It’s been a dominant last couple of months for Dylan Frazier and JW Johnson as they will look for their 4th gold medal in a row tomorrow. It won’t come easy as they will face a new partnership that could pose some problems. Let’s take a look at how they got to Sunday and who will be competing for the women's gold medal as well.
Men’s Doubles Championship: (1) Johnson/Frazier vs (4) Staksrud/Patriquin
Johnson and Frazier cruised through their first couple of rounds vs Will Howells/Rafa Hewett and Connor Garnett/Tyler Loong but were tested in the semifinals vs Tyson McGuffin/Dekel Bar. Similar to their semifinal matchup in Red Rock, the #1 seeds got down early but found their rhythm to come from behind to win in 3. Frazier and Johnson continue to do an excellent job of slowing the pace of play down when they are behind and grinding out points.
On the other side it was Federico Staksrud and Hayden Patriquin who took advantage of a somewhat easy road to the semifinals as Jack Sock and Thomas Wilson lost in the round of 32. It was there that they were tested by Riley Newman and Gabe Tardio but the hands of Patriquin propelled them to a tight 11-8 win in the 3rd.
Women’s Doubles Championship: (1) Waters/Parenteau vs (2) Bright/Rohrabacher
Waters and Parenteau continue to mow down whoever is in their path as they won all of their matches in straight games. Their toughest challenge came against the Dallas Flash MLP duo Jorja Johnson and Hurricane Tyra Black who they defeated 11-2, 11-5.
Rachel Rohrabacher is back after a week off, sporting a new Selkirk paddle, the 002. Given the natural power she already possesses, the 002 makes her even more dangerous on offense and it showed today as she and Anna Bright did not drop a game en route to the finals. In the quarterfinals they took down the Brascia sisters 11-3, 11-5 and in the semifinals they defeated Parris Todd and Vivienne David 11-4, 11-8.
On the Horizon
Tomorrow is championship Sunday and the lineup is stacked. The two top women’s teams and the two top mixed teams in the world will do battle while Dylan Frazier will be seeking his 4th men’s doubles gold medal in a row. Catch all the action on PickleballTV beginning at 2pm EST.
