PPA Tour Takeya Showcase – Live Random Thoughts
For the players that played Beer City, it could be the fourth week in a row for tournaments. Then they get a break before TOC. From the TOC player list, it looks like some players have decided to skip that one and wait for Kansas City the following week.
The streaming is CBS, CBS Sports, and YouTube. It looks like the big 3-letter CBS will have 1 or more championship matches. Like last Saturday for MXD SF, we presume CBS will be taped. But this time they have a 2 hour time slot so taping might not be needed other than not to take a risk that something unexpected happens.
Takeya Showcase was in November at Newport Beach last year. The gold medal winners were: MD Newman/Wright, WD V.David/Koop, MXD Koop/Koller, WS Parenteau, MS Ben.
Championship Sunday, August 6th
1:10 pm EST (Waggish) – Order is MXD, WS, WD, MD, MS. Be prepared to channel switch per above schedule. WD Bronze: Tyra and Allyce over Lacy and Etta (8,6-,4).
2:15 pm EST (Waggish) – Waters/Johns vs #2 Johnsons MXD. AL and Jorja doing a lot of cross-court dinking. Jorja taking some speed-ups from Ben that JW was ready to hit, denying JW some opportunities to get involved. Games 1 and 2 felt like a warm-up match for Waters/Johns for their MD and WD matches. Their dominance was never threatened. In game 3, the pace picked up with less cross-court dinking. By then, the patterns were set for the continuation of Ben targeting Jorja and Jorja not having an unpredictable answer. Finally, we get multiple great rallies. Questionable foot fault momentum call at 10-8. Jorja hit valley then may have stepped into kitchen to do a dink or get out of the way of JW. JW took the dink. Ref call stands. (6,4,8)
3:32 pm EST (Waggish) – WS: Tyra Black vs Yana Newell. Black had game point but Newell catches her. What a great finish to game 1. Black wins the next 2. (11-,8,3)
4:45 pm EST (Waggish) – WD: Waters/Bright vs #2 Smith/Kovalova. Unlike game 1, we get a close game 2 with a tie at 8. AL/AB target Callie for many of the points in games 2 and 3. Kovalova’s aggressive shots give AL/AB some trouble. AL/AB are usually playing it straight with only occasional stacking. Just a few errors by Smith/Kovalova let game 3 get away from them. AL had her share of mishits near the edge of the paddle. (5,9,6)
6:35 pm EST (Waggish) – MD: Johns vs #2 Frazier/Johnson. Dylan and JW played smart in game 1 and did the right shot when given an opportunity. When no opportunity, they dinked but moved it around well. Game 2: At time-out, Dylan/JW up 8-1. You have to hope they don’t let off the gas which they have a tendency to do when up big or close to finish line at time-outs. It looked like they were already taking congratulations at their player bench. Counting their chickens? Dylan/JW played clean in game 2. Can they keep up that kind of quality for a higher pressure decisive 3 of 5? Game 3: Ben is speeding up and causing them trouble. Ben driving that third and crashing the net fast! Good change of strategy for them. Collin somehow now able to cover more of his court. Tied at 9. JW/Dylan choose the right time to go back to dinking. Game 4: Winning the point at 5-4-1 fired JW/Dylan up and they keep going to 11! Third tournament in 3 weeks, 3rd gold in 3 weeks! FANTASTIC RUN! 4rth PPA MD Gold in 2023. 11-6,11-4,10-12, 11-4.
7:10 pm EST (Waggish) – MS: #24 Gabriel Joseph vs #2 Staksrud. Game 2 is tied at 5 and stays there when the out call gets over-turned. Tied again at 8 and it’s a brutal fight to get that 2 point lead for the win. Joseph gets his first PPA gold! (6,10). Extremely well done to get through strong competition on Thursday and then again today.
Saturday, August 5th – Doubles
1:50 pm EST (Waggish) – No upsets from round 32 so far. Collin is able to play today despite the insult to his ankle.
2:00 pm EST (Waggish) – MXD Bronze Update: Ignatowich/Bright over Newmans (6,4).
Long/McGuffin vs Newell/DeLaRosa. McGuffin won gold with Long at Red Rock. But since then Long hasn’t done much playing in the APP. What can he achieve back in the PPA? Newell/DLR tie it at 8 in game 2. DLR is very comfortable playing with a left-hander after his many matches with Pesa Teoni. Long/McGuffin win (6,9) but it was a good fight from Newell/DLR. Over on the GS court, the camera looks like it is in a competition to see how high they can get that camera to distort the court dimensions and make the players look smallish.
2:51 pm EST (Waggish) – Newman/Koller vs Stone/Martinez Vich. Game 1. Wow. See how Stone recovers after he whiffed the OH at 6-5. See Newman’s trick jump drop on his Erne at 6-10. Game 2: We see 2 around the back shots from Vich. Vich got some good experience in hand battles with Riley. Newman/Koller (7,6).
Garnet/Wright vs Deakin/Lange (GS) – Garnet on GS: It looks like he’s using his new signature ProXR paddle based on the colors. Hard to see detail well with GS cameras. A blow-out in game 1 with only 1 point for Deakin/Lange. Game 2 is close for the first 5 points then Garnett/Wright pull away. (1,5)
UPSET ALERT! Tardio/Devilliers defeat Staksrud/Tellez in close (8,9) games. They play Johns in QF.
3:30 pm EST (Waggish) – Emmrich/Alshon vs Frazier/Johnson. Game 1 gets tied at 6. See great rally at 8-6 when Dylan runs back for lob and JW has to make himself skinny to avoid him and the ball. Despite the 2 FH in middle with left-hander Emmrich, 6 is the last point they get in the match! (6,0) F/J get Young/Bar in the QF. Ignatowich/Loong is playing Long/McGuffin for the QF appearance. Why is this match not being streamed? Two players that were supposed to be partners going against each other deserves to be viewed!
4:45 pm EST (Waggish) – Johns vs Tardio/Devilliers QF. Collin is limping badly — at times. Odd how it can come and go. He is wearing a band underneath his knee though it seems to be the ankle/achilles that has the insult. Tardio does shots to Collin or passing shots to Ben’s line. Jay just wants to go head-to-head with Ben. Ben may have chirped at Tardio at 6-7. Rare for Ben! At paddle tap, Ben just holds his paddle out as he’s walking off. Jay may have gotten a tap on it but Tardio certainly didn’t. Game 2: Ben anticipating well and winning points for a strong lead. Jay doing more resets/blocks instead of counter-attacks like game 1. Tardio/Jay missing opportunities to go after Collin on his serve from left as he stays back longer. Not good court IQ. Game 3: Jay going back to game 1 style and going after Ben in hand battles. No problem with Collin’s court coverage at 2-0-1. Ben speeding up and winning those battles. Jay’s cross-court speed-ups at Ben gets Tardio attacked over and over. Surprising to see this decisive loss with one opponent not at 100%. Johns (6-,9,4)
The Ignatowich/Loong match against Long/McGuffin is the only match in round 16 to go 3 games. McGuffin wins (8,7-,2). They face Garnett/Wright in QF to see who gets Johns in SF.
6:10 pm EST (Waggish) – Newman/Koller vs Arnold/Wilson: Koller playing against his cousin and partner in next MLP season. Riley playing against his last week partner. Game 1 was a run of streaks until it gets stuck at 8-7. Both teams made some outstanding plays and looked evenly matched. Game 2: Arnold/Wilson catch up with tie at 7. Game 3: After Arnold/Wilson have a strong lead, Koller switches to play left. It gains them some points. It’s a tight finish but Arnold/Wilson go to SF. (8-,7,9) Koller and Newman looked like they were okay with each other — no eye-rolling and some smiles and paddle taps. The biggest problem is they both can be hard on themselves when making errors and the partner might not be the personality to help them overcome that.
Frazier/Johnson vs. Bar/Young (GS): This match also gets tied at 7 in game 2 and goes to a game 3. Game 3 goes down to the wire with no team strongly dominating. Frazier/Johnson make it 8-5 but Bar/Young catch up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen either Bar or Young so patient with dinking. That 8-7 dink rally went on forever with no speed-ups. The one at 8-8 though had some exciting speed-ups. Another long dink rally at 10-9 but lobs and speed-ups eventually go in favor of Frazier/Johnson (2,7-,9).
The other QF was not streamed. Tyson not getting much camera love today. Garnett/Wright defeat Long/McGuffin (8,4-,6)
6:55 pm EST (Waggish) – WD: Taking time off is good for players at all levels. Trying out different partnerships can put fresh blood into a stale pickleball partnership. Combining both benefits, Callie and Lucy’s partnership now looks revived and strong. They easily win their QF against the Brascias (5,4).
Vivian under the weather so the Jorja/Vivian team was a withdrawal. Thus, #20 team Jaime Haas/AnneClaire Meyer played #5 Black/Jones in QF. Black/Jones advance to SF (4,0).
7:40 pm EST (Waggish) – WD: Another easy QF result. Waters/Bright over #9 Glozman/Newman (1,2). The #3 Jansen/Irvine vs #6 Wright/Schneemann QF goes to 3 games. Game 3 is tight all the way to match point with no domination. Lacy and Etta win. (7-,3,9) They are in Smith/Kovalova SF.
7:55 pm EST (Waggish) – Johns vs #4 Wright/Garnett SF. Collin walking fairly normal now. Game 1: Collin takes off his knee brace which I guess his achilles didn’t need. Ben does Ben things and a boring match with no exciting rallies. (5,2).
9:05 pm EST (Waggish) – #2 Frazier/Johnson vs #11 Arnold/Wilson SF. Game 1 gets stuck on 8-5 with 3rd shots repeatedly into net from all the players. Game 2: Arnold/Wilson speed-up almost every ball and get 6 points before first point from F/J. Their strategy works and Frazier/Johnson seemed not to know how to get back to dinking. Arnold/Wilson were a strong, aggressive team. Game 3: Great firefights, good mix of speed-ups, counter-attacks, resets. I’m going to credit Dylan for the win in game 3. First Dylan probably played the majority of the balls. He initiated most of the speed-ups. He tracked the ball well and was ready for his return. He kept his team pumped and positive. He also took a lot of pressure off JW allowing JW to concentrate on his own opportunities. #1 vs #2 on Sunday! (7,3-,7). It could be a very long Gold match if both teams decide to out-dink the other. Jim Ramsey may find a new dink record for his stats.
9:45 pm EST (Waggish) – Waters/Bright vs #5 Jones/Black SF. Don’t blink in game 1 or you’ll miss some exciting rallies. Better game than the score reflects. Game 2, Bright/Waters brought the aggression and never let their foot off the gas. (4,4)
10:40 pm EST (Waggish) – #2 Smith/Kovalova vs #6 Wright/Schneemann SF. In game 2, Lacy and Etta made a valiant effort and fought off match point 5 times. #1 vs #2 on Sunday. (5,7)
MD Bronze: Arnold/Wilson over Garnett/Wright: (3,10-,6) Looks like game 2 was a barn burner.
Friday, August 4th – Mixed
12:25 pm EST – There’s so much non-pickleball stuff going around but it feels like today will be either the most dominant or the most vulnerable we have seen ALW and Ben. We always wonder how much players are able to ignore the noise but clearly there is some awareness of it for ALW as Leigh Waters posted something on social media this morning alluding to yesterday’s reaction. Ben Johns has lost more than ALW and a singles loss generally doesn’t mean much for him. Following a loss in men’s doubles last weekend, we have to expect an incredibly focused Ben. On the other hand, we know Ben can get mopey when he’s not feeling the vibes from his partner so monitoring the demeanor of both players on the court is undoubtedly the biggest storyline of the day. It is not the friendliest draw out there for ALW/Ben as Lacy/Tyson or Jessie/AJ loom in the quarters and potentially the Newman siblings in the semis.
1:10 pm EST (Waggish) – Picklebrackets is showing an 11:00 PT start time. Nothing streaming yet.
3:40 pm EST (Waggish) – We’ve had a retirement. Collin Johns/Allyce Jones vs Lange/Ansboury. In second game at 1-1, Collin over-extends himself to reach a ball. Allyce and Collin both went for the ball which may have contributed to him becoming unbalanced. He falls, catches himself with his hand, play continues as he’s laying there on the court. Erik returns the ball and it hits Collin in the chest or arm pit. He just lays there and no one knows what is going on. It is on GS court so no commentator. After a few minutes, Collin sits up and takes off his shoe. So now it appears it is an ankle that got badly twisted. He sits on the court for a long time then at the sideline. In the meantime, other players take the court to warm up. Eventually, Collin limps away. UPDATE: Could be a knee because you see the leg bend unnaturally with weight on it.
In other results, Tardio/Shelby Bates lost in round 64 to Pesa Teoni and Genie Erokhina. Staksrud/Jansen defeat Maggie Brasica/Patriquin in 3 games.
5:00 pm EST (Waggish) – Waters/Johns defeat Lange/Ansboury (5,3). They play Irvine/Koller in the QF after they defeated Schneemann/McGuffin (9,6). Schneemann/McGuffin defeated Black/Loong (7,12).
Kovalova/Wright vs Jansen/Staksrud (GS). Game 1, Jansen/Staksrud played aggressive and their speed-ups were too much for Kovalova/Wright. Game 2, Kovalova/Wright found some success with their own speed-ups and Matt taking over that middle more. Matt and Lucy both go for the same ball at match point and Jansen/Staksrud win. (3,10). JW/Jorja easily defeat Garnett/Tereschenko (5,2).
6:15 pm EST (Waggish) – The QF are set. Jorja/JW vs Wilson/David. Ignatowich/Bright vs Frazier/Mary Brascia. Ignatowich against Wright/Bar was a weird first game 0-11 then they come back to win the next 2 (5,2). Dylan and Mary were pushed to 3 games against Callie and Jay. Newmans vs Staskrud/Jansen. Newmans were pushed to 3 against Spencer Smith/Yana Newell.
7:40 pm EST (Waggish) – Waters/Johns had no problem winning against Irvine/Koller (1,6). Ignatowich/Bright win against Frazier/Brascia (8,2). Good rally in game 1 at 4-9-1. AB did a good job with good use of going to Dylan’s BH. Mary did it with James but James is so quick to slide from his sideline back to middle that it wasn’t effective. James also good at finding the slightest gap between Dylan and Mary. I didn’t count but it seemed like Ignatowich took about 90% of the balls in game 2. At times, he looked very much like Riley Newman in mixed.
9:10 pm EST (Waggish) – Newmans vs Staksrud/Jansen: Game 1: See rally at 4-2-1. Riley having trouble anticipating Staksrud’s shots because he can hold them. See 5-6-1 Staksrud down the line shot. Newmans are popping balls up, gifting points to Lea and Staksrud. See 10-10-2 rally on Newman’s serve. Wow! At 12-11-1, Lea takes a time-out on Riley’s point. Lindsey appears to video challenge the in ball that won them the point. Strange. Game 2 starts out with sloppy errors from Newmans with Riley pressing hard. Staksrud/Jansen look more steady. Newmans struggle to get to net on their third and fifth shots. They clean that up and gain consecutive points. See good rally at 9-8-1 when Staksrud serving. Game 3: See 7-5 rallies server 1 and 2. Riley flies through the air to get to match point. (13-11, 9-11, 11-8). Very well played by these teams and exciting match! Newmans face Johns/Waters in SF.
10:05 pm EST (Waggish) – Johnsons vs Wilson/David QF. In game 2, Wilson/David get hot. They get 4 points in a row, Johnsons call time-out, but the run continues for another 3 points. Johnsons making a ton of errors – lots of balls going into the net. Contact with ball not synced up with body movement? Or the “bad bounce” side talked about on Thursday by AL and others? Game 3: Johnsons get to 5-0 and Wilson/David takes time-out. But it doesn’t help them and it’s 9-0 before their first point. After being hit in the eye last week, Jorja wearing glasses with lens popped out. BONUS: No commentators. Nice to hear the game and score without the distraction of commentators. Johnsons to meet James and Anna in SF. (8,6-,3)
10:50 pm EST (Waggish) – Newmans vs Waters/Johns SF: Johns challenges at 5-3. Ben thinks ball hit Riley before it went out. Riley says it didn’t. Video review says ball touched Riley. Didn’t the same thing happen last week except it didn’t touch? Easy win for Waters/Johns (3,5).
11:40 pm EST (Waggish) – Ignatowich/Bright vs JW/Jorja Johnson SF: Game 2 gets stuck on 4-4 for a long time. After a time-out, James moves to right. Very tight game 2. Johnsons going to Sunday! (6,8) Jorja’s passing shots down the line are the best of the women in MXD. With her being straight across from Anna, she got into some great firefights and won a good portion of them. Her overall reflexes may be faster than JW’s but not her hands or her flicks.
A shout-out Thank You to the refs. A long day for them.
Thursday, August 3rd – Singles
1:00 pm EST – Without Lea Jansen or Catherine Parenteau in the field this weekend for singles, a big silver medal is up for grabs in singles with a bunch of people potentially in the mix from Yana Newell, Mary Brascia, Irina Tereschenko, Judit Castillo and Hurricane Tyra Black. It will be a surprise if anyone else comes out of the woodwork to find that silver but medals will be open when 2 of the best 3 singles players are not in the mix. For the men, we have a full slate with Tyson McGuffin back in the mix and we’ll have to see if Connor Garnett can do anything to replicate his performance from Seattle last week. It is the 4th tournament in a row for players like Garnett so let’s see how that toll takes on those players.
1:55 pm EST (Waggish) – Tellez vs Gabriel Joseph. Game 1 was 10-2 and Joseph came from behind. It was 3-0 in the second game before Tellez got his next point. 13 points straight for Joseph! Tellez still tossing paddles – but it’s a light toss with nothing to interfere in its soft landing. Joseph had 3 times the quickness of Tellez. Joseph (10,5) will play Connor Garnett next. Dylan beat Quang Duong (7,4) to play Ryan Sherry next. Collin Shick over Sam Querrey (7,4). Vich beat Hewett (1,3) to play JW next. It looks like there is some streaming problems.
2:50 pm EST (Waggish) – Paddle BANNED ALERT CORRECTION. Connor Garnett is out now (see below) but looks like the Zane ProXR IS NOT banned. Still unknown if Garnett used it because his matches weren’t streamed.
JW vs Vich: Game 1: JW at 7-1 and Vich makes it 7-8 but a time-out has an effect on that run. In Game 2, Vich gets a 5-0 lead. And quickly makes it an 8-1 lead! I’ve never seen JW forced to cover so much court. Game 3 starts tight with 1 point leads. Eventually, Vich gets a 7-4 lead aided by good anticipation of JW’s next move. Gets tied at 8. JW wins 7,2-,9. Rather sloppy from both players but Vich was winning there for a good while then kept it close. In post-game interview, JW talked about how he had to adjust his style to get that win in game 3. Vich’s passing drives killed him on a lot of points.
Arnold v Tardio: Game 3 gets tied at 9-9 – anyone’s to take. Tardio’s 2HBH looking awesome at net! Tardio (9,6-,9) He plays Tyson next. Tyson def Marshall Brown in a tight (12,8) win.
Round 32: #3 seed Devilliers loses to #30 Irizarry (6-,2,11).
UPSET ALERT! Yates Johnson takes down Ben Johns! (7,6). It wasn’t streamed so don’t know if Yates played out of his mind or Ben played zombie Ben.
3:30 pm EST (Waggish) – Another one bites the dust and also not streamed! #24 Gabriel Joseph defeats Connor Garnett (4-,6,10) Joseph plays Yates J. in QF. Staksrud plays Frazier in QF. Shick defeats Isizarry (7,6) to play JW in QF. Still waiting on who plays Alshon in his QF. Tardio v McGuffin in game 3.
3:50 pm EST (Waggish) – McGuffin vs Tardio: Game 1 was 11-3 for Tyson. Tardio had commanding lead all of game 2. Game 3: Very slow. Tyson moving at the snail’s pace of a Ryan Sherry at end of rallies. He snapped something at the 3-5 time-out – a spare paddle? He’d dropped his game paddle on the court at the time-out but camera moved away. Might have helped as Tyson takes the lead 6-5 with a little help from a ball challenge. And wins after Tardio played tight and made errors. (3,4-,6) Did Tardio quit believing he could win? Tyson wasn’t doing anything outstanding.
5:35 pm EST (Waggish) – #2 Staksrud vs #7 Dylan QF: Balanced play in game 1 but Staksrud outplays Dylan in game 2. See point at 4-2 from Staksrud – around the back spin (9,5). #24 Gabriel Joseph vs #16 Yates Johnson QF. Game 1 gets tied at 8 and game 3 gets tied at 7. Joseph pulls it off (9,6-,7).
5:45 pm EST (Waggish) – #4 McGuffin vs #5 Alshon: Game 1 proves that McGuffin brought paddles to snap. He snapped a white signature paddle that might now be banned for MLP. Alshon the much better player in game 1. But game 2 gets tied at 6. Alshon gets to game point 10-8 and that is where things go wild. Each have their opportunities at game point. Game gets stuck at 12-12 for several side-outs. Game 3 usually favors the veteran and it does today. Tyson plays Joseph in SF. (3-,13,5)
5:58 pm EST – A quick comment here of just how impressive Tyson’s win over Christian Alshon was. He had far less than his A stuff and might be rusty from a 5-week layoff. Christian wasn’t coming to the net on returns and it seemed unsustainable that he could keep winning those points despite staying at the baseline. Tyson somehow fought off multiple match points and pulled game 2 out, 15-13. It wasn’t surprising after that that Tyson finally got it together to win more of those points where Alshon stayed back and Alshon lost it a bit mentally in game 3. There’s a reason Tyson keeps winning. The two exchanged words after the match and the broadcast claimed they would be speaking to Tyson for an interview, but it must have been vetoed because they would have had to ask about the heated exchange.
6:00 pm EST (Waggish) – JW vs Shick QF was on GS while I watched CC. JW loses first game and comes back to win match. (7-,6,9) In Game 2, it was 7-0 before Shick got his first point. JW gets to game point and Collin almost able to tie it. JW faces Staskrud in SF.
We are into some of the WS QF. Waters v Black. Callie Smith withdrew so we have Jamie Haas v Lauren Stratman. Mary Brascia v Lacy Schneemann. Jorj vs Yana Newell. Jorja beat Judit (9,10-,3) in the only 3 game match in round 16.
6:45 pm EST (Waggish) – #1 Waters vs #9 Tyra Black QF: There’s been a lot of speculation on how AL would react to a loss. We now have our answer. She quickly runs off the court. She doesn’t publicly cry, throw a tantrum, cuss, or anything else. In Game 1, it was 2-8 when AL starts a come-back. It is 6-10 and AL keeps fighting. In game 2, she dominates. In game 3, Tyra dominates. It is 8-0 before AL gets her first point. At match end, AL throws her hands up in an odd cheer, runs off the court, tosses her paddle at her bench/mom, and runs off. Lea Jansen was spotted in game 3 during a time-out talking with Tyra at her bench. It helped tremendously Tyra didn’t keep falling down like she has a bad habit of doing – remember the match against Jorja.
8:20 pm EST (Waggish) – Yana’s streak continues with QF win over Jorja (9,0). She meets Mary Brascia in SF after Mary defeats Lacy (4,6). #3 seed Staksrud vs 6th seed JW. JW hitting a lot of balls into the net. Staksrud getting a lot winners with passing shots. Staksrud goes to Sunday. (8,6-,2) It was odd not to see JW adjust after he adjusted to Vich’s passing shots. Staksrud can do a good job with misdirection using his feet/torso.
9:45 pm EST (Waggish) – #24 Gabriel Joseph earlier wins were not a fluke. He beat #4 Tyson in SF. In game 1, he couldn’t get anything past Tyson at the net. Tyson owned that net and the angles. In game 2, Joseph did better and pushes to game 3. In game 3, nothing went right for Tyson. His veteran experience did nothing for him this time which is rare. His balls were going out, He reached for many balls and got mishits. Joseph had game point before Tyson got any. (2-,5,4) Joseph gets to play for gold in his hometown. WS QF: Black defeats Stratman (5,6) to play either Mary or Yana on Sunday.
10:40 pm EST (Waggish) – #2 Brascia vs #6 Newell SF: Brascia had the home-court advantage but it was on fire Newell who won. (6-,3,4).
11:00 pm EST – What a weird singles day. So much happened. The story of the day has to be ALW losing and the way she reacted. It’s not really clear whether it is a matter of poor sportsmanship, sore loser or there is something more going on. That’s a weird reaction to have for anyone and there sometimes are bigger things going on than we may realize. Either way, the loss opened the door for a brand new gold medalist in singles on the women’s side. Yana Newell is on a heater these days.
For the men, Ben Johns’ almost predictable men’s singles loss following a tough Seattle weekend means we will have a new gold medalist. There were more upsets to be had today in men’s and you have to believe the 3rd PPA in 4 weekends and some players going 4 weekends in a row made for a more likely upset scenario than the tournaments we have seen in the past. That’s a lot of road time. How about Gabe Joseph coming out of nowhere for a Sunday appearance?
11:20 pm EST (Waggish) – JW wins bronze by defeating Tyson (2-,5,4). After game 1 loss, looks like JW, like Joseph, figured out how to beat Tyson. Odd it was the exact same scores as Joseph’s match.
Lauren Stratman defeats Mary Brascia (6,7-,7) for bronze.
Did y’all see how ALW reacted after losing to Black? Holy moly her age really came through there. I wonder if anything around what happened with Alshon/McGuffin ruffled her feathers.
If you hear anything about the issue between Tyson and Alshon, or about the weird celebration by ALW after losing to the Hurricane, please share it.
I can’t wait to see what noted family man Tyson McGuffin has to say about the Alshon match on his podcast. I guarantee it’ll be something about how he knows CA is a young guy and was frustrated after the loss, but that he said something (or some things) after the match that just didn’t sit right with Tyson, so he wanted to address it face to face like a man, and he likes Alshon and thinks he’s a good dude, it’s just not how he handles himself when he loses.
Along with image management, he may have gone over to Alshon’s bench to smooth things over. After losing Ignatowich’s commitment, he may need Alshon as a future partner. It would have been funny if Tyson handed him his paddle and said “here, break this, it’ll make you feel better”.
What commitment did Tyson have from Ignatowich? When and why did that change?
They were supposed to play the full year together. Sounds like James said he cut 3 of their last 6 tournaments they were committed to one another. But you could see based on the first half of the year that was possible to happen.
WHAT IS THE POSSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR NAVEEN BEASLY AND ELLIOT MARKOWITZ AS THE #6 SEED? PBbrackets.com software issue?
Joseph: It looks like Dawson/Patriquin was supposed to be #6. I don’t know what has happened to Dawson – he had to withdraw from Seattle. So Beasly team is the replacement as PPA does not reseed once brackets are drawn.
PPA should have put McGuffin/Long vs Loong/Iggy and McGuffin/long vs Wright/Garnett on grandstand court. Those had high drama and entertainment value. But instead we got some boring women’s matches on that court. Pathetic. I’m all for watching good women’s doubles matches but just not enough parity in women’s doubles in the early rounds to bump a good quarterfinal men’s match.
I don’t understand how they could possibly have thought a #20 seed QF match could be competitive and interesting to viewers.
Another really boring match with that Johns SF. The announcers made it 10 times more boring because how many ways can you say Ben is the greatest – I think they managed it about a million times.
Have Dylan and JW beated Johns bros. before?
It did not appear that Colin’s ankle effected the match that much. (Ben ran back to get lobs.) Do you think this was an aberration, because of that injury? Or have D/JW stepped it up? Whichever it is, rivalries and different matchups (e.g. Hurricane/Yana) are good for the game.
No, this was their first-ever victory against the Johns, and what’s more, I think in recent matchups the Johns brothers have beaten them without even dropping any games.
So it seems likely that Colin was seriously affected by his situation, whatever it is.
But even if there’s an asterisk next to this gold, it doesn’t matter. Dylan/JW can’t control the opponents they must go through. It’s their job to compete to win, and they did their job. Back-to-back golds now, Riley fumbling around with partners, Colin injured for who-knows-how-long, maybe Dylan/JW have a mini-dynasty in the making.
Only Collin knows how “seriously affected” Collin was. Dylan noted in his post-match sit-down interview that Collin was moving okay and even went after two ATPs.
Correction, Dylan/JW do have a previous victory, PPA Riverland
Maybe others I’ve forgotten
Old: Yes but not in Gold. March 2022, Riverland, FL. Here is what Gritty wrote at the time:
“Quite the early upset. Extreme wind conditions out there that the always stoic JW and Dylan Frazier handled it far better than the Johns did. The Johns brothers were up 4-1 in the first and then lost 11-5 and 11-3. Literally 4 points the rest of the way.”
JW was still mostly APP at the time. JW also took Ben out in Singles SF and ultimately won Gold.
It took them 17 months to do it again but 9 of those months were in the APP. Playing this year in the PPA has brought their game to a new level. JW/Dylan will be a force going forward.
All Fleming and meesh could talk about all match was how Collin was injured, and how much this negatively impacted Ben’s game. Really? Did Ben “have to step in and take more balls from Collin” as they said, because guess what, he does that every match, and even if he didn’t, yeah, Collin could still dink, which they seemed to think impossible. I saw no real difference in play from Collin, other than he let Ben chase lobs, as often happens anyway. But JW’s lobs were unreal! Because his backhand flick speed up and cross court dink are also two other viable options from that same position. I was sick of Fleming saying that the only reason jw and Dylan won was bc of injury. Rant over
I’m glad I had it on mute. I figured this would be the way the commentary would go with the golden couple. Dave can get this way on YouTube but he tones it down somewhat for CBS or ESPN.