Gender doubles did not disappoint today as we saw one of the biggest upsets of the year which opened up the door for some new faces to make Championship Sunday. Let’s take a look at who went down and which team took advantage of the opportunity.
Men’s Doubles Championship: (13) Connor Garnett/Christian Alshon vs (2) JW Johnson/Dylan Frazier
It’s rare to see a 13 seed make a run to a final in a PPA doubles event. However the top half of the draw opened up in the round of 32 when (16) Jaume Martinez Vich/Wyatt Stone took down (1) Ben & Collin Johns in three tightly contested games. Connor Garnett and Christian Alshon ran with the opportunity as they upset (4) Riley Newman/Dekel Bar in the round of 16 in three games. They followed that up with a win over veterans (5) Tyson McGuffin/Brendon Long in the QF 6&6. They ended the day with a decisive SF win over (8) Tyler Loong/Darrian Young 5&3. Two players strictly known for singles at the beginning of the year will play for gold in men's doubles tomorrow.
On the bottom half of the draw one of the most consistent men’s doubles teams this year (2) Dylan Frazier/JW Johnson didn’t miss a beat as they made their way through unscathed. They took out (7) Pablo Tellez/Federico Staksrud 5 & 7 and veterans (3) Matt Wright/Travis Rettenmaier 2 & 8 to punch their ticket to the final. The confidence these two are playing with right now is at an all time high. They have now made 7 PPA finals in a row in men’s doubles. Beating them best 3 out of 5 is going to be a big ask for Garnett/Alshon but it should be a highly entertaining match with a lot of hands battles.
Women’s Doubles Championship: (1) Anna Leigh Waters/Catherine Parenteau vs (2) Callie Jo Smith
Anna Leigh Waters and Catherine Parenteau kept their momentum rolling from Nationals as they cruised through the top half of the draw. They didn’t lose more than 5 points in either of the six games they played. They defeated (9) Brascia/Brascia and (12) David/Koop en route to Sunday’s final.
On the bottom half Callie Jo Smith and Lucy Kovalova have arguably been the second-best women’s doubles team this year and they have been playing like it lately. Their last tournament together was PPA Las Vegas where they lost to Waters/Parenteau in four competitive games. They’ll get another shot on Sunday. They had a tough path today as they faced a dangerous 7 seed in Lea Jansen/Tyra Black. After a slow start in game 2 they reeled off 8 in a row to take that match in two. In the SF (6) Lacy Schneemann/Jade Kawamoto gave them all they could handle but the counterattacking ability of both Kovalova/Smith was too much in the end as that won 11 & 7.
On The Horizon
Championship Sunday will feature some new faces along with some old rivalries. In men’s singles we have Johns vs McGuffin. In women’s doubles we have Waters/Parenteau vs Smith/Kovalova. Christian Alshon/Connor Garnett will make their Championship Sunday debut in doubles while Lacy Schneemann will make her debut in singles. Tune in all day via PickleballTV as it should be a great day of pickleball.
