APP Tour LA Open – Live Blog

The APP is back this week with two streams again and this is what it is all about. Morgan Evans and Steve Dawson will both be in the booth this weekend so I’m curious to hear some alternate perspectives on the two streams. It is the live blog!
Sunday, June 13, Singles
10:47 pm EST (Gritty) – The singles goes the way we expected but not an easy road for Jay or Baby K. Lots of matches and Roditi showing he is right there despite all that was stacked against him.
7:40 pm EST (Gritty) – What a run by Roditi. After injuring himself in game 3 of the winners bracket match over Joseph he works his way through the back draw to the bronze where he gets a Joseph rematch. No matter what it’s quite remarkable from a relatively old man who hasn’t played a pro tourney in over a year.
7:05 pm EST (Gritty) – In a rematch of the US Open final, Tereschenko took down the rising Jansen again telling her not so fast. A whole bunch of women’s withdrawals meant this final round robin match was the defacto gold medal match. Jansen looked like she was going to take game 1 and then couldn’t get anything going in game 2.
Devilliers defeated Joseph in three games. Joseph is right there but sometimes you can’t help but think that his on court demanor is not helpful to him. Joseph will now play in the bronze either against the hard serving, windmilling forehand of Jack Foster, who had a very impressive win over JW Johnson to get there, or the 45 year old hobbled Daniel Roditi.
4:00 pm EST (Gritty) – Oh dear, Roditi just went down in a heap and grabbed at his left knee where he already has a brace. Roditi and Joseph were at the start of game 3 and having another one of their epic battles. Singles is a grind and the 45 year old was straight up battling. It actually looks like he rolled his ankle and he’s going to try to play it out now. Thank goodness. He is very ginger on it to start but better than a knee I would say.
2:47 pm EST (Gritty) – Alright, let’s get after this. Semi-finals are set in the men’s. Not any huge surprises but Nunnery, Koller and Foster losing so handily in the quarters, especially Foster, is a bit surprising. Roditi’s UTPR must be very high for him to get the 3 seed in this field. Roditi and Joseph have had some epic battles going back a couple years when Joseph was just coming onto the scene – Joseph would typically come out on top.
Lauren Stratman, Vivienne David, Christine McGrath and Michelle Esquivel have all pulled out of the singles field. It’s hard to understand why they are all pulling out when it’s such a small field and on the last day of the tourney. I guess they could feel like they are playing for bronze with Tereschenko and Jansen, but that’s some free bronze money someone is giving up if they stayed in.
Saturday, June 12, Gender Doubles
10:23 pm EST (Gritty) – A couple of pretty straightforward finals for the women and senior pros. Koop and Tereschenko as well as Morariu and Sperling appear to have won quite easily.
Never a big fan of round robins but interesting to see Nathalie Bagby win a silver in the senior pro women’s division. Bagby is actually a former pro tennis player and I believe she has only been competing in pickleball for a short while. There obviously is serious tennis chops and that’s a good silver – I do not know who her partner, Anna Shirley, is.
The men’s gold is currently just starting the game to 15 as Nunnery and JW went 2 straight over Evans and Devilliers.
6:45 pm EST (Gritty) – The men’s winner bracket final might have been the wildest match I have ever seen. I lost count of how many times Morgan Evans won a free point off his serve to Matt Chou – it was 6 in the first game. Evans was the first one on tour to really get kick off his serve on tour but he has done something with all this time off figuring some crazy shit out with that serve. He got Frazier a few times as well. This match could have very easily gone a different way without that serve but they end up winning in 2.
It’s going to be another weird podium today. Nunnery and Johnson took down Stone and Warnick 15-13 while Koller/Davidson beat Dawnson/Young. I guess I should be careful since I didn’t watch the matches, but DJ and Warnick continue to be two of the most difficult players to predict results for on tour.
5:35 pm EST (Gritty) – I love it when the players get vocal and Braverman is hilarious on the court. Her and Stratman lose a tight one to Esquivel and Jansen in 2 games, but you have to love the fire. There was some playful (I think?) banter going back and forth. Good stuff. It’ll be another podium for Jansen as they go on to the winner’s bracket final to face Koop and Tereschenko.
Gingrich and Tao lose to a formidable team in Crandall and Miller so it’s another tourney without a podium for them. I don’t imagine we’ll be seeing them partner up a ton in the future.
4:42 pm EST (Gritty) – It’s been a busy day for us so far and we have missed a lot. We’ll have to watch it back at some point but holy moly canoli! Matt Chou and Dylan Frazier with some major upsets. Frazier has been beasting lately but him and Chou already had some minor success in Newport earlier this year. Chou has just come on the scene very recently but the talent is undeniable at this point. To take down Donofrio/Borchard, Stone/Warnick and then Young/Dawson, the latter 2 teams were the #1 and #2 seeds in our view, is beyond impressive. It’s an unlikely podium for those two but obviously deserved with some super tight wins. I will be very intrigued to watch those matches back.
The senior pro side also appears to be offering up some fun matches. Booth/Dawson got to the winners bracket final and lost to Morariu and Sperling. Morariu/Sperling taking down Tao and Gingrich is definitely not suprising at this point and that’s just a match that could go either way. These are simply strong senior pro brackets with not much in the way of free wins after round one.
Friday, June 11, Mixed Doubles
11:45 pm EST (Gritty) – A really impressive run from DJ Young and Vivienne David. The talent is always there with DJ and today we got engaged DJ. This was a legit mixed field and both teams were unexpected podium teams.
In the senior pro division, Kris Anderson and Kevin Booth prevailed in a battle to the death in the winners bracket final against Morariu/Johnson. They had a rematch in the gold and were able to win in 2. Anderson is the far more decorated female over Johnson but it’s clear Morariu and Johnson have a lot of chemistry together. Johnson lets Morariu do what he wants and it works very well for them.
7:38 pm EST (Slim) – Barr and Cassidy’s big day continues as they beat Stone and Carr in three games in the bronze medal match, running away with the third game 11-2. Stone again seemed to be dealing with some cramping and he and Carr really did not seem to be themselves in the third game.
While Gritty and I have talked about Barr being very underrated in mixed before, it seems like we really underestimated her and Rob this weekend. The rematch with DJ and Vivienne should be an interesting match.
5:46 pm EST (Gritty) – DJ Young and Vivienne David in the gold. That’s 2 of 3 teams on the podium that neither of us picked in our fantasy draft preview. While that’s not ideal from a prediction standpoint, these results are exactly what make a tournament like this so interesting. I still am betting on either Carr/Stone or Koop/Devilliers taking the long way around to gold but, hey, what the hell do I know?
3:10 pm EST (Gritty) – Poor work on our part missing out completely on Barr and Cassidy. They win an extremely tight match 12-10 in the third against Koop and Devilliers. Only the 3rd game was streamed as the APP continues to have streaming issues (which they need to sort out badly). After being up 4-0, Barr and Cassidy went down 9-4 and then 10-7 before rattling off 5 straight points. Barr being so comfortable straight on in mixed seems to give them a real edge and they get that stack almost exclusively with Cassidy being a lefty.
Jansen and Nunnery are done after a very disappointing day. They lose to two teams that we would have expected them to beat coming into this tournament.
1:42 pm EST (Slim) – Cassidy and Barr continue their run with a dominant win over Jansen and Nunnery 11-3, 11-3. Rob and Susannah both have unique styles and I think that makes them a difficult and uncomfortable match up for a lot of teams, however Jansen and Nunnery never really seemed to get going in this match and never quite seemed to be on the same page.
In the winner’s semi-final Cassidy and Barr will face Koop and Devilliers who defeated Braverman and Warnick in three games.
1:02 pm EST (Gritty) – Carr and Stone are into the losers bracket after a shocking straight games loss to Jones/Taylor from Utah. This is crazy. Would love to have seen what happened.
Stratman/Burrows squeaked out a win over Sheehan-Dizon/Evans. Evans’ serve gave Stratman fits throughout the match and Sheehan-Dizon showing she has the raw talent to compete with the top dogs. Evans has elite weapons and when he gets going in mixed he is scary.
11:51 am EST (Slim) – Pro mixed doubles is underway out on the west coast where the pro tours will be hanging for the rest of the month of June. It’s early but the first notable result of the day is Rob Cassidy and Susannah Barr handled AJ Koller and Michelle Esquivel handily 11-2, 11-5. Neither Gritty or I picked Rob and Susannah in the fantasy draft but they had a very impressive run last year in Vegas en route to bronze. Could they be in for another big day?