PPA Tour Red Rock Open – Live Random Thoughts

📸 @ppatour

New partners. New matchups. Smaller field. There should be plenty to talk about when the dust settles in Utah this weekend. Keep up with the action here!

Sunday, April 10th – Championship Sunday

6:443 pm EST (Gritty) – AL over Lea in 3 again. What more is there to say here.?

Catherine and Riley are the team that has given the most trouble to AL and Ben, but it’s not enough. They lose in 4. Riley showed all day he’s a monster. He isn’t quite enough of a monster when it comes to facing the number 1 male and female out there. Those are quality silver medals even if disappointing for Riley this weekend.

4:22 pm EST (Gritty) – A barn burner of a 5 gamer for the men’s final. The Johns brothers went up 2-0 and Riley/AJ almost made it all the way back. They were up 8-3 in the 5th before the Johns went on an 8-0 run to close it out. It is fascinating that Koller has now been the one partner with Newman that gives the Johns brothers the most trouble. Matt Wright is elite while AJ has been up and down in men’s this year, but there is something about AJ that works with Riley really well. Tensions were high in this match too. You have to wonder whether Riley wishes he had a few more AJ partnerships lined up.

2:24 pm EST (Gritty) – A really good match to start off the day with the Waters coming out on top over Lucy/Callie in 4. These teams are pretty tightly matched up but the Waters just look a bit better right now. Another thing that gets lost with Callie is that she really hasn’t figured out how to roll her backhand on balls out of the air. She can flip it straight on to initiate an attack but that is her weak spot. It gets exposed only against the best teams as she can’t punish you from there. And that Waters defence has becoming something that must be really annoying to play against.

I think I have come around on the video replay even if limited in pickleball. I have some thoughts that I may save for a takeaway but it’s probably good overall. There were 2 calls in that 3rd game and the replay takes out the frustration from the team that feels slighted. 

Also, Tyson is not playing singles today due to illness. If it was almost anyone other than Tyson, I would question the withdrawal but Tyson is not one to withdraw unless there is something wrong.

Saturday, April 9th – Doubles

8:34 pm EST (Gritty) – The women’s day looked like it would be fun and did not disappoint. Barr and Stratman get the bronze. That’s a fun team to watch and they get a nice win over another surprise team in the bronze, Grechkina and Tereschenko. Barr continues to get wins as her women’s results are finally coming to fruition. Maybe it’s all thanks to her racquetball experience:

7:52 pm EST (Slim) – Jessie Irvine and Anna Bright fall to Lauren Stratman and Susannah Barr so both Catherine and Jessie fail to reach the medal matches in their first tournament apart.

7:40 pm EST (Slim) – Loong and Dawson take the bronze in men’s doubles ending an impressive run for Pesa and Daniel. I think Daniel is the biggest talent in the men’s game who doesn’t play pro tournaments regularly.

7:30 pm EST (Slim) – Not a promising start to the Parenteau/Jansen partnership as they get knocked out of the loser’s bracket by Tereschenko/Grechkina. It will be interesting to see how this partnership goes, if results don’t start coming fast.

Bright/Irvine went 3 against Smith/Kovolova and but could not get it done, as Smith/Kovolova advance to championship Sunday.

6:20 pm EST (Gritty) – Close but no cigar for Jansen/Parenteau in their first time out. Same result for Catherine but not without a fight. The Waters defence was really good today even though Leigh takes her sweet time getting up to the kitchen. These two keep rolling along.

Jay’s run at the triple bronze crown is thwarted by Pesa and Daniel, who had their best run in Red Rock last year too if memory serves correct. They are both very talented as I noted earlier in the day so you get up against them when they are hot and it is tough. Loong/Dawson in the bronze too after a convicing 15-7 win over Nunnery/Smith who end a disappointing day in a thinner field without a medal.

5:00 pm EST (Gritty) – The women’s top 4 matches are all set. Todd/Gayten-Leach did not give any trouble to Kovalova/Smith this time around. We’ll see if Jansen/Parenteau or Bright/Irvine can give any trouble to either of the top 2 seeds.

Johns brothers are into another Championship Sunday. Pretty easy road for them today. Koller/Newman are through as well after being pushed in game 2. It will be fun to see if they are able to give the Johns brothers any trouble tomorrow.

2:09 pm EST (Gritty) – The story continues to be Jay and Tyson’s inability to go deep into tournaments. Loong/Dawson is as grindy a matchup as it gets for them and it exposes their lack of elite weapons. We’ll continuing talking about it until the cows come home. There is not that much ability to create offence between them and when you have two guys on the other side who don’t give you much and/or have really good hands, it is an issue. And unfortunately, it’s not an issue that can easily be fixed.

Spencer Smith and Chuck Taylor lose their first match to Pesa Teoni and Daniel de la Rosa. Two guys who have success in pro draws, Taylor and Smith are not the most ideal fit together. Teoni and de la Rosa give teams trouble as there are a lot of weapons there. Not a fun matchup for anyone.

Friday, April 8th – Mixed

8:12 pm EST (Gritty) – In her first tournament after apparently receiving a break-up text from Catherine Parenteau, Jessie Irvine loses in the semi-finals to Parenteau/Newman but was able to come back to win a bronze with Jay Devilliers. It was a tight bronze match against Stratman/McGuffin, who continue to show good chemistry together, but they were able to pull away in game 3 after a couple of 12-10 splits in games 1 and 2. Jay and Jessie are still getting results, and they very easily could have been in Championship Sunday. Anna Leigh and Ben, of course, are back to the gold medal match and they will get the aforementioned Parenteau/Newman.

Otherwise, it was a pretty as expected day. None of Stratman/McGuffin, Koller/Smith or Kovalova/Nunnery were able to find a podium. Anna Bright is going to get there at some point but she isn’t there yet. I’m not as confident to say the same for Lea Jansen and Collin Johns as a duo, but they definitely looked better today from what I saw. It was their best run so far. It is hard not to demand results in this immediate world but it has only been a couple of months for them. If they are willing to work through the early struggles, there is a lot of upside between the two of them, especially with them both being able to train out of Austin together now.

3:25 pm EST (Gritty) – The semi-finals are set now. Anna Leigh/Ben will play Stratman/McGuffin after what has appeared to be a breezy first couple of matches for the pair, including against Bright/Loong. Nunnery hasn’t consistently had high end mixed partners for the most part and you do sometimes forget about the shot making ability he has. There were a number of backhands, both off the bounce and out of the air, that Nunnery took cross court all the way across Tyson’s body to the far sideline that he was able to keep in. He went to the well a couple too many times in game 3 though. McGuffin continues to be steady in mixed and, if you want to talk about shot making, Stratman can do a heck of a lot off that forehand wing of hers. 

Parenteau/Newman will play Irvine/Devilliers after each team has also had a relatively straightforward run to the semis with wins over Jansen/Collin Johns and Sheehan-Dizon/Dawson respectively. They are playing right now and in game 1 of their match. 

1:13 pm EST (Gritty) – Early mixed results are often quite interesting and today is no different. Anna Bright has played a number of really close matches the past two days and she is able to come through in another one. Bright/Loong get the win over Pat Smith/Leigh Waters 13-11 in the third. Their reward is Anna Leigh and Ben. At the bottom of the bracket, Sheehan-Dizon/Dawson get a very big win over Callie Smith/Koller, including a convincing 11-2 score in the third. That consistency with Smith/Koller is always a concern.

We noted the weird Dave Weinbach playing mixed pro in our opening so I would be remiss not to note a couple of good wins for the Badger today! Weinbach and Amy McDermott get a first round upset over the matching couple Grechkina/Newell and then go down to the losers bracket to beat Parris Todd/Warren Tamanaha. The Badger. Not washed yet! 

Also, the Lucy/Rob and AL/Ben matchup is still in play. Lucy/Rob playing Lauren/Tyson is super interesting and hopefully we get to watch that one.

10:41 am EST (Gritty) – What we need in our lives with this draw is an AL/Ben and Lucy/Nunnery semi-final. I had them as my #5 mixed team but I also get why Slim left them out. Kovalova is really good and even though Rob has no mixed results to his name the partnership is intriguing. They should have two tough matches to get there though.

Thursday, April 7th – Singles

12:10 am EST (Gritty) – Quite the bronze. 3 game barn burner that Bright came out on top over Callie Smith. The ref overruled a Bright return that looked out at 7-9 but Callie was able to get match points at 10-9 (Bright had match points in game 2 when she was up 10-6 and lost). Some controversy with Bright serving 9-10 and Callie thought she had won the point, Bright got it back but Callie had started celebrating, Callie then finished the point after it came back and a hindrance was called. Callie seemed to be nodding in agreement when it was called but thought the rule was replay point off the hindrance. They gave the point to Anna for 10-10 and I had always thought that’s the rule, lost point not replay. Don Stanley came on court to confirm. I’m not a hindrance guy in general but by the rules it was the right call all around it seemed. Bright pulls it out 13-11. Some crazy matches today on the women’s side. Bright still getting more comfortable at the net but she looks better each time out.

7:43 pm EST (Gritty) – The women’s Championship Sunday is set. Surprise! It’s Anna Leigh and Lea again. Lauren Stratman had an upset win over Irina but got rolled by AL while Lea got through Callie fairly easily as well with a tighter game one. Parris Todd then proceeded to lose 15-3 to Callie on the loser’s side and you have to wonder how much energy she had left in the tank with those long first couple of games. Anna Bright versus Callie in the bronze would be fun to watch. 

On the men’s side, Jay Devilliers secured bronze after beating Mario Barrientos 11-8, 11-4. Barrientos really is able to compete in these brackets. He has such a weird style but he makes it work somehow. Always competitive, he is a guy that I’ve had as a possibility in these fantasy drafts but never someone either of us has pulled the trigger on. He’s clearly someone to monitor and keep in mind going forward. 

5:45 pm EST (Slim) – Parris Todd’s day so far has been 9-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-13, 10-12. AL was up 7-1 in game one and Parris was up 7-0 in game 2. Not many can say they have legitimately pushed Anna Leigh for an entire match. It’s definitely not out of the realm to say Parris has the best ground strokes in the women’s game as she made Anna Leigh very uncomfortable to the point where she stopped coming to the net for a good chunk of the match. Todd is clearly not comfortable on the occasions she goes to the net and she needs to be more comfortable at the net to get to the next level. However, Todd continues to impress every time she’s out there. Unfortunate draw for her as that’s 5 long games to start off her day against really tough competition.

On the men’s side, Jay Devilliers is back into the bronze match after cruising through the backdraw. Barrientos will then play Tyler Loong who was able to push Ben Johns almost to the brink as well in game 2. He won game 1 and then found his way back in game 2 after being down 7-2. Loong ultimately lost game 2, 11-9, and then lost 11-2 in game 3, but he continues to show he still is able to hang at the top in singles while Ben continues to look vulnerable – tight squeeze line call from Ben at 7-8 against Tyler as well in game 2 at a very, very key moment.

3:07 pm EST (Gritty) – Quite a bit happening so far today. Ben and Tyson are both in the semi-finals. McGuffin had a particularly soft draw today and he’ll face FAD in the semis. The other semi will feature Tyler Loong, who had a big win over Jay Devilliers. You have to wonder if Loong has some extra motivation for the hometown PPA tournament. He came back after getting rolled in game 1. A noteworthy result on the men’s side was Julian Arnold losing to AJ Koller. Koller doesn’t take these singles draws too seriously anymore and has already withdrawn after losing to Ben Johns in his next match.

I see some stuff in our comments about the women’s singles seeding, particularly Bright and Todd playing one another round 1. Their result just came through with Parris Todd winning games 2 and 3, 12-10 and 12-10, but I don’t think this is intentional, even if it is odd that the two best non-PPA players have to face each other and then go against the unbeatable Anna Leigh. One of Jansen or Callie Smith should be into Championship Sunday no matter what as a result of this draw considering Irina and Lauren Stratman are also on AL’s side of the draw.

11:15 am EST (Gritty) – A little bit unfortunate that Todd and Bright face each other in round 1 with their reward being to get Anna Leigh Waters. Those are the breaks in these tourneys, especially for non-PPA players who do not have many points. This is just bad luck for Todd and Bright, and for the fans.

32 thoughts on “PPA Tour Red Rock Open – Live Random Thoughts

  • April 7, 2022 at 9:55 am
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    Thank you for posting. You don’t really think it is random that Bright and Todd are playing in round one against each other. PPA is known to manipulate/rigg the drawing/ratings to favor PPA members, like AL Waters. How bad would PPA look if AL Waters lost? Which IMO, is totally unfair to AL Waters. Of course, I could be totally wrong. Thank you for your time.

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    • April 7, 2022 at 10:45 am
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      yes it’s interesting…there is no way those two should be playing that early in this draw. It guarantees that alw has to play only one of them. it also guarantees that a contracted player on the other half of the draw gets to move on to Championship Sunday. ppa is making a bet that alw can take out the newcomer and make her way to CS.

      ppa is setting it up so that ppa players meet in finals. Luckily, as the PPA tour moves east, more talent appears to be entering the tournaments. But other than locals who want to test themselves, there seems to not be a lot of incentive for non contracted players to enter these draws.

      ppa does not want the embarrassment of a non ppa contracted player taking down one of their own on CS.

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  • April 7, 2022 at 10:08 am
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    the clown show makes it’s way to Red Rock. TY must be livin right! Because 5 of the top 6 players in the singles draw are on the top half! lol. Let’s not even discuss that 3 of the top five players in the game did not bother to show up. It appears that TY’s first match (in the second round) today was against a player who is closer to 4.5 than he is to pro caliber. Something is really fishy about these draws and just weakness in these fields and the way the brackets are set up. I believe PPA is setting up draws to ensure a Ben / Tyson match up on “championship” Sunday. Pro Pickleball Assoc has a loong way to go before it can be taken seriously.

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  • April 7, 2022 at 2:07 pm
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    Comments on youtube said BJ and Rob Nunnery won’t be doing their podcast anymore. Is this bc of the BJ switch from Franklin?

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    • April 7, 2022 at 2:45 pm
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      No, Tyson said on his podcast that they weren’t doing it together. Tyson said he didn’t know why

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    • April 7, 2022 at 3:00 pm
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      No it’s because Ben was fucking Nunnery’s wife. AND leaving Franklin. Just the third divorce left in the Ben Johns wake and we still have people loving this kid. High standard we have in pickleball I guess.

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    • April 8, 2022 at 7:21 pm
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      It’s because Ben had sex with Rob’s wife behind his back and now Nunnery is on the brink of divorce.

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  • April 7, 2022 at 8:09 pm
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    Thoughts on the Anna/Callie Hindrance call and the ref overrule of Callie’s out call at 9-9 game 3 I think? Crucial decisions that had an impact on the game. It looked o me that Anna was just asking the ref if it was a hindrance rather than arguing for a hindrance but I couldn’t really tell

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    • April 7, 2022 at 9:13 pm
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      Thoughts are up now in a post. Think it was right call all around

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  • April 7, 2022 at 8:30 pm
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    Pretty impressive performance from Anna Bright, I heard from someone who was right there that some of the crowd was heckling her. Plus fighting through cramps. And Callie was trying to bulldoze / bully her, even screaming “come on” on outball almost winners hoping to scare Anna into not calling them.

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    • April 8, 2022 at 1:57 pm
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      it’s super interesting that a player than has been playing less than nine months had ALW on the ropes in a singles match. And i would place AB the equal to PT in her singles ability, as their match earlier in the day showed us.

      I thought PT exposed some things about the ALW game that could be vulnerabilities, for example her forehand. Also nobody in the PPA really pressures ALW enough her to feel tight when things get close. This match I thought she felt pressure.

      There are now two players out there who don’t feel beat by ALW before even stepping on the court. One is PT and the other is AB. They bring a lot of hardened match toughness, and competitiveness to pb, as well as elite level tennis backgrounds.

      I was watching PT against ALW and she never lost confidence she could win. I believe both PT and AB need to develop a serve return that allows them to get to net and dominate from there. Neither is there yet, and it remains to be seen if they can develop that shot.

      The larger point for me is that 2 players who started in late 2021 are ALREADY competing at the highest level of the game. I continue to believe that nobody playing today is “unbeatable”. And the top players today are far more vulnerable to losing to particular types of players than is commonly believed.

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  • April 7, 2022 at 9:20 pm
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    Anna Leigh is lucky Paris squeaked by Anna bright. Anna bright would’ve sent Anna Leigh to the losers bracket, thus asserting dominance as the best Anna in the game.

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  • April 8, 2022 at 11:55 am
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    By underestimating the Badger, you made a classic pickleball mistake.

    Never assume older players aren’t going to be able to keep up with you. This sport is truly like no other.

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  • April 8, 2022 at 2:03 pm
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    apparently ALW is taking some time away from the game. I brought this up before here.

    This would be a NATURAL time for her and mom to make a Paddle switch. Not predicting anything. Just reading the tea leaves.

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    • April 8, 2022 at 2:23 pm
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      ALW taking some time away? Has she said so or just not signed up for more tournaments coming up?

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    • April 8, 2022 at 5:11 pm
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      Your comments about ALW are pretty spot on. She looked under pressure and changed her game as a result. Stopped coming to the net because she lost trust.

      Where did you hear she is taking time off? From when to when?

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      • April 8, 2022 at 6:22 pm
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        she is for sure skipping us open. it appears she will have a month between red rock and NC. someone on yt chat said her break was longer. but it only seems to be one month. Still possible, I am less confident in my theory now that the break is only a month. But folks are wondering why they did not enter US Open in their backyard…Whether she changes in 2022, I think it’s inevitable that her paddle sponsorship will be a hot commodity.

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      • April 9, 2022 at 1:18 pm
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        She did some commentating on singles day with Weinbach and said she was taking off the US Open and also the NC PPA. I believe she said that her next tournament after this was the Atlanta Open.

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      • April 10, 2022 at 5:18 am
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        She is taking 6 weeks off she said while was in booth talking.

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  • April 8, 2022 at 6:44 pm
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    A Few things I found notable in the PT ALW match. First PT never felt out of it. Despite going down big in game 1 she never felt like she was out of it. When she scored her first point I saw a fist pump. Second, PT did not paddle tap at the end of the first game. It’s a nutty custom anyway. But I think it also sent a message that PT thinks for herself, and does things that make sense to her. I expect the paddle tap before the end of the game will become an anachronism anyway, in due course. Third, PT did not let ALW dictate the pace of play. PT attempted to slow her down and play at a more comfortable pace. Tennis players are used to having some time between points. That’s an adjustment that PT has to make for PB. But she isn’t going to be bullied into playing FAST. Lastly, PT did not run to the next to tap paddles with ALW. She made her wait. Call it bad sportsmanship all you want. she did it. And she did end up tapping after she picked up her towel.

    All of this is to say that pro PB has not really seen a PT before. It has not seen an AB before. You can also put JA on the men’s side in the same category. Pro PB now has to deal with them, and those who come after them. Let me say something bold. PT was “not impressed” yesterday. There is an immense confidence underneath the surface in both PT and AB.

    let’s see what the future holds…

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    • April 8, 2022 at 11:05 pm
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      The paddle tap stuff really gets people going. It’s so weird. I think she just forgot to do it after game 1. And she was definitely going slow and deliberate as the match went on.

      It’s fascinating seeing the talented players enter the sport and have success so quickly

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  • April 9, 2022 at 3:11 pm
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    Any sense of what went down between Catherine and Jessie? Obvi they haven’t been playing up their abilities in these past few tournaments

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  • April 9, 2022 at 7:49 pm
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    There is no doubt that BJ is the best male and ALW the best female in the game. But one can’t help but notice how on both the women’s and men’s field talented newcomers are coming over from other sports and very quickly closing the gap. Think Anna B and Parris T. Hello Daniel De La Rosa! The best one hand backhand drive in the game belongs Jay D but he doesn’t hold a candle to De La Rosa’s back hand drive. That shot may be harder than any forehand drive in the game. He showed today that he can cross court dink with the best in the business, with no fear whatsoever and looked like he was casually warming up. The newcomers don’t care about playing Pickleball in the traditional ways, they just care about winning and are doing so.

    One has to wonder if De La Rosa and Teoni didn’t reveal a winning tactic against the Johns bros. Someone with De La Rosa’s crosscourt dinking ability (is there another besides BJ as good as him?), paired with an elite counter attacker on the right (Teoni is no doubt talented but has a ways to go) who sets up 2 feet back off the kitchen line and waits for either a short dink or one of BJ’s flicks. Teoni did that brilliantly today. Everyone tries to take Ben out of the equation but if you do what De La Rosa did, you pin BJ on the left side and he can’t dictate like he does when teams try to isolate Colin. Take Colin’s subtle attacks away (best right side player hands down) and isolate Ben on the left side while waiting to counter attack his flicks either cross court or down the line and BJ may well have a new and challenging puzzle to solve that might take a few losses to figure out…

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    • April 12, 2022 at 6:02 pm
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      It is not clear to me that Ben Johns is the best male. JW Johnson has given him a run for his money when they have played lately. It is too bad that they are in separate leagues

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  • April 10, 2022 at 7:31 am
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    let’s not kid ourselves. ben and colin won easily in 2.

    DDLR is not a newcomer. He’s been playing for 3 years at least. It looks like he is still improving and possibly could be a top of the game if he decided to go PB full time. However, that’s not a given. As for yesterday’s match I see it a bit differently. ddr and pt knew that dinking cross court pesa vs colin was a losing strategy. ben would insert himself or colin would grind him down and get pop ups or errors. That was a given going into the match. the only strategy then was for ddlr to take it upon himself and go cross court with the best left side player in the business. And he held up extremely well, although ben broke him down at the end.

    However, at any point in time Ben could have redirected middle or to pesa to either create a head on match up with him, or a cross court dinking exchange with Colin. At any time. Instead I think Ben intentionally went cross court with Daniel to take on the challenge, and to Practice. Yep, to practice and work on that pattern against a good left side player.

    I think the evidence for this comes near the end of the game when it was obvious ben wanted to finish with an Ernie against Pesa. You can see colin talk to ben before he served the game out. The erine didn’t work but he wanted to finish with a highlight.

    Riley and AJ used the going at ben strategy to beat ben and colin last year. Maybe that’s why ben wanted to get some reps in.

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    • April 10, 2022 at 10:49 am
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      Agreed, Johns bros won easily. DDR isn’t BJ, there is no doubt. But he showed yesterday he has the tools, that if he wanted to develop and hone full time, that could bring him quickly into that top 5 group of guys fairly quickly. In my estimation. BJ even mentioned in the post game interview the unique power of DDR.

      Your last comment summarizes my overall point. There is an ability to win with that strategy against BJ, especially if you have the hands of AJ and Riley. It’s unconventional for sure. But it is something to think about in restricting BJ to a few types of shots, in a particular area of the court rather than let him move all over the court and decide angles and shot types as you are trying to avoid him all together.

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  • April 10, 2022 at 1:10 pm
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    It was excellent sportsmanship on Kovalova’s part to give up a timeout for the first replay challenge in WD game. I rewound the hindrance call by Callie. She may have had it right. I didn’t see a double bounce before the Waters team celebrated the game win. But players somewhat blocked the view so hard to tell.

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  • April 10, 2022 at 5:59 pm
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    Jay Devilliers’ size, athleticism, shot-making, and flashy highlights seem to mask a glaring issue. He makes too many errors to be considered a top 5 doubles player. Agree or disagree?

    Feel bad for Tyson. Thought he had won the ALW sweepstakes until Ben swooped in, Riley breaks up and picks his least favorite player, and he’s stuck in Idaho without elite training partners.

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    • April 10, 2022 at 6:59 pm
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      I am liking the progress I’ve seen Jay and Tyson make in their partnership. In Tyson’s last podcast, Tyson mentioned one of the problems with early losses and they were going to work on that.

      What list has put Jay in the top 5? Who do you see available ranked higher than Jay on the lists?

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      • April 10, 2022 at 9:36 pm
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        While not PPA contracted players, JW and Dekel would be upgrades on the left. I rate Tyson well ahead of Adam Stone.

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    • April 11, 2022 at 11:49 am
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      The conventional wisdom is that the PPA offers the best brand of PB and the APP tour is loaded with young up and comers and is essentially a “farm team” for the PREMIER tour. That’s such a laughable take. There is never a lot of discussion about how THIN and shallow and top heavy these last two PPA events have been, especially on the men’s side, and most particularly in SINGLES.

      Let’s take red rock for example. 7 of the top 16 males players of 2021, based on the MLP draft, were not present in red rock, including 2nd best all around player on tour, as well as the #3 pick in the 2021 mlp draft. Only 9 Were present. DJ Young, eden Lica and thomas wilson also were not represented here. The third best doubles team on tour was ABSENT. On the singles side, 9 of the top 14 players (my rankings) on tour did not show up for red rock, including 3 of the top 6.

      There also seems to varied opinions out there about how ppa draws are set up. I think something is fishy, Others don’t. My observation is the PPA would like a johns / mcfuggin match up on Championship Sunday. And if I wanted that I would manufacture a draw that would look very muich lie the last two PPA men’s singles draws. They have a lot of money invested in the Mcguffin brand and the PPA is attempting to create a rivalry here, one sided as it may be.

      So anybody that actually believes the incessant self promotion and hype that the PPA represents the finest PB out there is simply ignoring facts and data.

      As for Jay and Tyson, the partnership has fizzled. yes they have won a couple bronze. But the bronze at PPA events has been diluted down as a result of teams pulling out. If you are getting paid to show up, why risk injury, why deplete yourself for 3rd? J and t have benefitted from walkovers and luck on their way to bronze. And given how thin the draw was at red rock, this week was a step back for the team. And evidence is mounting that this team isn’t cutting it, even in these woefully thin ppa draws.

      As for ty, at some point you have to ask the questions why he’s having a hard time with partnerships? It’s really a bridge to far, that one of the most ECONOMICLY minded players in the world would get upset when ALW makes an economic decision to play with the top male player in the world by far. More curious is why his partnerships with Lea ended. I noticed that there was no paddle tap after their mixed match the other day. riley also made a business decision by teaming up with MW. Since you made an ECONOMIC decision to lock yourself in to PPA events, it stands to reason you have to choose a partner that also did that. And if your goal is find a world class partner, that list is a short one.

      ty is in his early 30s and has a lot of PB miles on the odometer. He is playing 3 events every week, including lots of grinding in the back draws. Nobody does more off court work to prepare and recover from these events. But you have to think that toll on the body (he pulled out this week) is mounting. One must ask the question, while being Isolated up in Idaho, and running what appears to be multiple businesses, while younger players are grinding away daily in Texas and Florida, is his current daily routine is the recipe for more Championship Sunday appearances?

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      • April 11, 2022 at 11:04 pm
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        I don’t think either of us disagree with you generally about the PPA. It is not exclusively the best of the best and it does seem the draws are fishy to some degree. They have also been very sporadic about posting their draws.

        For Tyson, I’m not sure it is fair to say he was upset at AL rather than he was hurt by it. He did understand it seemed. But he is a limited player who for the time being needs to stay present to build his brand so singles getting 2nd and sprinkling in some doubles bronzes are good enough. His situation is not conducive to evolving his game at all

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