EST (Waggish) – I was expecting a long delay after JW beat Kusmider (3,5) before they streamed the QF with Ben. But it started as soon as Tellez beat Devilliers (5,10). At 3-8 Game 1 – Beautiful placements by JW until Ben finally couldn’t get to one. Or Ben decided he didn’t need to keep running all over the place because he was going to win. But JW did it again at 5-1 in game 2. Nice! It prompted Ben to take one of his rare time-outs to cool JW down a little. Ben was beating JW with some sharp angles when he was at the net in game 1. So perhaps JW decided not to go to net as much in game 2. You have to wonder at 9-4 why JW didn’t call Ben’s ball out. A second generous line call in the match from JW (there was one in game 1 too). Staksrud has said you couldn’t not like JW even if you wanted to and this is one example of why. We get a game 3 but not the same JW. Seems like JW wants to give up whenever he hits a bad shot. Where’s JW’s coach to tell him to keep fighting – Ben can miss easy shots. 11-3, 4-11, 11-4 for Ben.

Staksrud plays Frazier in QF. Staksrud beat Rettenmaier (3,3). Frazier beat Navratil (1,2) By the way, Navratil and Ignatowich have started ribbing Frazier mercilessly. Hopefully no one is taking it as truthful. Julian beats DeHeart (7,12) to play Collin Shick in QF. Tellez plays Christopher Haworth in QF.

10:30 am EST – We don’t get as much fun with the midnight draw drop now as we take into consideration the already posted draws for our fantasy drafts. Some things to watch for in the men’s draw to start the day is a possible quarter-final match between Ben Johns and JW Johnson. JW does not look to be enjoying singles these days but can he get motivated for a Ben Johns quarter in the Florida heat? The other half of the draw is much deeper. It features Federico Staksrud, Julian Arnold, Dylan Frazier, Tyson McGuffin, Travis Rettenmaier, Rafa Hewett and Zane Navaratil.

On the women’s side, it is shaping up for another semi-final with Anna Leigh, Catherine, Salome and Lea. Parenteau should have some smooth sailing to the semi-finals against Anna Leigh and Lea as well to the semis against either Devidze or Mary Brascia. We don’t expect too much but the Etta Wright singles appearance in the draw will be monitored. This has to be an MLP spurred decision to play singles and she could use some reps. Of course, we’ll have to see how the already hyped Hurricane Tyra Black does in her first pro event.

41 thoughts on “PPA Tour Florida Open – Live Random Thoughts

  • March 9, 2023 at 9:55 am
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    Thank you for the update. A paddle throw by Ryler DeHeart. Not as radical as DJ, but when you look at where it went, almost hit that little kid. Zane was not happy at all after Rafa said something about his paddle. It is so interesting that nobody complains about a paddle when they win, only when they lose. But Rafa is not known to be a good loser anyway. Also interesting, the ref had no clue what was going on. She just smiled. That is an excellent example of how the refs don’t pay attention to what is going on. This tells me, they need more refs on courts. This is a PRO sport, right? Also, Camryn talked so much, she had no idea what happened at the end there. Thank you for your time.

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    • March 9, 2023 at 12:45 pm
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      Having to listen to Camryn ramble on and have zero clue what was going on in that Zane situation was painful. She said something like “Zane, spins that out!” as he dropped his paddle. Lol cringe worthy

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    • March 9, 2023 at 11:25 pm
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      We did not see the Ryler paddle toss. Interesting. We said it last week but the DJ thing was result not process on the uproar.

      We don’t want to be discouraging challenges but it is only the second time we have seen it, and both have resulted from sore losing.

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  • March 9, 2023 at 2:16 pm
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    really worried about the most electrifying man in all of sports. it appears that his foot injury is more severe than first contemplated. I know brand building is job #1 but you have to be on court and on stream and on podiums to do that. So here’s hoping he gets back out there soon before James replaces him as most electrifying.

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    • March 9, 2023 at 11:26 pm
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      Don’t think he was intending to play singles. Anna Bright said on her new podcast he plans to play singles in Austin.

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      • March 10, 2023 at 7:04 am
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        If Tyson didn’t intend to play singles then why show him in the bracket to begin with?

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      • March 10, 2023 at 9:35 am
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        3rd ppa singles event he has missed. and it isn’t getting easier out there.

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  • March 9, 2023 at 3:19 pm
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    Catherine is in amazing shape. Her movement is second-to-none on the ladies’ side.

    Anna Leigh is so accustomed to winning everything, she can get pretty frustrated if she gets pushed. The obvious frustration really cost her late in game two. She looked like she was on tilt and had three straight errors to go down 5-9.

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    • March 10, 2023 at 7:01 am
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      Catherine’s work off the court with her trainer is paying off for sure. I think she was moving around the court better than she’s ever had.

      I’m not a high level player but it seemed like ALW was bothered by the pace, depth, and possibly the spin of that Selkirk Power Air. Do you think we’ll see ALW switch over to one of the newer paddles on the market now?

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      • March 10, 2023 at 7:12 am
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        Paddletek has said a line of ALW signature paddles will be released in second half of year. So she’ll be switching for sure — same brand, different model. Others have commented on how much better/more power CP is showing with the Selkirk. We saw the same with Dylan when he switched to Selkirk from Onix. Joola sponsored Staksrud has said he is looking forward to playing with the Perseus that Johns is currently using. Pros definitely know that the paddle can give them an edge. Or take it away per Rafa’s struggle with that Adidas (and JW’s Franklin early on).

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      • March 11, 2023 at 6:22 pm
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        She signed with Paddletek so she’s going to stick with them. She seems to get pretty good pop with that paddle tap and it sure makes a poppy sound. Not sure how that compares to other Paddletek paddles. In any event, it sounds like they are going to come out with something new.

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  • March 10, 2023 at 5:18 am
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    On Hurricane Tyra Black: the athleticism is obviously there. Her court coverage looked elite, not surprising at all. She slipped and fell a ton, which was super weird. She was wearing Nikes, but not a court shoe model I’ve seen before, so maybe that was her issue. That’s a super easy fix. I think her biggest issue (other than running into the buzzsaw of ALW first match) was her reliance on slice groundstrokes and volleys. While they work well in tennis, in singles PB the floatiness allows your opponent enough time to react, and smack a heavy top spin shot for a winner. I’d bet she can easily make an adjustment to rely on top spin more often and quickly get better results.

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    • March 10, 2023 at 6:56 am
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      Totally agree, she was moving around the court very well! Re-watching the match this morning Irwin said she’s only been playing a month. Not sure how true that is but if she sticks with it I’m sure she’ll be a boss by next year.

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    • March 11, 2023 at 6:21 pm
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      It’s always hard to take much from these matches and she seems to have real potential. Whether she will be ready in 2 weeks is a whole other question. Her results the last 2 days have been fine enough but she is losing to Challenger players as well. Good match against Oshiro/McMillan today.

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  • March 10, 2023 at 10:11 am
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    Congrats to Collin Shick….and good grief what a bad look for Pickleball singles and all these PPA contracted pros for losing to a guy who has barely played in PB tournaments. Just goes to show that if some young D1 or pro tennis players got into PB singles, most current PB singles stars would be put out to pasture.

    If you love singles, watch real singles -> tennis. I’d rather see the PPA spend Thursday streaming qualifying mixed and pro doubles matches. And I’d like to see MLP eliminate singles from the current awful, gimmicky dreambreaker format. Have a few pro singles tourneys weekends a year if you must, but let’s see a movement to deemphasize pickleball singles in the professional ranks.

    An added bonus to PB singles going away….maybe then we can discourage those annoying people who play singles on public courts and annoy those who are waiting and also disrupt the other courts with rolling balls every other second.

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    • March 10, 2023 at 1:16 pm
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      It’s weird that people say they want new faces and some variety on Champ Sunday, but when it happens, it’s treated as a humiliation for the individual player and an indictment of the sport (see also the reaction to ALW losing to an on-fire CP). Unseeded players win tennis majors not too infrequently!

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      • March 11, 2023 at 6:24 pm
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        It actually is pretty infrequent to have an unseeded player win a major. Not sure about tournaments. Different in women’s tennis but men’s tennis majors have basically been dominated by 3 people for the last 15 years.

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    • March 11, 2023 at 6:24 pm
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      It just shows where pickleball is at that a guy who is in med school can come in and make a Championship Sunday with legitimate wins. Not sure we agree with all this wanting to get rid of singles. There’s enough people that enjoy it and we’re fans of it as well. There should be nothing wrong with singles on public courts either. That would be like getting mad at people playing singles in tennis.

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  • March 10, 2023 at 3:54 pm
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    Why did Jones-Smith drop out of the backdraw?

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  • March 10, 2023 at 5:58 pm
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    “It is never going to be easy in these deep mixed fields.” I can think of one team that had it easy. Re: Catherine “but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is”. Don’t forget another factor is the coaching she has been getting from Leigh since Nationals in November. A combination of factors for sure. It’ll be especially interesting how they do the draws because CP should be going for a triple. Normally, PPA should want a tired Catherine for MXD but she also will presumably be playing in WD so you can’t tire her out with singles before that at least.

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    • March 11, 2023 at 6:25 pm
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      They had tough teams though and they steamrolled them. She could have a couple of short matches on Sunday.

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  • March 10, 2023 at 7:07 pm
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    Good showing by Schick, hopefully he continues to play well.

    Riley missing yet another Sunday. Parris’ 10 minutes as his partner are probably at an end. If Riley has burned bridges with CP, I don’t know who can fill that role, but at some point Riley needs to accept a mixed teammate, not continue to treat his MXD partner-du-jour as a human-shaped obstacle. Has Riley looked 100% himself since he went to Oz? Maybe he ate too much Vegemite or something.

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    • March 11, 2023 at 6:26 pm
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      He has options out there. Riley may not have looked 100% himself since returning but it’s just not as easy out there to dominate it seems.

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  • March 11, 2023 at 7:52 am
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    You have got to be kidding me that JW/Dylan don’t get a chance to face the John’s on Sunday. Tim parks? Tyson and James? I know that JW and Dylan should have a higher seed than ONE of those teams. Just give them the #2 or #3 for crying out loud. On the other hand, if they do beat the Johns, their chances for another Sunday win are high.

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    • March 11, 2023 at 8:34 am
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      Sorry I meant Loong and Smith, not Tyson and James. Although its a shame they’ll have to play Jw and Dyl

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  • March 11, 2023 at 9:14 am
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    The men’s QF top half vs bottom half is brutal…..how do they do the seeding again? Loaded dice?

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  • March 11, 2023 at 3:54 pm
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    I am going to give you an unpopular opinion. I love me some JW. But his hands are over rated. He lost 85% if hands battles vs John’s brothers. In addition, they targeted JW with their 2nds and 3rds. Ben’s older brother dominated his head to head battle vs JW. Dylan and JW are known for their “hands”. However they lost the vast majority of hands battles with the John’s boys. JW also lacked put away power today. When you play the John’s boys you play them physically and mentally. And there is no better strategic team in the game than Ben and his older brother. There is still some distance between Dylan DF and JW, and the best team in the game.

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    • March 11, 2023 at 4:12 pm
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      I disagree. I don’t think JW’s hands are overrated. But some other skills are not as good yet. Some of his shot selections for example.

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    • March 11, 2023 at 6:27 pm
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      Yeah this is a hard disagree. His hands are ridiculous. The Johns brothers are so smart and know how to attack people.

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      • March 11, 2023 at 8:55 pm
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        Agreed, JWs biggest weakness is clearly his middle FH dink. He almost never attacks it off the bounce, rarely varies his spots, and hits it loopy without much top spin almost exclusively inside out to the bh corner. Most top players like Ben use the middle FH dink to dictate and put immense pressure on their opponents, against JW and Dylan it’s somehow the safest spot on the court to find which needs to change if you want to beat the best team in the game.

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        • March 13, 2023 at 10:27 pm
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          JW just lacks really being able to do anything off the bounce overall.

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  • March 11, 2023 at 8:29 pm
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    Yes like I said, they are super smart. Their strategy going in is to test jw hands. They didn’t pass. Watch the match.

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  • March 12, 2023 at 8:13 am
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    Fantastic showing by Shick. Ben shows that pickleball is the same as every other sport — the most important tool is the one between your ears.

    Ben tried to beat Shick like everyone else tried, and it cost him the first game. Unlike everyone else, Ben found and made the necessary adjustments and just tore Schick to atoms.

    I hope Shick sticks with it, his potential is glaringly obvious. I don’t think he quite has Alshon-level wheels, but he is certainly top 5. Very smart with good anticipation, touch, hands, and of course the tennis ground strokes. A year of top-level coaching and competition, and he’d be the next Iggy.

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    • March 12, 2023 at 5:26 pm
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      Fred: it’ll be nice to see more of Collin Shick. But he’s busy with med school. Even had to go back for classes Fri/Sat.

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    • March 13, 2023 at 10:28 pm
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      His results are already better than Alshon’s best, albeit with a somewhat generous draw. It’s not supposed to be that easy so will be curious how he does next.

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