APP Tour Chicago Open – 5 Takeaways – Dylan Frazier’s Doing Alright

📸 @teamdylanfrazier

Parity is one of those words thrown around in sports a lot. People like to think they want parity but sometimes it is a lack of parity that can really drive interest. Having a top player or team everyone is gunning for can be ideal as long as there is hope for those who are trying to reach the summit of the mountain. On the flip side, parity can be more fun because of the unpredicability. It’s unclear what pickleball will be like going forward in terms of parity. Parity has not been a staple at the top of the pickleball world, but with so much influx of talent we do wonder if the tides could be shifting. The APP Tour features more parity than ever partly because most of the very top players are exclusive with the PPA but also because the new talent is going there. Nevertheless, the amount of parity we are seeing could be more of a trend than pure randomness. It was a heck of a weekend for parity and that is a theme throughout our takeaways this week.

1. Dylan Frazier Doing Alright (Slim) – It was a big weekend for Dylan Frazier as he took double gold in men’s doubles and mixed doubles defeating JW Johnson twice in the process, no small feat. He also finished a very respectable 4th in a deep men’s singles field, continuing to show he is a real triple threat.

There are a number of angles you could cover with Dylan, but I think it’s important to look at the fact that he is quickly becoming one of the premiere right side mens players in pickleball. This gives him a huge advantage I think as there a so many strong left side men’s players, but there are so few strong right side players. It gave him and Andrei a huge advantage this weekend, as his ability to play the right made them a much more comfortable fit then Dekel and JW.

Another way to think about it is if you had put Dylan with any of the other three men in the final they probably would’ve been the favorite to win it all, as the fit would simply be better. There are a lot of very strong left side players in the game, but there just aren’t nearly that many elite right side mens players.

What is even more impressive with Dylan, is that he has become a very solid right side men’s player while still being able to go out and play on the left side and dominate in mixed doubles as we saw this weekend. We’ve seen a lot of the better ride side men’s doubles players struggle in mixed, but Dylan does not seem to have this same issue. He also has the ability to change things up in mixed, and play on the right side, if things are not going well, which is also an advantage over many other players.

Somehow, Frazier may sneakily be one of the most versatile players in pickleball.

2. Lauren Stratman 3 Straight (Gritty) – Lauren Stratman has had a roller coaster of an 8 months in pickleball. She had signed with the PPA tour to begin the year only to split from her doubles partner, Lea Jansen, before the year even started, which left her scrambling for partners. She has gone through a rolodex for women’s partners.

She eventually found a way to get out of her PPA contract so she could play Major League Pickleball and shifted to playing a bunch more APPs in the process. However, with so many partnerships being settled well in advance, it couldn’t have been easy to secure partners for these events early on. Up until recently, Stratman’s year has been disappointing relative to expectations even though she had some quality medals at big events, including gold in LA with Jorja Johnson, silver in New York with Parris Todd, bronze with Susannah Barr at the PPA Red Rock and a silver in mixed with Tyson McGuffin at the PPA Foot Solutions.

As we have gotten later in the year, it appears Stratman has been able to secure some true higher end partnerships in women’s doubles that has led to big time results. In her last 3 APP events, Stratman has struck gold – twice with Vivienne David and this past weekend with Andrea Koop. Her gold this past weekend with Koop has to be her most impressive after they lost their first match of the day on Saturday to the Kawamoto twins. Brutal seeding for both teams with the Kawamotos suffering from not playing tournaments. They proceeded to win 5 matches to get back to the gold and double dip Bright/Johnson on Championship Sunday.

It is unlikely to be 4 in a row this weekend in Atlanta as Stratman teams up with Regina Franco Goldberg, but the fact is that Stratman is reminding us she belongs in the discussion of the top women in pickleball. Jorja Johnson and Anna Bright are a very strong team, and she found a way to get it done with Koop.

Ideally, Stratman’s game fits best when she is paired with a right-sided monster like Vivienne David but she can get it done on either side as there was versatility with Koop this weekend in different matchups. It’s been a great run for Stratman and her biggest test coming up in the near future may be at the Columbus MLP where she will be teamed up with Susannah Barr to try to create her own Jackie Kawamoto/Anna Bright-esque dominance. Regardless of how MLP goes, Stratman is showing us that she didn’t go anywhere.

She just needed some time to sort things out.

3. Rough Office Day for Johnson’s (Slim) – It was a tough Championship Sunday for the Johnson siblings as they came out on the wrong end of all of the matches. The good news was between them they were playing in 4 of the 5 events. The bad news for them was that they ended up going 0 for 4 in those matches.

Even more remarkably, all of their matches went to the game to 15 which they lost. JW managed to force the game to 15 in both men’s singles and men’s doubles, after coming back through the loser’s bracket but then did not have the juice in the game to 15 in either losing 15-4 and 15-5 respectably.

Jorja, meanwhile, had come through the winner’s side in both mixed with JW, and in women’s doubles with Anna Bright, and she got double dipped twice. In women’s doubles, she lost 3 close games against Lauren Stratman and Andrea Koop and then lost the game to 15, 15-9. In mixed the siblings lost to Anna Bright and Dylan Frazier a team they have had no answer for to date.

While it was not a good day, the good news is you must be doing something right to make that many finals. One has to think that probably wasn’t a great consolation for the siblings, as especially for JW it was a lot of pickleball in one day, with no reward.

For now, I am putting it down as an anomaly but we will have to watch to see if they have any issues closing out matches as we move forward here.

4. Minnesota Madness (Gritty) – It is very rare in the doubles games that players come completely out of nowhere to make real noise in a tournament, but it happened this weekend in Chicago for Amrik Donkena and Aanik Lohani, a first-time partnership from Minnesota who somehow reached the semi-finals of the winners bracket in a stacked APP field. It’s one thing for us to be seeing upsets in pickleball nowadays, but multiple upsets from players who aren’t even on the pro scene is mostly unheard of. When Neil Mediratta and Brandon French beat Jay/Tyson earlier this year, it’s not as if we didn’t know who those players were. The difference in this situation is that Donkena and Lohani have not been around the block at all. Heck, they have barely even made it out of their house.

Donkena actually had a similar type of upset at the PPA Minnesota event in February as he beat Pat Smith and Ben Newell, 11-7 and 13-11, with partner Johannes Vance, who I have also never heard of. That win was forgotten by us as quickly as it happened. Besides that, the only other real notable result for either player was literally the day before for Lohani, who won 15-4 in mixed with another Minneostan, Jennifer Tavernier, over Rob Cassidy and Michelle Esquivel. That 15-4 loss looked terrible at the time for Cassidy/Esquivel but maybe it wasn’t so bad in hindsight.

The other crazy thing is that Lohani had never played a men’s pro doubles tour event before Saturday. Donkena only has tournament history going back to last August and has a couple of pro doubles days under his belt. Then the pair go out to beat Stone/Sobek, Cincola/DeHeart and DJ Young/Thomas Wilson before ultimately losing to Cincola/DeHeart on the back side, 16-14.

No real tournament history of note. No real tennis background of note. Donkena looks like he played some lower end college tennis while Lohani didn’t play any college tennis that I could see on some brief research, only up until high school age. It’s easier to explain when both players have serious tennis background and have been playing some pro tournaments together, a la Ryler DeHeart and Travis Rettenmaier in Punta Gorda. This one was nearly impossible to see coming unless you see those guys regularly. Even then, could you really have expected anything close to this?

We talk about this parity theme and if guys who have almost no pro experience combined are coming out to pro tournaments to win big against established players, what does this mean to the sport overall? This very well could be flash in the pan type stuff. As we know, the doubles game takes a lot longer to figure out than singles. 

As fair as the skepticism towards this happening again anytime is, it shouldn’t take away from the fact that these two really did what no one has done on either pro tours, which is string together multiple legitimate wins without anyone really knowing who you are. It would have been pure Minnesotan madness if Donkena/Lohani could have found a way past Cincola/DeHeart a second time, but we’ll settle for simple Minnesotan madness for now.

Clearly, Donkena and Lohani are two guys to keep an eye out on in any draw going forward.

5. Lassandro and Todorovic-Shaw (Gritty) – To finish off our parity theme, we’ll go to the women’s senior pro division where the Illinois resident, Jen Lassandro, and her partner, Natalie Todorovic-Shaw secured a silver medal in a pretty damn strong senior women’s division. They lost to Bagby/Bellamy not surprisingly in the end, but that’s a legitimate silver for the pair. Lassandro is a name that has been around the senior pro brackets the past couple of years but she has only played 3 bigger APP events in 2022. Todorvic-Shaw is much newer to the scene and, frankly, I had not noticed her name in a draw before. That did not stop the pair from winning a silver medal ahead of Welsher/Wilhelm, the bronze medalists, as well as other more well known names like Julie Johnson, Anna Shirley, Leslie Bernard, Linda Thompson and Chris Karges.

As much as we are seeing a youth movement in pickleball, there are always new players across the board that we are seeing and it wasn’t very long ago that Todorovic-Shaw was playing her first 5.0, 50+ event. Now she’s on a really strong looking podium with Jen Lassandro at the APP Chicago Open. That has to feel good.

Fantasy Update: 17-10 for Slim. Gritty finally drops a fantasy game after a big run over the past few tournaments. Slim made almost all of the better choices for Chicago and it was about time because he was due. This could go away quick from Gritty if he has another bad weekend with a big PPA and big APP event coming up this weekend. Slim is now 3 up going into a potential turning point weekend for the season.

Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments below or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook too!

22 thoughts on “APP Tour Chicago Open – 5 Takeaways – Dylan Frazier’s Doing Alright

  • September 6, 2022 at 12:15 am
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    As Anna Bright said, “nobody can call him baby D anymore, it’s Big D now”. Thank you for all your time and posting.

    Reply
  • September 6, 2022 at 1:15 am
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    Off topic, almost entirely. Although you guys did include the Lassandro and Todorovic-Shaw (neither of whom I’ve heard of) silver in your takeaways.

    But about senior pro events, Rob Nunnery made some provocative comments in the first 5 minutes of this Freestyle Boys podcast on June 30, 2022. Rob said:

    * That senior pros should just be called seniors. That the only real pro events are open pro. That Weinbach and Gingrich are (the only) older players who can be considered pros.

    * That senior matches should not be on the live stream.

    * That senior (pros) playing in APP events should not be paid so much.

    I’m guessing your readership more or less agrees, given the very few comments posted about senior events. But the Nunnery comments still surprised me. Do you think his beliefs are widely held, or is he an outlier? Some of us like the senior pro events and appreciate that at least one of the pro tours appears to make it worth their while to show up. Interested in your thoughts.

    PS. No Devidze complaints that I saw on your website or heard on the match commentary of the portions of her matches I saw. Did I miss something, or has she (at least in Chicago) cleaned up her act?

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    • September 6, 2022 at 6:24 am
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      That sounds like Rob. I think you must have the date wrong because Freestyle Boys podcast has been dead for many months. So probably it was in 2021 that Rob said this (which I remember him saying on one of the podcasts).

      I’m happy the senior pros have an association where they can feel included and appreciated. And like any level, you can see the difference between 5.0 level and pro level. Definitely not just Dayne and Dave or they would dominate and win with any partner and they don’t.

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      • September 7, 2022 at 7:01 am
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        Rob revived Freestyle Boys with Casey Patterson, the pro beach volleyball player turned avid pickleballer, for a few months, but there haven’t been any new episodes for a couple months. I think it was one of these episodes where Rob made that comment.

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    • September 6, 2022 at 8:28 am
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      I like senior pro events, but look at all of their DUPR ratings.it’s not the same level of play. main pro events should be the main focus when it comes to money and live-streaming

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    • September 6, 2022 at 10:26 am
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      Yeah, I am fine not having to watch a senior predator play pickleball

      Reply
    • September 6, 2022 at 12:41 pm
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      The senior pro stuff is difficult. There is definitely a segment out there that is interested but live stream numbers suggest not enough care for it to warrant live stream material. Cc2 had some pretty solid numbers this weekend for APP when they had good matches on there but those numbers dip hard with senior matches. Maybe it should only be bigger medal matches if anything?

      The Devidze stuff could be opportunity more than anything. We’ll have to see

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      • September 6, 2022 at 6:26 pm
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        Some questions: What do you mean that senior pro is difficult? Difficult how? Senior pro market share is to small? What is “Cc2” and what are the senior pro numbers compared to open pro? Are the numbers statistically significant?

        What do you think about Nunnery’s comment about senior payouts?

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        • September 6, 2022 at 9:50 pm
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          The question itself is difficult about how much to feature them because it does not appear the interest in watching them is there enough to warrant the resources.

          CC2 is center court 2, where they put a lot of senior pros on. The streaming view numbers are low like sometimes under 100 people for those matches.

          In terms of payouts, if they are paying pro dollars, the payouts are warranted because they are contributing to the prize pool. You can’t ask them to pay those entry fees and not give them a decent portion

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          • September 7, 2022 at 4:50 am
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            i vote dont show the seniors . I never watch the streams if its seniors. I can see that at the Park every morning.

  • September 6, 2022 at 5:02 am
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    RE: Lohani and Donkena, according to Minnesotan Chris Olson on The Pickleball Studio Podcast, they both actually have upper level tennis experience. One did only play D3 tennis, but a) that’s Zane Navartil’s background as well as b) he was highly ranked in D3. The other apparently has D1 tennis experience. I’d bet they’ll have good success moving forward, but I also won’t be surprised if other pros quickly adjust to their patterns. It seemed like it was a huge emphasis on overpowering opponents, which, while disconcerting if you haven’t played against them before, can probably be neutralized fairly easily.

    Reply
    • September 6, 2022 at 12:42 pm
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      Donkena has college expierence but didn’t find Lohani with anything. We’ll have to dig in more. Teams will see them if they even partner again soon and be more ready most likely. Donkena will be playing with someone else this weekend

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      • September 7, 2022 at 6:45 am
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        Their soft game was a little rough around the edges but Dokena might have one of the hardest drives I have ever seen. There is a lot of potential there and it’ll be interesting to see if he rounds out the rest of his game.

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      • September 7, 2022 at 9:45 am
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        Donkena was a 3-star recruit and was an NCAA D3 All-American; Lohani played high level high school tennis in the twin cities and then club tennis at Uni of Minnesota. As someone who plays with these guys pretty regularly, I was just happy to see the pros have a hard time with Donkena’s power too! They both work hard and are great guys, too. Hoping they’ll have a lot more success in the future.

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        • September 7, 2022 at 6:50 pm
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          I should have been more careful with my language on the level of their play but I meant relative to like DeHeart and Rettenmaier who both played on the ATP tour

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          • September 8, 2022 at 8:58 am
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            Oh yeah, no worries. Wasn’t trying to correct you, more of just an elaboration.

  • September 6, 2022 at 5:54 am
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    When I see a new post by NML, I stop mid scroll and go read it. Same feeling as back in the day when the Sunday newspaper would arrive and my favorite comic strip (The Far Side) was there to see. Consistently a fun and satisfying read. Thx.

    Reply
    • September 6, 2022 at 12:43 pm
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      That’s awesome to hear Laurie! We really appreciate that

      Reply
  • September 6, 2022 at 6:33 am
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    Koop was supersuper focused for what reason who knows but she played great~

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  • September 6, 2022 at 4:19 pm
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    I give credit to APP’s devotion to live streaming. They had the Spanish Pickleball Championships live streaming at the same time and they were averaging around 12 viewers.

    Reply
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