The Professional Pickleball Association headed indoors for what is believed to be the only indoor-only event on the calendar this season. They head to cold and snowy Minneapolis area, to one of the flagship locations of Life Time (which is based in Minneapolis) in Lakeville for the 2024 PPAPPA -0.7% USA Indoor Championships.
The surface at the Lakeville club is known to be a bit different from the typical hardcourts that the PPA plays on, and the combination of surface, indoor facilities, and just being rated as a lower-tier/1000-level event means that this tournament became a popular one for busy touring pros to skip. This is a bummer for local fans who miss out seeing the top players who took the week off (including both #1 players Waters and Johns), but it’s a boon for neutrals, who know going in that they’re going to see different matchups and new champions on Sunday.
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Men’s Pro Singles Recap
With tour #1 Ben Johns absent, Federico Staksrud gets the top seed, a spot he very well may hold soon if he keeps making Sunday finals. He holds a firm lead in the 2024 “race” standings now, and it’s just a matter of time before he supplants Johns as #1 in 52-week rotating points, based on the results so far this season.
The #1 seed in this weekend’s draw however earned Staksrud a very difficult quarter, with two great up and coming singles players in #8 Quang Duong and #9 Aanik Lohani, and the underrated #21 Eric Roddy. However, none of these players advanced to face Staksrud; instead if was unknown qualifier #41 Dusty Boyer who made it to the 16s with wins over all three of the above named players. Boyer, a 3-time all-Big-10 tennis star at Nebraska, has Minnesota ties and became just the latest qualifier to make a huge wave in Men’s singles.
Two other #20-something seeds made waves and pushed their way into the 16s. Minneapolis resident #24 Mohaned Alhouni (who is no stranger to making deep runs in pro events) took out #13 Hewett before falling to #2 Connor Garnett in the 16s. Last event’s teenage darling Cason Campbell brought his moth-eaten hat to Minnesota and got a walk-over against Big H and then topped Collin Shick for the second event running to earn his second straight quarter finals appearance.
None of the upstarts could go any further, as the top 4 seeds advanced into the semis, and then the top two seeds made the back end of this draw feel very chalk-y by moving into the finals. #2 Connor Garnett really earned his gold medal match spot, topping Alhouni, then #11 Jack Sock, then #3 Christian Alshon in succession, all in grueling three-game wins. Alshon salvaged the Bronze on the weekend with a 2,0 destruction of lefty Tellez.
In the final, Staksrud (who is now 4 for 4 in gold medal appearances in singles in 2024) dropped the first game to Garnett, but ground out a 12-10 game two win and cruised to the gold medal. Staksrud now has a nearly 3,000 point lead on Johns for the season to date singles rankings, and edges ever closer to taking over #1 in the 365-day rolling rankings.
None of the upstarts could go any further, as the top 4 seeds advanced into the semis, and then the top two seeds made the back end of this draw feel very chalk-y by moving into the finals. #2 Connor Garnett really earned his gold medal match spot, topping Alhouni, then #11 Jack Sock, then #3 Christian Alshon in succession, all in grueling three-game wins. Alshon salvaged the Bronze on the weekend with a 2,0 destruction of lefty Tellez.
In the final, Staksrud (who is now 4 for 4 in gold medal appearances in singles in 2024) dropped the first game to Garnett, but ground out a 12-10 game two win and cruised to the gold medal. Staksrud now has a nearly 3,000 point lead on Johns for the season to date singles rankings, and edges ever closer to taking over #1 in the 365-day rolling rankings.
Thanks to injuries (Ignatowich & McGuffin), planned absences (Johns & Waters), and contract issues (Johnsons, Newman) we got all sorts of new and different partnerships in Minnesota, in both Mixed and in gender doubles. The players knew going in there was going to be a gold medal up for grabs, and it was the steady team of Vivienne David & Thomas Wilson who played solid mixed pickleball all weekend to claim the gold medal without dropping a game.
David & Wilson avoided the upset bug that took out most of the rest of the top 8 seeded teams here. The teams seeded 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th all suffered early upsets, allowing the semis to be populated by the #8, #12, and #13th seeds. #13 Tina Pisnik & Dekel Bar (a very European pair) were the losing semi-finalists from the top half, while #8 Lea Jansen & Hayden Patriquin upset their way to the semis from the bottom half before falling. The lower seed to make it to the final though was the upstart #12 team of Staksrud & Rachel Rohrabacher. Staksrud is not generally known for his Mixed doubles capabilities; this was his first ever Mixed medal. But Rohrabacher continues to get medals, claiming her third doubles medal of 2024.
With their win, Wilson claims his first ever PPA gold medal and Davids claims her second ever career gold, the first being back in November 2022 in Newport Beach.
Gold: David & Wilson. Silver: Staksrud & Rohrabacher. Bronze: Jansen & Patriquin
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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap
A quick glance at the top of the Men’s doubles draw drew a double take; A Johns brother playing with Matt Wright seeded #1? Was this November 2021 again? No, a closer look shows it was Collin Johns playing with Wright, who needed a last-minute replacement for Ignatowich, who suffered a shoulder injury in Phoenix. It made for an interesting pairing: Johns and Wright are generally considered to be the two best right-side players in the game, but they made the pairing work up to the semis. They fell to #3 Alshon & Wilson (who’s probably the 3rd best right-sided player in the game).
The story of this draw was the play of #6 Tyler Loong & Connor Garnett, who topped the under-seeded #9 Julian Arnold & Jack Sock team early, then ousted #2 Staksrud & Tellez (who had to be licking their chops as the odds-on favorite in Ben’s absence) in the quarters. They didn’t suffer a letdown in the semis, cruising past Patriquin & Dawson to earn a gold medal Sunday appearance. The win guaranteed Loong’s first medal in more than a year, and his first gold medal match since May of 2022.
In the final though, Alshon & Wilson dominated for huge stretches and withstood a mid-match push to claim the title. Wilson gets the double on the weekend, and Alshon wins his first ever PPA gold. Garnett secures a two-silver weekend, and Patriquin gets a two-bronze weekend.
Gold: Alshon & Wilson. Silver: Loong & Garnett. Bronze: Patriquin & Dawson
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With both Waters and Parenteau skipping this draw, the #1 seed went to the veteran team of Lucy Kovalova & Callie Smith, who held serve and advanced to the final without dropping a game. In the semis they topped another O.G. pickleballer in Andrea Koop, playing with the ever-improving Tina Pisnik.
From the bottom half, #2 Anna Bright and Rohrabacher dodged a couple of bullets to make it to the final themselves to set up a 1-v-2 final. They topped #6 Hurricane Tyra Black & Parris Todd in the semis by the weird-looking score line of 11-1,16-14. Black & Todd salvaged the bronze medal, giving Todd a 2-medal PPA weekend.
In the final, former Orlando Squeeze team-mates Bright & Rohrabacher blitzed the #1 seeds 6,5,1 to claim the gold. It is Rohrabacher’s first PPA gold medal.
Gold: Bright & Rohrabacher. Silver: Smith & Kovalova. Bronze: Black & Todd.
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Senior Open Competition Quick Recap
- Men’s Champions Pro Singles: Chad Flynn secured his first career PPA Senior gold medal with a 3,7 win in the final over #1 seed Gonzalo Petschen. It was a banner weekend for 7-time medalist Flynn, who advanced to the medal rounds in all three senior divisions.
- Men’s Champions Pro Doubles: #1 seeds Altaf Merchant & Steve Deakin got pushed a bit, but secured the gold medal. It’s Merchant’s 11th PPA Senior doubles title since the beginning of 2023 and Deakin’s third (all this season).
- Mixed Champions Pro Doubles: Nicole Idalski & Kyle Jordre defended their Senior Mixed doubles title from this event last year, cruising to the gold medal without dropping a game.
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