The first week of April 2024 was one of the busiest I can remember covering in the fledgling world of professional pickleball, with two days of MLP drafts, a slew of last minute contract negotiations, and then both pro tours in action simultaneously.
After a long week recapping the MLP Premier and Challenger drafts, we turn our attention to the other entity in the newly formed United Pickleball Association, that being Professional Pickleball Association, which visited North Carolina and the Research Triangle area for the 2024 Fanatics Sportsbook North Carolina Cup.
Indeed, as per the word “Cup” in the tournament name, this is a “cup-level” PPA event, worth half-again as much as a normal Tier1, so that means progression scheduling and big, talent-filled draws.
By the end of the event, we had seen a seminal moment in the history of the tour; consensus #1 Anna Leigh Waters had swept the three divisions for her 24th career PPA triple crown, but more importantly had achieved a stupendous feat: 100 career gold medals on tour.
Click here for the PickleballBrackets.com home page for the event, where you can get tournament details, draw sheets, and results.
Let’s Recap the action.
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Men’s Pro Singles Recap
The main draw of this weeks’ Men’s Singles Pro draw featured two small upsets, and two massive ones. #17 Ross Whitaker took out #13 Julian Arnold in the round of 32 with an 11-0 white-washing third game, and #19 Naveen Beasley got another solid early win over an established pro with his 3-game win over #15 Rafa Hewett. However, the story of this draw was the monumental round of 32 wins by two players who primarily have toiled on the APP: Yates Johnson and Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez. Both are former gold medalists in singles on the APP, and both made massive runs here. Yates (who recently signed a PPA/MLP exclusive deal with his twin brother Hunter), shocked #3 Tyson McGuffin in three games, while Alvarez topped #11 Jack Sock with an 11-0 third game win. Sock may be ranked 11th, but had advanced to the semis of each pro event so far in 2024 as he builds up points, so both wins were shocks.
Neither Johnson nor Alvarez was done; Johnson took out fellow upset-minded #45 Robert Slutzky in the round of 16 to secure the quarterfinals, while Alvarez got his second top-level PPA singles scalp in as many days, beating #6 Jaume Martinez Vich in a back-and-forth three-game battle. They joined the other expected quarter finalists Johns, Duong, Alshon, Staksrud, Devilliers, and Garnett.
In the quarters, sanity prevailed, with the top four remaining seeds advancing. #1 Johns was pushed yet again by Duong, dropping the first game before advancing. #2 Staksrud cruised past Devilliers. #5 Alshon and #4 Garnett ended the runs of Johnson and Alvarez, respectively. Shout-out to Alvarez here; he and I play in the same club in Richmond, VA and he played very well this weekend. The semis on Saturday gave neutrals two three-game come-back wins for the tour’s top two players, and a #1 vs #2 championship Sunday match between Johns & Staksrud.
The final was a rematch of both PPA Austin and PPA Mesa. For all the talk about how Staksrud was gaining on Johns, for the third time in a head-to-head final Johns defeated Staksrud. As he had done in the quarters against Duong and in the semis against Alshon, Johns lost the first game, seemingly using the opener to learn the game-style of his opponent, and then cruised through the next two games to win easily. This represents Ben’s 36th PPA singles gold medal.
Gold: Ben Johns. Silver: Federico Staksrud. Bronze: Connor Garnett.
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Women’s Pro Singles Recap
The competing APP event really thinned the Women’s Singles draw in North Carolina, and the round of 16 was populated with relatively new names to the back ends of PPA events. When the dust settled in by Thursday afternoon, there was just one significant surprise who advanced into the quarters: former tennis star and social media darling Genie Bouchard. Bouchard’s pickleball journey has been a struggle thus far, but she got a very solid singles win in the round of 16 against #6 Lauren Stratman to advance into the quarters for the first time. She was joined in the quarters by the rest of the top 8 seeds, none of which really struggled to advance.
In the quarters, the top players dominated. #1 Anna Leigh Waters and #4 Lea Jansen advanced from the topside to set up yet another rematch, while #2 Catherine Parenteau ended Bouchard’s event in two games. The only “upset” was #5 Salome Devidze grinding out a 12-10 game three win over #3 Mary Brascia to set up a rematch of the Minnesota semi from a month ago. The semis went according to seed, with #1 Waters advancing past #4 Jansen in two close matches 9,9 and #2 Parenteau getting a bit of revenge on #5 Devidze with a dominant 3,7 win to set up a #1 vs #2 final.
In the final, Waters, with a triple crown and 100 titles on her mind, made fast work of her rival with a dominant 4,4 win.
Gold: Anna Leigh Waters. Silver: Catherine Parenteau. Bronze: Lea Jansen.
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Mixed Pro Doubles Recap
The top half of the Mixed pro draw featured some interesting matchups, but ultimately resulted in the two top teams (#1 Waters & Johns and #3 Wilson & David) advancing to the semis. But their pathway there was anything but straight forward. In the round of 16s Waters and Johns were taken to a third game by Alshon & Kawamoto (which seems like such a stronger team than #15). #11 Travis Rettenmaier & Etta Wright crushed #5 Garnett & Irvine before falling to the top seeds. The final top seed from the top-end (#8 Frazier & Black) withdrew, clearing a pathway for the under-rated #10 Staksrud & Rohrabacher to push #3 Wilson & David to the edge in their quarter, falling 14-12 in the third.
The bottom half of the mixed draw featured all kinds of crazy upsets throughout the early part of the event. #2 Bright & Ignatowich were beaten in the 16s by #22 Todd Fought & Maggie Brascia. #4 McGuffin & Dizon were ousted at the same juncture by #13 Pisnik & Bar. Both these teams didn’t stop at the quarters, each continuing their run into the semis. Fought & Brascia took out #9 Patriquin & Jansen in one quarter, while Pisnik & Bar won a hard-fought 12-10 game three over #6 Sock & Parenteau (in what may be Sock’s best mixed performance of the season).
In the semis, #1 Johns & Waters made fast work of #3 Wilson & David to return to the final yet again from the topside. From the bottom half, #13 Bar & Pisnik cruised past fellow upset-minded #22 Fought & Brascia to set up an unlikely final. Pisnik has just one career PPA medal (where she also reached a Mixed Doubles final in Brigham City last August), while Dekel has just one career PPA Mixed medal (a Bronze way back in Sept 2021 in Las Vegas).
In the final, Bar and Pisnik held firm in game one, with Tina showing great patience during dink rallies at the net, and with Bar showing his amazing length to pick off opportunistic attacks to score points, but they couldn’t quite overcome the #1 team and lost 12-10. That effort seemed to deflate the underdogs, who capitulated quickly in games two and three to lose 10,3,0. With the win, Johns secured the triple crown on the weekend, his 21st on the PPA and 25th professionally.
Gold: Waters/Johns. Silver: Pisnik/Bar. Bronze: David/Wilson.
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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
There were a few notable early round upsets in the Men’s Doubles draw: #11 Rafa Hewett & PJ Kawka took out #18 Jack Sock & Collin Shick in the 32s, not an upset by seed but another early out for Sock, who continues to struggle to advance in doubles on his PPA journey. An AJ Koller withdrawal gave #19 Ivan Jakovljevic & Brandon French a walkover into the 16s, where they promptly topped #9 Tyler Loong & Julian Arnold to earn a quarter final appearance. Lastly, #21 Ryan Eveloff & Naveen Beasley (playing with a chip on their collective shoulders since both are considered singles specialists, leading to neither being picked in MLP) topped #15 Steve Deakin & Eric Roddy to earn a spot in the 16s.
Two interesting upsets occurred in the bottom half of the draw in the round of 16, including one that really shows the depth of the tour. #2 James Ignatowich and Matt Wright were beaten rather easily by #14 Augustus Ge & Jaume Martinez Vich 6,9. Vich fell to challenger somewhat surprisingly (perhaps, again, since he’s had much more singles success than doubles), but may prove MLP owners wrong if he can continue to get solid doubles results. The other notable upset was #9 Patriquin & Callan Dawson taking out #6 Devilliers & Smith in two. A reminder: Dawson went completely unselected in both MLP drafts. Did he have an opt-out? It’s unknown, but if he’s making the weekend of pro doubles draws he should be getting picked in MLP.
In the semis, the #1 Johns brothers destroyed #4 McGuffin & Bar 1,4, while #14 Vich & Ge executed another shocking upset, this time topping #3 Staksrud & Tellez with relative ease 7,5 to secure a spot in the gold medal match. How big of a shock is the Vich/Ge performance here? Augustus Ge has just one career pro medal (APP or PPA), a bronze last fall in the APP Chicago Open.
In the final, Vich & Ge showed some butterflies in game one before bouncing back to cruise to a game two win and shorten the match to a best of three. In the pivotal game 3, Ge & Vich showed great patience and went for a variety of lobs and drops, but couldn’t shake the unflappable Johns brothers, who got everything back, held firm, took opportunistic drives, and quickly turned a close tactical game into an 11-5 blowout. Vich & Ge couldn’t catch their breath, and quickly the Johns brothers took game four and their 29th PPA title together.
Gold: Johns/Johns. Silver: Vich/Ge Bronze: Staksrud/Tellez.
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Women’s Pro Doubles Recap
A somewhat smaller Women’s pro doubles draw led to some newer names into the round of 16, but for the most part the quarterfinals was populated with the tour’s big names. That doesn’t mean there weren’t any upsets; in fact, there were two significant round of 16 results to discuss. The #9 seeds Parris Todd & Hurricane Tyra Black took out #5 seeded Callie Smith & Lea Jansen in three. This isn’t necessarily a monumental upset, and thanks to the seed swapping, randomized pairings, and non-full time PPA players like Todd being “behind” in points this may very well have been the “correct” result. However, one cannot say that about #2 Anna Bright & Rachel Rohrabacher being ousted by #15 Audrey Banada & Sarah Ansboury. Let’s be honest; the #2 seeds should not be ousted by two players who were not even picked up for MLP Challenger, even if Ansboury used to be one of the better touring players in the sport. A great win for Banada & Ansboury, who move on with confidence knowing that, if they can top #2, there’s nobody standing in their way until the final.
In the quarters, the two top teams from the upper-half advanced to set up a solid #1 vs #3 semifinal. From the bottom half, #6 Vivienne David & Lacy Schneemann ended the Banada/Ansboury run with a 3,3 beat down, while the relatively new partnership of #9 Parris Todd & Hurricane Tyra Black continues to get results, topping the also-new partnership of #4 Lucy Kovalova & Jackie Kawamoto to move into the semis. In the semis, #1 Waters & Parenteau crushed #3 Dizon & Wright 3,7 to keep Anna Leigh’s 100th title aspirations in play, while from the bottom half #6 David & Schneemann outlasted Todd & Black to earn a gold medal Sunday.
In the final, the dominant #1 ladies doubles team did what they normally do; storm through the match with increasing pace and speed. Lacy & Vivienne could not stop the freight train and lost in three straight 4,6,7.
Gold: Waters/Parenteau. Silver: David/Schneemann. Bronze: Todd/Black.
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Senior Open Competition Quick Recap
The competition of events really thinned the Senior competitions in North Carolina. No women’s events were held, and the regular competitors were mostly absent.
- Men’s Senior Open Singles: Damien Kenworthy took the 8-man double elimination bracket for the Senior Open Singles title.
- Men’s Senior Open Doubles: Brad Anderson & Craig Hall took the 10-team Senior doubles competition as the #2 seed.
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The Pro Pickleball Medal Tracker has now been updated with these results; check out this link online for a complete pro medal history for all tours and all pro events dating to the beginnings of all the major pro tours, plus pro events that predated 2020. On this spreadsheet you can get a list of all 100 Waters titles, all the triple crowns, and other fun facts.
Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, it’s a busy month for the PPA: they have four events in four weekends. They pack up from NC and head to Houston next weekend.