Daescu Dominates In Doubles At The Association Of Pickleball Professionals Sacramento Open

For the second year in a row, the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) returned to the Sacramento area and the Johnson Ranch Sports Club in Roseville, California for the 2023 Sunmed Sacramento Open.

More than 700 players braved the Northern California spring sun to compete alongside the professionals of the APP. Let’s recap the action.

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Men’s Pro Singles Recap

Forty-eight players entered the Men’s pro singles draw, 28 of them qualifying for the last four spots. Interestingly, the highest ranked qualifier (Naveen Beasley) and the two lowest-ranked qualifiers (Louie Payeta and DJ Johnson) all qualified into the main draw. Beasley (as the #24 main draw seed) promptly dumped #8 and #9 seeds Markowitz and Conley to earn a quarter final appearance. Podcast maven #13 Rob Nunnery was the only other top-8 quarter finals interloper, upsetting #4 Ryler DeHeart in the 16s.

From the quarters on, it was the Johnson brothers show, as it generally has been on the APP tour since the beginning of 2023. The two brothers were the two top seeds and both advanced to the winner’s bracket final. In a surprise, #2 Yates Johnson upset his brother there and put himself in the driver’s seat to take the final. #1 Hunter got dropped into the bronze medal match and came from a game down to top #6 Brandon Lane. Lane’s 3rd place finish is his first ever pro medal in any division, either tour.

In the Sunday final between siblings, Yates reversed the result from the Daytona Beach final in February and beat his brother for the second time on the weekend in singles to claim his first professional gold medal on any tour.

Gold: Yates Johnson. Silver: Hunter Johnson. Bronze: Brandon Lane.

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Women’s Pro Singles Recap:

After her amazing run at the 2023 US Open, many observers were curious to see how Judit Castillo Gargallo would perform when she returned to tour play. They did not have to wait long. Castillo took out #1 Parris Todd 0,10 in a rematch of the fantastic US Open final, then outlasted #2 Megan Fudge in a back-and-forth winner’s bracket final to secure the podium. Fudge defeated #9 Jess Warren with ease to send Warren to the bronze (her first ever professional medal).

Unfortunately Fudge had to default the Gold medal match, giving Castillo her first gold medal in any pro-level event.

Gold: Judit Castillo Gargallo. Silver: Megan Fudge. Bronze: Jess Warren.

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Mixed Pro Doubles Recap

Castillo nearly got another win over her new rival Parris Todd, teaming with Jason Bock in Mixed. The team took the first game over Todd & Hunter Johnson 11-2 before the APP’s top Mixed pair regrouped and closed out the match. The experience seemed to shake Todd & Johnson though, as they dropped their quarter final match to #8 Ryler DeHeart & Shelby Bates in an 11-9 third game.

Todd & Johnson weren’t done yet though. They took their medicine, dropped into the consolation bracket, and won four straight games to get to the back draw final. There, they exacted revenge for the loss earlier in the day, topping Bates & DeHeart in two to get into the gold medal match on Sunday.

In the gold medal match, the #1 team met the #3 seeds Susannah Barr & Andrei Daescu, the mixed champions from the APP Mesa event earlier this month, who dominated the bottom half of the draw, winning their matches 1&3, 1&0, 4&4, and then 2&3 in the winner’s bracket final to put a dominant stamp on their presence in the APP. In the final, Barr and Daescu completed their romp through the draw, crushing Todd & Johnson 8&1 to take the title in dominant fashion.

Gold: Barr & Daescu. Silver: Todd & Johnson. Bronze: Bates & DeHeart.

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Men’s Pro Doubles Recap

The Men’s Pro doubles draw featured a slew of upsets in the round of 32, but then was entirely chalk until the semi-finals. All top 8 seeded teams advanced into the quarters, and the top 4 to the semis. #1 Andrei Daescu & Pesa Toni, who teamed up to win the most previous APP event in Mesa, held serve and advanced to the Sunday gold medal match with relative ease from the top-half of the draw. From the bottom half, #3 seeds Brendon Long & Stefan Auvergne upset the favored #2 Johnson brothers to earn a spot in the winner’s bracket final, but then lost that match and the bronze medal match to go away empty handed.

The #4 team of Ryler DeHeart & Rob Nunnery lost in the winner’s bracket semis, but then got two solid wins over the #2 Johnson/Johnson team and then the #3 Long/Auvergne team to earn a Sunday gold medal match appearance. Long & Auvergne settle for the bronze.

In the Sunday final, DeHeart’s strong fisherman’s hat game powered his team to a three game win, forcing the winner-take-all game to 15 to determine the gold medalist. However, the Mesa champs took the final game 15-9 to repeat as APP pro champions and give Daescu the doubles’ double on the weekend.

Gold: Daescu & Toni. Silver: DeHeart & Nunnery. Bronze: Long & Auvergne.

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Women’s Pro Doubles Recap

#1 seeds Simone Jardim & Parris Todd, who have won all three APP Women’s Pro Doubles events so far in 2023 and are fresh off the US Open title as well, cruised into the gold medal match without dropping a game from the top half of the draw.

#3 seeds Megan Fudge & Bobbi Oshiro, fresh of a silver medal together at the US Open, continue their partnership and get some immediate results, topping the #2 seeds Susannah Barr & Maggie Remynse in the winner’s bracket semis, then beating the little-known #6 seeds Genie Erokhina & Rianna Valdes in the Bronze medal game to force a rematch with Jardim & Todd in Sunday’s championship.

In the Sunday final, Fudge & Oshiro took game one 11-6 against the 3-time 2023 winners, but couldn’t hold on as the #1 team flipped the script and won the next two games with ease 11-4 and 11-2 to take the crown. It is their fourth straight APP Women’s Pro Doubles title together and cements their status as the #1 APP team.

Gold: Jardim & Todd. Silver: Fudge & Oshiro. Bronze: Erokhina & Valdes

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Senior Pro Competition Quick Recap

· Men’s Senior Pro Singles: A senior draw missing many of its big names was taken by #4 seed Vincent Van Patten, a former tennis pro from Malibu and a relative newcomer to pickleball.

· Men’s Senior Pro Doubles: Mircea Morariu wins his third APP Senior Pro doubles title in four tries this year on the APP tour, and with the third different partner. This weekend he took the title with Stefan Andren.

· Mixed Senior Pro Doubles: Morariu did the senior “double double,” taking the Mixed draw with #1 Senior women’s pro Beth Bellamy.

· Women’s Senior Pro Doubles: Bellamy herself also did the senior “double double,” taking the Women’s senior pro doubles draw as the #1 seed with Nathalie Bagby.

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Next up on the APP Tour? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, the APP returns in two weeks’ time in Cincinnati for the 2023 APP Vlasic Open, the first event featuring the APP’s new sponsor Vlasic (fittingly , the first “pickle” sponsor in pickleball history)

Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? The PPA heads to Charlotte next weekend for the 2023 PPA North Carolina Open, where long-time US Tennis star Jack Sock plans to make his professional competitive debut. We’ll be covering his play all weekend in this space.