USA Pickleball Nationals – Live Random Thoughts
As noted in our Fantasy Draft Preview, we will have thoughts on the MLP-Vibe merger announcement later in the day on Thursday so keep an eye out for those. In the meantime, we have our usual live random thoughts for the tournament. This tournament will follow the typical schedule we are seeing, except there is not the Championship Sunday situation as the events will all finish on the same day (edit: there will be a Championship Sunday). We didn’t do any preview for the senior events or split pro age stuff, but the split pro age events are particularly enjoyable as we do not get to see that kind of variety very often. A lot of was streamed on YouTube so you can go back and check that out if you’re curious at all.
As an FYI, all of the pro events will not start until 2:00 pm EST each day so the draws will go later into the evening. The night atmosphere on that Indian Wells centre court is special.
Sunday, November 13th – Championship Sunday
9:10 pm EST – Nationals triple crown for Anna Leigh. She is too good. She and Riley win 11-3, 11-0, 11-3. Complete dominance. We’ll have a controversy heavy takeaways tomorrow for you all!
8:22 pm EST – So they still made them double dip after a 3 out of 5, which the Johns were able to do. They win in 3 straight then go 15-6 to win it all. Not the most exciting men’s final.
6:28 pm EST – Anna Leigh and Parenteau get it done. They went down 2 games, including blowing an 8-1 lead in game 2. But they stayed resilient, coming away with game 3 in a close one and then pulling away in games 4 and 5. It’s a win for the favorites as everyone was rooting against them, at least from home, and surely Catherine has had a 24 hours, deserved or not. It’ll be some justification to her she made the right choice by coming away with a win.
3:33 pm EST – Ben Johns is still number 1. He beats Julian Arnold in 4 games, including 11-0 in the 4th. It has not been as easy as it once was for Ben but the staying power is still there after another year, doing it at an event without PPA generated friendly seeding with most of the top talent in the field.
1:54 pm EST – AL over Lea yet again in 3 straight. Lea had a lead in game 2 but could not hold on. AL’s dominance in singles is unmatched right now.
Saturday, November 12th – Doubles
12:43 am EST – A real tight one goes the Johns’ way again, 11-9, 6–11 and 11-8. Late nights here at Nationals. It is still close in this matchup but the Johns are coming out on top of these. Not an ideal day for Riley and Matt, but hooray for new matchups. Sunday should be an interesting day.
10:36 pm EST – The Johns win easily in the rematch 15-4. We get another rivalry matchup but this time in the bronze. It’s another win for new matchups that we get to see in the gold medal match.
Jessie and Anna are off to another gold medal match after beating Lauren and Parris in 2. We’ll see how they fare tomorrow with another shot at the now very controversial Anna Leigh/Catherine duo.
9:30 pm EST – Gosh, what a day it has been. Dekel and JW will play in the gold match after spanking Riley and Matt 2 and 3. They got the benefit of Tyson and Jay ousting the Johns, but this result over the clear number 2 team in pickleball is exactly what JW and Dekel were hoping for when they teamed up. It’ll be interesting to see if that was a one off or if this is the start of the two figuring something out together. In the meantime, a rematch of Jay/Tyson against the Johns is happening in the backdraw and it’s quite the weekend we get to see Benny Backdraw fight hard for something real.
A team with another good day together was Staksrud and Ignatowich. They squeaked one out pretty early in the day against Lange and Gabrielsen, 16-14, but made a good run before losing to Tyson and Jay.
Stratman and Todd have a huge day. They are currently playing for bronze as they beat David/Jansen, 16-14, and then beat Remynse/Barr, who also had a strong comeback with 4 backdraw wins after a not so great loss to Ansboury/Gaytan-Leach in round 1. Stratman/Todd are playing Irvine/Bright. Lucy/Callie another close but no cigar day. They lost 11-8 to Jessie/Anna in the third and then lost to Remynse/Barr as those backdraw letdown losses have been an issue for them. Pro tourneys not giving losers from the main draw a little more time after a loss continues to be baffling.
7:10 pm EST (Waggish) – Smith/Kovalova vs Irvine/Bright. Intense match with plenty of speed-ups from both teams. 11-4, 9-11, 11-8. Irvine/Bright to face Waters/Parenteau who didn’t seem to have any trouble winning their matches.
From commentator: ESPN+ was chosen because the matches are not limited to a time block. Also, some gold matches are supposed to be rebroadcast on ESPN or ESPN2 at some point.
6:00 pm EST (Waggish) – We have the mens semis teams. Frazier/Hewett hands, atps, and pronated wrists were too good for Wilson/Koller. They face Wright/Newman. Devilliers/McGuffin face Bar/Johnson. CC#1 has ended its streaming.
5:30 pm EST (Waggish) – UPSET ALERT! Devilliers/McGuffin had the same playbook as Frazier/Hewett (below) and took game 1 off the Johns 11-8. Of course, you don’t keep the Johns sleeping 2 games in a row and Ben was there to defend the attacks. But a flying erne by Devilliers set up game point for them! 11-8. Johns in backdraw.
Frazier/Hewett’s game play was clearly to be aggressive and the attack dog. That worked well for them game 1 11-7. But two can play that game and Koller turned himself into the pit bull in game 2 playing the right side. 11-7 for them. Game 3 in progress.
4:43 pm EST (Waggish) – Wright/Newman vs Yates/Arnold. This is why we watch. Lots of finger wagging. Yates trick shots. Fire from Arnold. Yates/Arnold game 1 11-7. Unfortunately for the viewers, games 2 and 3 were anti-climatic. Wright/Newman games 2 and 3 11-4, 11-4 in solid play. Game 3 Arnold was getting aggressive early but Wright/Newman was able to continue from game 2 with their judicious selection of when to attack. Wright humbled himself and realized he couldn’t keep getting into firefights with Arnold.
WD: Irvine/Bright vs Stratman/Todd. A river runs through it. Stratman/Todd maintained a wide middle gap and Bright took advantage. 11-3, 11-1. The lack of experience as a team was hurting Stratman/Todd as they seemed disjointed at times.
3:10 pm EST (Waggish) MD: Yates/Arnold vs Dawson/Smith goes to 3 games. Dawson/Smith placement skills won them game 1. Yates/Arnold aggression skills won them game 2. Yates particularly targeted Spencer but also set himself up for some good 1-2 punches. Game 3 was tight but the relentless attacks to Smith’s backhand won the game and match for Yates/Arnold. Smith had some opportunities to play his forehand offensively but chose to keep with his backhand defensively. 7-11, 12-10, 11-8.
WD: Brascia/Brascia vs Todd/Stratman goes to 3 games. 11-8, 0-11, 11-7 for Todd/Stratman.
2:17 pm EST – One more post on the Allyce Jones, Parenteau, Waters situation before we focus on play for the day. Both of us agree this should not happen and it is beyond unprofessional – USA Pickleball should not allow it either this late in the game. Where we disagree is whether any blame falls on the Waters, which Slim feels absolves Catherine of some blame. To be clear, we both feel this is mostly on Parenteau as she made the commitment to Jones, not Anna Leigh or Leigh. Bottom line, it’s a bad move.
1:33 pm EST (Gritty) – So the corrections poured in quickly. We missed that Catherine Parenteau was set to play with Allyce Jones going into Nationals. What is interesting is that it sounds like Jones did not have a choice in the partnership switch. This is not surprising. This is pro pickleball. It would be bad if the number 1 female did not have a partner for Nationals and, of course, Parenteau is going to want a shot at winning gold as is Anna Leigh. I get all that. Pickleball is more business-like than ever, which is fine to a point. However, if all this is true (I am quite confident it is despite how quickly this information has come in), something feels wrong about leaving Jones standing in the corner by herself without a partner at the very last minute.
It’s always easier to shout from the cheap seats and take the moral high ground in these situations when you’re not the one who has to make the decision. Nevertheless, I’d like to think that if I was in that position, I would not be making the decision the Waters and Catherine Parenteau have made leaving Allyce in the dark. I am also giving less benefit of the doubt to the parties involved due to events that have happened this year (Catherine dumping Jessie and Lob-Gate). This is all with the caveat that it sucks that Leigh got hurt and hopefully she is okay. We’ll provide additional information if anything comes along. Also, Slim may have a different opinion on me than this and we have not had a chance to connect today so I’m wanting to be clear this is my opinion alone, at least for now. Very curious what everyone else thinks about this as this is another one of those grey areas and when it comes to professional sports how much should we care about this?
12:50 pm EST – The big news heading into today is that Leigh Waters had to withdraw yesterday after hurting her leg while playing mixed. Anna Leigh Waters is now playing with Catherine Parenteau. We are fairly confident Parenteau was without a partner for women’s heading into the weekend so we think she was a free agent to be picked up. Parenteau was not part of our fantasy draft preview. If that is incorrect, please let us know. In any event, hopefully Leigh is okay and the injury isn’t too serious. From a pickleball playing standpoint, it makes for a unique set of matchups with Anna Leigh and Catherine pairing up. They should be even stronger favorites based on pure playing ability, but they are not regular partners so it should be intriguing from a viewing standpoint.
It is far less important with the double elimination aspect of the tournament, but JW/Dekel end up on the Johns brothers half of the bracket. For once, Matt/Riley should have an easier road to the Johns brothers than they have been in recent PPAs, but Ignatowich/Staksrud pushed them to 3 games in a recent tournament, and you cannot sleep on either Frazier/Hewett or Rettenmaier/Burrows at this point.
Friday, November 11th – Mixed
11:56 pm EST – We are going to get our expected final after all. Benny Backdraw doing Benny Backdraw things, working all the way through capped off by a 12-10 and 11-7 win over JW and Parris. That’s a quality day for Parris and JW after what had to have been a disappointing silver recently losing twice to Vivienne and Thomas Wilson, who did not have a good day together after losing 16-14 to Sheehan-Dizon/Dawson.
It was another down day for Jay and Jessie. They lost to Parris and JW then Matt and Lucy in the backdraw. Curious if they continue to play together in 2023.
10:45 pm EST – What an interesting day of mixed. It’s been nice to get a change up of the partners and a mix-in of the the two tours. Todd/Johnson were unable to really push Newman/Anna Leigh, but they were able to play a close 2nd game, losing 13-11. Unsurprisingly, that means Newman/Anna Leigh are into Championship Sunday and we’ll have to see who they face. Parenteau/Johns get another shot at Todd/JW to avenge their loss earlier today. Parenteau/Johns barely squeaked through to the bronze but Benny Backdraw is out there doing his favorite backdraw things. They beat Kawamoto/Bar, 15-13, which ends up being almost a very good day for that pairing. Then Parenteau/Johns eeked by Lucy/Matt, 16-14, which would have been a massive bronze for that pair as well.
8:00 pm EST (Waggish) – Kawamoto/Bar vs Bright/Loong came down to the wire. Near the end 1 point leads were exchanged with no one getting a run. Kawamoto/Bar 15-13. Jorja Johnson/Frazier defeated Brascia/Lange 15-11 in a surprise comeback. Jorja looked under the weather with much lower energy than usual.
7:15 pm EST (Waggish) – Todd/Johnson win game 1 11-8 over Parenteau/Johns. Ben and JW knew it’d come down to a battle between them. Not much cross-court dinking between the females. JW was able to take better advantage of his opportunities in game 1. Ben of course was going to do his best to dictate and dominate the court in game 2 after losing game 1. 6-1 for Todd/Johnson before Johns started getting/taking some opportunities to execute and they get to 8-6. But Todd and Johnson stay engaged and focused throughout. It took them a few tries at match point but they win 11-8. Extremely good playing from Todd/Johnson against obviously strong opponents.
6:25 pm EST (Waggish) – Waters/Newman into semi’s over Kawamoto/Bar 11-7, 11-2.
In the Waters/McGuffin back-draw match against Remynse/Staksrud, it looks like Leigh got injured in her right leg. She couldn’t put weight on it and had to retire when score at 11-3 for Waters/McGuffin.
5:50 pm EST (Waggish) – Todd/Johnson vs Irvine/Devilliers. Todd/Johnson easily win game 1 11-3 but game 2 Irvine/Devilliers has them down 1-8 before Todd/Johnson get their 2nd point. Game 2 goes to them 3-11 mostly through the attacks coming from Devilliers. But Todd/Johnson able to regain control in game 3 11-4. Todd’s dinking cross-court was able to create enough opportunities for JW to get involved. Parenteau/Johns vs Smith/Koller. Parenteau/Johns 11-6, 11-1. Johnson/Frazier vs Kovalova/Wright 11-8, 11-5. Johnson/Frazier tried to out dink them and that strategy didn’t work. Semis: Parenteau/Johns vs Todd/Johnson. Kovalova/Wright waiting to see who they get.
4:50 pm EST (Waggish) – Smith/Koller knock out David/Wilson 11-9, 1-11, 11-6. They’ll be the first real competition for Parenteau/Johns.
4:25 pm EST (Waggish) – All the streams are now going. The Irvine/Devilliers vs McGuffin/Waters was a great match to watch. So many incredible ATPs and behind the back shots. It was Irvine’s misdirection shots that determined the ultimate winner in a very close game 2. They’ll be playing Todd/Johnson on CC#2 (court 22). Newman/Waters came close to losing game 1 in their first game of the day against Ansboury/Deheart streaming now on CC1.
1:00 pm EST – The mixed draw is usually less interesting but there are so many good teams. Vivienne/Thomas should be seeing Callie/AJ in round 2 and that’s the type of matchup that is super intriguing for us. Catherine and Ben are the 2 side with Riley and Anna Leigh as the 1 seed. World Pickleball Rankings are supposed to be the seeding metric, which favors the players who play more tournaments and hurts PPA players – so you end up with Jay and Jessie as a 6 seed. Although, if anyone wants to do the exact math to make sure seeding is correct, we would be happy to hear if it is. It appears the top side of the draw looks a little tougher compared to Anna Leigh and Riley’s potential road.
Thursday, November 10th – Singles
11:58 pm EST – Julian Arnold is in the gold match after a win over Tyson McGuffin in the bronze, 11-5 and 11-7. Arnold will get another shot at Ben, who he has beaten earlier this year.
9:41 pm EST – Lea Jansen 12-10 and 12-10 over Devidze in games 2 and 3 after losing 11-3 in game 1. What a tight win and a crushing loss for Devidze. We likely won’t have much of a final yet again, but impressive resilience all day from Jansen after losing first round to Todd.
Who would have thought, Ben and Tyson at it again in a winners bracket final. Ben has been pushed hard today, including barely pulling out game 2 after dropping the first to Julian Arnold en route to the winners bracket final. Johns looked completely unengaged against Tyson, almost as if he felt like he should throw him a bone last weekend. Anyway, he dominates Tyson 11-2 and 11-4.
Julian Arnold is on the podium with wins over Rettenmaier and Hunter Johnson. The last month has been a helluva run for Arnold in singles. Two guys over 30 on the singles podium at Nationals. What year are we in again?
7:22 pm EST – Anna Leigh Waters is into the gold medal match and will play on Sunday for the gold, getting by Devidze 6 and 6. AL wants this Triple Crown. She’ll play the winner of Devidze and Jansen as Lea Jansen smoked Parris Todd in a match where you really wonder how Jansen got beat by Todd earlier in the day. Players have learned you have to pick your spots against Parris on when to come in and Jansen’s length made it very difficult for Parris to pass her at the net.
On the men’s side, Tyson McGuffin won what appears to have been an epic match against Jay Devilliers – 12-10, 7-11 and 12-10 in the third. After a breakthrough against Ben last weekend, you really have to admire the fight in Tyson to come out here and guarantee himself another podium. The man is a dawg. He’ll play the winner of Ben Johns and Julian Arnold as Ben as able to get past Hunter Johnson in 3 games.
Some close matches in the back draw on the men’s side. JW Johnson is slowly chugging along after beating Staksrud 15-10 in an error riddled game. Hunter Johnson will play JW after beating Pablo Tellez, 15-12. We get a match of former doubles partners, DeHeart and Rettenmaier as well. Rettenmaier beat Frazier 16-14 and DeHeart beat Sobek 16-14.
5:59 pm EST – Anna Leigh Waters over Parris Todd. 11-2 and 11-9. The side with the wind a big advantage but AL overcame it. Quality win for AL who was really picking her spots to come to net more carefully this time around against Todd.
Julian Arnold over Staksrud in 2, Devilliers over DeHeart easily and same story for McGuffin over Frazier. Did not expect to see another Jay and Tyson matchup. Tyson played an error riddled match in DC against Jay. This is for a podium too.
Just so everyone knows, the end of the day is on ESPN+ and that will be the case for each of the 3 days, which we are huge fans of obviously. They are doing a very weird thing with their content from earlier in the tournament in that we cannot go back to watch previous days. Don’t try to watch the pro split age and senior pro matches because you can’t, or even the stuff from earlier today. It shows as Private on their YouTube page. You want to make Nationals this big thing yet fans cannot go back to watch matches from earlier in the tournament. It makes zero sense. Sheesh.
5:05 pm EST – Remember when we were asking if JW Johnson was the #1 singles player in the world after the US Open? Well, JW Johnson just lost in 3 games to Ryler DeHeart, 11-9 in the third, in his first match of the day. Obviously a major win for DeHeart who is always competitive in these brackets, but it’s still not a good loss for the #1 seed JW. The level has not been there in recent tournaments. Does it have to be more than mental and physical fatigue at this point? DeHeart will play Devilliers in the quarter-finals.
Yates Johnson gave Ben Johns a run for his money, 12-10 and 11-9, but couldn’t quite close out either game. It sets up a quarter-final matchup between Johns and Hunter Johnson. Travis Rettenmaier had Hunter Johnson on the ropes up 7-1 in game 3, but could not push past that. Johnson got 10 straight points to win 11-7 in the third. It looked like Rettenmaier might have gotten a little heavy in the legs in attempting to close. We got another paddle toss but a relatively mild one at that. The men’s draw is so deep. Other quarter-final matchups are Staksrud vs. Arnold, McGuffin vs. Frazier.
Salome Devidze had a much easier time with Bright than Tereschenko, winning 1 and 3, putting her into a spot for a guaranteed medal in the winners bracket final. Anna Leigh Waters beat Stratman so we will get the Parris Todd rematch we have been waiting for. Quite the backdraw match with Fudge and Tereschenko. Fudge was up 9-2, then down 12-11, and ended up winning 15-12. Good win for Fudge.
3:20 pm EST – The results are already pouring in with the dual 2pm EST starts. On the women’s side, it is always a testy match between Irina and Salome, and this one was no dfiferent. Devidze has had some trouble with Tereschenko, but she pulls it out in 3. No challenges available on center court yet and Irina wanted to use her challenges. There’s no live chat available either so we don’t get to see the chat going after Salome. The two close ones Irina was upset about in the third appeared to be out from the views available. Other results we see Parris Todd taking down Lea Jansen 7 and 6, which sets up a very exciting Anna Leigh Waters matchup. Anna Bright got the best of Megan Fudge in a tight 3 game match, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4.
On the men’s side, a couple of notable early results are William Sobek beating Rafa Hewett in 3 games, 11-8 in the third. As good as Hewett has been the second half of the year, you still never know what you’re going to get from him in a given match. Travis Rettenmaier took down Ryan Sherry in 3 games after losing the first to him. Ben Johns is currently playing Yates Johnson and will likely have to go through his twin brother Hunter if he wins.
11:41 am EST – It’s fun to see some singles draws not skewed in favor of a few select players. Ben Johns is going to have to work if he wants a medal today, much less a gold. He has Hunter Johnson looming in the quarter-finals and then likely Arnold or Staksrud in the semi-finals. Tyson actually found himself with a generally favorable draw for how strong the men’s singles field. Kyle Lewis will likely be his first matchup, which is not a freebie, and then Dylan Frazier in the quarters. Those are more favorable matchups for Tyson.
On the women’s side, Lea Jansen and Parris Todd play in round 1, which means a potential Anna Leigh/Parris rematch could be on the horizon. Todd lost twice to Megan Fudge in the wind of Houston so it will be very interesting to see how she fares against Jansen and possibly Anna Leigh. On the other side, Salome Devidze has the more friendly draw, but Irina has caused her trouble in their two recent matchups so don’t sleep on Irina here – notably Irina withdrew last weekend due to injury so where her health is at is unclear. Fudge and Bright is not what the #2 seed Bright probably wanted to see.
Nationals has a championship Sunday unless it just changed today.
I thought there coverage of the U.S Minto Pickleball Championship was pretty terrible given who they decided to put on the live stream. Here is hoping for more coverage of the pro matches and none of the senior matches.
That coverage was the worst
Also, does anyone know when the stream starts? I can’t seem to find a start time.
Nevermind, I found it. Chat is disabled unfortunately, which is disappointing because it can be quite hilarious.
IMO, I think they disable chat because of all the negative comments they get about the poor production quality, poor announcing, and not showing pro players. But JMO.
There is always negativity about the commentating; but overall, I think the chat is a net benefit for YouTube viewers. It gives the viewership some decent analysis, some comedy and some gossip….but I comment regularly so maybe I’m a bit one-sided in my viewpoint.
Nice job nationals having 3 courts streamed at once. That is amazing!
Grant: Do they say what the court numbers are for the other streams? The other day it seemed to be court 2. You know who is currently on the stream if you know the court number (court # shown in the brackets).
This is one of the only tournaments where the you have both APP and PPA players together without the PPA tilting the scales in favor of their contracted players. It will be so interesting to see how singles shakes out with these fair seedings.
1-JW
2-BJ
3-Fed
4-Tyson
5-Frazier
6-Arnold
So how are you updating your priors? That the PPA was actually correct in its seeding, that the Nationals seedings were wildly biased in favor of APP players… or both?
I will address as best I can:
1) PPA has definitely not been correct in their seedings. Case in point, PPA Championships had Staksrud as a 9 and Frazier as a 12 seed while having Jay D. as a 3 seed, Sherry as a 5 and FAD as a 7. Staksrud has a 7.02 DUPR to Sherry’s and FAD’s 6.59. Look at how those favored PPA players (Sherry, FAD) did in Nationals and tell me they deserve the seedings they get in PPAs.
2) How were these seedings wildly biased at Nationals? Tyson was 4 and finished 3. Ben was 2 and will be either 1 or 2. JW, Fed, and Frasier underperformed, now doubt, but their past results warranted their seedings. Ben’s and Tyson’s results warrant very high seeds as well. Jay D. should be top 10. I am not quibbling over Ben being seeded over JW or any minor thing like that. What disgusts me are the other egregious seeds, as well as the paths the PPA brackets set up for Ben and Tyson making it where they will avoid having to play formiddable opponents until the late rounds. In this fairly seeded tournament, Ben was pushed in 3 early matches and had to really earn his victories. This is the way all tournaments should be.
Streams are court 2, 3, and CC1. Watched Hunter J. vs Travis R. on court 3. That game 3 was a surprise. Hunter down 1-7. He gets upset with himself and slaps ball right at the ref. He gets a technical warning which forced him to get ahold of himself. He doesn’t stop until 11-7. Travis then of course got upset several times but never mentally reset like Hunter did.
Wonder how many paddle tosses we see from Rettenmeir when he has to take on two players with 100k on the line. Over/ under is 5.
In the game against Hunter, Travis faked a throw a few times. Then he did the mild one. Made me think he’s doing it for attention. He made a good run in the back-draw so maybe it keeps him pumped up.
I Cannot be leave the overrule from the ref at 10-10 game 3 of women’s bronze! You can not see it from there!!!! How can you possibly overrule! It’s literally impossible to see the line because the ball is covering it!
Just awful 🤦♂️. You can only overrule if you are 100% sure, and it was 100% out
Anyone else purchase ESPN+ every few months or so just to watch Pickleball for a couple of nights?
Lol yes
What a run by Julian Arnold. He takes one game off Ben then runs through the back-draw like a hot knife through butter. Maybe he’s the new JA for singles.
notable that the best players a few months ago are not the best players today. And I would say the best players today will not be the best players in a few months. Examples are JW Johnson, who has not done well in singles lately. Nor has STAK, nor has IGGY, nor has Parris. Nor has Catherine. The sport is changing rapidly. JW Johnson reign at the top of the singles game lasted a few months.
Just from the 3.0 August rankings that NML did, Staksrud was #3 and Arnold was #10. Catherine was #3 and Salome was #8. https://www.nmlpickleball.com/rankings/nml-pickleball-player-rankings-3-0-singles/
Julian A was down big to William Sobek in their first game (after Sobek took down Rafa), maybe 9-4, when Sobek made an out call that Julian thought was clearly in. You could see Julian almost literally transform into the Hulk (or pickleball equivalent) and proceed to destroy Sobek. He pretty much carried that fire throughout the day and would not let any balls get by him. (Don’t the pros know by now that if you are playing Julian you do not want to poke the bear?)
The Tyson and Jay match was an epic battle. Jay was up 10-8 in the 3rd when they must have traded 20 side outs, and every rally was high quality shots. Jay making phenomenal stabs and Tyson was being Tyson, getting to everything and roping passing shots. It felt like 2 prize fighters on the ropes for an hour. Eventually Tyson hit a passing shot that clipped the net and stayed in which broke the stalemate and gave him the momentum to close it out.
Really surprised at which matches they chose to (not) stream. Hunter and Ben J, Federico and Julian, Jay and Tyson were were all great matches on side courts while they had backdraw matches on the streams (which are courts 21 & 23 at the venue, by the way, not 2 & 3 in case you are trying to figure out which stream to watch from the brackets).
What is up with Callie and AJ seeded 10th behind DJ and Stratman at 8?
That is the only egregious seeding issue that I see.
Why only have CC3 going!?! Just show us pickleball!
We could be watching some great matches right now like Bright/Loong vs Matt and Lucy but oh well 😢
Grateful for any streaming. Many of the first rounds are done. The only matches of note are
Jansen-Ignatowich over Tereschenko,Irina-Hewett,Rafa 6, 3
Observing Jay and Jessie when they played Tyson and Leigh, I noticed Jessie seldom looked at Jay even when he reached over to give her a congratulatory hand slap. After winning the match, she didn’t seem to want to celebrate the win with Jay. Could be nothing or could be a sign of splitsville in 2023.
Why are Ben Johns and ALW not playing mixed together?
My guess is it was purely timing. They wanted to lock in a partner early that they knew would be there based on the system Nationals uses of who gets in.
So I’m watching Parenteau and Johns about to Johnson and Todd – they just took a time out on match point and game 2 – and regardless of what happens there’s something weird about Johns constantly speeding up at Todd. His speed ups aren’t particularly good/strong, and even the good ones she’s handling easily, and he’s just not learning.
They did win! Good for them, it was fun to watch, but someone should tell Catalano he shouldn’t sound like he’s crying with happiness
I really liked what I saw from Todd and Johnson in this match.
Is the day over or do they play down to the finals on another platform (not YouTube?). Thanks!
Today they stopped the live streaming at 5:00 local time or before then on some courts. ESPN+ streaming takes over from there. Saturday ESPN+ is scheduled for 3:00 local time but it looks like youtube might continue until 4:00 on some courts. Sunday it is 1:00. https://usapickleballnationalchampionships.com/live/
The MXD backdraw continues. But we do know that Waters/Newman will be in the Gold match on Sunday after defeating Todd/Johnson 11-4, 13-11. They’ll get the #2, 3, or 4 seed. In my early morning post that got lost, I called for Waters/Newman to make it to Sunday from the winners bracket. Waters is too strong a MXD partner to bet against and she’s teamed with a strong partner in Newman.
Speaking of Waters, the damage to Leigh’s leg must be bad. Parenteau is now listed as AL’s partner for tomorrow’s WD.
Who was Catherine originally partnered up with? Will be interesting to see how AL does with another ($6) female
Parenteau wasn’t in WD. Lea is playing with Vivienne. The late deciders have to take what they get. It’ll be interesting to see AL’s style with another female other than Leigh period.
She was in the draw with Allyce Jones
ESPN+ has mixed pro and singles available under On Demand section.
is it possible to watch the youtube coverage from yesterday? doesn’t look like the live streams were saved on USA pickleball’s youtube channel..
Parenteau was not a free agent. She was playing with Allyce Jones
The only way I can see that what AL and Catherine did is right, is if they offered Jones a share of whatever prize money and got it approved by the tournament director. Otherwise, there is no way you should be able to drop your partner for someone else at the last minute.
Eh, that’s pro sports. These top players are each a legit business, so just as sports teams can trade or bench beloved players, partners can be replaced. If players actually cared, Catherine would struggle to find partners after this but I doubt that’s gonna be the case, because they too are pro athletes who want to win and make money to support their staff.
It will be the case. She has a pattern of dropping partners. I know for a fact that players have told her they won’t play with her due to this pattern of behavior. However, there is always someone new who may decide to take a chance and play with her.
If it was a long-standing partnership between Catherine and Allyce, it’d be different. My read is that neither had committed that far in advance to play together. So Catherine might not have felt that strong of an obligation to Allyce, especially since they should have known they had no chance of a gold/silver and probably not even a bronze. Allyce probably showed a lot of grace and bowed out once she understood she stood in the way of Catherine earning a gold or silver. I wouldn’t get out the tar brush just yet without knowing Allyce’s viewpoint.
Woops. Bad phrasing. What I meant was that not being a long-term partner, Catherine probably felt she could ask to be released from her agreement. She had an obligation obviously and I would hope she got “permission” not to fulfill it.
Long standing commitment or not, there was a commitment, travel arrangements were made, and there was no replacement partner for Allyce… Hard to imagine she was ok with not playing today 😬
These assumptions about the situation seem very off base now after Dayne Gingrich’s post on Facebook. I was thinking along the same lines as you, but I guess not. wow, the drama.
What did Dayne say? (Is he the only senior pro mentioned under this entire post?)
He blasted CP because Allyce is his friend. (He also mentioned that they only partnered up on Wednesday.)
The two people being most dramatic about it on Facebook are the 2 guys who constantly spam pickleball groups with their insipid daily “inspiration”.
Allyce is a Client of DG.
For Catherine, this could be an audition to be ALW’s partner in the near future as everyone knows that AL might be bowing out soon…. BTW CP and ALW have been playing great as a team. They have good chemistry.
Why the HECK would they choose not to show the men’s WINNER BRACKET FINAL. You’ve actually got to be joking USAP. You are actual jokes. We have to watch Jessie and Anna play a million times and are forced to see an Ansboury BACKDRAW MATCH instead!! And never get to see JW and Dekel. Please, give us a freaking break USAPuke
USAP streaming choices are absolute trash today. Thank you for wasting my ESPN+ subscription.
that’s the USAP for you. Just mind bogglingly bad choices.
It would be amazing if we actually get 6 games in any of these matches today! 3/5 with a tiebreaker because of the double elimination format.
Pickleball stats super-people, a question:
Watching this YT video of Koller+Wilson against Staksrud+Iggy at about 18:26:
https://youtu.be/P2OOUqDQbtU?t=1106
we see AJ hit the ball out, and exclaim, “I hate this ball, why do we use a Franklin?”
Any statistical evidence to suggest the PPA tour pros are disadvantaged?
All pros were very vocal when the softer versions of balls first appeared on the market. I don’t have stats. But all pros said that lower level players were extending rallies that would have been ended much sooner with a Dura.
It’s a curious point and makes me wonder if APP players started using Dura exclusively if their skills would improve. Koller is the only one of the 3 who doesn’t routinely go back and forth in the tournaments, being mainly a PPA player. Though of course he does play MLP so should be used to it from that.
my bet is the john’s bros asked to play the game to 15 for fairness.
I believe AB is the #2 female doubles player in the game as of today, and would not be surprised if she is Baby Waters next partner.
You can disagree if you want. But I am quite confident you will see the results from AB next year.
What’s so funny: The USAP clearly stated the format was 3/5 with tiebreaker. It wasn’t Johns decision – he would never make that kind of decision. Double elimination required the tiebreaker.
AB’s court IQ is amazing in less than 1 year of pro playing.
okay thanks for clarification.
1.) I didn’t expect ALW/Newman to be that dominate. I really like how both of them can play on either side (and switched around multiple times during the match). It was very entertaining to watch. I know its not possible but I’d love to see ALW/Newman vs ALW/Johns. Ben’s strategy of taking up most of the court is a good one when it works but isn’t so good when it isn’t working. It clearly did not work vs two aggressive players that can play well on either side of the court.
2.) I think JW Johnson gets intimidated playing in-front of a large crowd. He and Bar beat both McGuffin/Devilliers as well as Wright/Newman the day before… there was no reason they should have lost four straight games vs the Johns boys. He just seemed like he was watching the match rather than playing in it. I was also very confused why Bar and Johnson didn’t switch spots until halfway near the end of the game to 15. Perhaps they thought they’d come alive in the last game??
3.) Tough loss for Bright and Irvine but they showed they belong in the same conversation with the top female pro doubles teams. I feel like they beat themselves tonight. They got down mentally and couldn’t get back into the match. I think if they work on the mental toughness side they’ll be the next dominate team on the PPA tour for sure.
I didn’t expect it either, but so fun to watch! There was a point towards the end of the 2nd game where Riley was off the court for an erne that didn’t end the point, and he didn’t even hustle to get back on the court, he was just kind of watching Anna Leigh at the kitchen line destroy the other team
kind of agree. i think jw still lacks some intangibles on the biggest stages. I think ben and collin were working mostly to jw, and getting him to pop up a dink or hit a neutral dink they could gain an advantage from. jw needs to put more pressure on with his dinks (he needs to be a more forceful bully up there), and be more offensive off the bounce. Still I wonder what jw’s partner strategy is for next year? my guess is he and dylan are going to team up the entire year. I continue to believe dylan is the best partner for jw in 2023, and their best chance to win big events.
I am most interested to see what ALW does next year with her partners. She has proven she can win with multiple partners. She has won with CP, JW, Ben, and now RIley. I think AB would be an incredible partner for her if she chooses to go in that direction.
I’d like Riley to find the male version of ALW to go up against the Johns and get this kind of score. I think it shows how much he can do with a partner his equal.
It’d be interesting to see how far down the male rankings an ALW partner could be (Patriquin? Weinbach? Waggish?) , and still yield gold.
I’m guessing AL will not play with Riley. If she and Ben can get it done and AL is a factor, then stay.
I didn’t see the match bc FU espn+, but the highlight shows 2 touches to Riley’s 10. No fun for AL.
Yeah she got lots of touches, just not that really!
Rally
ok, just saw the other comments. maybe I’m wrong,,,
Odd that no one has mentioned how unnatural it was for Ben to make so many unforced errors in a single match. Some of those were very easy shots for him. Sure Riley and ALW played lights out and were fantastic. But I found myself asking why Ben was getting errors on easy balls. It looked unnatural to me.
Pingback: USA Pickleball Nationals – 5 Takeaways – Catherine Parenteau and the Partnership Triangle – NML Pickleball