Gender doubles got underway at the Selkirk Kansas City Open today. The top seeds in both divisions belonged to Selkirk sponsored pros Catherine Parenteau and Dylan Frazier. This had to be an extra special one for Frazier seeing as he is from Missouri and had friends and family in the house watching. Let’s take a look at how each of them did and how the other parts of the draw unfolded.
Men’s Doubles Championship: (1) Dylan Frazier/JW Johnson vs (4) Federico Staksrud/Gabe Tardio
It was far from a walk in the park early for the #1 seeds Dylan Frazier and JW Johnson. In the round of 16 they faced the tricky team of AJ Koller and Brandon French who played lights out. Frazier & Johnson dropped game one 12-10 but survived to win in three games. They then took on Connor Garnett/Tyler Loong defeating them 11-8, 11-8. The last match of the day was against Christian Alshon/Hayden Patriquin and Dylan Frazier was the difference maker as he was very effective on his attacks and counters propelling them to a 11-9, 11-6 win to advance to Championship Sunday. Frazier & Johnson continue to be the team to beat in men’s doubles in 2024.
On the other side of the draw, it was Federico Staksrud and Gabe Tardio taking down Ben Johns and Collin Johns in the semifinals to advance to the final. Ben Johns continues to struggle with Gabe Tardio in front of him as the young buck does a fantastic job of mixing up the speed and frequency of his attacks. Staksrud was also very steady down the stretch as they pulled away in the middle of game 3. It should be an interesting matchup in the final as Staksrud recently beat Frazier & Johnson in Sacramento but that was with Hayden Patriquin by his side. Tardio has not had a lot of recent success vs the top team in the world.
Women’s Doubles Championship: (1) Anna Leigh Waters/Catherine Parenteau vs (5) Lacy Schneemann/Jade Kawamoto
Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau made their way through today’s draw rather comfortably. They were tested a bit in game 2 of their quarterfinal match versus the veterans Jessie Irvine and Andrea Koop but closed strong to take it in straights. In the semifinals they played their best ball defeating Jorja Johnson and Mari Humberg 11-2, 11-6. They’ll look to claim their 9th title of the season together tomorrow.
On the bottom half of the draw, it was Lacy Schneemann and Jade Kawamoto who made their way through as the #5 seeds. This is a team that has made a final together before and they recaptured some of that magic this afternoon. It was far from easy though as Jade took down sister Jackie in the quarterfinals, with game one ending 16-14 out on grandstand. In the semifinals they were underdogs against the team from Utah Meghan Dizon and Etta Wright but the deceptive offense of Kawamoto from the right side was the x-factor in the 11-7, 11-6 victory.
On the Horizon
Championship Sunday kicks off at 11AM CT beginning with women’s singles and ending with men’s singles. At 3pm CT the coverage will switch from PickleballTV to ESPN2. Make sure to tune in to see if both Dylan Frazier and Catherine Parenteau can take home golds in their respective events.
