APP Cincinnati Open Live Blog – Singles
10:05 pm EST (Gritty) – The men’s side goes #1 and #2, but not without a lot of drama on the day. You always wonder what players have in the tank as these long singles days go and Jack Foster getting steamrolled by Devilliers in the bronze is likely a combination of no gas left and Devilliers being the superior player. Likewise, Devilliers got steamrolled by Zane after having to work very hard through the back draw while Zane didn’t play a 2 out of 3 until he got to the gold. JW Johnson also had his first deeper run in a big singles field in quite sometime. He has not shown the results in singles since playing Tyson McGuffin really tough about a year and a half ago.
I think this men’s draw could have shaken out a lot differently had we not had the rain delay and if singles was on the Friday rather than the Sunday. AJ Koller and Rob Nunnery both played a ton of pickleball yesterday. Nunnery ended up withdrawing once he got to the back draw and I can’t imagine Koller had much energy left at the end of the day. Ryan Sherry was just coming off a full abductor tear and playing his first tournament in 8 weeks – he gets matched up with Koller first round and almost wins that match.
Rick Witsken took the senior pro podium, which was not much of a surprise. When you get results at pro in singles late in your 40s, you are going to do well at senior pro. Jenny Marcos off of our radar pulled out a gold by withdrawal in the senior pro.
6:23 pm EST (Gritty) – The matches to 15 can create a lot of chaos. Zane squeaked through to the gold. Devilliers and JW will play each other to get to bronze so we’ll see if Jay can bounce back.
Jansen gets the gold by default and she may have ended up rolling through regardless. The conditioning is so important in singles and she deserves credit for being able to outlast others.
3:53 pm EST (Gritty) – Have a day Jack Foster. He’s got an unorthodox style as he basically just hits his windmill forehand every time he can possibly get around it but it works. It does not seem like it is sustainable but his more recent results don’t lie. He’s in the winners bracket final with a bunch of impressive forehand passes against JW. These games to 15 kind of suck though – JW was on the wrong end of more than his fair share of net balls against Foster.
We are assuming Michelle Esquivel isn’t healthy and that draw allows the lefty Jade Kawamoto to play Andrea Koop – it is pretty tight 7-6 Koop right now. Not a good start to the day for Jansen. Coming off the big US Open silver, losing to Koop who doesn’t play much singles is definitely surprising. Games to 15 don’t help Jansen whose fitness and court coverage should be at the higher end of the women that play singles.
3:06 pm EST (Slim) – we have our first big upset of the day with Jack Foster beating Jay Devilliers 15-13. Obviously the single game to 15 lends itself to upsets and Jack has been getting some better results lately but this is still very surprising. Jay’s inconsistency continues in singles.
John Cincola handled AJ Koller, fairly easily. I expect Zane and JW to advance to the winners side final, but the JW versus Jack Foster semi is one few would have predicted
2:48 pm EST (Slim) – after jumping out to a large lead on Rob Nunnery, JW Johnson let it slip away after, going from up 14-9, to 14-14, but he was impressively able to regain his composure and pull out the 16-14 victory
2:12 pm EST (Slim) – the other quarterfinal match up that is intriguing for me, is AJ Koller versus John Cincola. I would generally favor AJ slightly in this match up but after a long day yesterday, I do wonder if he might be a little tired, giving John and edge.
1:46 pm EST (Slim) – AJ versus Sherry was a tightly contested match up, with AJ prevailing 16-14. One of those ones where the single game to 15 is tough. In the quarterfinals I am curious to watch Rob Nunnery vs JW Johnson. I would expect Rob to win but that should be a competitive match.
12:55 pm EST (Slim) – AJ Koller versus Ryan Sherry should be a fun match to watch here isn’t he second round. Will be interesting to see how Sherry looks coming off an injury
12:44 pm EST (Slim) – due to the weather delay they’ve had to go to games to 15 which could add some upsets to the bracket
12:00 pm EST (Slim) – After a rain delay they are hoping to get singles day kicked off shortly, with Men’s and Senior Men’s. The Women are starting at 12:30 pm, and senior women at 1:30
