Rainy Austin Portends Major Upsets On The Professional Pickleball Association Tour

The Professional Pickleball Association made a quick jaunt down the heartland of the country for a fast turnaround/back-to-back from last weekend’s event, and is in Austin, Texas for the third year running. This year’s Veolia Austin Open is being held once again at the Elevation Athletic Club, a former Tennis only club that is embracing Pickleball like many of its fellow Invited clubs are. Veolia is the PPA’s sustainability partner, and recently signed on to be the title sponsor for several upcoming PPA
PPA
events.

The tour visits one of the biggest Pickleball cities in the country. Thanks to Dreamland and Austin resident Steve Kuhn’s initial vision for the sport, there’s a massive contingent of pros who call Austin and the surrounding area home. Among the area’s residents include the Johns brothers, Julian Arnold & Lauren Stratman, Dekel Bar, Stefan Auvergne, John Cincola, Vivienne David, Vivian Glozman, Lea Jansen, Hunter & Yates Johnson, A.J. Koller, Jack Munro, Zane Navratil, Rob Nunnery, Lina Padegimaite, Thomas Wilson, DJ Young, and a few others I’ve probably forgotten. Imagine the pickup games these pros can put together…

Austin is a 1,000 point-level event, which means it uses the conventional “play the whole division in one day” format instead of the “play one round a day for a week” progressive format. Selfishly, I like the old-school format from a coverage perspective (it’s much easier to write up a whole division at once), but as a fan I prefer progression for the match scheduling and ability to see all three disciplines each day.

Unfortunately for all parties involved, the weather really wreaked havoc on this event, causing most of Saturday’s matches to get moved and even some finals to get postponed until Monday. The tour used Steve Kuhn’s Dreamland for some of its matches over the weekend, an interesting development given the frosty relationship between the tour and Kuhn and the latter’s resignation from MLP last September.

Perhaps because of the weather, or perhaps because something else was in the air in Austin, we got perhaps the most unexpected set of results in at least a couple years on tour. Read on.

Click here for the PickleballBrackets.com home page for the event.

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Men’s Pro Singles Recap

The PPA had to cap the qualifiers for the Men’s singles, but still had 61 players competing for eight spots. The most “famous” name to have to survive qualifying was probably U-Texas star Jack Munro, who made a splash in Mesa and who just took a bronze on the APP last weekend. He survived a tiebreaker to get into the main draw. He survived one round, upsetting #22 Michael Loyd, but fell to #10 Quang Duong in the 32s.

#1 Ben Johns, who has been feeling the pressure from #2 Federiko Staksrud, survived his typical slow start (#28 Phuc Huynh took him to three games in the round of 32) to cruise past #23 Wyatt Stone and then #5 JW Johnson in the quarters to get to the semis. There he got a juicy match against none other than Jack Sock, who survived his own slow start to cruise past #7 Pablo Tellez and #13 Hayden Patriquin (who shocked last week’s finalist Garnett) in the quarters.

In that highly entertaining semi, Sock demonstrated his new two-handed backhand roll dink to go along with his powerful ground strokes and un-readable inside-out forehands to impress early, jumping up to an 8-3 first game lead. Then Johns ran off eight straight unanswered to win 11-8 and have Sock shaking his head. Sock roared back in game 2, whipping passing shots and quickly pushing for a breaker. But the tiebreaker was one-way traffic, with Johns just putting on a pickleball master-show, even playing (and winning) one point left-handed. Johns wins the first of perhaps many matchups versus Sock in three to move to the final.

A side note on Sock, who a pundit postulated of being “overrated” in a social media post this past week. In his first four pro events as a full-time touring pro (Palm Springs, Mesa, Lakeville, and now Austin) he has three semis and a quarter in singles. That’s him quickly rising to the top of that discipline, and you’d be hard-pressed not to claim he’s already one of the four best singles players on tour. His results in Gender doubles (three 16s plus this weekend’s round of 32 loss) and Mixed (three qtrs plus this weekend’s update round of 32 loss) aren’t as immediately impressive, but most would agree that it is much more difficult to move forward in doubles in pro pickleball, even if you’re playing Mixed with Parenteau. It has become relatively clear quickly why the PPA invested in Sock for the future, and his combination of athleticism, showmanship, and shot making is nothing but a positive for the sport.

Meanwhile, the lower half of the draw played out almost entirely according to seed. Without having to deal with Cason Campbell, #9 Collin Shick cruised into the quarters before running into #2 Staksrud, who crushed him 4,2. There, Federico met #4 Christian Alshon, who dropped the first game in his quarterfinal versus #6 Dylan Frazier, but came back to take the tiebreaker 11-9 to setup a solid semifinal from the lower half as well. In the second semi, Staksrud made it five-for-five in making Men’s Singles finals in 2024 with a comprehensive 5,7 win over his up-and-coming singles rival Alshon.

In the final, it was #1 Johns versus #2 Staksrud, and Johns showed why he’s still number one with a 5,7 win. Johns takes back some of the seasonal points advantage Staksrud had claimed over the year’s first three months. The Bronze medal match between Sock & Alshon was cancelled.

Gold: Ben Johns. Silver: Federico Staksrud. Bronze: cancelled

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Women’s Pro Singles Recap

Word came out at the beginning of Thursday that #1 ranked and #1 seed Anna Leigh Waters was withdrawing from the event. Social media reports that she was suffering from a slight knock, and the loss of the dominant ALW (who has just 6 career losses in Pro singles since turning pro full time in May 2021) opened up the draw considerably.

The player to take the most advantage was clearly #16 Kaitlyn Christian, who got an easy win over #32 Katherine Allen in the 16s instead of a likely defeat to ALW to move on. In her quarter, she faced #7 Brooke Buckner, who has been incredibly impressive on tour after giving birth late last year. The pair split games and Buckner was well ahead in the tiebreaker, but Christian mounted a furious comeback to win 11-9 in the third and advance to the semis. The other semifinalist from the top half was #21 Parris Todd, last week’s silver medalist, who cruised through four rounds and three top 16 seeds to get to the semis without dropping a game. For those who thought Todd was a shoo-in were mistaken, as Christian ground out a 12-10 game one win then cruised into the final 10,3.

From the bottom half, #10 Jorja Johnson (fresh off a Triple Crown last weekend in Sacramento) topped #10 Dominique Schaefer in the 16s to face off against #2 Catherine Parenteau in the quarters. The pair then played one of the odder matches in recent memory, splitting donuts in games one and two before Jorja cruised to an 11-5 game three lead and a spot in the semis. Final score: (0),0,5. There she faced off against #4 Judit Castillo, a two-game winner over #17 Jamie Haas in the quarters. In that semi, the ladies again split games before Castillo took out the Florida teenager to earn her first PPA gold medal match.

The final guaranteed a first-time PPA singles winner, and it was Judit Castillo who seized the opportunity, coming back from a game down to claim the title. It is just her 3rd ever PPA medal (she has two golds and multiple singles medals on the APP). Parris and Jorja’s bronze medal match was cancelled.

Gold: Judit Castillo. Silver: Kaitlyn Christian. Bronze: Cancelled.

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Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

Mixed Pro Doubles kicked off Friday Morning with a couple of round-of-32 shocks. #6 Jack Sock & Catherine Parenteau continue their streak of not living up to their seeds, falling to Sock’s doubles partner/training partner Collin Shick & Brooke Buckner in two. Shick & Buckner may be seeded 26th, but they’re quality players and this isn’t necessarily a “bad” loss other than the fact that Parenteau’s team should be making medal rounds consistently (she owns 23 medals on tour, 7 of them gold).

Another underdog run came from #23 Parris Todd & Hunter Johnson, who took out #16 Jade Kawamoto & Connor Garnett primarily by overpowering the lefty Jade on the court. They could do little against #1 Waters & Johns in the 16s though, falling 0,3. The biggest shock of the draw was John Cincola, playing with former Michigan Tennis star and PPA signee Kate Fahey. The pair, seeded 47th, got a solid round of 64 win over Vich & Mary Brascia, then ground out a 2-game win over Lindsey Newman and Hewitt to reach the 16s. They played #2 seeds tough in the round of 16 but fell 10,4 to end their run.

#1 Johns & Waters cruised into the final from the top half as expected, taking out #5 Alshon & Irvine in the semis. The bottom half featured a small upset, with #4 Anna Bright & Andrei Daescu making a statement in toppling last week’s champs #2 Thomas Wilson & Vivienne David 9,9 to earn the final and Daescu’s first PPA mixed medal.

In the final, Daescu & Bright handed Johns & Waters just their third ever defeat together, and rather handily with a 3,9,3 set-back. The Bronze medal match between Sock & Alshon was cancelled. It is Bright’s first Mixed gold since last April, and Daescu’s first on the PPA.

Gold: Bright & Daescu. Silver: Waters & Johns. Bronze: cancelled

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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

The Men’s Doubles draw in Austin was very favorites-driven, with just two upsets in the round of 32 (both by withdrawals of the higher seeds), and then just one upset by seed in the round of 16. However, that one round of 16 upset turned out to be rather notable. #9 Zane Navratil & Christian Alshon topped #6 Julian Arnold and last week’s finalist Tyler Loong 11-8 in the breaker, then turned around and shocked the Johns brothers in the quarters 11-6, 15-13. Alshon won a gold in doubles a week ago, and Navratil took a bronze in early February, so these are no strangers to the podium, but a win over the #1 team in their hometown is notable (to be fair, it’s also Navratil’s home town). The pair took out #3 Staksrud & Tellez in the semis as well to secure a gold medal appearance from the top side of the draw.

From the bottom side, James Ignatowich’s replacement Daescu turned out to be just as valuable in Men’s Doubles as he is in Mixed. Playing with Matt Wright, the #4 team cruised into the semis, then survived a donut 11-0 first game loss against the #2 team of Johnson & Frazier to advance to the final.

In the final, Daescu & Wright dominated #9 Navratil & Alshon to win in straight games 4,9,4 to claim the gold. It’s Wright’s first gold since he played with Ben last August during Colin’s ankle issue, and its Daescu’s first PPA gold (and his second on the weekend). Daescu, as he’s done so many times on the APP, takes the “double double” by winning both Men’s and Mixed gold. The Bronze medal match between the #2 and #3 seeds Johnson/Frazier and Staksrud/Tellez was cancelled.

Gold: Wright & Daescu. Silver: Navratil & Alshon. Bronze: cancelled

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Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

As with the Men’s Doubles draw, there were very few upsets to be discussed in the early rounds of the Women’s Pro Doubles draw. The round of 32 featured just one upset by seed (and another by withdrawal), and the round of 16 resulted in just one top eight seed eliminated (#6 Jade Kawamoto & Andrea Koop, who fell to #10 Jesse Irvine and Rianna Valdez in two).

The quarters went chalk, but the three of the matches went breaker. #1 Anna Leigh Waters & Catherine Parenteau were uncharacteristically stretched to a third game by #8 Johnson & Pisnik, not necessarily surprising on paper given the talent of those two players. Waters & Parenteau returned to form, heavily winning their semi 2,1 over #4 Kawamoto & Kovalova, putting themselves in line for another gold medal match.

The only top-4 seed to advance cleanly out of the quarters was #3 Anna Bright & Rachel Rohrabacher, who blitzed #10 Irvine & Valdez in a portend of things to come. They ground out a 7,9 win over #2 Meghan Dizon & Etta Wright to return to the gold medal match and ensure their 4th medal together since pairing up to start 2024. That medal turned out to be gold, as the former Orlando Squeeze MLP teammates came out firing against the #1 seeds 11-4, then rebounded from an 11-3 second game loss to win in four. Bright secures the “double double” on the weekend, having taken the Mixed title earlier.

It is the first time Waters & Parenteau have lost playing together, and the loss ensures that Waters fails to secure a gold medal in a PPA tournament for the first time since the Las Vegas PPA Championships in October 2021.

Gold: Bright & Rohrabacher. Silver: Waters & Parenteau. Bronze: Cancelled

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Senior 50+ Pro Competition Quick Recap

• Men’s Champions Pro Singles: Craig Bobo took the draw as the #2 seed without dropping a game.
• Men’s Champions Pro Doubles: Altaf Merchant & Steve Deakin gave up a combined 12 points across three full matches to blitz the field and take the gold.
• Mixed Champions Pro Doubles: The Mixed senior open division was cancelled halfway through due to rain and the weekend running out.

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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.

Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the 3/24 weekend is packed: there’s an APP Signature event in Miami, the Seniors are in Las Vegas for the SPT stop, DUPR is hosting an intercollegiate regional event at my home club in Richmond, and DUPR is also hosting a Junior event in Tempe.

Next up for the PPA tour? April 7th in Cary, North Carolina for a rare Mid-Atlantic event close enough for yours truly to drive to it to cover it.